Of Scallywags and Sorcery

A Date and A Deliverance

***

I clasp my hands around my cup. "So, what do you do in your free time?"

"I go on dates with strangers I have little in common with." Nari's black-painted lips pucker as she takes a delicate sip of her blue boba.

It's a pretty colour, but it's cold, untouchable. Like Nari.

There must be something inside her that I can reach. I have to believe that.

I indulge in my lychee boba. This colour is soft and creamy. Its taste floods over my tongue, gentle and sweet. It's the only good part of this date so far.

I sigh. In all the worlds I've been thrust into, this is the one where I feel most out of my depth, most like the ground beneath me crumbled, leaving me to fall through an endless vortex of perfectly symmetrical faces, clear skin and manicured nails.

Here, I don't have to use my wits. I must exercise my charm to win the heart of not only Nari but every other person in this game to overload the circuitry so I can escape.

Trying to connect with Nari feels like forcing the two opposite poles of a magnet together. If I had any pride, I'd leave this date right now because Nari clearly has no interest in me.

But this isn't about pride.

Nari is the last heart I have to win in this world if I want to return to the world I came from, to the people I left behind.

Nari takes the final sip of her bubble tea and sits back, blowing her fringe away from her forehead and folding her arms over her chest. I sigh, taking hold of my still half-full cup.

"I guess we should leave."

"Yeah." Nari's face is like a mask. No expressive wrinkle, no flicker of feeling.

I'm not going to get anywhere with her in this shop, but if we go outside... The possibilities are endless. That's the beauty of this game.

I follow Nari out of the gold-rimmed, arched doorway, waving at the server. We start down the avenue in silence, me all too aware of Nari while she keeps her eyes on the bright stalls and extravagant outfits embellishing the street.

Then she turns. Something flickers in her eyes, something human, vulnerable. She steps nearer to the pet store window, pressing her shiny black fingernails against the glass. I stop beside her, curious about what has softened the hardest person I've ever met in this video game and out of it.

Inside a cage scattered with straw and contained within white metal bars, a group of baby bunnies huddle against each other, watching us with big, shiny eyes. Nari melts. I see it in the soft smile stretching over her face. It transforms her into a different person from the one I met in the boba shop.

Someone who has a heart I can win.

"They're cute, right?" I nudge her.

She withdraws from the window and back into herself, scowling. "Not really."

I'm not fooled. I grab Nari's hand and pull her into the pet store, ignoring her protests and her tugging at me. I stop beside the little rabbits' cage and beckon a shop attendant closer.

"My friend would like to meet one of the bunnies."

Nari huffs out a breath beside me but says nothing.

"Sure thing." The attendant opens the cage and reaches inside. His pale hands withdraw holding the smallest bunny of the group with the biggest eyes. It's black with a white blotch on its tiny paw. It's the most adorable thing I've seen in this video game.

Nari must think so too. Her face lights up as the attendant rests the little rabbit in her cupped palms. A connection is forged between her and the bunny when their eyes lock. I feel it, even though we're all video game characters. Nari cradles the bunny against her, murmuring words far gentler than those she had given me.

I know how to win Nari's heart and my freedom.

"How much for the bunny?"

"300 credits," says the attendant.

I hand him my card. Nari watches, black-rimmed eyes wide as the man pulls out a thin machine from his pocket and scans it.

"Thank you." He nods to confirm that the transaction went through.

The yearning eyes of the other little rabbits follow me to the exit. I'd buy the whole cage if I could, but one bunny is enough for one day.

Nari is still staring at me when we pass out of the shop and onto the street. "That was really nice of you."

"I can be quite nice." I give her a sideways glance. "I didn't realise you were a bunny kind of girl."

"I used to be." She looks down at her new little friend, smiling faintly. "Back in the days before I was famous, when I could be who I wanted to be. Before everything was about my brand, my sponsors, my fans... do you know I'm only wearing this because I'm known as the goth girl of the group?" She points down at her black booty shorts and the buckles closing her leather jacket around her waist. It's a striking look, but it doesn't look very comfortable.

I would've never imagined that Nari, a K-pop star in this video game realm, was a prisoner of her beauty and fame, trapped in this world just like I am.

A hesitant smile breaks through her stony, sullen exterior. "Thank you for reminding me who I am." She kisses my cheek, something so out of character I need to pinch myself to make sure it's really happening.

Her mouth opens. Then the game glitches. Nari is a person one moment and a blob of pixels the next, flickering in and out of existence.

I have won the last heart, and my time in this game is done. With that comes the weightlessness of relief but also a strange emptiness.