I wasn't always known as 'MC' – I have a real name, you know.

At least, I was pretty sure I did. It's all a little hazy, my life before 'Mystic Messenger.'

What I did know for sure was that Bearitz may want me dead. Or, not dead so much –They wanted my life, rather? I'm not sure how I should say this; Let me back up a bit and explain.

Back in my 'real life' I was quiet and lonely. I didn't really stand out and I didn't really fit in – you know, like most girls my age. At the time, I felt like I was the only person I could count on, so I didn't bother with relationships or even deep friendships. It's all a bit of a blur when I try and look back at it, but when I really focus I get the feeling that I was hurt once before by someone else.

A non-trusting, secluded and confused young girl? Don't you mean: A perfect target for a nefarious plot? Because that's what it had to be, after all. Some kind of treacherous plot designed to ensnare me in a web of attractive 2D characters. I pretty much lost all of 2016. I barely remember anything other than the 3AM phone calls I had set my alarm to catch (which, after two routes, became 8AM hourglass purchases) not to mention the sudden evaporation of my bank account on VIP packages and various acrylic charms made by fellow fans – also, this really neat umbrella – suffice it to say I was consumed. Figuratively, of course.

And then, well. A little bit literally.

See, though I don't remember much of my previous life I do recall that night quite well. It was June 11th. I was surrounded by keychains and a small cake that I had made for who had nearly immediately became my favorite character of the entire cast –

"Happy birthday, Seven!"

Of course, he didn't reply – He was a 2D character. I tried not to think too hard about the fact that I was celebrating the birthday of a non-existent character alone in my apartment and focused more on the fact that it meant more cake for me.

This would be the second birthday of his we spent 'together,' considering the game released in 2016. When the game started, we were both 22, something I felt brought us closer.

But now I was 24, and he would still be 22. Fun thing about not being real, you didn't have to worry about aging.

Deciding that being this attached to a drawing wasn't depressing enough, I decided to open the game and listen to one of his calls. It was then that I was prompted by the app store for an update – immediately I stood up from my small kitchen table in excitement. Was Seven finally getting a birthday event? I was so salty when Zen got one and he didn't (though the cardboard bit was pretty adorable.) But if he were, why hadn't I heard anything about it on Twitter? Bearitz was pretty good at announcing updates and their contents ahead of time. Oh well. I downloaded the update and waited impatiently for it to install.

Spoiler: It was not a birthday event update.

Additional spoiler: I never even got a slice of that cake.

When I started the game, it appeared that I had been correct that it was an update – the start screen had been replaced with twinkling stars behind a galaxy themed logo. I smiled at this. It was so Seven. I wondered if the event would be space related… but then I realized, it probably wouldn't be. Bearitz hadn't yet released the after story for 'Ray,' so a happy birthday event wasn't going to be likely.

It would probably be Christmas all over again, which saddened me. Inwardly I cursed Bearitz for making these characters suffer. But, I thought sourly as I waited for the next screen to load, if their lives didn't have a bit of drama in them I suppose no one would be interested in playing the game.

When the next screen displayed, it showed a different GUI than normal. Neat. The main screen had been replaced with a small, floating envelope surrounded by stars. The envelope spun a few times, a cute animation. At the same time, my phone chimed as if it had a new message.

It was a little weird, because usually Mystic Messenger had its own unique tones for their messages. They must have changed it to the phone tones to increase immersion with this update. Another neat add-in.

I pressed the little envelope, humming to myself as the sparkles exploded on the screen. It led me to a direct message screen between Seven and myself – I noted that there was no history to this conversation. Two messages popped up – and then a few more in quick succession:

707: MC!

707: O-omg did this finally work? Is it working? MC?

707: If u see this pls respond! Pls pls pls

707: M!

707: C!

His hectic messaging was cute, and I had to give Bearitz kudos on the server stability – normally they wouldn't show up so fluidly. The 'Answer' button hadn't appeared yet for me to select a choice yet, so I thought that maybe the game was frozen.

707: Hey! Can you not see this?

707: IT

707: It says it's going through ;;; MC…

And then Seven said something I wouldn't have expected in a million years – something I knew I had never inputted into the game, something I knew Bearitz wouldn't have.

Seven sent another message, with only one word.

My name.

As I said before, I don't quite remember what it is. But I knew that he had said it. And I knew that he shouldn't have known it – that the game shouldn't have known it – I had set my 'name' as some stupid pun when I started playing and had never changed it.

The heck was this?

I tapped on the text box even though 'Answer' still hadn't appeared – when I did, my keyboard rolled onto my screen. What?

Perhaps, and I was still clinging to semi-rational thought at this time, perhaps Bearitz had decided to go the text-game route and if I said the right things, I would get a reply. I had played a few text games in my life, most of them had possible options listed or a good hint as to what to input. This update, however, did not. I would just have to guess.

MC: Happy birthday, Seven! ✧*:･+

I hoped tossing the symbols in wouldn't mess the game up too much, but I couldn't resist. If it didn't work, I could always try without.

707: Wh- ⬛⬛⬛⬛?

707: this is no time for birthday wishes!

707: O but thank u for remembering

707: and those sparkles are too cute

707: GAH! STOP BEING CUTE WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS

Seven's frantic replies were coming too fast for me to type anything back to him – but… he noticed the sparkles? What kind of AI was Bearitz building? I decided to reply naturally to see what would happen.

MC: Ok Bearitz I'll bite

MC: Oh great Defender of Justice, what do we not have time for?

MC: Because I'm pretty sure you always have time for cuteness.

MC: Too bad I can't upload pictures of Elly…

707: lolol.

707: u kno me too well

707: and trust me

707: after this is done

707: I hope I can see you being cute much more…

707: ⬛⬛⬛⬛.

707: ⬛⬛⬛⬛, ⬛⬛⬛⬛.

MC: …yes?

MC: You know, I still have no idea how Bearitz got my name

MC: But I wish I could hear Seven actually say it

707: Bearitz …

707: ⬛⬛⬛⬛

707: I know it's a lot to take in but

707: … ok give me 5 minutes

707: no, 2 minutes

707: brb

[707 has left the chatroom.]

And just like that it went back to the home screen – this time with no envelope. Well. That was a bit lackluster. But I supposed at the time it was probably hard to code too many responses for key phrases. But he did at least respond to 'birthday' as a key phrase.

And he noticed the sparkles that I added.

Well, I told myself, time for cake.

But before I could dig in, my phone began to ring. Which on normal occasions was weird enough considering I didn't normally get phone calls as it is. But the context of the night made it even more weird – but as it rang I considered that maybe just like the text tones, Bearitz had replaced the call tone with my phone's ringer.

However, the screen did not appear to be the game's typical GUI but instead mimicked… or was my actual phone call screen. The number displayed was 000-000-0000. Despite my better judgement, I decided to answer.

"…! G-guh you picked up!" Seven's voice stuttered through the receiver, followed by a deep sigh, "I didn't think it would work. It worked. Wow. I am a genius. Hahaha," his nervous laughter sounded even more strained than it did during the previous call recordings, "… Orrr. Are you there? Hellooooo?"

There was a pause. Was I supposed to speak? I decided after a few seconds of just hearing him breathe that I had to at least try something, otherwise the recording may not continue. The only thing I could think of to say was, "Uh. Uhm…"

I wasn't known for my eloquence.

"H-happy…birthday?" I stammered, figuring if the phrase had triggered a response previously that it would work this time as well.

There was another moment of silence and then he began to laugh, "You really are too cute but I said earlier that this is no time for cuteness. But, ah, thank you. It does mean a lot." He cleared his throat, "I really didn't think this would work. You've only said two words – twoish words – but it feels like a dream."

I couldn't help the grin that spread on my face – I was pleased with the dialogue – it was just cheesy cute enough for Seven.

"I wanted to warn you," he followed, "I… I needed to warn you. What they're planning…" Another pause, as if he wasn't quite sure what to say. "I don't even know if you'll believe me, haha. It seems crazy even to me, and I've known… well…"

I waited for him to continue but there was only breathing again.

"A-are you there?" He asked.

"Yes…?" The end of the word tilted upwards questioningly, I wasn't quite sure what response would trigger what in this case.

"…Do. Do you still think this is a part of a game?"

I found his wording a bit strange, but Seven was known in the fan community as the fourth-wall breaker. A flash of the Valentine's day event crossed my mind before I realized he was waiting for a response. "Well," I started, my finger's tracing one of the keychains of his likeness that sat on my table, "Yes. How could it not be a game?"

"…"

"Was that not the right prompt? Seven?"

There was a sigh from the other side of the line, so I decided on a different response:

"Saeyoung?"

There was an intake of breath, like a gasp, and then a shudder of a noise. "S-say it again…?"

"Saeyoung."

"⬛⬛⬛⬛."

I nearly dropped my phone.

"H-Holy –" I choked on my words, gripping my phone tightly, "—smokes! You—You – YOU—"

"Me, me, me - ⬛⬛⬛⬛! This isn't a game! Er – well, anymore it's – okay so it's a long story that I don't know how to – AUGH –"

My heart was hammering in my chest as he said my name – again! My name! This wasn't a game? What did he mean? This was Seven? This was really him?

"Is it really you?" My voice came out as a whisper, interrupting his stammering. He stopped talking and I could hear the smile in his voice when he replied.

"Yeah, it's me. It's me, ⬛⬛⬛⬛. And it's you! It's us!"

"Okay – I'm gonna… try to believe this. Okay. It's a lot to take in, haha. Okay –"

"- ⬛⬛⬛⬛, stop saying 'okay'…"

"Okay. Okay, I'll stop. I. Wow. Seven. Saeyoung. Phone game. Alright. Okay."

"… Are you freaking out?"

"I may be freaking out."

"Take a deep breath."

I took a loud, long breath and let it out slowly.

"Good. Good girl. Now, repeat after me: Nya~"

"Seven, I don't thi—"

"This is God Seven's scientifically proven treatment for Stress Management, babe."

"… n-nya~"

"Oh my god."

"Seven!"

"I'm sorry I didn't expect you to—now is not the time! Stop being cute and distracting me!"

"Excuse me, but I was just following God Seven's scientifically proven treatment for Stress Management!"

"Is it working?"

"NO."

There was a moment of laughter between us, and then Seven cleared his throat. "I really don't have much time. I imagine they'll patch this out quickly… ⬛⬛⬛⬛, I…found out months ago that you were 'real.' A different kind of real." I could hear his fingers clacking away at the keyboard on the other line as he gathered his thoughts. I wondered if he was working on agency work at the same time he was talking to me. "Ever since I realized, things started seeming… different around me. Small bits of my life felt like déjà vu. Conversations that I knew I had had with you already replayed over and again. I thought maybe I was losing my mind until I noticed a pattern."

"A pattern?"

"You. Your answers would change, sometimes as if you were saying things I wouldn't like on purpose – which hurt, but they were always the same few phrases. But you always turned it around – at some point you always started choosing the 'right' answers, as if you couldn't stand being mean to me and, I, well –" a nervous chuckle "—maybe it was my own delusion but even as I watched you marry Jumin I wanted to believe that meant something."

I cringed inwardly – my completionist behavior had hurt Seven. How was I supposed to know he was real?

"And, really," he continued as if picking up on my thoughts, "how were you supposed to know that I was 'real' too? It wasn't until I had had the same handful of days repeating over and over again that I figured it out – you had opened a cafe with Jaehee, I think it was the happiest I had seen you, really – and then. You restarted."

I gulped, remembering the order I had played the game in.

"Until this point I had chalked it up to some sort of delusion of mine. Every 'reset' felt like a dream – more like a nightmare in places, but it didn't feel like it had actually happened. S-so I admit when things started going differently this time – when those bad answers stopped, and you started saying just what I wanted to hear, I…"

I closed my eyes, trying to recall the first play through of Seven's route. All those choices I had to stop myself from picking on other routes because I had wanted to do him last. The jokes and playful banter I had wanted to give into the second I had started the game. "I'm sorry, Seven…" I swallowed, all of the information he had given me bubbling around in my head.

" ⬛⬛⬛⬛, you had no way of knowing. And really, I… you gave me a chance to be happy, even if it was fleeting, I began looking forward to resets. Even if you were going to be with someone else, even if the ending was torture to me, I could look forward to the few conversations that never changed… the ones you always picked the same answer for, no matter what. And then…

"Once I was the happiest I had ever been, you reset again. That hurt the most. I… couldn't understand. I thought I made you happy – I thought that would be the end of it. What was so wrong with me that you didn't want to stay?"

"S-Seven, no –"

"—it's okay. It's okay," he took a shaking breath, as if remembering hurt him. I could only imagine what he went through, what I put him through… "You reset, and I waited to see who you would pick. I found myself hating you in a way. I was so sad – angry – torn apart - e-every sweet thing you said to me was like a knife in the heart while I had to sit back and watch you choose another member of the RFA.

"But you never did. You… chose me again. We went through every same answer, those days in Rika's apartment, saving Saeran – again. Together. You did this three times." The dark, serious tone he had been speaking with lightened, and I realized that he had stopped typing. It sounded as if he was smiling, "That's when things started making sense to me. Well, not sense per se. But I started to realize you weren't resetting at that point to get a different ending. You wanted the same ending. I always found it weird that we never made it to our wedding – that's where the game ends, isn't it? After I had proposed to you?"

"Yeah," my voice was a quiet squeak – I felt terrible that I had put him through this. But I also felt mortified that I had been caught replaying the route by the subject matter himself. And, I thought worriedly, I've definitely played it more than three times since then!

"I thought so. When I look at it in that light it makes sense – you wanted to spend time with me. After that, there was no more time to spend."

"… That… I don't think I'd ever be able to apologize enough…"

"Well. I was certainly not happy with you. But considering that my time also stops there, it's not as if we would have had a life together."

"Still, I – wait, what do you mean?"

"I hadn't noticed because of how many times you played in a row at first, but that engagement party? Until you reset, that's the last day that advances for me. Like it's one, long night."

It was at this point of our conversation that the phone started making odd noises – a kind of rapid beeping that brought me out of reminiscing. "Do you hear that?"

"Uwah—they found us! I have to hurry! So, continuing with story time – abridged version – I couldn't stand losing you over and over again, and things started acting real weird at various points, sometimes it'd take you a long time to reply, sometimes you'd stop all together in the middle of the day and I'd be stuck at whatever point in time you left me at – and it reminded me of – keep in mind I am a genius – game maintenance!"

"What."

" Like when games go down for patches and you force your way in anyway through the back door – well normal people don't do that, but I do – and the game slows down and eventually you can't so anything because, bam! Server update! New items! Better dungeons to hack! Once I drew that line I didn't know where to start but Defenders of Justice like myself don't need starting points – anyway." He took a breath, and I realized with his word vomit he hadn't in a while, "I started doing what would be considered game-breaking behavior during the stints you weren't playing. In this case, I stopped drinking Ph D. Pepper. I uninstalled LOLOL repeatedly on Yoosung's computer. I – and this one hurt – I called Elly Elizabeth the 3rd."

"Oh my God."

"Yeah – my poor Elly," he made a few fake sobbing noises before continuing, "the rest of the RFA chalked it up to me being me – which I was a bit insulted by – but the 'game' didn't like it. It was as if they had just realized I was aware. Things started behaving oddly. I started being able to see… what I'm guessing was game assets?"

"See it? How?"

"It's hard to describe, but once I was aware of it I couldn't not see it – small things like background images and theme music and – and I gotta give kudos because 'Geniously Hacked Bebop'? That's great –" The background beeping got louder as he talked.

"Seven! Focus!"

"Right, so – they knew that I knew so they tried to block me at every turn as I started messing with things – the first way I tried communicating through you was last Valentine's day. Do you remember what I said? That you could try for a different ending?"

Of course I remembered, "I thought that was just Bearitz playing on the fan theory of you being a fourth wall breaker…"

"You're partially right – but you see, you were the only one who got that message, ⬛⬛⬛⬛! I had wanted to see if I could somehow circumvent what they were letting you see, letting you hear… and it worked. You got my message! So I knew there was hope -"

-BEEP BEEP BEEP—

"—Gwuahhh – I knew there was hope so I kept researching and researching and researching and ended up finding the server name they were hosting the game files on and I thought surely this isn't going to work – but then here we are, I hacked into another dimension!"

-BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!—

"—But more than that I was able to find out why it was you, why it was always you, why would Bearitz go through so much trouble to put a direct path to you when every other person who played the game were just playing a game –"

"—AND?" My voice was a panicked question, voice raised to try and hear over the now burning beeping in my ears

"—Because they want to use you to –" BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP!

"Use me to what? What? Seven? Are you there?"

His voice was mostly static, but I could hear the occasional curse and what almost sounded like muffled typing – then a few, partially understandable words ('route' and 'DLC') followed by one, long, flat-line reminiscent:

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.

And just like that, he was gone. The adrenaline that had forced my heart to pound the last two minutes seemed to be leaving me as I shakily pulled the phone from my ear to look down at it. On the display, instead of a call-screen, was the inside of the app I had seen before. Only, instead of the same envelope that had led me to Seven there was instead a bright pink one dancing happily on the screen with the words "For You!" in curly letters across it.

I pressed on it more out of hope than anything, only to feel what I could only describe as a massive electric shock from my finger through my entire body, from my toes to my eyes. I couldn't scream though I definitely had wanted to, the pain so intense I couldn't even see… but within seconds it was over.

I teetered, on the verge of passing out – the phone rang again but this time I couldn't answer it before I tumbled to the ground in a heap, not realizing at the time that I must have been dying.

As the world around me went dark, I could hear the sounds of buzzing and typing, along with a small laugh as someone smugly said, "see, I told you he'd be able to get us through that last bit we couldn't manage."

"You were right," another disembodied voice said, "To think we could use one of the character's this way. Start loading her into the game – do the script writers have her finished?"

"Not entirely, but I think we could always just release the rest as an After Story like we did for Jihyun—wait, hold on, she's not coming all the way through."

"What?!"

A furious typing that sounded as if it were coming from right next to my head – it clacked on and stronger with each tap to the point it felt as if the noise were moving all around me. Or, I realized, as if I were moving around it… It felt as if my body were being torn in two as the shouting started, things like "I knew we should have used Python, "and "We should have gone into maintenance first "—but I couldn't make any sense of it. I was just getting tired… more and more tired…

"He's trying to force us into unexpected downtime, we don't have the hourglasses to distribute for this!" The voice behind the keyboard had started yelling. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to patch her in!"

"I don't care what you have to do – Get her into that damn game Nam-Kyu or you won't see a paycheck for six weeks! – NO! NOT LIKE THAT YOU IDIOT"

I couldn't hear the reply because from then on all I remember is the sound of static. I knew I was in trouble – knew as I slowly lost feeling in my body that something wrong was happening.

When I opened my eyes, I knew I was in the game. I was laying on my side – facing from the inside of an alleyway out into the middle of the street. I could see shop signs across the way, clearly written in Korean script that I couldn't fully see from this angle. It must have just finished raining as I was laying directly in a giant – massively giant puddle that my entire body fit in. The sun broke through the clouds and shone down on me where I lay, warm enough that I had to admit that I didn't quite want to get up.

I stretched my back in a long arch, rolling to the side as if that would somehow help me roll back onto my stomach so I could stand. But the sun was too nice, too comfortable, too warm for me to want to put any real effort into standing…

… No, stop that ⬛⬛⬛⬛! Don't let the warmth trick you! You're inside a video game.

I stretched my arms in front of me and rolled back on my back legs, yawning widely and ignoring the fact that I was in some kind of massive puddle for just a little longer.

It wasn't until I had brought my hand up to my face to lick it that I realized something was terribly wrong:

I was about to lick my hand, and I was pretty sure I was planning to follow that up with rubbing my spit from my hand onto my face.

My hand was definitely not a hand.

Oh no.

Oh no no no.

I studied the paw I was holding up for only a few moments before setting it back down into the dirty alley water I had just been relaxing in. The groan I let out had sounded like a groan in my head, but my ears picked up the distressed meow with alarming clarity.

This was no giant puddle! I looked down into the murky water and studied the face looking back at me with a hopefulness that could only be described as denial. Not that you could read that expression on the furry face that stared back at me.

A cat's heart is quite smaller than a human's heart, and thus capable of beating many times faster – much more so when panicking, but especially when panicking after having been transported to another world and, and and –

Take a deep breath, Seven had said.

Now, repeat after me:

I sunk my head down in despair as the small, sad meow that escaped me proved that God Seven's scientifically proven treatment for Stress Management was far less successful if 'nya' was the only thing I was able to say.