Hi! This is my first Mystic Messenger fanfic dedicated to our beloved messed-up cinnamon bun, Saeran Choi! This is my attempt in creating an 11-day route for Saeran with an Original Character (OC) which will be revealed in the story. I would have done a SaeranXReader fanfic but I couldn't decide on how to write it (*cries*). So, please feel free to replace the OC's name with your name or a name that you prefer. I don't mind. :)

Spoiler Alert:

There WILL be spoilers in the plot. I will be mentioning some of the events from Seven's route and Secret Endings 1&2. If you don't want to be spoiled, you might want to ignore this fic. But if you know who Saeran is, then I guess you've either completed most of the game OR have been spoiled to the point of no return. Been there, done that. Haha.

Language Warning:

Story has some (light to moderate) swearing inside. It also *might* contain themes of physical abuse and suicide.

I hope you enjoy this little fanfic! All MM characters belong to cheritz, not me.

I'd love it if you can drop me reviews, comments and suggestions. I also have an original story published both here and on Wattpad (user: chibihera)

Thanks for reading! :D

PROLOGUE: The Otome Game Hacker and I

The bright LCD monitor lit up the otherwise dark apartment and shone on the room's only occupant. Messy brown hair was tied in a lopsided bun on top of the female's head. Her bangs hid her eyebrows. Unfortunately, neither her hair nor her glasses could hide the dark circles around her tired eyes. Nevertheless, her honey-brown orbs were focused on the colored words that were on her screen. To an ordinary person, the string of letters and symbols meant nothing. To her, the jumble of characters was her mode of livelihood and as she reached the end of the file she was checking, she breathed a sigh of relief.

She logged in to a special software that allowed her to access her company's virtual private network. She opened her company email and typed out more than a dozen bullet points composed of technical jargon and brief explanations. With a single click of her mouse, she had sent the mail to her team leader. Within a few seconds, her company mobile rang.

'15 security holes exposed in 15 hours! You make hacking seem so simple. You're even on your day off.' The male on the other end sighed. 'And all these observations are so thorough. You make me jealous sometimes, Aera Lee.'

The female rolled her eyes and adjusted the glasses that were now slipping down her nose. "I'm just above average, you know that."

Aera Lee had been a hacker for two years. She had managed to land an internship in a local Software Security Firm in her 4th year of college. They had taught her the basics on how to look for vulnerabilities and common software exploits. She had enjoyed it to the point of addiction. Because of this, she stood out from the rest of the interns working beside her. The moment she graduated from college at 19 years of age, they had decided to hire her. At 20, she was the youngest hacker in their company. Coincidentally, she was also the best. Although that last point was something she didn't believe, her teammates bragged about it at every chance they could get. And after she had finished their recent project, Aera had a feeling they were going to do it again pretty soon.

'But thanks to you, our team's been performing better than all the other teams!' Her team leader announced. 'Thanks to you, I can finally send this report to C&R International. Who knew their employee database still had some vulnerabilities?'

"They're pretty high-level stuff," She said, referring to the exploits she found. "You need to be very good at hacking if you want to exploit their system."

'True.' The man replied.

Aera could hear distinct grumbling and chattering in the background. She glanced at her clock. It was 11PM. "Boss, why are you still at the team's office?"

'How'd you know?'

"I can hear Hyun Jae and Ji Ho. Lisa's also pretty noisy - as usual. All-nighter? Another project?" She guessed.

Collective groans erupted from the other end. She heard a loud thump. Someone had probably snatched the phone from the male's hands. The voice that answered her was high-pitched, whiny and female. Aera could already imagine the other person pouting and sulking as she talked.

'Aeraaaaa~…' The female on the other end sobbed. 'Come back to the office. They gave us more work!'

"I'll be back tomorrow, Lisa-Unni." Aera replied. "After I try this new Otome Game."

'Otome Game!?' Lisa screamed. Aera had to pull her phone back a few inches as the woman screamed. 'You didn't install it on the company phone, did you!?'

"Relax. I'm not that careless. This phone's been tweaked to make it untraceable. I have a separate phone under a fake name. All the fun stuff's in there." Aera sighed. "Although I have a feeling I won't be enjoying it much since we have another job."

Aera heard Lisa moan in sadness. 'Don't remind me! Team leader Park, you talk to her! Tell her to come back!'

The phone switched hands. The male she spoke to earlier laughed. 'Well… You heard her, Aera. See you tomorrow?'

"Hmm," Aera murmured. "Bye."

Aera closed all the applications she was running. She carefully wiped any traces of her work and made sure she had cleaned her computer of all confidential information that either pointed to her, the company and the company's clients. The security firm she was working for might have been legal, but there were people who wanted to use their data illegally. Being a hacker had meant living in a certain degree of secrecy. She didn't mind. Even Aera had a past she didn't really want to talk about. And although she was a hacker, she knew she wasn't a genius. She knew her limits. If a genius hacker happened to get their clients' data from her computer, they would be so dead even black magic and alchemy wouldn't be able to bring them back to life.

She set her company phone down on her cramped desk and turned her attention to her other phone. The plain dark blue casing contrasted with her small pale hands. With a few swipes, she had managed to navigate to the app she had downloaded. She was a bit of an otaku when it came to Otome games. The description had said something about chatting with hot guys. That had definitely caught her attention. And since the game seemed rather harmless, she decided to give it a try. If it wasn't as interesting as she thought, she could always uninstall it and find another one.

When the game asked for her name, she had entered 'Hyun Jo' which was a combination of Hyun Jae and Ji Ho's names. Even if Aera Lee wasn't her real name, she refused to use it at any kind of transaction. But instead of the usual Visual Novel sequence she was expecting, she found herself chatting to a guy named, 'Unknown'. That, in itself, was starting sirens inside Aera's mind. She started debating about removing the app from the face of the earth.

Unknown sent her a message.

Unknown: Hello?

Unknown: Is there anybody there?

Maybe this is still part of the game, she told herself. Hesitantly, she replied.

Hyun Jo: ?

Unknown expressed his relief at being able to talk with someone. He told her how he had found a phone in a subway and had been trying to contact someone in order to return the phone to its rightful owner. Then, he asked her to do something for him. This only made Aera more skeptical. He wanted her to slip a note inside another person's home. She kept on declining in the nicest way possible. Instead of backing off, the man sent her a photo of a somewhat good looking guy which he claimed was him. He pleaded for her to trust him. He asked Aera to visit the place he was talking about. It was safe, he said. And if she felt uncomfortable, she could just leave the house and never return.

This was supposed to be a game right? So why the hell was a guy asking her to go to an address? It was too suspicious. She suddenly thought of uninstalling the game and calling it a night. But her intuition was telling her something was up. She remembered that she had just sent an email filled with confidential exploit data a few minutes ago. Could this guy be after the data? Could he be a spy sent by a rival agency?

Aera felt an odd tingle on her spine. She tried to convince herself that she was overreacting. Still, she couldn't ignore the feeling settling in her gut. She plugged her phone into her computer, opened her command line editor. She accessed her phone's logs through her computer. It seemed like the app was working correctly. She breathed a sigh of relief.

However, Aera still felt unsettled. So she ran diagnostics and went in deeper. While the software was running in the background, she managed to trace the route the messages were going through. She checked the sender's IP Address.

The IP address had her holding her breath. It was an IP address that belonged to the building she was staying in. Aside from that, her diagnostics software had come back with alarming results. Someone was hacking into the application! It meant that the hacker was within the building and that she was possibly in danger.

A hacker, an Otome Game, database exploits, and a security company. "Otome Game" was definitely the odd one out of the four things she was thinking of. Without the Messenger Application she had installed, the other three would have made perfect sense together. But the hacker hacked into an Otome Game she had happened to play just after she had sent an email full of intelligence to the security agency. She had double-checked everything. She had left no trace. The game had been on the app store for everyone to see. Hacking the Otome Game didn't make sense.

Did the hacker know that she had installed an Otome Game in her phone?

She shook her head. "That's… too big a coincidence."

However, as a hacker, she knew she had to be extra cautious. If this guy was after her or the company's intelligence, then she needed to alert the higher-ups about it. She flicked her company phone and called Team Leader Park.

The person who answered was Lisa.

'Flirting with Team Leader Park on the phone isn't practical. Come to the office. I'm begging you.'

Aera didn't bother correcting her and went directly to the point. "Someone just hacked into the Otome Game I'm running on my other phone." Her voice was flat and emotionless. It was unusual, but it was possible. Aera kept her head cool. Unfortunately for her, Lisa was doing the exact opposite.

'WHAT?!' Lisa literally screamed. Aera's ear almost fell off. 'YOUR PHONE GOT HACKED?! OH GOD….!'

Lisa cursed. Aera had to remind her to keep her voice down before she continued to narrate her current situation. "My other phone has no intel and can't be traced back to me. However, the guy keeps on insisting that I go to an address and leave a note. I've been telling him that I don't want to."

'I can hear keyboard tapping,' Lisa said. This time, her voice was lower. She hissed on the other end. 'What the hell are you doing right now!? Why haven't you deleted the thing yet!?'

Aera poured her attention on her computer screen. "Oh. I forgot to tell you. He's in the building. I traced his IP. The first 3 octets are registered to the building. I already checked."

The screaming was louder now. 'WHAT!?'

"He just sent me the address. Wait." Aera's hands swiftly flew to her keyboard. She opened a database crawler that could access hundreds of thousands of databases across the world. It wasn't exactly legal. But she wasn't in a position to be picky about the methods she could use. She opened the address the Unknown guy had sent her. She gave a hollow laugh. "Ha ha. The address he sent is actually an apartment a floor above mine."

She ignored Lisa's curses and ran a quick search on the address. A guy named Jihyun Kim had purchased the apartment. Aera searched for the guy named Jihyun Kim. He turned out to be a photographer. There was no way that he was the hacker. Aera rapidly typed a jumble of commands on her computer and watched as the signal strength between her computer and the hacker's computer was being measured every 45 milliseconds. But the strength between each interval wasn't staying constant.

It was changing, getting stronger. That only meant the hacker was moving. And he was getting closer to the location he had sent. Aera cursed.

'You… YOU!' Lisa was probably hyperventilating. The screaming intensified. 'GET. OUT. OF. THERE. NOW.'

"I can't." Aera replied quickly. "He's moving up. Luckily, I'm closer to the apartment than he is so if I run there in a few, I can still make it before he does."

'CRAZY WOMAN! Are you planning to ambush him!?'

"He disabled the security camera on that floor." Aera groaned. "I should turn it on before I go up."

Lisa's voice rose an entire octave. 'ARE YOU TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED?! AERA LEE! DRAG YOUR ASS TO THE OFFICE, NOW!'

"Unni, you don't understand the situation right now, do you?" Aera stated calmly. She pulled a sling bag and stuffed it with anything that looked heavy. She made sure that the bag was closed securely. She explained everything as briefly as she could as she prepared to head out. "We don't know if he's after us or the company's data but since he's a hacker he's definitely tracing my phone's location as we speak. The phone is old and has a crappy GPS so he can't know that I'm in this specific apartment. Nevertheless, he knows I'm in the building. If he manages to get to me, he might be able to hold me hostage. We don't want that, do we?"

'And you honestly think that going up to the address he sent is going to prevent that!? Are you nuts!?' Lisa's voice was calmer now. But that didn't mean that she wasn't the least bit anxious and panicked over the turn of events.

"I'm a black belter in Karate-do. I also took precautions." The female hacker peeked at her computer monitor. The 'Unknown' guy was moving faster. "Can't talk. I'll be leaving this phone in my room. Tell Boss everything. I'll call once it's over."

Aera heard Lisa's protest through her speakers but she ended the call and headed up to the location the other hacker had sent her. If she had estimated her timing right, in about a minute, Unknown should arrive on the same floor as her. She started counting. As soon as she reached 57, she received another message – right on schedule. Unknown was asking her if she had gotten to the apartment and if she could see the security keypad. Of course there was a security keypad on the door! Even without looking at the door, Aera already knew the answer. She lived in the goddamned building! She had gone around the building a good number of times. There was no way she wouldn't remember the unique engraved doorknob that had the letters RFA emblazoned on it. When she replied with a yes, the hacker had given her the security key. She refused to punch it in. She argued about ringing the doorbell first.

At the corner of her eye, she could see a shadow looming at the staircase. Unknown replied rather harshly – a proof that he was getting impatient. The shadow in the corner was starting to get jittery. Aera held on to her mobile phone calmly. She resisted the urge to smirk and replied.

Hyun Jo: I don't want to, though.

Unknown: What? Please...! I'm begging you. This is all for the good of this phone's owner!

Hyun Jo: So? It's a crime to trespass in another person's apartment without the owner's permission. I'm not an idiot. I don't want to get my finger prints on the keypad.

The man continued to plead for a while. But before long, Aera saw the shadow moving towards her. She stuffed her phone inside her jean's pocket. Her right hand automatically went to her bag's shoulder strap almost protectively. Her eyes searched the hallway and found herself staring at a male who had the most piercing pair of green eyes she had ever seen.

The black leather jacket hung loosely on his shoulders. His accessories leaned more on the punk rock and grunge side, Aera mused wryly. Beautiful green orbs looked down at her in disdain. Aera took a step back and met his gaze with her own. Her hold on her bag tightened.

His voice was distorted. His neck and half of his face was covered with a black cloth mask. Aera guessed that a voice changing device was hidden behind the cloth. But when he spoke, it had caused a shiver to run down her spine. And it was a shiver the man had taken as a sign of fear.

"The plan has failed." The distorted voice said. "I need to find someone else."

Aera spoke in a low tone. She faked the tremble in her voice. "Who the hell are you?!"

"You don't need to know." He huffed. "What do I do with you? I'd like to let you go, but you already know me!"

Aera watched him with wide eyes. She kept her mouth shut. Green eyes seemed to laugh. The muffled voice escaped from his mask. "Sorry, but you'll have to come with me."

The panicked façade fell from Aera's face. This time, she was the one who huffed, "Looks like we were thinking the same thing."

Aera didn't wait for him to talk. She turned on her heel and used the momentum to slam her bag on the unnamed man's face. Her bag hit its target dead center. The man staggered backwards. Unknown fell down unconscious on the floor like a heavy sack of potatoes. Aera stood defiantly and stared down at him with lidded eyes.

She placed her hands on her waist. A single word escaped her lips.

"Idiot."