The auntie from before was back. Desperately, Chloe looked around, trying to find a colleague, preferably a more senior one, that she could hand the auntie to. But there was no one, just her and the auntie in a wide-open space.

"My husband?" the Auntie kept repeating.

"Please don't say that," Chloe begged, "I really don't know what happened to him."

Suddenly, she heard a deep voice from behind. "Tell my wife she's my CPF nominee." It was the Infected from before.

"Oh. My. Tian," Chloe screamed. "If you're going to infect someone, don't infect me"

The Infected and the auntie looked at each other before turning to Chloe. Their jaws dropped to the ground and their skin started peeling off as they intoned: "I don't follow you."

Chloe woke with a scream. She hadn't had a nightmare like that in weeks, not since the last shock. She looked at the clock: 8:05.

Shit, she was late.

She quickly scrambled out of bed and started getting ready for her internship. By 8:20, Chloe had prepared breakfast for her parents and placed it outside their bedroom door. She rushed out of the house just in time to catch the 8:30 bus.

ThatGirlChloe: Thank Tian you can pre-book seats on the bus. Anyone else oversleep today? #Humpday

(posted: 2 minutes ago. 4 likes, 2 replies)

It was so weird that she had that dream. And that last line, Chloe shuddered just thinking of it, how could it be that people knew her but didn't follow her? Following someone was the best way to keep up with people; you even hate-followed your enemies just so you could gossip about them. Sure, there were a few luddites who didn't go online or used only finstas to "be themselves", but even aunties and uncles nowadays were online. There were auntie influencers, for tian's sake, that showed them the best way to haggle electronically with the online hawkers.

By the time she reached the office, Chloe had checked and rechecked all two-thousand of her followers but had not been able to find the identity of the auntie. The lady yesterday was so plain and haggard, different from the interesting people with dramatic make-up that lived on her phone. Still, Chloe scrutinised every account, liking relevant photos to train her algorithm, trying to figure out who was the one who approached her last night. There was no way this lady was a gull that only lurked and never followed. No one was a gull!

"Chloe! What's wrong? Yesterday's incident xia si ni ah?" Lily, her fellow intern approached her as soon as she passed the health screening station. "You never reply my message wor."

"I wasn't scared," Chloe said. "I've faced plenty of Infected."

"I mean afterwards lah," Lily said.

"You were there when the auntie started yelling? Why you never help?" Chloe felt a bit upset. Lily was such a busybody but the one time she needed backup, Lily decided to stay away?

"She got come ah? I'm talking about another thing leh."

Chloe shook her head. "What are you talking about?"

"Aiyoh, you so suay. This is the first interview that you do by yourself right? Lucky something like this never happened to me."

"What is it, Lily?" Chloe asked. "If you want to say, just say."

Lily smiled and leaned in conspiratorially. Chloe also leaned forward and was ready to hear the gossip when Lily abruptly straightened and put on her brightest smile.

"Good morning, Mr Khoo," Lily said, all traces of Singlish gone from her voice. "I was just updating Chloe about the terrible incident that happened yesterday."

"Yeah lah, yeah lah, your England very powderful," Mr Khoo, more comfortable with Chinese than English, said sourly. All the interns switched to their best English whenever they were speaking with him, their way of evening the field a little. "I want to see you later, alone. We need to discuss your future here."

Lily's face paled instantly.

"Oh... okay," she said. "I guess I better go now. See you later, Chloe." She quickly fled towards the offices, leaving Chloe to silently curse at her. You can't just mention gossip and leave!

"I guess I should get ready for work," Chloe said, taking small steps away from Mr. Khoo. "I'll see you later."

"Stop!" Mr Khoo said. "Do you know what happened yesterday after you went home?"

"I don't like to follow the news," Chloe said. "I just wait for the government to update me on the messaging app."

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"The uninfected wife of the Infected you interviewed jumped from her HDB," Mr Khoo said. "And she left behind a video message saying that she jumped because you didn't have information about her husband and that was typical of the Bank as unhelpful. So xia suay! Four thousand shares leh!"

"That's awful," Chloe said, her eyes widening. "But she didn't have any clearance for information!"

"You should have made sure she wouldn't jump mah. Just lie to her or something and then tell your boss," Mr Khoo said. "Aren't you the one that's supposed to be some Influencer? How did you not see this coming?"

"I didn't think that—"

"That is the problem, you didn't think. We have to make sure that the positive press about the Bank buries the negative press that's sure to arise from here. Later you go to HR, they will tell you what to do. You better do what the professionals say or we won't convert you to a full-time job."

Chloe nodded meekly and quickly made her to the closest restroom. The auntie was dead? No one killed themselves these days. If you wanted to die legally, you just went and found an Infected to give you the disease. Suicide attempts were illegal and more importantly, had the risk of landing you in jail if you failed at it. Why would she do something like that, and why would she blame the bank? It wasn't Chloe's fault that her husband was infected.

The rest of the day was a blur. Chloe had made her way to HR, where they laid out a detailed campaign for Chloe to tearfully apologise and then repeatedly extoll the merits of the Bank, tagline "We Care".

"Remember," Mrs Ong, the HR manager said, "You have to look genuine. If you have the guts to submit a partnership request with us while applying for an internship, you better not mess up this. If it wouldn't threaten our government grant, we would cancel your internship immediately. You better give us one hundred and fifty percent for the rest of your time here or you can forget about getting a job."

******

One Month Ago

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"Girl, help me set the table!" her mother called from the kitchen.

"Now?" Chloe groaned. She was so close to the perfect caption, she could just feel it.

"No, wait for the maid. Coming any day now. Of course now lah!"

Chloe sighed and clicked save on her caption draft. It was so unfair, her other influencer friends had supportive parents and she had to live in an unphotogenic house. Grumpily, she walked into the kitchen room and pulled out the cutlery drawer. It opened with a bang as the china soup spoons rattled against each other.

"Can not so hard? Very hard to buy these nowadays you know."

"Sorry, sorry," Chloe said as she took out three sets of chopsticks and soup spoons. None of it was cute or picture-worthy, as usual. @AsianKitchen managed to make her bowls of soup and rice look nice, but somehow when Chloe took photos of her dinner, it looked homemade. And not in a relatable or aspirational way. Still, it was worth a story later on.

"Ma, any more spoons?"

"There!"

"Where?"

With a huff, her mother pointed to the rack above the sink. "There lah," she said. "If don't have, check the sink."

"Ma, your arm." There was a steaming kettle on the cramped kitchen top and her Ma's pointed arm was touching it.

"What?" Ma looked at herself. Immediately, she moved her pointed arm back and let go of the wok with her other arm. The flames rushed up the edge of the wok as it hit the stove with a dull metallic sound.

"Is it numb?" Chloe asked as she moved forward.

"Don't come close," Ma snapped. "Go to the living, put on your mask, and call your father. Call delivery for yourself as well."

She felt like she was watching someone else walk out of the kitchen and into the living room, where her father was watching TV. It was someone else who was talking.

"Pa, Ma want you to go to the kitchen."

"Aiyah you help your ma lah," her dad said absently, eyes on the television. "The Gahmen is about to announce the number of Infected for the day."

"She wants you," Chloe said. "I'll tell you how many new infections."

She watched her father stand up, grumbling slightly, and make his way into the kitchen. He was wearing his old army tank and shorts, his standard set of clothes that he changed in to every day when he came home. Chloe switched off the television and looked down at her phone.

Breaking: Local Personality XiaoGuo to get experimental protection device as part of MLabs Trial. "Yishun is too dangerous to live in otherwise"

"How can?" her father's voice floated from the kitchen, accompanied by her mother hushing him. Chloe walked closer so she could hear.

"You never go out leh. Only to the pasar."

"Could it be from your job? Or my job? I told you already, get those work and home type of job better."

"You think we so old people want to hire us to work at home ah? I get security guard job very good already."

"If you already kenna, what about me?"

There was silence, and then her mother called for her. Chloe moved herself into the kitchen.

"Girl, come and touch this," her pa said, gesturing to the kettle. There was a large burn mark on his arm but he didn't seem to feel the pain. Her mother had two burn marks now, one on each arm.

Chloe saw herself reach for the kettle, place one fingertip on the gleaming metal surface and jump back with a yelp. The pain shot through her body and brought her back.

"Pain," she said, rushing to the sink. "I'm okay."

"So Ah Girl is safe," her father said. "How ah, my CPF nominee is you leh, not her. Can change ornot?"

"I'm sure the Gahmen got answer," her mother said. "Wait, I call."

Her mother took her smartphone out from her pocket, but her fingers hovered over the dial screen.

"Dear, if the Gahmen takes us away, what happens to Ah Girl?"

Her father paused. "She's not yet eighteen, so the CPF money will not be available until then. She'll probably have to stay in one of the gahmen dorms until she's considered clean and then the banks can transfer our accounts to her."

"What if they don't let her out?" her mom said, fretfully. "You know lah, they're so paranoid. My friend says that her cousin's whole family was disappeared even though only the daughter was Infected."

"She can feel, she's fine. And your friend's family moved to Yishun lah. They don't want to stay near your friend and hear her nagging."

"Eh, she's older than you leh. Don't be so rude. And it's not just her cousin, she say her hairdresser's auntie's family also kenna taken after one family member get diagnosed. If you're not famous, they don't care one you know."

"Yeah, pah, you know all the companies only give Influencers the latest tech. That's why I always say need to support me to be famous."

"Aiyah why you two so lorsor? Girl, I tell you, you want to be famous for what? Gahmen already say once you find you're infected, just report. They will take care of the rest. Ah Girl is interning at a bank, what if she infects others?"

"Cannot, cannot. The more I think about it, what if Ah Girl was the one who caught it from the bank and pass to us? Then liddat she will die."

"If she caught it from the bank, she wouldn't feel the pain. And who say she will die. If she is not infected, she will be okay."

"But my friend say!"

"Enough lah!" Her father roared as he shook off her mother's arm. "I'm going to put some yoko on my skin. You don't want to report, you tell me what to do."

Chloe moved towards her mother, who quickly shrank back.

"Sorry, I won't go closer," Chloe whispered. "But if you guys go, will they really put me in a dorm? I'm almost eighteen."

Her mother sighed. "I don't know lah. I heard this, I hear that. Sometimes people say fake news, sometimes people say real news. Girl, you go on the internet, see if got any cure already. Dear, you don't call yet lah. Let ah girl ask the internet, I want to finish cooking."

"Better make sure it taste nice. Don't know how long until I don't want to eat," her father grumbled. "Cannot even get a good last meal."

******

"Idiot, idiot, idiot," Chloe muttered to herself as she let herself in and quickly bolted the door. She looked at the untouched breakfast on the floor and groaned.

[UrTwnCncl] Reminder: Do not leave food and drinks lying around! Apart from attracting mosquitoes (#saynotodenguewereinanapocolypse), they also attract zombies. We have received three complaints from residents in your neighbourhood. If we see any more food lying on the ground, we will check the CCTV. (are you happy Mr Ng?)

"I am so stupid," she said. She picked up the food and rapped on her parents' bedroom door before unlocking it. "I'm so sorry, Ma, Pa. I didn't realise I forgot to unlock the door today!"

The door shot open and her parents fell on the raw meat, ignoring the pile of ants that had gathered on the meat while Chloe was at work. She really should have washed the meat first, Chloe thought guiltily.

"Are you guys okay?"

Her father looked up and wiped his mouth. He was on his hands and knees, his figure gaunt and his skin grey. There were new scratches on his legs, and more worrying, one bite mark. Chloe looked away. She didn't want to see them like this.

"Your Ma was a bit hungry today. But she managed to control herself after a while, right lao po?"

Her mother looked up with a guilty expression. "I'm trying, girl, I'm trying. But you know lah, I kena first. Then give your father."

"It's okay," Chloe whispered. She cleared her throat and spoke up. "It's okay," she said, loud enough for her parents to hear. "I'm really close to finding someone who can do treatment for you. Won't let the gahmen take you away."

Her parents got up from their hands and knees and made their way back into the bedroom. "Lock the door," her father warned her as he closed it. Chloe rushed forward as soon as the door was shut and bolted it shut.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to the door. She stood there for as long as she could, until she could no longer ignore the messy plates on the floor. With a sigh, she picked up the plates and dumped them in the kitchen sink, returning to the living room so that she could scrub the floor clean. Totally not a moment she wanted to capture and remember publicly.

[UrTwnCncl] Reminder: Sincere apologies for the previous message, which was sent without approval. Please stay tuned for our official reminder.

By the time she finished, the sun had set. Chloe started her at-home beauty routine (sharing that got her 400 likes and 100 shares, the most ever!) and settled down to DM other, bigger, influencers. She wanted to reach LunaSenshi fame but that girl had almost one million followers. She was never going to reply to a small fish like Chloe until she was much, much bigger. But still, it couldn't hurt to try. 

A/N: Hi guys, I realise there's quite a lot of Singlish (Singaporean English) in this chapter, but I'm hoping it's still understandable! But if you find it confusing, let me know and I can add a glossary!