"W-what do you mean, Mike?" I uttered with my gaze piercing through Mike"s rattled expression."Hey," Mike mumbled as he tightly grabs his pants with his head hanging low. "maybe we should go home?"
I just looked at him in silence with my eyes narrowed while curling my fingers into a firm fist. I then rolled my eyes and let out a silent sigh as I slowly stepped towards him. I saw him visibly flinching every time I stepped towards him, but he never really ran away or took a step back to avoid whatever I was supposed to do to him. Perhaps in his mind, I looked more like an oncoming onslaught rather than a friend. I then stopped in front of him with my head pointed up as opposed to my eyes, which were pointed directly down at him.
"I-I mean," Mike mumbled as he squirms with his eyes on my feet. "you must be very busy. Besides, we won"t be seeing anything in that mall anyway. Maybe we should just go, yeah?" He said as I saw his jaw shaking while he steals a few peeks at me every now and then, but he would eventually drop his eyes back into the floor.
I then extended both my hands towards him, which made Mike gasp, looking almost as if he was about to run away. Contrary to what he had in mind, however, I wrapped my arms gently around his body into an embrace, making him flinch and, inevitably, his tense body started to soften until it trembles like that of a vibrating engine.
"Whenever you"re ready to talk about it," I said in a whisper, being extra cautious not to let others other than Mike hear what I am saying. "you can always come to me. Just call me again whenever you want." I tried my very best to say it in the lowest voice I could possibly muster but not too low that Mike wouldn"t be able to hear it. I don"t know why I did it, really. There"s no one around us, not a single soul in the immediate vicinity. Still, I felt so wary that there are hundreds of eyes gazing at us, monitoring our every move, and deliberating among one another as to what they would do to me. I felt so surrounded in a haven of silence where no other soul remains other than the two of us.
Mike didn"t move; he didn"t even utter a single response. He just stood there, shaking with nothing but shock painted on his face. I didn"t expect him to embrace me back, but the way his hands didn"t even move a single centimeter kind of made my heart twinge a bit. Oh well, maybe he"s just not a hugger.
I then said a few words to bid farewell to him and imploring him to call or chat me again when he gets home. He just nodded in response, but this time, a soft smile hung on his face, and he was not reluctant to look at me in the eye anymore. He then chuckled and took his wallet from his back pocket to compensate me for using Uber to meet him. I tried to refuse his kind offer, but he insisted that I should take it and that it would definitely make him feel better if I did. Reluctantly, I took the money and walked past him while reminding him to contact me again.
After a few steps, I decided to look behind me to see what Mike is doing. I was greeted by his warm smile again; he was looking directly at me while he stood there, not moving his feet to leave. Perhaps Mike was surprised that I looked back at him because his smile changed into that of a pleasantly shocked expression. Nevertheless, Mike flashed another smile as he waved at me before shouting that he"ll watch me leave, which is something that he often does in the past.
I flashed him a smile too, although I felt a bit awkward while doing it, I don"t want to make him feel bad by just avoiding him, so I waved back at him. I then noticed that a few people are standing a few meters behind Mike: on his left side was the two chubby men I encountered earlier outside of the 7-11, and on his right hand is an elderly woman who"s grabbing the arms of a tall priest. All of them, including Mike, are looking directly at me, but my friend is the only one showing a pleasant expression on his face. I quickly turned my head, so I would not see more of the disdainful look on their faces.
"What are you doing?" Mike shouted in a timid tone. "Go, go! Go now!" He seemed frantic, he"s frantically begging me to leave.
I hastened my pace and walked away from them as fast as I can. I decided to ride a cab nearby to end this day and feel the comfort of my room again. I kept thinking about that bizarre little experience that I had just gone through, so I opened my phone to pa.s.s the time, thinking that maybe some s.h.i.tty memes will keep my head out of what the f.u.c.k just happened earlier.
When I finally opened my phone, a thought flashed by my head, which made me click my browser app to do a quick search.
"Plural"
Google then started giving predictive search terms that go along with what I had just typed, such as "plural of treat" and "plural sight." However, when I added the word "Heights," the search engine did not give any related search terms, just blank. I then hit search and, unsurprisingly, what greeted me is a few websites about the Plural Heights mall, some articles about it, and a few more sites that are talking about a few completely unrelated topics or the fact that the dying chain of shopping malls is posting their lame advertis.e.m.e.nts in numerous p.o.r.n sites. I decided to close the app and sighed after realizing what I"m doing. This is a waste of time. I then tapped on the Twitter logo on my home screen and started scrolling through hundreds of unfunny posts and stale memes that made me mildly entertained.
That was when a curious thought flashed through my head.
I tapped on the Twitter search tab and types the words "Plural Heights" in hopes that maybe other people have encountered the same creepy s.h.i.t that I had gone through earlier.
After waiting for a few seconds, the loading screen finally unraveled two tweets that are... not what I expected.
Both came from two Twitter users that have no profile picture, but their posts pretty much contain the same enigmatic vibe.
The first tweet was posted by a user called "@asdf1254," and it says:
"plural heights
L4, R6
no limit"
The second follows the same pattern with some minor changes. It was posted by a user called "@starwarsfan121212," and their tweet says:
"plural heights
L2, R9
limit 7"
Both tweets were relatively new ones since it says that they had only posted them literally a few seconds ago. I tapped on the post of the user called "@starwarsfan121212" and saw that it has one like. I tapped to see who liked it, but I was only greeted by a notice that the tweet had been deleted. I pressed the back b.u.t.ton to see if the other post is still there, but unfortunately, it was also removed. I refreshed my Twitter feed over and over again, but no such tweet greeted me again. Instead, what I saw was a notice that said, "No results for "Plural Heights" The term you entered..."
However, after several attempts to search and research the term "Plural Heights," at last, I was greeted by yet another cryptic tweet that had the same formula as the two other posts I saw earlier. It was posted by Twitter user "@AsIfIHaveTwiter," and the post pretty much has everything that I expected.
"plural heights
L4, R9
no limit"
Without even correctly thinking about it, a rush of adrenaline swimming through my veins made my body swiftly tap the like b.u.t.ton and waited for whatever that may come but not expecting anything significant that would just by doing it.
"Sir, we"re already here." I hear the soft voice of the cab driver, which pulled my senses back to reality once more. I closed my phone and shoved it in my pocket before paying the driver. I swiftly left the cab, went up to my floor, entered my room, and jumped into my bed, not thinking about anything else that would soon follow me.
That was when I felt a sudden vibration coming from my pocket. I pulled my phone to see what it was, and my eyes widened when I saw that the Twitter user who posted that Tweet I liked earlier had just contacted me!
I clicked on it and saw the three letters that he had sent me.
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