Disclaimer: I don't own the story or the characters.

I named the MC Hyorin since I wanted all my characters to have a name and Hyorin is a nice Korean name ^^

Let Me Be With You

Chapter 1. The Story Begins.

Prologue

"YOU!" Saeran's eyes were wild and filled with anger, like a mad dog. "It had been you all along. Without you, none of this would have happened!"
Release me, Saeran cried silently. Release me from this hell, where I had to pursue her time and time again. Time after time I had pursued her as she repeatedly changed her boyfriends, always within the RFA. Time after time I had sent her those messages to lure her to the savior's old apartment. She never even questioned it, the dimwitted woman. Who is even stupid enough to follow the directions of a stranger on a messaging app. But no more. Now that both of them were in my hands, I could finish this and end my miserable existence once and for all, Saeran thought and his mouth curved into a smile.
Saeran lifted his arm and took aim. Saeyoung, in a desperate attempt, reached out and tried to steer the aim of the gun.
Just a second too late, Saeran was still smiling. The triggered had already been pressed.
Bang.
The sound rang through the air, crisp and clear like the sound of a bell. Time stood still for a moment, as Hyorin watched the bullet escaping the gun. But time doesn't stand still for anyone. Before she knew it, Hyorin felt the force of the small bullet entering her forehead, piercing through the skin, drilling a small hole in her skull before finally entering her brain.
Ah, I guess can't reset this time now, Hyorin thought as she stumbled backwards and the world darkened around her.
"I'm sorry, I guess this is finally the end for us. For me," she looked at Saeyoung one last time as he broke out of the disciples' restraints and ran towards her.
Goodbye, Saeyoung. I love you, Hyorin thought, and everything went black.

Day 20

Saeyoung

I didn't know how I got out of Mint Eye's building after Saeran shot Hyorin. I didn't know how I managed to snatch her phone out of Saeran's hand, escaped Mint Eye and drove myself to Rika's apartment either. Everything seemed like a blur. I vaguely remembered some beefy guys and Jumin breaking in. But truthfully, the world had stopped turning ever since I watched Hyorin falling to the ground, unable to do anything about it.
This was never supposed to happen. This was not supposed to happen. Why did Saeran do this? What had Hyorin done to him? They had only met twice and spoke briefly. Nothing Hyorin said or did could have guaranteed this kind of behavior.
But of course, none of that mattered now. Hyorin was gone. Unlike Rika, who had never been gone. Thinking about that woman almost made me want to go on a rampage. Because of her, I would now have to live for an eternity alone, never seeing Hyorin again, never watching her quiet face as she was falling asleep again, never embracing that tiny figure in my arms, and most of all, never hearing her cheerful voice again.
The thought of it was so painful I wanted to kill myself.
But it didn't have to be this way.
I laughed manically. The plan was almost crazy. I didn't know what would happen now that Hyorin was not in this world anymore, so long after the party. I thought we were getting our happy ending. I thought it was finally my turn, for once in my life, to get my happy ending.
There were only so many things I could control.
But this, I can control, I mumbled to myself as I erased lines of code and typed down new ones.
The agency could be here any minute. They probably tracked the GPS on her phone and knew that I was at Rika's apartment. I must hurry. There was no time.
I needed to make it as difficult as possible for her to be with me again. No, dificult was not enough. It must be impossible.
For Hyorin to live, she must not be with me.
She could never be with me.
I could live for an eternity, in a time loop without her love, as long as she was normal, alive and well. A tear escaped my eye, as I remembered saying the exact same thing to her, when I used to push her away despite all her best efforts at winning me over.
You were weak Luciel. You were weak. Stupid. Greedy. You gave in to her and now you're falling from heaven straight to hell. It would have been enough for you to exist besides her, being in the same world as her. But you weren't satisfied. You wanted more, you wanted too much.
And now you're paying the price.
At times like this, I really wished I was as fast as Flash, the DC superhero. So that I could type with superhuman speed and be done with it. My keyboard and my laptop probably won't be able to keep up with it, and will give out soon, but I should have enough time to finish editing the code.
"Luciel Choi! Open the door and relinquish yourself!" I heard Vanderwood's voice outside the door. Goddamn it. I couldn't believe how fast they were. But I didn't think that Vanderwood would have betrayed me either. "I'm sorry buddy, but the agency gave me no choice. We're giving you 10 seconds to open the door or we will break in. If you willingly come out maybe I can negotiate for your life."
My life? I laughed. It's meaningless. My life was meaningless now that Hyorin was not in it anymore. Hyorin was gone, and Saeran was on the run again. Without Hyorin by my side, I might as well be dead. Why Vanderwood thought that threat would work was beyond my imagination.
"10...9...8..."
The code was not finished yet, and I wasn't able to block off every single route to my profile, but this was as difficult as I could make it. I pressed save and closed the application. Hopefully she would give up trying after a while and settle down with Jumin. Or Yoosung. Even better, Zen. Zen always cared about her no matter what. Any of them would make her happy, unlike me. I pulled out Hyorin's phone. She had her fingerprint as her passcode, but I quickly entered my birthday and the phone unlocked.
"7...6...5..."
I pulled up the app and entered her credentials. Hurry up, I cursed under my breath. What is taking you so long? I had invested the best internet into this apartment, and now it was failing me.
"4..3...2..."
The app finished loading. I scrambled through the interface and found the settings with my shaky fingers.
"1...0..."
The door swung open by force. I pressed the reset button as the special security system got triggered. In a flash, everything went up in flame. The apartment. The agency. RFA's documents. Mint Eye's blueprints. Rika's personal files. Me.
I will see you again Hyorin, I thought as my consciousness slipped away. In another lifetime.

Day 1.

Hyorin

"Sev...Saeyoung," I sleepily reached out to my left, "Saeyoung, I want cuddles."
Empty. My fingertips felt the empty cold space that was supposed to be occupied by Saeyoung's soft curly hair.
My eyes shot open and I looked around.
Shit.
Why am I here again?
I was sleeping on the bed in my old room. My phone was on the nightstand as usual, the sleeping app analyzing my sleep pattern.
Shit shit shit. I cursed out loudly. What the fuck. What the actual fuck.
Where did I fail? I searched my memory for an aswer. I thought I got the happy ending. I must have gotten the happy ending. We listened to the party being broadcasted on the radio together! The party had been a huge success. I invited 21 people! What the fuck happened.
I opened up the messaging app and frantically entered my credentials.
As soon as I looked up the saved data, I knew that something was off. There was no saved data. I always saved after the other guys, since I was so afraid of making mistakes and wanted an easy way out. But with Saeyoung, it was different. I didn't have to try to be a different person. I just went with my instinct. For some reasons I didn't feel the need to ponder over my answers and thought about what they'd like to hear the most. He had liked everything I said. My jokes, my cheers, my concerns, my questions, my persistent pestering. It was love, true love. We were meant to be together.
And now I was back at square one.
What the fuck happened last time? I searched my memories for an answer. We were listening to the party being broadcasted, Saeyoung and I were on the way to track Saeran. I got 21 guests, and Jumin was talking about the direction of the RFA's developments. We stopped in front of a building deep in the mountain. A building painted in white and teal. No, not teal. Mint.
My head suddenly hurt. Mint. Mint eye. Saeran.
That was everything I could remember. I did not remember pressing reset. I did not want to press reset. I'm not a sadist. Saeyoung told me everything. How he knew everything, remembered everything. How he was stuck watching me seducing guys after guys in the RFA, even becoming Jaehee's best friend and partner in crime. How he had been consumed with sadness, every time the fifth day rolled around and he had seen that he was once again not chosen. How happy he was whenever he saw me entering the chatroom for the first time, once again, hoping that maybe, maybe this one time I would chose him over his more normal friends. And how he was afraid of me pressing reset. Oh was he afraid. For the first few days I had to do everything I could to convince him to sleep, for he feared that if he had fallen asleep, I would have pressed reset and left him.
If I didn't press reset, then who did?
Was it...I was almost too afraid to think about it...No, it can't be.
Was it him?
Did Saeyoung press reset?
He was the only one to know the true power of the app in my phone. How it could stop, speed up and turn back time. He was the only one who knew the passcode to my phone. I changed the passcode to his birthday right after the day he showed up at my front door, his hazel eyes all hurt and wide like a puppy's for reasons unknown to me back then.
Why did he press reset, I pondered.
Did he...not love me anymore?
I thought we were happy. We were chasing after Saeran, and our lives were constantly under threat, but we were, or at least I was, happier than I had ever been, safe and sound with anyone else.
Why did he do it?
Tears started flowing from my eyes. It had only been 5 minutes since I woke up and I had already missed him so much. It quickly became unbearable without him by my side, knowing that I had lost him.
Was this how Saeyoung had felt every day of his life?
I wiped the tears from my eyes. No, this was not the time to get sentimental. Nothing would come of me crying. I needed to played the game again. I needed to talk to RFA again. Then maybe I would have a clue as to why this had happened to me. Saeyoung always remembered. He must have remembered us. I would try to get to him again, and he would show up on my door again, and we would be able to talk without the app, and this misunderstanding could be resolved.
If he had rejected me, I would want to hear it straight from him. Not like this. I clicked on the icon containing his and Jumin's faces.
"Complete all the routes in Casual Story and pay 80 hourglass to unlock Deep Story", the app coldly informed me.
What?
I could not believe my eyes. This had never been a problem.
Okay, okay. I'd only have to rush through Zen, Yoosung and Jaehee, pay 80 hourglass, then I could be with Seven. Right? Right? The app was being really weird right now, but I could not afford to waste any moment.
For now, let's buy some time, literally, and rush through their stories. Sorry guys, I have nothing against you, really. But my heart belonged to Saeyoung.
"What!", I yelled out, once again. What was this nonsense. There was no option to purchase more hourglasses. There was no way for me to cheat and speed up time. I could only earn it through randomly choosing the right answers.
Are you telling me, that I would have to painstakingly go through a month and a half before I could even see Saeyoung in person. Would I even be able to accumulate that many hourglasses by the time I finished?
As soon as the thought entered my head, I almost wanted to hit myself for even thinking it out loud. So what, if I had to wait a month and a half. Think about what Saeyoung had gone through, patiently waiting for me. Having his heart broken into pieces over and over again. It was time for me to return the courtesy. I hadn't realized it at the time, but it had always been him to save me every single time. He was always there reliably, fixing mistakes while maintaining his work for the agency, while I took him for granted.
Dear God, I found myself silently praying although I had always been an atheist. If you really exist, and you're really listening, please grant me this wish. Just let me see Saeyoung again. I don't care what it takes. If I had to relive this life over and over again, so be it. I would live this life a thousand times, just to see his face and his smile. Just to be with him.

Now, let the game begin, I whispered as the game started to load and Saeran sent me the first message.

End Chapter 1.