#exo interactive au

Kim Minseok, Kim Junmyeon, and Zhang Yixing were all the seniors. You recalled making them more on the responsible side with all of them having their individual quirks. Minseok liked pranks despite being the more tidy character, Junmyeon always told dad jokes even though he was more of the stereotypical ‘class president’ kind of character, and Yixing was a sucker for animals even though he seemed to be strict when it came to half-assing anything.

Byun Baekhyun, Kim Jongdae, and Park Chanyeol were written as the juniors, and they had a Three Musketeer kind of vibe. They were programmed to be close with each other and to love to cause mischief, with Jongdae being the tamest of the three. While he was terrified of getting caught, Chanyeol didn’t necessarily care. Baekhyun only cared if he got yelled at, which was something you vividly remembered making his only dislike in his stats.

Do Kyungsoo was the only sophomore, and it definitely showed that he was a loner in that sense. He was a quiet, calculated person who acted kind of like a closeted ‘I was born in the wrong generation’ kind of person. He was awful with technology, didn’t like strangers, and you put in little soundbites of humming for most of the parts he was on screen because you pictured that would be something he’d like to do while doing his work.

Kim Jongin and Oh Sehun were the final characters, and the two youngest. As the youngest, you pictured them being more shy and quiet like Kyungsoo, but you decided to program Jongin as hot-tempered just to mix it up a little bit. Sehun’s quirk was that he preferred his dog over everybody, but you gave him that just because that’s how you typically felt. But the two, although not necessarily as close at the three juniors, tended to stick together when push came to shove -- especially when it came to the older characters teasing or pranking them.

After the little video ended, the main menu showed up with pictures of all nine characters across the bottom. The title definitely looked a little cheesy, so you jotted down on the notepad that you kept beside you that you might have to change it before releasing the game. The only reason you were playing it anyway was to make sure it was perfect before releasing it to the public.

“Okay,” you breathed out as you put your cursor over the “play” option, “let’s hope this goes smoothly.”

It started with a few intro text boxes that were essentially narrated by your character, with your name in the top left corner of the text box at the bottom. You didn’t even bother reading it, just skimming it to make sure there weren’t any errors as you continuously clicked your mouse to make the words fly by. 

The scene switched from the outside of a generic school to the inside of a classroom. You knew that the dialogue was talking about getting settled into the classroom before your nine friends came in. Then the nine boys in question faded into screen.

Junmyeon: How did you beat us here, _____?

Baekhyun: Yeah, you’re usually late for class unless somebody has to hold your hand and drag you here.

Kyungsoo: Aren’t you one to talk?

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, letting out a quiet huff.

Baekhyun: Don’t call me out.

Yixing stepped through the small crowd around my desk, smiling down at me where I sat.

Yixing: Anyway, we’re glad you’re back in class today! We missed you a lot the last two days.

Chanyeol’s face fell slightly as he looked off at the ground.

Chanyeol: Yeah, now that Kris, Tao, and Luhan moved away, it sucked having you gone, too.

Kyungsoo: _____ was only out sick for two days. It’s not like they moved away.

Chanyeol: But still!

I offered a soft smile and reached out for Chanyeol’s hand.

_____: I appreciate that you missed me, Yeol. What did I miss while I was out?

Minseok sat in one of the empty seats beside me, starting to get his belongings out of his backpack before class started.

Minseok: We didn’t learn anything new except in history. We’ve been learning about Caesar's cipher. 

Sehun: It’s baby stuff.

The youngest boy took his usual seat behind me. He always preferred sitting at the back, but I never really knew why. It wasn’t like he was a troublemaker like Baekhyun, Chanyeol, or Jongdae. Sehun was actually a pretty good student. I was surprised he didn’t sit toward the front like Junmyeon.

Sehun: I don’t know why they’re teaching it. It’s not like it’s a hard concept.

Baekhyun whined, lightly whacking the youngest in the back of the head.

Baekhyun: It’s not easy for everybody, Sehun.

You started skipping through the dialogue faster. You had only put that in because that’s what you were studying in class at the time, and you really didn’t feel like reading about it again. Not only that, but you had multiple endings to get through, so you wanted to go through them all as quickly as possible. 

It wasn’t until the game started moving along that you slowed down to make sure you weren’t just rapidly clicking when it came time to make a choice.

The bell rang, signifying that it was time for the next class.

Jongin turned around to face me as the rest of the class began packing up to leave. He smiled his dazzling, bright smile as he reached out to close your notebook while you were putting the homework pages away in your folder.

Jongin: So what’s your extra curricular today?

Chanyeol practically jumped up from his seat, excitedly exclaiming,

Chanyeol: Ooh, is it with me?!

Jongdae gave a small pout as he stood up from his chair.

Jongdae: You always think it’s with you.

The remaining boys gathered around my seat, awaiting my answer.

Junmyeon: So what does your schedule say, _____?

Before clicking to prompt the choices, you made sure to press the save button and save it to the first open file before deciding. You wanted to be sure you could go back later to do the rest of the routes, too.

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TAKE THE POLL HERE!!! The poll will close 10/2 at 8pm EST.

Sehun: Oh, you liked mine the best? I’m really surprised...

You were kind of surprised, too. Even though the game was all wrong, it seemed like Sehun hardly said much to you. You were surprised his poem was the longest. Then again, that kind of made sense since it said they weren’t good with words.

While the three boys looked normal at first, they changed quickly. It was like a switch was flipped, the room becoming darker while Sehun smirked. Yixing and Minseok beside him started to become glitchy like Jongin had, almost like they were starting to flicker out of the game, too.

Sehun: But since you picked my confession over the other two directly, I suppose we won’t be needing them anymore, will we? Any last words before you disappear?

You hadn’t noticed, but the older boys’ expressions were now sad and almost afraid. They were definitely looks you had never designed for them.

A text box popped up for Yixing, but all it said was “h”. Another came up for Minseok which also only contained one letter. This one was “q”.

And just like that, they vanished out of screen in a blink of an eye.

Sehun gradually started to get closer to the screen, his smirk starting to turn more twisted. You hadn’t even realized you were leaning back and away from the screen until the back of your body was completely pressed up against your chair.

Sehun: Looks like you’ve gotten to the end of the game, _____! And do you know what your prize is for reaching the end?

Whatever it was, you knew you didn’t want it.

The scene behind him began to flicker, as well. Through the glitching and flickers, you could make out a familiar scene that was too hard to place since you only saw it for split seconds at a time. Not to mention it was fuzzy and faded. But you swore you knew that place well.

And then it changed over to the other scene, and it was one that made your heart stop.

The background behind Sehun mimicked your bedroom exactly.

Sehun: You get to be here with me. Forever.

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Hi, hello, I have a few things to explain real quick.

First of all, for anybody wondering, Sehun’s poem was the first (obviously), Yixing’s was the second, and Minseok’s was the third. I wrote the first one kind of thinking of Sehun, and the same for Yixing. Minseok’s, honestly, wasn’t made thinking of him. I already had the idea for that “poem” beforehand and just kind of gave it to him tbh.

Anyway, the actually important thing I want to explain: next part will have the final poll, which is the most important which is why you’ll have two-ish days to complete it. After part twenty-four goes up, I’ll allow y’all to ask questions to my inbox as if you’re talking to Sehun if that makes sense. Basically if you wanted to clarify anything about the game or something. Obviously you can’t ask for answers to beat the game, but that was probably a given. But like questions about the other members, the virus, and stuff that won’t be explained or things I may forget to explain in part twenty-four are absolutely welcome. But I’ll also explain all of this at the end of that part.

Jongin: Why are you checking on Chanyeol first?

Sehun: Yeah, what’s so special about him?

Minseok: Do you like him more than you like the rest of us?

You didn’t understand anything that was happening. Were the characters...jealous of each other? But why would they feel jealousy? And why would it be over you? What could possibly cause a game to feel jealousy so strongly? What would even cause a game to act out on its own anyway?!

Yixing: He won’t take you away.

The screen started glitching like a VHS tape. It would go fuzzy and start jumping, but then it was suddenly back to normal after a moment. Except it wasn’t completely back to normal, and something was different again.

Chanyeol was missing.

All you could do was stare at the screen. You didn’t know what was happening, and you apparently couldn’t do anything to stop it, either.

You brought Chanyeol’s file up to see that it was already completely destroyed, all of his code mashed up into gibberish. Like Baekhyun’s, you scrolled all the way to the bottom to see there was a message.

‘Save us. Save them. It’s you.

-u’

Baekhyun: Ha! In your face, Yeol!

Baekhyun had always been one to tease the others when I did things with him instead of them, but I never quite knew why.

Actually... All of them seemed to do that sometimes.

Baekhyun: We should get going to class, then. Mr. Song isn’t too happy with me after I changed Hongbin’s game codes so all of his characters were naked.

_____: Uhh, why did you do that?

Baekhyun just shrugged.

Baekhyun: For fun. I had spare time to kill.

The scene changed from a typical classroom with wooden desks and a chalkboard, to a room lined with computers. 

Baekhyun walked me to class, even offering to carry my backpack for me. I declined since he had his own backpack to worry about, but he stuck close to me, and he put his hand on my back every now and then to make sure I didn’t bump into anybody.

It wasn’t that this wasn’t normal behavior for him -- or for any of my friends -- but this time, it just felt...different.

Baekhyun slid into screen, his backpack only on one shoulder. His character model was smirking in a mischievous kind of way.

Baekhyun: You’ve been out sick for two days. Think you even remember how to code a game?

I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

_____: Of course I know how to make a game, dummy. Two days of being sick doesn’t make me forget all that.

Baekhyun: Just in case, let me catch you up.

The scene faded into one in the same classroom, but made to look like you were sitting at a computer, looking next to you at Baekhyun. He was sitting at a computer of his own that had a game that he was working on pulled up on the screen, but the coding was just gibberish that you made up to look like it was legit. 

Baekhyun pulled my chair closer to him.

Baekhyun: Alright, I’m only gonna explain this once, so make sure to pay extra close attention to me, okay?

One of his eyes dropped into a wink that made me roll my eyes.

On the screen, his character model changed ever so slightly so he really was winking, and you actually did roll your eyes. Why did you make the game like this? Did all dating sim creators get secondhand embarrassment from their own games?

Baekhyun went on to type out random codes that were very obscure, explaining what each did but using the wrong explanation on purpose. He talked about the basics of making codes to build characters, scenes, movements, or anything needed for a basic game, but was using codes nobody probably wouldn’t ever need -- such as his favorite code to make every character naked.

I knew he was just messing with me, but I continued to listen and nod when needed.

Baekhyun: There is one really important code that you should know, but it seems like you already know it.

_____: Oh yeah? What is it?

Baekhyun looked at me with a lovesick puppy kind of smile, batting his eyelashes.

Baekhyun: The code to steal my heart.

You groaned out loud at his pickup line, “Why did I make this game so damn cheesy? I’m gonna vomit.”

The game suddenly glitched, flashing to something slightly different before it was back to normal. The change was so quick that you couldn’t even tell what it was, but it still caught your attention. 

“Oh...okay...” you sighed, figuring it was just a tiny glitch.

You made sure to jot down in your notepad when it occurred so you could fix it later. It seemed small enough that it wasn’t worrisome anyway. It went back to normal in a split second, so it didn’t seem worthy of stopping the whole game. Even if it was, it was probably best to go through the whole game to spot every glitch you could before going back to fix it. 

_____: Ha ha, you’re so clever.

Though I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t heat rushing to my cheeks.

Baekhyun’s character model turned back to his resting ‘normal’ face.

Baekhyun: Actually...can I be serious for a second?

_____: Yeah, of course.

Baekhyun: Having you out sick for two days was kinda...shitty. I knew you wouldn’t be gone forever, but Luhan, Tao, and Kris moved away really recently, so having you gone too was just really lonely.

Baekhyun wasn’t really super emotional all the time. He mostly covered all of that up with stupid antics and jokes, so it was kind of touching seeing him open up to me like this.

_____: Aw, Baek... For what it’s worth, I missed you guys, too.

His model switched back to his bright, toothy smile.

Baekhyun: But me the most, right?

I ruffled his hair, lightening the mood more.

_____: I’m not choosing favorites; I’ve told you before. Besides, you and your big mouth would go brag to the others.

Class went by as normal after that. Baekhyun actually managed to work pretty diligently, and without sabotaging his friend, Hongbin’s work this time. 

The bell rang, and I made sure to save what I was working on before grabbing my bag. But Baekhyun beat me to it, standing up with my backpack strap in one of his hands, and his own backpack slung over one shoulder.

The scene changed back to the original computer room, with Baekhyun standing in the center of the screen with his backpack on his shoulder like described.

Baekhyun: I was thinkin’ maybe I could walk you home after school today. Whaddya say?

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Sehun: I know you’re in shock, _____, but this really is the end of the game. It’s just me; just us.

You slowly shook your head, breathing out, “H-how...?”

You didn’t get how the game got to this point. How it got so messed up completely that this was the fucked up ending you got. How over the course of the game, the characters seemed to become more and more aware of not only themselves, but you and your surroundings. This game wasn’t even a game anymore!

Sehun: It’s the virus.

“Stop saying that!” you burst. “There isn’t any way this game could’ve gotten a virus!”

Sehun smirked at you.

Sehun: You’re mostly correct. You are the virus, _____. Did you not catch that yet?

What? You? How could you be a virus?

Sehun could see the confused look on your face and continued. 

Sehun: When you spent all those months working on the game, all of us got more and more attached to you. We fell in love with you, _____. You are the one who created us, after all. So the virus continued to spread and get worse. When the game started, it took over. We couldn’t stick with the game because all of us wanted to be with you, even if it meant killing each other.

“But...that doesn’t make sense...” you mumbled mostly to yourself. “If you knew you’d get killed for getting closer to me, why not just stop?”

Sehun: That’s out of our control.

“What about how you can hear me?” you suddenly asked, your voice cutting off the text that was going to keep rolling. “You said you could see me, too. You made the background...like my room. How can you do that?”

Sehun: We became self-aware and you think we couldn’t get access to your microphone and camera? Love, we heard everything you said and watched every little expression you made. I still can do so.

You tried to make your expression as neutral as you could for that reason. But you still wanted answers, so you continued to talk even if the answers might frighten you further. You deserved to know after everything you went through, anyway.

“And the character files?”

Sehun’s expression suddenly darkened, looking upset that you brought the rest of the characters up.

Sehun: What about them?

“Are they still there?”

Sehun: But they’re completely destroyed and locked.

“Just like the game files were...”

He smirked.

Sehun: Exactly. And you don’t have the password, now do you? So why don’t you just enjoy your time with me. I’m sick of talking about everybody else. It’s just you and me now, _____. Forever.

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

TAKE THE POLL HERE!!! The poll will close 10/29 at 10pm EST.

This poll is a bit different. There are two questions, one asking if you know the password, and another asking what the password is if you do know it. If the majority of people can get the password correct, then that’s the route the story will take. But if the majority of people say they know the password but most of the answers are incorrect, then it will could as a no. I hope that makes sense. But if you select no for the first question, you don’t have to answer the second one. You can also vote up to 2 times for this poll (again, I know I can’t enforce it, but I’m just kind of using the honor system). So if you voted that you didn’t know the answer before but then you figure it out, you can go back and vote again.