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..."

back at any of the incidents that had occurred right after meeting the previous Ren, a

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

hands fidgeted

definitely changed after meeting

before, but, didn't my

not noticed it back then, but now that I look back at myself, right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get this weird idea that everything around me was a chess piece and that

that come

previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the previous

I had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece and having everything under my control. It

now that I was looking

though someone was forcing traits and different ideologies

and crazy 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

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

my thoughts.

you ready? Should

"Haaa...haaa...."

me.

[Yeah, that would do.]

the message, I shut off the

"huuuu..."

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

needed some fresh air to sort

eating away at my

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I walked down

***

Ding—!

opened his eyes. The first thing he saw as soon as he opened

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

Covering his forehead with his

the world did

he saw was

because he remembered that

Kevin was

me

to be. The fact that he was desperately searching for Emma, and that the name of the black figure was 'Kevin', he didn't

was not something

been a vision of

back, Kevin stared at the white

thinking back at the vision

the future, what else could it

more he thought about it, the more certain he was

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

of Emma dying on him hurt

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

obscured and so was his voice, but from what he saw, the figure was

an idea of what had happened.

Kevin was sure.

tightly as anger

'...He needs to die.'

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

slightly

same time, he didn't.

Ren? ...No,

shook his head, trying to discard such thoughts from his

bore slight resemblances, Kevin knew Ren. He would never do such a thing

"It couldn't be, right?"

at trying to deny what he saw, the confidence he

to creep

"Haaa...What do I do."

forward, Kevin covered his face with both hands. He really did not know what to believe in

***

I knew it, my footsteps stopped

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

my mind off of things, but having walked a couple of steps out of

"This is good too..."

needed at the moment was