To Live Again, For the First Time!

Theodore was sitting there alone in his dorm room messing around with the otome game, testing some routes and tricks he had learned from past gaming experiences, he had completely put on the 'main character of a game, where everything revolves around me' mindset, but after playing for a while, he had realized that this was no ordinary game.

He currently had two options in hand, one was to properly play the game like anyone else, and the other was to hack it and beat it that way. After all, the requirement was to 'reach the end' and not, find the right route or beat the game.

And Theodore quickly found out why that was so. There were just too many routes in this game…

There might be 1 or 2 routes that could be considered the right route, no, actually, Theodore wasn't even sure if there was a right route at all. But there were most likely more where the ending wouldn't lead to defeat. 

Even so, Theodore wasn't 100% confident that he would be able to find one, he just assumed there to be a right answer, but if he didn't figure out the trick, this was going to be as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. 

This otome game was unlike the ones he had played in the past, it was definitely more time-consuming and much more challenging, and after playing for a bit longer, he realized the reason why it was completely different.

The 'right answers' to pass an event changed! 

He had successfully passed the first event and when he reached the second one, he had made a wrong judgment, leading to death, but when he started again, he had died in the first event even though he chose the same answers.

It was baffling…

And in case you were wondering what kind of theme this otome game was, how it had so many turns that could lead to death, well Theodore could only say that the designer wasn't the most creative person alive.

The game was set in an all-boys academy, at which a female character crossdresser as a male. Every person could only play as the female character and so that was also the perspective that Theodore played in. 

The nation believed strongly in male supremacy and so no females were allowed at the elite school. If she was found out by someone who didn't have a high enough favourability or interest in her, then she would ultimately be killed off for deceiving the most prestigious school in the kingdom, supported by even the king.

It was cliché, to say the least, but it served its purpose of being a pain in the ass for the students taking the 'test'.

Theodore sighed after his 24th consecutive death in-game, seriously considering just hacking it and getting it over with.

But he knew that he wouldn't actually be able to do that because he just liked a good challenge too much. 

Though if worse came to worse, he could always opt for taking hacking the game as the challenge, after all, a Master who came to the computer sciences department in a software designing class to look for a disciple should be no pushover in this aspect. Right?

Even if he wasn't an expert at defensive systems, he should at least know an expert who could help him. Master Sungcha had already said that he would rather the scales not be tipped on any one person's side so it should only be right that he took countermeasures into consideration.

'This could also serve as a good challenge,' he thought.

It was then that Kayden came back, closing the door behind him and plopping down on his bed.

"Don't catch a cold." Theodore reminded Kayden, whose shirt was mostly wet.

The weather was hot, and they had both come back sweating. The air conditioner was on, making this a perfect setup to get sick which Theodore took into consideration. 

While Kayden had been talking with Gen alone, Theodore had already washed up and changed into a new shirt.

He was really jealous of the amount of money the school was going to be earning just from the money to keep the washing machines going, even if he wasn't lacking in cash.

"Mm, I'll go take a shower then." Kayden reluctantly got up, but only because he saw the merit in taking a shower now rather than later. It was also the place where he could clear his head and think the best.

Around 10 min later; Theodore's death count had already increased significantly, and Kayden came out of the bathroom, fresh and clean.

Even so, his glabella [1] was still slightly wrinkled as he was lost in his thoughts.

"What did you guys talk about?" Theodore nonchalantly asked when he noticed Kayden's disposition.

He lifted his head and ignored the game to give Kayden his undivided attention for that instance.

"That's also what I wanted to know." Kayden tilted his head and held his hand up to his chin, rubbing it in contemplation.

"What do you mean? You guys had a private conversation, and you don't even know what you talked about?" Theodore chuckled leaning back on his chair while giving Kayden a glance that expressed his amusement, his eyes twinkling a little as if to tease him.

Theodore knew that Kayden knew that Theodore wouldn't ask anymore if he didn't want to talk about it so there would be no point in going about the conversation in a roundabout way, which led Theodore to the only plausible conclusion… 

This guy really didn't know!

Kayden scratched his hair, which was still mildly wet.

Thinking back to that conversation, he was still lost even now. Back then, Gen had insisted for Theodore to go up first so that she could talk with Kayden. It went something like this:

"What did you want to talk about?" Kayden was slightly embarrassed when Gen asked Theodore to go up first since he was supposed to be a middleman of sorts, or so he thought. And it didn't seem nice that it sounded like he had something that he had to hide or anything like that. 

Almost as if he were talking behind Theodore's back.

It could be said that in some instances, Kayden was pretty innocent.

Theodore on the other hand thought nothing of it.

After all, Gen and Kayden had been friends for a long time, it was only natural that they had things that they wanted to talk about or catch up on. 

Things that had nothing to do with him.

"Hey, you! I get that he's a really special guy, but you have to be careful, ok? And don't be too hard on him either, especially since it doesn't seem like you're coming out with it." Once Gen started rambling, nothing could stop her until she was done. And it seemed like she was particularly stirred up about this topic.

"It won't last long if you're not willing to sacrifice a little bit, you will have to confront these problems when the time comes, and I don't want to see you guys go your separate ways just because you aren't 100% committed in the relationship. Don't be half-hearted Kayden. I can tell that that guy is a sincere one. Got it?" Gen had finished her piece in a rush, saying all this because she didn't want his friend to get hurt. 

As for the more selfish and credible reason… it was more so because if there were a rift between her new idol (Theodore) and one of her best friends (Kayden), then it would be a pain in the butt for her.

She hoped that they would stay together for a long time!

Kayden, this dumbass, subconsciously nodded his head, even though he had no clue what he was nodding or agreeing about.

Then he snapped out of it, asking, "wait, who are you talking abo--…", but sadly, Gen had left at a moment's notice.

He could only make his way back to his room in confusion. 

Now that he thought about it, it could barely have been considered a conversation. He wasn't sure if he was being reprimanded and if he was, what exactly was he being reprimanded for?

And which guy are you talking about?

Theodore seemed to be the most plausible conclusion considering the timing, but Kayden really wanted to smack Gen's head a little.

'Do you even know what names are for? (πーπ)...'

And as for the relationship thing? 

Friendship? What was she so worried about?

In the end, he could only shrug.

"It probably wasn't anything too important." Kayden nodded at his own statement.

"Mm, okay then. Want to check out the game? It's some really, next-level stuff, it's surreal." Theodore had achieved a shocking 39 deaths in-game, but he looked in no way upset or frustrated, rather, he looked excited.

His face was sporting a large grin as if he had just found his next plaything.

Rather than feeling embarrassed due to the high number of failures achieved in such a short amount of time, he looked proud of his deaths, just about as happy, or maybe even more so, as when he won the national level math competition, the name of which he couldn't even remember anymore.

Kayden quickly agreed, looking for a distraction and thus taking his phone out.

As he looked at the loading screen, another thought popped up.

'Ah. Another thing that I completely don't understand. Other than the thoughts that run through a girl's head, it's still a girl's mindset that I don't understand.'

He had already done some research on otome games and so he knew the basics. 

It was pretty much a game where you tested the extents of the female imagination… at least that's what Kayden was thinking

[1] Dictionary- glabella is the smooth part of the forehead above and between the eyebrows.

***

Emilin is staring into the sunset, a beautiful view displayed before her eyes, of the setting sun, whose light shone between the birch trees.

Emilin: Ah, I want to go take photos already. Vote so that we can get the great author to write more and faster!