blue bruises [book 3 - mysmes hanahaki trilogy]

1

this book will cover dark subjects, such as suicide and mental illness.

The dark screen of the laptop illuminated Saeran's face as he typed, picking his way through the dark web as he searched for lost souls. V sat beside him as he typed, reading the green text as it scrolled across the screen. He picked at his fingernails in boredom, eyes and cheeks hollow.

The two sat in large chairs in the basement of the Choi's house, monitors and screens surrounding them. The air hummed with electricity, and the only light sources were the wide computers, arranged in a semi-circle around the two chairs and a large desk. A tangle of wires met up underneath the desk to plug into a power outlet strip, more than 12 different cords.

"Check the app," V said quietly, and Saeran swiveled to another computer, the display split to show one half of a game's opening screen, the other an analytics and diagnostics screen. 'Mystic Messenger', the game's title read, depicting 5 characters holding phones and gazing outwards.

The 5 were designed after real people, in fact, the creator's four closest friends and himself. It was Seven who had made the game, creating characters after Jaehee, Jumin, Yoosung, Zen, and himself. Jumin's pixelated face stared back at V with a muted expression, wearing a suit and tie. V looked away as Saeran logged in.

It had been 1 1/2 years since Jumin's death, 1 1/2 years since V found out about Regressive Floral Asphyxiation and how he was the reason that his best friend had died. Since reading Jumin's lengthy explanation of his flowers, his love for V, and the real reason why MC had been hospitalized, V had asked Saeyoung to create an app for people who suffered from heartbreak, unrequited love, or just loneliness, so that those who suffered wouldn't suffer alone.

The app was designed so that people could 'chat' with bots who checked in on their health and kept them engaged. They reassured that the users ate, slept, and allowed the users to chose 'routes', keeping them preoccupied and their hearts at ease. V was a character as well, the co-creator and manager of the party-planning organization, and Rika even had a role as the creator.

Saeyoung had taken Regressive Floral Asphyxiation and turned it into Rika's Funding Association, then built a plot and multiple storylines to intertwine. It was one of his finer moments, but the past behind the creation of the game was less-heartwarming- after Jumin's death, Saeyoung had holed himself up in his room, becoming less and less social. Saeran's hunch was that he was terrified of experiencing unrequited love, and even more so, being the subject of someone else's, so he cut himself from contact and spent his days designing Mystic Messenger. Even now, as the game thrived, Saeyoung's happy-go-lucky, flirty and mischievous persona has dwindled, leaving him sheltered and distant.

Zen had taken Jumin's death hard as well. Saeran knew that something had happened between the two of them, some kind of chemistry. Zen, who had been stuck in the hospital for the week after Jumin's death because of his motorbike accident, had nearly gone crazy being cooped up, and he had spent a lot of time with Jaehee, who had been one of Jumin's closest confidants and had spent time with him in his last days.

When V had told the two about Jumin's condition, they'd gotten closer, confiding in each other and working through their emotions. The two were now very close friends, and were the closest with MC besides Saeran.

And oh, MC. Oblivious as always to everything, MC had drifted from the group once Jumin had died. He was really only connected to them by Saeran, and had only met Jumin once or twice. Still, he was empathetic and he kept his distance from the group as they dealt with their pain in their own ways.

He attended the same college as most of the others and waved in the hallway but, since his surgery, MC had definitely become... docile, almost. He and Saeran had stitched their friendship again, and Saeran had remained with Yoosung through it all, even though sometimes the thought that MC used to love him stung.