Not knowing how to react, I started walking around the room. And after a few more minutes, someone knocked on the door.
"Lukas, how are you feeling?" It was Anna, and she had a worried tone in her voice. Because of that, I walked to the door and opened it to show that I was okay.
"What is it?" I said. She then approached me and then held out her hand. After handing me some coins, she turned to leave the room.
"Hm?"
"The money from the juice you bought for me."
"You didn't have to."
"I don't want to owe you." Anna walked out of the room and then turned to me. "So, how are you feeling? You locked yourself in your room, and our mother is worried."
"Our mother? Is she here yet?"
"Of course, it's already night, haven't you noticed?"
Hearing this, I turned around and looked out my bedroom window. There, I could see the moon. I rolled my eyes and then turned to Anna.
"Are you scaring me..." She put her hands in front of her body and walked away from me.
"It's nothing." As I said that, I closed the bedroom door.
"What's gotten into him? Has he gone crazy? I need to talk to our mom and dad about this."
I could hear Anna saying something from outside, but I ignored her completely. I walked over to my bed and picked up my cell phone under my pillow. I turned on its screen and saw that it was already over eight o'clock at night.
There I could also see many messages from some colleagues.
[16:54 - Hey, where are you? Didn't you say you were going out with me today? ]
[ 17:40 - I'm almost at your place, try to answer soon.]
[ 18:30 - I give up. I want explanations about this later. ]
"Philip..." I immediately sent a message.
[ 20:23 - I'm sorry, I felt bad and slept. I promise tomorrow we will go there. ]
After sending the message, I lay down on the bed and looked at the ceiling.
"What the hell is going on?" I said to myself.
####
After I took a shower and ate dinner with my family, I went to my room again and slept.
I woke up the next day feeling an even stronger headache. The first thing I did was take some medicine and then went to the bathroom to wash my face and get ready for the afternoon because I had promised Philip I would go out with him.
"I need to get my hair cut." I usually wear a social cut, and at the moment, my hair had grown long enough that my hair was starting to bother me. It was getting inside my ear, and it was tickling me.
"And I look hideous that way." No matter how hard I tried to comb it, my hair wouldn't look nice.
"What if I dyed my hair? It's quite common these days." My hair was black, and it matched my light blue eyes, so dyeing it was out of the question. I quickly dismissed this idea and then left the bathroom.
I had woken up late, so my mother and father had already gone to work, and the only person in the house was Anna.
She was watching a detective show. I can't find that kind of thing entertaining.
"Anna, where's the bottle with coffee in it?"
"It's on top of the sink."
'Why?'
After grabbing a package of cookies and a cup of coffee, I sat down with her.
"So, what's this?"
"A new series about detectives."
"Do you like that kind of thing?"
"Sort of, it's kind of fun."
"I see..."
"..." After I was silent, I felt Anna looking at me. Her eyes were blue like mine. The only difference was the colour of her hair which was brown. Her hair was the colour of a honeycomb.
She was almost blonde.
"Is there something on my face?"
"No, it's nothing."
"You can say."
"It's about your eyes. Didn't you sleep well? Just like yesterday, your eyes are red, and you have dark circles under your eyes."
"I slept fine."
"It's hard to believe when you look like this."
"..."
"So, what are you doing today? You and I could go to the food court for lunch. Mom and Dad won't be back for lunch."
"I guess that's okay, as long as it's not late. I've arranged to go with Philip to one of those anime exhibitions."
"But you don't like that, do you?"
"No, but he likes it."
"What a beautiful friendship."
"Shut up. And you, when are you going to make some friends? Since you finished school, you just stay home. Don't you think about starting college or getting a job?"
"Stop it! You're talking just like our father."
"..."
"But I do think about starting college. What do you think about veterinary?"
"Are you good with animals?"
"No..."
"I figured. But if I had to say, you're pretty good at fooling people, how about starting a marketing college?"
"What does that have to do with fooling people?"
"The marketing of some companies is scary. They terrifyingly trick you."
"Stopping to think about it... I think it's a good idea."
"Idiot, I'm just kidding. Just do what you like, isn't that enough?"
"I like social media. I wonder if I can work as one of those girls on Instagram?"
"Maybe. You are pretty; you would attract a lot of attention."
"I'm pretty? You think so?"
"Yes, you look like me."
"Urgh, you have a lot of self-esteem."
"What, you're going to say I'm not handsome?"
"You're handsome, but I'm prettier than you."
"Yes...Yes..." After taking another sip of my coffee, I stood up.
"I'm going to my room to train a little. When you want to go out for lunch, let me know. But let me know first because I need to take a shower."
"Okay."
After I went up to my room, I sat down in front of the computer, and after looking at Twitter for a while, I decided to start my training.
Since I was part of the track club at school, standing still was out of the question. I also needed to get back to running, but the running track at the public park had been closed for a few days.
"What was it again? I think one of the portals appeared there. Whatever."
Next, I started my basic training.
Push-ups, squats, sit-ups.
And of course, after I finished my exercises, I went to the bathroom as usual and took off my shirt. Maybe this is narcissistic behaviour?
I was not that tall, I was only 172cm, so I never trained much. I have seen short people with many muscles, and it was not a very beautiful thing. My muscles were not very big, but I had a very athletic body.
If I was compared to my friends, I was almost a bodybuilder.
"I'm still in the growing phase. When I grow a little more, maybe I'll start going to the gym regularly."
####
"Anna, I'm going out."
"Okay. Don't come back too late, or our mom and dad will be worried."
"Don't worry. The event should be over before 6 pm."
"Okay, have fun."
Closing the door, Lukas walked to the subway and then headed toward the event in downtown Jacksonville.
While waiting for the subway to arrive at his destination, Lukas received a message.
[ 15:17 - Are you arriving yet? ]
[ 15:18 - I'm on the subway now, I'll be there in a bit ]
[ 15:20 - Right. The event is packed. It's amazing! There are cosplays everywhere. It's rare to have an event like this in our city. ]
[ 15:21 - Yes, it's pretty rare. ]
After finishing his conversation, Lukas' subway arrived at its destination.
When he got off, he found himself in downtown Jacksonville. He was not used to visiting downtown since he lived in the suburbs.
"Okay, where is the event?" He walked through the busy streets until he finally reached the venue. The closer he got, the more people dressed as anime characters appeared.
'Wow, some of them are cool. Would I look good wearing one of those costumes? No, no way, I'm not doing that.'
Lukas shook his head both ways to get that out of his mind and then approached the event. It was a two-story building.
Inside, the walls have been removed. They created an ample open space with several anime stands and some stalls that sold items and food. There also appeared to be some people selling doujinshis.
'There are also a lot of those anime figures. Some of them are pretty, but they're so expensive. Okay, where's Philip?'
Lukas walked on while avoiding talking to the others. He looked around, looking for Philip, until he finally found him.
"What the fuck is this?" And seeing his friend wearing that armour made of plastic made Lukas feel like running from that place immediately.
"Ah, Lukas!" Philip approached and then handed Lukas a bag. "Here, hold this."
"Okay. But what is that outfit?"
"What, you didn't like it? I tried to make an Ultraman costume."
"It's not that I didn't like it, but..."
"Look at that. People seem to have liked it."
"That doesn't seem to be the case..."
People were taking pictures of Philip. Everyone was smiling...They were just finding that costume completely ridiculous.
"All right, what are we going to do here? Did we come here just to take photos?"
"Of course not. There are some gaming machines and interesting foods. They are selling those Japanese foods that we see in anime!"
"You see! Don't include me in that."
"Come on! It'll be fun. Hmm, I like your outfit. You're eye-catching as always."
"Is it my fault that I'm handsome?"
"As always, you have a pretty high self-esteem."
"..."
"Okay, I'll get out of these clothes so we can start exploring the event."
"You're not keeping the costume?"
"It bothers me a little. The plastic is rubbing against my arms."
"I see. I'll wait for you here."
"Okay."
Philip went away as he walked with difficulty. He then walked into the men's room a few meters away.
"While he's not back, I think I'll go for a little walk." Curious, Lukas started to walk around and look at some of the stalls selling doujinshi and some selling food.
"Do they only sell sexual content in this place?" Lukas said as he looked at the cover of one of the doujinshi.
The woman operating the stall looked at him without showing any emotion. But Lukas could see that the girl's feet were shaking. She seemed pretty excited.
"How much is it?"
"Four dollars."
"All right, I'll buy that."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, sure."
After Lukas paid, the woman packed the doujinshi. She seemed immensely grateful for Lukas' purchase.
'Maybe it's hard to sell? Haaa~~ I bought it on impulse, now what do I do with it? I think I'll give it to Philip. Speaking of him...'
"Hey, what were you doing? What did you buy? Come on, show me!"
Lukas took the doujinshi out of the bag and showed it to Philip.
"Oooh, you have good taste, man!"
"I bought it on impulse. You can keep it." Lukas put it back in the bag and handed it to Philip.
"Are you serious? Thanks, I'll put this to good use."
"I'm afraid to ask what that means."
"Come on, don't overthink about it. Let's have some fun."
"Hmm, right."
Then the two of them started walking through the event. But suddenly, something happened to Lukas.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Stopping walking, he became silent. Philip held Lukas' arm and shook it to get his attention.
"Hey, what happened? Are you feeling sick again? You had told me you were sick before. Hey!"
[ System Message ]
[ User has entered an affected area. ]
[ The portal will open in - 10:59...10:58...10:57 ]
'Hey, isn't that too bad?'