Chapter 3: IRL

Miyu’s POV

The café was louder than she'd expected. Laughter echoed from the far end, and the scent of roasted espresso beans swirled in the air like comfort and caffeine-fueled adrenaline. Miyu clutched her phone tighter than she meant to. Her palms were a little sweaty. She wasn’t nervous—she told herself that. Just... alert. Aware. Cautious.

The guild meet-up had sounded fun in theory. A one-time thing. Casual. But ever since OblivionHeart—Ren—confirmed he was attending, Miyu’s quiet world had started to feel noisier.

She spotted the small hand-drawn sign marked “Astral Echo” perched awkwardly on the edge of a long table. A group of four were gathered there, drinks already in hand. She paused, half-hidden behind a support pillar. Then she saw him.

Messy black curls. Oversized hoodie. A quiet stillness in his posture that matched the way he typed—measured, observant. Her heart skipped.

Before she could gather her breath, someone called her name.

“Miyu?”

She turned. Rika Mizushima. From work. Her coworker. Of all people.

“You play Eclipsia Online too? No way!” Rika smiled, eyes sparkling with curiosity and just a hint of mischief. “What a small world.”

Miyu forced a smile and nodded, internally scrambling to recalculate the social equation. Rika was many things—confident, stylish, ambitious—but Miyu had never imagined seeing her here.

The group noticed them. The man with the curls stood slowly. Their eyes locked.

“...HanaLune?” he asked.

Miyu swallowed hard. “OblivionHeart.”

His face barely changed, but there was a subtle softening around his eyes. A quiet smile ghosted his lips. “Glad you came.”

And somehow, Miyu believed him.

Ren’s POV

He’d arrived fifteen minutes early. Not out of excitement, of course. That would’ve been ridiculous. Just... to scout the place. That’s what he told himself.

Shin had already sent three texts joking about Ren’s “first date with an NPC.” Ren didn’t reply. He just stared at the condensation forming on his coffee cup and tried not to overthink what he would say.

When she walked in, time hiccupped.

She was shorter than he imagined. Her ombre hair shimmered under the café lights, green fading into black like something out of an anime opening. She was dressed plainly—hoodie, jeans, quiet shoes—but she looked like no one else in the room.

And she looked lost. For a second.

Then she locked eyes with him, and Ren stood without thinking.

He said her name—not her real one, but the one that mattered.

“HanaLune?”

“OblivionHeart,” she replied.

Her voice matched the one from the raid—soft, steady, real.

He smiled, just barely. “Glad you came.”

There was a chair next to him, and he pulled it out instinctively. She sat without hesitation.

They talked a little. About the game. The guild. Rika, oddly, joined them halfway through the conversation with a flair Ren found too performative. She leaned a bit too close. Asked too many questions about his build, his gear. But Ren found himself always drifting back to Miyu.

Later, as people began to leave, she looked at him with something tentative in her eyes.

“Thanks for the invite,” she said.

“I didn’t invite you,” he replied, but quickly added, “but I’m glad you came.”

And she smiled.

In the midst of crowded coffee cups, chattering guildmates, and unexpected coworkers, Ren realized something he hadn’t expected to feel in a long time:

He wanted to know her.

Not HanaLune.

Her.