Infinity Train: Lingering Kiss

Chapter 1: Five Years Later

"Bryce!"

To answer the call, Bryce opened the door and walked inside. He was inside a massive library with rows of books and computers as far as the eye can see. His outfit was vastly different from before. He was wearing a white shirt with a blue and white letterman jacket holding a B on the left side of it, and his pants were gray. The one who called him was the librarian. She was a young, Caucasian female adult. She was wearing a gray sweater vest, a white blouse, gray leggings, and a black skirt with a black cloak across her shoulders. Her hair was mostly black, but also purple towards the tips. He had known her very well since he first applied here.

"What is it, Kaisa?"

"It's almost time to close up for the day. Can you possibly do me a kindness and make sure everything's all taken care of?"

Bryce looked at the time on the clock. It was almost 5:00, much earlier than the usual closing time. Granted it was a weekend, but he had a feeling that there was a reason for it.

"A bit early, but yeah. Why?"

As if to answer, someone walked up with a pleasant smile on his face. In hindsight, Bryce didn't know why he bothered to ask. He had a small brown beard on his face, which held long, brown hair and hazel eyes. And for his attire, he wore a gray jacket with a black shirt inside as well as blue jeans.

"Hey, Kaisa. Sorry if I came a bit early. I figured you'd need a hand."

The librarian gave the man a smile as she replied.

"Oh, it's quite alright, Victor. Bryce here was about to close up for me."

Bryce waved over to him with a grin of his own. From what he heard, Victor was actually supposedly descended from witches. Normally, he would've questioned it, but after his experience on a train that went on forever in a barren wasteland, he's certain that anything is possible at this point.

"Oh. Well, that's awfully nice of him."

"Indeed."

Looking at the young man, it did make Victor wonder something about him.

"Do you happen to have anyone waiting for you?"

Bryce made a bashful look on his face as he replied.

"Well, uh, yeah. But it won't be for a while. It's her B-Day today."

Kaisa and Victor gave him a big smile, feeling happy for him.

"Oh, that's sweet!"

"Yeah. She's really lucky to have a guy like you."

Bryce scoffed with a big grin on his face.

"Yeah. Me, too..."

Truth was, he was roommates with her. Seven months after they came back from the train, Tulip had to go to Game Design Camp since she missed out on it last year due to the train taking off with her. Gabe and Penny were there to see her off. And after that, things got as normal as they could in circumstances like theirs.

Almost two months before they came back, the world was struck by the Coronavirus known as COVID-19. The following seven months since then have been a period of imposed isolation to prevent infection, which Bryce took especially seriously as far as his newly adopted sister.

He certainly didn't expect that her first time in this world would be amidst a crisis. But it's safe to say he gave it his all to keep her alive long enough to see a world without this plague. In the meantime, Penny had been learning things differently than she always did.