It had been nearly a week ever since she lost the love of her life. Who knew love could hurt this much? It wasn’t love itself that pained her, but rather, the absence of love. When Tae Min was with her, he’d always make her feel so special like she was the luckiest girl in the world. Without his presence by her side, she had gone into a state of obelisk depression.   Kim Jong Hyun appeared at her front door that night exactly a few seconds after the clock hit twelve. He informed it was standard procedure to discharge the dysfunctional body properly.   Maerin had tried to put up a fight; to shout, cry, and beg to leave Tae Min’s lifeless being with her. But the corporation didn’t allow her. She remembered holding on to Tae Min’s leg like a dramatic maiden who had fallen over on the ground, persistently clinging unto her loved one. But that didn’t work. Jong Hyun still took Tae Min away.   “Cheer up. He isn’t the only guy in this world,” Seul Yi spoke as they took a walk to the ice cream store. The girls had made it their priority to accompany Maerin as much as possible for the upcoming few days. This was much worse than the time when Woo Zi rejected her, so she urgently needed their moral support.   “Yeah, things will get better soon,” Hana added with a pout. One could see she was trying her best to cheer her friend up, but wasn’t sure what could bring comfort at this state. She couldn’t even imagine what half of the pain of losing a loved one felt like.   “At least you know how love feels like now,” Hee-Jin said, trying to stay positive.   “He is the only guy I will ever love,” Maerin spoke desonantly. Her presence was there, but the pupil in her eyes was casted blankly into some faraway distance. Her mind couldn’t stop thinking about Lee Tae Min.   “Mae, you’re still young. You still have time to find someone else you can fall in love with,” Hyun Mi said, trying to advise her from a more realistic point of view.   “True, it has only been a week. Time will heal your scars,” Yerin added, looking worriedly at their younger friend.   Maerin clenched her hands into a fist, feeling her arms tremble a little which she did not have control over. She knew her friends were just trying to help her, she knew it very well. But their words were showing sympathy, and wasn’t the empathy she needed right now.   “Maybe you should play another game,” Bi Ah suggested.   Maerin’s steps halted at that suggestion. She turned her head sideways, realizing they had arrived at the same game store from before. It was the exact same place where she had bought Love Fantasy before.   Without saying a word, she walked into the store. She remembered the aisle where the game was stored at and headed there. The uber cheesy pink purplish game cover with the semi 3D drawing of a male greeted her in the face, but that wasn’t the focus of her attention. She didn’t hesitate to pick it up and headed straight to the cashier.   “One otome game for the heartbroken miss?”   Maerin frowned, recognizing that voice and the familiarity of the line itself. “Do you say that to every customer who buys this game?”   The guy behind the register looked up, revealing his dinosaur like face from underneath his hat. His eyes widened in shock at her presence. “Ha Maerin, what are you doing here?”   “I’m gonna bring Tae Min back,” Maerin stated, shoving the game CD closer to the cashier. She ignored her friends petrified looks and Jong Hyun’s equally at a loss face. This was the determination of a girl in love.   “I brought him to life once, I can do it again.”     Ever since Tae Min appeared, she had never touched the original Love Fantasy CD again. But after his disappearance, she had tried to start the gameplay again in the hope that he would at least live on in the game. But similar to the time when Tae Min first appeared, it returned an error message.   She figured one CD could only create one virtual boyfriend. To Maerin who normally chose to save money, retrieving Tae Min was much more valuable than any monetary value could offer.   Her hands moved so expertly as if she was racing against the time to insert the CD inside her laptop. Soon a new window appeared with the same purplish flowery background she had remembered. Several realistic 3D guys popped up to surround the fading title banner that read ‘Love Fantasy’ in shiny golden letters. It brought back memories already.   The title soon turned to a ‘start button’ and the game asked her to enter a name for herself. If she wanted to get Tae Min back, she had to make sure she did everything exactly the same way as she did before. Only that way would her ideal boyfriend appear.   Chris P. Bacon   The name no longer bore much humor in it. Instead, it had become somewhat of a treasurable relic between her and Tae Min. Rather than laughing at it, the name made her smile. She remembered the first time Tae Min called her out loud using this name. It was hilarious how he kept a straight face saying it. How she missed him.   The same screen appeared where she had to write out an explicitly long and detailed biodata about herself. It had taken her over an hour just to finish it last time, and having to remember everything again was going to be a pain in the .   But for Tae Min, she was willing to endure it.   A part of her was met with the uncertainty of her attempt to bring him back. This might not even work. What if the person turned different from the Tae Min she knew? Was there a chance to reset the game?   With her mind wishfully hoping this might work, she began to enter all the data. Things came naturally to her because she had already done it before. Writing the information about herself was easy, but for Tae Min…   Maerin’s hand froze when they asked the details of her fantasy boyfriend. She was having a hard time distinguishing the things she had entered back then with the things she had learned would shape up Tae Min.   She remembered she gave Tae Min a one out of 10 cooking skills, but could she add the fact he liked to mix anything and everything together to create bimbimramen? He was very passionate about dancing, could she add his remarkable waltzing skills? Every aspect about him suddenly needed a specific description, but she was scared it would alter him. Would he be able to mention Brock Lee again? Would he have two dogs named Adam and Eve? Would he still be fond of that ugly unicorn sweater?   They had too many memories together that made this setup process a lot harder than expected. After nearly every question, Maerin had to stop herself and exhaled a deep and long sigh. She had to keep writing the way she did before, because those additional characteristics automatically came along with him without her specifications.   When who knew how many hours had gone by, the final question appeared asking for his name. Her heart clenched in pain as she typed his name firm and clear: Lee Tae Min.   She pressed ‘Done’ and the slow bossa nova tune she had missed started to play. She now realized it wore the resemblance of the music they had both waltzed to. The very song that indicated their first kiss on the lips and the moment they declared their love. She closed her eyes at the memory as the screen faded to white for the game to start.   When she opened her eyes again, her heart suffocated in a strange fluttering moment. Her lips curled into a pained smile, for she was met with the semi 3D image of the one she had missed. His eyes still looked at her like she was the only person he could see. His hands looked so soft and she could feel the way his gentle fingers used to wrap around hers. His lips smiled that beautiful bright grin she could kiss over and over again.   She managed to create an exact replica of Tae Min.   A text bubble appeared according to the pace of Tae Min’s speech. This time, she could audibly hear his voice in her mind speaking.   ‘Hi there, I’m new to this neighborhood. Could you uuhm… show me the way to the grocery store? I wanted to get some ice cream.’   “It’s the same,” Maerin whispered to herself, feeling hopeful about this whole idea. It was stupid. It was illogical. But when did Tae Min’s existence ever make sense anyway? Everything went against the status quo.   ‘I’ll go if you buy me one.’   Maerin was pretty sure that was not what she said back then, but she completely forgot how she responded before. This wouldn’t change anything, would it?   ‘I don’t have money for the both of us.’   “Right, because the game doesn’t use money,” she repeated what Tae Min had told her back then.   ‘You should go work somewhere and earn money.’   ‘Just to buy you ice cream?’   ‘Just to buy me ice cream.’   She smiled to herself. Everything felt so natural like she was talking to him again. Not audibly, but like they were chatting.   ‘I really need directions to find the grocery store first in order to do that.’   ‘Hahahahaha fine! I’ll take you there.’   She was no longer a newbie at the game and knew what she had to do in order to type a certain command or action in the game.   /Go to grocery store   The scenery and background of the gameplay changed like they were going to the grocery store. She was now certain this was going differently from last time. She had to shift it back to their previous talk from around six months ago or longer. But what was it?   ‘The guy I like left me!’   That time they were talking about Woo Zi rejecting her, this time she talked about Tae Min’s real life version leaving her.   ‘A break up, you mean?’   ‘No, he just left me.’   ‘I’m sorry to say this, but it sounds to me he’s an irresponsible man.’   ‘Not really, he had to leave against his will.’   Maerin stayed quiet, seeing no text bubble appear. She forgot how realistic the game was with its response time.   ‘You must still like him then.’   ‘I do.’   ‘Well, sometimes it is better to forgive, forget, and move on to the next person.’   ‘The next person?’   This had happened before, whereby Tae Min indicated she was better off with some other guy, which could mean he himself.   ‘I’d love it if that someone had a stable job though~’   ‘Ha ha. Speaking about jobs, do you know of any place I could try out?’   Maerin frowned, how would that even work out? But she went along with it.   ‘I heard there is a job that requires you to have great agility and an eye for detail in the culinary arts department.’   ‘What?’   ‘A fruit ninja!’   ‘That actually sounds very apeeling. They used to call me Brock Lee because I chop fruit and vegetables like a ninja.’   “Brock Lee!” Maerin exclaimed out loud, excited to see another similarity to the previous gameplay. Though things were going differently, some things remained the same.   ‘Orange you glad I told you about it?’   ‘My pearants would be so proud of me. They were so meloncholic about it being a useless skill.”   ‘It’s pearfect!’   ‘Thank you berry berry much.’   Maerin laughed again, noticing they remained the lame puntastic duo. She must’ve entered something as part of his personality that made him so fond of puns and creatively lame.   ‘You can call me Chris P. Bacon.’   Somehow, she was certain everything would be fine. Eventually.     “Heol… You actually managed to recreate Tae Min?” Hana questioned the next day after Maerin was proudly bragging about her achievement.   The girls were happy, but moreover worried of what this could lead into. What if she couldn’t bring this second Tae Min to the real world? And even if she could, what would happen after six months went by? She couldn’t possibly keep spending her money to buy more Love Fantasy CDs everytime her robot boyfriend malfunctioned.   “Yup! He is exactly as lame and punny as I am. He’s perfect,” Maerin said dreamily, too immersed in the game.   “What time did you go to sleep?” Hyun Mi asked worriedly, looking at the younger one whose skin was duller, but expression was glowing.   “I didn’t,” Maerin let out a cheeky laugh that looked overly exhausted. Her dark eyebags appeared twice as big when she displayed her e