Chapter 9: Loading...

Saturday. The kind of gray, drizzly day that begged to be spent indoors.

Miyu sat at her usual corner table in the cafe down the street—laptop open, earbuds in, tea steaming beside her. Her eyes flicked between the MMORPG login screen and the blinking cursor on a Word doc where unfinished lyrics stared back.

A message popped up.

OblivionHeart: Coffee sounds better than keyboard clacks. You free?

She blinked.

It was the first time he suggested something offline.

Her stomach did a weird flip. Then she typed:

HanaLune: Same place we talked about before?

OblivionHeart: Yeah. I’ll be the guy overthinking his outfit.

Miyu laughed softly and closed her laptop.

The cafe near Shibuya station buzzed with low conversation and jazz. Miyu walked in wearing her usual black hoodie, oversized and cozy, with her green-ombre hair peeking out from under a knit cap.

Ren was already there—curly hair slightly damp from the rain, black guitar case leaning against the booth. He stood when he saw her.

It was the first time they’d met in person.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hey.”

They stared at each other for a second too long.

“You’re shorter than I expected,” she teased.

“I was about to say the same thing.”

They laughed, and something unspoken eased.

The conversation was stilted at first. Small talk about work. Music. The game. But then Miyu reached into her bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

Lyrics. The ones she’d written after that raid with Rika.

“I started this the night Rika crashed the guild call.”

Ren unfolded it, reading silently. The words were raw, unsure—but they pulsed with the same rhythm as her voice in-game. He tapped the paper gently.

“This... is really good.”

“It’s unfinished.”

“So are we.”

Their eyes met.

“Do you want to finish it?” she asked.

He didn’t answer right away. Just reached for his guitar.

“Play me your half. I’ll follow.”

Meanwhile, in the game world, Shin waited alone in the grove.

He stared at the friend list. Miyu: offline. Ren: offline.

He sighed, closing his inventory. Then sent a whisper to an empty screen:

CrimsonShin: Guess I missed my turn.

And in another tab, Rika refreshed the group chat and saw Ren’s status change.

Offline.

She closed her laptop with a snap.

“This isn’t over,” she muttered.

But for now—for Miyu and Ren—their worlds had collided.

Not in pixels.

Not in whispers. But in real time.