Chapter 10: Ji-Hye Pt 2

Although his conscious didn’t feel relieved, he felt like a weight was lifted off his chest, now that commutation was open between them. Ari knew he had a long road to take to make up for what he did in his previous life, but he had taken the first step. 

 

“So tell me,” Ari said, attempting to redirect the conversation back to their original topic. “When does the event take place?”

 

“Right the event. Let me recheck,” Ji-Hye replied and Ari could hear the smile in her voice.

 

He was glad that he had a second chance to mend their relationship. Although he knew because of the trauma he experienced in his previous life, they would never be as close as they were before his father died. After all, he was now mentally older than her. 

 

However, he had always missed their friendship and would be grateful for even a semblance of it. He missed the way they used to talk and laugh together, and he would love nothing more than to have that again.

 

Ari was only sad that it took him years to realize that he shouldn’t have taken her friendship for granted. She had been his only friend for years because of his condition and he had been so wrapped up in his own world that he never realized how much she meant to him until it was too late.

 

“I’m back!” Ji-Hye told him happily. “I checked the website again. You know me and my memory. It said the event takes place this Monday at 1:00 pm, your time.”

 

“You better make sure that you put the date on your calendar so that you don’t forget”

 

Even before she spoke, Ari knew she rolled her eyes at him. “You know I will. And since we are doing reminders, you better update your Halopad.”

 

“Don’t worry, you know I will,” Ari sighed. “I just got to find it first. I know that it’s somewhere in one of the boxes in my closet.”

 

“You still didn’t unpack yet?” Ji-Hye asked with a hint of incredulity in her voice.

 

In the previous timeline, Ari didn’t start unpacking for a whole six months. He couldn’t bring himself to do so. Every time he looked at them he felt overwhelmed, and he couldn’t bring herself to open them up and start sorting through his things.

 

“I’ll get to it,” he told her. “It’s just been hard to do it. There are a lot of memories in those boxes.”

 

“I get it,” Ji-Hye said sympathetically. “But you have to unpack eventually, especially if you want to find your Halopad.”

 

Ari softly smiled at her words and said, “I know.”  

 

“I would help you look for it, but as you know, I’m across the country,” Ji-Hye laughed.

 

“Please, even if you weren’t, you wouldn’t help,” He grinned into the phone. “Don’t act like I don’t know you.”

 

“Hey, at least I would pretend to help.”

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Laughing, Ari continued to talk to Ji-Hye for some time before they hung up. After disconnecting the call, Ari got up from the couch and headed to his bedroom to search for his Halopad that was in one of the many boxes that he stacked in his closet.  

 

It took about fifteen minutes of searching through boxes before Ari finally found his Halopad. Setting it aside on the floor beside him, he repacked all the boxes before putting them back in the closet. That was a problem to tackle another day.

 

After wiping his hands on his pants, he walked back over to his Halopad and picked it up. It had been a long time since he had used this device. He hoped that he still remembered how it worked.

 

As he looked the cube-shaped device over, he noticed that there were three different buttons on the front. If memory served him right, the red one powered it on, the green one is for auto recharge, and the yellow one was its settings.   

 

Hoping that he was correct, he pressed the red button. The cube glowed with a faint light, becoming more brilliant with each passing moment. 

 

Realizing that he was indeed correct, sat on his bed and waited for it to turn on completely. While he was waiting, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of anticipation for the event that was happening in the next few days.

 

Although he had watched it via Vtube before, he was looking forward to attending the event in person. Especially because he got to do it with Ji-Hye. 

 

Within minutes of activating the cube, a green light and dinging sound emitted from it. Then, a transparent blue screen materialized with the words ‘update needed’ on it.

 

This turn of events did not surprise Ari, as he had already expected it would happen. However, the lengthy list of required updates was unexpected. Pressing the begin button on the bottom of the screen, he began the installation process.

 

Given that the updates would take 4 hours to complete, Ari simply sighed and placed the cube on top of the dresser. Luckily for him, he didn’t need his Halopad to sign up for the VSOFT event.

 

However, just as he was about to use his phone to enter the contest, he heard his grandma call him to eat breakfast. 

 

“Coming!” he yelled back as he placed his phone on the bed and walked out of his room.

 

Winning a pod was his goal, but at the moment, tasting his grandmother’s cooking took precedence. It had been such a long time since he had tasted any of her dishes, so that was the only thing on his mind.

 

As he walked out of his room, the first thing that hit him was the smell of something delicious. Turning his head to the kitchen, he could see that his grandmother had just finished cooking breakfast. The sight and smell of her food made his mouth water.

 

“Ari, come eat!” she called out as she saw him walk in.

 

With no hesitation, he walked over to the table and sat down. And what a feast it was; there was Bibimbap, some type of fish dish, Kimchi Fried Rice, and his favorite egg bread. 

 

It had been so long since he had had a home-cooked meal like this one that he barely registered that he had already started eating before he knew it. All that mattered at the moment was filling up his stomach with delicious food.

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