Oh boy, did Hoon know it was wrong. He knew it on so many levels, he was practically the empire state building.
If it hadn’t been for stupid Lynn asking him about the Joyful Tourneys during second period, he wouldn’t have checked his pone. And if he hadn’t checked his phone, he wouldn’t have seen the messages from Ai, which of course meant that he would be concentrating on his simulation project in fifth period instead of loitering in the school’s bathroom.
But now, he really needed to see Ai. Of course, he could be reasonable like every other student and wait until school was over, but by fifth period, the desire to see her was so great it was practically eating away at him.
So much for trying to fix his “dependency issues” this year.
Nonetheless, it was still a stupid excuse for why he was crammed in the third stall of the boy’s bathroom during the middle of fifth period, plugging a tiny USB into his phone, allowing him to bypass the schools’ security systems that prevented users from logging into the VR World during school hours on campus premises.
Yeah, take that, education. That’s what you get for teaching me stuff, he thought.
“Fuck the system,” he whispered halfheartedly while simultaneously kicking himself mentally for pulling such an immature stunt at school. Nonetheless, he committed to the action once he thought of Ai’s smiling face on the other side of reality.
Just five minutes, he promised as he brought his headset down to cover his eyes. Double tapping his right temple with two fingers, he felt his physical surroundings melting away as his vision went black and green.
He was in.
Vx2
v……..…...v
<...............>
<Logging in to Virtually Viral>
<Welcome back, Hoon>
Hoon was exactly where he had last left off in the Shimmering Forest: at the cusp of Mirrorless Lake. He didn’t have to run a search for Ai; the moment he had logged in, Ai had received a notification.. Not that Ai had needed it either since she usually chose to wait for Hoon where they had last left off.
Today, she was lying down on top of a large rock just a third of the way in from the edge of the shallow lake. She was basking in the sun, a content expression on her face, eyes closed and facing the direction of the sun.
Ai stayed that way for another moment or two before finally sitting up, long legs dangling off the edge of the tall rock. Hoon kicked off his leather shoes, and waded into the shallow water, wanting to run over if it weren’t for the painful pebbles digging into his feet that did nothing to distract him from the icy temperature of the water.
He waved animatedly, despite feeling slightly foolish. Already, from a distance, he could sense Ai’s smile playing at the corners of her mouth as she pointedly decided to tease him by waiting at the rock. She was enjoying the sight of Hoon already getting knee deep into the water in an attempt to reach her.
She opened her mouth as if wanting to yell words of encouragement, but her words abruptly fell short.
None of the words made it to Hoon’s ears.
Or rather, they never came out of her mouth.
A piercing headache hit Hoon like nothing else he’d experience in Vx2 before.
Slowly willing himself to open his eyes which he had shut tight the moment the sharp pain had first hit, he realized instantly that something in the scenery suddenly felt off. Hoon rubbed his eyes. It only took him a few seconds longer to realize it wasn’t just his vision blurring; rather, it was the whole world was crumbling.
Severe noise entered the scenery, and everything felt instantly grainy and fake.
A glitch, he thought. Impossible….
Somewhere far away, Hoon could feel himself shouting Ai’s name. He saw her face, blurry and shaken up with confusion and perhaps even a little bit of fear. Her face was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.
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