Timelines
“Ahaha, Hanna, look, look!”
Sherry held her phone up to Hanna. It seemed that Ema had posted a video of Hiro petting a dog while smiling. In the comments was Hiro’s account demanding Ema to delete the video.
This wasn’t the first time Sherry had shared these posts with Hanna. They ranged from videos of their friends, random pictures of people online, and even at times photos of nonsense that Sherry had found funny. Sherry had made an account not too long ago but she already seemed to be an expert.
Despite Sherry’s insistence that Hanna make an account too, she refused as such meaningless posting and content was beneath someone like her. Instead she preferred to spend her time honing her craft. With needle in hand and cloth in the other, Hanna suppressed a smile at Ema and Hiro’s interaction and instead sighed.
“Don’t you think it’s embarrassing to post this for everyone to see?”
“Eh~” Sherry pouted, “but it’s fun! Look,” she scrolled down to another post, “we can even see what Coco and Miria are up to!”
Coco had made a post about restarting her streaming activities and even talked about having a new assistant to help her. Miria replied with a stream of emojis talking about how she was happy to help.
“H-Hm…” Hanna resumed fiddling with her needle. “Well, we could just message them ourselves. I don’t see the need to post this stuff online.”
“But it’s fun! Look!” Sherry scrolled again. “See how many likes my post got?”
“300?!” Hanna looked in disbelief. Sherry had posted a video of her crushing an apple with her bare hands. There was a comment from Ema commenting that Sherry shouldn’t bully apples like that.
“Yep!” Sherry said smugly. “Look how many people are praising me too!”
“O-oh I see…” Hanna replied dismissively.
“So that’s why you should make an account too Hanna! We can follow each other!”
“…” Hanna didn’t reply and resumed working on her project.
The sun was setting and Sherry was on her way back from work when she luckily managed to snag a seat on the train. Humming to herself, she pulled out her phone to message Hanna when she noticed a new notification.
“New Follower: @LadyNeedle”
Sherry cocked her head. She hadn’t made any posts lately, why would someone new follow her? She tapped on the notification to look at her new follower’s profile.
It was empty and the profile picture was still the default. They weren’t following anyone else and of course nobody was following them. Was this a bot account? Sherry pondered to herself. For now though, she was curious enough to follow them back. Who knows, maybe this is the start of a brand new mystery!
And moments later, she saw a picture on her timeline from @LadyNeedle. It was a picture of a needle and cloth, along with the default #NewProfilePicture. Sherry shrugged and put her phone away.
Suddenly though, she felt her phone vibrate. She pulled up her phone and noticed that @LadyNeedle had been going through her posts and liking… all of them. A flood of “Liked by @LadyNeedle” notifications came in and Sherry grew even more curious. Who was this account?
As she pondered the thought, she eventually ended up back at her shared apartment with Hanna.
“Hanna! Listen, listen!” She called out. “Someone started following me and liking all my old posts!”
A loud clang rang out. Sherry rushed through the hallway. “Hanna! Are you okay?!”
“Y-yes! Just dropped a pot that’s all!” Hanna replied, flustered. “H-h-how do you know that they liked all your posts?”
“I get a notification each time someone likes my posts!”
“E-e-each time?!” Hanna almost yelled.
“Yeah! That’s how I know they liked all of my posts!”
Hanna fell silent. “H-hm, I see…”
Over the next few days, Sherry noticed that @LadyNeedle has stopped liking her posts, but she had started posting more of her own. The posts varied from random flowers, animals, and occasionally some seemingly work in progress of embroidery and other various projects. Sherry gave them a like and even commented on some of the pictures but never got a response in return.
It made her even more curious as to who they were. Their posts never had any text so there was no writing style to deduct from. Sherry hemmed and hawed, and even brought them up with Hanna to see if Hanna had any ideas. She didn’t, though she seemed to want to change the topic each time Sherry brought it up. Hanna must really hate social media if she reacted like that.
Hanna did ask her a few questions every now and then. Mainly who exactly Sherry was seeing on her timeline. It was a mix obviously, though she did comment that @LadyNeedle was starting to show up more. The next day, Sherry would see even more random pictures from @LadyNeedle on her timeline.
One day though, Sherry noticed something in one of @LadyNeedle’s posts. It looked like… no it couldn’t possibly be… but…
A picture that @LadyNeedle took looked eerily familiar. In fact, it looked almost exactly like the apartment building Sherry and Hanna had lived in. Could it be possible that @LadyNeedle was living in the same building as them?!
Sherry began to scan through some of @LadyNeedle’s old photos. There was no doubt about it. The background of her photos was definitely Sherry and Hanna’s neighborhood. It really might be the start of a brand new mystery!
A new post came in and Sherry opened it immediately. This time though, her heart dropped.
It was a picture of a finished embroidered piece. But Sherry recognized it. Yes, it was none other than the piece that Hanna had been working on for the past while. There could only be one meaning to this post.
@LadyNeedle has broken into their apartment.
Sherry ran, ran, and ran more. Hanna had the day off work today so she should’ve been in their apartment. But if she was there, and @LadyNeedle had taken that picture, then what could’ve happened to Hanna?!
She rushed up the stairs ignoring the slow elevator and tested the doorknob. Just as she feared, the door was unlocked. Throwing the door open, Sherry rushed inside hoping that Hanna was ok.
“Hanna!!” Sherry yelled. “Are you okay?!”
No response. Fearing the worst could happen Sherry rushed through the rooms checking for Hanna. She wasn’t there. Who was @LadyNeedle and what had she done to Hanna?!
The doorknob to their apartment started turning. Sherry whipped around. Had @LadyNeedle come back?
The door opened and Sherry leapt at them ready to confront and get the truth over what had happened to Hanna-
“Hanna?!” Sherry exclaimed in surprise. “You’re alright!”
Hanna almost fainted from surprise. “Sherry….!!! What are you doing?! I thought you had work today!”
“I did! But I thought something had happened to you so I rushed back?”
“And what could possibly have led you to that conclusion?!”
“Look!” Sherry pulled out her phone. “@LadyNeedle had made a post in our apartment with your embroidered cloth! Maybe they broke in while you weren’t home and- Hanna?”
Hanna let out a long sigh. “Are you really a detective?”
“Of course! That’s how I knew they were here!”
“You… IDIOT!” Hanna yelled. She pushed Sherry back into their apartment and closed the door. “How many posts could I have made and you STILL don’t get it?! Even Ema and Hiro figured it out before you!”
“Figured out what?”
“That I’m @LadyNeedle!!”
“…Huh?”
Hanna whipped out her phone and showed Sherry her account. She was indeed logged in as @LadyNeedle.
“B-but you always said you would never make an account so I-”
Hanna flushed red. “W-w-well that was before, and this is now!”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why make an account then?” Sherry asked quizzically.
“B-because…” Hanna stammered. “N-no reason! I just decided to make one!” Hanan looked to the side, unable to meet Sherry’s eyes.
The pieces slowly started clicking together.
“Aha! I got it!” Sherry exclaimed.
“Got what?”
“Hanna, Hanna!” Sherry patted her on the shoulder. “You could’ve just told me you were jealous!”
“Wha-”
“I’m sorry for looking at their posts, I wanted to share what everyone was doing with you since you didn’t have an account!”
“No that’s-”
“But it’s okay! Now you have an account so you can follow them too!”
Hanna’s cheeks had turned bright red. “How can you figure that out but be too dumb to know who @LadyNeedle was!”
“Ehehe~” Sherry smiled. “Because as soon as I knew it was you, it’s easy since I know everything about you!”
“You no delicacy having gorilla woman!”
“Eh, that’s rude! I wasn’t the one who hid my identity from you!” Sherry pouted.
Hanna hated that Sherry was right. Sighing and now that the two of them have regained their composure, Hanna made her way to the living room and flopped on the couch. Sherry quickly joined her.
“…What are you doing?” Hanna asked as Sherry grabbed Hanna’s phone.
“I’m taking a new profile picture for us! No more hiding your identity!”
“Huh?”
After a distinctive snap, Sherry took out her own phone and took another picture before Hanna had a chance to react.
“Look, now we can match!” Sherry proudly displayed her new profile picture of the two of them sitting next to each other.
“W-what are you doing!?”
“Hanna come on! We have to match! Look, I even tagged you!”
“Y-you…!!!”
Reluctantly, Hanna pulled up the app on her phone and changed the profile picture.
“Ehehe, I knew you’d like it!”
“I! Do! Not!”
“Yes you do! You’re smiling!”
Was she? Hanna looked at the reflection in her phone and indeed, she was. Damn it. She hated to admit it but the idea of matching profile pictures with Sherry did make her a bit happy. Just a bit!
A new notification popped up on her phone. @BrilliantDetectiveTachi had liked her new profile picture post.
As Hanna looked up at Sherry, Sherry leaned in and kissed Hanna much to her surprise. She wanted the world to know how great Hanna is, but she’ll keep this side of Hanna for herself.