The delirious tone from her alarm clock wasn’t what caught Maerin’s attention the next morning. Rather, she was greeted by the sizzling noise that immediately made her stomach growl awake in response.   “Morning, sleepyhead,” Tae Min called out to her after hearing her shift away from the bed.   Maerin just sat there silently, still in a daze after everything that happened. Did she and Tae Min actually end up confessing to each other? Was this going to affect the Love Fantasy gameplay? Her eyes turned to watch Tae Min’s backside busying himself in the kitchen.   “What are you doing?” She asked a rather obvious question.   “Making breakfast for my lovely girlfriend,” Tae Min sang his answer. He swirled around with a single handed soup pot in his hand. His feet seemed to moonwalk his way to the small coffee table beside the bed, carefully laying the pot in front of her.   “You cooked?” She was in complete awe.   “You can’t start the day on an empty stomach. I will give the best for my sweetheart.” Tae Min took the chance to give her a quick peck on her forehead before she was conscious enough to remind him of the ground rules. Then he returned to the kitchen to retrieve the cutleries.   Maerin bit her lower lip, feeling all giddy and shy inside. It was definitely not a dream or a fantasy; she was actually dating her ideal man. And he loved and cared for her so much she was already reluctant to leave the house.   But wait.   Maerin’s focus shifted to the pot in front of her, wondering what was behind the lid. If she remembered correctly, she had given Tae Min’s cooking skills a one out of ten. He was supposed to be terrible. She suddenly envisioned green slime with purple moving tentacles coming from the pot.   Before she could ask, Tae Min had already reappeared and took the seat in front of her. He handed her some chopsticks and spoon and placed his hand on the dreaded lid.   “Let’s eat, shall we?” He said cheerfully and took the lid away.   Inside, there was a seemingly normal ramen with a sunny side egg on top of it. It seemed very ordinary, and she wondered whether the low cooking rating made him a decent chef of instant noodles.   “I put in the best ingredients for you so you’d stay healthy.” Tae Min proudly picked a strand of noodle in his chopsticks and fed it to her.   He was so sweet. But the moment she took a bite, she understood the true meaning of his cooking skills. Her joy washed away at once, and she had a hard time keeping her face straight. The smell was alright, but the taste… Oh the taste… Words couldn’t do justice for the suffering her taste buds just went through.   “What did you put in here?” Maerin talked with full, afraid to chew the noodle in case it still savored the horrendous taste.   “Ramen and egg,” Tae Min answered. And everything would’ve been fine if he had stopped at that, but he didn’t. “And a bunch of other healthy ingredients. Like milk, honey, avocado, sweet potatoes, oranges, broccoli, and crispy bacon.”   Hearing the mismatched combination almost made her throw up. “W-why would you put them with ramen?” She asked him after swallowing everything with many difficulties.   “It’s healthy. Might as well eat them together with one meal now rather than doing it separately later. Like bimbimbap,” Tae Min reasoned wisely.   This was nothing like binbimbap! If there was one thing she regretted about his system, it was her decision to not let him excel at everything. Now she’d probably end up eating a mismatched mixture of healthy ingredients bimbimbap for the rest of her life. All 365 days of a year. Great.   “Next time, we shall order take out,” she then concluded, and he was nice enough to not protest.   Tae Min ended up eating the rest of his cooking as Maerin came up with the excuse she was afraid being too healthy would abstain her from doing any exercises. She was a lazy potato sack, yes, but she still danced in her free time.   “I can be your dance partner,” Tae Min had once told her inside the game, and she wondered whether he still remembered. It seemed so surreal back then, but now, they could tangibly dance together.   Her short trip down memory lane was cut abrupt when the ringing door bell brought her back to reality. She forgot she was still washing the dishes as Tae Min was showering now. Could it possibly be another Lee Tae Min showing up at her front door? It would be like Bi Ah who was dating her beloved Ho oppa in the real and virtual world.   “Coming!” Maerin yelled, carefully taking off the latex glove that protected her delicate skin. She took her time to get to the door, not expecting any urgent visitors. But when she opened the door and found the rather short dinosaur resembling guy staring back at her, she grew confused.   “You may not remember me, but I am-”   “Kim Jong Hyun,” she remembered him alright. He was the reason she ended up getting Love Fantasy for free, and was also the one who told her about the special feature. She had to thank him for Tae Min’s existence.   “Oh.” He was surprised she had such a great memory. “Well, you must be wondering why I came here.”   “Not really.”   “Oh.” Jong Hyun watched the girl lean against the doorframe, staring not so curiously at him. “Aren’t you surprised I found your address?”   “I didn’t think of that.”   “Oh.” He wondered what was inside that brain of hers.   “So… Did you come here about the deal we made?” She asked him hesitantly, wondering if he was going to ask her for money.   “No, I came here regarding the email you send.”   “Email?” Finally, she looked interested.   “I should properly introduce myself,” the guy stretched his hand out. “Kim Jong Hyun, customer service manager at Luminous Corporation.”   Why did that name sound so familiar? If she remembered correctly, Luminous Corporation was the organization that created Love Fantasy. And if he was here because of the email she send, maybe he had the answer to Tae Min’s mysterious existence.   “You must be wondering why a regular employee from the local game shop turned out to be involved with such a big multi national corporation, right?” Jong Hyun was half posing half bragging now.   “Not at all.”   “Oh.” He stopped trying to read her mind altogether after the many failed attempts. “May I come in?”   “Sure.” She opened the door wider and allowed him better access to her small apartment room. “Please excuse the mess, we haven’t had time to clean up everything yet.”   “We?” Jong Hyun noted.   Maerin nodded. “Based on the email, you would know Tae Min is real now.”   “Tae Min being the virtual boyfriend you created through the game, correct?” Jong Hyun’s face hardened a little.   “Yes!” Maerin grinned proudly, but was soon filled with concern. “Has this incident occurred before? What happened to other players and their virtual boyfriend?”   “Well, the problem is…” Jong Hyun bit his lips and gave her an apologetic look, “You’re the first person to reach this stage.”   Maerin blinked.   “No one else has ever managed to unlock this special feature. None of the beta testers at the company actually succeeded.”   This was either a blessing or a curse. She and Tae Min would now end up as some sort of guinea pig to the organization. She didn’t even find the answers she was looking for, but was met with more problems instead.   “If I may ask, do you know what had triggered Tae Min to appear to the real world?” Jong Hyun questioned, and she replied him with an are-you-kidding-me look.   “It’s your company, how would I know?”   “The game developers never actually specified what exact actions were needed in order to activate the special feature. We always thought it was a secret ending you had to unlock, but you said that wasn’t the case.”   “No, I never even advanced into a relationship with him in the game. It was after he came to this world that we took it to the next step,” Maerin said bashfully. Saying she was dating him was rather embarrassing, and she had to hide her blushing face from Jong Hyun.   At that time, the bathroom door opened, and Tae Min appeared with a towel over his neck and his hair still drenched in water. He had the habit of drying his hair out naturally.   “I thought I heard voices outside. Hi, I am Lee Tae Min,” the tall dream guy introduced himself. He then sat himself down on the empty space next to Maerin and lovingly wrapped his arm around her shoulder.   “Truly remarkable.” Jong Hyun’s jaw had fallen agape and he didn’t realize his lips were still parted. He watched the guy in fascination. Love Fantasy came with so many unanswered mysteries, but there were some things he was sure of.   “So Tae Min is aware that he was created by you, correct?”   “Yes,” Maerin answered him.   “Tae Min, do you perhaps remember what happened or how you came to this world?” Jong Hyun inquired.   Maerin looked along in curiosity. This was something she had also been wondering about, but always forgot to ask.   “No,” the guy shrugged. “All I know is that when I opened my eyes, I was already at her front door. I still have memories of our interactions from when I was within the game.”   “Interesting,” Jong Hyun mumbled to himself, rubbing his finger against his chin. Could it mean that Tae Min had a brain and a will of his own even when he was a game character? How much of him was still a program, and how much a human?   “If you don’t mind, I’d like to retrieve a copy of your gameplay to study your interaction and see what could trigger his existence,” he continued in full research mode.   “Of course,” Maerin nodded, wondering how Jong Hyun would