Chapter 2
I tried to answer, but my throat felt tight, like something was stuck there. No sound came out.
The closet door was slightly open. I felt like I was being pulled as I walked toward it, slow and unsteady.
I pushed the door open. Inside, a row of neatly hung white shirts lined the space. I reached out with a trembling hand. My fingertips brushed against the soft cotton.
They felt real and warm, not virtual at all.
[Newbie task: Find one thing that does not belong to him.] The system's voice echoed in my head.
"Don't just stand there, Bianca," Hannah said casually through the connection, like we were out shopping. "This kind of mission is super easy. Just look around. Check the pockets or inside the clothes. I bet there's something fun hidden."
I took a slow breath. Guilt crept up on me, like I was digging through the private things of someone who was gone. Still, I started searching.
Christian had always kept his clothes neat. Everything was folded and in its place. I moved through his suits and paused at the gray sweatshirt I loved so much. With each heartbeat, I felt heavier and heavier, as if it hurt just to keep going.
Each piece of clothing carried a memory. He wore the blue one the first time we went to the beach. He wore the black one at my graduation. My vision blurred as I kept looking. Tears slipped down and landed softly on the cold shelf.
Then, suddenly, my fingers brushed against something hard and cold, hidden deep in a narrow gap at the back of the closet.
I pulled it out. Something shiny dropped to the floor with a soft clink. I bent down and picked it up. It was a delicate pearl earring. The base was gold, and the letter "H" was carved into it.
My heart dropped. I had never owned anything like this. And I definitely didn't remember Christian having something like this in his closet.
"Whoa, found something interesting?" Hannah's voice came through with a light giggle. There was something strange in it, something that made me shiver.
When I exited the mission and returned to the real world, I sank back into the sofa, completely drained.
My hand was still clenched, as if I were holding the earring. But there was nothing there. It had only existed inside the app, like a memory forced into my mind.
"Hannah, that earring..." I looked straight at her, searching her face for any sign she wasn't telling me the truth.
She calmly stirred her coffee and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, that? Probably just some random item the system threw in to mess with you. These games always add a cheating twist to make things more dramatic. Don't overthink it."
"Are you sure it's just part of the game?" I asked quietly.
"What else could it be?" She let out a laugh, but it didn't reach her eyes. "You think Christian somehow knew about this app three years ago and hid an earring in his closet just for you to find, huh?"
Right then, my phone buzzed hard in my hand. A bright gold announcement flashed across the app, big enough for everyone to see.
[User Ruby's request for access has been approved. She has officially joined the share and is now the second sharer of the lover Christian.]
The name Ruby hit me like a punch. She was a girl from our college. She was the one who had gone completely off the rails over Christian. She caused a huge scene back then and even tried to kill herself because of him.
"How did she get in?" I shot up from my seat.
Before I could even process it, a private message popped up. The profile picture was a glamorous side view of a woman's face. It was Ruby.
[Bianca, long time no see. I can't believe you're playing this game. Christian is so addictive. Way more fun than the boring real one.]
I clicked into her profile. My breath caught. Right under her picture, her intimacy level read SS.
That meant the time she had spent with "Christian," how often she had interacted with him, and even the kind of intimate things they had done in the app, were all far beyond what Hannah, the one who created him, had done.
It was far beyond me, someone who had just joined.
"No way," I whispered. "Hannah was the one who uploaded him..."