“Two of our students broke several laws after they left the school ground yesterday. The two students in question did not leave for their homes as instructed but went on a walk together far from their usual living quarters. Both students face a reduction of their grades as a punishment. Every student is herewith reminded that each and everyone must leave for their respective homes after school right away. Follow the rules to receive good grades which will allow you to go to the best universities to achieve higher goals,” a bodiless voice announced through the speakers.

The students of JaeBeom’s High School were quietly sitting at their desks. Their almost unblinking eyes were kept upfront while they were listening to every single word the voice told them. It was unusual that there was an announcement. However, given that each and every student took their ‘job’ very seriously, it was not surprising to JaeBeom that their rule breaking was announced through the speaker as a warning for the rest of the school to not do the same.

If this would have happened only a few days before last night, JaeBeom would have reacted like all the others. Listening, obeying and following the rules. However, the past night had changed the young male.

Like the others, he was staring ahead. From the outside it was looking as if the young man was listening carefully as well. However, only by having a closer look at the young man, one would have noticed that his eyes were eagerly moving from left to right. He was reading. JaeBeom’s heart thumped wildly in his chest while doing so.

Never in his whole life, he disregarded rules and regulations as much as in the past few days. The story on his visual interface was a gift from his guide, JinYoung. The other had called it a book and told JaeBeom that experiencing fantastical as well as brutal and adventurous stories were and still are a beloved way to spend one's free time. The thought of that seemed ridiculous to JaeBeom. Why would someone waste their precious time to know someone else’s story when they could work on their very own achievements?
 

JinYoung had said that he did not expect the other to read it but that it would show him a part of what he was missing out on. A part that did not exist in the place he was currently living in.

At first JaeBeom intended to delete the file without peeking into it. After all, he had caused enough trouble for himself and his community. And still… his curiosity was stronger. He was not able to go through with deleting the file and after a round of back and forth he finally decided to open the rather small looking file and started to read.

The young male had been torn after reading the first few sentences. The feeling of doing something wrong and forbidden made him close the file several times but the sentences he previously had read, began to hunt him. He wanted to know how things would continue for that girl with that very complicated relationship with the moon in this story. Her interaction with the people around her began to fascinate him more and more. It was so different to how things were in his place.

JaeBeom quickly blinked a few times and looked around. The teacher had entered the class room and had started his lesson. The young man had neither noticed the elders entrance nor the start of the lesson. He had been too lost in the story he was reading.

His eyes wandered through the class where every single student was sitting obediently and silent in their chairs. Everyone was entirely focused on the lesson. Something JaeBeom should be doing too.

Quickly, he looked forward and tried to follow the teachers instructions. His mind, however, was still with the story about that girl… which made focusing rather hard. Nevertheless, he tried.

The lesson seemed to last ages and considering that this was still the first lesson of the day, he knew that it would feel like an eternity until the final bell would ring. Once the first bell reached his ears that announced that the first lesson was over, he instantly switched back to the story he was reading.

In the story they were in a school as well at the moment. The teacher just had announced something and then let the students be until the next lesson starts. Before he could read further, however, a note started to appear over the sentence he had just finished reading.
 

“Look up!” it said.

JaeBeom shifted his gaze from the text to the room of students around him. Everything was quiet as usual as the students did neither speak nor move. Not sure what he should be seeing, he got back to his story. However, he noticed that another note was waiting for him there.

“Read carefully and notice the difference,” the note said and JaeBeom continued reading.

The class in the story began to act differently from what he was used to. People talked with each other and moved around to speak with the ones they wanted to speak to. The scene felt loud and despite JaeBeom never encountering a situation like this he was able to imagine it rather well.

A red symbol appeared in the right corner of his vision. An indication for a message. His heart leaped as he hoped that it was a message from his friend Kim NamJoon. He had tried to get in touch with the other in the morning but he still has not heard back from him. To his utter disappointment it was not a message from his friend.

“What do you see?” JinYoung asked to which JaeBeom quietly rolled his eyes.

“The usual. I’m in class. I can’t afford an even lower grade so please leave me alone!” JaeBeom wrote back but his guide was persistent.

“Nice try! I saw you reading the book. Class seems to be not as interesting today, I assume?”

“Not sure what you’re talking about but the next class is about to start,” JaeBeom tried and hoped that the other would leave him alone after reading that but his hopes were instantly crushed after seeing another message arrive.

“The scene in the book. School once was like this. It was loud and people were allowed to talk and move around between classes. It is still that way where I am. In all honesty, seeing how a school day is for you is… creepy. Seeing everyone sitting there so quiet and silent makes me shiver,” JinYoung wrote which made JaeBeom hesitate from answering back immediately. After a little while, however, he began to type a message to the other: “You mean… there is a place where people act like in the book you’ve sent me? Where things are not quiet all the time?”

JaeBeom didn’t expect to receive an answer back immediately but the red symbol on the right corner of his vision appeared almost instantly after sending his last message.

The answer of the other was short and simple: “Yes!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This SeokJin guy is amazing! He told me so much about the place he’s from today. Did you know that where he is from you actually can move around freely after school? You’re not expected to go home right away. He told me that he gets together with friends often to spend time with them. Doesn't this sound amazing? That could be us! We could meet and talk freely without any consequences”

The elder had finally reached out to JaeBeom in the evening. However, he did not feel like replying to the other. Not because he was mad at him for only replying at the end of the day but because the book JinYoung had sent him, started to become even more interesting.

After having a quick exchange with his guide in the morning he spent a majority of his day reading. Now he made himself comfortable in his bed. His covers were pulled up high, so that a cocoon of warmth was safekeeping him.

JaeBeom quickly glanced to his right to have a look at the small dot that indicated where he was in the story. He was just past the first quarter point now and he was not planning on stopping anytime soon.

It was not just the story that fascinated him. JinYoung must have spent the whole day with him because the notes in the story kept on appearing while he was reading. The other pointed things out to him and explained things that were different from what JaeBeom knew. At some point they started to exchange thoughts about the story and began to guess what might be happening next. This only made JaeBeom anticipate the others' comments more.

JaeBeom noticed that he started to feel a weird rise of emotion when he noticed that the other was writing another note for him. He was not able to pinpoint what kind of emotion it was tho. Throughout his life he had not experienced many of them. He wondered, however, if it was close to happiness.

The red blinking message symbol on the right side of his vision interface made him look up from his story again. Quickly, he pushed the data of the book aside to have a look at what his friend has written to him. He was certain that NamJoon had written him another message to follow up on his previous one but to his surprise it was his guide; JinYoung.

“It’s been a long day. Let’s read a bit more tomorrow, shall we? It’s fun to read this story like this with you. I hope you like it too”

“So… you leave me alone then?” JaeBeom asked while the feeling of disappointment began to rise in his chest. He expected a prompt return from the other but the chat stayed silent for quite a while. The young man wondered if what he had said was taken the wrong way and he began to write another message that should have followed his last one but the sudden appearance of a reply made him stop doing so.

“If that’s what you want, then yes. I’m here to show you my world in the hopes of you returning to it. In the end, however, it’s your decision where you want to be. If you’ve seen enough and decided to stay where you are, you have to let me know and I’ll erase myself and will not contact you ever again. That’s the deal”

JaeBeom starred at the message. Panic started to rise within him and he furiously began to type an answer: “No! That’s not… Please don’t leave”

JaeBeom unconsciously held his breath while he waited for an answer from the other. He hoped that he did not push the other away with his message so that he would truly leave him alone. JaeBeom had enjoyed the past day way too much to now lose the one person that was responsible for it. He wanted to continue reading. Wanted to know what will happen to the girl that was a mythical Korean creature and the boy that fell for her. But most of all, he wanted to continue reading this story with JinYoung.

Nervously, he stared at the chat in the hopes to have received a reply back from the other but no new message was visible there. Instead of a message a blue dot with a phone painted on it appeared in the chat window. JaeBeom had no idea what that symbol meant and what it would do if he decided to click on it. Nevertheless, he pushed the symbols because he trusted that whatever the other had sent to him, wasn’t something that would truly harm him in any way.

A foreign voice reached his ear which made him look around frantically. It took him a while to realise that the sound he was hearing did not come from anywhere in his flat but from his chat.

“Hello? I don’t think this is working. Maybe I need to use the other program…” a deep and warm sounding voice said. The other began to mumble something while making some loud noises which made JaeBeom clear his throat in the hopes that the other could hear him as well. As there was no reaction to that he carefully began to speak: “Em… Is this JinYoung?”

The person instantly fell silent, which made JaeBeom hold his breath.

“This is JaeBeom hyung, right? I’m JinYoung” the honey like voice asked to which JaeBeom let out a soft sigh. He nodded quickly until he remembered that the other would not see it.

“Yes!” he quickly replied: “That’s me!”

“It works! That’s great! I thought it might be better to talk this way. Less misunderstandings. I hope that’s okay with you,” the other asked, to which JaeBeom began to nod before realising that once again the other would not see it.

“It felt nice today. I mean, reading with you was…”

“Fun?” JinYoung interrupted to which he softly began to laugh. JaeBeom’s cheeks began to feel warmer than usual which caused him to quickly cover them with his still cold hands in the hopes to even out the temperature. Bashfully, he nodded again before giving the other a new vocal answer.

“Let’s read again tomorrow as it’s getting late. I have quite a few stories I can share with you. Maybe we can just… you know… talk tomorrow? The program allows it, so we should use it. It’ll make things a tad bit easier for me. Plus it’s always nice to hear the other person. Especially when you do not know the other that well yet”

JaeBeom quickly agreed but instantly felt his cheeks heat up more which made him fall silent again. JinYoung laughed before wishing the other a good night and hanging up. The previously blue button turned red. The sight of it made JaeBeom’s heart sink, however, the mere thought of being able to speak with the other tomorrow made him smile again.

JaeBeom pulled his cover closer to himself. The honey-like voice of the other was still in his ear and the memory of it made the young man smile happily. Sleep found him soon after and in his dreams he kept on hearing the soft laughter of JinYoung’s smooth voice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi everyone~

This was the second chapter of Error.

In all honesty not how I imagined it to be but I got a chapter ready to upload despite the week I just had. I still hope that you enjoyed reading it.

I originally did not want to put too much focus on the romance aspect of this story but I crave JJP so we’ll see what I’ll do with the next (and final) chapter.

The book mentioned in this chapter is Gumiho / Wicked Fox by Kat Cho. My current read and it kinda felt like a good idea to include it as it is set in Korea and has a lot of themes that would be different to what JaeBeom knows in this story.

I hope you liked this chapter despite not much happening in it.

Motivation (a.k.a. Comments) are always highly welcome~

Have a nice day and stay safe.

See you next week

Narra