to Fulfill [cake hoodings]

i

Chapter 1

Calum groaned loudly as his sleep was rudely interrupted by his phone ringing loudly beside his head. He opened one eye to read the caller ID and his eyes opened so wide when he realized it was one of his friends from college. He abruptly tapped the answer button and held the phone close to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Cal?"

"Y-yeah?"

"Up for some drinks tonight? You get out from work at 6:30, right? Meet us at the usual bar. See you there!"

Without waiting for his response, the caller hung up. Calum took his precious time thinking about what his friend said and when it finally dawned on him, his eyes shifted frantically to the digital clock beside his bed which indicated he had less than 30 minutes to get ready and be at the meeting place.

"Shit!"

He took off his clothes so fast and ran to the bathroom. He had never taken a shower so fast in his life.After completely drying his hair, he shrugged on his work clothes and took out his leather file case and putting in his wallet and phone before he exited his apartment.

Calum sat awkwardly in his seat,gripping his drink as his friends chatted away about their work. Some of them complained while the others are satisfied.

"So, Cal? How's work treating you?"Jack asked, pouring himself another drink.

Calum tensed in his seat as he lied through his teeth, like he did so many times whenever someone asked him.

"Oh, it's great. I'm doing fine. Just fine." he answered with fake laugh.

"You're working for that game developing company, right?" Roy asked, his eyes gleaming.

"Y-yeah." Calum looked down.

"Lucky! I heard it's a decent pay! And you get to try out so many games while you're at it." Alex wiggled his eyebrows at Calum who was hiding his discomfort in talking about his work.

"Y-yeah...Well, enough about work.Let's talk about something else other than work." He said,hopefully closing the topic about his work and diverting to a new topic.

It was around midnight when Calum tiredly walked the empty streets of his neighborhood towards his apartment. He loosened his tie as he downed a bottle of water to get rid of the taste of alcohol in his tongue.

In the middle of the defeaning silence, his phone rang which startled the living daylights out of him. After checking that it was his mum calling him, he answered with a fake cheerful voice.

"Hey, mum! How are you?" he said through gritted teeth.

"Calum, how's job hunting?"

"It's...fine."

"You hesitated." His mum said and he heard a big sigh.

"Don't worry, mum. I'll make sure to kind a job soon."

"Good, because starting next week we won't be providing you with any money."

It took his brain a minute to process this information and when it finally did, his whole body went cold.

"W-what? But mum-!"

"Bye, Calum."

And with that, his mother hung up.

"Fuck." he cursed under his breath and scratched the back of his head in irritation.

It's been two months since he stopped working for the game developing company who hired him and ever since then, he's had a hard time finding a new job. He recalled his recent interview which happened just three days go.

"So Calum, it's stated in your resume that you previously worked in Zenith company, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you quit after only three months? What happened?" one of the panel asked.

Calum paled and tensed up.

"Did something happen?" another panel asked.

"U-uhm...I-I figured that mys-skills c-can't be sharpened in a c-company like that." Calum replied sheepishly obviously lying.

"And you knew that in just three months? What a joke." the panels laughed.

"You obviously can't survive if you think like that, kid."

"I'm sorry but we can't hire someone like you. Go find another company."

"I obviously can't tell them about what happened." Calum said bitterly under his breath, as he continued walking down the usual path towards his apartment.

As he turned the corner, he almost collided with another person who was obviously just standing there ina dark gray suit. He blinked as he stopped in his tracks and the stranger's eyes met his.

"Hello, Calum Hood." the stranger said.

He took a few steps back as he let out a small yelp. His face turned into an unhealthy pale color when he realized that the stranger just said his full name. A million thoughts ran through his head. A stalker? A killer? A kidnapper? How the hell did he know my name? His eyes widened. Could it be that his previous boss sent him to kill him? The last thought sent shivers down his spine.

"Who are you?" he asked, gulping.

The stranger laughed, obviously sensing Calum's caution.

"No need to put your guard up around me." the stranger said sheepishly.

"Why shouldn't I? You just said my full name! How should I know you're not some killer sent out to kill me?" Calum accusingly pointed out a finger at him.

"Oh, where are my manners! I apologize for not introducing myself sooner." the stranger bowed before fishing out a card from his pocket and holding out within Calum's reach, which he took.

 "I'm Ashton Irwin from Re:Life Laboratory under Support Division. And you, Calum Hood, has been chosen to be the lab's test subject for the Re:Life experiment."

A/N: THE PLOT IS SIMILAR TO THE ANIME THAT I WATCHED BACK IN JULY SO :D AND OF COURSE, NOT EVERYTHING IS THE SAME, I HAVE SOMETHING IN THIS THAT THE ANIME DOESN'T :D HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY!