Real life is not a video game. Hana knows that much.

Out there… she doesn't have lives to spare. Each second, each minute, each day… could easily be her last. Which is why, she stays confident in her abilities but realistic about the odds, and aware of consequences.

Still, in many ways, life is a game in itself. And video games, too, are in many ways a mirror to reality – emulations of various aspects of it. Now others may or may not argue about that but, the way Hana sees it, real life and video games… they are like two sides of the same coin. It's all a matter of perspective really, she muses, staring intently at the silver coin, already warm, in the palm of her hand. All she needs to do is keep up with both sides and play to win regardless. Simple as that, right?

Right. She lets out a long, drawn out sigh and she frowns when she catches sight of her obscured reflection in the glass of the vending machine. Her out-of-shower hair is tied up in a messy bun and she looks tired. Figures.

It's barely been an hour or so since she got back from a brand new Nano Cola photo shoot, yet another press conference before that and even more training and field testing in the early hours of the morning. Her head aches, and so do her muscles from pushing her body too hard; she feels a little dizzy even. And her habit of drinking caffeinated soft drinks so late at night and substituting skipped meals with unhealthy snacks isn't doing her much good either, that's for sure. Hana can't even remember the last time she could afford the time to just sit down and eat a nice, home-cooked meal – and Ramyeon doesn't count!

She sighs again, tapping her feet impatiently at the sound of coins dropping – the little mechanical ding of her beverage being released is like music to her ears. She finds herself debating on whether or not she should do a quick stream before bed and in her memory, she sees her father smiling. He ruffles her hair and he tells her, Don't stay up all night, kiddo. Already knowing she wouldn't listen, he'd say, Hey now, don't go and pick up all of your old man's bad habits. Hana smirks lazily and bends to pick up her drink. Kek. Too late for that, dad.

She brushes a few strands of loose hair that fell across her face, tucking them haphazardly behind her ear, and her musings come to a halt when a glowing blue light coming from the balcony at the end of the hall snatches her attention. Hana recognizes it immediately as being a holographic display, and right next to it – in what Hana has come to consider to be her usual spot on that balcony – is the silhouette of a woman: Doctor Ziegler.

Hana feels her lips quirking up in a fond smile. She hasn't seen the doctor much since she'd briefly shown her around the base, two days ago. Funny how the odds work at times, Hana thinks. Sometimes you just meet the person you least expect in the most unthinkable circumstances. She never thought the doctor would end up coming to Busan, much less that Hana would actually get the chance to spend time with her and get to know her.

Over the years, Hana has heard her fair share of stories about this famous doctor, Angela Ziegler. Orphan of war at a tender age, a brilliant scientist, a devoted advocate for peace; well, moral of every story: this woman is a true hero. A guardian angel. A beacon of hope. Come to think of it, Hana was maybe ten years old – eleven at most – when she first heard them mentioned on TV, the so-called Overwatch heroes. She grew up knowing who they were, of course, how could she not?

But to Hana, those "heroes" had always seemed far away, almost surreal; like they might as well had only ever existed in an old movie or some retro video game. Because they were heroes, yes. They were, until they weren't anymore. And so, to Hana, they were just plain old names and history. And if she's being honest, none of them made a lasting impression on her at first. Not even the doctor. Hell, Hana remembers seeing Angela Ziegler's picture a few years back and thinking: 'Jin-jah? Is this woman seriously flying around in an actual angel suit? LOL. Talk about overkills.'

It wasn't until she actually saw Angela Ziegler, out, on the field, that Hana finally understood what that woman stood for. Because seeing Mercy then, it was unlike seeing her face and figure on some digital screen or photo, no. That extraordinary encounter was powerful enough to ignite a change of heart.

Blonde hair and glimpses of warm blue eyes, in a dazzling angelic glow… It was very much like gazing at the sun, far off in the distance and already feeling the light of a new, brighter tomorrow. And in that one moment, Angela Ziegler seemed to Hana more real than anything.

That's when she decided that all the stories… they must be true.

Heroes never die.

Hana smiles fondly at the recollection as she gazes over to where the doctor is sitting now. Dressed in a white lab coat, she looks completely engrossed in her work; frantically taking notes in a clipboard, rubbing her eyes, wrinkling her nose every now and then.

Hana feels an odd impulse, a strange urge to go be by her side.

She pops another Nano-Cola can out of the vending machine, and she immediately cringes. Ah, Shi-bal... It has her own face on it! Winking! And on top of it written in bright Korean letters: 'Pink confidence with Nano-Cola!' Aigoo. Hana never really paid it any mind because she's grown used to it but now that she thinks the doctor will see it too… it's somehow suddenly extra embarrassing. Well, maybe she won't notice, Hana reassures herself, though she already doubts it. At last, she shrugs it off as she quietly makes her way down the dim hall and onto the balcony.

Hana leans over the side of Angela's chair and taps her lightly on the shoulder. "Hey, doc! All work and no play?" she asks and Angela looks up in surprise – her expression appearing almost startled for a fraction of a second before she realizes who it is.

"Hana," Angela acknowledges her presence with the gentlest of smiles and Hana's heart does a little flip. There's something in the way the doctor is saying her name; the sound of it seems almost foreign and yet familiar at the same time. Hana can't help feeling as though something warm is spilling in her chest.

"Would you care for a drink?" She holds the soda cans up, with a smug smile on her face. "And some delightful company?"

Hana points to herself with her thumbs and Angela makes a soft, almost inaudible noise at that—a chuckle.

"Why yes, I would," she says, and Hana grins, eagerly plopping down in the empty leather chair across from the one Angela is comfortably sitting in.

The night air is chilly on her bare arms and Hana can feel some goose bumps forming on her skin. In hindsight, deciding to come outside in only a disheveled, loose crop top and baggy sweatpants might not have been the best idea. Guess the good company will have to make up for it. She yawns before she can help herself and Angela gives her a sympathetic look. "Long day?"

Hana replies with a small nod, "Yeah." She brings her feet up under her to sit cross-legged and leans forward just a tad to hand Angela her drink. Their fingers brush, just barely, though the doctor doesn't seem to notice or mind as she gladly accepts the offering with a kind smile and a soft 'thank you'. "How about you, doc? How was yesterday's morning meeting?" Hana asks. "Everything alright?"

"Yes." Angela nods, too. "Everything is coming along quite smoothly," she says as she finishes writing something on her clipboard then sets it aside to focus on her drink. Hana's eyes widen briefly when they fixate on the bolded title: PROJECT_C9H13NO3.

Oh, she thinks, realization clicking into place. So that's what the doctor's working on. That's what she was brought here for…

"Mm. That's good," Hana utters absently, staring down at her hands. She's itching to ask some questions but she doesn't. It's none of her business. It's probably supposed to be confidential, too. And Hana isn't even supposed to know about it in the first place so she opts to drop the subject altogether. For now, at least. "So." She pops her soda can open and takes a sip. "Did you sleep well?"

"I didn't get much sleep, I'm afraid," Angela admits and Hana notices the shadows under her eyes, more pronounced under the moonlight. The doctor does look tired too. "However, I can assure you that it only has to do with my regular sleeping habits and not so much with the unfamiliar environment," Angela tells her, and there's such an incredibly alluring serenity reflected in her gaze as she peers out at the scenery stretching out ahead of them. From that balcony, the full sweep of the Busan skyline is visible. The bright and vibrant city lights beckoning from below, a colorful Ferris wheel spinning somewhere in the background. "Quite a change of scenery from the little town of Zürich, back in Switzerland, I must say."

Angela smiles as she takes her first, tentative sip of the drink, and Hana gulps. The way the doctor's lips gently press onto the can… it momentarily hypnotizes her for some reason. Her mouth goes dry and she involuntarily licks her lips. She feels strangely captivated and her heart thumps pleasantly in her chest as she lets her eyes trace the long, delicate curve of the doctor's neck— aaaand she's caught staring. Aish!

Hana realizes now that she's been staring at Angela with what was probably a stupid-looking expression on her face and her palms feel sweaty all of a sudden. She wipes them on her thighs and straightens up in her seat. "Never been to Switzerland." She clears her throat awkwardly. "What's it like?" she asks, relieved that her voice doesn't waver.

"Well," Angela ponders, staring contemplatively off into space. "I personally think it's especially beautiful during the month of December," she says, and Hana can't help but find it charming somehow, the way Angela's foreign accent seems to be dripping from every other word. The doctor takes another sip of her drink then carries on, "When you look out the window and you can see white fields of untouched snow. And you can smell the winter in the air and hear train whistles echoing through the chilly breezes of the night..." She pauses for a moment and closes her eyes for a few brief seconds, as though she's trying to let the very essence of her words sink in and take her all the way into the depths of a memory.

"I guess you must miss it, huh?"

"Oh, I always do," Angela smiles. A sad sort of smile, tinged with a distant fragrance – like an old photograph; the most compelling medley of grace and melancholy. It sends Hana's heart aflutter. "Or rather… I miss it for what it used to be and what it once meant to me. The place from my memories where all of the good yesterdays reside. Back when I would call it 'home' and felt it to be true," she says, and Hana thinks she has a faint idea of what the doctor means. Her parents, her childhood, the glory days of Overwatch… In time, all things change and nothing ever stays the same, not really. Not when all you can see is what is not there anymore.

They sit in silence for a minute or two until Hana spots a certain open tab in a corner of the holographic screen and she perks up, pointing at it, excitedly. "Oh! Mei's online journal! You read it too?!" Hana can hear the eagerness in her own voice as she continues to gush over it, frantically gesticulating with her hands, "I love it! It's so cool that she gets to go to so many different places around the world!"

Angela chuckles, heartily. "Yes, she has quite the adventures, doesn't she?"

"Yeah," Hana breaths out, settling back in her seat. "I don't get to travel much," she admits out loud, with a little bit of indignation in her voice. "You'd think someone in my position would be swimming in opportunities to travel around the world, but that's not how things really are." She sighs and decides to stand up, arching her back in a lazy stretch. "I don't think I have any right to complain about it, though, I mean, I've been to Japan a few times. So, there's that, I guess."

Hana reaches down for her unfinished drink then steps closer to the edge of the balcony to lean in onto the railing and look across at the scenery. "I love going through Mei's blog and reading her updates," she says, staring out at the twinkling city lights. "It kinda feels like nostalgia, you know, but in reverse. Like I'm longing for the unknown. Places I've never been to before and things I've never set my sights upon." She whirls around from the railing to face Angela. "It's kinda like Starcraft, you know? Or any other RTS game. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that, um, basically, there's a whole map outside of your location waiting to be explored and discovered. Otherwise it's just blanks. And life is supposed to be about filling the blanks, right?"

The doctor gives her a timid look of genuine bewilderment and Hana snorts, "I lost you at RTS, didn't I?"

Angela hides a chuckle of her own behind her hand, her shoulders practically quivering from her efforts not to laugh out loud. "It all sounds very fascinating, actually," she says, her words trailing off into giggles.

Hana quirks an amused brow and folds her arms across her chest. "Does it now?"

She wonders what it is about this woman that makes her feel so at ease about pouring her heart out or even about blurting out the most random of things. Maybe it has something to do with the way Angela listens to her. She doesn't interrupt Hana or question her in a condescending way. She doesn't expect Hana to act in a certain way or look at her like she lacks life experience, no. Angela just listens, with an open heart. And Hana finds that extremely liberating, somehow.

"Yeah, well," Hana smiles, "with me around, you won't stay clueless about video games for much longer." She makes it sound like a promise and seals it with a wink.

Angela chuckles some more as though she can't quite argue with that. "I did get your point, though," she says, then adds, more seriously, "and I happen to agree with you. I believe our lives are defined by the chances and the opportunities we take. Even the ones we miss."

Hana's smile widens. "Right?! That's what I'm saying! I mean, I'm not sure what's gonna happen in the future, but— well, I would like to go places and just see what the world has to offer, you know, on the bigger scale."

Angela nods, with an approving hum. "Speaking of opportunities… Overwatch has taken quite an interest in you," she tells Hana. "I've spoken with Winston earlier today and we've come to the agreement that your addition to the team would surely benefit us." Angela stares at her with a shine in her eyes and Hana feels a shiver of anticipation run up her spine. "In other words, you are very much welcome to join us, back at our main headquarters in Gibraltar. Anytime you'd like."

Hana quirks a teasing brow then. "In other words, you want me," she states bluntly and Angela almost chokes on her drink. She frantically tries to cover it with a cough, and the corners of Hana's lips quirk up in a smirk as she adds, "To join Overwatch."

"Yes. That—" Angela clears her throat, as if the words got stuck somewhere in there. "That is precisely what I've just said."

Hana has to bite the inside of her cheeks to stop from grinning too widely at Angela's distressed tone. True, she practically ended up stating the obvious there but she did it in a way that she knew — or more like secretly hoped — would lead to this kind of reaction. Why? Well, frankly, Hana has no idea why she gets a kick out of teasing the doctor, but for some reason she does. It comes with a sick sense of satisfaction, and it's almost like she can't help it.

She finishes her drink off, mildly pleased with herself. Then, on a more serious note, she finally says, "I'll think about it. Can I… think about it?"

Angela hums in understanding. "Of course. You have plenty of time to consider our offer," she tells Hana. "Whenever you feel ready, we'll be waiting."

Their eyes meet and they sink into a comfortable silence that stretches between them as they continue to simply gaze at one another, with an odd sense of intimacy lingering in the air. In the quiet stillness of the night, Hana can hear the waves beating against the shore. She thinks she can almost smell the sea breeze. She closes her eyes and it makes her wonder… her joining Overwatch

Hana allows herself to imagine what it would be like to stand among all those renowned heroes, to be part of that experience. Hell, it would be a lie to say that it never even crossed her mind. There's a hole in her heart begging for that kind of adventure, true, but… she turns to look out toward the sea, and then it all comes back to her: that painful reminder.

Just like when she would wake up in the middle of the night, with a jolt and a pounding headache, sweating and trembling, trying to catch her breath as though she'd been drowning. It's always the same broken images that flutter about her consciousness as she sees it all happening, in her mind's eye, again and again, and all over again, right from the very start – a never ending loop.

Hana remembers hearing her name being called out, people clapping and cheering, her feet skirting across the ground with agile determination. Her heart in her throat, her pulse pounding in her ears, she could feel it, she could hear it. She hops in her mech, the squad lines up, the gears kick in and the mission is a go.

The ground is shaking, her lungs feel like they are burning up, and her body responds with a surge of adrenaline. The intensity of it all... unlike anything she's experienced before; such a raw and unrestrained sensation – such an incredible rush! Hana had never felt more alive. But then…

Then she sees it. For the very first time, outside of history books and archived footage and reports, there it stands. The collosal omnic monstrosity that rose from the depths of the sea, once again, wreaking havoc, senselessly crushing everything and anyone in its way. The initial glamour of the fight instantly fading away, the closer they get… the more apparent it becomes that they are all dead men walking.

Hana remembers seeing people bleed and die. Muffled screams in the distance, missiles being fired and hitting the target to no avail, the crippling smell of her own blood, tears beginning to blur her vision. Loud and desperate calls for help and reinforcements ringing in her ears. A man ripped in half right before her eyes; she felt like throwing up. A horrible, stilted, panicky sensation resonating throughout her entire body…

Game Over…

Except it wasn't a game. And it wasn't a nightmare. It's cruel reality, with her one, precious life on the line, and Hana can vividly recall now how that realization hit her then. Like a lighting strike; settling into her with cold clarity. She blinked once, twice – trying to focus. Her fight-or-flight instinct reared up and she charged right ahead, gritting her teeth through the pain and cursing under her breath. If she goes out, she might as well go out with a boom.

Intitiating the emercengy escape. Activating the self-destruct sequence.

Then everything happens in a blur…

She's falling, then sinking, and then the world narrows to a pin point where all goes dark and blurry as she watches the explosion unfold. She tries stretching her hand out but her fingers touch nothing… And it was in that one moment, when everything seemed just so far beyond her grasp, with death a heartbeat away, that suddenly everything she's been taking for granted – her life and even the simplest of joys like the sound of a laughter – became unbearably desirable, and Hana remembers thinking...

I'm too young to die.

And that fear stayed with her.

When she had opened her eyes then, she was a celebrated hero. People were cheering, chanting her name, sending her flowers, asking for autographs, booking interviews and photo shoots. Call it a stroke of luck or people wishing upon a shooting star – but when the explosion of her mech hit one of the omnic's cores, it retreated beneath the waves and the illusion of peaceful days took the reins once again.

Maybe she was their shooting star, in the end.

That was the day Hana had closed the door on the simple normalcy of her everyday life and took her fights out of the "digital frontier" and onto the real-life battlefield. And at the end of each day that followed, it's always the same. When the lights go out, when the feelings of rush and adrenaline evaporate, when people stop looking her way… in those numbered hours before sleep finally creeps up on her, the fear makes itself known. So much that she can feel it in her bones. But Hana has come to realize one thing in the light of everything that's happened.

One needs to know fear to know true courage and that's what Hana sees when she looks at herself in the mirror.

That's what these people see in her: Courage.

She is their champion.

She is their hero.

This is her home.

And that's why…

"I have to stick around here for now…" Hana murmurs, staring vacantly into the distance and hearing her own voice as if it's coming from miles and miles away. She sighs softly. It's my duty.

She sighs again as she realizes that her stream of thoughts had taken a depressing turn and she shakes her head, ordering herself to snap out of it.

She turns around only to find the doctor fast asleep on the leather chair; arms crossed over her chest, clipboard still in hand, her breathing deep and steady. It makes Hana genuinely smile. Guess she's been contemplating for much longer than she'd intended to, huh. The doctor must have decided not to disturb her while she was so obviously cut off from the present and stuck wandering inside her own mind.

For a second there, Hana considers poking Angela awake, just to see how she'd react. But she can't bring herself to actually do it. Not when the doctor looks so surprisingly peaceful like that, so deep in slumber, as though not even the loudest sound could possibly wake her up. She must have been working all day… Her blonde hair is slightly tousled from meeting the back of the chair; a tuft of hair sticking up from behind her left ear, tickling at her nose, and she looks like she might sneeze. The sight of it gives Hana a warm, pleasant tingle in her stomach as she reaches down to carefully brush the stray hair behind Angela's ear. And Hana doesn't know if she does it because the doctor looks so disarmingly vulnerable like that or because of the way her calming scent seems to invade all of Hana's senses but, before she can stop herself, she lets the tips of her fingers caress Angela's forehead, ever so gently, a few seconds too long. Angela shivers at the contact and Hana flinches her hand away.

She blames it all on the late hour and the chilly night air.

"You'll catch a cold like this, you know," she tells Angela in a whisper, wishing she'd have a blanket to drape over her.

Yeah, you're a fine one to talk, Song-Hana, she tells herself, yawning a little. What time is it anyway? She takes a quick glance at her holo-watch: 11:46 PM – midnight is just around the corner. Right, she'll give the doctor a few more minutes to catch some shut-eye. She'll wait for the clock to strike twelve and wake the doctor up then. And as she gazes up at the starry sky and the moon, Hana starts counting the minutes to midnight like people do on New Year's Eve. She can't help thinking that… well, she wouldn't mind living in that moment just for a little while longer.

With Angela by her side, somehow, everything just feels right.