All Chapters of After the Love Game Ended, You Vanished From My World: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

I slowly stood up, the legs of my chair scraping sharply across the floor.I looked at Zane.He turned his face away."Why exactly $260,000?" I asked. "That can’t be a coincidence."He was silent for a long time, staring at the floor.Finally, he pressed his lips together."Sophie lives far from work. She has to cram onto the subway every morning. In the summer, she gets to work drenched in sweat. In the winter, her hands crack from the cold."He paused."She’s your best friend. If you knew what she was going through, you’d feel bad for her too."I braced a hand against the edge of the table and looked down at my fingers.I had kept that money in a separate account.I’d even named it 'Home'.Every month, as soon as my paycheck came in, I transferred half of it into that account.My commute from the station took thirty minutes on foot, with no direct bus. I walked it every single day because I couldn’t even bring myself to spend money on a bike rental.Last winter, the ski

The third round began.An old living room seemed to seep out of the walls, splitting the space in two.Faded floral wallpaper.A wooden coffee table with chipped paint.Empty beer bottles scattered everywhere.Zane went rigid.He recognized this place.A humanoid robot stood in the middle of the room, dressed in ordinary clothes and gripping half of a broken beer bottle.It paced around aimlessly.Every few steps, it raised its arm and brought the jagged bottle down.Then raised it again.Sophie screamed."I thought you said this wasn’t a death game!"The system offered no explanation.[Vote for the person who will enter the room.]Just like the trial round.Sophie visibly relaxed.She opened her mouth, about to say something to Zane, but then stopped and glanced at me."Cecilia," she said, "Zane was just angry earlier. I believe you. I don’t think you really teamed up with the system."She paused."But I’m kind of curious. That reward box earlier... did you really

The old living room faded away.A new set of rules appeared on the wall.[Confess one thing the person you love doesn’t know.][Anyone who lies will be punished.]Sophie kept her head down, twisting the edge of her sleeve between her fingers.After a long silence, she bit her lip.Her voice was barely audible."Actually, when the game first started, I wrote Zane’s name."I wasn’t surprised.[He already knew.]Sophie’s head snapped up."He knew? Then am I going to be punished?"[He does know.][However, you had no way of knowing for certain that he knew.][This does not count as a lie.][Try again.]A countdown appeared on the wall.Bright red numbers ticked down one second at a time.Sophie’s eyes darted between the timer and Zane.Her lips parted.Then closed again.5. 4. 3.Her chest rose sharply.2. 1."The puffer jacket!"The words burst out of her, her voice cracking."I didn’t want to give it to him at first!"Zane turned towards her, his eyes widening.

The light grew brighter.Zane’s figure began to blur.First his shoulders.Then his hands.Then the rest of him.His eyes were the last thing to disappear.I closed mine.---It was already dark outside when I opened my eyes.I sat up and rubbed my temples.My head ached, like I had just woken from a long, exhausting dream.But I couldn’t remember what I had dreamed about.My mother called from outside my room."Cecilia, dinner’s ready!""Coming!"I climbed out of bed.As I passed the full-length mirror, I happened to glance at the back of my neck.The skin was smooth and unmarked.No scar.Nothing about that seemed strange.Of course there wasn’t a scar.There never had been one.I walked into the kitchen.A bag of candy sat on the table, the wrappers in all different colors.My mother poked her head out of the kitchen."I found that outside the door. No idea who left it there.""Don’t eat any. It’s strange. Just throw it away."I picked up the bag.It was