[Q: 10 - Are you happy in life?]

[Yes] ; [No] ; [Not sure]

As soon as Kaya filled in his answer, he heard a familiar confident voice behind him seconds before he felt two hands being placed on his shoulders.

“You also filled in [Yes] right, Kaya?”

As Kaya looked back, he saw his friend, Bryan, looking at him with a wide smile across his face.

Before pulling his gaze up, Kaya reached for Bryan’s hands and placed them off his shoulders, a perfect smile having formed on his face as he met Bryan’s gaze a second later.

Brushing away the wrinkles on his clothes that Bryan’s grip left behind, Kaya let out a mental sigh.

‘A high schooler has no business being so strong.’

Like most high schoolers, he had already finished puberty, unlike Kaya who had a late start. And it didn’t seem like his genetics betrayed him either, standing at a height of over six feet. Bryan also had the body to go along with it, his muscles toned. And well, his face wasn’t all that bad either.

“Yes, of course I filled in [Yes].” Kaya replied, his eyes as confident as his friend’s even though it was a stone-cold lie.

Hearing Kaya say this, Bryan’s smile widened even more, a hint of pride in his eyes.

“Yeah, that was a dumb question.”

‘If only they knew.’ Kaya thought dejectedly, but his smile not portraying any of these emotions.

Looking past Bryan, Kaya found an opportunity to end this conversation early and couldn’t be quicker to act.

“Yeah, Yeah, I am amazing. Now, sit down, you are disrupting class.”

Confused, Bryan looked around to see that some people were still staring in front of them, seemingly at nothing.

“Oh, is it another such question? The one where if you give a certain answer you get more questions? That means that the people who are still answering all answered [No]…”

Kaya nodded and pointed back to Bryan’s seat, signaling him to sit back down and stay quiet for a bit.

Without arguing, Bryan sat down. Without him seeing, Kaya put three fingers in the air and silently mouthed ‘after school’ to some people who were looking at him with worry and sorrow in their eyes.

These were the people who had probably written down [No] on the question. And Kaya, in some way, besides being friends with most people, had become like a therapist in the eyes of them. They seemed to trust him, and genuinely be helped by his advice. Kaya didn’t quite know how it turned out like this, but it unfortunately did.

With a smile on his face, Kaya turned around. When he looked up again, though, his lips returned to their resting position, perfectly straight like they portrayed no emotion whatsoever.

[Q: 10.1 - Do you want to be happier in life?]

[Yes] ; [No] ; [Not sure]

Kaya had more questions to answer, having answered [No] to the question of today himself.

Kaya was literally friends with everyone and in their eyes always looked happy, so why did he answer no?

Did he lie?

No, Kaya had answered honestly.

Kaya had built up a reputation and an image of a perfect student, and from what people gathered, it was genuine. But that was only from the outside. A shell. A whole lot of deceit. From the inside, Kaya was far from happy. He was a mess.

‘Well, I am happy that they believe it.’ Kaya thought melancholically. However, that sadness could not be seen on his face.

‘Okay, let's answer some more questions before the class starts then, shall we.’ Kaya thought to himself as he shifted his focus back to the translucent hologram in front of him.

[Q: 10.2 - Do you know how to become happier in life?]

[Yes] ; [No] ; [Not sure]

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‘Of course I know.’ Kaya thought sullenly. ‘That is never going to happen though.’

[Q: 10.3 - Are you doing something to become happier?]

[Yes, every day!] ; [I try] ; [No] ; [No, why would I bother?]

‘That option fits perfectly, [why would I bother?]’ Kaya thought, a slightly bitter smile forming on his face.

[Q: 10.4 - If you are not happy with life, and know how to make it better, then why would you not bother trying to change it?]

[Open answer]

Kaya slightly flinched back upon seeing this.

‘An open answer?’ He thought, his brows slightly scrunching together.

***

One day, seemingly out of nowhere, a translucent hologram popped up before every single human being on earth at the same time, asking a simple question: [Do you think life is flawless?]

Moments after that could only be described as chaos. People who were driving in their cars lost control of the wheel after a hologram suddenly popped up in front of them, causing mass pile-ups, cars crashing into buildings, numerous fires, and even some buildings collapsing.

And that is only to say for the damage caused by people who were in their car at that moment, let alone people who were operating a plane or other occupations. The immediate chaos was unlike Earth had ever seen before.

But not only was there chaos in that moment alone, the hours, days after that were as chaotic.

People were afraid.

Had aliens suddenly visited Earth? Was this some kind of higher power? Was this the sentience of Earth itself?

Not any of these possibilities seemed to calm anyone down. Each and every one of the possibilities just seemed more impossible than the other.

It was only when the government gave the people an answer, saying that they were the ones to have created this hologram with a hyper-advanced technology, that humanity started to calm down.

But still, for the past ten days, there had been nothing but this strange hologram questionnaire phenomenon circling the internet, televisions, and newspapers. How could it not? But even then, Kaya had never heard of anyone being able to give an open answer before…

Looking around, there didn’t seem to be anybody else to have this option as no one looked surprised. Kaya had a good read on people, but besides a few worried expressions from the thoughts these questions might have brought up, nobody seemed surprised.

‘Weird.’

Kaya snapped back once he noticed that almost everyone was done answering questions, so he had to hurry up.

‘But, how can I just answer such a question?’

Kaya could probably answer this question for most people, but when it came to himself, he couldn’t. Or rather, something was stopping him from answering this question as this meant acknowledging that he had a problem. And if it was one thing Kaya didn’t want, it was problems.

Deep down Kaya had an answer to this question, but he couldn’t bring himself to let these answers surface. So, kaya was left with a hologram in front of him.

Minutes passed, just blankly staring in front of him. Kaya was in his own mind, battling thoughts from coming up, suppressing everything as he would rather let these thoughts stay down where they didn’t bother him.

But then, the mention of his name in an eerily deep tone made Kaya snap out of his thoughts.

“Kaya, what do you think of today’s question?”

Without looking up, Kaya recognized this voice. It was his teacher’s.

‘Oh yeah, I am still in class.’

This hologram questionnaire phenomenon, what the people had called it, happened 10 days ago. And school was quick to adapt.

Every single day, the hologram precisely popped up with a single question at 3 pm. With the commotion that these questions caused, the students became too rowdy for the class to continue.

So, the school had been quick to schedule a daily class dedicated to letting the students answer these questions, and then discuss them like a philosophy class.

Today, Kaya was chosen to first give his thoughts on the question of that day. Standing up, Kaya walked to the front of the classroom and put a smile up before turning around to face the class.

“The question for today was: [Are you happy in life?]. I think this is a good question to be asked. I think most people have answered [Yes] to this question. But, despite this, I bet that each and every one of them can think of at least one thing that would improve their lives. I think we can all take away from this question that, even though we are happy, some things can make us even more content in life. So, even though this question will only be asked once by the hologram, I think it is worth to keep asking this question to yourself in an attempt to be better every day.”

As soon as Kaya was done speaking, people began to clap. Some were just happy because of the way he spoke, or just seeing their friend up there. But some people were really thinking about what Kaya had just said, intent to follow that advice. People who had answered [no] and [yes] alike.

‘Well, that was pretty good advice already. Maybe fewer people will come to me after school now.’ Kaya thought, hopeful as he returned to his seat. ‘But I won’t take myself up on that advice.’

Back in his seat again, the hologram was still in front of him. Now, however, Kaya was filling it in while his classmates were further discussing the question of today and thinking about what Kaya had said.

[Q: 10.4 - If you are not happy with life, and know how to make it better, then why would you not bother trying to change it?]

[Because I don’t strive to be happy in life, I strive to be unbothered. The life I am living now, I have built up in such a way that nothing unexpected can happen. All the expectations I have set for my life are not set in a way that can make me happy, but they are realistic. If I just follow this plan, I will have no setbacks. I will just complete high school, graduate from college, get a standard office job where I don’t stand out and where no responsibilities lay on my shoulders and just work until I am retired. Simple as that, nothing more. So, I don’t bother to try and change my life to be happy as that might become a bother. Besides, it is already too late to change that now.]

With a small sigh, Kaya mentally completed the answer and the hologram in front of him finally disappeared.

‘Ah, that bothered me.’

That was the truth though. Kaya might not have been happy with the choices he made about his life or his future, but he was going to stick with them now. He had climbed up such a big cliff that he could only continue going up.

But now that thoughts about this surfaced again, Kaya had become a little absent-minded. That didn’t last for long, however, as suppressing his thoughts was something Kaya was used to. In a matter of minutes, Kaya had pushed them deep down, his mind becoming clear. An empty shell again.