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There was a horse game on Makoto’s phone.
Junpei and Kenji had been laughing about it after class one day, and he’d gotten curious and looked it up. It certainly looked as ridiculous as they said it was — the app previews showed it was a dating game starring a horse with a human head. He’d scoffed and moved on with his day.
That night, he had downloaded it.
But just as a joke. That was all.
Now, he sat on a bench outside of school, waiting for Yukari to finish archery practice, since they had planned to go shopping after. He should’ve headed to the library to study, but with everything that had happened recently, he didn’t have the energy to. Losing Shinji was still fresh in everyone’s minds.
All of a sudden, his internet cut out. He sighed, trying to reconnect, but nothing was working. His mp3 player had already run out of charge, so he couldn’t even filter out the world with music.
He clicked through his phone listlessly, until his eyes landed on the horse game. My Horse Prince, it was called.
No, there was no way he was actually going to play it. But as the minutes stretched on with no sign of Yukari, he grew more and more desperate for something to do.
This is so stupid, Makoto thought as he opened the game. He named the protagonist after himself and began the story. It started off how he expected, with the protagonist going to a horse ranch to find hot guys. He sped through the dialogue, not really paying attention.
And then the horse appeared. It was… the stupidest thing he had ever seen. A black horse with a ridiculously long neck ending in a human head that was probably supposed to be attractive, complete with black horse ears poking out of its hair. With shining blue eyes, a charming smile, and swept-back black hair, it began to talk to him.
He snorted at the ridiculous premise. Seeing a horse as an attractive guy? Well, at least it was kind of funny. Maybe it would distract him from everything that had happened this past month. Losing Shinji hadn’t been easy for any of them, and Makoto was starting to doubt his abilities as a leader. What good was he if he couldn’t even protect the ones he loved?
The horse-guy-thing was named Ryoji, he found out, and Makoto’s character’s first objective was to feed him carrots until his heart meter went up enough. It was just a simple clicker game, but the animation was so goofy it got a small smile out of him.
And besides, it wasn’t like Ryoji’s face was bad to look at. In fact, sometimes Makoto caught himself just staring at it.
When Yukari arrived, he was so engrossed in the game that she had to stand over him and wave. “Um, hello?” She said, one hand on her hip.
“Uh, hey,” Makoto said, quickly stuffing his phone into his pocket and grabbing his bag.
“What were you doing? It seemed like you were really into whatever that game was.”
Oh no, she’d seen it. But that was fine. It wasn’t like he would normally choose to play it. It was just because he had no other options. “It was a dare from Junpei,” he shrugged, ignoring how his heart was racing, and not just from the fear of getting caught.
That night, Ken invited him out, but the whole time all he could think about was getting back to his room so he could brush Ryoji. While they stood on the monorail together, he sneakily pulled out his phone and stared at the app icon. Ryoji’s face seemed to stare back at him, a gentle reminder that Ryoji was with him wherever he went.
Weeks passed, and Makoto kept playing the game. It was an oddly comforting presence in his life — it couldn’t leave him, couldn’t hurt him, so there was no risk in getting attached.
Ryoji asked a lot of questions about bonds and connections, wanting to know more about people and the world. Makoto relished every time he got an “Excellent” on the talking minigame, wanting to make Ryoji as happy as possible. Ryoji also had a lot of dialogue options about Makoto too, asking what he liked doing for fun, and what made him happy.
You, Makoto thought, before wondering what had gotten into him.
And he knew it was just a tactic to get him more interested in the game, but he couldn’t stop thinking about how happy Ryoji had seemed when he selected the dialogue option to say that he wasn’t in a relationship.
He began withdrawing from his friends even more. He didn’t mean to, but it was just easier to spend time with Ryoji.
Ryoji didn’t ask him about Shinji. Ryoji didn’t look at him like he was someone to be pitied, or like he was questioning his abilities as a leader. Ryoji was just full of love for Makoto, and all he wanted was to make Makoto happy.
It wasn’t weird, was it? Plenty of people formed attachments to fictional characters. Maya had told him about so many of her crushes on Innocent Sin Online NPCs. Surely this wasn’t any different. And besides, it wasn’t like he had a crush on Ryoji. He just liked spending time with him in the game.
"Dude, what's gotten you so antsy?" Junpei asked one day after school. Makoto looked away, unable to say that he was now obsessed with this stupid horse game. Every time he closed the game he felt like he was personally betraying Ryoji. He couldn't wait to get back to the dorm and check on his horse boyfriend. Sometimes he hid in the school bathrooms and quickly checked his phone, not wanting to miss—
Wait, hold on. Had he just thought of Ryoji as his… horse boyfriend?
No, Ryoji was just a game character. There was no way he was actually getting this invested in the game. He needed to stop, now. Before it got worse.
Despite his new resolution, that night he abandoned his homework in favour of starting the next chapter. He found himself growing jealous of the protagonist; even though they were a self-insert, he couldn’t help but wish Ryoji’s attention was directed at the real him, and only him.
As days passed, Makoto dedicated more and more of his time to Ryoji. He’d even given into the game’s microtransactions, purchasing golden carrots to make Ryoji happy. It wasn’t like he was wasting money — he had enough from working part-time jobs and exploring Tartarus. What was wrong with spending a little bit on something he enjoyed?
He smiled as he fed Ryoji another carrot.
The days were blurring into each other, until one November night, everything changed.
The Dark Hour came, and Makoto’s phone switched off like it always did. He groaned, frustrated that his time with Ryoji had yet again been interrupted. The one constant companion in his life, the only one who truly understood him, had been taken from him. He started at the black screen, feeling like a part of himself was missing.
He threw his phone down on the bed and rubbed his eyes. Might as well try and get some sleep. If he was lucky, he’d wake up early enough to talk to Ryoji before he had to get ready for school.
He could scarcely believe himself — who knew that this horse game would be the one thing that motivated him to wake up early?
As he reached over to turn off his lamp, his phone slid off the bed. He lunged for it too late, and it clattered to the floor, falling right into a sliver of moonlight. Makoto looked to his window, and realised there was a full moon tonight. Huh, there had been some sort of event mentioned in the game about a full moon, but he hadn’t gotten up to it yet. It would’ve been fitting to play it tonight, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen.
Makoto looked back to his phone to find it glowing with an ethereal blue light. It grew brighter, and he shielded his eyes as it enveloped the whole room.
When he lowered his arm, the light was gone, and the room was plunged into a strange darkness. However, he could faintly see the outline of a figure standing in the centre of the room. It almost looked like—
Makoto hastily reached for his lamp and turned it on, and there, standing in front of him…
It was Ryoji, in all his horsey glory.
He looked just like he did in the game, a glossy black coat, a sleek black mane, and that face that radiated love and kindness.
Makoto didn’t care anymore. Maybe he was crazy to be attracted to a weird horse that looked like it had a human face badly photoshopped onto it, but Ryoji was the only one who truly understood him.
Ryoji was the one he wanted.
“Makoto,” Ryoji said, trotting closer to the bed. “I’ve come to be with you.”
Ryoji leaned forward and pressed his forehead to Makoto’s. Makoto reached up with shaking arms and ran his fingers through Ryoji’s mane. Tears of joy were trailing down his cheeks.
“Ryoji…” Makoto whispered. “I- You- You’re real.”
“You taught me about the world, and about connections,” Ryoji said, pulling back and raising a hoof to gently lift Makoto’s chin. “You made me real. Thank you.”
Makoto smiled. “Will you stay with me?”
Ryoji nodded. “Forever.”
Makoto didn’t know how he was going to explain this to his friends, but that was a problem for later on. Right now, all he wanted to do was hold onto his horse boyfriend and never let go.
