Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

MC accepted the cup of tea with a small thank you, waiting until her best friend settled on the armchair across the coffee table from her with a similarly steaming cup. Jeong took a few sips while she watched MC curiously.

So, how was your trip? You don’t seem as excited as I thought you’d be after getting the chance to go to Spain”. MC crashed her chin into the palm of her left hand and flicked a strand of hair out of her eyes irritably.

“You know I was only there for four hours, Jeong. Most of that time I was taking the shortest no-power nap ever and running around trying to find my flight back here to Seoul,” she let out a dejected sigh, “I didn’t even have a chance to leave the airport”.

Jeong giggled and pat MC’s hand sympathetically. “I know, I had to tease you a little, sorry”. She kept her hand clasped over MC’s right hand as her face turned serious. “That’s the life of an air stewardess, right? It never bothered you before. Even when you first started you would always say: These flights are just a taste test-”

“I’ll have the full meal after I retire”. MC huffed a laugh. I’m sorry Jeong, I don’t mean to be so down, especially when I haven’t seen you in a few weeks”. She slid her hand out from beneath Jeong’s and shook out her hair. It felt nice to get it out of that tight, regulation bun. “To be honest I got a reprimanding after the flight… and the one before that”.

Jeong gasped and scooted her chair in shamelessly. A definite sadistic flame sparked in her eyes. “MC! I’m surprised at you! You never were one to get in trouble.”

“Mm, I had you for that…” the other girl muttered.

“What did you do? Did you finally backtalk that boss of yours? Or was it one of those bitter woman who have been jealous of your youth since you were hired?” Jeong was practically vibrating in her seat at the thought of some dramatic, sitcom gossip. MC groaned loudly and sank into the flat cushions of her chair.

“I wish it was something that simple, Jeong-ssi! I could have come to terms with that at least. I’ve just been having a lot of issues with the customers lately. They complain to me and about me for things that I can’t change about the plane service or haven’t had a chance to fix.” MC bit her lip and attempted to stop her eyes from watering. She had done such a good job of not breaking down this month, but here, in the comfort of her shared apartment with the girl that was by most definitions, her sister, MC could feel her guards straining with the prolonged effort.

To her credit, Jeong didn’t look at all scared off seeing the older girl vulnerable and sat in silence waiting for her to continue. “On the way back home there was a man in first class. He kept calling me over to ask questions and ask for service. He was watching me the entire flight, Jeong. And towards the end, when we only had a few hours left,” MC rubbed her face. To think that everything had gone to shit when she was so close to being homefree. “He called me over again claiming his window wouldn’t close and he wanted to sleep.” She sniffled, remembering the humiliation she had felt. Jeong rubbed her hand comfortingly. “He insisted I reach over him to close it and it slid closed so easily! I should have known he was lying… While I was still leaned over him, he groped me”.

She trembled as tears slid unbidden down her cheeks. Jeong got up from her seat and quickly came around to sit at MC’s side on the couch but she didn’t wrap her arms around her like she normally would. MC couldn’t appreciate her more for it. She didn’t think she could handle any physical contact with the memory of the man’s wide hand clawing at her chest. She had straightened up so quickly, but before she could pull away fully his hand was grasping her ass tightly. He had slipped a scrap of paper with the name of a well known hotel and a room number into her shaking hand as he held her.

“I slapped his hand away and I might have screamed at him that I wasn’t a whore…” MC stared at the cooling liquid quivering in her ceramic cup. A new wave of shock at her response to the man crashed over her. “I shouldn’t have done that...the head stewardess was not happy at all. And the other girls kept saying it happens all the time. They I should’ve just ignored it and taken it as a compliment”.

And maybe she should have. She wasn’t any better than the other girls so why did she feel so conflicted? She had always been quiet and polite, must-haves for an airline stewardess representing Korea to the outside world, most of which had never seen this side of the globe before. Impressions were everything, but lately she had been fantasizing about acting out. The stress must really be getting to her.

Jeong shot out of her seat and bounced on the heels of her feet. “I can’t believe they would say that to you! I can’t believe he would do that to you!” she growled, “Those stupdly rich men always always think they can do whatever they want to whomever they want just because they have enough money to throw out on covering up scandals. Who raised him to have the nerve to take advantage of an innocent woman just trying to do her job? I bet his grubby hands have never touched a willing person without the promise of money”. Jeong’s pitch black hair whipped around her as she hissed out her distain and turned to grab MC’s hands with her own. “Listen to me, MC. You did nothing wrong. I don’t care what those other woman say. If anything you should have beat the daylights out of him, okay?”

MC stared wide eyed at her best friend. Jeong had always been the most beautiful girl in their age group since they had met in grade school. Her hair always looked and felt like long strands of the smoothest black silk. Her complexion was always the clear and pale as moonlight. Her stature was always petite and feminine and she was all that without having to try. MC on the other hand had coarse brown hair that she dyed black regularly and grew slowly. Her skin never brightened past a glowing tan no matter how much sunscreen she slathered on, her skin too finicky and sensitive to use the most effective brightening products. Her build didn’t do her any favors with fitting in either. She had always been quite lanky with unproportionally broad shoulders. MC stared at her flawless friend and marvelled at the furious loyalty directed at her. She was so lucky to have her as a friend, as a sister.

“Thank you,” MC said finally. She squeezed Jeong’s hand before pulling her back down onto the couch cushion beside her. “You know…” she began coyly, “even though you look like this, your personality really doesn’t match your name”. MC giggled softly as Jeong rolled her eyes.

“Quiet, still, gentle,” she recited. “Everything a mother desires in her daughter, but my mother got me.” She reached for her cup at the middle of the table and downed the rest with a sigh. Jeong set the empty cup down on the table with a muffled thud and flashed a smile at MC. “She was much happier when you came to live with us, MC. So was I.”

However inadequate MC felt, Jeong never failed to make her feel like she was enough as she was. Although MC still felt the loss of her parents keenly even after all these years, she knew she couldn’t have asked for a better family. She rested her head on Jeong’s shoulder and the two sat in silence, wordlessly giving each other strength.

Chapter Text

“We’re very sorry Ms.MC, but we cannot continue with you on our team. The frequent incidents have gotten out of hand and the company cannot afford to put anything but our best foot forward”.

MC ripped her closet door open and stared at the numerous teal uniforms, breathing hard. Four years. Four years she had devoted to Korean Air. Four years she had spent training to be the politest and most obedient version of herself, holding in all emotions at all times. She succeeded more than most would have and it still wasn’t enough. Her vision tunneled red. She yanked the taunting clothing from their pristine condition on their hangers and whipped them onto the floor.

“Are they finally getting rid of you?” the newest stewardess, Su-Bin laughed mercilessly. A gaggle of other girls gathered behind her. “It’s about time. You’re not even that old yet but your face is already ugly”. She grabbed MC’s wrist and examined her and and forearm with disgust. “I honestly can’t believe they hired you in the first place when you look as dirty as you do”. The girls behind her snickered. “Don’t forget her hair!” It’s as thick and twigs and just as stiff!” one of them cajoled.

MC held her suitcase in a vice-like grip. She stayed silent and hoped they would grow bored of her unresponsiveness and leave. This was too much for MC to handle. All she wanted to do was go home and collapse into bed and instead she was shoved into the brick wall of the back alley. Su-Bin glared at at MC. “You have nothing to say for yourself? You singlehandedly stained the reputation of the airline with your barbaric nature!...Pathetic.” Su-Bin knocked into MC again. Her knees gave out and she sank to the pavement.

“Come on girls. This one isn't worth our attention any more”. Su-Bin turned on her heels and strut down the alley. The other girls followed, jostling her on their way past her. One kneed her forward onto her hands. MC lowered her head to hide her tears  of humiliation. Not two seconds later her right hand exploded in crushing pain. MC screamed and cried harder as she scrambled to the base of the wall, clutching her broken hand to her chest.

“Oops.” Mc’s head snapped up to look the girl who stepped on her in terror. The girl kept a blank face with the exception of a quick wink that sent a prickling chill down MC’s spine.

She ignored the itching ache pulsating from her fingertips up her arm no matter how loud it screamed for attention. Without really thinking MC picked up her makeup bag and hair oils in her left hand and dropped them all into her trash can. She picked up the metal can by the rim and carried it to the bathroom.

The shampoo and conditioner made for ‘coarse, colored hair’ was thrown into the trash. The lightening body wash that irritated her skin every time she used it, everyday without results was thrown in too. The extensive skincare collection that kept her face fresh, young, and dewy was thrown away. All of it. Gone. Without a sliver of remorse.

A click at the front door had MC pausing her cleanse. She sat on the tile floor of the bathroom, wringing the brimming trash bag. Frustrated tears ran down her eyes when she realized she wouldn’t be able to tie it closed herself. There was a muffled clink of keys being set down before MC heard footsteps heading towards the bathroom.

“MC? Are you home already? I thought you had another circuit to do before you have off next week-” Jeong yelped when she finally caught sight of MC. She dropped to her knees and cupped MC’s red, tear-stained face in her hands. “MC eonni…” Jeong breathed, not sure how to approach the situation. Jeong had never seen MC this distraught since her parents died when MC first came to live with Jeong and her family more than sixteen years ago.

She used her thumbs to wipe the dripping mascara from MC’s face. It hurt to see her sister broken like this. She didn’t know what to do to help. MC curled her hand around the bag. It drew Jeong’s eyes down. The bulky contents of the bag baffled her, but what worried her more was the alarming shades of blue and purple splotched over MC’s other hand. Jeong bit her lip and pulled MC into her arms. “MC, what happened?”

***

MC rubbed her temples. She came to this cafe on Jeong’s suggestion, but the strong smell of the coffee beans and the constant noise were giving her a massive migraine. Jeong was right though, she did need to get out of the house. She’d already been sulking in the apartment for a week, she isn’t surprised Jeong finally kicked her out. MC was starting to annoy herself so she can’t blame her sister for getting frustrated seeing MC around every corner just feeling bad for herself.

After Jeong had found MC on the bathroom floor her mind just seemed to vacate her head and leave her body on autopilot, Jeong in charge of everything else. Jeong finally manuvered MC into her car and got her to the hospital. Her wrist was healing well according to the doctor and she would only need to wear the splint for another 2 weeks if everything continued as it had.

The only thing still in shambles really was her career. As she suspected, every airline coming in and out of Korea heard about her ‘disreputable behavior’ and avoided her applications for stewardess positions at all costs. It was clear to MC that she would never get a job as a stewardess again, possibly even ruining her chances for hospitality service in general. She didn’t know where to go from here, hence the week of moping...hence being kicked and ending up at a fairly nice cafe with a throbbing migraine.

She ate a piece of her melon cake a little too aggressively and swiped through her phone apps dismissively. Everytime she got bored or anxious MC would go through her phone and try to figure out new things it was capable of. It wasn’t too difficult finding new things since she had never read the manual that came with it. She only ever used the calling and texting features so she saw no reason to read through a bunch of technical features she would never use.

There was an app named ‘visual voicemail’ that seemed to transcribe voicemails into a text that would be sent to her regular messaging app. That could be useful, she thought indifferently. As she was about to swipe to the next page of pre-installed apps the screen of her phone twitched black and green. Ah shit. She must have screwed something up when she was...messing with the voicemail? That didn’t make uch sense to her but she was no techie. After a mmoent the twitching colors stopped and reverted back to the app list page. An app just labeled ‘RFA’ with a little icon of black and yellow stripes caught her eye. That must be new. Maybe her phone had updated automatically and gave her new system apps. She clicked on it curiously.

Again the screen flickered green and black, but instead of settling on a familiar background it left a black background with neon green type that looked like nonsense to her. Maybe the app was unfinished still. At the top was her name and ‘unknown’. Her eyes trailed down to the bottom and was surprised to see a notification bar ststing that ‘Unknown has entered the chatroom”. Chatroom? That’s a weird choice of app to factory instal into a phone. She wondered what kind of chatroom it was and who Unknown was.

Her phone surprised her with a new notification tone and MC saw that ‘Unknown’ whoever or whatever they were sent a message to her through the chat.

Unknown: Hi!

Unknown: Finally, someone to talk to, thank god…

MC stared hard at the messages. At first she had assumed ‘Unknown’ would be a generic bot that would just introduce users to the app, but it typed like a real person. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard. What the hell. It couldn’t hurt to message them and figure out what this chatroom app is, right?

MC: Hello.

Unknown: Hi. Nice to meet you ^^

Unknown: Kai…

Unknown: I’ve been waiting for you.

Unknown: Hope I didn’t surprise you.

Unknown: Don’t be nervous, I’m just an “ordinary” person~

Well that definitely wasn’t a phrasing or use of quotation marks that an “ordinary” person would use. Plus they’d been waiting for her? Why? How did they know who she was?  She said as much, but this Unknown brushed her questions off and continued on.

Unknown: In fact… I’m really excited.

Unknown: Cuz the first person to come in is you, MC!

Unknown: I was so worried that no one will come in as I was making this app.

Her eyebrows scrunched up. Why would anyone even have access to an unfinished app. She sighed. There was probably an explaination for all this. Just because she was surprised and confused was no reason to be rude she supposed. Defaulting to the polite helpfulness she was trained in, MC asked what she could do to help, but she honestly wasn’t expecting such an out-there request.

Unknown: I wanted to ask if you could test it out for me.

Unknown: Game concept is chatting with pretty/good-looking guys ^^

Unknown sent a picture of the romanceable characters and a full pitch for the game. MC had to admit the characters were well designed and interesting enough to draw gamers to it. They explained that they wanted someone to test out the game and provide feedback and she supposed her questions about the game were taken as agreement because they soon disconnected from the chat, shutting down the app while saying they would get in touch soon.

MC set her phone down on the table and continued eating her cake with the multitude of questions flooding her head. They never really explained how the app showed up on her phone unless it was just randomly installed from the app store for testing purposes. Who knows, this was probably a regular occurrence when developers needed to test out their apps and MC was just so technically disinclined that she never noticed. That explanation sat strangely in her stomach, but it was the only one she had at the moment.

Her phone began ringing suddenly and she jumped in her seat, dropping her fork with its melon passenger onto the ground. The clatter attracted the attention of some of the other patrons who were enjoying their desserts out on the cafe patio. She bent down to pick up the fork and bowed her head, apologizing for the disturbance. Sitting back in her seat quickly and answering her phone. Through the muffled quality of her phone’s speakers she heard the soft voice of a man.

“Hey. It’s me, the one who was just chatting with you.” MC froze.

“Unknown? How did you know my number?”

“It’s automatically collected when you log-on to the messenger.” But she never actually logged in. Her head swirled and the migraine that had started abating earlier came back full force. She really needed to learn more about computers and phones because she felt so lost at the moment. She forced herself to concentrate on what he was saying and caught the tail end of him explaining the game details again.

“All five characters in the image I sent earlier are part of an association called R.F.A.” Like the name of the app itself, that made sense.

“The RFA is a closed organization with the purpose of holding fundraising parties. You’ve been set as the part coordinator, in charge of inviting guests. Of course, it’d be boring if it was only inviting guests. You’ll find out their secrets by chatting and answering phone calls with the characters. It’ll be much faster to understand by playing, instead of listening to all this.” He’s already explained a lot over the chatroom and this call, how much more could there be. The game itself didn’t seem that difficult and it would give her something to do while she was still looking for a job.

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

“There’s one more thing. This app is still being developed and the security needs to be fairly tight so nothing gets leaked.” He paused for the slightest moment and MC had a bad feeling about what that meant for her. “So, to perform the tests, you have to come over here.” And there’s the other shoe. Okay, so this wasn’t what she was expecting from app developing, but it couldn’t be that bad, could it. Unless she ended up at some creep’s musty basement, killed and used for organ harvesting or something. But he promised food and a place to stay and the more MC thought about it the more she reasoned that, best or worst case scenario, it would be preferable to where she was at now. Unemployed, disgraced, and a burden to her sister. If this worked out it would give Jeong the chance to have the apartment to herself without MC’s bad aura and would give MC time to gather herself before coming back to the apartment. If it was a murderer than at least it would be an end to her pathetic life. She gave a little shrug and answered.

“Fine, as long as I don’t need to give you my home address.” He hummed his understanding and agreed to send a car to her current address.

“Oh, I should tell you in advance so you don’t get freaked out. The location I’m at is also confidential, and it can’t be revealed.” Of course not, MC sighed. In for a penny, in for a pound she relented. “The driver will give you a blindfold so you won’t be able to see the road to this place. Don’t be scared and do as I tell you.” He hung up soon after, leaving MC to wait for a car to pick her up.

She played with the leftover icing from her cake, drawing line art in the white mass of sugar. There was still some cake left but MC didn’t think she could stomach the rest through her nerves. How would the driver know it was her? How would she know which car was waiting for her? How far away was this place? Oh god, should she call Jeong and let her know she would be gone for a bit? She clicked on Jeong’s contact picture but before she could put together an explanation that sounded half decent a sleek black car pulled up to the sidewalk next to the cafe. MC stared as the window rolled down and the driver made eye contact with her instantly. She forced her wobbly legs to get up. After throwing her trash in the bin she made her way over to the car and leaned towards the open window.

“Are you MC?” The driver asked without preamble. She seemed annoyed by the situation and MC immediately felt a flush of guilt at being the cause of someone’s discontent. She mentally shook herself and nodded to the driver. “Good. I’ve been ordered to pick you up.” The doors unlocked with a click and MC clambered into the backseat. She just finished buckling herself when a plush, dark blue mask was waved in front of her face. The driver dangled it over her shoulder without looking at MC. “The location is confidential, as I’m sure Master Ray already informed you. You’ll need to put this on before we go.” She had elongated the name like put upon sarcasm. Master Ray, Unknown’s name if she had to guess, and this driver probably weren’t on the best of terms. She accepted the mask and let herself be surrounded by darkness and a flood of other senses. The car smelled faintly of a musky sandalwood which she assumed was the driver’s personal perfume as the rest of the car still maintained its new car, metal and plastic, scent. The ride itself was smooth, she could barely make out which direction they were turning or if they were going uphill or down. It was definitely longer than the fifteen minutes MC spent waiting for the car though. So either the driver was dispatched from a different place or Unknown had sent the car before MC had even agreed to come test the game on location. She didn’t know what to think about the latter so she wiped it from her mind. There wasn’t much chance that a small app developing lab had their own drivers and cars anyway.

The driver didn’t talk the rest of the way to the location which was slightly uncomfortable, but the quiet soothed MC’s anxieties and she was soon drifting into a light doze, rocked to sleep by the motions of the car.

MC woke up a bit dazed when the car rolled to a stop. The nap seemed to have helped her migraine, it was completely gone now. “We have arrived. Please don’t get out yet. And I’m sorry, but you have to wear the mask still.” MC huffed, resigning herself to picking at the loose fabric of her splint to keep from tearing the mask away from her eyes. She was beginning to feel claustrophobic from the time spent not being able to hear or see past the confines of the car and she was curious to see where they were, which was probably the purpose of keeping the mask on for the moment.

“...Mr. Ray has arrived.” her driver spoke and MC stilled her hands, still nervous to see which case senario she signed up for. The door on her right opened and a familiar voice greeted her.

“Welcome. I’ve been waiting. Welcome to this wonderful place. It couldn’t have been an easy decision to come here...Thanks for trusting me.” She turned her body fully towards the door. One foot sliding over to the side and coming to a rest on the threshold of the door.

“Unknown?” The man laughed.

“You knew who I was by listening to my voice?” He seemed happy about that, “Yeah, it’s me. Username Unknown. My real name is Ray. Thanks for coming all this way.” He paused and cleared his throat as if he were nervous. “I really want to show you around, I prepped this and that while waiting for you.” MC rubbed the skin under her mask’s straps. Could she take it off now? Her nerves were starting to get the better of her and Unknown- Ray… didn’t seem like a bad person so far. She wanted to see him and her surroundings for herself.

“Oh,” MC freezes at his apologetic tone, “don’t take off the mask yet. You can’t take it off until we reach your room.” A small whine of distress bubbled up from her throat. It was starting to feel more like she had been kidnapped now rather than voluntarily came to test a stupid video game.

“My room?”

“Yes, I prepared a comfortable space for you while you’re here. I mean, you have to stay here throughout the testing and I wanted you to feel as comfortable as possible so the results aren’t skewed. I was worried because I didn’t know what you’ll like… I hope you like it...” His voice got steadily more quiet and unsure as he spoke. MC almost felt bad for him. The sound of gravel crunching shook her from her thoughts. Ray was walking closer to her. The footsteps stopped right in from of the open car door. “I’ll hold your hand on your way out of the car.”

“Thank you.” MC lifted her hand only to realize her right hand was still in a splint. She lowered it and reached out with her left instead. “Sorry, I had an accident last week…” Ray let out a stunted breath, but took MC’s left hand in his own gently. His hand was partially covered in a soft fabric glove. He held her hand steadily as she clambered out of the car without landing on her face, thankfully. After she was settled on solid ground he lowered their hands to hang comfortably at their sides, but didn’t let go as she expected.

“Shall we go? I hope this is alright with you, we wouldn’t want you to knock into anything and hurt yourself. Just trust me and follow my lead.” He squeezed her hand lightly and lead her over the gravel path and into an echo-y building, her sneakers thudding on the stone floor. She could hear people moving throughout the building, walking past them through what she assumed were hallways. A few of them stopped to greet Ray. Everyone seemed to know him. He must be the main game developer here.

After a few minutes of walking through halls and up two staircases Ray finally stopped walking. “Seok. I’m glad to see you’re here already. I’ll be staying with MC for a while to help her get settled before going back to work.” His voice turned cold, “Inform the newest member that I would like to see her in my office in thirty minutes. She did some...extra work that I did not approve of.”

“Of course, sir.” MC could hear the other man shuffle uncomfortably before walking away quickly. Ray lead her forward a few feet and stopped to open a door with a click. Immediately a strong scent of roses wafted over them.

“We’re here.” They stepped into the room and Ray maneuvered himself in front of MC before releasing her hand. “Come, I’ll remove your mask now”. Thin fingers brushed over MC’s temples and made her jump. Ray ghosted his fingers underneath the cloth and lifted the mask off of her face. The dim lights from various lamps around the room eased her eyes back to sight. The window was almost completely dark so it must be fairly late already.

MC blinked repeatedly and focused on the man in front of her. His appearance was nothing like she expected. His hair was bleached a shocking white with the ends of some strands a pale pink. He had a slim stature and dressed in a bright magenta waist coat, a deep blue rose tucked into his breast pocket. The gloves that she had felt on his hands earlier were black and covered only his fingers and upper palm. MC looked back up to his face and saw his green eyes smiling back at her.

“Hi! This is our first time seeing each other face-to-face, isn’t it?” She inclined her head slightly and replied as polite as ever.

“Hello… Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah. It feels great to talk to you in person. Thanks for trusting me and coming here.” He gestured around the room which she now registered was completely covered in soft pink and gold. A nice aesthetic, but not really her style.

“This is your room. I’ve tried my best in preparing all this...still, let me know of any inconvenience.” MC nodded. She couldn’t really see anything would be an inconvenience, just take some time getting used to. She wasn’t exactly expecting the palace that she apparently landed in. Ray’s eyes crinkled tighter, glad that she was pleased with the room.

“You’re free to roam this floor, but for the other floors you’ll have to tell me first so I can escort you.”

“The rest of the building is confidential, right?”

“Correct. I’m glad you remembered. You seem like a smart woman, MC. I get the feeling you’ll pull this off quite well. We still have time left, I’ll explain a bit about the game.” MC sighed internally. She’d never been so informed about a game before playing it. The information was starting to get repetitive and filtered out before she could soak it all in. It’s alright, he must just be very proud of his work and want her to feel the same way. She could respect that. He lead her to the settee in the middle of the room. She sank into it. For something so beautiful it was also surprisingly comfy.

“As I mentioned before, the purpose of the game is to hold a party with RFA. All the characters that appear there are AIs that I’ve designed. There’s one problem as I’ve tried to make it super-realistic with the AIs. They turn super-suspicious when a new person comes in.” He spread his hands out in frustration with his own design. “The concept of your character is that someone hacked your messenger and that’s how you got into the RFA chatroom. Quite suspicious, isn’t it?” MC stayed silent, her brows raising up on her forehead. It was suspicious all right. She thought back to the new app showing up on her phone earlier that day. She cleared her throat when she saw that Ray was still waiting for an answer.

“Someone hacked the messenger?” Ray nodded enthusiastically, not seeming to mind her long pause.

“Yes. And then you join the chatroom. So everyone will be cautious of you. That’s the setting of the game. It’s no fun when everyone likes you from the beginning, is it?” He laughed. “They will ask you about the hacker. But you can’t answer them because you know nothing… They’ll try to find out how you got to download this app, where you currently are, and might even try to pry out about the creator, me. When they do you can’t reveal the truth. You must keep the secret to the end.”

He kept his voice light-hearted but there was a seriousness that was in the look in his eyes. “There’s a bug I’m still trying to fix. If you give them any information the AIs don’t know what to do with your responses and the game will end prematurely. Can you promise me that you won’t reveal what we’ve been talking about to the AIs? I’ll be so devastated if you don’t get to play through the entire game.” He kept smiling as he turned towards MC and pat her hand softly. “Well then, can you give me your phone for a sec? I’ll install the game now.”

“Oh! Um, yes. One second.” She fumbled through her pockets and pulled out her phone. She entered her pin code to unlock her phone and studied it for a moment. It didn’t look like she would be getting any service here. She’d have to find a spot on this floor so she could send Jeong a text and let her know she was alright… “Here.”

“Thanks, I only need it for a few minutes.” MC stood and walked around her temporary home, admiring the decoration and attention to detail. She ran her hand over the luxurious duvet, it’s smooth knit was chilled compared to her body and felt refreshing. Well, she thought, if she was ever going to be kidnapped and killed this would be one of the better ways to go.

“All done.” Ray called out, standing up from the settee and joining MC in the middle of the room. “It should be done installing in a few minutes. I just have one more piece of advice before you start playing. If they don’t accept you into the association easily, just say ‘Someone called Rika sent me to hold the party.’”

“Who is Rika?” She asked, the name wasn’t familiar so he probably hadn’t mentioned it before.

“She’s a character within the game. The other characters will tell you what kind of person she is, but simply put she’s the one who founded the group in the game.” He handed her phone back and they walked towards the door together.

“And the most important part of your stay, please tell me what you think of the game as you play. Even the smallest thing is okay, how planning the party is going, what the characters tell you...It’s all important to improving the game.”

“Yes, leave it to me…”

“Good, I’m glad you’re confident. It makes me want to work harder to improve the game so you enjoy it. That should be all for tonight. I’ll let you get settled in and explore the room more. There are various clothes and sleepwear in the dresser over there, please help yourself to anything you need.” With that he opened the door. MC called out to him, suddenly panicked about being alone in a strange place.

“Wait- Ray, until when exactly do I have to stay here?” He hummed thoughtfully.

“I can’t really give you a definite date… it all depends on how long it takes you to finish the game.” Okay, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. How long could it take to finish a dating simulator? “Of course, if you wanted to stay longer, you can”. He looked so hopeful, MC could only smile and keep her mouth shut.

“I want to talk to you more, but I have to get going now. Give it your best shot, miss party coordinator.” Ray winked at her and walked out of the door, disappearing into the dimly lit hallway. She closed the door and ambled over to the dresser. She could feel the events of the day catching up to her and draining her energy fast. All of this was turning out to be so strange and uncomfortably real. MC grabbed the first pair of pajamas she saw, a satin set of shorts and a lace trimmed tank top… after seeing the clothes Ray wore and the state of the room it wasn’t too much of a surprise although not ideal.

She threw on the black satin, grabbed her phone from her pants pocket, and collapsed sideways on the huge, fluffy bed. She let herself sink in and closed her eyes. The bed alone might be worth the stay, she laughed to herself.

It was so nerve wracking not having service in an unfamiliar place. She came here to test a game and apparently that as all she could do… Hopefully Jeong was okay and wasn’t worrying to much. She brought her arms straight out above her head and unlocked her phone.

The same application from earlier was on her home screen now. She looked at the time. Almost ten minutes after midnight. Usually she would be heading to bed around this time, but the adrenaline and curiosity from the day promised to keep her up for at least another couple hours at least. Oh, what the hell. She could at least get the game started and save her spot when she got tired.

MC tapped on the yellow and black icon. Instead of flickering green like it had the first time, it brought her to a sort of home screen. Before she could get a good look at the tabs a screen popped up. ‘Create a username’.

“Um, my name should be fine, right?” She typed it in and pressed the enter key. The next screen asked for a profile picture, half the screen turning into a front facing camera. She groaned and snapped a quick picture. Her hair was spread messily over the pink duvet and you could see her ash-brown roots beginning to show, that and she hadn’t worn any makeup today so she looked three times as tired as she actually was. Whatever. She hit enter again. It would just be her and these AIs seeing it anyway.

As soon as she pressed enter the screen flickered a familiar green and black. It continued for a few moments and MC half thought she had broken the app already. After a minute of this she was about to exit out and try again, but the screen flashed again and settled into a chatroom. It had a dark blue gradient background with tiny white stars.

A flood of texts scrolled up her screen. She caught sight of a small bar stating that she had joined the chatroom, but it flew by just as quick and no one seemed to catch it. MC blinked and tried to concentrate on what was being said, hopefully it wouldn’t be anything too important at first because trying to catch up while the AIs were still talking was more difficult than she would’ve expected. She scrolled up a bit, they were talking about someone’s book? Someone named Jumin. His name was on the list of people in the chat so he must be one of the dateable characters. She kept reading. The character, Zen, seemed to dislike Jumin a lot judging by the amount of unimpressed emojis he sent. The emojis were so cute though. Zen, 707, and Yoosung had all sent at least one and she couldn’t help but giggle at the animations. Ray must have spent a long time making these emojis for each character. He says he doesn’t care for any of the characters, but they all had such endearing personalities she couldn’t imagine he hated them too much.

A little further into the chat the rest of the characters on the list made their appearances. First was Jumin, Everything about him was high class. While 707 and Yoosung’s profile pictures were fairly generic, and Zen’s was just purely flirtatious, Jumin’s was very professional. Jaehee’s was the same. He seemed like Jumin’s assistant from his responses in the chat. MC would probably end up going after him or Yoosung. Jaehee seemed to be the sensible one in the group and Yoosung reminded her of Jeong a little bit. Neither really made her heart swoon but their routes seemed the most tame. She watched the group interact. They still hadn’t responded to her appearance which was strange, but it did give MC a chance to get a sense of the group dynamics and their personalities.

Another character sent a text. A visceral anger and shame slammed into MC’s chest when she looked at the character’s profile picture. She couldn’t even get her eyes to focus on his face or what he even said, the color of his hair filled her vision completely. It was bright mint, almost teal. MC took a shaky breath. It was the same exact shade as her uniforms at Korean Air… He definitely wasn’t in the picture that Ray had showed her earlier, even without his hair she had very good facial recognition. She closed her eyes and curled onto her side. She shouldn’t have such a dramatic reaction to a damn color. No matter how much she berated herself though, her chest still seized up with every breath. Her hands tried to curl into fists and ground her, but her broken hand stung like hell and now she was tearing up. Great.

Fucking stupid. MC grit her teeth and pulled a pillow over her face with her good hand. Deep breaths, MC. Don’t think about the harsh scoldings, don’t think about the controlling hands squeezing her body without permission, don’t think about the nasty smirk and the heel crunching her hand to pieces like it was nothing, don’t- DON’T… don’t think about it. Stop thinking about it. Please…

She stayed curled up like that for at least fifteen minutes, fighting to bring her breathing down to a reasonable pace and stop her tears. When she finally started to feel closer to normal she relaxed her grip on the pillow and let it flop off of her face and on the bed next to her. The girl huffed and rolled her eyes at herself. Absolutely stupid. Rolling onto her stomach, she braved a look at her phone. The chatroom notifications had started going crazy at some point. A quick look told her that the AIs had finally noticed her. Ray wasn’t kidding. They were definitely suspicious and on the defensive immediately. She couldn’t help but flinch as the man, V, sent the latest text.

Jumin: V, did you allow a new member to come aboard?

V: No, I don’t recall such a thing…

V: It’s my first time seeing this person too.

The bottom of her screen looked like a normal chat interface. The text box held a blinking cursor and her usual keyboard popped up when she clicked in the box. Could she really type out an original response? No video game she’d ever played allowed her to do that. She wondered how the AIs would respond. Was Ray really so talented to make such highly cognisant AIs? She typed out a quick hello to test it out.

MC: How do you do?

Yoosing: Umm…

Yoosung: Hello?

Jaehee: Greetings are great, but first

Jaehee: Identify yourself.

Jumin: Suspicious how V has no idea of what’s going on.

Zen: Seven, did you distribute this app as a public app?

707:Nope;;

They really could interact fully, huh? It felt a little disconcerting getting extremely appropriate responses from robots, but MC had to admit that it was impressive. They did seem to lose focus fairly easily though. Almost immediately they turned to interrogating 707 and seeming to forget that she was there. Eventually came to the conclusion that she must be in the chatroom because of some of his personal affairs. A challenge? Well, if that’s what they were programed to think there was no reason to deny it.

MC: Exactly.

707: Whoohoo lol?

707: You, me, hacking match, wanna give it a go?

Zen sent another one of his exasperated emojis and MC laughed a little. 707 definitely had an interesting personality. She waited impatiently while they figured out what to do next, 707 took it upon himself to try and trace her. It was just a silly game, but the scripted tension still had her nervous, especially after Ray’s warning not to mention anything about what she knew to the group. Just in passing, she wondered what would happen if she gave them what she knew. Ray said it would be game over, but didn’t say how they would react. She let the thought pass as Jumin entered the conversation again.

Jumin: For such an unexpected occurrence, it’s time for the head of the RFA to take action - that means you, V.

So he was the head. MC rubbed a hand over her eyes. That would make it a lot more difficult to avoid him, damn.

V: I’m having a slight meltdown myself…

Zen: V in a meltdown…? T-T

V: I didn’t think someone could actually break into an app that Luciel made.

707: Yessss It’s my first time too

707: So actually, I’m slightly…

707: excited…

He sent an adorable heart emoji and Jaehee sent an emoji reaction similar to Zen’s. MC bent her legs so her feet kicked in the air. This was pretty amusing so far. As far as introductions to characters in video games went, this was pretty painless and easy to follow. Besides her slight breakdown early. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen every time. She noticed that all the AIs had a healthy dose of respect for 707’s skills, even if they were also exasperated by his antics. She wondered if Ray modeled the redhead after himself. Everyone in this building seemed to respect him and judging by this game so far he was very talented.

Yoosung: Why don’t we just ask directly who they are?

Jumin: I doubt it’ll be honest with us… but not a terrible idea.

Yoosung: U don’t know until u try.

Yoosung: hey. Where are you from, MC?

Oh shit. Should she lie and make something up? Would the AIs be able to tell she was lying and get more curious? They were easily distracted earlier...maybe it would be better to redirect their attention then lying outright.

MC: I’ve come to tell you something good.

Zen: No way. You’re not the person who came by my house yesterday to offer ‘good words’... are you?

Yoosung: They went to your house too? They came to mine too!

Zen: I was stuck with them for more than an hour at the door yesterday ;;

Jaehee: We’re heading off-topic.

Jaehee: Luciel, are you done yet?

Yeah, he was definitely the sensible one. MC laughed, it was almost too easy to get the rest of them off topic. At least the ones who talked the most. Jaehee, Jumin, and V were pretty focused, but they didn’t talk too often.

Jumin: Luciel, did you find anything?

707: What’s wrong with this…?

707:Is it not working?

Yoosung: Hey, what’s wrong?

707: I can’t track down

707: the location at all.

Jumin:Hmmm…

Jumin: MC, I’ll change the question.

Jumin: For what purpose did you log into this messenger?

MC: I was told to host a party. When can I see Rika? I’m here because of her?

Despite what Ray said, the name Rika seemed to shake all of the members to the core and rile them up further. All at once everyone threw out questions and theories. Something seemed off though, like they hadn’t expected the name to be brought up at all. Ray said she was the founder of the RFA, why were they so surprised? Why wasn’t she part of the chat? ...Actually, why was V the head of the RFA if Rika was the founder?

Yoosung: What do you mean, when can you see her…?

Jumin: It’s certain MC isn’t up to date with Rika’s state.

Jumin: V is here with us. I hope if you knew the situation you would refrain from thoughtlessly mentioning Rika, MC.

V: No, it’s okay. I’m okay.

V: MC.

This is not what she thought would happen. Everyone seemed to be offended that she brought up Rika. Would this really stop them from suspecting her? And now V was addressing her directly. Looking at his icon still made her light-headed and in combination with the swirling suspicion surrounding her it was quickly becoming a lot more than she was prepared to deal with in a game. Ray made everything too realistic. Was that a good thing?

V: I don’t know how you know Rika

V: but she’s not with us anymore… in this world…

V: She left our side 6 months ago.

Oh. That made sense. Yeah, this was definitely close to being too much for her. She felt guilty for bringing up a name and hurting a bunch of video game AIs. She sat up cross-legged with her back arched over the phone in her lap. Her long hair drooped around her face and obscured her view of the screen. She twisted it into a bun haphazardly and secured it with the band on her wrist.

The RFA members had moved on slightly. Yoosung and the rest of the RFA seemed to have differing opinions on what happened to Rika exactly. The way he accused V of hiding things rubbed her the wrong way, especially seeing how V just seemed to take it and accept the venom that Yoosung sunk into him. Weren’t they friends? Or at least members of the same organization? MC couldn’t help but compare it to the way her old co workers mistreated her. She may not be comfortable with V yet, but she didn’t think he deserved such hurtful comments. They continued arguing and 707 suggested denying her access to the messenger. MC gnawed on a loose thread from her splint nervously. Was this one of the bad ends? Yeah, she might have been curious earlier, but she wanted it to happen on her own terms.

V: No.

V: I wasn’t going to ask Luciel to deny MC’s access.

V: It’s actually just the opposite.

V: Luciel, I want to make a call to MC. Can you connect me through?

707: Umm… It’s not impossible…

707: Really? Is it okay to connect you both?

V: Yes. There’s something I want to ask MC.

C-call? The AI’s can call in this game? Just how advanced was Ray and his team? She’d never heard anything like it. Another wave of anxiety washed over her. She didn’t know if she was completely comfortable with being on the phone with...AIs? They were AIs right?

MC: You can just ask me here.

Yoosung: Yea! You can just say it here! Is it about Rika? Another one of your secrets you keep behind our backs again?

Zen: Yoosung;;

Pursuing Yoosung was becoming less likely by the minute. Apparently her first assessment was flawed. Jeong would never be so apathetic to someone else’s feelings. He was actually turning out to be pretty rude.

V: Sorry… It looks like I’m causing disputes.

707: V…

707: I’m gonna put you two through. Is that okay?

V: Yes, it’s okay. Put me through.

Jumin: V, I believe you would have thoroughly assessed and examined the situation. I hope it’s not a decision made in haste. Please be cautious.

V: I appreciate your concern, Jumin. There’s somethings I must ask MC, even if there are risks I need to endure.

V: If, as MC has said, ‘Rika’ is the one who sent MC to this messenger…

V: I’d like to think Rika wanted the RFA parties to continue even now that she’s gone. I want to make that come true.

V: I’m considering accepting MC as a new member of the RFA, if MC agrees.

Jaehee: That seems a bit abrupt. We still don’t know much about her…

V: That’s why I want to talk to her over the phone. It’ll be easier for me to get a sense of who she is if I can hear her voice. That being said, Luciel, I want you to keep searching for information about MC.

V: I’ll call you first so we can discuss what needs to be done about MC, Luciel. I should get going now. Please excuse me.

V: MC, I’ll call you in a bit…

V has left the chatroom.

707: Hecalledrightaway assaid

707: Imgonnatakethiscall bbye

707 has left the chatroom.

Well, that was… an ordeal. Things were starting to move forward now. Hopefully she wouldn’t be getting a bad end now that she got past all that. She checked the time on the standing clock in the corner of the room; it was almost 2am now. God, had they really been talking for so long? It felt like she accomplished a lot, but it wasn’t at all what she thought. MC expected to have established the beginnings of a relationship with whoever she was going to pursue, but this dating simulation was incredibly complex. She could understand why Ray wanted an outside tester for this. You couldn’t possibly have the same experience if you already knew what would happen and were involved with programming the characters.

The remaining RFA members were slowly exiting the chatroom as well. She said her goodbyes to each of them. Yoosung was the last to leave. Out of all the members, even V who Jumin had said was engaged to Rika, Yoosung was the most shaken by MC’s entrance and the mention of Rika. She could understand his desperation to know more about deceased loved ones and he was obviously the youngest of the group. His actions weren’t polite or called for, but it wasn’t completely his fault she supposed.

A few seconds passed after she exited the chatroom with the others when her phone buzzed with a call. V’s name and face flashed on the screen, causing MC to flinch reflexively. The unfounded fear of the man yelling at her for whatever she had done wrong crossed her mind and held tight. He didn’t deserve it. V seemed like a very nice person in the chatroom, even a little bit of a push-over, but she couldn’t help it. All off her bad experiences with the airline were saturated in the color. The phone buzzed again angrily and MC hurried to swipe answer before the call disconnected.

“Hello? Oh, you picked up. The phone seems to be working alright. I was worried you wouldn’t answer…” MC held her breath. This...wasn’t what she expected. Not only was it like talking to an actual person, but his voice was...softer than she feared it would be. It wasn’t too deep and scarily masculine or gravely and there was no hint of anger in his tone, only relief.

“MC…? Can you hear me?”

“Y-yes! Sorry, I guess I wasn’t expecting your call so soon…” V chuckled lightly.

“I apologize if I startled you. I know it’s late, but I wanted to call you as soon as possible and introduce myself properly. I am V, the head of the RFA. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” MC listened to him carefully. She’d never heard a man speak so friendly and gently with her, even Jeong’s father kept a gruff tone. She worried a bit that he had sensed her aversion to him and tried to sooth her like a wounded animal.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. My name is MC.” V hummed and she could practically see him nodding his head slowly.

“It’s great to hear you in person outside the chat room. It’s good for both of us to put a voice to a name and not be as strange to each other. I called because there is something I’d like to ask you actually. I already mentioned this back in the chatroom, but…” he drifted a bit, like he was afraid to ask. Or maybe he was afraid of what her answer would be. “Uh… if it doesn’t offend you, may I ask you something?”

“Yes, of course. I want to be as transparent with you and the rest of the RFA as possible. I don’t have a lot of information myself, but I’ll help as much as I can. It’s what I came here to do anyway.”

“Thank you for saying that.” He let a small breath of relief escape and puff over the receiver. The detail and appropriateness even over a live call was-

“Can you tell me how you know about Rika? I believe it might be confusing for the rest of the members… if they hear it” Ah. His weary sadness translated all to well through the phone. MC rubbed her good hand nervously over her calf.

“I’m sorry. Like I said I don’t have a lot of information myself. All I can say is that I got an invitation to host a party with the RFA from Rika, although not first hand.”

“Oh...I see. That’s something you already said in the chatroom. So there’s nothing new. Very well. Thank you for cooperating.” She could hear the dejection in his voice and she apologized again for not being able to give him any more information. Although he was just a game character, she couldn’t help but hope he would believe her and not be disappointed in her. One of the many flaws Jeong tried to help her through.

“No, It’s alright, MC. It doesn’t seem like you have any malicious intent and Luciel says he hasn’t found anything bad or good about you, so I’m choosing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now. Hmm… It’s quite late, I think that’s enough questions for now… And I believe there are limits to conversations through phone…” MC jumped on the piece of hope he offered.

“Then, please, let’s slowly learn about each other. It must be difficult for you to trust me after I showed up in your messenger so abruptly, but I’m willing to show you who I am from now on.” She couldn’t help but feel a little desperate to please. It was in her nature and further instilled with training and after a week with no human contact except Jeong, she was beginning to feel useless. Even if it was through a game, maybe she could gain a bit of herself back…

“Yes, I plan to. I’d like to know what kind of person you are, MC. I believe there will be so much to talk about with you. Since you’re here to hold parties, we share a common goal. So I’ll help you to the best of my abilities. If you need my help or have any questions, please feel free to ask me any time.I hope we can spend a good time together. And I hope we can spend a good time together with the rest of the RFA members as well.” His voice got even softer than before and MC had to hold back a choked sob. He was being so nice to her and she didn’t deserve any of it.

“L-leave it to me.” She hoped he didn’t hear her voice crack.

“...I will. I hope you’re a good person, MC. I have to leave now, but I look forward… to working with you. Good night.”

MC held the phone up to her ear several minutes after V had hung up. Her throat had finally stopped constricting and she dropped the hand holding her phone to the bed, following suit and sinking into the pillows. There were several notifications from the RFA members texting her, but they could wait until morning. She blinked at the blank space of the ceiling and allowed herself a minute just to breath.

…That was an AI?!?