Short Stories-Kai Ships Only! Volume 3

🪨Sookai- Deactivation

"Hello? Is someone reading this? Anyone? I'm not crazy! Do you know Beomgyu? Because he insists that I'm crazy! There's something wrong with this town! I think the owner before me knew it too! Get me out of here!"

Beomgyu read that digital yellow sticky note on repeat with Soobin breathing over his shoulder. "So, you're telling me that you logged in to find this?"

Soobin pointed again at the screen. "YES! THE HACKER IS FUCKING WITH ME!"

"Are you sure it's a hacker? I mean, they haven't stolen any of your coins or your items. All they left was a note. I didn't even know you could leave physical notes. I thought it was just message boards or texts." To test something, Beomgyu logged Soobin out of the game. He then logged himself in while ignoring his best friend's protests. "Shhh. Seriously! You're being annoying! Okay, I'm in. I need to go to the bathroom. Let me know if I miss anything."

Kai woke up to find himself in Beomgyu's house for some reason. The other's eyes were lifeless. Someone else's voice other than Beomgyu's, and other than the secondary voice, emitted from his lips. A third voice was heard. One he had never heard before.

Soobin spat "who are you?!"

Kai challenged "who are YOU?!"

"That's my account you asshole!"

"Account? Well, you're not Beomgyu! Or whoever else usually speaks for Beomgyu!"

"Whoever else?!"

"Yeah!" Kai looked around everywhere in Beomgyu's dull eyes to try and find some sort of life inside. He slapped him then yelled "HELLO?! OH FOR FUCKS SAKE. You're not going to fucking remember this either when you snap out of it."

"Get off of my account!"

"WHAT ACCOUNT?!" Kai slapped him again. "I'd love to help you but I don't understand what's going on! Get me out of here!"

"JUST LOG OUT!"

Kai stood up and paced around the living room. Beomgyu's robotic posture was still freaking him out. For some reason, he remembered Beomgyu's second voice speaking of someone named "Soobin". On a whim, he asked "are you Soobin?"

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

"I'm Kai!"

"I KNOW YOU'RE KAI! I NAMED YOU!" Soobin clicked a few buttons to make avatar Beomgyu pick up a chair and throw it at the blonde. "I WANTED YOUR ACTUAL NAME YOU SHITHEAD SINCE YOU SEEM TO KNOW MINE AND BEOMGYU'S?!"

Kai ducked from the chair flying towards his face. The back leg of it knicked his head. It hurt. He went to touch it and found there wasn't any blood. "What the fuck....?" There should've been blood. He then ran to the bathroom to look at his face in the mirror. His reflection didn't display a single scratch. Not even a little bump.

Soobin ran after his avatar. He switched the camera from POV to third person so he could see everything the blonde was doing. Kai couldn't stop touching his forehead. He was mumbling a lot too. "Um. You're committed, I'll give you that."

"Committed to what? Actually? Never mind. No one believes me. I'm done trying to explain myself."

"Is your name really Kai?"

"As far as I'm aware..."

"How did you um? How did you get here?"

"I have no idea." Kai sat on the bathroom floor and stared at the edge of the tub. "If you're talking about today, I just woke up and found myself in this house. If you're talking about in general, I have no fucking idea either. I don't remember my childhood. I don't remember my parents. The farthest I remember is randomly appearing in front of a piece of land and watching my house being built. That's it."

Soobin officially started to freak out. "BEOMGYU?! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE! I'M DONE WITH THIS GAME MAN!"

"GAME?!" Kai violently shook Beomgyu's shoulders. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN GAME?! I'M NOT REAL?! IS THAT WHY I DON'T HAVE A PAST?! HELLO?!"

The real Beomgyu stared in shock while Soobin shut the computer off. "Dude..."

Kai watched light replace cloudiness in Beomgyu's irises. "Let me fucking guess. You don't remember anything."

"Why are we in my bathroom? Did I invite you here?"

"No... no you didn't. I'm going back to the edge." Just as Kai was about to leave, he heard that third mysterious voice again. "Great. You."

"Excuse me?! I created you!" Soobin was so offended that his own avatar wasn't the sweet little blonde like he envisioned. This guy was a dick.

"Did you kill the person before me too?"

"No! I thought I was hacked!"

"Then what happened to them?!"

"I don't know!"

"Send me where they went! I want out!"

Soobin was fully ready to wipe his game. It was cursed or he was cursed. Either way, he was done with it. The waste of money was nothing compared to the stress. He felt like years of his life had been drained. Months of playing was months he could never get back. "If you fucking insist!"

Beomgyu was on the phone with the game's customer service line in the kitchen. They were not helping. Every agent he talked to thought he was lying. None could find a source for the blonde's behavior.

Kai held his arms out to the side and closed his eyes. Neuvotion was as dead to him as he wanted to be. "I'm ready to disappear any minute now."

Soobin scrolled through all of his settings until he found the "deactivate" button. Without another wasted second, he clicked it. "Are you sure? What the fuck do you mean? Yes! I'm sure!" He clicked "yes". "Your files be permanently deleted following deactivation. THAT'S WHAT I WANT! Stupid thing." He clicked it again. The file was deleted.

Kai opened his eyes to see he was in a completely white room. "Well. This isn't what I thought death would be." The world started warping. His footing was lost when the floor shifted underneath. He fell on his ass when he failed to regain his balance. "UM. I APPRECIATE LIFE AGAIN! LESSON LEARNED! GOOD JOB! CAN I GO BACK NOW?!"

Soobin watched his computer screen glitch on the menu. Rainbow bars etched horizontally across between faded words. Smoke started to emit from the outlet. The speakers blared incoherent screetches. "BEOMGYU?!"

Kai passed out when the world spun him like a coin flicked across a table. "Ugh..." His head killed him as he sat up. "Oh for god's sake." In front of him was a plain white house, in the same cul-de-sac, in the same spot as his last one. "Yeah, I'm not alive. Or? Is this hell? This is hell."

The computer stopped smoking. The game menu went back to it's normal state as if nothing happened. "Beomgyu?"

"Do you think he's still there?"

Soobin didn't want to find out. He wanted to burn the disc, smash it to bits, and never go within ten feet of it ever again. "I don't want to know."

Beomgyu clicked "start a new game". His jaw dropped when he realized what happened. "Oh my god... I forgot you were in my account. My file was deleted. Not yours."

"Oh shit..."

Kai looked down the street to see his own house right next to the plain one. "You fucking idiots. That's why I didn't die." He started laughing from how ridiculous it all was. In aggravation, he picked himself up and walked towards his front door. "Morons..." Since nothing in his life was real, he slumped onto his couch to await his true death. One he hoped would come soon.