*Pant, Pant, Pant*
Daichi lay flat on the ground, gasping for air like a vacuum.
"Ha...Ha...Ha...I'm...still...alive," he noticed, looking at his trembling hands, "I can't believe it."
'I still don't understand what is going on but, I survived!' he thought with a smile.
Everything happened so quickly that his mind didn't have time to process the situation.
It took him a few minutes before the adrenaline rush lost its effect and once it was over, he was back to his usual self.
'Should I be happy or sad?' he wondered, 'If I'm not dead, doesn't that mean…'
"I fail again," said Daichi, palm of face.
The initial joy he felt was short lived and quicky turning into guilt, regrets and shame.
"Can't even kill myself, Haha," he mocked, 'I'm so useless...'
'I'm just a coward who can't even bring himself to die.' He thought,
head down, he stood there like a plank while rethinking his whole life.
*******
'What should I do now?'
Sat down on the floor, Daishi pondered.
Since the suicide attempt was a failure, he had to find something else to distract his mind from all the chaos in his head.
As he was deep in his thoughts,
*GROWL!*
His stomach roared in fury.
'I still haven't eaten anything yet,' he realized, rubbing his tommy, "I'm so hungry."
Looking around him, he noticed his schoolbag near the fence and quietly got up to pick it up.
While holding the bag, Daichi took a glance at the other side and paused.
"Forgot it," he said before turning back.
He sat down once again and opened the bag.
First, he took out his lunch box (Bento) and then, his phone.
After turning it on, he waited for the screen to load and then, entered the password.
*Pop*
*******
"NOTIFICATIONS" (2)
[You have 2 unread messages.]
*******
"Huh? Who could it be?" he asked.
It was not like there was anybody out there who would text him expected...
'Mom maybe?' He assumed, 'I'm sure it can't be dad.'
Only his mother would message him at this time of the day since his father was quite a busy guy.
He usually came home late at night and would get up early in the morning to go to work.
There were even cases where he would go on business trips for a few days to full weeks.
'But, why two?' he wondered, 'Did something happen?'
Quickly, Daichi opened up the messaging box.
*******
"MESSAGES" (1)
SENDER: Mom (o 3 o)
NUMBER: XXXXXXXX
*******
'I knew it,' he thought, a little smile on his face.
However, she only sent one message which made him confused.
'Who sent this then?' he asked.
*Tap*
*******
"MESSAGES" (1)
SENDER: Unknown
NUMBER: 777
*******
'777...Never seen this before. Is it from a foreign country?' he pondered.
"Must be a mistake then."
Daichi ignored it and directly went to read his mom's message.
*******
"Mom"
[Hi Dai-kun. How are you doing?
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 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 falling on the screen, his nose started running again and his head dropped down.
He then mumbled in a febrile voice, "Mom...I'm sorry."
*Sniff, Sniff*
Shame, guilt, regrets, sadness… All these feelings bottled up were coming out like a fountain.
"I'm such an idiot," he admitted, hiding his face in his palms.
'I keep worrying you every day...Sniff... I even cast you away at times…
Even then, you never abandoned me... You were the only one who supported me no matter what...Sniff...
I'm truly sorry Mom, sorry to be such an unfilial son...'
Daichi cried his gut out like a baby while repeating the same words, 'I'm sorry Mom, I'm sorry…'
*******
*Sign*
Daichi felt relieved after letting everything he was holding on go. He has never cried that much in his life in a single day.
*GROOOWL!*
"Urgh, I should eat now," he hurried.
His stomach had been shooting angrily for a while now and he couldn't hold it anymore!
*Clap*
Daichi opened the lunch box and had a pleasant surprise.
It was filled with fried eggs, tofu, and meatballs and, that was only for the first layer.
The second one had cooked rice with a sweet aroma, wrapped in a tin filament of dried algae that awaken the palate.
Finally, the third one, contained a mix of soup and a special sauce handmade by his mother using a secret family recipe left by the grandma.
"Wow, she went all out today," he rejoyed.
Without further ado, he took out the chopsticks, made a little gesture, and dug in.
*Munch*
"Delicious!" He exclaimed, exalted.
He gobbed the food as if he hadn't eaten for a week while smiling, as if he was back to elementary school.
In no time, he finished everything from the fries to the soup then, he dropped the chopsticks and said, "Phew, Thank you for the meal."
It was Daichi's first time eating something like that ever since the tragic incidents in middle school.
After all this time he had spent alone, he became accustomed to eating without much care, chewing bit by bit while reading something, or playing a game on his phone until the bell rang.
Feeling bored after finishing the food and fully satisfied, Daichi took back his phone.
'Now that I think about it, what should I do with this,' He pondered, fixing the screen.
If it was any other day, he would have deleted that message already but since he had some free time,
'Why not read it?' he thought, hitting the messaging box.
*Tap*
*******
"Unknown"
[If you were given a new chance at life, would you take it?]
******
*BA-DUMP!*
"…" Daichi's heart jumped out 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 madman.
'A hidden camera? A satellite? Or maybe hacking?' he thought, 'Anything would do!'
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 make 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 hesitation.
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 was the exact time back then, it wasn't that hard to guess how long it had been since lunch break started.
*Phew*
'Let's calm down,' he said, 'this must be a confidence.'
There was no way all those weird things happening were linked together. It must have been bad timing and a random course of events.
Nonetheless, the idea of everything being somehow connected didn't leave his head at all.
Rather, it was thrilling.
His adventurous mind and mystery-solving senses were titillating.
Daichi found himself smiling for some reason, like a casual game player in front of a new puzzle or a fantasy nerd in front of an enigma.
'Let's do it!' he exclaimed, 'Let's answer this question!'