Chapter 9: Ji-Hye Pt 1

“Oh my god, Ari! Ari, oh my god,” Ji-Hye all but stammered her reply, sounding anxious. “Thank goodness you picked up your phone!” 

 

Her tone startled him, causing him to jolt upright from his relaxed position. “What’s going on? What happened?” 

 

“You won’t believe me even if I tell you!” She shrieked.   

 

If he was one to toot his own horn, he would say that he had a wonderful memory. But at this moment, he couldn’t remember anything warranting the erratic state his cousin was in right now. 

 

“You don’t know that. Just tell me!” he replied, concern evident in his voice.  

 

There were so many worrying thoughts that went through his head as he waited for her response, but they were all for naught. He had mistaken excitement for anxiousness.  

 

“VSOFT is holding a contest and a few winners will win their newest game pods,” she answered, enthusiasm lacing her voice. “Can you believe it?” 

 

Removing the phone away from his ear, he looked at it and rolled his eyes. Like, was she for real? He thought something bad happened. Now he just felt foolish for jumping to conclusions. 

 

“Girl, I thought something bad happened,” Ari said, putting the phone back to his ear. “You had me worried for nothing.”

 

“I’m sorry, I was just in a state of disbelief,” Ji-Hye laughed.  

 

Ari only could shake his head at her. After everything he had been through, it was hard for him to see good when his life was anything but. So when she started the conversation with ‘Oh my god you won’t believe what happened’, his first thought was obvious. 

 

“So, can you believe it?” She asked once again. This time, her excitement was apparent. 

 

Once his concern dissipated and he could process what she had said, her words triggered a memory. In that memory, she was telling him about this exact thing, but he didn’t care about anything. 

 

He barely responded to her when she told him, interrupting her with a dismissive “good luck” before hanging up the phone. He didn’t care about how he diminished her feelings, because he felt it wasn’t even a fraction of how he was feeling. 

 

Yet later on, after he sorted his emotions out, he came to regret his actions very much. Because after that call, a ‘distance’ that had never been there in their entire life came in between them.

 

Which was entirely understandable if he were to think about it. After all, he was practically spitting on her dream and his as well. For years, before his father died, they used to talk about saving up for a pod. 

 

They always told their parents that they didn’t want to be a biotech doctor or a lawyer instead, they wanted to be a professional gamer.

 

So, his nonchalant brush-off of her was pretty terrible. Luckily, he had the chance to redo their conversation.

 

“I can’t believe it!” Ari replied with genuine happiness in his voice, sounding genuinely delighted with the news.

 

“I know, right? I’m still in shock about this,” Ji-Hye gushed. “If we win, we can finally play Oasis like we always talked about.”

 

Huffing at her words, Ari said, “What are you talking about? It’s not if it’s when we win.”

 

“Hey, we can’t predict the future,” Ji-Hye laughed giddily. “We can’t know what can happen, but I really hope that you are right.”

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Ari almost giggled hysterically at that. But thinking fast, he covered his mouth so that he could muffle his laughter.

 

It was hilarious... everything about this situation was. 

 

How he longed to tell her he could indeed predict the future. He could imagine the face she would make, if she even believe him.

 

Yet there was something in the back of his mind telling him he shouldn’t inform anyone that he had time traveled. In the best-case scenario, they would think he was nuts in the worst... well, he didn’t want to think about that.

 

Although the word experiments keep popping up in his mind. But besides that, Ari feared the butterfly effect it would cause. To be honest, he was already worried about the one he would generate. 

 

“So tell me, what kind of contest is it?” Ari asked.

 

“I thought you never ask,” Ji-Hye squeaked happily. “They are holding a virtual night market that can be accessed via a Halo pad. The market will have food from Oasis and mini-games as well.”

 

“So I’m assuming that these mini-games would be the way to win the pod,” He stated, playing along.

 

Laughing, Ji-Hye shook her head, “Buzz! You're wrong! The mini-games will give players skills and items they can use in the game. To win the pods, we have to win a hide-and-seek contest.”

 

Ari smiled. He remembered watching videos of this contest. The hide-and-seek game wasn’t ordinary, but the participants didn’t know that until the game started.

 

He never knew why they thought it would be. The DEVs were never that nice. If they were a lot of things that shouldn’t be allowed in the game wouldn’t be.

 

The hide & seek game they came up with was just like them, difficult as fuck and unyielding. The name of the game should have been ‘Escape for your life’.

 

 Because that’s what the participants had to do. Luckily, he watched a player go through it and survive. All he needed to do was follow those steps and he and Ji-Hye will have a free pod.

 

“That sounds so cool. When does the event take place?” Ari questioned.

 

“That reminds me!” Ji-Hye exclaimed. “Hurry and sign up. The deadline is today.”   

 

Ari’s eyes widened in shock. “What do you mean the deadline is today? Why didn’t you tell me about it before?”

 

“To be honest, I just found out about it the other day. I have been debating rather to tell you since we haven’t really been in contact for the last couple of months. I wasn’t sure if you would care.” 

 

Her answer took Ari aback, but he knew she was right. He really didn’t care when she told him about this before.

 

After taking a moment to compose himself, he said, “I have been thinking too deeply, and I didn’t think you understand. I’m sorry if I came across as harsh. But I finally understand that even if someone doesn’t understand what you're going through, they can still be there to give support. I’m sorry for not giving you a chance to do so.”

 

“It’s okay, as long as you know that I’ll always be there for you,” she said playfully, but Ari could hear her voice break a little.

 

“I do. I didn’t before, but I do now.”

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