(The whole story is from my perspective. Do you want to know who I am? Shhh... It's a secret...)

Zhan, wake up...

Zhan...

Xiao Zhan...

With a startle, Zhan wakes up... He was with his squad in his office cabin, it was lunch break, but they had to attend a meeting at 2.00 pm. Instead of going for lunch, they prepared for the meeting half willingly.

Zhan is the Marketing department's Group A's Team lead. For the last few days, his team has been pulling late nights; this made them excessively worn out. The meeting was about the new launch of the product, its market, scope, strategies, etc... He didn't want to attend the meeting because he knew exactly what was gonna happen at the meeting. The team leads are gonna argue and have a long debate; still, they won't come up with an appropriate strategy. Also, he didn't want to meet Wang Yibo, the marketing team group B Team lead.

Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo were known to be rivals of the company. According to other employees, Yibo was The Cold Prince. He had a completely different cold aura, which scared or intimidated others. Overall, he is a perfectionist. However, Xiao Zhan was a brightly lit star, handsome and sweet, he is a perfectionist, but his way of dealing was unique.

Both teams' way of marketing things was different. So one way or another, they would rebel against each other in every meeting.

Yubin, one of their office pals, came to Zhan's cabin, and as if God heeded Zhan's prayers, Yubin notified them that the meeting was called off. Zhan and his team loosened up a bit. The last few days have been hectic for the whole squad. They were not up for this meeting at all. As soon as Yubin said the meeting was canceled, they headed cafeteria to grab something to eat.

Zhan squad included Luo Yunxi, Zhuo Cheng, Zoey Meng, Wang Haoxuan, and Jessi. Sometimes Yubin joined in. Zhan relished being with them.

While going to the cafe, they saw Yibo and the team heading the same way as them. Nonetheless, they avoided each other.

Zhan's team grabbed some sandwiches and coffee from the counter, took the table near the window, and Yibo's squad occupied another window seat. As lunch break was over, the hall was pretty much vacant.

The view from the window was soothing. They were enjoying the view and having food. But the peace of mind was disturbed by the buzzing sound of Yubins phone, and he was getting way too many text notifications. Therefore, like his usual friends, Zhan's squad started to tease him... Yubin got all shy and embarrassed. This made them tease him even more. And they showered him with all sorts of questions like, "who is it? What is it? When did you get committed? Who is your girlfriend? etc."

Yubin got all flustered. He became too shy. After a while, Luo Yunxi said, " guys stop it, give him some gap to say what's going on. If you guys keep on showering with the question, how can he answer."

After a minute or two, Yubin recovered from the initial embarrassment and replied, "thanks, Luo Yunxi (sarcasm), and you guys stop teasing me, even I don't know who it is."

The rest of them gave him a questioning look. However, Yubin couldn't get away with it. So, Zhuo Cheng asked him, "dude, someone is bombarding you with text messages, and you don't know who it is? Seriously, you kidding me."

Zhan, who had a smirk on his face, said, "Fine, I will believe you. In that case, you won't mind if I check your."

Yubin took a second or two and retorted, "no, I won't."

Zhan scanned through Yubin's phone and found a particular app with too many notifications. Zhan asked, "What kind of application is this?"

Yubin looked over his phone and said, "Oh! That's just a new chat application called 'Anonym.' Here, you can chat with any person around you who is within a certain radius. Moreover, you and the other person won't know each other's identity unless you let them know. So it's like a Secret Chatmate. These few days have been hectic, so for distraction, I tried some apps, and this came up, so I thought of giving it a try."

Zoey got all curious and asked, "it's like talking to a stranger. How would we know who the other person is?"

Yubin replied, " we won't know; that's the reason the application is interesting. When we install the app, they ask you a few questions, including a nickname it depends on you to enter sex, age, preference, and a small bio. You can share anything like a quote or direct, indirect message anything. Then they would ask you what all detail you wanna make public you can tick that off... Most of them would show their name (fake or nick), sex, and bio rest would be hidden. Bio is a kind of important part; it makes the profile intriguing. The app doesn't ask for DP; instead, they show bitmoji, so you don't have to worry about that too".

Everyone was silent for a while, and Zhan was still scanning through Yubin's phone.

Then Jessi, who was thinking for a while, gave Yubin a playful smirk and asked, "so the person texting you could be a person from this office?"

Yubin got all flustered and replied, "maybe, it shows you the list of people nearby who are using the app. You can chat with all those if you are interested."

Jessi said, "That sounds fun. You can complain about your office to your colleague, and you won't know".

Zhuo Cheng countered, "Seriously, then you may have to find out if Boss is using this app or not."

"Yeah, otherwise, you would be complaining about his company to him." Wang Haoxuan joined in.

Jessi retorted, "Either way, he won't know who I am. so it's fine".

Zoey mocks Jessi, "Jessi, you really wanna complain about your office seriously? Go get yourself a fella and fuss as much you want."

"Zoey, why don't you get yourself one first."Luo Yunxi responded.

Jessi looked over at Zhan, who was in deep thoughts and still scrolling through Yubin's phone and said, "Hey girl, I am fine being single. Hey Zhan, you have been scrolling through his phone for a while now. Found anything?"

Zhan gave back Yubin's phone and said, "It sounds interesting... I didn't find anything interesting in his chat messages though this app is used by quite a lot of them... I don't know. Maybe, I will check this out later. Anyway, leave this. We are already late. Let's complete the work and pack up."

As they left the cafeteria, they noticed the cafe was tranquil, and there were only ten people left, including Yibo's team. And most of the people who were in that space would have heard them... Most of them were curious about this app even though it didn't show on their face.

Yibo and his squad included Liu Hai Kuan, Yang Yang, Li Bo Wen, Song Ji Yang, and Ji Li. Even though people think they have a cold aura draping them, they are okay with their own space. They are not the kind of people who are quite open or friendly, but they are pretty frank and cheerful among themselves. And among them, Ji li is too nosy. He was the first one to open his mouth.

Ji Li said in a low voice, "Anonym has gained quite a significance."

Liu Haikuan asked in the same low voice teasing him, "why have you tried it?"

Ji Li replied, "Nope, just random net search detail."

Li Bowen asked them, "Why are you guys speaking in a low voice? Moreover, why are people so eager about conversing with a stranger? If you can't talk to your people, then why would they talk to the unknown?"

Song Jiyang commented, "They can act as a personal diary."

Li Bowen retorted, "Yeah, speaking diary."

Yang thought for a while and asked, "Still, why a stranger? Your friends and family know you better".

"It gives you a new perspective or viewpoint," Yibo responded. Everyone stared at Yibo.

Liu Haikuan asked, "What do you mean?"

Yibo retorted, "I mean what I said. When you are talking to a stranger, they don't know you or your friends or your background, so they give you a different standpoint that may be rational. Talking to a stranger doesn't mean you can't talk to your friends. Get the perspective of both and choose the better option or modify your choice accordingly. The final option would always be yours".

Yang patted Yibo on the back, "Hmm... Sounds like you gonna give it a try.

Yibo nodded, "Will think about it."

By evening six, everyone got off work. As their boss was attending some conferences in another country, they were happy that they won't be having late-night shifts for a while. Usually, they would hang out with the team or other staff if they got off faster.

However, today they were all exhausted. So they all went back home. Most of them lived nearby. Zhan's condo was closest. He nearly had 10 min walk to his condo.

On the way, he saw Yibo getting out of the supermart. They lived in nearby condos but never talked to each other. It's just ego. They know that well but end up ignoring each other. Zhan had to stop at the supermart. He got some instant noodles and a cool drink. Then walked back home, freshened up, had some instant noodles, then went directly to bed.

However, he couldn't sleep. He was just tossing around. Thus, he started to browse through his phone. Even though he doesn't like to chat much, the app's concept made him a bit curious, and he thought of trying it. He downloaded the app, put on his name as Sean, then made a bitmoji which looked nowhere like him, filled the rest of the details, and ended up in a bio he thought for a while and filled up the blank with a quote from a book he was reading lately.

"What scares me more than feeling it all is missing it all." - Glennon Doyle, Untamed.

And then he ticked off his name, sex, and bio and kept the rest hidden. Then dozed off