throws this at you and runs
âCompletely out of the blue Saeyoung shows up at your place with nothing on him but the clothes heâs wearing and some of his most important gadgets in a small bag. He asks you if he can stay at your place for a while and work on something important.
Would you tell him to make himself at home and just let him take whatever he needs?â
When you heard the knock, you were not expecting this.
In front of you stood a familiar redhead, holding a grocery bag filled with electronics and cables in one hand. He looked kind of distressed but wore a smile anyway as he spoke,
âYes, no, and may I please stay with you for a bit MC?â He emphasized the name with a sardonic grin.
You didnât move, frozen with confusion, but managed to squeak out a single word â though your voice was pitched as high as your confusion on a scale of 1 to 10,
He sighed quietly, his expression softening into something patient and⊠fond?
âLook, I know this must be very confusing for you, itâs actually really confusing for me too. But IâŠâ he gulped and looked directly into your eyes,
âI need your help. Please. Can we just go inside and talk?â
It was hard to argue with that.
Minutes later Saeyoung Choi, the video game character, was seated in your home with a bottle of Dr. Pepper in his hand. Youâd happened to buy it from the store after a sudden craving struck.
You couldnât help but wonder if that was somehow related to this â after all, this was crazy enough as is. What was a little interdimensional/supernatural/whatever this was craving at this point.
He took a sip, seeming to gather his thoughts, before taking a breath and beginning,
âSo. Iâve been trying to find a way to communicate outside of the developers preset messages. It.. worked a bit too well..? At least better than I was prepared for. At all.â
You nodded, pretending you understood even though you hadnât processed past opening your door earlier.
âSince Iâm not exactly from here, I have nowhere to go while I figure this all out. I didnât have my wallet on me when this happened, so I canât just get a hotel room or something.â He gestured to the bag sitting near him,
âThatâs all that came with me.â He smirked a bit ironically, âLuckily someone apparently littered nearby, so I was able to grab that bag.â
You made a note to throw it away asap, but huffed out a laugh despite yourself,
âLucky number 7, after all.â He grinned at you, delighted,
âYes, the infamous Lucky Number 7, so lucky as to find used trash just when he needs it!â That pulled a stronger giggle from you and he beamed.
Seeing his smile caused the reality to crash back down on you: 707, Luciel, Saeyoung Choi, the otome character, was sitting in you house sipping on a Dr. Pepper and cracking jokes at you.
Dizziness slipped around you, your head spinning- you needed to calm down.
He nodded, watching you carefully,
âCould you grab me a bottle of water?â
âOh, yeah, definitely!â He was up and disappearing into your kitchen in moments.
You hoped the cold drink would bring you back to reality a bit. The moment it was in your hand you took a large gulp and felt the cold coursing through your body, tethering you to it.
âOkay, so you need a place to stay.â
âYes!â You drank as he spoke, downing the water fairly quickly,
âI just need a roof over my head and internet. Of course, if you donât have internet Iâm sure I could, uh.. borrow someone elses.â
He smiled at you wryly, and you smiled back,
âOkay. Then the house is yours.â
His eyebrows raised a bit at your acceptance, but he apparently wasnât willing to question it too directly. A joking smile slipped easily over his surprise,
âOh? The whole house?â
âYeah? Dude. You realize youâre a video game character, right?â
âSo you basically crossed dimensions.â
Starring at his signature jacket for a moment, it occurred to you just how far apart code was from flesh,
âHow do you have a bodyâŠ.??â
He looked down with you, seemingly only just reaching that curiosity himself. Fair, considering he had plenty else to be thinking about â basic survival for one,
âI⊠Donât know, actually?â
âOkay, yeah, so youâre⊠I donât know, but yes, the entire house and everything in it is yours. Youâve basically defied reality I guess?? Which I think makes you like.. an actual god now-â
â-so yeah, all yours.â You were pointing the now empty water bottle at him, bobbing it with each point you made.
âAlso youâre just. Even more attractive in real life than your game.. Which honestly shouldnât be possible.â
He watched the bottle bob with your unspoken final point, his mirth showing in his smile,
âI think you forgot to actually say that last bit?â
Eyes narrowed and face red, you pointed the bottle at him once more, almost accusingly,
âI didnât forget a damn thing.â
He laughed a bit as you leaned back, once again trying to take in everything that was happening, and scrambling to come up with what to do next.
Sure, heâd say you didnât need to do anything, letting him stay was enough â but you figured any fangirl of his would do about the same thing you planned. Simultaneously pamper him and actually make sure he took proper care of himself.
You needed to get vegetables, stat.
If he actually⊠Ate foodâŠ.?
âOkay.. Do you⊠need foodâŠ.? Like, are you hungryâŠâŠ? God, you donât have to eat code or⊠souls or something, rightâŠ? I donât know how to prepare either of thoseâŠâŠâ
It was a half joking remark, but it drove home that you had no idea what was going on, what he was, or what his needs even were.
You hardly noticed him laughing at the question, nor when he stopped and leaned toward you to take your hand,
You did. Face reddening. God damn it how was he so attractive this wasnât fair, oh god what would Zen even look like-
âI know this is really confusing, for both of us, but weâll get through it together, okay?â He was smiling reassuringly, his thumb sliding along the back of your hand.
Your anxiety slipped away, muscles you didnât realize were tensed relaxing.
âYeah. What do we do first though?â
He leaned away from you to grab his bag, though didnât release your hand â some part of your brain suggested that it might be as much a comfort for him as it was for you. Your other hand found his, gently turning it palm up and running your fingers over the wrinkles, a thumb lightly tracing a circle over his knuckles.
You didnât look up, but felt him still across from you, seemingly finally relaxing a bit himself. A minute or so later he resumed searching through the bag, careful not to move his hand in your grasp â youâd moved on to examining his fingers, baffled at how code was supposed to translate into this. Focusing on him being here, and real, was about all you could do to keep from drowning in the sea of questions that was your current state of mind.
His rummaging eventually drew your attention enough that you looked up. Heâd removed some cables part way from the bag in his search, and was now balancing three phones on one leg, still searching for another.
âYou really do have a lot of phonesâŠâ He smiled up at you, still bent to reach the bag,
âThese are just the ones I had on me.â
He found the last one and hesitantly pulled his hand away, a look that was almost longing catching your eye.
âMost of these are about dead by now, but none of them seem outright brok- wait, you have the messenger app on your phone, right?â The sudden topic change almost caught you off guard, but you pulled your phone out immediately despite it. The app was still there. In fact, you had a notification â a text from Seven.
âH̶ÍÍÌĄ ̞̟ÌeÌžÌÌźÌșlÌžÍÍÌl̶ÌÍÍ
oÌŽÌÌÌȘÌĄ?ÌžÍÌÍÌŻâ
You stared at the corrupted letters, but quickly found your eye drawn to a notification from tumblr, a mutual who posted exclusively about the game.
I got this weird text?? And now the app just craâŠ
After clicking the post, you found that they had explained it pretty well. Mystic Messenger wasnât working. Any chat room with Seven crashed as soon as he was supposed to enter, or wouldnât open at all, and everyone had received the same text as you.
Cheritz hadnât made any comments yet, but the internet was swarming with theories â none you saw half as crazy as the apparent reality.
Saeyoung was looking at your phone with you, smiling to himself at some of the things said.
Is this an event? Are we finally getting Rays after end?!? Seven, weâll finally save you T.T
Whatâs with Seven??? I just got kicked out of his route :0
Cheritz pls give us back saeyoung, taking him in rays route was bad enough
There was a flood of new content of him dumping into the fandom, and you made a note to yourself to look through it later when he wasnât there to tease you for it. For now, you opened the app.
The both of you watched the screen silently, heard the opening âCheritz!â (this time from Jaehee), saw V come up on the screen as he had been for a couple weeks.
You tapped through the opening image only to immediately be greeted by a piercing screech, the main menu coming up with no loading screen at all.
The message at the top was from 707 this time.
sÌ¶ÌżÌÌȘhÌ”ÍÌÌŠiÌ”Ḭ̫́t̶ÌÌÌsÌžÌÌÍÌąhÌ·ÌÌiÌ”ÌḬ́t̶ÍÍÌźs̶ÌÍhÌ”ÌÍ
̧iÌŽÌÌźtÌŽÌ
Ì«sÌžÍÌ
ÌŁÌšhÌŽÌżÍiÌ”ÍÌłtÌ·ÌÍiÌžÍÌ»tÌ”ÍÌŹhÌŽÍÌÌ»iÌ”ÍÌšnÌžÌÌÍkÌžÌÍÍÌiÌŽÍÌÌŹdÌžÍÍÍÌČi̶ÌÌądÌžÍÌȘtÌ·ÌÌĄÌhÌžÌÌÌ̧iÌ”ÌÍÌÌłs̶ÌÌÌ€ÌŻwÌ·ÍÍÌłÍrÌ”ÍÌ
âI guess thereâs no voice clip for thatâŠâ you mumbled, pulling a slightly strained laugh out of him,
âYeahâŠâ He stared at the menu hesitantly while you tapped Original Story. When the game opened up he audibly sighed in relief and reached to take the phone from you,
âThat, I remember. Okay, lets see if I can call JuminâŠâ
You watched him click the icon, a bit of dread pooling in your stomach as Jumin answered in his usual Korean, following the script perfectly. Saeyoung stayed quiet until it reached a set of options.
For a moment you worried that this wasnât what he had hoped for, or expected, or something, but then he was speaking into the phone,
âJumin, I know you canât respond, but I need you to gather everyone and head to my house. Make sure you get V and Saeran, Vanderwood too if you can â heâll help you get in if you can find him. Iâll call you again in a few hours.â
He paused a moment, still not clicking any options.
And then the call ended, entirely on itâs own.
Somehow that of all things made it click â the cast of Mystic Messenger was real, in a way. A glance at Saeyoung had you amending that, real, period.
Seeing you looking at him, awe in your eyes, golden eyes crinkled in a smile.
âIf I can, Iâm gonna- weâre gonna get them out of there, too.â
You nodded, not trusting yourself to speak evenly, without squealing or crying with joy. Or both.
You would help him, however you could, whatever it took.
It took you a moment of trying to channel your excitement into something useable, but you worked a response out through the grin on your face,
âWe will. We wonât give up until we do!â
He looked at you like you were shelter and he was in the middle of a storm.
This?? Was so great omg?! Youâre so amazing wtf you canât just run come back here stat so I can fckn beat you with my love and affection for making this out of my stupid post like?????????