Alan Date Introduction: Part 2

The front door opened and a voice rang out.

“Oi, Alan, hurry it up!”

“Y-Yeah, sorry, Lily.”

I started to walk towards the door to get the other furniture, but Alan stopped me.

“W-Wait, Camryn. Before we get back to work, let’s exchange contact info. You already posted your number in the staff room, but I didn’t get a chance to look yet.”

“Oh, sure.”

I took my phone out of my pocket.

“Oh, you have a Simsang, huh?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Do you have a Grapple phone?”

“Yeah… Oh well, it should still work.”

I tilted my head.

“It “should still work”? What do you mean?”

“Oh, well Simsang and Grapple are competing smartphone companies. In order to make people buy their products, they make it so their things are mainly compatible with things within their ecosystem and barely compatible with products of the other.”

Oh, what a smart business strategy. I suppose it can be a little inconvenient, but I don’t think these companies keep that in mind.

“I see…”

“Anyway, please open your contacts app.”

On the home screen, I tapped on the orange icon with a minimal picture of a person… The only thing on the list was a small icon of Ren — he was the only contact I had.

I told Alan my phone number.

“Oh, and look here Camryn.”

I looked up and saw Alan holding his phone in front of his face.

“Say ‘cheese.’”

“Huh? C-Cheese…”

I was surprised when a click sound came from his phone. But I was even more surprised when a bright light flashed in front of my eyes.

“Huh? A-Alan?”

“Sorry, I had the flash on.”

“Oh? D-Did you take a picture of me?”

“Yeah… You know, it makes it easier to identify people on my contact list…”

Alan took his eyes off his phone and looked at me. His regular expression was replaced with one full of concern.

“C-Camryn? Are you okay?”

I wasn’t… My eyes were downcast… I was sweating… My heart was beating quicker… My legs were slightly trembling… I… I don’t like getting my picture taken.

“N-No…”

“Oh… What’s wro-”

“Eh, s-sorry. N-No, I was just mumbling to myself… Yeah, I’m absolutely fine.”

I smiled to try and alleviate Alan’s worry — somehow, compared to my previous smile, this one felt odd…

“Hm? Are you sure?”

Did he sense the oddness?

Alan smiled assuredly.

“You know, as friends, we can tell each other if anything is wrong. And since we’re friends, we forgive each other. That means I won’t mull over it.”

I see…

“S-Sorry, um… I… I don’t really like getting my picture taken…”

“Oh? Sure, that’s fine. I’ll delete the picture and use an avatar…”

“T-Thanks…”

I don’t know what the problem was… Alan and I are friends, so why was I disturbed when he tried taking a picture of me? Was it… Was it because I don’t trust him?.. No, don’t think that way! I think the issue is that I don’t like getting my picture taken in general — I was glad that Ren didn’t ask for my picture when we were exchanging contact info. I think… I think I have a fear that malicious things will be done with a picture of me… And another thing is that… My identity is clear, so other things like my whereabouts can be tracked. But Alan and I are friends, so he would never do anything bad with a photo, right? I trust him! Or maybe the issue is that our friendship isn’t too strong yet… Hm…

“Anyway, you need my info. Just press that plus in the top right corner.”

I did so.

“Okay, so what’s your-”

I was interrupted when Alan tapped something on the back of my phone.

After a few seconds of watching a white light spin in a circle in the center of the screen, the words “Contact Added!” appeared on the bottom. Above Ren’s name was Alan’s, including a small picture of him beside it. Wait, His contact info was added? But why was it there? He didn’t tell me anything. Was it the thing he tapped?

“Woah! Alan, what happened?”

I looked up and saw a white card in Alan’s hand. It was just a bit smaller than my phone.

Alan looked a bit embarrassed.

“Oh, I gave you my contact info…”

“But I didn’t do anything!”

“See, it was this card I tapped on your phone. I thought it would be a bit quicker…”

I leaned towards Alan in excitement.

“Ah, that was so cool!”

“R-Really?”

I nodded.

“Yeah! Alan, please tell me more.”

Alan gasped. Oh, sorry, I’m invading her personal space, aren’t I?

I backed up and Alan nodded.

“Really! Oh, gladly!”

Alan widely again. But instead of his usually welcoming and polite smile, it seemed different — instead, it was a smile filled with excitement.

“You see, it’s something called NFC. That stands for near field-”

“Oi!”

We were interrupted when someone yelled at us from in front of the entrance. It was Elyssa.

“I’ll excuse Camryn because she’s new, but hurry it up! You can geek out over your nerd things after you match the work I’ve been doing to cover for you…”

“S-Sorry.”

When Elyssa left, Alan and I smiled guiltily at each other.

“Sorry, I’ll leave the explanation for later…”

“Yeah…”