Chapter 6

In reality, the guy hadn’t been nice at all. He’d looked at Minho with something close to pity and, before letting him through without a ticket, had said something frankly unpleasant:

“You’ll bankrupt yourself like this soon, and you’ve clearly got problems with your head—you won’t be able to earn any more money either.”

But it didn’t affect the outcome, so the information was obviously not that important.

“Wow, Seungmin-ie is being so nice today,” Jisung says as if he knows that cashier guy well, and something unpleasant and far too possessive stabs in Minho’s chest. “That’s not like him. He’s usually kind of an asshole.”

“He’s a huge asshole,” Minho himself doesn’t understand why he allows himself to talk like that about a stranger, but for some reason he can’t stop.

The conversation doesn’t really flow this time. Minho is thinking too much about his own stuff, and Jisung seems to be constantly about to say something, only to freeze at the last moment. Which makes it even stranger that when Minho gets up to leave a bit earlier than usual, Jisung suddenly blurts out a completely bizarre tirade that has nothing to do with their previous conversation at all.

“You’re free on Wednesday, right?” there’s almost panic in Jisung’s voice. “Can you come in the first half of the day? Well, before lunch—around one. I’ll tell you something and… show you. Okay? You’ll come, right?”

To be honest, Minho had planned to sleep in on Wednesday, but for some reason he obediently nods.

Minho gets up way too early, simply because he never really went to bed.

He couldn’t sleep.

He arrives at the pavilion almost an hour before the exhibition opens, paces around the entrance at first, and then decides to go grab a coffee at the neighboring mall after all.

The line is huge, there are a lot of people, and Minho almost regrets coming here at all when his gaze suddenly catches on a familiar figure.

The guy from the VR zone.

And some strangely familiar-looking guy next to him.

The voice reaches him in fragments, but the intonation… the intonation is far too familiar.

“Do I look okay?” the second guy asks, and Minho freezes.

Too familiar.

Way too.

His thoughts start jumping around like crazy, and the only reasonable decision is to leave immediately. Which is exactly what Minho does, without finishing his coffee and choosing the route farthest away from the cursed exhibition.

“Since when did you become so talkative?”

Changbin grumbles, and Minho pretends not to hear. His thoughts are tangled, the voice in his head sounds too much like one specific person’s, and that’s starting to scare him.

He almost manages to avoid thinking about Jisung right up until the moment a guy with that exact voice sits down across from him in the cafeteria.

“Hi? Can I sit here?”

At first Minho ignores him, then jerks his head up—and freezes.

“It’s taken.”

“Sorry…” the guy stumbles over his words, clearly nervous. “You just… didn’t come. Then. Or after that either. I got scared and started looking for you.”

Minho doesn’t understand anything.

At all.

“Do you need something from me?”

“Can we talk?”

“No.”

The guy looks like he’s genuinely hurting right now, and that irritates Minho more than anything.

“I’m Jisung,” he finally says quietly. “Han Jisung. Well… from that robot exhibition scam.”

Everything inside Minho collapses.

“Are you kidding me?” his voice breaks. “Is this some kind of prank?”

“I was just doing a side job,” Jisung says quickly. “I was hired to play a social robot. I didn’t think you’d get so… attached.”

“I’ll report you to the police,” Minho throws out at random, just to regain some control.

“Then I won’t get paid,” Jisung grabs his sleeve. “I didn’t want to deceive you. I just… liked talking to you.”

Minho stays silent for a long time.

Too long.

“Now I also think you’re beautiful,” he says before he has time to think.

Jisung freezes, then smiles—lively, warm, nothing like the drawn little face on the screen.

“So, that bar at eight?” Jisung asks at the dorm entrance. “Tokyo time?”

Minho smiles.

“Yes. Eight in Tokyo. Don’t mess it up.”

“I’ve already learned what time it is in Tokyo,” Jisung laughs.

And it sounds like the most normal, living ending in the world.