Chapter Two: The Person Everyone Forgot

It was not a lost connection. Starting beneath the brim of his cap, the room replaced his body piece by piece. Wallpaper passed through his face. A sofa occupied his chest, as if editing software were removing an unwanted layer. His friends kept smiling at the camera. None noticed that the person in the center was gone. The title changed to EMPTY-ROOM CHALLENGE. The username became meaningless characters. Shen typed, *Who were you just standing with?* One of the friends read the question aloud, then glanced around in confusion. “It's always been just us.” Tang turned pale. She copied the warning from the photograph onto paper. When she wrote the word *anyone*, the ink spread and rearranged itself into a second line: