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..."

occurred right after

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

process...it definitely

didn't my personality change moments after

but now that I look back at myself, right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get this

that come

the moment prior to meeting the previous Ren, everything

such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece and having everything under

change...but now that I was looking back at

forcing traits and different ideologies inside of me. Ideologies that I

theory suddenly pierced

My breathing evened out.

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

shook my head repeatedly. It couldn't be. Yeah, there's no way something like

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

of my thoughts. Lowering my head, I looked at

are you ready? Should I come to pick you

"Haaa...haaa...."

inside of me. Taking my communication device,

[Yeah, that would do.]

I shut

"huuuu..."

put on

air to sort out my

were eating away

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I

***

Ding—!

chime rang inside of Kevin's 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..."

up straight, Kevin exhaled deeply. Covering his forehead with his

in the world did

he saw was

the vision, and it was because he remembered that at

up straight, Kevin was able to calm himself

me

fact that 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 him,

saw, was not

that have been a

head back, Kevin stared at the white

the

future, what else could it

about it, the more certain he was about

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

Emma dying on him hurt

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

saw. The features of the figure were obscured and so was

an idea of what had happened. The man had purposely killed

Kevin was sure.

more tightly as anger rose

'...He needs to die.'

recalled that scene. But there was only one problem, Kevin did not know who the

slightly

didn't. There was this chilly air surrounding the man that sent shivers down Kevin's

have been Ren?

trying to discard

resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He would never

"It couldn't be, right?"

many attempts at trying to deny what he saw,

creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

covered his face with both hands. He really

***

footsteps stopped in

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

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

"This is good too..."

I needed at the moment