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..."

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

My head snapped upwards.

'There was one...'

fidgeted

process...it definitely

but, didn't my

myself, right after meeting the previous Ren, I started to get this weird idea that everything around

that

back at my previous behavior, the moment prior to meeting the

treating everyone as a chess piece and having everything under my control. It was

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

ideologies inside

theory suddenly pierced through my

My breathing evened out.

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

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

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

suddenly rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering my

will begin tomorrow, are you ready? Should I come to pick you guys up

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I

"huuuu..."

took my jacket and put on my face mask.

some fresh air to sort out my

thoughts were eating

Ci Clank—!

behind me, I

***

Ding—!

inside of Kevin's head as he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw as soon as he

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

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

world did I

vision he saw was

he remembered that at the moment he couldn't quite grasp what

was able to calm himself

me wasn't

to be. The 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

was not something he had ever experienced

have been a vision

head back, Kevin stared at the white

at the vision made his body

future, what else could

the more certain he was about his analysis. Whatever he just saw, it was

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

the thought of Emma dying on him hurt his

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

of the figure were obscured and so

in his hands already gave him an idea of what had happened.

Kevin was sure.

fists clenched even more tightly as anger

'...He needs to die.'

hatred as he recalled that scene. But there was only one problem, Kevin did not

felt slightly familiar

didn't. There

that have been Ren? ...No,

quickly shook his head, trying to discard such thoughts from

Kevin knew Ren. He would never do such

"It couldn't be, right?"

to deny what he saw,

started to creep into

"Haaa...What do I do."

covered his face with both hands. He really

***

knew it, my footsteps stopped in front of the

'dream' it was early in the morning. I thought about going

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

"This is good too..."

moment