AFK - Away From Keyboard

Chapter 15

Len's POV:

   The light faded and I was left staring at the ceiling of my bedroom. I took off my equipment and continued to lie there.

Then my door was flung open.

"Hey Leeeeen are you feeling any...wait you're actually here...like, awake?"

I put my hands over my face so I wouldn't have to look at my sister.

"What happened? Why aren't you in the game with Yue?"

"I...am in love...with an NPC." I moaned.

"Is this like that time when you fell "In love" with that anime character? Or that minecraft girl?" Rin asked.

"No!"

"Then I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yue is an NPC." I sighed. "She doesn't know the game isn't real. This explains so much. It's why she freaks out about in-game death; and why she never leaves the game."

"This is literally exactly like the time you had a crush on that anime girl." Rin started laughing.

"Except for the fact that I knew the anime girl wasn't real!" I cried. "Yue just seemed so...so..."

"I meant "exactly" in the sense that you would lay on your bed and mope about her non-existence. Anyway, are you absolutely sure she's an NPC?"

"She has no memory earlier than two years ago, which is when the game came out. She has this weird emotion thing that she explains as having someone else "in control" of her feelings; and she thinks everything in the game is real.

Last night when she went delusional she kept saying everything was fake. Maybe she had become self aware and they figured out how to reboot her or something."

"Wow..." Was all Rin said. "You know, there's one way to find out."

"How?"

"Look up the character "Yue" in the game." Rin rolled her eyes.

"Good idea." I jumped off my bed and went to sit at my desk, running a quick web search. Nothing came up.

"Okay move. I have a site that lists all the characters and stuff like that." Rin shoved me over and let her fingers fly over the keyboard. "Bingo" She grinned as pictures of every character popped up on some random website. Rin scrolled through them, but Emica was nowhere to be seen.

An ad for the game's newest update started playing. Once it reached the end, Rin slid her cursor to click on the X out button.

"Wait!" I cried, pointing to the ad. It's closing photo was a picture of a girl with a purple ponytail sitting under a tree, and petting a white cat. The girl was wearing the same exact dress Rin had made Emica put on.

"Oh my gosh..." Rin began. Then she started laughing. "You've been flirting with a video game character!"

"And she's nicer than any real girl I've ever met." I moaned.

"So this isn't one of your instant on, instant off crushes?"

I went back to my bed and face-planted onto my pillow.

"Wow. You actually really like her." Rin smothered her laugh for my sake. "That's...really sad."

"I want to diiiiiiiiie." My voice groaned from the pillow.

"Do you think her friend knows?" Rin asked.

"I don't care."

"Are you just going to lie there and mope all day?"

"Leave me alone."

"Fine, sheesh. Yue's probably waiting for you. Think of it this way; it will be way easier for you to date Yue since: A, mom will never be around to embarrass you; B, your friends won't be able to tease you cause they'll never know, and C...uh...probably nobody else will be falling in love with her!"

"You think I'm going to date a video game character!?" I sat up and looked at Rin, now completely weirded out.

My weirdo twin shrugged. "People go on virtual dates all the time. There are hundreds of games for it."

"Go away weirdo, I want to be alone."

Rin left.

I flopped onto my back and stared at the ceiling. I can't believe it. It makes sense, but it's still hard to believe.

Ever since I had first met Emica, I had liked her more than other girls. Everything's just weird now.

I grabbed my virtual reality headgear, and gloves, and slipped everything back on.

"Log on." I muttered. The world pixelated into view and I saw Emica sitting on the couch with Snowy. Her expression had been bored, but her whole face lit up when she saw me.

"Len!" She laughed, jumping up excitedly. "I almost thought you weren't coming back!"

"Sorry." I smiled weakly.

"What's wrong? Did something happen at your house?" She began rattling off worried questions, but I was only half listening. How could she be only a character in a game? She had so much expression, so much...life.

"Len?" Emica's meek tone brought me back to the present. "are you alright?"

"I'm not sure." I managed.

"Is there something I can do to help? You listened to my troubles, so you can tell me yours if you want!" Her eyes sparkled underneath her long eyelashes.

"It's nothing. I'm fine."

Emica lifted Snowy to her face. "I hate it when people lie about being alright just to seem tough; don't you Snowy?"

"I'm not saying I'm fine just to look tough." I countered impatiently.

"So why did you say it then?"

"Because you wouldn't understand." After all, she's just an NPC.

"How can I if you don't tell me about it?" Emica's voice rose and became shrill.

"You wouldn't be able to if I did." I returned heatedly.

Emica's eyes flashed angrily. "Then make me understand! I bet I could understand if you tried to explain it!"

"You want me to make you understand!?" I yelled, closing the small distance that had been between us. I could feel my eyes burning.

Emica dropped Snowy in fright and turned to run; however, I grabbed her wrist, spun her around, and pulled her to me; my lips meeting hers.

After a moment my mind caught up, making me realize what was happening. I turned away quickly, not fully believing I had really just done that. Even though Emica was an NPC, it had felt so real. I can't let that happen again. I have to control myself.

The sound of a door creaking made me turn to see it hanging open. Emica had run.