Chereads / V.R Mages / Chapter 2 - Subway Encounters

Chapter 2 - Subway Encounters

[September 3, Saturday 6:30 A.M]

Joshua had woken up early today, it was the day his capsule would be constructed however he still needed to create his account. The website had told him to register in certain malls around the city.

'It'll take 2 hours of travelling by bullet train to reach the mall... And that mall opens at 9:30 A.M', Josh had previously researched about the mall last night.

[30 Minutes later, 7:00 A.M]

He had taken a bath and ate leftovers from last night for dinner: Teriyaki Chicken. It was one of the few foods he found joy in eating, it was tasted a bit worse than normal however, likely because it was still cold from the fridge.

Josh walked towards the bathroom and quickly brushed his teeth, it was in the mornings that everyone's breath smells worse. Josh checked the time from the clock and had exited the front door.

"Oh right, I need money.", Josh said as he reached into his pockets. Josh entered his house and went to his room to get a few hundred dollars from a brown envelope, inside the envelope was: "Use your money wisely, this is the allowance for the week."

With that out of the way Josh had left for the train station, as he walked he could see bright neon signs from the distance. However, it was morning and the usual radiant glow of neon lights was mostly drowned by the early morning sun.

'How did I get excited for that game? Sure, it allowed me to go into a different reality if it performed as it was intended, however that can't be the reason I'm excited for the upcoming game-', Josh let his mind wander and not long after he reached the station.

"Sir, which train will you go to?", a man wearing brown suit and white fedora asked, he was the ticket seller. "Do people who sell tickets have to be dressed so well?", Josh asked a rude sounding question, Josh didn't talk much to strangers so he talked weirdly.

"Hehehe, my clothes are quite stylish aren't they?-", thankfully the ticket seller wasn't hurt by his words. "-Wait, what part of the city are you going to?", the man remembered his job and asked.

"Central, First Class."

"Let's see here, the train goes away at 7:30 A.M", the man said as he read some files on a blue screen.

"It's 7:32 A.M", Josh checked his phone.", hearing Josh's words the ticket seller started to profusely sweat just like in animation. "...", Josh blankly stared and the atmosphere between the two had gotten awkward, 'At moments like this is when I should speak, I think...', Josh didn't have much experience when it comes to conversations.

"...When's the next train to Central?", Josh asked in an attempt to fix the conversation. "Let's see here...", the man read the blue screen once again, "A-ahh, here it is. It's 7:45 A.M, the train arrives at 7:45 and leaves at 7:50".

.....

Josh was sitting on a bench, it was still about 5 minutes before the train would come. As the second passes closer to the train's arrival the amount of people increase. "Getting in might be a a pain, thank god I've have first class."

Josh's eyes followed the direction of the voice and he saw a girl sitting comfortably, the girl saw him and said, "Hope I ain't taking too much space", she talked with confidence clearly heard in her voice.

"You aren't", Josh subconsciously changed his speech patterns to mimic hers. Her voice had contained confidence, and he found such confidence to be nice. Silence struck as none of them had tried to speak. Josh tried to speak, "...So-", "Not interested.", she said, preventing Josh from finishing his sentence.

'(Not Interested)?', "In what?", Josh asked with a confused expression, his eyes not enlarged however his right eyebrow raised. The girl didn't say anything back, she was embarrassed, 'Crap, I got used to saying it yesterday, when classes ended.'

The girl had rejected so many people yesterday that she had turned rejection as one of her reflexes. Looking back at it, she was quite attractive, her skin was perfect, her white hair was sleek, and she had quite the beautiful red eyes.

Josh could care less about appearance at this point in time, so this did not matter to him. After all, if he did have a type, it would be the female version of himself.

He stood up and walked up to the yellow line on the platforms above the rails. Just about 10 seconds after he blinked as mechanical noise entered his ears, he had opened his eyes and the train stopped just at the corner of his eyes.

'That's quite the quick deceleration-', Josh thought to himself as he looked at the coil attached to the ceilings. 'They're using this much coil already, so why won't they use MagLev trains?', he thought to himself.

Josh had entered the first class cabin and went to sit close to the exit. 'At least First Class Cabins are nice and quiet.', "We meet again!", the same girl he met before had appeared. She had yelled quite loudly, thankfully however there weren't any other passengers that had entered yet.

"You don't seem to surprised be too surprised to see me.", the white haired girl exclaims. "I heard you mumbling something about having First Class seats a while ago.", he explained. "I did? Anyways, please clear the pathway as I'll be sitting there.", she said, pointing at the seat just beside Joshua's.

"...", Josh had cleared out his outstretched legs and allowed her to sit, after that he returned to his stretched out position. "You're heading to Central aren't you?", the girl had asked. Josh answered, "Yeah, how about you?". "Same as you."

"Also-", the girl added. "-You seem quite uncomfortable.", referring to his expression rather than his posture. "I don't talk to random people like you often.", he said. "That's rude, calling me a random person.", she said, "...I apologize for my speech.", he abruptly started to speak in formal tone. "Way too formal...", the girl complained.

"Is it really?", Josh who was confused had asked. "You said you didn't talk to strangers before right? I can definitely tell.", she was starting to laugh. "Now you're the one being rude.", "Hehehe, look at you copying my speech patterns.", she continued to giggle, Josh had seen this and gave a light smile.

"Though, I don't get why a pretty boy like you wouldn't have people to talk to.", she grew confused.

[The Train Will Leave In 1 Minute, Please Secure Your Items Before The Train Starts To Accelerate].

Josh had found himself a person to practice his speech with, not only that she seemed to make a great first friend for him. He hopes if he ever finds a group of friends, all would be as nice as her.