Blankly staring up at the blue sky as my body floated around in the middle of a lake, I couldn't help but feel a little speechless as I held a long strand of pink hair in my hand.

Watching as bright pink cherry blossom petals elegantly swayed down from the sky as a gust of wind blew by, I took in a breath of air and closed my eyes, releasing the strand of hair from my hands while doing so.

In the darkness of my mind, I searched through a barrage of memories. Scattered around were images of people, things, and places that held an importance to me, each holding a nostalgic feeling.

Filtering through each one of them, I eventually managed to find what I was looking for.

Flas.h.i.+ng dimly in a corner of my mind was an image of a brightly lit television screen, a pair of tan slim hands gripping a wireless PlayerX controller facing the tv screen. I recalled that it was a memory of last night, the last thing I could remember doing before I mysteriously ended up here.

With a small wrinkle between my brows, I dived deeper into the memory, with a hope of understanding how I got myself in this situation.

× × ×

"Hah, I finally cleared all the routes."

Like an old black and white film, the memory of slightly tanned hands gripping a PX4 controller slowly flickered to life with the familiar yet unfamiliar sound of my voice.

I sat in the middle of my living room, my eyes wandering over to the brightly lit screen of my unnecessarily large TV.

Stretching my aching bones from sitting in such an awkward position on the couch for so long, I slowly read the golden text written boldly on a fancy red banner within my TV screen.

"Congratulations on completing all the routes! As a reward for being the first to complete Blossoming Heart Attack, please accept this gift!"

Below this text was a luxurious gift wrapped box, with a sparkling pink ribbon tied neatly on top of the moderately sized gift box.

"Hm..."

Staring at this so called "reward" I didn't make any moves to unravel it, instead, I made way to my kitchen to heat up a plate of lasagna.

Petting the sleeping heads of my cat, Meow, and dog, Wuff, on the way to the kitchen, I felt a bit more relaxed then I did before when I was sitting on the couch.

Grabbing a cold drink as I waited for the lasagna to heat up, I blankly scrolled through the texts on my phone.

Eventually my finger tapped on the texts that were between me and a childhood friend, Wendy. Blowing away a loose strand of short jet black hair that fell between my eyes, I quickly typed a short two word message and sent it.

"Finished it."

Looking at the short two words on my phones screen, I let out a small shrug. This should be enough for her to understand what I'm trying to say, right?

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Interrupted by the loud beeping of the microwave, I stopped that thought and opened up the microwave.

Letting the lasagna cool for a bit, I set it on the coffee table in the living room and continued to stare at the TV screen, wondering if I should open the strange gift box or not.

I wasn't really keen on unraveling the strange gift anytime soon.

I ate the lasagna as a way to distract myself from looking at the sparkling pink ribboned box in wait of a response from Wendy.

Feeling my phone vibrate in my back pocket, I let out a relieved sigh. Taking my phone out of my pocket I quickly maneuvered my way to my inbox, looking for the response from my earlier text.

"Ehhhh? Really?? That fast!? I'm not even finished with the third love route!"

Reading her response I quickly typed out a short reply.

"Yeah."

"That's amazing! I knew you would be able to clear it faster then anyone!! No one is as free as you when it comes to playing games."

Suddenly feeing too lazy to type any words, I stiffly sent out two thumbs up.

"Pfft. What's up with the thumbs? Lolol, don't be shy Rei. It won't hurt you to write a bit more ??."

Frowning, I typed out another short reply.

"Ok."

"Hahaha.. ? Well, anyways. Are the rumors true???"

"... Hm?"

"Oh, come on. Stop playing around Rei. Did you get that big reward that they were talking about giving out to the first person who completed the game or not??"

"... Pretty much."

"Really!? d.a.m.n, that's so luckkyyy!!"

"?."

"Lol, stop with those thumbs. So? What did you win??"

Removing my sight from my phone, I looked up at the still brightly lit untouched pink ribboned gift box in a bit of curiosity then looked back down to write back a brief reply back.

"I dont know".

"....."

Recieving a message with only dots, I blankly dozed off, feeling a bit dazed.

Hm? Was I sleepy? How long have I been up? As I looked at the time on my phone, I read another message sent by Wendy.

"?? What do you mean you don't know?"

"... There's a box."

"Ok.. Did you open it?"

".... No."

"....."

Receiving another reply with only dots, I kept the thought that it was 3 in the morning in my mind.

"Well, ig it makes sense now why you don't know what the reward is.. But please open it, I'm already dying of curiosity."

Feeling a little sleepy, I could bring myself to play around with Wendy anymore, no matter how much I wanted to stall opening the gift box, so I let out a defeated sigh and complied with her demand.

"....Ok. Wait."

Grabbing the controller I made my way to tap onto the ever so bright pink ribboned gift box.

With a click, a message suddenly appeared on my TV screen.

"Would you like to recieve this reward?"

I unhesitatingly selected the "yes" option below the message, only to be greeted with another message.

"Great! Your reward has been obtained! We hope you enjoy it!"

Seeing nothing else happening after this message popped up, I realised that there was something strange going on here.

Where was this reward that I should be enjoying after spending a whole week trying to finish this flashy romance fantasy game?

"Is this a glitch?"

Sitting still on the sofa, I couldn't help but extremely sleepy. Unable to overcome my dazed state, I felt as if I was being sucked into a dark hole. Everything began to spin and my vision became blurry. Eventually, I was enclosed in darkness.

× × ×

I was unconscious for an unknown amount of time before I woke up. With my eyes wide open, I found myself floating in the middle of a lake with a throatful of cold water, surrounded in what seemed to be fallen cherry blossom petals.

As my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, I felt the cold air caressing against my skin, making me s.h.i.+ver uncontrollably as I blankly stared up at the clear blue sky.

Wrapping my arms around myself in hope of warming myself up, I felt that I should really just go back to sleep. This was surely just a dream.

A short while later, I managed to get past the fact that I was definitely dreaming this up. I figured that I must've blacked out from exhaustion after playing that game for over 12 hours without rest.

Watching as a fluffy white cloud slowly pa.s.sed by, I couldn't help but feel a bit impressed with how detailed this dream was.

"... It's awfully realistic." I told myself as I waved my hand through the cold water below me.

Observing my hand in fascination as it penetrated through the water leaving little ripples everywhere I touched, I noticed a portion of pink colored strings floating around me, it looked to be a piece of a brightly colored wig.

Holding the thing firmly in my hands, I gave it a rough tug.

"Ah.." I immediately let out a quiet groan as my scalp felt a stinging pain.

Releasing the silky pink thing in my hold, I tried to rub the pain away with my hands. It didn't help much but at least the pain subsided a bit.

It didn't take long to realise that the strange pink thing was actually attached to my head.

Holding the hair within my hands I ignored the faint feeling of something being extremely wrong and focused my attention on the sky.

"....."

This... Really is a strange dream.

× × ×

As my memories flooded back, I opened my eyes once again, with still no clear answer as to why I was here.

Laying perfectly still on the water, I couldn't help but s.h.i.+ver.

It's too cold. This dream really is a bit too realistic.

Ignoring the barrage of questions that had built up inside me, I decided that I should probably swim to the sh.o.r.e. Judging by how realistic this dream was, I figured that being out of the water should warm me up.

Taking in a big breath of air, I dived into the water and swam to the sh.o.r.e ignoring the stinging coldness of the water that felt as if it were slicing up my skin with every stroke I made.

Minutes flew by before I was able to drag myself out of the water. Cold and exhausted I laid myself flat on my back and closed my eyes.

As I laid exhausted on the wet gra.s.s near the sh.o.r.e of the lake, I told myself that I needed to wake up from this terriblely realistic dream.

Repeating this over in my mind, I relaxed my body, letting myself fully rest, allowing a sudden headache to take over my tired body.

As my vision began to fade into darkness, I noticed a sudden crowd of blurry figures on the opposite side of the lake, it seemed like one of them had noticed me and looked to be pointing a finger in my direction.

"Young Miss?!"

Hearing someone shouting this as my conscious faded into darkness, I felt even more confused then I already was.

Drifting off into a deep sleep I could only wonder who the h.e.l.l this "Young Miss" was and why that person was pointing towards me so surely.

·× × ×·