The New me

I woke up the next day feeling gloomy. No amount of sleep can give me energy. The housemaid knocked and asked what I wanted to eat. I acted a little sick and told her that anything that'll help me be less nauseous would be okay. I also told her to notify my workplace. She came back later with a tray at hand. On it was bananas, sliced apples, raspberries, nuts, oatmeal, water, and tea. She went back to her usual duties after I was done eating.

There were lots of issues I needed to deal with due to my new identity. One pressing matter was money. Yup, money matters in this materialistic society.

I opened the laptop that had been lying to the side of the bed since my great transmigration. That's right, and I'm calling this my own fictional, novel-like travel. I tried putting on my birthdate as the password and voila! It unlocked. There would always be people who do this even when adequately instructed not to avoid hacking.

There were multiple photos of this body by herself, with her family, and even with her friends and a few acquaintances. I checked her video file and started to watch them. There were clips of her first walk, first word, and other things her parents decided to film. Her birthdays were filmed, her graduation was also shot, and she filmed herself going to her first day of work.

In this way, I managed to get a good picture of her personal history.

Continuing on, there were also work-related files saved. This laptop was a good start. I scanned through to learn a few things. Then, I looked at Iris personal email. And yes! Bank statement. There was also a link for online banking with an option to change the pin.

In the blink of an eye, I've changed them. She has two savings cards, one foreign account, and credit cards from different banks. All were changed. To be safe, I wrote it down in this body's diary.

Feeling triumphant over my little accomplishment, I decided to tackle a new task: familiarizing myself in my own home.

As if acting on cue, I walked out of my room and had my right hand feeling the walls. In my staged play, if someone asks me what am I doing, I'll say 'sorry, I did not put on my contacts, blah blah.'

But the reality is sometimes different from a predicted scene. Just now, when I was going down the stairs, a maid that I saw for the first time told me, "Then put on your glasses, Miss. It'd be bad if you injure yourself." But underneath her tone was the sentence, 'Then it will become our fault.'

"Oh, that. I broke it." LAME! Yes, lame.

"All? All four of them?" She asked on impulse.

"No, just one. It's okay. I'm resting my eyes from the dryness brought on by contact lenses. Anyway, you're here. You won't let me get injured, right?" I demanded then continued my thing. She quietly followed behind me.

By this time, I did not bother to think about their perception of me. So what if I am a little different than the real Iris Lin? I am occupying her body so if they even do a DNA test, and the result will say I am the genuine one.

There's also this body's status as their employer. An heiress. A level higher than their social standing.

Though the maid was a little impolite with her tone, she answered all the little things I threw at her. Such as how many years she has been working here, does she find me harsh, what time do my parents come home, how is her family, why haven't I seen her yesterday, and other things.

From her own words, I was never the harsh type, but more of the gentle, kind, and optimistic nature. A vast contrast to my true pessimistic soul. Nevertheless, one can always assume another persona when dealing with specific life events.

...

At three o'clock in the afternoon, I've arrived at the hospital for my scheduled check-up. During my search, I came across this body's timetable. Iris Lin of this place has an appointment for the ENT, ophthalmologist, and an audiologist.

The moment I stepped inside, the nurse had already informed the doctor of my arrival, so it did not take long before the doctor called me in.

The first person I met was the ENT doctor, who checked on my overall well-being. The old guy was very enthusiastic about chatting. I only asked a few things, and he had already given me all of my medical histories under him.

For the ophthalmologist, I somehow managed to fool him into keeping the grade for my glasses the same. During the consultation, he was distracted by a phone call, and the moment he turned away, I somehow managed to memorize the eye chart. When we were doing the test with the contacts on, he was satisfied with how I responded.

My biggest worry was meeting the audiologist. I was never acquainted with one in my own 'body', so I did not know what to expect. I can somehow make up stories based on what I heard from my new body's medical history, but what if it involves a hearing test? How do I act?

Thankfully, the guy had an emergency, and someone had to fill in for him. The middle-aged man asked a few things before asking me for my hearing aid. My two thoughts were 'What for?' And 'Do I have to undergo some sort of test?'. My hand felt sweaty just imagining the situation.

When he said it was for reprogramming, I felt relieved as I thought it would only include computers and other devices. But I was wrong, he also needed to have it tuned, and it equaled to me undergoing a hearing test.

I racked my brains to get out of the situation. I toughened a little bit and argued that my hearing was okay. The doctor only needed to keep it the same. After a few sighs from him, he gave up. Murmuring "Fine, it's your money anyway," he even added, "Don't you dare look for me if you have problems with it later."After he was done, he gave back the hearing aid with a new cleaning kit and batteries.

Man, what a day.

Now that I'm in her shoes, this Iris Lin's life is a bit depressing. In this life, she is born with hearing loss that started off mild before becoming more severe. She had to learn sign language as another form of communication, but she seldom uses it. I get it as even the most optimistic people have their disappointments.

Teenage years are when most people develop their personality, and it would also double their sensitivity. To find out that she was also having eye problems at 11-years old must have shocked her on top of her hearing loss. Then, to have done surgery but somewhere along the line having it recurred is depressing.

But the most heartbreaking part?

Me having to pretend to have those medical conditions when I am perfectly healthy.