Those Emerald Eyes
He had never been more thankful for splurging on the leather couch until now, the cool surface seemingly drawing the heat away from his entire body, which was sprawled all over the black leather.
"Fuuuu…." the curse word wasn't completed, a conscious effort to reduce his amount of swearing. His parent's always nagged at him for it when he was younger but he only worked to correct it when he got his own home.
"Lily… I hate tuesdays… I can barely move after all the lifting" Lily was a labrador/shar pei mix with short black fur and the cutest neck rolls you'll ever see on a dog. He had gotten her at the pet shelter just in time, because she was about to be put down to make space for younger and more adoptable dogs. Honestly, she was probably the best thing that has happened to him so far, always ready with a kiss and some eager wags to brighten his days. Currently, said dog was sitting obediently by his head and tilted her head curiously at his words.
'Maybe you should stop then, then we can play whenever we want' she seemed to suggest, he liked pretending that she understood him, even though it was silly. He reached out and scratched her left ear, and Lily leaned eagerly into hand; she loved getting pet there.
"Yeah but if I did, I wouldn't be getting swole! How else is a basement dweller like me supposed to impress the young lasses? I doubt they'd be impressed by my Yugioh collection…" he giggled at his deprecating humor, all the while Lily staring back at him.
The reason why he was hitting the gym wasn't for the petty reason of getting female attention. No, it was so he could stop hating himself. He had always chafed under the fact that most guys his age were more athletic than him and he wished he could just be a little more sporty. He had done wrestling as a sport in high school, and even managed to reach Varsity his Junior year, but he had decided to stop both the sport and overall exercise in his Senior year because he wanted to focus all his attention on college. The change of his body irked him constantly as time went on, and he got so fed up with it about 3 months ago that he stomped angrily to his neighborhood Planet Fitness down the street and bought a membership. He's been diligently on that "grind" ever since, and was now reaping the benefits of a toned and defined body. Oh the wonders it did to his ego!
"Alright, time to take a shower, then we'll go for a walk okay?"he said as he padded over his wood floors and headed into his bathroom. He peeled himself out of his sweaty gym shirt and shorts and stepped into the glass enclosure. He then cranked the water all the way to the hot side and let the grime and sweat wash off his body.
'Ahh, that hits the spot' the heat seemed to sap the soreness from his muscles, leaving a feeling of contentedness. He was truly blessed to have such a great house. He had been hunting for a house for a month until this popped up in his zillow search.
A new construction, two-floor twin house with 2,570 glorious of space, two car garage, 3 bedrooms and bathrooms, and stuffed with modern appliances. The first time he had visited the home to tour it, he said out loud that it was the swankiest house he had ever been in, to the amusement of the agent with him at the time. He had immediately fell in love and purchased it without a doubt. The hefty $800,000 price tag didn't faze him, money wasn't an issue ever since his big break.
The only problem he had with it was it was too big for one person and his dog… He desperately wished he could share such an amazing space with somebody close, but his family tended to prefer him to visit than vice versa. He also couldn't invite his friends over since he didn't have many to begin with and the ones he did have had moved outta state for college. All in all, he was terribly lonely but he figured he only had himself to blame. He preferred to stay at home and play video games than go outside. Frankly, the only reason he had to step outta the house was to walk Lily and go to the gym...
He vigorously shook his head, as if to rid himself of the negative thoughts. He shouldn't dwell on the negative, he firmly believed he was blessed and he re-resolved himself to use his time,treasure, and talent for good and not squander it. Done with his introspection he grabbed his Head & Shoulders bottle and squeezed a dollop into his hand. He then scrubbed the cleanser into his short, black hair.
"I think I might need a haircut soon… I have to remember what I told the cutter last time… was it shaved on the sides and scissors on top?" he mused. He was terrible at remembering details like this, even though he had the same haircut since his freshman year of high school.
After all the suds were rinsed off, he shut off the shower and stepped out of the shower. He then wrapped himself up in a cream towel and dashed across the hallway into his bedroom, wanting to avoid feeling the cold, early Autumn air that was starting to settle in.
Once inside the bedroom he quickly pulled out a wife beater and black sweats out of his wooden drawer dresser and suited up, relishing egotistically that he filled out the tank top pretty well in the mirror hanging above the dresser. Then he noticed the black scarf folded neated on top of the otherwise bare wooden surface. It was probably too early and weird to start wearing a scarf, especially indoors, but he decided to wrap it around his neck any way. It had been a Christmas gift from his father and he enjoyed both the texture and the fresh-from-the-laundry smell it had.
He then walked out of his room and headed down the hallway to the living room. He then realized that he had a voice message on his home phone and proceeded to play it through the answering machine.
"Hey Isaac! It's me, Dylan! I gotta notha job for ya!" the mans booming voice just wasn't fully conveyed through the voicemail but it got the job done. Isaac didn't want to laze his days around doing nothing and wanted to add some padding to his finances so he had decided to become a freelance programmer. He makes a decent chunk of change from his work and is able to mostly live off the money he makes from his job. He's thankful for this job as well, because that means he can squirrel away the rest of the money he has for whatever else he might want or need.
After Dylan was done relaying him the details of the minimal viable product, Isaac shot him a quick confirmation text that he had received the message and that he'll get cracking on it first thing tomorrow.
Isaac started heading towards his dining room and grinned widely when he saw that Lily was sitting right in front of the door that lead outside, wagging her tail expectantly.
" Alright, alright! I'm coming" he briskly walked towards the door and the both of them walked out together. But Isaac quickly dashed back inside to grab an umbrella leaning by the doorway.
"It's storming out here" he yelled to Lily, which was replied with a deadpan stare, as if to say 'No, really?'
Isaac had trained his dog pretty well and he was comfortable with letting Lily walk outside without a leash. He just has to make sure they didn't stay out too long, Lily might catch a cold...But Lily seemed to be just as unwilling to be outside in the rain he was, and was trotting hurriedly around the sidewalk trying to finish up her business.
With the free time he had and his body somehow trailing his dog, his mind quickly wandered to the topic that had been on his mind for months.
Doki Doki Literature Club.
The game or more specifically one character has always been in the back of his mind ever since he downloaded the game four months ago, in early April. His friends from Discord had suggested he play, claiming it was one of the best indie games of the year. Isaac, by the end of his playthrough, completely agreed. Monika was by far his favourite character because she was initially the one who Isaac tried to romance on his first playthrough, but unfortunately she was denied a route by the game. So when Monika ruthlessly deleted her entire reality just to be with him, he was thrown for a loop and thought she was a monster. But after listening to some of her topics during her talk, the anger melted away into pity. Isaac doubted he would have acted any differently if he were in similar positions.
What's truly embarrassing for Isaac though, was that because of her talks, Isaac was finally motivated to better himself as a person. He took piano and drawing lessons, and dedicated himself to do things that would Monika proud. His drawings were always about Monika at first but as he got better, he was able to branch out, and he was super proud at how far he had come. He was currently sketching a piece with all the girls of the literature club .As for piano, it was a similar story, he inexorably practiced playing Your Reality and when he had finally played the song without mistakes just 3 days ago, he screamed so loud in celebration that Lily had came running to make sure he was alright. Now Isaac was learning a piano cover for Closer but was having a rough time. His frustrations got so bad that he had punched the nearest wall in anger, but only came out of it with bloody knuckles and a headache.
A sharp bark snapped out of his reviere. He glanced down to see Lily staring back at him impatiently and a pile of her business on the sopping wet grass by the sidewalk. Isaac, with practiced ease, whipped out a doggy bag out of his pocket and performed his civic duty.
"Lily, sometimes I feel like your the brains of this operation sometimes" Isaac laughed, and motioned for his companion to head back home. He glanced up into the sky and was startled at how turbulent they seemed. "It definitely didn't seem today was going to be a rainy day as I was heading to the gym…" Isaac picked up the pace to a jog, wanting to get out of the god awful weather.
Once inside his house, Isaac made sure Lily was fed,watered, and thoroughly dried. Isaac made his way to his "office" as he so jokingly dubbed it. The room had been a spare bedroom originally, but since Isaac wasn't ever expecting to have guests sleeping over he didn't see a point of having two guest rooms. So he shoved all the things he needed to relax all in one room, and he practically lived in between these four walls. He had placed his electric keyboard alongside the right side wall and his drawing desk on the opposite side. Finally he had put his PC setup on the wall opposite of the doorway. Besides those three things and an office chair shared between all three "stations", Isaac hadn't bothered to put anything else. Needless to say, the room was in desperate need of a decorative touch.
"So what do I want to do right not…" Isaac mused, humming some nondescript tune and relaxing to the pitter-patter of rain that had started when he was feeding Lily.. "I guess I haven't checked on Monika lately…" he knew it was silly to check up on a game character, from a dating sim no less, but he already knew he was unhealthily obsessed.
As Isaac plopped down into his char, Lily had decided to make her way over by his feet and curl up beside him on the grey rug mat he had placed underneath his PC. The sight of her made Isaac's heart clench happily and gave Lily a scratch on the ear as acknowledgement. The PC had booted up already and so Isaac clicked on the pink circle for the DDLC game.
"What…?" instead of seeing the intense gaze of his favourite character, there was an odd absence of those emerald eyes that entranced him so much. "What the fluff is going on?" The screen in front of him was a white screen with the alert "MISSING CHARACTER FILE" screaming at him.
Scratching his head in irritation, Isaac pulled up the game folders and confirmed that indeed Monika was gone from the game's directory. Isaac then double checked his recycle bin to find that she wasn't there as well.
"I definitely didn't delete her. Lets try redownloading." he muttered as a clicked away with his mouse.
It didn't work, even deleting his previous saves and setting it to first run status, Monika was still gone. The game just kept on crashing and Isaac couldn't come up with a reason why.
"Well Fuc-" Isaac was interupted by a roar of thunder and the slice of lighting that just struck outside his house, the window in front of his PC and monitor showing the scorched ground of his neighbor's lawn. "SHIT! Damn this storm is going HAM on 's lawn!"
…
…
…
Isaac waited tensely, wanting the storm to get all its jumpscares out of its system. But as Isaac was settling back down into his chair, thinking it was over, Lily bolted out of her spot, barking madly.
"JESUS! What the fuck Lily!?" he briskly sped after his dog. Isaac knew that someone had to be outside his front door, since Lily liked 'telling' him that by barking like a hound from hell. "Damn, who the heck could this possibly be in this shit storm"
When Isaac finally made it to the door, he could clearly hear the seemingly desperate knocks from the person outside. Isaac figured that since it was so bad outside, the person had urgent business with him, he just couldn't fathom who it might be. It couldn't be a friend of his since they weren't on break and his family hadn't notified him that they were planning to visit.
Another set of hard knocks snapped him out of his thinking, so Isaac made to unlock and open the door.
"Hey, next time warn me when your-" His words died in his throat as he got a good look at who was at his door way.
Isaac saw the anxiousness in her eyes practically melt into elation as she practically headbutted his chest and hugged him. Isaac, having been completely caught off guard, could offer an intelligent grunt of surprise. As he looked at the shivering and soaked form clinging to him, Isaac saw she had her ridiculously long hair pulled up into a ponytail, with a drooping white bow holding it together. Combined with the foreign school outfit adhering to her body, Isaac knew exactly who she was.
"Monika? Wha- You're real?" Isaac's gaping mouth gave off the impression of a beached fish. But Isaac was compelled to return the unexpected glomp, not wanting her to get any colder than she was and secretly not wanting to let her warmth go.
A nervous giggle came from her lips, "Of course silly~ I'm finally with you Isaac!"
He had never seen woman grin so angelically, as if she had everything she had everything she ever desired.
A/N: Hey lemme know if this story is interesting, I might continue if its any good. R&R
