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You stare blankly at the phone on your lap, a wistful sigh leaving you as you wonder about what to do next. You've cleared most of the game already, having at least finished all the Good Ends, After Ends, and Secret Ends. But now what? You suppose you could play the game all over again, but you've already done that at least six times already. You were starting to get a bit tired of the repeated chats at odd hours, but at the same time, you didn't want it to end.
You lie flat on your back, holding your phone above you as you scroll through Zen's photo album. In all honesty, you can't help but blame Cheritz for making such a perfectly imperfect character and raising your standards to ridiculous heights. Another heavy sigh slips past you, going to close the game and get some much-needed sleep when a notification box pops up on the screen.
"NEW CONTENT HAS BEEN ADDED"
Your eyes light up instantly. You don't remember there being an announcement by Cheritz on any of their social media about any updates, but you don't really pay it any mind, only excited to play some new content. You go to click on the download button, but instead of the usual screen, you're brought to what looks like a form to fill out.
"PLEASE ENTER YOUR AGE"
Curious, you do as the screen prompts you to before the screen changes again. The hourglass icon pops up, and beside it is a number which you note with vague amusement is the same number as your age. The number then goes through a scrolling animation before stopping at a completely new number now, much higher than before. New text appears on the screen, and it seems to be explaining the purpose of the number.
"THIS IS THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF HOURGLASSES YOU CAN CONSUME.
HOW MANY HOURGLASSES WILL YOU LIKE TO CONSUME TO DOWNLOAD THE NEW CONTENT?
(NOTE: THE MORE HOURGLASSES YOU CONSUME, THE MORE ADDITIONAL CONTENT THERE WILL BE)"
Well, this was interesting. This is the first time Cheritz was letting the players choose how many hourglasses to use. Though you did find it a nice change of pace, it also felt a bit strange. Well, since you had no idea what was included in the additional content and wanting to save as many hourglasses as possible for other possible additional downloads in the future, you decided to input the number ten for now. You were about to confirm when the screen glitched, and new text appeared.
"$¥!'% $¥ £%!!"
You tapped repeatedly on the screen of your device, trying to will the message away. As much as you loved Cheritz's game, they did still have quite a few bugs to fix up, especially whenever new content was added.
"£%'# @ %=@₩!! _¥€ ×£)) $£÷!!"
The screen then turned black, and for a second, you thought that the app crashed on you, but then it went back to normal, the confirmation screen still there. Not thinking much of the weird bugs, you confirm your choice and press the download button.
"UPLOADING CONTENT..."
You're confused as to why it says "uploading" rather than "downloading", but you suddenly start to feel very sleepy. You try to keep your eyes open, wanting to see just what this new content was, but the closer it reached 100%, the heavier your eyelids started to feel. Unfortunately, you end up falling asleep the moment the download was completed.
You feel somebody or something poking insistently at your cheek, and you scrunch your face, still barely on the cusp of consciousness and sleep, and right now, you wanted to continue sleeping. You bury yourself underneath the covers, and you vaguely hear a familiar-sounding voice chuckle in your ear. You wave it off as you dreaming since you were living alone and there was no way somebody could be in your room, but then you feel warm lips press upon your cheek, and your eyes snap open.
Your vision catches a flash of white as you scramble out of your bed, falling onto the floor with a resounding thud, but you ignore the pain and quickly grab hold of the nearest blunt object to use as a weapon. Your heart hammers against your chest as you prepare to either fight or flee, but you freeze the moment red eyes meet yours. Red eyes, white and long hair, perfect features...
"Zen?" You ask yourself, wondering if you were still dreaming, and you let your guard down.
"Good morning, princess," the man before you speaks in what you know by now to be Korean, and you can see text hovering in the air as he speaks, acting as subtitles. You try to reach out and touch the hovering words, but they have no physical form. You bring your attention to the male in front of you and wonder if he was actually tangible himself. Your arm tentatively reaches out, hesitant, and the young man tilts his head in confusion before lifting his own hand and pressing his palm against yours. He was warm, and you immediately and fearfully retract your hand which causes the young man's expression to become pained.
"What the fuck...?" Your confusion makes itself obvious in the words that leave your lips, and your eyebrows stitch together. Just then, you hear a familiar chime ringing in your head before words appear in front of you again.
"UPLOAD SUCCESSFUL"
You don't understand a single thing that's going on right now, and you go to rub your eyes to make sure you weren't just seeing things when something catches your attention. You bring your gaze down to look at the inner wrist of your right hand. On it was the hourglass icon etched in ink with the number ten beside it.
What was going on? Why was Zen—or maybe it was just a man who looked like Zen—in your room? What did those words that appeared mean? What purpose does the hourglass marking and number on your wrist have?
The questions are absolutely endless, and they circle on and on in your mind that it makes you dizzy. You feel lightheaded and faint, the world around you spinning as you pass out and go crashing towards the floor.
Zen was quick to react, however. He quickly caught your form before you could make impact with the floor. The actor holds you close, stroking your head as a storm of emotions rage behind his eyes. He softly kisses you on the crown of your head, apologizing. The young man looks down at his own wrist, a small golden diamond-shaped chain around it which seemed to glow. He follows the trail of where it's connected, finding that it somehow seems to trail inside your body, almost as though it was magic. From you previous reactions, it seemed that the chain itself was invisible to you.
Zen carefully lifts you up from your floor and places you back on your bed. He isn't familiar at all with your room, and he feels awkward and out of place, but he knows that you must be even more confused with the whole situation. Even he himself isn't fully aware of what was going on, but he did know a few things that you yourself don't.
The actor sits down on your bed and gazes down at you. He thinks idly to himself that this is how you really look like. It's kind of strange to him, not quite used to it, but he isn't off-put by your appearance either. The young man leans down to place another kiss on your cheek.
"I won't let you die," he quietly murmurs in your ears, but you don't catch it at all, completely unconscious. "I promise I'll keep you safe."
