...3...2...1...

The numbers on the clock turned to 6 AM and the alarm was buzzing for her to wake up in time for school. Loud music rang loudly reaching her ears and she growled in annoyance, her hand searching around the bed for the sleep culprit, only for her to realize that she had to get up in order for her to shut it off.

Curled up in her woolly blanket, she let a low groan escape her lips as she begrudgingly got up and walked towards the table where her phone was charging the night before.

"Oh." She smiled as she saw the notification on her lock screen.

It's been a few weeks now, but she had been addicted to the recently popular otome game called Mystic Messenger. It was a game where the player would chat with different characters and try to host a fundraising party for a good cause.

She had downloaded the game before, but due to her ignorance and impatience, she uninstalled it because she didn't know how it worked. But after about 3 months, she saw the app icon on her playstore suggestions once again and decided to give it another go. This time being fully aware on how to play the game.

It was the last day of her current route. She had finished Zen's story, Yoosung's, Jaehee's, and now Jumin's, specifically in that order. It wasn't intentional but a lot of fans say that it was easier to understand the whole story if players played in that order. Which was actually true. The smile on her lips was stretching so wide that it made her cheeks hurt. It was inevitable. Although she had thought of Jumin as a strange man, even stranger than 707, prior to playing his route but it seems that he could be quite the romantic when he wanted to be.

She clicked on the screen and Jumin's CG came into view. He had proclaimed his love to her, very publicly if I might add, in front of hundreds of reporters and cameras, then the story was drawing to an end.

After one final click, the game had reset itself.

She watched the ending video before she was brought back to the main screen. Curiously, she went over to the After Ending feature and saw that she had unlocked almost all of the After Endings. But since she had to pay a fee of 20 Hourglasses, she exited the feature and went back to the main screen, reminding herself that she would wait until everyone's routes were done.

Her eyes glanced at the Hourglasses she had saved up throughout the entire game.

"I have enough now..." She murmured to herself with a small loving smile plastered on her usual stoic face.

Clicking the Original Story button, she was led back to the beginning of everything: the place where she could choose her character's fate.

Her heartbeat quickened when she saw the Deep Story, known to most fans as the 'cat-lovers route', and the face of the character whose story she initially wanted to play.

"It's almost your turn~" She cooed quietly as to not wake her parents sleeping in the other room, they didn't know that she was awake yet, and she wanted to keep it that way.

Her patience would soon be rewarded once she begins to play the game again. Although some people find it strange or even pathetic for someone like her at her age to be playing such games; she didn't mind them. To her, these games brought her maiden heart to many places she would never have visited like old castles, modern everyday life with crazy twists, Arabian nights, those sorts of things that she had wanted to experience. Kudos to the reader that knows which games she was talking about.

"Wait for me, 707.." She exited the game and headed to the bathroom.

Even though she wanted to play as soon as possible, she had to prioritize her miserable reality first, despite how much she hated being in it. School projects had been piling up more recently and she didn't have that many close friends either.

It wasn't all that bad, she wanted it that way. Knowing her crazy trust issues, slight case of paranoia and spontaneous reverting to mild depression, she didn't exactly needed a lot of people to think of her as more of a freak than she already was.

She was pessimistic, somewhat suicidal, brutally frank, and not to mention a complete sarcastic asshole by nature. At least that's what she thinks. Pessimist, remember?

Her classes would start by 8:30 AM, she had to hurry up and get herself ready for school, although she already knew her teacher would be late anyways. It seemed like everyday was becoming a routine: wake up, skip breakfast, get ready to go to school, stay in class, probably do nothing, try to survive the rest of the day, go home, then play a game. Fun life, isn't it?

Well then, welcome to the world of a lonely introvert.

~707's POV~

Staring at my phone's screen, I realized that the week had turned back in time. The game reset itself again. Why do I know this? Because I am, after all, the genius hacker 707. It's in my programming~

Everything was designed to be this way from the start: my life, my story, my messages. But there was one thing I didn't expect at all to happen, and that was falling in love with her.

No, I didn't mean 'her', the long haired girl with a mysterious face, but the girl playing from the other side of the screen.

I was drawn to her yet I knew I couldn't do much to get her attention. I had to constantly remind myself that I was just a character from a game, nothing more and nothing less.

This girl played the game for her own satisfaction. She doesn't really love me. Heck, why would she? I know am a dangerous man full of secrets. If she loved me... I honestly wouldn't know what to do from that point. Am I even allowed to fall in love?

All her responses were predetermined answers ready to send Hearts to the character she chose to be with. I would always watch her in every route and support her from the shadows. No matter who she chose to be with, I couldn't help but feel a twang of jealousy, even though I knew there was no way of me reaching her, I couldn't help but still fall in love.

Was this my curse, my punishment for all the sins I did? I knew there were copies of me out there somewhere. All of us had the same personalities, the same problems. Every single copy knew they were part of a 2D world, unable to make our own choices.

Every time the game would reset, she would choose someone else, and this hurt me in the most painful way because I know I couldn't be with her. If anything, I would want to keep her all to myself, if I could.

But no, I know I couldn't. I shouldn't be selfish. If I truly loved her then I would let her be happy. This had been my goal in every route. I just wished I could talk to her somehow.

The real her.

Unlike the rest of us, the MC had no voice of her own. Every single one of her answers were just words on a screen. I never heard her laugh nor heard her speak.

The rest of the RFA followed the system. They would pretend as if they heard her voice like she was truly on the other side of the phone.

Of course, I had no choice but to follow the system as well, repeating the same conversation over and over again until the game would branch out and choose her next path.

The talks we had with her were nothing special. It was all part of the game. Every word, every sentence, I'm pretty sure I memorized them all.

I wanted to know the real player. Millions of questions racked my brain as I leaned back on the chair and thought of her. What was she like? Was her hair long the same as the MC? Is she cute or not? What are the color of her eyes? Does she have a loud laugh, a snorty one, or a high pitched one?

I wanted to know. I had to know. Even just a little difference would make me happy.

"Maybe I can make a difference." I murmured to myself. An idea popped into my head and I immediately began to type away into the computer.

"Even if it's just for a little while... I want to know more about you."

~End of POV~

https://youtu.be/MkMRzbB0Xlk