The Penpal

(Translated by Saya)

A country girl, a first year student in high school, was given a mobile phone for her birthday by her parents.
She was very happy about it, but at the time not many people had mobile phones, and as it was a countryside where she lived, she had no friends who had mobile phones like her.

However, one day, she received a text message on her phone.

The message said:
"I really wanted to have a penpal, and typed in some random numbers in the hope that someone may receive my message. To whomever is reading this, will you consider becoming my penpal?"

The girl was overjoyed at this offer of friendship, and accepted it without hesitation.
From that day onwards, the girl started texting the penpal everyday.
The penpal told her that he was a second year student in high school, and because they were close in age, she became increasingly attached to him.
But although he talked about TV and school life, he never told her where he lived.
The boy didn't seem like he wanted to talk about such things.



One day, summoning her courage, the girl asked him:
"I want to hear your voice. I want to talk to you about many things directly."

The boy fell silent for a few moments, but then replied:
"I also want to talk to you. I will call you tonight, around 8.00 pm."

The girl was happy and excited, and imagined what they would talk about while she waited patiently for the appointed time.
Then, just after 8.00 pm, the girl received a call from the boy as promised.

The girl wanted to remember their first conversation, so she turned on the call recorder while they talked.

The conversation with the boy was so enjoyable and time flew by so fast that before she knew it was past 9.30 pm.
The girl thought, "oh no, it's getting late. We must continue our conversation on another day," and ended the call.
After she hang up, she kept thinking how she enjoyed talking to him over the phone.

However, she didn't remember much about what they actually talked about. All she remembered was that it was enjoyable.
In the meantime, because of all the nervous excitement she had been feeling about their first call, she felt suddenly tired and sleepy.
I should go to bed early, she thought, and fell asleep well before it was 10.00 pm.

But suddenly: 
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!!"
The girl was woken up by her mother's loud cry.

The girl was about to fall from a window in her bedroom.
The clock hands showed the time as 2.00 am. The mother came to check on her because she heard unusual noises from the girl's room.

The girl didn't understand why she had been trying to climb over the window railing.
But suddenly she had a weird feeling that she should check the conversation she had with the boy. She had it recorded, so she could simply listen to it.

And all that was recorded on the phone was this:

"At 2 am tonight you will fall from a window and die. At 2 am tonight you will fall from a window and die. At 2 am tonight you will fall from a window and die. At 2 am tonight you will fall from a window and die. At 2 am tonight you will fall from a window and die. At 2 am tonight you will fall from a window and die."