Chapter Text
What do I know about love, really? Do I have any right to claim that kind of authority?
Momoka Kondo is a fraud. When reading her posts, or asking her for advice in person (if you managed to track her down), you’d never guess that she hasn’t even held someone’s hand romantically, let alone kissed or been on a date. Most of what she says is recycled from TV clichés and the stack of old magazines in her mom’s closet, but as long as it makes people happy, she’s willing to keep up the façade.
Sometimes she does receive the odd question that’s a little more specific and requires some imagination. Take, for instance, the email that’s been sitting unanswered in her inbox for over a week- the longest she’s ever put off a response outside of exam week hiatuses.
Dear Emem,
My boyfriend and I got along just fine in middle school, and I think we have what it takes to stay a couple for a long time, but ever since we started high school classes, he’s completely changed! He used to buy me bread and other snacks to enjoy on the walk home, or new volumes of my favorite manga, and now he says he doesn’t have that kind of money. I want to believe him, but I heard him bragging to his new friends that he could get them any kind of luxury goods they wanted with just his allowance. It’s not just that, of course, but little things of that nature. I decided to go to this school to stay with him, so I don’t know if I should bother bringing it up to him or if I should accept that our relationship looks different now that we’re older. What should I do?
Sincerely,
Kana
From what she wrote, it seemed like Kana should dump her boyfriend since he was prioritizing her less than his new friends, but Momoka knew that it wasn’t that simple. Kana would have to keep seeing him at school, not to mention the fact that she may have sacrificed her own wishes to follow him to that school and may not be able to transfer easily. But, it was clear that the couple hadn’t had any kind of real conflict yet, and their relationship may not be as strong as Kana had suggested. Regardless of what Momoka said, there would be some tension added to the situation, and her blog readers would likely argue in the comments that she should have gone the opposite way.
Still, she was committed to helping out anyone who asked for her advice, so she couldn’t back away from this challenge.
As Momoka laid on her bed and stared at the email, desperately waiting for the perfect solution to strike her, her messaging app chimed, the little dot that usually sat on the app’s icon turning into a one, then a two, eventually indicating a whopping eight messages. She was a part of several online communities, but when a huge number of notifications came in at once like this, she usually knew who it was.
Viviana Jeong, her best friend. Sure enough, when she clicked over to the messaging tab, Viviana’s icon- a photo of one of her little white dogs- popped up alongside a string of texts.
im.vivation: OMG major news
my passport was finally approved!
and my picture turned out better than i thought
wahhh i cant believe im spending a whole year away
i got a good amount of credit work in this month though so when i come back i wont be too far behind hehe
also ahh i saw your new post and you sounded so mature :0
youre a real pro now!
they grow up so fast TT
Momoka smiled fondly at her computer. She can’t even remember how she met Viv anymore- probably some anime forum- but there’s no one else who knows her quite as well. Their friendship started off slow, with occasional memes and sharing music recommendations, and over the last few years they’ve gotten so close that Momoka can expect this kind of message spam several times a day. In fact, Viviana is the only soul she trusts with the knowledge of both her online persona and her real identity. The two of them had managed to spend all night on voice calls on multiple occasions, but it still didn’t feel like enough. If Momoka only had a way to visit South Korea, she would spend every moment with Viv. Until then, texts would have to suffice.
mokachip: thanks haha
Well, as much as she liked to think that she was more open about herself with Viv, she couldn’t stop herself from toning down her messages to seem cooler. In reality, her face hurt from smiling so much at the praise. Viviana was the one who helped her start her advice blog, and was who she turned to when she needed a second pair of eyes on a post. She actually had a boyfriend, so her opinion was invaluable to Momoka.
mokachip: and congrats on the passport, must be nice being able to get away from school for a whole year
im.vivation: i’m still going to be in school silly! just a *different* one
mokachip: you could at least come see me…
im.vivation: ooh is someone jealous??
mokachip: not jealous just disappointed 😞jk i know you’ll have a blast wherever you end up
mokachip: have you found out where ur going yet? seems kind of last minute if you ask me
im.vivation: soon!! yeah i know they really want me to just get on the plane no questions
mokachip: keemin must be worried about it, have you guys talked about long distance?
im.vivation: umm ive been putting it off
mokachip: viv no
mokachip: you have to talk to him now or else he’ll end up following you to the airport and begging you not to go
im.vivation: you really think he would do that?
mokachip: anything is possible. you never know what could happen
Momoka blinked, and her messages were gone, as if she had somehow closed out of the window in the span of a second. Weird, she thought, but with how outdated her OS was, she was more or less used to small glitches like that. What she wasn’t used to seeing was a pixelated letter icon in the middle of her desktop, with the label ‘to.m.untitled’. Momoka raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar file, remembering those scary stories she used to read online that started a little something like this, but her curiosity won out and she clicked the icon anyways.
✉
When she opened her eyes, Momoka’s surroundings had completely changed. Her band posters and LED strips were swapped out for a floral red wallpaper, and instead of her black duvet she sat on a massive pink spread, nearly three times as wide as her own bed. Wherever she was, it was far from home.
“You look a little pale, Miss Kondo, are you feeling okay?”
Momoka’s attention snapped to her side, where a girl she hadn’t even noticed was reaching over to her nervously, as if to check her temperature. Her long teal braids draped onto the sheet.
Naturally, Momoka screamed and scooted herself to the far end of the bed as fast as she could.
The girl flinched. “Oh, sorry for scaring you! I thought you would have expected me after reading my letter?”
“What letter? Where am I?” Momoka asked, panic continuing to spread through her body.
“You must have gotten it, or else you couldn’t have arrived here. Maybe you forgot?” The girl’s tone was eerily calm given the circumstances. It lessened the sense of immediate danger, sure, but didn’t help in explaining anything.
“Look, all I did was click on some stupid file, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
The girl looked surprised at that. “Really? That makes sense why you’d react this way, I suppose.”
“How am I supposed to react to waking up in a weird room with a weird girl right next to me?”
“Oh, I’m not a weird girl! My name is Hatsune Miku, and this ‘weird room’ is actually part of a place made from your feelings. I had a whole introduction written out, but I guess you really didn’t get to read it…”
As her fear began to dissipate, Momoka took a longer look at the girl. She wore a frilly black button-up with a teal ribbon tied under the collar and a small red brooch. Over the shirt, she had on a suspender skirt covered in a grey and teal argyle pattern, and a red belt hugged her waist. Her whole look combined with the red ribbons at the end of her braids made her look like some kind of boarding school student, which did match the antique look of the room. Was she telling the truth?
“Until the others enroll, I can’t give you much more information, but I hope you’ll come back and visit me soon! I’m looking forward to helping you discover your true self, the one you may not think is the real you.” Miku smiled.
“Others? Is this really a school?”
“Ah, well, you’ll meet them soon enough. Who knows, you may have met some of them already!” She winked coyly.
Before Momoka could reply, or get any more of a grasp on the reality in front of her, her vision flashed white, and the world began to spin.
✉
Momoka awoke right back on her bed, laptop still open in front of her. Her messages with Viviana were even open again, and from the timestamp of her last text, it appeared that only a few minutes had passed.
im.vivation: you’re right, i should be more open to possibilities :)
im.vivation: oh guess what happened!!!
im.vivation: did i lose you? hellooo 🥺
How was she supposed to carry on after that fever dream? It was just a dream, wasn’t it?