Chapter 1: [SYSTEM: PROLOGUE]

Ding.

[SYSTEM MISSION GENERATED]

> Fall in front of Kairo.

Elione blinked. The glowing message hovered innocently in the top right of his vision like a silent, smug god.

“…You can’t be serious,” he muttered, narrowing his eyes.

The system, as always, had no response—just its usual quiet pulse and that maddeningly patient blinking cursor. It almost looked like it was waiting. Judging. Tapping its little digital foot.

“I am not throwing myself on the floor like some cartoon character,” Elione hissed under his breath, voice low. “I’m a grown man. I have dignity.”

’This is stupid. Beyond stupid. Absolutely—’

The universe, of course, had other plans.

As he rounded the corner of the Twilight Guild’s training wing—where the light hit the polished floors just so, where someone had left a practice mat partially sticking out—his foot caught on the edge.

It took less than a second.

The world tilted.

Gravity, ever the opportunist, took over.

Elione flailed—arms pinwheeling, balance gone—and then crashed to the ground with a thud loud enough to echo off the hallway walls.

Right in front of Kairo.

Of course.

The man himself stood a few feet away, mid-step, his lean frame pausing as his sharp red eyes drifted down to the pathetic heap now groaning at his feet.

Kairo blinked once, expression unreadable.

“…Did you trip on purpose?” he asked, voice dry as sandpaper.

Elione peeled his cheek off the cold floor, fighting the growing urge to shrivel into mist.

“No,” he grumbled. “I really didn’t.”

A pause.

“…Okay.”

[MISSION COMPLETE]

Affection points calculating…

❏ Execution: awkward. But effective.

Elione groaned into the tile.

Three days later.

He was finally starting to recover from the sheer humiliation of the floor-kissing incident. He could almost walk through the halls again without cringing. Almost.

Until—

Ding.

[NEW SYSTEM MISSION GENERATED]

> Accidentally hug Caelen.

Elione froze mid-step, staring at the notification as if it were a bomb.

“…Is it really an accident if I know I’m going to do it?” he muttered, already backing away like the words might bite him. “I don’t want to do this, System. I refuse.”

But fate—no, the system—didn’t care about his feelings.

A few steps later, he turned the corner too fast, heart still racing, thoughts in disarray—

—and slammed full-body into someone.

Into a chest.

A very warm, very broad, very shirtless chest.

His arms instinctively flew out to brace himself, and somehow—God help him—they wrapped around the man’s torso. Automatically. Reflexively.

It took less than two seconds to realize what he’d done.

He was hugging Caelen.

’No. No no no no—!’

Caelen looked down at him, cool and entirely unbothered, like a lion watching a kitten cling to its leg.

“…Are you…okay?” he asked, blinking slowly.

Elione yelped and recoiled like he’d been burned, his face going nuclear red.

“I—I’m Tripped ! And I fine! I mean—I just tripped, and I’m fine! I wasn’t trying to—this hallway is—it’s slanted! You’re—tall!”

Caelen tilted his head, one brow raised. “…Okay then.”

[MISSION COMPLETE]

Affection points calculating…

❏ Bonus registered:direct physical contact.

Elione backed into the wall and slid down it slowly, covering his face with both hands. His soul had left his body. He could feel it hovering overhead, watching in shame.

Later that night.

Hunched behind a trash bin outside Guild HQ, knees pulled to his chest, Elione muttered to himself like a man who’d seen war.

“I can’t do this. I can’t keep doing this. I’m going to die of secondhand embarrassment. It’s going to kill me.”

Much to his horror…

The system pinged again.

Ding.

[HIGH-RISK MISSION UNLOCKED]

CHOOSE:

> Hold hands with Caelen.

> Hold hands with Kairo.

❏ Time Limit: 48 hours

❏ Penalty: Affection Reset. Internal damage. Emotional instability. Possible death.

Elione’s mouth dropped open.

“…What the fuck?!” he screeched, voice echoing sharply through the empty alley. A startled cat yowled and launched itself out of a dumpster, knocking over a lid with a clang. “Possible death?! What does that even mean?!”

But he knew.

It meant exactly what it said.

He could die.

“Why is there possible death?! How does that even—why me? Why this?”

He paced in a tight circle, fingers tugging at his hair as the notification burned in the corner of his vision like a curse he couldn’t blink away.

’I just got out of near-death two weeks ago. I’m still in the wrong body. And now this thing wants me to risk dying over some awkward hand-holding?’

[SYSTEM WARNING]

> You must make the decision to continue with the mission, or else it will result in automatic death.>

You have ten seconds. Starting now…

> 10…

He clutched his head, gripping it like he could physically wring the panic from his skull.

> 9…

“Do I really have to?! How am I even supposed to—how does one accidentally hold hands?!”

> 8…

His breath came quicker, shorter, like the air was growing thinner around him.

> 7…

“Fuck. Why are you doing this?” Elione hissed, spinning in place. “What kind of dating sim has lethal consequences?!”

> 6…

He had no choice. None.

> 5…

Elione swallowed hard, hands shaking.

He couldn’t die again.

Not now. Not before he fixed this.

Not before he got his body back.

> 4…

“You little…” he growled through gritted teeth.

> 3…

“Fine! Fine!” he shouted, throwing his hands up in surrender.

> 2…

“Stop the timer! I already said I’m going to choose…” His voice caught. His heart pounded like a drum in his throat. “I’ve already made up my mind.”

> 1…

“…It’s—”

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