The Author's POV

Splash—! Splash—!

Splashing water onto my face I stared at my haggard figure in the mirror. Glaring dark circles bagged beneath my eyes as my mind felt numb.

Glink—!

Turning off the tap, I turned around.

My eyes paused on a certain book in the middle of the table.

My heart remained calm as I stared at the book...or rather, my head was too numb to process what was happening around me. Nothing excited nor stimulated my emotions.

Closing my eyes, I sat down on my bed and leaned forward.

"...Just what happened?"

Ever since waking up, I've been trying to make heads or tails of what had just occurred to me.

My head really hurt.

'For starters, the world I was in not too long ago was definitely not my own world...or did that world even exist in the first place?'

From the fact that I had no recollection of my parent's faces, my own name, and the fact that the prestigious university I wanted to go to was called 'Unversity A,' a name which itself seemed far too generic to make sense.

Putting everything together everything that I previously thought that I knew no longer started to make sense inside of my head.

"Aghhh."

'My head hurts.'

Grasping my head with my hands I ruffled my hair into a mess.

Everything was a mess. A mess I couldn't quite figure the answer to.

"There's also him..."

The previous Ren.

Just thinking about him spread uneasiness throughout my whole body.

There was definitely something odd about that guy. How did he know about the fact that the world was a novel? I never gave him the password of my laptop so it shouldn't have been possible for him to figure out that the world I was in was that of a novel I wrote.

Furthermore, how did he know to ask the right questions?

Like what my name was, whether I recalled my parent's faces and the name of the university I wanted to go to.

The order of the questions didn't really make sense...it was as though he already knew about my answers beforehand.

"Haaa..."

I suddenly stood up.

My head throbbed even more fiercely.

Pacing around the room, I started to think back to my first interaction with the previous Ren in search of an answer.

This wasn't hard, I had only interacted with him once throughout my whole life so I could still vividly remember what had happened.

It was the time he was showing me his past experiences with Matthew and what was going on with his parents...my parents.

I remember that time clearly.

I could see just how sad he was.

Was that a facade or was that really him? At this point, I no longer knew.

"Ugh."

I groaned.

Massaging my head, I thought even further.

'Ever since meeting him, did something strange ever happen to me?'

My brows knit tightly.

Placing my hand on my chin, I fell into deep thought.

"Something strange happening after meeting him..."

My brows which were knit together suddenly jumped up in shock.

"Wait...hold on..."

incidents that had occurred right after meeting the previous Ren, a thought suddenly occurred

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted all

definitely changed after meeting

didn't my personality change moments after

right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get this weird idea that everything around me was a chess piece and

did that

prior to meeting the previous Ren, everything I

had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece

it in the past because I never felt it. I never felt the change...but now that I was looking back at them, from

as though someone was forcing traits and different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I had never once

theory suddenly pierced

My breathing evened out.

"....It can't be, right?"

I refused to believe that. I shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah, there's no way something like

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

my anxiety, my communication suddenly rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering my head,

Should I come to pick you guys up tomorrow

"Haaa...haaa...."

my eyes, I suppressed all the anxiety inside of me. Taking my communication device, I quickly sent

[Yeah, that would do.]

sending the message, I shut off the communication

"huuuu..."

breath, I took my jacket and put on my face mask. Then, I proceeded to head for

some fresh air to

thoughts were eating away at my

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I

***

Ding—!

head as he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw as soon as he opened his eyes was

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

Kevin exhaled deeply. Covering his forehead with his hand, he supported

the world

vision he saw

was because he remembered that at the

Kevin was able to calm

was me

he was desperately searching for Emma, and that the name of the black figure was 'Kevin', he didn't believe for one second that the vision wasn't about

not

that have been a vision of

his head back, Kevin stared at the white

thinking back at the vision made his body

not the future, what

the more certain he was about

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

the thought of Emma dying

"Haaa..haaa...who was that man?"

in the vision he saw. The features of the figure were obscured and so was his voice, but from what he saw, the figure

an idea

Kevin was sure.

more tightly

'...He needs to die.'

But there was only one problem, Kevin

felt slightly

he had met him before, yet, at the same time, he didn't. There was this chilly

that have been Ren? ...No, he wouldn't do

quickly shook his head, trying to discard such thoughts from

the two figures bore slight resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He would never do such a thing to

"It couldn't be, right?"

his head. Despite his many attempts at trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he had within him

creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

hands. He really

***

my footsteps stopped

from the 'dream' it was early in the morning. I thought about going around the city to

off of things, but having walked a couple of steps out of my residence, I subconsciously made

"This is good too..."

I needed at the moment was to