*******
*Pant, Pant, Pant*
Mouth gaping for air support, chest beating like a stereo, and body trembling inside out, Daichi laid flat on the floor.
'What… just happened? How am I still alive?'
His mind could not comprehend.
Any events that have occurred right after his imminent fall to death remained a mystery to him.
No thoughts, no reasons, no facts could ever explain what he had experienced,
Except one… A
Something that goes beyond mere logic and causality, something outside of the rules and laws pre-established for this world,
Something
'So… Did I fail… to even take my own life?' Daichi realized, devastated.
'Just… How useless am I? Just how long would I keep embarrassing myself?' He loathed, hiding his face under the shadows of his soft palm.
'I'm a coward who can't even bring himself to die…' was the conclusion he came to.
The last verdict of his broken mind, unable to see past his senses and understand the profound meaning that held his existence now that he was given the
*******
'What's next? 'What even should I do with this useless life?'
Daichi wondered, lost in the realms of his thoughts once more, his mind wavering, dangling, suffering from all the chaos trapped within him, as if a lock that chained his body, binding his soul to the world and drowning his mind in darkness…
Then one inauspicious accident came, disrupting the chaos.
*GROWL! *
His stomach roared in hunger, demanding its do tribute, for it was time to feast!
"…I'm so hungry."
Daichi rubbed his thumb, understanding the assignment and taking immediate action.
Looking around him, he noticed his schoolbag near the fence and quietly got up to pick it up.
With the item secured in his arm, his eyes led upon the fences, the barrier that separated him from his initial goal and objective…
"Forgot it," he sighed, making a quick turn in the opposite direction, 'I'm too tired for this.'
Going far away from the fences, he sat back down and started unpacking the goods.
First, he took out his lunch box, then his drink, and lastly the one most important item in his possession, his mobile phone.
Turning the device on, he waited for the OS to launch after the usual loading screen with the brand logo.
And once he had access to the menu and entered the password,
*Pop*
*******
"NOTIFICATIONS" (2)
[You have 2 unread messages.]
*******
"Huh? Who could it be at this hour?" he asked, puzzled.
He had no other contacts except his parents and distant relatives whom he seldom met.
The only way he kept updated with everyone in school was through the group chats.
Something he wouldn't be burdened to use if not for the Student Council group and its announcements.
'Mom, maybe?' He assumed.
Only she would message him at this time of the day.
As for his father, he was quite a busy man.
The average conglomerate circle member with tight schedules, limited free time, and long and insufferable business trips that kept him away from his precious family for weeks and months in a single year…
'How long has it been since we last spoke to each other?' Daichi wondered, reminiscent of the times of his childhood, one where life seemed almost perfect…
In fact, too perfect to be a reality compared to the present.
Sighing his worries away, Daichi focused his mind on the two messages left to him.
'But, why two?' he wondered, 'Did something happen?'
Quickly, he opened up the messaging app.
*Tap! *
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"MESSAGES" (1)
SENDER: Mom (o 3 o)
NUMBER: XXXXXXXX
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'I knew it,' he thought, a little smile on his face.
However, one sudden thought made him ticked.
'If Mom only sent one message, then from whom is the other one?'
*Tap*
*******
"MESSAGES" (1)
SENDER:
NUMBER: 777
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'<777>... Never seen this before. Is it from a foreign country?' he assumed.
"Must be a mistake then."
Daichi ignored it and directly went to read his mom's message.
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"Mom (o 3 o) "
[Hi Dai-kun. How are you doing?
Today, I made you a special Bento with your favorite dishes since you were in such a high spirit this morning.
So, eat well, and don't forget to share with your friends and classmates.
Also, be careful when coming back, it seems like there will be quite a heavy rain this afternoon.
Love you, Mom (o 3 o).]
*******
"..."
He stared at the screen, hands holding tight, eyes bubbly, cheeks red, lips pressed together, and before he realized,
*Drip, drip*
Tears were raining down on the thin surface of the mobile phone, his nose started running, and his head dropped down in regret.
"Mom...I'm sorry," He mumbled in a broken, saddened voice,
*Sniff, Sniff*
Shame, guilt, sorrow… All came crashing down on him like a waterfall.
"I'm such a fool," he admitted, hiding his face in his palms.
"I keep worrying you every day...Sniff...
I even pushed you away…
Even though you were only trying to help…
Even though you were the only one who supported me since the beginning...
*Sniff... *
I'm truly sorry Mom, sorry to be such an unfilial son..."
Daichi cried his guts out like a baby while repeating the same little words,
"I'm sorry Mom, I'm so sorry…"
*******
*Sigh*
A deep lament escaped his mouth, freeing his lungs and lessening the burden on his chest.
After such an intense roller-coaster of emotions and feelings clashing with each other, Daichi's mind had come to pieces.
Then, it came back up.
*GROOOWL! *
"Urgh…I should really be eating now," he hurried.
His stomach had not ceased to shout and roar for a second, even when his mind was too busy digesting all the events he had been experiencing since this lunch break, as it was already conditioned to that sweet, precious time of rest.
Thus, Daichi opened the lunch box and had the biggest surprise his eyes had laid upon.
Three layers packed with delicacies, each revealing a feast not only for the eyes but also the palate.
Fried eggs, tofu, and meatballs for the top layer,
cooked rice with a sweet aroma, wrapped in thin filaments of dried algae, giving the plate a nice uniform shape,
Lastly, the special dish that served as a base and complemented the whole setting,
a secret sauce from a homemade recipe whose origins dated from an era where traditional cultures were tightly upheld and passed from generation to generation till his mother's time.
"Wow, she went all out today," he rejoiced, exalted by the mere thought of baring his fangs on such gourmet feast.
Without further ado, he took out the chopsticks, parted them, made a little gesture, and then,
"Itadakimase!"
*Munch*
"Delicious!" He exclaimed, widening his pupils full of sparkles, gobbling the food like a wild child with no manners, one whose only goal was to enjoy his time, a smile on his face.
It was as if he were back to elementary school.
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*Burp! *
"Thanks for the meal," he voiced from the bottom of his stomach, full and bumping, chopsticks dropped, face gratified.
It was the greatest feast his tummy was ever graced since his early middle school years,
The years after which he closed his heart to everyone and started wandering through life as a loner, an outcast of society.
One whose only source of pleasure became games, manga, anime, and the ever-increasing number of novels surging out all over the market.
They were his haven, his escape from reality.
As an already ingrained habit of such times, he took back his phone, ready for another session of reading and mindless entertainment.
'Now that I think about it, what should I do with this?' He pondered noticing the other message.
If it were any other day, he would have long since deleted it from his message box.
However, this time was different.
Daichi, whose curious mind was clear enough to think rationally in that very moment, had a silly thought.
'Why not just read it? I have nothing else to do anyway.'
Thus, he opened it, the one message that was never meant for him but still ended up in his possession by some strange coincidence.
*Tap*
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"Unknown"
[If you were given a new chance at life, would you take it?]
******
*BA-DUMP! *
"…"
Daichi's heart jumped out of his chest.
"What... the hell is this?" he said out loud.
Was it a joke? A prank? Or something else?
A lot of questions were running around in his head, and he started looking left and right like a deranged psychopath.
'A hidden camera? A satellite? Or maybe hacking?' he speculated, panicking.
Daichi was in a moment of hyper-focus, jumping back and forth between ideas, trying to find a reasonable answer to these questions in his head.
As his mind wandered into the realms of the unknown, he remembered something.
'Wait... back then… what was that?'
His eyes widen at the sudden discovery. That sound he heard back then…
'It was so loud that I thought someone put a speaker directly inside my brain,' he described, 'and it sounded so familiar like...'
"A notification bell!" He shouted.
Daichi looked at the only device near him that could produce such a sound and thought while sweating, 'It can't be… Right?'
He glared at the unknown message in disbelief, eyes reluctant and full of doubt.
His phone was already turned off at that time, and even if it was not, he shouldn't be able to hear it from that distance…
"But, the time frame..." He noticed.
The hour and minute of the expedition coincided.
Although he couldn't tell what the exact time was back then, it wasn't that hard to guess how long it had been since lunch break started.
*Phew*
'Let's calm down,' he restrained his mind, 'this is purely a confidence.'
Not once in his life could he have believed all those weird things happening were linked together.
After all, it was just a random course of events, hazardous fragments of unexpected turns glued together in a mosaic that ended up blending with his life by a matter of
The one variable that seemed to explain his entire existence and how he was able to live till this day.
Nonetheless, the idea of everything being somehow connected and that this message was destined to him sounded pleasant, thrilling even.
His adventurous mind and mystery-solving senses were titillating.
Daichi found himself smiling for no reason, like a casual game player in front of a new puzzle or a mystery fiction nerd in front of an enigma.
'Ok. Let's do it!' he exclaimed, setting his fingers in motion, tapping the one word that would lead to his first turn of fate and life altering decision.
*Tap, tap, tap*
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[Yes]
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