Chapter 1
So…..what you’re saying is that you’ve been repeating today three million times?” “Mhm! Well, to be exact, this makes it the three million, six hundred and fifty thousandth loop. My 10,000 years anniversary.” The lights of the bar were beautiful, soft, and luxurious. The music a gentle low melody. And in a dimly lit corner of this bar, sat a man and a woman, whispering to each other, laughing. The man was dressed casually. His clothes unfit for the expensive place. While the woman was dressed in a strapless form fitting dress that hugged her curves. “Tsk tsk.” Mia Murphy, with smoky makeup that made her appear older than she was, curled her lips and shook her head. Her soft voice betraying a slight drunkenness. “Is this how you pick up girls? Making up a crazy story? I've got to say, though, the story is quite interesting.” “Not a crazy story. It is 100% the truth.” Alexander shook his glass of red-wine, before curling his lips into a smile. “Of course you’d say that.” Mia giggled, her honey like hues looking at the man sitting in front of her. “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll let everyone know what kind of crazy guy you are? You trust me so much even though we just met?” She cracked a joke, teasing. “Does it even matter? To me, everything will be back to zero. All reset, come tomorrow.” He smiled, a slightly self mocking smile, before shaking his head. “Oh, better put, I am a person without a tomorrow. When I wake up, we will be strangers once more.” Alexander shrugged. “Liaaar” She mumbled softly, stretching the word cutely. “Haven’t you tried staying up late? Until its Monday.” “I tried, many times, but I would always fall asleep at a certain hour. Nothing I did changed that.” “Tch~ Sure thing, whatever you say…...” Mia groaned and shrugged, clearly not believing him. She ignored him and turned her attention to her smartphone. The latest model of an iPhone that hadn’t even been released to the public yet. Tapping at the screen, she frowned. She had an appointment scheduled today, but even after an hour of waiting, her best friend hadn’t yet arrived. It was Alexander who suddenly walked over to strike up a conversation with her. Mia was bored to tears from waiting, so she humored him for a while, but she didn’t expect this guy to be so crazy. Suddenly claiming to have been repeating today for ten thousand years. “Your friend won’t be coming.” Alexander said softly from across the table. “Huh?” Mia raised her head, turned back her attention to him, and squinted her eyes. “How do you know about my friend?” “This is the third time I’m saying it. I’m always repeating this Sunday.” He paused, grinning at her. Taking a sip of his wine, he continued on slowly. “This isn’t our first time meeting. I’ve visited this bar many times. I even know every guest here.” “Then why won’t she come? You know even that?” Mia asked with a glint in her gaze, wanting to expose this man’s crazy lies. “Her boyfriend came back today. It was a sudden surprise, so she’s been with him.” Alexander said and glanced at his watch, “In 9 minutes and 13 seconds, you’ll get a call from her saying that she can’t come.” “You got it down to the second?!!” Mia glanced at the time on her phone, then nodded, “It’s 10:07 p.m.! Okay! I’ll wait 9 minutes. If she doesn’t call me, I’ll know you’re a liar!” “Sure!” Alex nodded his head, then raised his glass to Mia. The two clinked their glasses together. “Earlier….you said you’re familiar with all the women in this city who’m you’d rate at least an 8 out of 10 in looks. Is that also true?” After a pause, Mia broke the silence with her question. She was bored, and this crazy guy was becoming interesting. With his confidence and ludicrous stories. So she wanted to hear more of what he had to say. “Mhm. Familiar. Very familiar.” Alex nodded. “Intimately so.” Then added with a smile. “But my life resets every day. I know them, but they don’t know me at all.” “Then you expect me to believe that? That you can form meaningful connections with them in just one day.” Her tone was skeptic, wanting to poke holes in Alex’s story. “Of course not. Only a few cases work out in a single day. For the others, I need to prepare.” He laughed, putting his glass of wine down, before resuming his explanation. “So assume I want to seduce a girl. I will use five days to fully investigate her. The days are reset, and on the sixth day, she doesn’t know me still, but I would already know her interests, hobbies, outlook on her career, life, etc. “So when I finally approach her again for the ‘First time’.” He made sure to use air quotes. “I come across as her soulmate. “In fact, the one advantage of the constant repetitions is that I can make unlimited mistakes without worrying about leaving a bad impression or ruining things. Oh, by the way, the hardest girl I ever approached took me thirty-six days and countless failures before I finally succeeded. But failures lead to success.” He finished, laughing and leaning back in his chair. For a brief moment, a haunted look of loneliness and sadness flashed across his gaze. Mia pursed her red lips. Her pretty features set in a frown. “Quite the boastful liar.” She muttered softly under her breath, then– “But what’s the point? If they don’t remember you, what does it all matter?” “The life I live, the life I keep repeating, is meaningless. If I insist on saying ‘why’…” Alexander looked at the red‑wine glass and paused, then glanced at the red haired beauty. “To stop myself from going insane. Being trapped in the same day for a ten thousand years is unbearably dull. So I need to do something. Learning about people, making memories… it’s actually kind of fun.” Alexander dared to say all this. To be totally honest. Because none of it mattered. Everything will start all over again tomorrow. “Then how many 8-out-of-10 beauties have you ‘gotten to know’?” Mia asked, mimicking Alex’s air quotes. “Not that many. I’m very strict with my beauty standards. And it’s also not just about physical beauty. Personality, status, experiences all matter….” He paused, before continuing with the same tone of voice, as if he was talking about the weather. “So, when I say 8 out ten or above, it's judged by my scale.” He smirked, feeling no shame in his ass-hole like words. “Out of the ten million people in our City, maybe at most ten thousand qualify.” “Ten thousand, and you know ALL of them?” Mia narrowed her eyes. “Mhm.” Alex nodded confidently. “Liar. You just keep making more stuff up. Shameless asshole.” Mia scoffed. Alexander shrugged, unfazed. Whether she believed him or not didn’t matter—he just wanted a drink and someone to talk to tonight. Ding! Suddenly, Mia’s phone buzzed with a new notification: [Jewelry Heist Solved]. She clicked it and as she skimmed through it, something clicked in her mind. Turning her phone around, she held out to Alexander. “Take a look.” It was an article about the robbery of a major jewelry store. In the morning, at 9:30 a.m., “Arison’s Jewelry” on the city’s main commercial street was robbed. More than 20 million dollars worth of jewelry was stolen. Two employees were injured in the scuffle. And by the afternoon of the day, the case was already solved—three robbers caught, one still at large. It was national news, broadcast across multiple channels. Arison’s Jewelry was one of the country’s top three jewelry brands. The company’s owner, Michael Arison, was the city’s wealthiest man, with a net worth in the dozen of billions. “Yeah? What about it…” Alex skimmed the article. “Look at the last photo.” “What about it?” Alex looked again. The final photo showed Michael shaking hands with police officers, with a wavy-haired beauty standing beside him. Petite, yet with curves that strained her conservative clothes. That was his daughter, Aileen Arison, the senior vice president of Arison Group. “You know Aileen Arison, right? The classic ‘boss lady’ type—A female CEO, graduated from a top university, has her own luxury brand, her family is filthy rich. A woman that has everything.” “Of course I know her. Why?” Alexander asked again. “You said you know every 8-out-of-10 beauty in this city, intimately well. Aileen is one of the top ones. She has beauty, she has grace. She has curves that make all women jealous. She’s smart and capable. No matter how high your ‘strict standards’, she should score at least an 8, right?” “9.5,” Alex replied instantly. “There are maybe, at most, five women in this city who can match her.” “So you’re very ‘familiar’ with her too?” Mia kept pushing, trying to trap him in a lie. “Obviously.” Alex nodded. “Liar! Arison Jewelry was just robbed! All day, she’s been surrounded by police and reporters. There’s no way she’d have time to meet some random stranger like you!” She paused, huffing, grinning, as if her plan had worked. “And her family is very traditional and strict. She’s always so heavily guarded, I’ve never heard of her meeting any strange men. Even if you do know everything about her, there’s no way she’d talk to you! Hah! Got you!” Mai laughed proudly, thinking she’d finally exposed the crazy guy.
