Chapter Text
It’s Friday night, and the duties of the day have been finished while ago. You’re in front of your old computer, waiting it to turn on, but if felt like ages. While you’re waiting, you decided to watch carefully that CD box…it’s dusty and worn, same as the CD inside. The cover of the disc is full of scratches, so trying to read the videogame title is impossible, even the pink color from the sticker it’s almost gone. What a pity, you thought, still waiting for your PC to react, taking your patience away very quickly, but you thought that maybe is your fault for buying a mysterious CD with no idea of what’s inside of it.
Your weird journey with this unknown videogame started almost two weeks ago, when you were visiting these old forums of visual novels. It was embarrassing to admit, but you are a huge fan of dating simulators, even if you’re too used to them, with all their clichés and dull characters and worthless protagonists. It doesn’t matter to you at all, they were at least entertaining for your lonely nights, and some of them were truly enjoyable.
While exploring the sell and trade sections of one of your favorite forums, you found this weird, enigmatic offer of a user who sign as ´DD´. You can’t remember the message at all, and it was erased after you bought the CD, but as a summary, it said something like this:
"This is a dating simulator my dear daughter used to play a few years ago, but I don’t want this stupid game near my baby anymore. If you decided to buy this CD, take it under your own responsibility".
What a weird message it was, to say at least, but maybe it was just an old, outdated father worried about the obsession of his daughter about the game, after all, parents can think like that sometimes. Leaving the message apart, there was nothing left as a description, not even the videogame’s name, just an image of a black disc box with no cover and that ambiguous message.
It seems like a fraud you thought yeah, it should be a fraud. But more you tried to convince yourself it was just a fake announcement to gain some dollars – 5 dollars, and 1.99 from shipping – more you were interested in buying it. It was really cheap, too cheap to be a fraud attempt, and you were very intrigued to know what was inside of that disc, it was a dating simulator as the message said? Maybe it’s just a movie or concert record from someone trying to troll an ingenuous person? It didn’t matter, you took a decision, and bought the unknown CD.
It arrived quickly, taking approximately 4 days to arrive to your house, so you took the package and tried to make it work on your computer, but nothing happened. Trying not to be too negative, you ran the disc in every emulator you have, that’s when you noticed it was a console disc, a PlayStation 1 game to be exact, but it was useless. The emulator recognized the game, but an error window jumped out and freeze the emulator everytime you tried to do something. What a shit, you had been scammed. Maybe you just paid 7 bucks, but the irritation still caused you headache. With nothing left to do, you took the disc and kept it in your bag.
A few days later you told that stupid story to one of your closest friends and, for your surprise, he seems quite interested in.
“Do you still have that disc with you?” he asked you, you raise an eyebrow, confused.
“Ah, I think so? It should be on my bag” you took your bag and started looking for the videogame “Here it is!”
“Great! Do you think you can borrow me the disc a few days?”
“Can I ask why?”
“I’m just as intrigued as you, my friend. I mean, how can you make a dating simulator unable to play? What I’m trying to say is, unless you’re scratching the program data, there’s no way that an error window jump out everytime you try to run the game. Maybe it’s just a simple programming error, and there’s a possibility that I can fix it”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Let me try at least”
And there you were, current Friday night. It seems like a miracle, but your friend actually fixed the error. “Seems the main protagonist data was corrupted in some parts” he told you when he gave you the disc back “it’s just something I still don’t understand at all, there’s no way you can corrupt the program data while playing normally…” he finished, eyebrows furrowed. That was concerning, but you don’t understand how programming works at all, so you let it pass and thanked him afterwards.
Your PC finally reacted, so you put the disc on and run out the emulator. Your laptop fan started making high noises, and the screen turned black for a few seconds. Then, the game started with a message on the middle of the screen. There was a female name, surrounded by pixelated hearts. It took you by surprise, but you meditate it and got to the conclusion that was the last owner’s name of the game, so you pushed the circle button of the PS1 control to continue, but another message pop out again.
it's been a long time since we met again…
That was interesting. Yes, maybe some dating simulators do stuff like that too, but most of them are new games for the past years, not from the PS1 generation. But maybe you were just overthinking, after all you didn’t even know about the story, maybe the message is related to it. You pressed the button again you were redirected to the home screen. And finally you had a few hints about the game.
The first thing you noticed were the graphics of the game, designed in a pixelated way, kind of old-fashioned, but still cute and detailed. The screen showed the image of a classic Japanese school on the background, surrounded by cherry blossoms trees and the silhouette of a boy at the end of the path, his clothes and hair fluttering with the air “Ah, so it’s that kind of cliché visual novel…” you thought for yourself, giggling. You haven’t started the game, yet you knew how the story is going to be. Your character being the most mediocre girl in the school, with no qualities in any subject, will be related with the most handsome boy of the class. The average story of the averages stories. You didn’t complain at all, that was the kind of stories you loved to play when you were younger, you even felt nostalgic.
There was the option to load the last checkpoint on the menu, and you were really tempted to check the load file of the last owner, but it made you felt guilty at the same time, like meddling in a relationship is not yours. So you decided to start a new game.
The usual advisement of erasing the old data jumped out, asking you if you were sure. You picked up yes, however, the arrow returned to the option no by itself. You deal with this a few times, grunting. Maybe your friend didn’t fix all the game errors, or it’s just your old PlayStation control having a drifting problem.
The game finally started asking your name, you wrote it quickly and the screen fade to black, showing a few seconds later the image of a blackboard full of musical notes and the 24-bits music filling your room, you smiled wildly, feeling achingly nostalgic.
The introductions of the visual novels always feel like they last an eternity, just explanatory dialogue and the inner thoughts from the protagonist for most of the chapter, and just as you imagined, the story would follow the average path of a school romance. The premise goes like this: the music classes have finished, but you decided to stay longer in the classroom trying to understand the notes of the blackboard since you’re unable to read them, but you give up, it’s impossible, you sigh and lay down on the desk.
So here’s where the romantic interest appear, am I right? You murmur to yourself, holding the control tightly. You have no idea how this boy looks, and you’re truly intrigued to see him. And, as you predict, there’s the noise of a door cracking open.
“Are you having struggles trying to learn the song, eh?” Your character lift up her head after you pass that dialogue, and there he is.
He’s pretty, quite pretty if you’re being honest, with dark blond curls that fell around his face and vivid blue eyes that stare directly at you, or at least that’s how it feels. His design makes him look like a mix of common personalities in otome games, his features soft and pretty but marked with an odd smile, kind of forced, also his outfit reminds of a typical good-old fashioned boy, a model student, but his crocked tie and one-side untucked shirt tell you otherwise, which is funny, it makes him look a bit dorky. You liked him, even with the pixel art style and unsure smile.
“Senpai!” Your character whines, and you hoped the boy to have a real name and not being forced to call him that way in all the game.
The characters chat between them briefly, and he actually follows the stereotype of the male romantic interest, offering himself to help you to practice for the music classes since he’s very good at singing, and he does show you singing a short song, he does sound rather well for the audio’s quality, and you truly enjoyed his small performance.
“So, what do you think? Would you accept my help?”
> Of course!
No… thank you.
The correct answer was pretty obvious, so you decided to bother him a bit, and choose the second option.
“EEEEEH?! ARE YOU FOR REAL?!” His half-gentle smile disappeared and was replaced with a skeptical, annoyed expression, his eyebrows furrowed and mouth twitched. That caught you off guard, he was quite expressive for being just an amount of pixels, and you couldn’t contain but laughed soundly, still watching the screen.
Then the boy stares at you, shocked. And decided to start laughing too.
You direct your view to your control almost immediately, wondering if you pressed the continue button by mistake, but it was impossible, the boy did it by himself, or maybe it was the weirdest coincidence you have ever experimented in your life. Still dizzy, you watched your laptop screen again, and there he was, looking straight ahead with an amused smile, waiting your commands. You sighed, confused, and pressed the button.
“Was that a joke?” He continued cocking his head aside, the gesture made him looked like a puppy “I think I like you! Let me start a new journey with you!”
The chapter ends, and you're not sure if you should pick the continue button.