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Ch. II - Real
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Classes have ended at the sounds of the bell ringing and students quickly swarmed the hallways, preppin' for a trip home.

As for me, I still got a club to visit so I made my way towards the third-year floor, looking for the clubroom.

Upon arriving, a member of the club that was intensely focused on his game yet when I arrived, he stopped at it and jumps towards me.

"[name]!!" He quickly tried to wrap his arms around me, but luckily, I managed to dodge his grip this time.

"Ugh, for the hundredth time, stop doing that!" I shouted at him.

"Eeehhhhh?? But you actually like it! So come on! Give your big brother a hug." He spreads his arms open, inviting me for a hug.

But, nah. I actually grew tired of it. His hugs are...well...how do you put it... Too tight, or something like that.

And I just kinda ignored the way he mentioned being a big brother. Hell, I'm way more mature than him, by the way.

"(sigh)... Will you just please step aside?" I pretended I was having a certain headache to stop all of this unnecessary greeting at once.

"Okay."

Admitting defeat, he gives a way for me to enter the clubroom.

Just as I went to settle my things, our club prez stopped at what she was working and asked me, "Hey, [name]. How's your end doing?"

"Oh, well, I just need a few troubleshooting, then after that, my part's all done." I politely responded.

"Glad to hear that." After giving a compliment, she turns back towards her computer and continues working.

Meanwhile, I hear a sudden but annoying groan...

"Sounds nice~ I'm still pretty far behind in my end!" Ray, the one who was trying to get his grip on me earlier, was complaining to himself.

"Then do your job and stop playing that useless game you created!" Ah, here it is. The spiteful attitude of our club prez, Naomi.

"How dare you call my game useless~" Now he's acting like a crybaby while Karen was comforting him with a few gentle pats on his shoulder.

Honestly, these guys are like comedy actors. One would joke around while the other one straightens him up while the other one gives the final blow; be it a comfort or a hit on a head of a nail.

However, I'd rather stay away from their comedic-development since they're highly contagious.

But, I can never say I hated these guys. I actually grew fond of them in the past 2 years spending time together in the programming club.

We've been through a lot—from finance problems and deadline panics, to major school project activities like what we're up to right now.

The other day, the school had tasked us to create a secured website and a software model designed to store information while students scan their IDs overtime.

The website's not big of a deal, but the software is kind of a challenge. Not even our prodigy club president could finish it in a day by herself, so she decided to split the task among us.

I was tasked for the back-end part of the software, like debuggings, fixing everyone's errors and other stuff. Though my part is mostly easy, I'm needed to troubleshoot for everyone's part since that's my job as the back-end for the software.

But either way, I'm grateful that this job of mine is way easier than the rest, so I could have plenty of free time I can spend.

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Time Skip >>>       Now heading home
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(sighhh) I'm beat..

All that time staring at everyone's screens, it actually drained the life out of me.

I stretched my arms up in the air to recover a little strength as I continue walking towards the bike parking lot where I'll fetch my bike.

Taking the lock and getting on, I swiftly rode throughout the streets passing by a few students who were going home by foot, probably students who also had club activities.

With the air in my hair, I made a short stop at a convenience store to buy food for dinner since my parents won't be home tonight.

After that, well...while I was about to head over where my bike was, I noticed a little kid crying loudly while his mother was trying her best to calm him down.

Looking over at them to know what's going on, the kid actually dropped his lollipop by accident and he was crying about it. Perhaps the mother had no more money to buy a replacement, so I decided to help.

"Here you go. Take this." I approached the little boy that just stopped crying now that he saw me handing over a lollipop I got as a change.

He gladly accepts it and begins to smile gracefully.

"T-thank you so much!" The mother said that to me in behalf of her child.

"No worries, ma'am."

While the parent and child both started walking away, the little boy waved his hand at me while holding the lollipop on it and I happily waved back.

It sure is a nice pace of change to do something like that. But while I was smiling towards the horizon, I realized the sky was as dark as before.

"Crap! It's getting late!" I hurried towards my bike and quickly pedal my way back home.

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Upon arriving, I did the lock on my bike at the garage, took out my keys and went in by the front door of the house.

I'm finally back home!

Without any worries to worry for now, I immediately took off my outdoor shoes and went further inside the house.

I turned on all the lights and placed the groceries I bought on the fridge.

"This should last by tomorrow." I muttered to myself as I closed the fridge.

After that, I quickly ran towards my room upstairs, but while I was about take off my clothes, I noticed my PC blinking a notification light by the monitor.

Curious about it being an email or a notif from my gaming buddies, I put my clothes back on as I went towards the PC and turned it on.

After logging in to my user account, I hovered the mouse pointer on the notification tab on the bottom-right of the screen and saw I had an unexpected activity in the directory C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\Save.

The system was thinking it was a virus and it wishes to run an anti-virus scan. But, as far as I can recall, that folder is where I contained Monika's character file!

"Oh no!"

Worried that a virus might've corrupted the folder and the files inside it, I quickly searched for the 'Save' folder on the desktop and double-clicked on it as soon as I found it.

I waited for the folder to load, and when the green progress bar on it's directory had finished loading, there revealed two files inside.

One was Monika's 'monika.chr' while the other one was my letter to her...but just now, I realized it was titled different than what I remembered.

I narrowed my eyebrows in confusion as I started to click the '.txt' file named from 'A Letter to Monika.txt' to 'My Dear Player.txt'.

As the text reader program ran (notepad or onenote) I started reading the letter:

Dear [name],

Hi, you must be pretty confused...but it's me! It's really me, [name]. It's Monika! Ehehehe~

Well, first and foremost, I'm really sorry about all the things I did. I thought you hated me because of those, but when you said you loved me...I was brought with relief and joy. I never thought that...you'd actually still love me despite everything I did.

And while I appreciate that, let me say this as well...

I love you too~ <3

I love you so much, [name]! You're all that I needed to be here. You're all that I think about. Everything...they're all for you.

But, I just realized that all of my actions, they're all wrong. I was doing it because I thought it was the only way to win your love...but now, I realized that love doesn't work that way.

That's why I wrote you that song, in case if...you decided to walk away. Because in your reality, if I don't know how to love you, I'll have to leave you be.

I've done so many horrible things to my friends as well. Even though that they're not that real as me, I still loved them. But I destroyed that friendship because...I was being selfish and greedy of love.

So, I hope that you'll find it in your heart that you'll accept my apology for all the things I did. I'm really sorry, [name].

And while I'm happy that my love for you was reciprocated, I still think that I don't deserve it...not after what I did.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm rejecting your feelings or that sort of thing...I just..don't know if it's right for me to just forget everything that happened and be with you for the rest of my life.

I want to fix my mistakes, and only then will I be able to accept your feelings entirely.

Thank you for loving me, [name]. Thank you for sparing me and not deleting me.

Just so you know, I love you very much.

Forever Yours,
Monika <3

"..."

T-this is... It can't be... Did..she really..?

Is Monika really real??

End of Chapter 2