Moment

"…Huh?"

Paris Hilton’s finger froze in midair.

The strange notification that had popped up just as she was about to share a photo had stopped her cold.

Britney Spears, sitting beside her, caught the hesitation and asked, "What’s wrong, Paris? Did something happen?"

"No, not exactly."

Paris held up her iPhone. "Look at this. Apparently, on this thing called Moment, you can upload the original file without any loss in quality."

"The original?"

Britney checked her own iPhone too.

She’d been about to upload the photo she’d just taken with Clear Cam to Facebook.

And to her surprise, when she reached for the share button, the same kind of notification had appeared.

"Huh? I got one too! There’s a link, but… is it okay to just tap it?"

"It came from Clear Cam, so it should be fine, right?"

Half curious and half suspicious, Paris tapped the notification.

The screen changed, and the familiar Apple Store page opened.

[Moment — Record your beautiful moments.]

As Paris checked the app out, her eyes widened slightly.

There was a silver mark above the download button, one she had never seen on any other app before.

[Officially certified by Apple]

"Look at this, Brit. It says Apple certified it."

"Apple certified? What’s that supposed to mean?"

"No idea. I’ve never seen a badge like this before."

Paris bit her lip as if thinking it over, then shrugged.

"Well, if Apple certified it, it can’t be some weird app."

"Right? I’m downloading it too. I was honestly getting sick of Facebook’s terrible photo quality."

The two of them tapped Install without hesitation.

[Downloading…….]

Before long, the app had finished downloading.

Its icon was simple yet stylish, shaped like a camera lens.

When they launched it, a clean login screen appeared.

[Log in with FreeChat!]

"It logs in straight through FreeChat?"

"That’s convenient. No need to make a new ID."

The moment they hit the button, the screen shifted again.

Then came the first page.

Paris and Britney let out small gasps at the same time.

"Wow……."

"Oh……!"

It felt completely different from Facebook or Twitter.

If Facebook was all white space and blue accents, built around delivering information, Moment was wrapped in a deep, elegant, pitch-black background.

Against that dark backdrop, a single photo filled the entire screen.

"There’s almost no text……."

The writing had been reduced to a minimum, leaving the image itself as the star.

Hypnotized, Paris swiped her thumb down the screen.

Whoosh.

With a smooth scroll, the next photo appeared.

A rain-soaked street in New York.

A puddle reflecting neon signs.

A jazz singer rendered in black and white.

They were "recommended posts" from people they didn’t even know, but every one of them looked good enough to be printed as a postcard.

"These photos feel so good. They’re, like… really emotional."

"Yeah, right? They look like something out of a magazine."

Maybe it was because of the black background, but the colors felt sharper, richer, deeper.

While Paris was lost in the photos, a soft notification box appeared at the center of the screen.

[You haven’t posted a photo yet!]

[On Moment, we’ll edit your moments into their most beautiful form. Start now.]

[Press the "+" button below, and the magic begins immediately!]

"Oh, right. We were supposed to upload our photos."

Coming to her senses, Paris tapped the "+" button at the bottom of the screen.

Her album opened, revealing the photos she’d taken with Clear Cam earlier.

[You can upload up to 10 photos at once.]

"Whoa, ten? Facebook lags like crazy if you post too many at once."

Paris, together with Britney, selected the best shots without hesitation.

When she hit Next, the app moved to an editing screen.

[Select Filter]

Five round filter icons appeared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠along the bottom of the screen.

Auto, Noir, Vivid, Vintage, Pastel.

The layout was simple and intuitive, with no complicated settings to mess with.

"A filter? Like, the kind I know? Let’s see…."

Without thinking much of it, Paris tapped the first filter, Noir.

At that instant—

Flash.

The club photo on-screen, a little too glossy and lit a bit too chaotically, changed in a heartbeat.

The colors settled into a calm balance, and a heavy, cinematic mood sank over the image as if it had been pulled straight out of a film.

Her skin had turned smooth as porcelain, and the shine in her eyes had come alive.

"What is this?! This is insane!"

"Exactly! It looks like a professional photographer retouched it!"

"Look at mine! I tapped Vivid, and the colors are insane! Look at the champagne popping!"

The two of them jabbed their screens toward each other, bouncing on the spot.

This wasn’t just editing. It was magic that turned an ordinary snapshot into a work of art.

"Amazing, amazing. I’m posting this. Right now."

Paris chose her favorite filter and hit Share.

The loading bar flashed by, and the upload was finished almost immediately.

"That fast? Facebook takes forever and just spins in circles when you upload a photo."

She eyed the uploaded post suspiciously.

And once again, she was left speechless.

Even when enlarged, it stayed perfectly sharp. The mood of the filter remained intact, and not a single pixel had broken apart.

Britney couldn’t believe it either and asked Paris, still staring at the screen, "……Paris? Is the photo just looking good because it’s my phone? Want me to look it up on my account?"

"Wait a sec…… found it! Wow, no, it’s real. It looks perfect on my phone too!"

"This is insane……."

Then a new notification appeared at the top of the screen.

[You can also share Moment photos on Facebook and Twitter!]

"It says we can share to Facebook too. And Twitter?"

"Really? Then let’s do it right away! Our fans are all over there."

Paris and Britney followed each other, then tapped Share to Facebook and Twitter without a second thought.

The screen automatically switched, and the Facebook app’s post composer opened.

The photo they’d just uploaded to Moment was already attached as a preview.

The Moment link was in there too.

That part was fine, but…

"……Ugh."

Paris frowned.

Only a short while ago, she’d thought Facebook was "not bad, at least," but after seeing Moment, its image quality had become almost unbearable.

"……Look at that quality. The colors are dead."

"After seeing Moment, this is hard to look at. What is this, a 90s TV?"

Paris rested her hand over the post button and hesitated.

Should I really upload my photos in this quality?

But for the moment, she had news to send to her fans.

Since she loved SNS, she couldn’t resist.

……I guess I should post it anyway? I still have to brag that Kim Kardashian couldn’t come.

She started typing.

[Today’s wild party with Britney! Kim was invited but couldn’t make it, nyah-nyah! We have to hang out together next time! :D]

She’d written something cheerful, but the more she typed, the more it bothered her.

The photo looked so blurry.

Her perfect beauty being ruined by Facebook’s awful quality kept getting on her nerves.

……It keeps comparing itself to Moment.

In the end, Paris added one more line.

[P.S. Facebook’s quality is seriously trash. If you want to see my real beauty, come to Moment. The original’s there.]

And of course, she didn’t forget the hashtags.

#Moment #MyPhotoOnMoment #Paris #FollowMeToMoment

Paris had used "Moment" as her very first hashtag.

She had no idea how massive the fallout would be.

[Post]

The moment the upload was done, notifications began blaring nonstop.

─ Unnie, your dress today is insane! You’re so pretty!

─ Kim Kardashian just took an unexplained L lol

─ Paris and Kim must really be close

─ Our Paris would never treat a friend badly

─ Britney’s here too!!

And with those comments, a little while later—

Paris’s iPhone started vibrating.

Buzz— buzz— buzz—!

[Jessica followed you on Moment!]

[Tom Ford followed you on Moment!]

[Lovely followed you on Moment!]

Follow notifications poured in.

The follower count on her profile rolled upward in real time.

100…… 500…… 800……

"Brit! How many followers do you have? I just passed 1,000 in no time!"

"Me too! I hit 1,200 just now! People are flooding in like crazy."

Paris’s heart raced.

Of course, compared to her Facebook and Twitter followings, 1,000 was a tiny number.

But it felt different.

It was the same electric rush she’d felt on the day she first debuted and stepped into the spotlight, or back when she’d first started using SNS and spent the whole night buzzing over people’s reactions.

"We don’t have time to just sit here. We should greet our followers."

"Right! Let’s take a commemorative photo!"

Even though Moment was a brand-new SNS, the two of them had been celebrities from birth, so they knew instinctively what fans liked.

Paris and Britney pressed close together, almost cheek to cheek as if they might kiss, and took a photo.

Click!

They made goofy faces and flashed peace signs for the camera.

Once the filter was applied, the photo turned into something that looked straight out of a fashion spread, and the upload finished just as quickly.

Title: [We Hit 1,000 Followers! Thank You, Everyone! Love You! XOXO]

While they were checking each other’s phones and snickering over the post, Paris laughed and said, "Hold on, Paris. Look at the number again."

"Huh? Why?"

"There’s another zero on it already."

Paris hurriedly refreshed the page.

Follower count: 10,482

"……We just passed 1,000 a second ago, and now we’ve passed 10,000?"

"I don’t know! Let’s take another photo to celebrate hitting 10,000!"

"Good! This time, let’s do ridiculous faces!"

Click!

Click!

Title: [Correction! Not 1,000, 10,000! You guys are seriously fast!]

The two of them were instantly, completely hooked on this new playground called Moment.

Then a new notification window popped up on the screen.

[Wouldn’t it be a shame to enjoy this all by yourself?]

[Invite your FreeChat friends to Moment. Share your daily life.]

Normally, it would’ve been the kind of annoying ad she’d close without thinking.

But right now, Paris Hilton saw it differently.

A conquest fever rose in her chest—an urge to drag all her drab Facebook friends into this cool, sleek, crystal-clear playground.

More than anything, she wanted the satisfaction of knowing, I was the first one among my friends to discover this app.

This app is going to be the next big thing, for sure!

And Paris Hilton could not miss her chance to stand at the front of that trend.

"Brit, let’s invite them to Moment."

"Who?"

"Who do you think? Everyone, obviously!"

Smiling, Paris opened her contacts list.

The names of Hollywood and America’s biggest actors, singers, models, and second-generation chaebols spilled down the screen.

"Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Beyoncé…… oh, I should invite Lindsay Lohan too."

"Whoa! You’re friends with Lindsay Lohan too? I’m such a huge fan!"

"I’m not friends with anyone I’m not close to. I’m Paris."

With that exchange, the two of them’s fingers flew nonstop.

That night, a flood of sudden invitations began pouring into Hollywood stars’ FreeChats.

[Paris Hilton invited you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to Moment!]

[Britney Spears invited you to Moment!]

From the fingertips of the two party queens, a massive SNS migration had begun.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Meanwhile, at the same time.

In a quiet residential neighborhood in Texas, a perfectly ordinary high school girl named Lana was lying face-down on her bed, buried under a blanket.

Her thumb was gliding over her phone screen as if spellbound.

"Whoa…… this is insane. Seriously."

The screen was packed with photos of her idol, Britney Spears, at a party.

It was on a completely different level from the paparazzi shots and crappy Facebook photos she’d usually seen.

Champagne, dresses, flawless skin texture, and a cinematic atmosphere all shone clearly against the black background.

"Britney unnie really is a goddess……?"

Lana had also downloaded Moment under the pull of the party queen.

Of course, she hadn’t received a personal invitation; she’d found the link on Facebook and came in that way.

She lost track of time looking at her idol’s photos, then checked the gallery on her iPhone.

There, she saw herself: an utterly ordinary teenage girl who wanted to be like Britney, but wasn’t nearly that pretty.

"Haa…… I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠guess I can’t compare."

She felt down for no reason.

Will I ever have a moment that shines like that?

She sighed and rolled over to stare out the window.

……

In the bluish air of three in the morning, a bright, round moon hung overhead.

The view outside, blending with the glow of the streetlights, carried a strangely different mood from usual.

……It’s pretty.

Under normal circumstances, she would have just thought, It’s the moon, and gone back to sleep.

But the photos she’d just seen on Moment were still lodged in her mind.

She had downloaded the app to look at Britney Spears’s photos, but she’d also seen plenty of other atmospheric images.

Maybe… I should take a photo too?

It was a new SNS. It didn’t seem like only celebrities were posting photos. There were quite a few people uploading shots of ordinary scenery and everyday moments too.

Carefully, she picked up her iPhone.

She opened the camera, but she didn’t have the courage to take a photo of her own face.

Just… capture the mood.

Under the moonlight slipping through the crack in the window, she stretched out her hand.

The wrinkled folds of her bedsheet, her slender fingers reaching across them, and the pale moon outside.

Click.

The photo was ordinary. No—slightly dark and dreary.

It had a certain mood to it, but it wasn’t as polished or glamorous as the pictures other people were posting.

Still, posting a photo should be fine… right?

Just as Lana, summoning what little courage she had, was about to upload the photo to Moment—

A notification popped up in the app.

[Is your photo a little dark? Try using a filter!]

"A filter?"

Almost unconsciously, she tapped the recommended Vintage filter.

At that moment—

"……Whoa."

The gloomy darkness transformed into "the stillness of dawn."

Moonlight was sharpened in cool blue tones, and the light gathered at her fingertips came alive like a movie poster.

This wasn’t just a "hand photo."

It was pure dawn mood.

"This is… something I took?"

Her heart pounded.

It was so beautiful. Beautiful enough to feel wasteful keeping to herself.

With trembling hands, she pressed Next.

[If you want to share it with more people, try using a hashtag (#)!]

Hashtag? Like the ones on Twitter?

After a moment’s thought, Lana simply wrote down exactly how she felt and what kind of moment she was in.

She couldn’t think of anything fancy.

#Dawn #Moonlight #PhotoOfJustMyHand #LoveBritney

Upload.

[Your post has been published.]

Her photo appeared on the black screen.

Right below Britney’s photo was her own.

She felt a little embarrassed.

……Wouldn’t someone laugh if they saw this?

And yet, at the same time, warmth welled up in her chest.

The fact that even her boring everyday life could become a beautiful "moment" like this left her with a strange feeling.

"Whatever, I’m going to sleep."

Lana set her phone beside her pillow and closed her eyes.

She wondered if she’d been fooled by the dawn mood into posting a photo for no reason.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

The next morning.

[Good moooorniiiing~ ba ba ba ba~!]

Woken by the alarm, Lana fumbled for her smartphone, barely opening her eyes long enough to shut it off.

"Mm……."

Still half asleep, she looked at the screen.

[Notification: 524 people on Moment like your photo.]

[Notification: 172 people on Moment followed you.]

"……What?! "

She was instantly wide awake.

Five hundred people liked my photo? ……There aren’t even twenty school friends I know.

She hurriedly opened the app.

There were comments on her photo too.

─ Wow, the mood is insane.

─ What filter did you use? It’s so pretty.

─ Can I use the same hashtag too?

─ I’ll follow you!

"What is this…?"

It wasn’t a dream.

People she didn’t even know were looking at the hand photo she’d taken in her room and telling her it was beautiful.

With trembling fingers, she tapped the hashtag ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on her photo.

#PhotoOfJustMyHand

The search results came up.

But her photo wasn’t the only one.

Dozens of "hand photos" were pouring down the screen like a waterfall.

Someone had photographed a hand holding a coffee cup, someone else a hand turning a page, someone else a hand reaching up toward the sky.

People were following the exact same hashtag and posting photos of their own hands.

"Wow……."

Lana scrolled on, stunned.

So pretty. They were all so pretty.

Just ordinary moments, yet through Moment’s filters, each one had become a work of art.

……I want to post another photo.

It was the kind of thought that had now taken root in her mind.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

The weekend passed, and Monday afternoon came.

After school ended, I was in my studio apartment eating cup ramen.

Slurp.

"Whoa… this is good."

Maybe because it had been a while since I last had it.

It tasted absurdly good.

Even though I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol, it felt like I was clearing a hangover.

Slurp.

I drank the broth and stared at my laptop screen.

The numbers on it were refreshing so fast it looked like they’d gone insane.

Just three days.

It was a miraculous number for the weekend alone.

“Master’s marketing strategy hit perfectly.”

I nodded.

“Exactly. And then ordinary users flooded in right behind those celebrities.”

The urge to take photos and show them off.

It was human nature.

Especially the desire to show off better-than-everyone-else me, or my emotional side—celebrities and ordinary people were no different there.

“The most important thing is that they’re promoting it on their own.”

I looked at the real-time trend hashtags displayed on one side of the laptop screen.

Just as I’d hoped, my Moment app was being promoted all over Facebook.

Still, it’s doing even better than I expected.

While I was grinning to myself over the ramen broth, Zero spoke again.

“Master, I have detected an unusual access log.”

An unusual access?

“Yes. It originates from the Facebook headquarters IP in Palo Alto, California, United States.”

Facebook headquarters IP, huh…….

They’re snooping around?

Had they already decided my app was a threat to them?