As he opened the disc holder, Hyukjae didn’t really care if the game was going to work anymore. He was immersed in the excitement of trying out something new.

To his dismay, in front of him lay a single disc with MALE in large font across it, and a missing disc on the opposite face with FEMALE on the background.

He swore. Of course there was a reason for this being so cheap (if it wasn’t he wouldn’t have bought it). The disc holder dropped onto the sofa as Hyukjae’s hopes dropped down along with it.

**

He had been staring blankly at his desktop background for ten minutes already, not wanting to be productive but too scared to openly procrastinate. Just a few meters away, the manager scowled at him, causing him to immediately pretend to be doing work while ducking down to hide his head behind the screen. Although Hyukjae was a bit scared of getting scolded, he noticed that manager Sungmin-ssi was kind of cute when his lips were pressed into a thin line and his eyes glowered with annoyance.

Hyukjae sighed. Today was going to be a long day.

**

And he was right. By the time he got home he was too exhausted to even make dinner, so the alternative was a pizza delivery while he took a quick shower.

Which was not a good idea when the doorbell rang and he was dressed in nothing but a towel.

In his hurry, underwear was the least of his concerns at the moment- he just threw on the nearest pair of shorts and a shirt before opening the door and apologizing for taking so long.

The delivery boy had his head down as he stated the price and Hyukjae handed over a handful of coins. However, he couldn’t resist the next words after casting a glance at the disheveled figure, “Sorry for interrupting you and your girlfriend.”

Hyukjae swore at him silently while shutting the door in his face. He’d be lying, though, if he said that didn’t make him feel a bit lonely.

After absentmindedly making his way to the couch, he began to devour the pizza, only to have it stop midair as his eyes trailed to the opened disc holder.

Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just try that one. After all, the result would be basically the same; he’d just have to look for a girl with those same features that he liked, right?

A message popped up after he decided to give it a try and started the game.

“Welcome to TDF!

Please put on the virtual-real head gear.”

Hyukjae might have been tired and a bit slow, but he was smart nonetheless. He pulled out the long thread-like object, and put the two discs on either side of his temple. As he was wondering if he did it correctly, a blinding light before his eyes caused him to fall into immediate unconsciousness.

**

A female voice. “Please enter your name.”

Where was he? “H-hyukjae.”

“Hello, Hyukjae. Please enter your partner’s name.”

“um… Donghae?” He had no idea why he had said that. It was literally the first thing that popped into his head. (Though it might have been influenced by their company trip to Donghae for their annual party.)

“Your game starts now.”

**

“Hyukjae? Hyukjae?”

Where was he? Wasn’t he at home, eating pizza?

“Hyukjae? Hyukjae!”

His eyes slowly focused, then darted around. He was in a place that seemed familiar yet distant. A… shopping mall?

“Hyukjae!”

He turned around in response to him name… and widened his eyes at the heavenly creature in front of him. The man in front of him had large doe eyes that glistened like jewels, covered partly by his messy dark fringe. His skin was as smooth as marble, and thin lips that curled upwards like a cat were shouting his name.

“Hyukjae!”

A row of pearly whites dazzled his eyes and he seemed to realize something.

“Donghae?”

“Hyukjae, there’s an amusement park over there, let’s go have a look!”

“Wait… who are you?”

The bright smile vanished into confusion, and Hyukjae wanted to punch himself for making it disappear.

To his relief, the shorter man broke into a grin again quickly, and gave him a small but really painful slap on the arm. “What are you talking about? Yeah, I’m Donghae, your boyfriend.”

Now Hyukjae wanted to punch himself for different reason- to check if he was dreaming. Because if he wasn’t, then why was everything so real?

Out of nowhere, Donghae whipped out a camera.

“Come on Hyukjae, let’s take a photo to record our first date!”

The dark haired man silently agreed by pulling him closer in his arms, and leant close to the other’s brunette hair to pose a kiss for the photo.

Click. The sound of the camera shutter went off, making it the last thing he heard.

And the last thing he saw, was the slightly pink cheeks and rapidly blinking eyes that were too embarrassed to look at him again.

**

His living room.

A crack opened in his eyes, which slowly enlarged until he could read the words on the TV screen.

“Congratulations on passing the game on your first date! Please wait while your data is being saved, and do not turn off the power.”

Hyukjae was shocked. He did it? He passed it so easily? Did that mean… if they continued to date, then he would eventually fall in love with… Donghae?

The kiss was just a joke that he did out of impulse to tease the other, but he totally did not expect the reaction of his heart to be all warm and fuzzy. Which reminded him. Why was his heart now filled with an unexplanable emptiness?