It was a school night, and I was eating my dinner when I suddenly felt like I was going to vomit and black out. After drinking some water, I felt a bit better, so I quickly went to bed, hoping I would wake up feeling refreshed.
When I woke up, I realized I could smell everything—as if I were a dog that had been trained since it was a puppy. I could smell flowers from two hundred meters away; the chicken my mom had cooked the night before was still “on my nose,” and it made my mouth water. I quickly ran to my mom and explained everything that had happened to me.
She told me there was a new virus that made everyone “super” at something. This virus had affected everyone’s sense of smell, so we could now smell twice as well as before.
It has been five years since the virus first arrived. Every year since, the world’s sense of smell has only gotten sharper. I am calm now that I can identify exactly what we are eating from the comfort of my room or enjoy the scent of distant flowers. However, the worst part is being at home or in a crowded place with many people—you can smell the toilets from everywhere.