Present-day

A young boy, who appeared to be around 19, stood in front of his uncle's shop and scoffed disapprovingly.

"I just cleaned it yesterday," he sighed brushing his yam-dyed apron, which had a name tag- “Esae”. 

He reluctantly opened the shop grunting about teenagers, who had spray-painted over the shutter.

It was an antique retail shop, which also repaired miscellaneous items. The size of the place was like any other convenience store.

Esae was here on his uncle’s last-minute request to stand in for the employee who was running late. And since his classes were late in the afternoon, he had grudgingly said yes. 

He took his time cleaning the whole store and put everything in its rightful place. Following that, he took some calls from customers who would drop by later.

Sitting at the counter, bored, Esae looked out the glass door. It was bright and sunny like any other day. Not too hot or too humid- just right.

He could see a large flower garden barricaded by a brick wall, just a few feet away from his shop. There were different kinds of vines and creepers growing on top of the mini-wall as well as a variety of flowers sprouting in the garden.

There were a few other shops adjacent to the garden. 

As it was still early in the morning, there weren’t many people around.  Esae yawned and started searching for the TV remote while waiting for his uncle to rendezvous back here.

At that moment the bell rang above the glass door and a boy around his age came in. He stepped in sheepishly holding a phone in his hand. And as soon as he looked up at the cashier's face, he froze. 

Esae too lifted his head up to see who his customer was and stopped dead in his tracks on seeing his face.

——X——

"Esae, can you go get the watch from that shop?" A middle-aged man with sleeked combed-back hair asked his son. He was in a hurry which was apparent by his disoriented movements around the room.

"Huh? Right now? I can go pick it up later today when you come back." Suggested Esae, running his fingers through his black hair.

Looking into the camera on his phone, Esae examined the purple highlights on his hair—his new-found interest.

He peered over his phone to see his father’s disgruntled face. 

"No Esae, right now. you know how important it is to me. What if someone else takes it or it gets misplaced?”

“Fine, I'll go right now," Esae said raising his hands up defeatedly, realising his father was in no mood to argue. 

He put on his black leather jacket and headed out.

Arriving at the destination, Esae squinted his eyes looking up at the sign board. After scrutinising the store's appearance for a while, he wondered why his father came here of all places. It was quite far from their house and it wasn't as if there were no other watch repair shops near them.

He knew how much the watch meant to his father. So why would he not go to a better outlet instead with much more skilled and experienced workers? 

He shook his head and walked in. Esae looked up at the cashier and froze.

The cashier looked exactly like him, well not quite but very similar. They both had the same face, height, and complexion. They even had a small mole on the left corner of their eyes.

Anyone could have mistaken them for twins if it wasn’t for their different hair colours.

"Welcome, are you here for your watch?" The cashier said quickly trying to drown out the awkward silence. 

What are the chances? The cashier thought to himself.

“Ah, yeah," Esae said regaining his composure, "I take it my father called you already?" He tried smiling, but it came out more as a nervous laugh.

“Alright, please wait," The cashier said equally perplexed while rummaging around under the counter, trying to find the wanted watch.

Esae's eyes darted around the cashier's face. He started scanning the cashier while pretending to wait for him. 

The more he observed, the more he realised, every little detail on his face matched his own. His eyes went to the name tag on his apron, which said Esae.

Having the same face would have been fine, Esae was no stranger to the existence of doppelgängers, but having the same name too? 

This alarmed him.

"You," as the cashier looked up, Esae pointed at his name tag, "You have the same name as me." He said not knowing what more to say.

The cashier seemed to process that, he looked down and up, back at Esae, "Oh, yeah, what a coincidence huh?”

"Tell me about it, you look exactly like me." Esae blurted out. He could feel the ice break.

"Yeah, I noticed," the cashier pointed at his mole, and back at Esae's, "The mole too, so eerie haha.”

"I thought doppelgängers were only supposed to look the same not have the same name too. You live around here?”

"I could say the same. Yeah, I do.”

Silence fell upon them again.

The cashier handed Esae the watch which was carefully packed in a small white box put inside a bag.

As Esae went to take the packet from his hands, their fingers brushed.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. It was violent, one not seen since the Dianchian in 1930. The cashier grabbed the counter to stabilise himself while Esae, put his arms out in an attempt to keep himself balanced.

"Another earthquake?”

"Yeah, but aren't they supposed to be of less magnitude?" The cashier exclaimed.

They coughed as the ceiling rained dust and cemented debris on them. 

"I don't know! Maybe mother earth finally decided we weren't worth it." Esae shouted back in an attempt to ease the mood. Nonetheless, he was still panicking.

Right at that moment, something seemed to crash down right in front of the shop. 

The view was partially blocked by the wall, but they could see the smoke unfurling  from the crash. They inched towards the glass door to get a better view of the thing. The object shone brightly. The light reflecting from it, almost blinded them.

A petite girl stormed inside pushing the glass door with much effort. She was dressed in such a way as if she was cosplaying a Lolita anime character. Her hair was tied up in two big ponytails and she wore a Lacey frock.

"Come quick! We don't have much time!" She held out her hand out.

Esae looked back at the cashier, confused, and then back at the girl was almost out of breath.

"Now!" A man, probably in his mid 20s, emerged behind her. 

He looked calm and composed compared to the situation they were in. His voice was commanding yet soothing. He wore a white shirt and black semi-formal pants. His presence demanded respect. 

He looked like a man who would not handle disobedience well. Reluctantly they both followed the two strangers outside.

The earthquake seemed to settle down and the earth stopped shaking. Both of them took a moment to catch their breath and began speaking-

“Okay wait-” 

“What’s going on?!”

“Who are you people?” They both said in unison. 

 Both shot piercing glances at the two strangers demanding answers.

They looked at the object that had crashed down. It looked like an air-craft, similar to those in the sci-fi comic books they would read. It was huge, red in colour, with white metallic stripes across it. Its engines looked damaged as they were still in smoke.

However, no one in their immediate surrounding seemed to take notice of the large obstruction.