Reality//USB

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    The rest of the long weekend wasn't as exciting or interesting as the college student hoped it would be. Well, it was rather intriguing, but in a completely different sense. The sense that his whole stay became patterned, to a particular schedule that had panned out very similarly to the first day. It would go like this; Every morning, after spending the whole night on that thing, Mark would insist they go outside to walk around. He would make a convincing point, mention all the old things they did when he was still in high school- try to coax his friend to leave the house for a bit. And every time he would be turned down, no matter what he said. One day he mentioned the park, another day he mentioned the coffee shop, the next a bookshop that was across the street. Despite that, the answer was always the same.
    "You really want to do things?" Donghyuck would say with a amused smile. "Don't you want a break from actually being active and just, you know, laze around?"
    He would always know where the conversation was going. "If you're trying to get me to like the helmet game or whatever it's not going to work." He would always retort, rolling his eyes no matter where in the house he was at the time.
    But by the time he got the first word out, it would be too late, because his eager friend was already placing the device on his head saying that this time was going to be one. The one where he would be convinced that VR was genuinely a good invention and would become more involved. And they would go into the game for the rest of the day.
    Though he would never admit to it, Mark had become more accustomed to the simulator- and it was sort of impressing him. However, every interaction with Donghyuck's virtual boyfriend, Jaemin, snapped him out of the illusion real fast. Every single time he entered the game, the older boy swore he could already feel the burning glare from the pink haired boy.
There was something about that part of the game, something that wasn't correct. If looked at literally you could say that his coding was actually unfit to match the real deal. But Mark couldn't say that because the 'athlete' acted perfectly to his doubles personality when hanging out with Donghyuck. Maybe he forgot to code it so Jaemin would act that way towards everyone, maybe he forgot to add in the fact that Jaemin gets pouty jealous- like when Jeno brought his girlfriend along to watch their basketball tournament. One thing was for sure, that guy was not fond of Mark. To the point of whisking Donghyuck away with every chance he got. And those were a lot of chances considering the honey haired boy was adding more rooms all the time to never let his friend become bored for even a second. He was doing a great job at that. But it wasn't because of the expansion of the house. It was the company that came along with it.

Now today was the last day of his stay; they had already gotten ready for his departure; they had already went through the same banter; they had already played the game; Donghyuck had already been hypnotized by Jaemin; the 'star student' had already given his daily dose of envy; they had already left the game. Everything that had repeated through the week made its late run through, not missing a beat of being any duller than ones previous. And now it was coming to a close, finally.
Yet, Mark still had the curiosity of the programs behaviour floating around in his mind. To be honest, it had been there from the start, it just happened to grow exponentially in a short span of mere days. He decided to not ask before, in case something went terribly wrong and off track from what he was hoping. He also decided not to keep silent about it, for this could easily be a problem that shouldn't be ignored.
"Did you have fun this weekend?" Donghyuck questioned, coming out of the kitchen with an apple in his hands.
Shifting in his seated position on the couch, he nodded, still grinning despite his uneasiness. "I did, even if we didn't go outside at all."
"Hey, maybe if you just said you were convinced before we would have gone out." The honey haired boy shrugged. Although his face said the exact opposite. For sure he would have refused either way. "But the past is past."
"Hold that thought and keep that in mind." Mark suggested making the smaller boy tilt his head in curiosity as he leaned back on the wall.
"That's a rather flustered answer there," Donghyuck smirked. "Are you going to bring up how you totally had a childhood crush on me?"
"Uh no." He was quick to decline the idea. "I was actually thinking back to a more recent period in time."
The high school student stopped mid bite of his apple and glanced over. He took a second before continuing to eat his snack, mouth full. "Ok, go ahead, spit it out."
Instead, he himself spit out his apple chunks when he heard the next sentence.
"Is Jaemin glitching out or has something gone wrong with his coding?"
"I- excuse me?!" Donghyuck's voice raised instantly.
Mark shook his head, waving his hands in a disarming way. "I don't mean to degrade your programming skills or whatever. It's just that he acts really strange around me."
The tease let out a loud, extremely fake laugh. "Do you have eyes? He has been completely normal the whole time." He didn't seem to acknowledge his coding experience in the slightest. "Maybe you're glitching or something."
"No I'm not." Mark said defensively, scooting to the edge of the cushion. "I swear he keeps glaring at me. And he's acting as if  I can't spend too much time with you. I can't even poke your shoulder without him getting all possessive and hugging you."
Donghyuck flushed a bit at the mention of any physical affection that was directed at him by the pink haired boy.
"Come on Hyuck, be serious with me." The older boy pleaded, he even smiled jokingly. "You can tell me if you got it off of eBay or something, no judgement."
The other tensed up, making Mark do the same almost instantaneously. His friends eyes were hard and serious, glazed over with what appeared to be panic and hesitation. What used to be light discussion became heavy, and the atmosphere turned cold. Donghyuck shifted his weight to the other foot, biting the inside of his cheek nervously. The dark haired boy gulped in some air.
"That's not what you did was it?"
The tan boy tried to laugh it off. "Why are you asking? You are acting so suspicious right now." He struggled to grin. "It's like you're actually serious about this."
"I am..." Mark replied causing Donghyuck's bright face to darken. There was no reply, as the high school student attempted to drop the subject. "Oh my god,"
"It's not a big deal." His friend snapped, nails digging into the apples skin. "So what if I got it from eBay? It works perfectly fine and nothing is wrong with it."
"Yet." He had to point the facts out. "But what happens when it gets all weirded out? What if the person who sold it just wanted to get rid of a faulty VR helmet?"
There was a mumble coming from Donghyuck's mouth. "....mine......usb..."
"USB?!!" Mark nearly screamed the word out. "That's it, you really need to get rid of this."
"NO WAY." The honey haired boy interjected, bouncing off the wall as the darker haired one jumped up to his feet as well so they would nearly stand eye to eye. "You don't get how much that game means to me."
The taller one snorted, "Every kid says that Donghyuck, the only difference is, they have a real copy. You- you probably have a made up version."
"WHY DOES THAT MATTER??!!"
"Because!!" Mark threw his arms up to display his point. "This one is suspicious and dangerous!"
"You know that's exactly what Renjun said." Donghyuck scoffed. "But guess what? He was just jealous of me and Jaemin's relationship. And as time went on, it grew and grew until I got this damn bandage on my face!" He sharply gestured to his wounded cheek. "You know what happened next?? He disappeared. Poof! Left just like that. He just abandoned me so I would end up facing that stalker and get humiliated by the school! Now I get to look forward to everyday. Because it's just filled with constant ridicule! Fun huh?" He was near crushing his apple now. "Well lemme tell you what. I find it ok. And you know why? Because I go home to Jaemin everyday."
The dark haired boys body went rigged watching in shock as his childhood friend sniffled, eyes watery.
    "Why didn't you just tell me about this?" Mark asked. "You should have told me this." All the tensity in his body had dispersed and he was taking a step forward to try and comfort his friend. But Donghyuck wasn't feeling the same.
    He scowled at the college student, fists clenched and moving farther. "Why??" The sound of his voice was strained. "Because you'd find a way to take Jaemin away from me!!" He tilted his head in a mocking manner, his neck cracking at the same time.
    "Well no duh! Than you can actually find a way to fix this and recover!!" The dark haired boy scrunched his nose and expressed confusion. "You're just becoming addicted to that stupid game-"
    "Oh wow, you really went back a few years since you can't even find a more descriptive word." Donghyuck sneered, this time taking some steps forward. "Are you jealous of Jaemin because he is so nice and kind to me and loves me so much? Are you jealous cause you are single?"
    Mark snorted and crossed his arms over his white shirt. "I'm pretty sure that he was more jealous than I ever will be."
    "What?" The honey haired boy was losing his cool. "Are you dumb? Do you have an IQ of five? Jaemin doesn't get jealous. He is the kindest person I know!!"
    "You're talking about the real Jaemin." His friend pointed out in a clipped manner. No matter how many times he tried to repeat this, Mark couldn't seem to convince his childhood friend that this VR was just a programmed simulation. Donghyuck just couldn't wrap his head around the idea. He was getting tired of going around in circles and just wanted to finish this. "You know exactly what it means Hyuck. You know that the Jaemin in your VR game isn't the same as the Jaemin you see at school. You're only acting as if they're the same because of what you said happened. This is just some big pained addiction mess that you have conjured up for yourself. I really feel bad for you Donghyuck, I want to help. But I can't when you've become so attached to a virtual image with a personality made of numbers and letters. Especially when you just said that this copy of the game isn't even legal. But if you just stop playing and get rid of it.... We can try to fix this.... Maybe Renjun will come back."
    Donghyuck didn't respond for a few seconds. He looked thoughtful. However Mark could see in his friends dark coloured eyes that there was no intention to agree with him. He let out a huge sigh, and a car honked from outside. The younger boy smiled wryly. "Guess you're rides here little leo."
    He stared back at his childhood friend in disappointment and pity. "If you ever change your mind you can always talk to me." With that, he grabbed hold of his luggage and trudged to the front door, rather crestfallen at his failed attempts. He left without a single hug or emotional goodbye. Donghyuck never went outside to even wave as Mark would drive off. He just closed the door.

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