Response

Yuuko Aioi and Mio Naganohara were standing in front of the counter in Daiku Burger, waiting for their orders to come out. There were a few people ahead of them that were also waiting for their orders, so the two girls decided to carry out some conversation to pass the time.

"Ne, Mio-chan. Did you hear the story of a seven-year old who hacked a school network?"

"Eh?", replied Mio, unconvinced.

Yuuko continued on, "Yeah! The school had to hire a professional hacker to bring everything back to normal!"

Mio had an even more skeptical look on her face. "I find that hard to believe. Where did you hear that?"

Suddenly, Yuuko froze and then scratched the back of her head. "Uhh… Twitter?"

"Sheesh, Yuuko-chan…", Mio sighed, "you can't believe everything you read on the Internet…"

A Daiku Burger worker brought over two trays. "Number 73! Number 74!"

"That's us!", exclaimed Mio, as she and Yuuko walked over to pick up their food.

"Enjoy your meals," said the worker with a smile.

Yuuko confidently shined her signature smile back to the person behind the counter. "You too!"

GAH.

A wave of electricity shot through her body. Her pupils disappeared. Dark clouds circled around the girl and held her captive, decreasing her body temperature. Time slowed down. The space around her slowly distorted and pulled towards Yuuko's gravity as those two words echoed into her mind.

"You too… You too… YOU TOO… YOU TOO… Y̶̩̯͝O̴̟͊Ṷ̸̀ ̸͍͔̈́T̶̀͆͜Ǫ̸̘̽O̷͇̲͊… Y̶̫̤͖̔͗̓͐̚O̶̢̥̼̲̗̒̒͜U̴̠͎̖̩͗̈́̾̆ͅ ̷̭̫̇͐̐T̷̞̟̻͍̠͖́̈͘O̸̹̞̰̝̎̔̉̌͒̊ͅO̷̰̮͓̠̼̲̘̓… Ÿ̷̭̤͎͔̮́̓́̀̑̕͘͝Ǫ̴̨͎̠̔̓̈́̆̍̕̚̚͝͝Ú̵̝̰̗̜̈͗͒̑̏̔̑́̕ ̶̞̜̹̺̻̺̖͂̓̄̎̐̏͊͑̈͆̚͝T̷̠̩͍̗͓̣̤͎̰̝͚́̔̉͑͒̋͊̎̾̈́͘ͅƠ̶̟̾̎͠O̷̦̟͚͕̤̭͈̙̫̮̽̏͗͌͒̈͑͊̄̊͘͘͘͜͜…"

Mio tilted her head. "Yuuko, are you alright?"

The brown-haired genki swiftly turned around and dashed towards the booth in the far corner in shame, with a trail of tears following her.

"Ma'am, you forgot your order!"

Sticker

A boy was sitting on his bed, playing video games. His phone vibrates, and it's from the girl he likes. Thing is, he hasn't told her yet. He opens his phone, and reads her message.

G: Hey, what's up?

And so, the conversation begins.

B: Nothing much, just playing games right now.
G: Lucky! I'm trying to study, but I can't focus at all.
B: You have a test coming up, right?
G: Yeah, I'm pretty nervous about it.
B: Don't worry, you got this. Lemme give you something.

The boy sends a selfie, and within a few moments, the girl sends one back, giving back the same pose he did.

G: Thanks! I needed that! :D

As the boy was about to type out his response, his thumb pressed on the wrong button and opened up the sticker gallery. Thinking he was still composing a message, his other thumb sent her a sticker. It said:

"I LOVE YOU"

Panic shot down his body as he clumsily dropped his phone. Scuffling to pick it back up, he opened the messaging app again and started to type out an apology. Before he could hit send, though, the girl responded.

G: I love you too.

A blush entered the boy's face as all his panic and tension were slowly replaced with fuzziness and comfort. He smiled as he continued texting his newfound love.

Online Banking

Author's Notes: Hello, I'm the author and narrator. From now on until the end of this short, the point of view will shift from third-person to first-person from the perspective of Annaka Haruna, the red ribbon-wearing girl. Take it away.

Nice to meet you! I'm Annaka! A week ago, I started a new job as a clerk for the local book store. Today, my first paycheck came in, and I'm so happy! However, I don't want to stop over at the bank all the time to drop off my check and get my money, so I'm setting up Online Banking so I can transfer them on the go.

Alright, let's see here, I have the app open… Sign up...

Welcome to Tokisadame Online Banking! To begin, please choose which accounts you want to enroll:
1. Personal
2. Business
3. Personal and Business.

So far so good, I have a personal account already set up. Let's go with option 1.

Enroll using:
1. Debit or ATM Card
2. Credit Card
3. I don't have a card.

I think I have my ATM card, let's see… yep! Choosing option 1, typing in my number and pin… looks good. Proceed!

I have read and agreed to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Heh, nobody reads those. Agree!

Please choose a security question.

Okay… let's see…

What school did you graduate from?
I'm still in school so that doesn't apply…

What's your mother's maiden name?
...nah… Ooh!

What's the name of your pet?
This one! Typing in Pino (ピノ) as my answer! That's my pet bunny.~

Your security answer must contain at least 5 characters.
"Eehhh?" I'll… type out Pino in English.

Your security answer must contain at least 5 characters.
"Eeehhhhhh?" Wait… that's still four characters. I'll add a period.

Your security answer must only contain Japanese or alphanumeric characters.
EEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHH?

—

Whatever, I got through the security question, time to create a password! Typing it in… and enter!

Tokisadame Online Banking is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later. If you are still experiencing this problem, please call Tokisadame Bank at [insert phone number].

Eh? That's odd. Let's refresh and go back.

Tokisadame Online Banking is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later. If you are still experiencing this problem, please call Tokisadame Bank at [insert phone number].

…refresh.

Tokisadame Online Banking is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later. If you are still experiencing this problem, please call Tokisadame Bank at [insert phone number].

Grrr… Okay. This is starting to get annoying. I'm gonna have to call the bank…

Dial. Ring…

"Thank you for calling Tokisadame Bank. For personal and banking account assistance, please press 1. For Online Banking, please press 2. For office hours-"

Dial 2.

"Please hold as we get a technician to assist you."

Hold tone… traditional folk music…

S: "Thank you for holding, this is Sora speaking from tech support, how can I help you today?"

A: "Hi, my name is Annaka. I want to enroll for Online Banking on my Tokisadame Banking app, but the service went down as I was trying to apply."

S: "Yes, we were just notified a minute ago that the service went down, we'll try to get you back up and running as soon as possible."

A: "Okay, thank you."

S: "I do have a few questions, while we're waiting for Online Banking to come back, if you don't mind me asking."

A: "Go ahead."

S: "At what point during your enrollment did Online Banking go down?"

A: "It went down after I entered my password."

S: "O...kay… and did your password have any odd characters in it?"

A: "I think so, my password had a rabbit emoji at the end."

S: "...please hold for one moment."

Hold tone, more Japanese folk music. After a minute or two passes...

S: "Are you still there, Annaka?"

A: "Hai!"

S: "Okay, we got Online Banking back up and running. Looks like the emoji in your password caused the whole thing to crash."

A: "..."

S: "Annaka-san, are you there-"

A: "EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?"

Pigeons

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE

Downtown was bustling. The crowd moved in and out along the streets and in various stores, restaurants, and other buildings. Children were playing in the park, couples were strolling along, and others were sitting down on benches just to take in the peace.

Aside of a tree, half of a burger with its wrapper was littered on the ground.

A pigeon fluttered over to the burger, inspected the area around him, and started to feast on it. It was delicious. However, he was rudely interrupted from eating his meal when another pigeon flew over and got up to his face.

"Hey!", yelled the other pigeon, "What the fuck did I tell you about leaving your snacks in my nest?!"

The first pigeon rebutted. "Huh?! What are you talking about? I didn't leave anything in your nest!"

Angrily, the second pigeon snapped back. "Bullshit! You left your worms and pieces of candy all over! Now my wife doesn't have any room to lay her eggs!"

"Listen, I didn't even leave anything in your nest this time. Besides, we share the same tree, I even let you leave some of your stuff in MY nest from time to time!"

"I WANT TO HAVE KIDS, YOU KNOW! I want my wife-"

"You know what? I don't give a flying fuck what your wife wants, anymore. You two have been nothing but rude and inconsiderate ever since she came into our lives. We were best buds, and she ruined it. So why don't you go and take your nest and your nagging bitch of a wife to a different tree-"

"DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT MY WIFE LIKE THAT!"

"I CAN CALL HER WHATEVER I WANT."

"YOU ARE A REAL ASSHOLE, YOU KNOW THAT?"

"I'M GOING TO TAKE A SHIT ALL OVER YOUR EGGS!"

"HOW DARE YOU! I'M GONNA FUCKING END YOU."

"DO IT, BITCH. I DARE YOU."

The pigeons began to peck at each other after squawking back and forth. Wings were flapping, and the burger was being torn to shreds by their beaks and talons.

A boy and his grandfather walked by, witnessing this event. With a smile, the grandfather said, "Nature is beautiful, isn't it?" The boy agreed, nodding.

Another man knelt down before the pigeons. Pulling out his camera, he took a snapshot as a memento. The flash distracted the birds.

"SHIT, IT'S HIM, AND HE BROUGHT HIS MACHINE AGAIN!"

"OH CRAP, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

The two pigeons flew away. The man closed his eyes and smiled. "Oh well.~"