Chapter Five

After completing the game, Flora couldn't stop herself from thinking of Seonghwa. Those sudden feelings appeared out of blue, no matter how many times she wanted to move on and open her eyes to reality. Chloe wasn't sure how to feel about her friend's emotions, as it was the first time she ever saw her friend this way.

After Flora's emotional moment with Seonghwa, she and Chloe decided to take a small break from the game. They swing the menu button open, and tapped on the exit option.

The two girls took out of their helmets and sat in small silence before Chloe ruined it. "Yeah...what a game, really" she mumbled and gave out a long but not too frustrated sigh.

Flora stayed quiet, and stayed in the same sitting position for a moment after she removed the helmet set off her head. Flora then decided to stand up and proceeded to go and grab a bottle of water from downstairs. "Do you need anything from the kitchen?" Flora asked as she turned her head to glance at her friend on the floor.

"Well, I'd like to order McDonalds fries, McDonalds big mac, huge peperoni pizza, one giant bowl of ice cream..." Chloe began to state all of the possible meals she could've though of, which made Flora to laugh a little.

"Whoa there sis, should've just simply said that you were hungry" Flora said between her giggles.

"Okay fine, I'm hungryyyy" Chloe exclaimed with a playfully frustrated sigh, as she swing her arms up like a 5 year old.

Flora felt amused and mentally felt thankful for having such a friend like Chloe, again. Chloe was like a happy pill to Flora. Chloe managed to make Flora to forget about the game's incident, likewise, Flora managed to get distracted from thinking about Seonghwa.

Flora ran up to Chloe and pulled her hand with a cheeky smile, "Let's grab something to eat then!" She exclaimed as Chloe nodded with the same smile. Flora dragged her friend all the way to the kitchen, and then proceeded to create something for them to eat.

After the girls' lunch, they decided to go back to Flora's room. They sat back on the floor, and glanced at the gaming set that was chilling on the floor, waiting for the girls to use it again. "I'd admit, this game was really realistic, I nearly forgot where was fake and where was real" Chloe commented while looked at the helmet that she decided to take and hold on her hands.

Flora stayed quiet. She wasn't feeling like to play this game again, but she agreed with Chloe's statement, the game was indeed too realistic. The level of its technology was so advanced that even Flora didn't expect it to be that improved, and so did Chloe.

Chloe glanced at Flora, and a little smirk appeared on her face, "Maybeeee...let's play it again?" She asked steadily.

Flora continued to be quiet, with zero emotions on her face. She didn't want to come back to the game, but was really curious what else the game had for her and Chloe to explore. Flora wanted to quit this game, but decided to give another try before completely quitting the game for good.

Flora nodded, unsurely, and then said, "Fine...let's try another game" Flora gently took the helmet back, and hesitated for a moment to put it back over her head. Chloe seemed to notice her friend's act, and decided to give out a question, "Are you sure? You don't seem like you want to"

Flora placed the helmet on her laps, then glanced at her worried friend. "I'm sure! As long as I will have you by my side, I'll be happy to play it with you, especially I kind of...I don't know.." Flora stated but then paused for a moment, as she wasn't sure whether to say something that she had in her mind. She wanted to mention to Chloe that another reason of her willing to join the game back was because of Seonghwa, who'd appear to be her spiritual supporter through any game she join. She wanted to hear his voice again, and because of him, she had enough strength to force herself to play this gaming platform once more.

"Well, if you're fine with it, let's not waste anymore time and play this thing, shall we?" Chloe interrupted Flora's little thoughts, and prepared herself to put the helmet back on her head.

Flora nodded and proceeded to do the same thing, and within split of seconds, the girls appeared back in the game's lobby.

Apparently, the girls weren't alone in the lobby, as they spotted someone else in the game. It was the same girl that they saw in that maze game in the cave part. The girl seemed like she was waiting for the 2 girls to join back into the game, and approached them as soon as they appeared in this purple looking lobby.

Flora and Chloe were confused as they didn't expect to see the same female in the place they never expected her to appear. The strange girl seemed to have a dissatisfied look on her face, as if the girls did something wrong to her. As she approached the girls, she swing her long ponytail behind her before she put her both hands in her pockets of her denim jeans. "I told you to leave this game, but you two didn't listen to me" She said.

"Who even are you?!" Chloe questioned a bit louder than expected. She didn't like this girl, even though the girl didn't do anything wrong to her. Just the whole girl's existence in this place made her to dislike her.

The girl gave a small smirk, and then continued to speak, "Let's say, I'm a person like you guys, but with more experience to this game"

"Wait, so you're saying you're not a computer?" Flora asked the girl with a surprised look on her face.

The girl didn't seem to plan to answer Flora's question, and instead, the girl's smirk widened a little. "Aren't you the girl that one of the game's character sacrificed their life to save you? How bizarre. Same here, but you can't see him" the girl stated with a cold tone.

"How an earth did you find us in this place, perhaps, more important question is, what do you want from us?" Chloe asked, and seemed to feel annoyed of this mysterious stranger.

The girl's smirk slowly disappeared and turned into an emotionless face. "I've already told you, leave this game, immediately" she said, then disappeared, into a thin air, as if she wasn't even in the lobby.

Chloe and Flora were both very confused, and Flora felt an urge to leave this game again. But, as soon as she looked around, she spotted Seonghwa who was sitting on the sofa, seemed to be confused as well due to the girl that just disappeared recently. Their both eyes met each other's, which made Flora to forget about her urge to quit, again. Seonghwa gave her a small ensuring smile, which made Flora to return him with the same smile too.

Chloe, on other hand, shrugged her shoulders and attempted to forget about the stranger who was in this lobby a moment ago. Chloe turned her attention to Flora, and spoke, "Flora, let's start to play a game, shall we?"

Flora nodded with a small smile, and Chloe went to the floating television. She tapped and scrolled her fingers on the screen, and in a few seconds seemed to find the game that appeared to catch her attention. Flora walked up to Chloe, and glanced at the screen with a chosen game that Chloe had prepared to tap on play button.

The game was named "Castle", and had an image of a dark greenish building that looked like a huge castle, with a nice garden and modernized white fences around the place. Flora didn't hesitate for her friend to choose this game, as she also seemed to be interested to play this game. Both girls nodded to each other, and Chloe finally tapped on the play button. Within few seconds, the girls appeared in another world once again.

To be continued...