"Hey hot stuff, you ready for lunch?"

Namsun looked up from his screen to see Zhei leaning over his desk. Was it already lunchtime? He checked his clock: a quarter past 13. He'd gotten so engrossed in programming part of the quest giving system that he hadn't noticed. "Let me just finish this bi-"

"Nope," Zhei interrupted. "Enough coding, lunch time! And don't give me that 'I'll lose my place' crap, I know you always remember."

Namsun sighed. "Alright, alright, you got me." He turned off the monitor, grabbed his coat, and followed Zhei out the building.

"Did you see yesterday's bug report?" Zhei asked as they headed to their usual donut place.

Namsun nodded. He'd already slotted the estimated time it would take him to fix them all into his day. Of course Zhei knew he would've seen the bug report, after all they'd been friends since university and he was nothing if not predictable. She was just making small talk. Every day he checked it first thing in the morning so he knew what his day would bring. 

"Looks like horses can climb mountains now," she said. There was currently a bug in the game that let horses walk even near vertical slopes.

"It's a feature," Namsun laughed and held the door to the donut place open for her. He went up to the counter and ordered a coffee for Zhei and a donut for himself. All as usual.

When he rejoined her and handed Zhei her coffee she sighed dramatically. "Alright Namsun, what are you doing?"

"Hm?"

"You can't avoid Hadon forever, you work in the same department for god's sake. That you'd avoid Noella I get, but you need to talk to Hadon at some point."

Namsun shrugged. "It's worked for me so far and it's been a year." A year since he drunkenly made out with Hadon at a bar all the while he was supposed to get married to Noella in two months time. A year since he'd had to face the fact that the reason he didn't feel the sparks with Noella was because he wasn't actually attracted to women. Why was Zhei asking about this now? Had something come up? Did Hadon talk to her about him? But why would he talk to her? He supposed they were technically coworkers but they didn't work in the same departments, he was a programmer and Zhei was a game designer and she only really came to the programming department when Namsun forgot about lunch. Where else could she have run into Hadon?

"Earth to Namsun," Zhei waved a hand in front of his face to bring him back from his thoughts.

"I'm sorry what did you say?"

"I said he's only trying to help. He understand more than anyone what you;re going through. Oh nevermind why do I even try, you probably could avoid him forever." She sighed and took a sip from her coffee.

Namsun quickly changed the subject, he did not want to think about this right now. "How are thing with the lead designer?" Zhei could always be counted on to complain about her boss.

"You wouldn't believe what he said today. He said people should stop complaining about crunch time and unpaid overtime because this is a 'creative industry' and that's just a 'wage slave attitude'."

Namsun let his eyes wander as Zhei ranted about her boss. Something didn't feel right, there was this weird atmosphere in the donut joint today.

"As if it's so unfair to ask for pay for work done," Zhei continued. "This is still a job even if it is a cool one. Excuse me for having bills to pay."

Namsun couldn't put his finger on it but something was definitely off.

"And crunch is really just the result of bad planning. Everyone having to stay at the office for sometimes 24 hours a day to finish the game just before launch? That's not sustainable for anyone. But noo we must set the shipping date a year in advance and delaying a title is bad for business right? Who cares about the employees getting burned out?"

The girl behind the counter was checking the coffee machine for the fifth time in a row now. She checked to see if the beans had run out, went back to the counter, looked really confused, and checked the beans again.

"And calling us wage slaves?! Because we're not fond of doing unpaid work! Have you ever heard of anything so entitled?!"

One of the guys in the booth in front of them turned around to talk to someone behind him and when he turned around again he had the same dazed expression as the girl at the counter. Come to think of it there were more people around that booth with the weird confused expression.

"Namsun? Are you listening?"

"Huh?"

"What's with you today? You're even spacier than usual."

"Does something feel off to you?" Namsun tried to look at whoever was in the booth behind the guys without calling too much attention to himself. 

"What are you talking about? Everything seems fine." Zhei looked at him like he was going crazy. "Namsun are you alright?"

"I just can't shake the feeling that something's wrong." Just then the person in the booth stood up and looked right at him.

"Namsun you're starting to worry me. Nam... Sun?"

The girl from the booth stared at him for a long moment and Namsun found himself unable to look away. She started walking her way and Namsun panicked a bit. This isn't what he wanted! Maybe if he didn't look at her she wouldn't talk to him? If he just stayed quiet and count on Zhei to deal with her things would be alright. He looked back at Zhei and found her staring at him with a dazed expression. The same dazed expression. "Zhei are you okay?"

"I-Do I know you?" She narrowed her eyes and looked at him just the way she looked at a design problem, when she tried to visualize it and find a way to fix it. "I do know you I think but- do I?"

"Zhei what are you saying?" What was happening right now? Maybe if he just waited it would sort itself out. 

The strange girl had reached the booth now but she hung back a moment and just looked at him. Namsun could feel her stare but he just looked down at the table and wished her to go away. 

Unfortunately he had no such luck. "Stop pretending, I know you can see me," she said. "Look at me."

He didn't particularly want to but her voice was so commanding. He looked at her. She looked intimidating with her thick eyeliner, leather jacket, and hair pulled tightly into a ponytail. She looked him over and didn't seem impressed with what she saw. Namsun couldn't exactly blame her. He looked down again. Please just leave.

"I guess you'll have to do," she said. "Not much choice, really. You know that tower you've been seeing at the edge of your vision?"

Wait how did she know about that? He didn't say anything and just kept looking down, his brain doing its best to process all of this.

"Hey is anyone home?" The girl waved a hand in front of his face just as Zhei had done earlier. "The tower. I know you've seen it."

He looked at her and nodded. He had seen it multiple times but thought it was just a trick of the light. Or, well, he knew he'd seen it more often than would be logical for it to be a trick of the light but he'd also really hadn't wanted to think much about it at all.

"It's real," she said. "And you should go to it. You'll be able to see it all the time now. You're not really part of this world anymore." She motioned to Zhei who was still staring at him like she was trying to figure out if he was real. "That's what happens now. They won't really remember you and they'll just get confused. It's worse with people who actually knew you."

Namsun looked from Zhei to the girl. "They really won't remember me?"

"Nope. Go to the Spire, that large tower. I'll explain everything when you get there."

Namsun just kind of nodded, his mind racing to make sense of things. It wasn't working. "Can I- can I bring my laptop?"

She looked taken aback by this, it wasn't the response she was expected. She shrugged. "Sure, I guess. You won't have much use for it but whatever, if that's what you want. Get your stuff and come quickly please, there are things to be done." Then she left, leaving a puzzled Namsun and a still confused Zhei behind. Then Zhei got up and excused herself to go back to work, way too formally as if she was really talking to a stranger, and left him alone.

Namsun stayed in a booth a while longer. He just couldn't get himself to get up and leave. Part of him thought that if he just stayed here then nothing would happen. He wouldn't have to think about it, he'd just stay here. But of course he was thinking about it. Was this really happening? Was he sure he wasn't just dreaming? Weird towers that shouldn't exist? People forgetting him? That wasn't stuff that happened in the real world, it just happened in video games. Cool video games, but that wasn't the point. Yet when he looked outside he could see the tower that had not been there before. Maybe if he just stayed in this booth forever-

The door opened and, of all people, Han Hadon entered. He must have worked through his lunch and only now taken his break. Hadon looked around the room and spotted him. "Hey Nam- Sun?" For a second he'd seemed as normal, but then the dazed expression fell over Hadon's face too. It hurt more than it should have.

Wait but he still walked towards Namsun and slid in the bench opposite him.

Namsun would melt into the floor right now if he could. Of course even in this crazy dream where everyone forgot him it was Hadon who didn't. Or maybe this was all a prank and Hadon just wasn't in on it? He hadn't considered that option.

"Hey?" Hadon said slowly ending it in a question. "We work together right? Shouldn't you be back at the office? Should you? I'm not sure."

Not a prank then. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. "You remember me then?"

"Yes of course. Wait. I- I think so? I know I've seen you around but I can't quite remember where." Hadon leaned closer and Namsun was forced to look into his face. Dammit why was it such a good looking face too? Not helping Namsun. "I was trying to help you with something right? Something about a bar?" Oh god someone kill Namsun now while there was still time, this was not happening right now.

Namsun stood up so quickly he almost tripped over his own feet. "I'm just- I'm just gonna go."

"Hey, whatever's happening I can help you," Hadon said.

"No, no it's okay. I'm just. I'm going to go." Namsun grabbed his coat and made his way out of the shop as quickly as he could. Whatever was happening, if it were real, then maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. He wouldn't have to think about Hadon anymore. Or Noella. If Noella would forget about him then maybe she could move on? And as much as he would miss them Zhei and Minwoo, they had each other. They didn't need him.

Maybe. Just maybe. If this were even real. It wouldn't be so bad.

If it were real.

author's note

And here's the next Seeker, Namsun <3 Thank you Experimentallyexotic for creating this lovable lil weenie, I look forward to making his life mi- I mean write a good and rewarding character arc for him. Woah there's only more to go and then this show really hits the road, you guys ready for that cause we are!

Also I figured I should share my personal playlist for this  story if you want to listen along while reading for optimal feels it contains songs that both it the story I've in mind and individual character arcs, including the songs in your apps of course <3:

Click for playlist!