Dawn of Symbiosis #36 Chapter 12 Section 2: Feelings Exchanged in Silence - Serial Novel

One morning.
A local bus heading toward the train station in City A.
As the doors opened at each stop, passengers boarded, and the bus began to get crowded.

Inside, people with sleepy faces sat quietly.
Even the passengers who were awake stared at their smartphone screens, with almost no sound or words exchanged.

Amidst that silence, a young woman noticed an elderly man standing nearby, swaying with the movement of the bus.
With a hesitant expression, she quietly stood up and said, "Please, take my seat."

The man, looking a bit bewildered, whispered, "Thank you..." and sat down.

Immediately after, his fingertips touched the device he had taken from his pocket.
Slowly and carefully, he operated it, sending a small "Yura" to the woman.

Just a slight vibration.
When the woman looked at her device screen, she smiled softly.
Her "Aya" had increased.
The fact that the "thank you" had reached her without a voice felt, for some reason, very deep and warm.

On the woman's device screen,
a small option appeared: "Send a Yura back to someone who was here."
It was a system that, within a certain time frame, would suggest avatar candidates based on the personal information set by each user, using location data between devices.
Even without knowing their face or name, the desire to "convey something" was enough.

She chose the avatar of the elderly man from the list and gently sent a "Yura" back.

The bus arrived at the train station.
At that moment, casual acts of consideration occurred among the passengers, making the flow of disembarking smooth.

All of it was an exchange of voiceless "Yura."

In the flow of people heading toward the ticket gates, a high school boy noticed a commuter pass that had fallen from the bag of a woman who was looking down.
When he quietly handed it to her, saying, "You dropped your pass," she looked up and her eyes widened.

"Thank you, that was a big help."

He nodded shyly and walked away.

On the woman's device, a screen for sending a "Yura" to him had popped up.
In the field for adding a short message, she typed:

"This is the happiest thing that has happened to me this morning."

The morning commute, a time when everyone tends to act like strangers.
However, the Aya/Yura system gently loosens that wall of silence.

Feelings that couldn't be expressed directly, or gratitude that missed its timing—the role of "Yura" was to allow them to be returned later, within a certain time limit.

Eventually, an invisible warmth began to grow among those who shared the same time and space.

"I've come to like this bus ride."
In someone's heart, that feeling began to take root.

Aya/Yura was gradually cultivating connections between people, even within the inorganic rhythm of the city.

⬇️Continued