Wendy was pretty bored busy when Seulgi bursted out of nowhere, convincing her to accompany the latter to this legen-wait for it-dary— legendary party. Wendy kept a mental note to lock Seulgi out of her netflix account for watching too much How I met your mother.

 

“I’m telling you bro, this party is going to be EPIC!” Seulgi exclaimed as she detail out the biggest party of this school year.

 

Not long ago, Wendy received a text message from the star soccer player Kim Soo Hyun about a party that he is hosting this weekend.

 

From: Kim Soo Hyun

 

It’s time to bust our asses (and livers) because my parents are out for the weekend and I WILL BE HOSTING THIS KICK END OF SUMMER PARTY.

 

SEE YOU LOSERS, BRING BOOZE.

 

She considers him obnoxious just for that text alone but Wendy is obliged to go, part of the best friend pact.

 

“And if you leave me all alone?” Wendy asks

 

“Not gonna happen, I won’t sneak off to God knows where.” Seulgi responded, she even went as far as raising her pinky finger to do a childish act of assurance.

 

A Junior student from the Student Council joined their little discussion, “What are you guys talking about?”

 

“Party at Kim Soo Hyun’s”

 

“Oh yeah, I heard everyone got the memo already.” Joy remarked, “I can’t believe summer’s over.”

 

“I bet you had fun this summer.” Seulgi jests.

 

“You bet I did” Joy replied coyly.

 

Wendy wishes she’s dumb or oblivious to the fact that her two friends are definitely sleeping together. 

 

“You know what? I have a thing to do today with my parents so I’ll leave you two alone.” She bids farewell.

 

It was a lie, she wanted to clean herself from the eye-ing that Joy and Seulgi let her be a witness of. The only way to achieve that is to distant herself, as far away as possible, from the main source of her disgust.

 

Hey, she’s not being a big antagonist to their love story but she’d rather be excluded from that narrative than to see them lip lock out of nowhere. Knowing Seulgi, there is a high possibility that it will happen whether Wendy’s present or not.

 

She power walks from a dark and scary alley, one that she avoids passing through at night but she’s left with no choice tonight. Luckily, no one seems to be showing interest at mugging her, well they’re not going to get lucky with her, all she brought is a powerbank and a granola bar.

 

“Hey miss,” a bystander called for her attention, “miss!”

 

This is it, this is where she’ll die. She haven’t even told her mom and dad about Harvard, she haven’t bragged about it to Seulgi either. How can this be her end?

 

“Miss” a guy wearing a black hoodie, giving off eerie vibes, tapped her shoulder. “I think you dropped this.”

 

Due to her frightened state, Wendy grabbed whatever the hell he’s trying to give her and made a run for it. Looking like a crazy woman and tainting her reputation is the least of her worries right now.

-

A phone??

 

But it does not look like any ordinary phone that everyone sees on the television. The thickness of the phone looked like it came from the past or maybe it’s a new invention of Apple? 

 

Wendy put down the odd phone on her study table, picked up her totally normal looking Iphone and rings Yeri.

 

“This better be worth it, Seungwan. You disturbed my sleeping sesh with Doyeon!” A loud voice coming from the other end of the line startled her. Yeri’s a bit dramatic, especially when it means impressing her oh-so dreamy crush.

 

“Calm down, will you? I need to ask you something since you’re advanced on technology.” Wendy said.

 

“You’ve come to the right person then, it comes with a price.” Wendy rolled her eyes, she knew asking something from Yeri would isn’t free. “And before you ask, I want the new Iphone 12.”

 

“Done.” Wendy agreed instantly, “Now, do you know a company who makes phones that are as thick as a—let’s say a hundred paged book.”

 

“Ew, that’s so 2000’s. Why would you even want a phone like that?” Yeri cried out.

 

“That’s weird,” Wendy mumbled, “Yeri, I’ll call you ba—“ Too late, Yeri already hung up the phone.

 

The odd mobile phone suddenly lit up without any notifications to show. What confused Wendy even more is the brand name of the phone. 

 

Enhanced Electronic Identification—Network Remodelled

 

“What the ?” Wendy inspected the phone further. 

 

The lockscreen loaded, a blank black background. She swiped up and saw the same thing. A blank black wallpaper with two applications installed, the camera application and the notes application.

 

Wendy was close to tapping it when her phone rang, startling her and accidentally dropping the bizarre phone to the ground.

 

“Hello?” She quickly responded.

 

“Not cool that you left me all alone with Joy bro.” Seulgi replied.

 

“Listen Seul, I gotta go okay? I’m busy.” She hung up on a protesting Seulgi. That’s a problem for another day.

 

Wendy lifted the fallen phone. Fortunately for her, the screen wasn’t shattered. Well, it is an ancient phone and rumor has it that Nokia phones don’t break easily so this must be a Nokia product.

 

She went back to the home screen and tapped the notes application. 

 

There was only one note saved on the phone.

 

20/11/06

 

My father invented a phone that could do more harm than good. It almost got pitched to a famous manufacturer of mobile phones but luckily I snatched it just in time before his meeting.

 

To the person who managed to get a hold of this. Destroy it! Destroy it and leave it in someplace where people can’t find it. I tried to destroy this phone but something’s wrong with it.

 

Do not, and I mean this with my whole heart, DO NOT OPEN THE CAMERA APP AND DO NOT TAKE A PHOTO.

 

Please just destroy this monster of a phone, I beg of you.

-B.J

 

Now, Wendy has the option to either destroy the phone like what B.J says or open the camera application and check what’s the big fuss is all about.

 

Curiosity gets the best of people right?

 

No turning back, Wendy.

-

 

Day 1 of trying the phone

 

Wendy tried a numerous attempt at figuring out what the phone does but failing miserably. She took a picture of everything, from the trees to her gigantic stuffed toy, Manen. It showed nothing but a normal picture, though pixelated from the low resolution camera.

 

She even surfed the internet to find out more about this phone model but, once again, she’s left with a dead end. All she gathered was an inventor of a few phones similar to what she has but just a tad different because the applications from their phones are complete unlike hers. The phones earned a lot of criticisms for bugs and lags, even as far as the phone takes a picture all by itself. The manufacturer, B.J Incorporation, phased out all controversial phones and replaced it with the new Apple products instead.

 

Wendy knew she has to destroy the phone sooner or later but the more she uses it, the curious she gets on how the phone functions.

 

-

 

Day 2 of trying the phone and a day before the big summer party at Kim Soo Hyun’s

 

Still no progress from Wendy. Times like this when she wishes she should’ve taken seriously her computer lab lessons, mayhaps she’ll learn a thing or two about technologies.

 

She doesn’t even consider going to Yeri for help. Buying her one Iphone 12 is pricey but manageable, however buying her another apple product is just opportunistic of Yeri. Plus, she has no money to spare in case the phone that she has in her grasp turns out to be an illegal one and she’ll get locked up. Paying for lawyers nowadays is pretty expensive, paying for bail isn’t cheap either.

 

Last click from the phone’s camera and she called it a day. Clearly, Wendy won’t figure out what it does today. Maybe she will in Kim Soo Hyun’s party, although she is prepared for the extra teasing she’ll receive from her friends for brining a jurassic phone.

 

-

 

“Yes Seulgi, I’m dressing up for the party now” 

 

Day 3 and hopefully the last day of trying the phone. Also, it’s Kim Soo Hyun’s party.

 

“Good, I’m just making sure that you won’t bail on me.” Seulgi said.

 

“Between the two of us, I’m not the one who bails on the other.” Wendy spewed.

 

“Okay that was one time, Wendy!” Seulgi interjected.

 

“It’s actually three times but you were drunk at the other two so all is forgiven, Seul.” Wendy quipped.

 

“Whatever, I’m downstairs already. Hurry up, Joy’s blowing up my phone.”

 

Wendy hurriedly grabbed her things, including the jurassic phone, and made her way down the stairs. There she saw Seulgi, leaning on her Jeep like the boy that she is, with a rayban glasses as if it is not nighttime and the sun is out.

 

“You look stupid,” She remarked, “There’s no sun.”

 

“It’s called style, you buffoon.” Seulgi defensively retorted.

 

“Whatever, let’s just go to this stupid party.” 

 

“You said epic wrong”

 

“Trust me, I didn’t.”

 

Wendy let out a laugh when she saw Seulgi gripping the steering wheel with an annoyed look on her face. 

 

This is going to be a looooong night.

 

-

 

A few steps away from her stood an unfamiliar face, not like she knows everyone from her school but she’s never seen anyone like her.

 

“Seul” Wendy turned to her right only to realize that Seulgi left her all alone. “Talk”

 

There’s nothing left for Wendy to do other than to figure out how the stupid phone works. She theorized that the camera does not work on non-living things or things that do not exist (or not programmed to be recognized by the mobile phone), therefore she’ll test it out with a few friendly faces and hopefully it puts her mind to rest.

 

Her first subject is Naeun from Geometry class, a narcissist who never turns down a photo op. 

 

“Hey Naeun!” She called out for the tall girl.

 

“Oh hey Seungwan, I didn’t peg you as a party girl.” The other commented.

 

“I got dragged by my bestfriend,” Wendy starts, “by the way, your outfit looks amazing and it would be a waste if it didn’t get documented right?”

 

“Oh totes! Come on, snap me up.”

 

Wendy took out her phone, ignored the judging expression of Naeun and snapped a quick picture. 

 

Name: Son Na-eun

Age: 17 years old

Relationship: Acquaintance

Last lie: I did not sleep with your boyfriend, Eunji