A few months ago...
Before the transmigration.
——
Before he became Cedric Martini, he was Kim Min-jun. Just an average twenty-five year old man who suffered from severe anxiety.
On one windy Thursday night, he sat in the secluded section of a park, waiting for the most important person in his life. His hands were deep in his pockets and he hunched his shoulders against the chill, listening to his favorite music on repeat through the earbuds in his ears. The repetitive melody was the only thing keeping his racing thoughts at bay.
Cedric, or rather, Kim Min-jun, had a fidgeting habit of tapping his legs on the ground in a rapid, uneven rhythm. It was a physical release for the nervous energy humming under his skin.
It didn’t take long for him to finally spot his girlfriend approaching with a female colleague of hers.
His girlfriend was a really beautiful woman with ivory skin and inky black hair that was cut in a bob. Perched on her nose was a pair of thick-rimmed glasses that she kept adjusting from time to time.
Just seeing his girl, Kim Min-jun’s heart fluttered and the nervousness he was feeling earlier slowly disappeared.
When the two girls reached a few meters from him, they stopped to say farewell to each other.
"Thanks for walking me all the way here, Hye-jin," Seo-yeon said softly.
"Of course. I’ll see you at work tomorrow, okay?"
"Sure."
Hye-jin turned around and left, while Seo-yeon hurried over to Kim Min-jun, who was standing and waiting for her with a large smile on his face.
She ran into his embrace, holding him really tight. Then she asked softly, "Have you been waiting for long?"
He lied, "I only just got here."
Kim Min-jun was short, so Seo-yeon had to look down at his face; then, she leaned down and kissed him on the lips.
The cold of the night suddenly felt warm as their tongues met, before they finally pulled apart.
Kim Min-jun then held Seo-yeon’s hand as they began walking.
"How was work today?" He asked. "You look really exhausted."
Seo-yeon sighed, "I am exhausted, my love."
Seo-yeon worked in a gaming company called Elysium Studios as a lead character designer, and every time she came back from work, she always looked exhausted.
"Like always, it was hectic. Even though the company has already decided to shut down, there’s still a lot of stuff for us to do before we are finally laid off."
She leaned her head slightly down to rest it against his, taking comfort in his warmth.
"You didn’t tell me why your company just decided to close all of a sudden," Kim Min-jun said in a voice filled with concern as he tightened his grip on her hand.
"That’s cause the real reason was a secret." She halted and smiled. "But I’ll tell you anyway."
She resumed walking and then began. "It all started a few months ago. Important people in the company began disappearing one by one. At first, we thought maybe they had just taken a vacation or something, but then more people vanished without a word. Even after several months, none of them have returned. No one knows where they are, and even the police couldn’t find a single lead; it’s almost as if those people had just vanished into thin air."
"The first person that suddenly went missing was our CEO, Mr. Lee Lim. Then his assistant, Kim Eun-ji, followed by the head of development and several other senior leads. It was like the entire core of the company was being pulled away, piece by piece. Even my friend, Hana. You know her right?"
Kim Min-jun nodded and his eyes widened.
Seo-yeon also nodded and said. "She’s also gone."
At this point, Kim Min-jun halted. "Wait... then why are you still working there? If all these people are disappearing, then something fishy is definitely going on. I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep working there. What if..."
"I wanted to quit..." Seo-yeon politely interjected before he could say it. "But then the company suddenly amped security and increased our pay. You know we need that money, including the severance pay for the house we want to buy."
Kim Min-jun sighed. They were both saving up to buy their own house so he could understand. Still...
"I’m not really comfortable. Are you really sure it’s safe to keep working there?"
Seo-yeon nodded.
"No one has gone missing in the past few months. Plus, the company is going to close down in two months, so I’ll just stick it out to the end."
She looked at Kim Min-jun’s face, and when she still saw the worry in his expression, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, then whispered something lewd into his ear, causing him to blush.
When he stuttered, she smiled, "Don’t worry, it’ll be okay. I’m going to be fine."
Then her face brightened as if she remembered something. "By the way, I brought you something."
She halted and reached into her bag, then pulled out a game.
Kim Min-jun took it and studied it.
On the cover was the image of a boy with golden blonde hair and striking green eyes fighting against a figure who looked like an angel with massive wings on her back. On the side, the name of the game was boldly written in red:
[Seraphim of Doom.]
"It’s the game the company I work for has been working on all this time. It’s incomplete, as we had to stop development halfway through, but since the studio is closing, they gave us early access builds to take home. I know how much you’ve been looking forward to seeing what I’ve spent my late nights on."
As soon as Seo-yeon spoke, Kim Min-jun smiled and pulled her in for another hug. He loved games, so this was the best gift she could have given him, especially knowing how much of herself she had poured into the project.
"Thank you," he murmured into her hair, though his hands were already tracing the edges of the game case. "I can’t wait to finally see the world you created."