A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Mystic Messenger.
I skimmed over some of the things from the game. I'm not really interested in writing out what we're all already familiar with. For the purposes of this story, I only care about writing out the things that got changed for this story. I have significantly changed the encounter with Unknown, but I couldn't leave poor Saeran to his in-game fate. I kept some of the dialogue but tweaked it a little bit.
Overnight, Zen has a crowd of people bombard his apartment. Mun-Hee is awake to check on him, and she suggests he call the police. Zen decides to go for a ride to clear his head, and she tells him that he should probably just return to her apartment when he comes back into the city. He thanks her for the offer and heads out to get some air after packing a small bag to be able to take to her apartment.
By the next morning, V and Jumin have made the smart—and, in Mun-Hee's opinion, only—decision to fight against the accusations and help restore Zen's career. Seven will be helping them, but no one has heard from Zen since around three in the morning. Jumin volunteers to go find him, and he successfully discovers him at a secluded location that overlooks the city. Everyone can breathe easier knowing that he's safe.
At around noon, Mun-Hee is sitting on the couch in Rika's apartment—fuming—when her phone rings. Seeing it's Zen, she picks it up. "Zen! Are you okay?" she asks right away.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replies, and she immediately notices that he sounds much better than he did the night before. "Jumin came and found me, and he talked to me a bit. You were right; he's not so terrible like I thought he was."
"I'm glad," Mun-Hee says with a smile on her face. "What all did he say?"
"He…he offered me the modeling job again. I took it. I guess I need to take what I can now."
"Don't beat yourself up, Zen. Plenty of actors do modeling on the side. We'll fight Echo Girl, and you'll get your reputation back. I don't care what everyone else says. I know what really happened, and the RFA is totally on your side. With Seven and Jumin working on things, I'm sure everything will work out just fine," Mun-Hee assures.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Zen allows. "I think I'm going to drive by my house to check on it and then go on to your apartment. Is that okay?"
"Of course. I gave you the key for a reason."
"Okay. I'll get going and talk to you later."
"Be careful, Zen," she chides. "We need you in top shape to wipe the floor with that stupid skank."
"My babe is so fiery," Zen laughs.
"You think I could take her, right?"
"Sure," he responds, but he sounds more like he's just humoring her. She pouts, but he can't see that. "I'll call you after I get there."
"I'll be here."
Mun-Hee continues to prepare for the party, but now it's personal. Echo Girl has done the unthinkable by accusing Zen of a heinous crime he didn't commit, and Mun-Hee isn't going to let that slide, especially when considering the nature of the allegations. This party will go on. For Zen.
After a couple of hours, she decides to log into the chatroom just to break up the monotony. Jaehee is in there, and Mun-Hee pops in with her.
Mun-Hee has entered the chatroom.
Mun-Hee: Hey, Jaehee. How's your day?
Jaehee: Hello. It's going well.
Jaehee: I'm worried about Zen.
Jaehee: I think it might be best for him to quit acting. An actor's reputation is everything.
Jaehee: Zen's strength is that he's never had a scandal. That's no longer the case.
Mun-Hee: Of course, he can come back to acting! Echo Girl is the one who is in the wrong!
Jaehee: That doesn't matter. The public will believe her.
Mun-Hee: Not if I have anything to say about it. We're going to fight.
They speak for a little bit longer, with Mun-Hee getting increasingly upset at Jaehee's unhelpful attitude. She's aware that it will be an uphill battle, but she expected Jaehee to be more supportive. Mun-Hee will just have to work that much harder to make sure that Zen's name is cleared.
The next day, Mun-Hee continues to work on the party and helps Zen with his speech. "I suppose we should just be as truthful as possible. But we wanted our relationship to stay on the DL, so what should we do about that?" she asks, taking notes as they're speaking on the phone. She'll be leaving Rika's apartment to join him later in the evening, but she's finishing up some work for the party as of now.
"We can just say that you were helping me as a member of the RFA. You are the party coordinator, after all," Zen offers.
"That should work, but will Echo Girl cause problems? Didn't we kind of tell her that we were a thing?"
"I told her that I had feelings for someone, but you and I never actually said that we were dating," Zen points out.
"You're right," Mun-Hee says, biting the tip of her pen as she thinks. "And even if she says anything to the contrary, she's going to look like a huge liar by the end of this, so it shouldn't matter."
They spend another hour going over the finer details, and Mun-Hee starts to type up the speeches. Since she was at Zen's apartment, she'll be making the speech with him, which makes him a little less nervous.
After they hang up, she finishes up the final preparations for the party guests. By the time she's done with everything, it's almost eleven o'clock at night. She grabs her bag and throws most of her things in it to be able to go join Zen at her own apartment, but as she's walking toward the door, an announcement comes on. She looks around in surprise for the source of the voice before her brain registers what was just said. "Special security system?" she murmurs and pulls out her phone to call Seven.
Seven answers on the third ring. "Mun-Hee? What's wrong?"
"There was just some announcement here about a special security system restart. Do you know what that means?" she asks.
"Uhhhhh…that's not good. Just stay on the phone while I check it out, okay?"
"Okay," Mun-Hee complies, sinking down onto the bed to wait for Seven's instructions.
"What the…" she hears on the line. "Mun-Hee? I'm going to need you to stay there and not leave the apartment. Go wait in the chatroom. I'll tell you what I find when I'm finished looking."
"Sure," she agrees, but there's an underlying tone of concern in her voice. Whatever is going on sounds serious.
Logging in, she waits for Seven. It takes him about fifteen minutes, but he soon appears.
707 has entered the chatroom.
707: Mun-Hee. You can't leave the apartment.
Mun-Hee: Why not?
707: When Rika lived there, she had me install a special security system to protect confidential information.
707: It was just hacked, and it might go off at any time.
Mun-Hee: soooooo…when you say go off…that sounds like a bomb…
707: It IS a bomb.
Mun-Hee: Oh.
Mun-Hee has to physically hold herself entirely still to not have a full-on panic attack/meltdown. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. She calls Zen after Seven assures her that he's taking care of it. "Zen?" she whimpers when he answers. "I can't come over there tonight."
"Mun-Hee? What happened?" Zen sounds sleepy, like she woke him out of a dead sleep.
"So, there's a bomb at Rika's apartment, and it might activate at any moment. Seven is working on it, but I have to stay here."
"WHAT!" Zen demands, sounding much more awake than he did moments before. "No, no, no, you have to be able to get out of there. I just had a psychic dream that some weird, white-haired guy kidnapped you. You have to get out of the apartment!"
"I can't leave," she argues, tears pricking in the corner of her eyes. "Seven is watching me from the cameras, and the apartment is on a high floor. I don't think that someone would be able to kidnap me from here."
"I…I need to call Seven. I have to get you out of there."
"If someone comes here, the bomb might activate," Mun-Hee reveals. "I just have to wait, but I'm scared. I wish I would've left earlier in the day—even ten minutes earlier than I planned. I could've been with you already."
"Just sit tight. I'm going to see what I can do. Don't answer the door, and call me if anything goes wrong."
"I will, Zen. I'll be here, and I don't think I'll be able to sleep, so let me know whatever you find out."
She hangs up the phone and settles in for a long night, thoughts of Zen's psychic dream filling her mind.
Mun-Hee is sitting on the couch, waiting for something to happen with the security system. Seven says everything is fine, but Mun-Hee can't stop Zen's warning from swimming around in her brain. Still, she's not sure how anyone would get in without just knocking on the front door. Staying in her seat, she mentally goes over the moves from her self-defense course from high school. Just in case.
Eventually, she gets bored with that and goes to the kitchen to get some water. As she's pouring, she hears the sound of breaking glass and lets out a squeal of shock and fear. "You're busy with the party?" she hears a voice say from the window. She turns wide-eyed to the source of the noise and sees a masked, white-haired young man in the apartment surrounded by shards of broken glass. "You want to scream? Shh. I'll just force you to shut up, so you'd better be quiet."
"Who are you?" she manages to ask quietly.
"Oh, I get that you want to see my face, but if you come closer, you'll step on glass. This was the only way to avoid the thermal sensors and the security cameras. Wait. I'll go to you." He steps closer, and Mun-Hee instinctively steps back, cataloguing the area for a way of escape. It seems Zen's psychic dream was right. "I'm from paradise. You don't know this, but you were invited to join Mint Eye too. From the moment you installed that mysterious app. I know it took some time for me to come for you. Now let's go together, to Magenta!" he declares jubilantly. She can see a smile in his eyes. "You look scared. But don't worry too much. I won't hurt you. I was ordered to bring you alive. So…don't fight back," he orders.
As if, she thinks to herself. "How do you know me?"
His eyes crinkle, and even with the mask, she can tell his smile has turned cruel. "You mean you don't know? I'm the person who first brought you here. The nice student who wanted to give back someone's smartphone. Remember?"
Mun-Hee stares at him in shock. It's Unknown—the one who introduced her to the RFA. And he wants to take her to somewhere that he calls paradise. Sounds a little too cult-like for her taste. She's going to have to stop him. She throws caution to the wind and rushes at him at full speed. "What are you—?" he asks, but is cut off when she throws her arms around him and tightens them around his neck, attempting to cut off his breathing enough for him to pass out.
He struggles a bit, but he isn't very physically strong, which is good for Mun-Hee because she's rather small too. Still, she manages to hold him long enough that he goes limp and falls to the floor. She leans over him to make sure he is still breathing and has a heartbeat. After confirming both, she ties his hands and carefully and slowly pulls him onto the couch.
The first thing she does is pull his mask down. "He looks familiar," she mumbles to herself. Her hand moves to brush the hair away from his forehead, and she gasps at the familiar face. Pulling out her phone, she dials Seven's number.
Without the distraction of the white hair and mint eyes, his face is a perfect replica of Seven's.
"Mun-Hee? Did Zen get you out?" Seven says by way of greeting.
"What? Is he on his way?"
"Yeah. But he's not there yet? Did something happen?"
"Seven, do you have a twin?"
There's a pause in the line. "Why do you want to know?" he asks, his voice uncharacteristically serious and cold.
"Because Unknown just broke into my apartment through the window, and he looks just like you. I mean, he has white hair, but his face is unmistakable. He looks exactly like you without glasses."
"Where is he?" Seven demands harshly.
"He's on the couch. I knocked him out."
"Make sure he doesn't leave. I'll be there soon," Seven orders, cutting off the line abruptly.
Just then, a knock comes at the door. When she opens it, Mun-Hee sees that it's Zen, and she throws herself into his waiting arms. "Zen, I was so scared," she whispers, her body shivering as the adrenaline leaves it.
"What the hell?" Zen asks, seeing the man on the couch.
"It's Unknown, the guy who brought me here. He broke in through the window. I…I called Seven because I think this guy might be related to him. Seven is on his way."
Zen scrutinizes the man. "He really does look like Seven." Then his mouth falls open. "Wait, did you just say window?"
"For real!" she shrieks back, pointing at the shattered window. "He busted in through the window. I put him in a headlock and made him pass out. Seven should be here in a little bit."
"Holy crap," Zen says, still looking over the young man.
About twenty minutes pass before they hear thudding footsteps in the hall. "Saeran!" Seven's voice calls. He pounds on the door, and Mun-Hee lets him in. "Saeran!" he calls again when he enters, rushing quickly to the couch. He falls to his knees and begins examining his brother.
"Seven? This is really your twin?" Mun-Hee asks.
"What's happened to him? He's so thin," Seven whimpers.
"Seven, he said he wanted to take me to Mint Eye. Isn't that the cult that you mentioned?" Mun-Hee says, laying a hand on Seven's shoulder.
He looks up at her in horror. "He's in a cult? But…I asked V to take care of him."
Mun-Hee's face clouds over. "This is what V was hiding," she whispers to Zen, who remembers their conversation from days before. He grasps her hand in his to comfort her. "Seven, I think Saeran needs help. I think he's been brainwashed, and he's been severely malnourished. Is there any doctor that you know that could help him? It might be a bad idea to have him around people right now. It could be volatile."
"Mun-Hee, I…I don't know what to do. I don't want to involve other people in this."
"Well," she begins cautiously, "I'm not a therapist or anything, but I do know some stuff about psychology. If you'd let me see him when he wakes up, I could maybe point you in the right direction of a program that would be good for him. Legally and ethically, I can't help him."
Seven stands abruptly and grabs her arms tightly. "No, you have to help me. I can't go through official channels. I don't even really exist with the work I do. I need your help."
Zen steps forward and gently removes Seven's arms from their death grip on Zen's girlfriend. "Seven, calm down. I'm sure we can all figure out a way to help. RFA is family."
Mun-Hee gulps. "Okay, Seven. I'll see what I can do, but I can only act as a friend. I can't act as a counselor."
Seven sags in relief. "That's fine. That's enough."
Behind him, Saeran stirs on the couch, moaning a little in pain. "What's going on?" he mutters.
"Saeran!" Seven yells, moving back to his brother's side.
Saeran's face contorts in rage. "You!" he shrieks. "You betrayed me! You left me! Only the Savior loves me! I hate you, Saeyoung!"
Seven recoils in pain. "Saeran, no, I didn't! I left to protect you!"
Saeran starts screaming incoherently and attempting to break out of his bindings. "Zen, hold him down! He's going to hurt himself!" Mun-Hee says. Zen forcefully keeps hold of Saeran's shoulders—not enough to hurt him, just enough to keep him from injuring himself in a psychotic rage.
Saeran meets her gaze. "We were supposed to be happy," he cries, tears freely falling down his face. "Paradise was waiting for us. I would've never been abandoned again."
Mun-Hee carefully steps forward, kneeling down to be closer to Saeran's level. "Saeran, you're not going to be abandoned again. RFA is a family, and even if you hate him, you are Seven's family, which makes you our family. We'll take care of you. I promise."
Saeran breaks down into harsh sobs, visibly crumbling in on himself. Mun-Hee leans forward and embraces him, cradling his thin body like a mother would her small child. "It's going to be okay, sweetie." He chokes on air when she calls him that and then proceeds to cry even harder. "Seven, I think we should get Jumin to call in a private doctor. How big is your house?"
"Pretty big," Seven admits. "I…I got a big one so that Saeran could come live with me. He even has his own room waiting."
"No, that's wrong," Saeran whispers. "The Savior said you abandoned me because I wasn't good enough. She said that only she could love me because I'm so stupid."
Mun-Hee's eyes well up with tears, and she hugs the boy even harder, stroking her hands through his hair in a comforting gesture. "Saeran," Seven replies, tears streaming down his face. "I left so that I could get a job to be able to give you everything. V and Rika were supposed to take care of you until I had enough."
"Don't send me back to her!" Saeran screams suddenly. "I don't want to go back!"
"Back to who?" Zen presses.
"Savior. Rika. I don't wanna go! She'll make me take the elixir! I don't want it!" he cries, his whole body shuddering in fear and rage and anguish.
"Elixir?" Zen questions.
"Saeran, sweetie, I need you to calm down for me. You're going to make yourself sick," Mun-Hee says, brushing his hair out of his face and looking into his mint eyes. "Let's work on your breathing, okay?"
"I'm always sick. My body is weak. That's why I'm useless," he sobs, clearly not in his right mind.
Mun-Hee turns her head back to Seven. "Seven, I need you to call Jumin right now. This is far beyond anything I can help him with. He needs medicine and a doctor. Jumin will know someone who can care for him discreetly. Something is very wrong."
"Okay," Seven says shakily, pulling out his phone.
"I'll calm him as best as I can. I think it's important that V not be able to see him until we can figure out what happened and if the Savior really is Rika." Seven nods and dials Jumin's number, and Mun-Hee turns back to Saeran. "Okay, Saeran." She brings both of her hands up and cups his thin face in her hands, brushing away some of the stray tears rolling down. His breathing is elevated, his eyes are crazed, and his face is matted with snot and tear streaks. "Look at me. What color are my eyes?"
"Brown," he chokes out through hyperventilating breaths.
"Good. And my hair? What color is that?"
"Brown," he answers again, his breathing beginning to regulate.
"Very good," she says, smiling at him. He looks down at her mouth like he's never seen a genuine smile before. "And what about my shirt? What color is that?"
He looks down at it, a little bit more life seeping into his eyes. "Purple."
"Perfect," she praises. "Now, I want to do some breathing exercises, okay? Just follow my lead. In through your nose," she takes a deep inhale, and he follows, "and out through your mouth," she exhales, and he does the same. The two of them follow this pattern until he is no longer hyperventilating, which takes several minutes. "Are you better now?"
He nods shakily. "I'm scared," he whispers. "Will you hug me again? Nobody ever hugged me before except…except Saeyoung."
Mun-Hee has to fight the tears in her eyes again, realizing that he didn't include his parents in the exceptions. "Of course," she says, and engulfs him in an embrace once more. "Zen, could you get him some water and tissues?"
Zen eyes the boy warily, but he seems to have calmed down significantly. "Sure. Be right back." Saeran slowly sips the water when Zen hands him the glass, and Mun-Hee gently wipes the tears from his face. "You okay, dude?"
"My head doesn't feel right," Saeran murmurs.
Mun-Hee places the back of her hand on his forehead. "You have a fever. Zen, could you go in the bathroom and get me a thermometer? I don't know when the doctor will be here."
When they take his temperature, they see that he has a fever of 38.6 degrees Celsius. The two of them lay him back on the couch and place a pillow under his head. Mun-Hee drops a wet cloth on his forehead while Zen unties his wrists. He's too sick to hurt them as of now. Seven walks back into the apartment. "A doctor should be here within twenty minutes." When he sees his brother shivering, he panics. "What's wrong with him?"
"He has a fever. We won't know any more than that until the doctor examines him. Would you get the blanket off my bed?"
Seven dashes to the bed and wrenches the blanket off of it before darting back to his brother's side. "Please don't leave me, Saeran. We'll never be apart again. You just have to get better, and I'll take you out for all the ice cream you want," Seven bargains.
"Saeyoung, why does mother hate me?" he responds in a small voice, his eyes cloudy and unseeing. "Why can't I be good like you?"
"You're wrong, Saeran. You're the one with the good heart. I'm no good inside."
"No, that's not right," Saeran mumbles, his eyes fluttering open and shut.
"Saeran," Mun-Hee murmurs, trying to keep her voice calm and level for him. "You said something about the elixir. What is that?"
He starts shaking again. "She makes me take it. It's medicine," he says in a daze. "I don't wanna." The last sentence breaks off as his shivering intensifies.
"Seven, there must be something in that elixir. Maybe poison or drugs of some kind?" Mun-Hee posits. "Saeran is going to have a long road ahead of him."
Seven swallows harshly. "I'll take care of him. Like I should have from the beginning."
Once the door to her own apartment closes, Mun-Hee leans against it, closing her eyes and letting her head rest against the cool material. "That was exhausting."
"Are you all right, babe?"
She once again feels the tell-tale prick of tears in the corners of her eyes, but she takes a steadying breath to calm herself. "I'll be fine. That was just…unexpected. I mean, I knew that it was a possibility with your dream. I had actually been going over some of my self-defense moves when he broke in. I'm just lucky Saeran was small, or I wouldn't have been able to overpower him. I hope he can get better now."
"Me too," Zen agrees, pulling her away from the door and into his warm embrace. Mun-Hee sinks into him and allows herself to feel the comfort. "What do you think V was thinking?"
"I really have no idea," Mun-Hee shrugs. "I don't know how he could sanction letting Saeran get into such a state. Maybe when he recovers, we'll learn more about him."
They stand in silence for several minutes, Mun-Hee taking all the support she can feel radiating from Zen. "Can we just go to bed?" she murmurs. "I don't really feel like staying up much longer."
"Of course," Zen agrees and leads her through the apartment and into the bedroom. "Do you want me with you?"
"Yes," she states decisively. "Please don't leave me. I really don't want to be alone right now."
Mun-Hee barely has the energy to change into comfortable sleeping clothes, but she manages. Zen lays down first and opens his arms to her. She sinks into him and lets herself be held. Strong hands rub up and down her back, and she feels the stress of the day evaporate from her soul. "Babe?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think I should get back in touch with my family?"
"What brought this up?" she asks, pulling back a bit to see his face.
"It was something Jaehee said the other day. About how I should take this opportunity to reach out to my family, but…I'm not sure that I want to. They really hurt me. Never believed in me. I've been alone since I was a teenager. I'm just not sure if I should open myself up for more of that," he explains, his expression pained and his voice tight.
Mun-Hee just smiles up at him. "I'll support anything you decide, Zenny. I know family is really important here in South Korea, but I'm not from here. I might not be the best person to ask. My parents and I don't talk to a lot of our extended family, but these are your parents. If you want to talk with them, I think you should. But if you're only doing it because you think it's what someone else wants, then you shouldn't."
He just nods and then seems to think. "I'll just think about it. Maybe after the press conference gets everything out of the way. And maybe…"
"Maybe?" Mun-Hee presses when he doesn't continue.
"Maybe you could help me with them?" he mumbles, his cheeks tinting a little pink.
"Of course," she agrees immediately. "I'm not going anywhere, and I'll help you anyway that I can."
"Why?" Zen asks.
"Because I love you, Zen," she answers simply, as if it's the most obvious answer in the whole world.
Zen's pained features finally break with that statement. His mouth parts in a beaming smile of pure joy, and he crushes Mun-Hee to his chest. "I love you too, babe. I don't know what I'd do without you." His hand snakes through her brown hair, and he angles her face up for a sweet kiss.
They spend several minutes exchanging kisses and professing their love for the other until the day catches up with them, and they fall asleep cradled against each other.
I honestly don't understand why the MC doesn't say "I love you" back to Zen in his route. So that didn't happen here.
Grounding is a popular technique to fight panic attacks. Very effective.