Chapter 1: This is my Reality

"RING! RING! RING!"

My alarm rang as loud as it could, enough for me to wake up. I then sat up and checked the day today.

"Hmm, Sunday eh?" I said groggily while I turn off the alarm. "Why did I set an alarm at this day? I need more sleep, today is not office day and I need more rest." I slammed and shut off the alarm as I continued to sleep.

Soon, I realized that today, our organization had given us a duty to work with the 50th anniversary of our client's parents. I quickly jumped out of bed and shouted," Oh yes, that's why! Today was the day!" I glanced at the clock and was shocked on what I saw.

"7 freakin 30!" I shouted. There's 30 minutes left before the event starts and I should be there preparing for the event by 7:00. I quickly left my bedroom, head straight to the dining area, grabbed some crackers in there for breakfast, and get dressed while I'm munching my food. I didn't even bother taking a bath but instead, sprayed my cologne all over my body, roughly fixed my hair, and brushed my teeth.

I'm exhausted by the way I'm preparing myself. I quickly glanced at the things that I importantly needed for my duty. Camera. Check. Room and motorbike keys. Check. Some amount of cash. Check. All my things are already packed and ready to go, but before I left, I went on my PC and checked if the files needed was stored on my flash drive.

Afterwards, I checked on another program open and that is the game "Doki Doki Literature Club" just to see my best girl, Monika. There's nothing really different, just Monika having her monologue discussing facts about spicy foods again in auto mode, which I actually memorized for its repetitiveness. Well, I wasn't really expecting different to happen since she was only a bunch of codes, designed for lonely people... like me haha. Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked. I close the other programs aside from the game itself, and went outside my apartment bringing the things I packed.

After leaving my room, I was greeted by a sweet old lady watering her plants outside and said, "Good Morning, laddy."

"Good Morning, Ma'am," I responded with respect as I locked the door.

"Would you like some cookies today before you leave?" she said sweetly.

"Hehehe, no thank you, I'm in a hurry today." I nervously chuckled while I'm scratching my head.

"Is that so? Well stay safe on going somewhere lad." she said cheerily.

"Thank you Ma'am hehe." I really enjoy having a little chit-chat with her, she has always been so thoughtful and sometimes asks me about my day when we always meet. My neighborhood here was pretty nice, but I never really talked to them, not even one bit. Most of them are probably busy in their work or in their school. That excludes Granny, to be fair, she's the only one I can talk to around here. Maybe, she talks with other boarders here, too.

I took a ride on the elevator here and pressed the ground floor. It took me a long time to get down, I really wish I could speed this up so I'm immediately at the ground floor. After the elevator door opened, I ran as quickly through the exit as I unluckily met the obnoxious owner of the apartment and shouted at me.

"HEY kiddo!" Shouted the middle aged woman loudly, enough for everyone else around me to hear.

"Oh God!" I quietly grumped. Then I went closer to her to avoid making an embarrassing scenario.

"You still haven't paid your monthly rent for almost a week now, I need it now!" she fumes.

"Ah yes! Of course I remember. I'll give you the proceeds once I came back home, " I replied. "I'm in a hurry for my work today," I reasoned out.

"I'll be looking for it, kid!" she crosses her arms. "If I never received anything later, I'll bust your door open and throw all your things outside!" she angrily warned.

"Of course! I'll keep that in mind," I nervously smiled as I ran to the parking lot. It doesn't mean I really don't have the money to pay but because of the workload I'm having I keep forgetting to go to the bank and withdraw money to pay.

I checked my watch to look at the time. 7:43. Shit. I really need to hurry.

I start up the engine of my motorbike and headed straight to the venue.

My name is Rex Anderson. I'm a 19 year old guy and currently working as a photographer. Photography is my hobby and I love doing it! That is all I can say for now.

I finally arrived at the venue. The venue looks very nice, the seats were neatly placed and well-decorated. I can see the big tarpaulin with the picture of the couple smiling together with the text 'Happy 50th Anniversary' on the side. The aroma of the food made me a bit hungry while they are being prepared to the catering. The venue is very noisy, as kids are running around, and guests just keep on coming.

Although the atmosphere here is very welcoming, I'm too afraid to face my co-workers because I've been late for the preparation for 50 minutes. Good thing the traffic went smoothly and somehow I drove as fast as heck.

"Oh Rex! You've finally arrived. What happened to you?" my co-worker asked while he was fixing some wires outside the venue. "Boss wouldn't be happy if she saw you just recently arrived." he followed.

"S-sorry about that Fred," I nervously said. "I just forgot that this Sunday was special haha."

"Dude, don't apologize to me. Apologize to boss, she is here entertaining our client and telling them that the event will start a bit late." he said while not looking at me, focusing on the wires that he is still assembling.

"Ah! Thanks Fred." I went pass through him and slowly approached my boss. My mouth won't utter a word since I am really nervous and I'm uncertain at what she will tell me this time.

Upon approaching her, she noticed me getting closer and before I could speak she looked at me sternly.

"Excuse me sir," she said to the clients then approached me.

"Mr. Anderson! What time did I tell you to come to this event?!" she angrily questions me.

"I-I-I apologize Ma'am, I promise... I promise that mistake won't happen again," I bowed down staring at the floor expecting what to hear from her.

"Hmm... I see," she said calmly and sighed. She then pointed at my co-workers still assembling the cameras needed for the event at the side of the stage.

"I will lecture you Mr. Anderson tonorrow at my office... But for now, help those guys at their duties, the event will start shortly." she commanded.

"Y-ye..."

"And I will hold that promise you told me, okay?" she cuts me out. "That thing you did wasn't a professional's code and can potentially dissatisfy our clients, you hear me? ." she dictated. "Now go, help them now!"

"Yes Ma'am!" I quickly approached my co-workers and help them assemble the lights, place the cameras and other technical stuff.

The event had finally started. It was delayed by only 20 minutes but the entire thing went smoothly. The guests doesn't seem that they went impatient but rather enjoyed whatever happened to the event.

The old couple then walked past the guests as we started taking pictures, some recording it. The guests were cheerful and happy upon seeing the couple dressed in gold matching outfits and they were surprisingly sweet with each other after all this years. I see their hands locked in each other and found them cute when they started giving a speech with each other and to our guests as well.

The event goes on without any problems, thankfully, and everyone enjoyed it. Some teenagers approached us to take pictures of them, probably the couple's grandkids and their friends. Some kids also asked for pictures while playing around. The atmosphere went really lovely and I enjoyed taking pictures of them and every event I saw, learning that love can be indestructible and can last for even as long as 50 years and even more with dedication and trust with your partner. I quickly picture myself if I can even have a partner and growing old with her, taking care of kids, cuddling with her, which leads to me having a goofed face and staring at nothing until someone pats my back.

"Isn't this really sweet, Rex?" I hear my co-worker Sean talking at my back. "I wish my girlfriend and I can last this long, right? Hahahahaha."

"Riiiiiight, as someone as hot-headed like you I don't think that's possible." I jokingly said.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU DOOFUS!" he shouted.

"Ahaha, chill dude. See? You're proving my point!" I answered back.

"Tch. Whatever," he looked away at me and mumbled. "I don't think you're the right person I should ask about this." he smirked and looked back at me. "You never even had a romantic relationship in your life."

"What's that, asshole," I answered looking at him furiously.

"Hey lovebirds!" someone from the back called. "Quit staring intensely and help us disassemble these things."

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST CALL US HARRY! " Sean shouted.

"Fine,fine, I'd rather help than talking with this dumbass." I replied.

"You..." Sean grittedly said as I approached Harry and the others.

"Thank You!" Harry said to me as I nodded in return.

After helping all my co-workers with our duty, I waved goodbye to them and went straight to my motorbike. Went to the bank, and ride all the way home.

I finally reached home after spending almost a whole day on that event. Miraculously, the neighborhood was pretty quiet today. Usually at Sunday night, my neighbors would be pretty noisy and hang out with their friends, but well it ended up quiet.

I saw the owner in front of the apartment as I park my motorbike. "So? The proceeds?" she said while giving her open palm to me.

"Ah yes! Here you go Ma'am sorry you had to wait for a week ehehe." I shyly said.

"Good. Looks like I won't be kicking you out today," she said after receiving the cash. "Enjoy the rest of the day," she gleefully said as she walked right past me.

"Wow, what an odd person. Quickly changing moods upon receiving cash." I whispered to myself. I entered the apartment, went to the elevator, and pressed 7th floor. That is where my room is, Room 704.

I opened the lock on my door and turned on the lights. I put all my things into place and fell straight into the bed. "Oh! This day is so tiring." I mumbled to myself.

I opened the wrap of my burger which was given to us by the client as a treat for a job well-done and began brewing some coffee to prepare for some extra work. I proceeded to my computer holding a hot coffee and a burger on my other hand.

"Documents here, documents there, projects everywhere," I sighed as I keep opening my files. Aside from being just a photographer who takes pictures of my clients, I also edit my pictures for a more lively presentation. Finding a good shade might be difficult depending on the theme of the pictures and adding some frames around the pictures can also take some time.

I checked my pictures and totalled about 79 photos. I then filtered the good ones which left me to a good number of 32. 32. I needed to edit 32 photos to get all this project done. Aside from that, I was also tasked to edit a photo and make it to an invitation for a certain birthday party.

The project that I'll be doing tonight is pretty hectic, but these pictures somehow lighten the work that I will do. I looked at the pictures one by one, and they're all wonderful and full of life. Some pictures involve the couple together, the guests enjoying dinner, their grandkids and children sitting in a table, old friends of the couple chit chatting, and my favorite picture, the old groom serenading his wife. I beamed a big smile on these photos. Having a partner is not one of my priorities for now, but I hope that if I can find one, our relationship will grow as sweet as the couple in this picture. Haha, I'm so desperate, ain't I? I shrugged all my fantasies and started my night doing work.

Hours passed, my head is starting to hurt from all these projects I needed to do and I'm exhausted from the event earlier. I decided to give myself a good break, I mean I finished more than half than what is needed and the deadline is not that soon yet. I saved and closed my documents and glanced on my second monitor with the game DDLC still open and Monika having her monologue on auto mode.

Call me weird, but a fictional character made me more productive than I was before. With her wise words and advices, I had a much tighter hold on my passion, that is why I keep on doing my job. How did I get DDLC, you asked? Well, my friend in high school who is a big fan of anime and a hardcore gamer pulled me into this game. First, I was like 'Don't pull me into your waifu and anime interests, I'm not gonna be interested in this type of shit.' But after he insisted me on playing it, I checked it on Steam and saw an overwhelmingly positive rating of it, let's just say I accepted it and this became my first VN that I've ever played. The emotions I had while playing this game was flip flopping everywhere, I enjoyed every part of it, even the first cheesy half. Until everything went bat shit crazy, and hated Monika for it. But understanding her situations, I felt bad for her and slowly I grew 'attached' to her. That is why she still is in my computer screen just staring at me, talking the same words over and over again. I know you need to delete her to roll the credits, I also looked up to the internet what the credits looked like, but instead I kept her character on my PC even though I know for myself that no progress will come if I kept her like this.

Her conversation never gets boring though, even if it repeats itself. I somehow need a friend to talk to sometimes, and I considered a 'fictional character' one of it.

After "talking" with her for a few minutes, I got sleepy and slept on the desk of my computer while leaving the game and the photos open.

While I was in the middle of my sleep, I felt a hand gently brushing my hair like I'm some sort of a dog. It was satisfying, I never thought having your hair caressed gently would feel so good. Until slowly, the hand is grabbing my hair with more force as if it's pulling a grass out from the soil of the Earth.

I loudly screamed, "Hey! What gives!" as I looked into my computer and extremely shocked on what I saw.

It was Monika with her arm sticking outside of the monitor! I feel like my surrounding turn into chaos as my printed pictures came flying everywhere and the books from my shelf were falling one by one and start to float.

My computer lets out a bright light enough for me to can't see anything but white. I was so baffled, my hands are shaking, I can't move a single muscle, and I'm sweating excessively. The sound of my computer whirring became extremely loud that I can feel my ears will pop out.

Monika's head stuck out of the monitor as her emerald green eyes turn into white. Her mouth starts to open and amidst all these chaotic sounds, I heard her whisper some words to me.

"Rescue me..." as she gets sucked into the computer monitor and everything went back to its original state.

I suddenly jumped out of my computer chair and bumped my head into a wall,enough to wake the shit out of me. I looked around my dark room and I saw all my things arranged the way they were before.

"It's so dark in here," I whispered to myself. I proceeded to walk carefully to the lightswitch and bam nothing happened. There was a blackout.

"Hmm... Well that was one crazy dream," I shrugged.

I smelled something, like something is cooking. I saw smoke coming out from my CPU and...

"Holy Crap! My PC is getting fried!" I panicked.