“Mr Aiba, could you please come over to pick Miss Aragaki Yui up?”

Aiba answered a call from the hospital. He sighed in frustration as he quickly got dressed to pick his tenant up. He was in the middle of working- designing different samples to be shown to an author. He wanted to win the chance to design a book cover for one of the best-selling books in the city.

As he drove, he could hear the nurse’s words in his head.

“Aragaki Yui seems to be suffering from a severe memory loss but she insisted on leaving the hospital. Her physical health is in good condition so there is nothing much to worry. Her bills are also taken of, by herself. Well, we are grateful that you are coming to pick her up, Mr Masaki Aiba. Thank you.”

“Severe memory loss?” Aiba wondered and quickly shrugged it off. It was none of his business.

Aiba finally reached the hospital and went to find Yui.

To his surprise, Yui was nicely dressed; her long hair was tied in a ponytail. She looked refreshed. Despite wearing no make-up, Yui’s beauty was unhidden. Her big eyes blinked and her lips curved into a wry smile.

“I suppose you are Aiba?” She asked in a confident tone.

“Is the hospital so great?” Aiba thought as he realized that Yui was a totally different person from who he had last seen. He nodded his head.

“Can you please bring me back to where I live? I hate this place. The smell, the colour and these people who kept talking and creating so much noise. ” Yui went near Aiba and said frankly.

Aiba merely nodded at how she spoke without considerations.

Yui put on a sweet smile which dazzled Aiba for a few moments. He never realized how pretty this woman was until this day.

Yui then hopped behind Aiba, following him to his car.

Once inside the car, Aiba could sense Yui’s stare at him, as well as the compartments inside his car.

“Can you tell me what year this is?”

“2012?!”

“What?!”

“What what? I heard you forgot what had had happened to you.”

“What? That was a lie! I am not even this depressed woman. What is her name again?”

“Aragaki Yui. Hey, you are scaring me!” Aiba was beyond shock.

“I am not some Yui woman. I am 0611. I am living in Year 3000. Correction. I was living in that year. I had absolutely no idea of what had had happened to this Yui woman. However, I like her name so I am going to take it. Her body and face are not that bad too.”

Aiba just kept his eyes on her. “Are you pretending to be crazy?”

“You are the crazy one. Anyway, this machine looked familiar. It had already become extinct in my year. I saw its photographs on sites. What is its name again?” Yui pointed to the machine she was now seated in.

“This is a car. Hey, wait, it is extinct? What?”

Surprise, surprise and more surprises…

Yui nodded her head innocently as she curiously touched the machine.

“You do not press that!”Aiba was trying to stop Yui for fear that she would hurt his dear baby car. He decided to drive off.

“WOW!” Yui was ecstatic. She forgot her worries and questions of how she ever did go back in time to now and here.

“This is where you live.” Aiba passed Yui her small bag of clothes and shoved her into the room.

“Hey! Wait!”

Aiba turned back and was pulled into the room.

“I know this! This is a computer, but a very very very old antique! Can you tell me who this guy is?” Yui was bombarding Aiba with many questions.

Aiba suddenly felt so tired. This pretty Yui was a little too noisy and inquisitive for his liking.

“Hey Miss Yui. I have no idea about Yui’s history. She was just a tenant. Since you are taking over her identity, you have to pay your rents regularly as well.” Aiba spoke coldly.

“Rents?” Yui’s big and round eyes opened widely, questioning Aiba.

Aiba sighed. He had to resign to Fate. He had brought in an outer space alien into his house from the hospital. He made a mental note to himself that he would never visit that hospital ever again.

“Money.”

“Money?”

“Yes, money.”

“Those paper dollar bills?”

“Yes.”

“But I do not have them. In my year, everything was just through the most advanced technology. We buy everything we need online. We chat online. There was no need to even step out of a room. And we do not use money. We use online banking services.”

“Then how do you ensure that you can pay for those items that you bought via the online banking systems?” Aiba rubbed his temple. This was the longest conversation he ever had with a tenant.

“Designs. Designing clothes, logos, stickers, posters and many others. They just bid and transfer their credits to me.”

“Designs?” It was Aiba’s turn to open his eyes widely at the woman in front of him.

Yui nodded her head and then jumped onto the bed in the room. The room was painted white. There was only one table, one bed, one laptop and one wardrobe.

“Then how about you start designing and earning money through that?”

“But your softwares are outdated. They will not like the designs with those outdated softwares which cannot do much spectacular effects.”

Aiba was furious. She was indirectly insulting him.

“0611! THIS IS NOT YEAR 3000 ANYMORE. YOU ARE LIVING AS YUI. SO JUST DO THINGS OUR WAY!” Aiba had an outburst.

Yui shivered, not because of Aiba’s sudden outburst, but at how he had shouted her real name. Somewhere distant, she could hear that voice over and over again. Her head began to hurt terribly.

“Go away.” She managed to squeeze out those words as she gritted her teeth in pain. She clutched tightly onto the big piece of cloth. Wincing in pain, she pulled the big cloth over her. She did not have any strength to question Aiba what that big piece of cloth was.

“More than happy to,” Aiba said and stormed out of the room, closing the door hard and tight behind him.

“Crazy woman. Now I have to live with her. Seriously, 0611? What kind of stupid number is that? Why is her name a number anyway? Hey, wait, if people do not step out of their rooms, it meant that everyone is used to living in solitude. What kind of freaky year is that? ...” Aiba began to complain.

He was such an unlucky landlord.

-

ENJOY. HAPPY 2012! :)

TY to Yeelyn & Sherioka for your support:)

cheers.

crunch.