As Rowan sat in front of the work panel,
data filled his field of view.
He opened the task he had been working on.
Progress: 30%
Unstructured data filtering
Unstructured.
Not incorrect.
Not problematic.
Simply data
that did not fit
within predefined criteria.
Work that involved
sorting and organizing
those elements.
Rowan found himself thinking—
Then…
The videos, posts, and thoughts
floating around the internet—
were they also
being organized
under the label of unstructured?
The thought didn’t go far.
It was dismissed first
as idle thinking.
From the start,
this wasn’t a job about meaning,
but about arrangement.
He didn’t hold onto the thought.
And as if nothing had happened,
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he continued working.
After work.
The apartment was filled
with its usual sounds.
Distant street noise.
The faint hum of the refrigerator.
The steady airflow from the vent.
Sounds that were always there.
But today,
they felt like they arrived
a beat late.
Rowan stood still
and listened.
It wasn’t tinnitus.
He wasn’t tired.
He went into the kitchen
and drank a glass of water.
The cold liquid slid down his throat,
but the refreshment
followed a moment later.
Something feels off today.
That was how he tried
to wrap it up.
A method he had always used.
But then—
a faint vibration
passed through his chest.
Not pain.
Not anxiety.
Just a bodily response
saying
this conclusion isn’t right.
“…What am I doing?”
Rowan shook his head.
After showering,
he stood in front of the mirror.
A familiar face.
So familiar that
the only strange thing was
not knowing
where this feeling came from.
He lay down.
Even with his eyes closed,
his thoughts didn’t disappear.
The same daily routine.
The same work.
He had long convinced himself
that these thoughts were meaningless.
That this was stability.
That this was happiness.
But today—
those words felt hollow.
In this society,
anxiety is something to be managed.
Anger is something to be released.
Sadness is something to be treated.
But this emptiness
didn’t fall into any category.
Without thinking,
he turned on his phone.
Auto-recommended videos.
Trending clips.
Stress relief — BEST.
Scenes that would normally
have drawn a response.
Today,
nothing stirred.
…Why?
Rowan turned off the screen
and looked at his own reflection.
His expression was the same as always.
And yet,
it felt like his emotions
were sitting
outside the frame.
The world was trying
to make him feel good,
but he couldn’t quite reach it.
For the first time,
Rowan arrived at this question.
Was this emotion uncomfortable
because it was a problem—
or did it look like a problem
because it was uncomfortable?
That night,
Rowan didn’t fall into deep sleep.
But he didn’t lose track
of where his emotions were, either.
begin to slip
ever so slightly.
is not confusion,
but something closer
to an error.
we quietly observe
whether this misalignment
belongs only to Rowan—
to surface
in other corners
of everyday life.