NOVEL NEXT 3 – The First Round
Kanako and I had spent a few more hours in the plaza before we parted ways. The app she installed in my phone weighed heavily on my mind. Everytime I received a notification, my heart jumped. Then I opened my phone only to see that they were Kanako's texts. I wanted to remove it, but I'd given my word to her that I'd think about it at the very least.
Several times along the way home, I had my phone in hand, finger on the uninstall button, ready to delete it. All I had to do was press the button.
But I didn't.
"Excuse me, young miss!"
A middle-aged woman flagged me down on the sidewalk. She stood in front of a supermarket with large signs that screamed they had a sale going on. Figuring that I needed to buy groceries anyway, I stopped to take a look.
The lady, whose name tag read Miyako, handed me a stack of coupons. She wore a mask, but the wrinkles at the edges of her eyes told me she was happy I spared a moment. I may have even been the only one who stopped, seeing as she had a printer's worth of coupon sheets in her arms, and more in the boxes behind her.
I wondered if I would celebrate little happinesses like that when I inevitably became as old as her.
Before I walked in, Miyako tugged at my sleeve and grabbed my hand as soon as I turned around. A smaller coupon was pressed between our palms.
"Employees get a different coupon. That one takes 50% off your entire order," she said, winking.
I was left speechless, floored by her generosity. I'm by no means poor. Groceries accounted for so little in our budget, they hardly made a dent. Even so, I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth that she so kindly offered.
All I could say was, "Thank you so much. My husband and I are thinking about having a baby, so—"
I choked on my spit with my next word. I had no reason to tell this stranger about my life, but I did, and it was about having a child out of everything else I could have said.
Miyako, on the other hand, lit up like a Christmas tree. "Oh, my! That's wonderful. You know what this means? Add red ginseng to your grocery list. It works wonders."
I thanked her again before she went back to handing out coupons to uninterested passersby. Heading inside, it wasn't until I looked up red ginseng did I grasp the full meaning of what Miyako had said.
Red ginseng was a known aphrodisiac, and was believed to improve blood flow to the genitals.
Trying to set it aside from my mind didn't work. Souji and I had sex at least once every two weeks, and I didn't think we had trouble in the bedroom department. Despite this, I found myself instinctively looking for the red ginseng. But no matter where I looked, I couldn't find it.
The fresh food area only had regular ginseng. Every aisle had everything else I needed for except the root. I was beginning to look like a creep triple checking the aisles thinking I must have missed it.
I asked an elderly man stocking tomato sauce on the shelves, "Excuse me. Do you know where I can find red ginseng?"
He looked me up and down, staring uncomfortably long without saying anything. I passed it off as age catching up to him and he didn't remember, but his eyes couldn't be more obviously staring at my chest.
I was going to try my luck with another employee when he suddenly sprung to life.
"Ahh. That red ginseng," he said, thoughtfully. His eyes still clung to my body. "You won't find it in the food aisle. Try the over-the-counter medicine aisle, between the vitamin supplements."
"Thanks…"
Even as I hurried away, I felt his eyes lingering on me until I rounded the corner. The old worker was right on the mark about where the red ginseng was, despite how much of a creeper he was. Half of me was repulsed, but the other half took joy in being checked out.
I was only 29. My birthday may be several months away from hitting the big 'three-oh' but I was still considered young. In fact, I didn't look a day over 20 from my university photos.
When mom and dad gave birth to me, I certainly won the genetic lottery.
I brought all of my stuff to an empty lane. A man, possibly a decade my senior, welcomed me to the store and began scanning my items.
"Oh, I have this." I handed him the coupons, including the one Miyako gave me.
"Ah," was all he said, nodding to himself.
The cashier got to the red ginseng. I swallowed hard hoping he wouldn't say anything. He scanned the aphrodisiac powder, gave it a quick look over, and then tossed it into the bag.
"My mother used to make my old man take this stuff. Wouldn't stop telling me it was the reason I was born. Ha!" the cashier's boisterous laugh blew the tension away from my stiff shoulders.
I chuckled with him, because his humor genuinely took me by surprise.
The register rang up and he said, "That will be 5,480 yen, miss."
My phone vibrated with a notification.
"One moment," I told the cashier.
It was probably Kanako with another silly message. I could ignore her, but I was already pulling out my wallet purse. When I checked my phone, I saw the blood drain from my face in the reflection.
The notification was from the app. It took up the whole screen, and three choices were presented to me:
[Invite the cashier to have a drink with you.] +2000pts
[Suggest the cashier to use red ginseng, and you could tell your children the same story.] +500pts
[Show the cashier your cleavage by leaning low when making the payment.] +1500pts
I swallowed hard. Terror gripped at my mind. How did the app know I was talking to a cashier? How did it know I bought ginseng?
A thousand different ideas flashed through my head until the cashier snapped me from my daze.
"Miss? Are you alright?" he asked, worry written on his face
"I'm fine," I lied.
This app was just an app. I didn't have to play the game.
But…
Excitement was welling up within me, bubbling to the surface and begging me to make a choice. I didn't have to, but I wanted to. There was no way in hell I would choose the first option.
I grabbed my credit card and leaned over the device to swipe my card. My shirt was a loose blouse that I hadn't buttoned all the way. Being this low no doubt gave him a clear view of my bra and cleavage.
While punching my pin number in, I glanced up and saw his eyes shifting between me and the groceries he had bagged. As I stood up, he turned his head to hide the slight blush on his face.
"Thank you for your patronage!" he said, as I grabbed my things and left with my heart pounding.
I power walked out of the store and took a few deep breaths to regain my composure. My phone pinged with another notification. The app congratulated me with fireworks shooting out from behind the halo and horns icon.
My score shot up from [0/5,000,000] to [1,500/5,000,000], then it gave me a bonus [+2,000 First Time Clear Bonus] for a grand total of [3,500/5,000,000].
There was no explanation for it. The app somehow knew I completed an option and awarded me points for it. Staring at the digital fireworks and my increased points, I felt something akin to exhilaration. Blood coursed through my veins like nascars on the racetrack, but it was my mind that really felt something— like adrenaline pumped to my head and lit up my brain.
