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

me before, but, didn't

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

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

had such thoughts about treating everyone as a chess piece

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

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

crazy theory suddenly pierced through

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 that

My toes curled inwardly.

TRIIIING—! TRIIIING—!

me out of my thoughts.

begin tomorrow, are you ready? Should I

"Haaa...haaa...."

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

[Yeah, that would do.]

message, I

"huuuu..."

a deep breath, I took my jacket and put on my face

fresh air to sort

eating away at my

Ci Clank—!

door behind me, I

***

Ding—!

slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw

[Synchronization complete]

Synchronisation : 34%

"Haaa..."

Kevin exhaled deeply. Covering his forehead with

the world did

he

that he saw in the vision, and it was because he remembered that at the moment he couldn't quite grasp what was

straight, Kevin was

me

desperately searching for Emma, and that the name of the

was not

have been a vision of the

at the white ceiling

the vision made his body

not the future, what else could

was about his analysis. Whatever

"...Fuck."

Kevin's fists clenched tightly.

dying on him hurt his very

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

features of the figure were obscured and so was his voice, but

in his hands already gave him an idea of what had happened. The man had purposely killed

Kevin was sure.

even more tightly as anger rose within

'...He needs to die.'

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

slightly familiar

at the same time, he didn't. There was this chilly air surrounding the man that sent shivers

have been Ren? ...No,

to

knew Ren. He would never do such a thing to

"It couldn't be, right?"

Despite his many attempts at trying to deny

started to creep into his

"Haaa...What do I do."

with both hands. He really did not

***

I knew it, my footsteps stopped in front of

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

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

"This is good too..."

I needed at the moment was to