MEND
CHAPTER 1
Her phone would buzz with a call or a text at all hours of the night. She'd get calls at something like 3 AM. What kind of a game wakes you up with a phonecall at 3 AM? She had the chatroom open almost constantly because she just never knew when someone was going to pop in. The emails she had to respond to from prospective party guests felt real, even the silly ones (Vampire? Really?). She thought that when she wasn't playing the game, she'd be able to explore the garden and the rest of the property. But replying to emails almost felt like a fulltime job. Ray would tell her how much she was helping him out, and that his boss was happy with her work. Her work. If Ray really wanted some constructive criticism about this game, she had plenty to give him, starting with that.
The problem was he never really asked for any – at least nothing technical. He mostly concerned himself with whether or not the characters "suspected" her. Suspected her of what? Maybe the game's main story was some kind of murder-mystery. The twist would be – dun-dun-DUN! – she was the murderer! But then who was the victim? Rika? Was there going to be a second murder victim? Jumin seemed to be the most likely candidate for that. Jaehee could be the put-upon employee who finally snaps. Or Jumin would mention his cat one too many times and Zen would end up just going berserk.
Maybe she was completely off-track and V was behind Rika's death. Besides Yoosung, no one seemed to suspect him of having done anything unsavoury. Yoosung was always trying to remind everyone that V was "full of secrets," and defending his right to question V's claim that Rika had committed suicide when no one had ever seen a body. Hmm… Yoosung could be the one to lose it and go after V. He was pretty adorable – young, ostensibly naïve and sweet, but appearances weren't everything. There could be some sort of dark backstory there she had yet to discover.
Ray often bad-mouthed V, warning her that he was conniving and "a hypocrite". She wondered if Ray was telling her that to keep her from guessing who the real bad guy was too soon. Ray spoke similarly of Seven. Seven staunchly defended V – he and Jumin would usually be the ones to tell Yoosung to back off whenever V's integrity came into question. Seven…Seven was intriguing. Something told her that there was more to him than meets the eye. All that quirkiness, all those jokes…they could be weaving a mask of sorts to keep everyone from knowing who he really was.
She knew what that was like. Before she grew too tired to keep it up anymore, she was the one laughing and making jokes to keep her friends from suspecting something was wrong with her. Maybe if she had just told them there was something wrong with her instead of keeping it all to herself, she wouldn't be so alone now.
Except she wasn't alone now. She had Ray.
oooOOOOooo
The search engine app on her phone had been removed, which was a bit of an annoyance as it would have come in handy for her "work". Some of the invitees would ask the most ridiculous questions, and without any way to do any research, she had to answer the questions off the top of her head. Ray had done something to the phone, something that limited her ability to access the outside world. Perhaps he had done it so that she wouldn't get distracted from playing the game, or maybe the need to keep wherever they were a secret was even more serious than she thought. Either way, it was wholly unnerving.
Even more unnerving? Ray himself. The mysterious White Rabbit who had led her here, the man she had followed of her own accord with nary a question nor a concern for her personal wellbeing.
She had no reason to trust Ray, but she did. She trusted him, and that scared her. The more time she was able to spend with him and speak with him, the more she came to care for him, and the more she missed him when he was gone. He was so incredibly kind-hearted and considerate. He didn't call as often as she would have liked, but when he did, fireflies would light up her insides at the sound of his voice. For the first time in years, she looked forward to waking up in the morning. Ray would bring her tea, carefully crafted desserts and lovingly prepared meals every chance he could. If he wasn't able to bring them himself, he made sure someone else did like clockwork. She wondered if that was why the AI's were constantly asking her if she had eaten – because he programmed them to do so. Her comfort and safety seemed to be of the utmost importance to him.
He checked in on her as often as he was able to. He asked questions about the game, but he also wanted to learn more about her. She wanted to learn more about him, too.
But, God – he always looked so exhausted. Happy to see her, but tired. His beautiful eyes were rimmed with black, and he was pale. Naturally fair-skinned, but ashen, as though he hadn't slept or eaten for days on end. She asked him if he ever got to enjoy a little time in the garden. He knew so much about botany that it only seemed natural he'd want to spend as much of his spare time as he could out in the sun and the fresh air. He told her that he was too busy, but he did send her a picture once of him standing out in the garden, and photos of flowers that he had taken himself, perhaps to ease her mind a little. He went out of his way to keep her from worrying about his health, but that just seemed to be adding to his workload. He never let her feel that way, though. He wouldn't have it.
One evening her curiosity got the better of her and she left the room to look around a little. The marble halls were empty, but she could hear voices nearby, so she kept her little adventure short. She didn't want to run into someone and have to make polite conversation with them (nothing had changed there). On her way back, her phone buzzed. It was Ray. There was a slight tremor in his voice when he asked why she wasn't in her room. He told her he had put together a bouquet of flowers for her that he had picked from the garden. When she found it laying on her bed she sighed contentedly, thankful that he'd actually managed to get outside even if it was still technically work.
Wait. Did she just call it "her" bed?
She inhaled the scent of the flowers – red roses, and fresh green leaves. She unwrapped them and saw that every thorn had been painstakingly removed. She shifted her attention to the velvet ribbon that had been securing the bouquet.
It was amber, the same colour as her eyes.
Was that just a coincidence?
She brought the strip of fabric closer to her face and breathed in deeply. Fresh blossoms and earth, and that smell she could never describe – the smell of an imminent thunderstorm, the very last second before the clouds would burst and the rain would start to fall. It was Ray's scent. Or maybe the ribbon just smelled like a ribbon and her imagination was imprinting the memory of his scent on it.
She missed him.
He had told her that he wanted to sit and have tea with her one day, but it didn't look like that was going to happen until his boss was completely satisfied with his work. She decided that she would devote every minute she could to getting through the game and giving Ray whatever feedback he required to finish his assignment.
Before climbing into bed that evening, she took a long bath in the ceramic clawfoot tub in the ensuite bathroom, but not before tying her hair up with the velvet ribbon. Her phone stayed in her hand all night so that she wouldn't miss a single call. She had a job to do, and for Ray's sake she was determined to do it well.
She was starting to lose track of time. Not just the hour of the day, but also the day itself. She had met Ray on a Saturday. How many days had passed since then? It didn't seem to matter anymore. She was starting to wonder if this was where she belonged.
Then one day Ray said her name, or at least what he thought was her name – "M" – and she relished the sound of it on his lips so much that she decided to keep it.
Emme.
She liked that. Whether she would be able to keep seeing Ray once he had all the information he needed from her, or not, Emme concluded that her life would never be the same from here on out.
New life, new name.
oooOOOOooo
Ray seemed to be looking forward to Emme leaving as much as she was, which is to say not at all. Whenever he said, "Please don't leave," she promised him that she wouldn't – a promise she desperately hoped she'd be able to keep. At first she wasn't sure if he meant "Please don't leave until I've completed my work," or "Please don't leave me here alone." Both made her sad for different reasons, but she didn't have to wonder about his intentions for long.
During a rare break he logged into the messenger. She was squinting her eyes and trying to make out what his avatar was supposed to be - Is it an eye? A bird? Is "Mint Eye" his handle? When Ray made his feelings clear to her, which wasn't exactly the paradigm of romance. She wanted him to tell her how he felt face to face. Her name was so absurdly beautiful in his mouth.
She had read his words over again at least three times to make sure she was seeing what she was seeing. "Because you're mine," and "I've never felt this way before." He mentioned sitting down to eat with "a special someone" who told him that all his sense seemed entirely tangled up in Emme. This special someone's words made Ray wary of expressing his feelings because they had concerns that he might be growing obsessed with Emme.
Special Someone needs to mind their own business.
Admittedly, yes – emotionally, things were progressing very quickly. It was like up until now she and Ray had been struggling to stay afloat in the same cold, dark waters, and once they found each other, they couldn't let go for fear of drowning.
Um…that doesn't sound healthy at all.
But they had both been lonely and subconsciously searching for someone who understood them for so long, so of course feelings would rush at them like a dam had burst. That was just to be expected, wasn't it?
She started typing a response when another message popped up.
"I want you to wreck my head."
She bit back a gasp.
Oh.
Okay, that's not good.
