MC slides into the booth in her shared cafe shop with Jaehee. It's early in the morning, or what she believes it is early in the morning. It's around six, and typically they would be open by now, prepped for the morning rush, but she requested that they open later. The two sent a notice to their regulars three days prior to inform them that the Coffee and Confections won't be open until seven. She's happy right now, with how everything turned out. This is the first time she has experienced something like this, being able to see what goes on during the aftermath, and she can thank the updated new route for this.
Her previous users would go to another route after completing the most recent one, and she cannot help but be thankful about the situation at hand. Even if she herself doesn't know what's going to happen to the new update. It hasn't been implemented globally and she isn't part the initial MC that is used for the programming anymore; she is just a byproduct copy going from user to user in an endless cycle.
MC is thankful that her current user, the one she's been with for months, didn't uninstall the game and she would jump to a different user. Her user was just silent after achieving the good endings, played once again Jaehee's route. It's one of her favorites, to have a friend, a partner, who mirrors her. Both of them are a slave to another's whims, but with Jaehee, MC managed to free her of her shackles for a short time.
Today is a bittersweet moment for her. Today is the day of the new route release where she and her user has a chance to help V. To be honest she's scared. It's different from the special dlcs that gradually updated during the year. Those days are short in comparison to the typical eleven days. It gives her great pleasure that she spent almost three weeks in this perfect world where old images that weren't used made the foundation of their shared cafe.
MC looks at her blueberry scone, steeling her resolve, and looks up to the woman that she admires deeply. "Jaehee I love spending time with you."
Her partner gives her a startled look as she took a sip of her latte. Jaehee did not choke on the drink, and to that MC gives her credit from her sudden proclamation. "And I do to MC. Now what brought this on?"
"Do you remember when we first met? When you were suspicious of me joining the RFA?"
"I admit that isn't the best first meeting of my dear friend." The short haired woman said with her cheeks slightly flustered. "I was suspicious of you even though you had good intentions."
"No," MC shakes her head, "that's what I loved about you from the beginning. You were concerned about everyone and I did show up suddenly." She chuckles before taking a bite of her scone.
"Was that all you were thinking when you were contemplating over your food?"
"Sort of. It's just I love remembering our first meeting, and learning more about you. How passionate you are about your work or Zen's musicals, to your dedication to your tasks, that you can be headstrong, heck even when I have to drag you to bed when you were working so late to get the final pieces of our cafe ready." She sighs, "How you can be so compassionate even though you have so much you have to work through."
"Oh stop it MC, are you trying to get me back from watching Zen's dress rehearsal? I know you cried a lot when Zen's best friend died for him, but still." Jaehee says as her eyes look damp.
"No no," MC smiles and she tries not to cry, "I'm just saying how I loved spending these weeks with you, counting the week and a half of us not really seeing each other face to face."
"And I do to, I love spending time with you. You make me feel happy and after a while Jumin stopped sulking and calling to take care of Elizabeth the Third."
"You make me happy too, not many people can experience how I feel about you." What she wanted to say that not many of her fellow MC's can feel the happiness of the aftermath of a route. To experience the sheer joy of moving on, to helping out someone they care for achieve their dreams.
"MC…"
"I know I said something similar to when we moved in together, and we are approaching the one month anniversary of our cafe. I just want to remind you how much happiness you bring to me."
"You make me happy as well MC. Without you I wouldn't have the courage to quit being Jumin's assistant, and I would be taking care of Elizabeth the Third. I wouldn't be able to help Zen when he got injured, and getting encouraged to put effort in what I want to do to generate profit then another cat related business." Jaehee sweat drops at the end. "You helped me improve my life MC, and for that I'm eternally grateful for that."
She nods and trembles a bit. MC sets down her fork and parts her lips before shutting her mouth. She doesn't want Jaehee to hear her voice breaking. Her partner has alluded to that during the weeks, but most of the time they were focused on preparing what to make for their cafe, and getting things situated.
MC clears her throat, "At least Zen comes and visits us occasionally."
Jaehee reaches over and holds her hand, "You and I both know you suck at changing the conversation, but thank you."
MC has to look away from Jaehee's bright smile while she returns her own quite hesitantly.
"I thought we can spend about an hour together getting close again before having to go back to work. Wanted to congratulate you on the success."
"Oh really? It seemed a bit like a reminiscing speech." Jaehee said and as usual she is right.
"You know me too well."
"Of course I do. Now let's finish up and open the store. We can talk later on tonight."
MC stuffs her face with the remaining blueberry scone and throws away the plastic plate. She did not want to do dishes quite yet, and she'll save the small dishes for the customers.
She aids Jaehee the best she can while staring at her smiling face. While she is typically serious, her route is one of the few where she is shining. MC dreads the time her user will wake up and open the app, deciding to unlock V's route, and she'll have to experience the coldness a few seconds before the game commences once again.
She was taking a customer's order when the code flashed blue before everything becomes a pixelated darkness. She turns her head to the side to catch a glimpse of the other woman, but it's too late. Coldness settles in, a byproduct of changing routes or when she faces a bad ending.
MC stands alone and waits for something to load. Either it be a story, a phone call, or a chat room. If it is a chat room she'll spawn in the marketplace as she waits to see how her user chooses her responses. Once again she is a puppet, and she hopes she doesn't have to experience a bad ending once again. She just hopes that her user is cautious than her previous ones who managed to kill her during the precarious situation of Unknown, better known as Saeran, killed her in Rika's apartment.
Once again her dearest person will treat her coldly and with suspicion. She's going to face everyone once again, and she can't help but wonder what's going to happen. She knows that Yoosung and Zen will definitely be the first ones to open up to her. They have been like that since the beginning, even if she didn't go on their routes.
MC sees a bright light and some captions.
Show time.
A/N: There will be another fic in MM with my self-aware MC. She will be going off of V's route, and I'll write it all up when I have time. Have a couple of fics in the works, but this idea has been pestering me for weeks.