Chapter Text
This isn’t at all what she was expecting when she agreed to help try out the game.
From her position lying across the bed that has been provided to her, Eunbyeol stretches lazily, her phone held loosely in her hand. Other than her admittedly strange arrival, blindfolded and led entirely by the man who contacted her in the first place, she has no complaints for the service she’s received: excellent food and comfortable accommodations and, of course, a most interesting pastime. If nothing else, it’s a welcome break from her studies, that’s for certain.
Almost without meaning to, she swipes at her phone, opening up the app that is the game and watching as the main page loads. There’s nothing new but that’s not surprising, since her phone vibrates whenever there’s a new chatroom. Instead, she finds herself staring at the list of characters along the top of the page, each avatar a small headshot so realistic that she wonders vaguely whether Ray used photos of various people.
It’s been an interesting day, that’s for certain. Her eyes shift from one to the next, doing her best to commit them to memory. The black haired one in the suit with the serious expression, Jumin, a corporate leader and slow to trust but also slow to rescind it, if today is any indication. Zen, handsome and cheerful and quick to open up. She still doesn’t think she has a good understanding of the one who goes by 707 or how he fits the role of the hacker that he’s been written as, but Yoosung is much easier to read, with his frustrations toward the circumstances and apparent hero-worship of the deceased Rika. Beside him, the only woman, the secretary Jaehee, harried but still collected, as pragmatic and efficient as she is suspicious.
And finally… the character whose username is simply V, who is the leader of this little group and the former fiancee of the enigmatic Rika. A Jihyun Kim, if Zen is to be believed, and a man with many conflicting accounts on all sides. A man who is trusted by Zen and Jaehee, who has earned the seemingly undying loyalty of Jumin, who shares secrets only with the hacker, and yet who is practically loathed by Yoosung. A character who until only a few minutes earlier, had not shown up all day, but who was unerringly kind to her as soon as he did.
She idly taps at his profile, though she barely notes the simple profile picture or serene cover photo that load. Instead, she recalls their “conversation,” the words that illustrated depth and character and life experiences that she cannot begin to imagine, let alone determine how to program into a little messenger app game.
Honestly, she’s not sure if she’s ever met someone that nuanced, whose mind has intrigued her as much, in her life. And somehow, Ray has managed it with a character.
Almost unbidden, his words, comparing her exceptionally ordinary self to a gemstone, rise to the forefronts of her mind and she groans, tossing her phone beside her on the bed and burying her face in her hands and feeling her cheeks grow warmer under her fingers. This is ridiculous.
Shaking her head once, hard, to clear her thoughts, she gets to her feet. It’s already nearly one in the morning, which isn’t actually all that late for her, but given the fact that she has a break from late night studying, she might as well take advantage of it.
And yet her mind still wanders as she prepares for bed, darting about from observing her surroundings to admiring the stars in the night sky. And, she has to admit, if only to herself, back to V.
“He’s hurting, he’s just lost his loved one, you don’t know anything about him, and he’s not even real,” she mutters to herself as she slides under the covers. The fact that the words are sullen and his status as fictional ranks last on the list of reasons why her interest won’t lead to anything means that she should probably be rather concerned.
Or, at the very least, thankful that this is only an app game and one that, presumably, she’ll be done with as soon as the beta-testing ends, because this V character is beginning to pique her curiosity far more than he should.
And yet, in spite of her own misgivings, she can’t help but reach for her phone again, wondering when she’ll hear from him next.