Staring at the image of the blond young man smiling at her from the computer monitor, Evelyn pulled her gaze away before she could fall deeper into her thoughts.
Even though every character in Adelyn's dating simulator game had been inspired by someone they once knew, none of them resembled their real-life counterparts as much as Ash did.
That was exactly how Evelyn had wanted it to be. Maybe she wanted to keep Ash's memory alive this way, trying to immortalize him.
Evelyn had sent the artist Adelyn hired for the game's illustrations a photo of herself with Ash, requesting a character design based on the photo.
The only difference was that the Ash in the game was no longer a young high school student, but a mature young man.
The artist had brainstormed what he might look like at the prime of his youth, as a twenty two year old, and drew the character now staring back at Evelyn from the screen.
Ash's blond hair had always been clean and lustrous. He cared so much about his personal hygiene. When you approached him, you could catch the scent of soap. His fair skin didn't have a single blemish, and so he was like in the game, too.
In high school, he started growing taller later than the others. Evelyn was a little taller than the other girls, so she was the same height as him in the first year of high school.
But when Ash appeared at least ten centimeters taller than Evelyn the following year, she had to stand on her toes to reach his height.
Considering that he was growing taller later than the others, they thought that, if he had not died at such a young age, he would have continued to grow taller.
That was why, in the game, they made him taller as well — he was like, almost two meters.
Although Adelyn thought that such height might be a little too much for an idol, Evelyn had been stubborn when it came to decisions about Ash's character design.
Ash was hardworking and intelligent, but he was also overly protective of the people he loved. Evelyn had witnessed his jealous side many times. All of that, too, was reflected in his in-game counterpart.
In particular, there were many scenes where he grew jealous of the main character's interactions with the other love interests.
Since Evelyn knew he liked to take charge in many situations and believed he had leadership qualities, she suggested that in the game he should be the leader of the group as well.
Adelyn, thinking her sister would get upset if she refused, agreed.
In a way, it was Evelyn who created him and had written Ash's fate in the game.
Evelyn tore her eyes away from the character that was dragging her into thoughts she couldn't escape from — like she was sinking deeper and deeper toward the seabed of a vast ocean.
Then she reached out to her sister's shoulder, giving her a gentle shake.
"Adelyn, wake up. Get up and sleep on your bed. Otherwise, in the morning you'll start complaining about how your whole body hurts, again. I don't want to hear you nagging."
Just as she expected, no response came from Adelyn except for meaningless grumbles. Evelyn looked at her sister and let out a deep sigh again.
Her face was barely visible through her tangled hair, pressed against the desk. Since one cheek was resting on the desk, her lips were puckered, and her drool was dripping onto the papers scattered on the surface.
Evelyn cast one last fleeting glance at the monitor screen, then walked to the other corner of the room she shared with her sister and began taking clothes out of the closet before getting dressed.
Today, a promotion announcement would be made in her department, and a celebration dinner was expected to happen afterward.
Since she would be attending this dinner after work, she chose her outfit a little differently than usual. Even though she knew the company was strict about employee attire, she figured adding a bit of color wouldn't hurt.
Instead of the usual black or dark gray jacket-and-skirt combo, she wore a cream-colored jacket over her white blouse, paired with a white skirt that ended above her knees.
She placed her almond-colored coat and white beret on top of the bed to wear over the jacket later.
As she was leaving the room and about to step into the kitchen, a thought crossed her mind—something that could wake her sister. She paused, then chuckled to herself and said it aloud.
"Adelyn! You forgot to save the game update, all the data has been erased!"
Well, that was the worst thing to say to a game developer. So, as expected, Adelyn suddenly woke up and jumped to her feet, slamming both hands on the desk.
"No way, no!" she shouted, still half-asleep.
For a moment, she seemed unable to shake off her drowsiness, glancing around in confusion as she tried to make sense of the situation.
What finally woke her up completely was Evelyn's laughter. Right beside her, Evelyn clutched her stomach as she laughed, and tried to stifle her giggles when Adelyn started stomping her feet and whining in protest.
Seeing her sister's messy hair and slightly crooked glasses only made her want to laugh even more, but she held herself back.
"I swear, the only thing you care about is that game. Just look at yourself…" she said, wiping the tears from her eyes.
Adelyn shot her an annoyed look and glanced at the small mirror sitting on the corner of her desk. When she saw her own reflection, she almost burst out laughing too — but since she'd been woken up in such a terrible way, she kept her pout instead.
"Of course! You should be used to that by now!" Adelyn said, then pointed her finger toward the monitor screen. "This game, these characters, and this story are either going to make me rich or change the whole world!"
"Change the whole world? Isn't that overexaggerating? And how is that even possible?" asked Evelyn.
Adelyn pulled a comb out of her drawer and began brushing her hair. Evelyn wondered how clean that comb could be, considering it was kept in the same drawer as all her pens and papers.
"I mean, don't you know? These days, people spend most of their time with stories and characters that don't even exist. If I create a game that every female player in the world knows, wouldn't that mean I've changed the world?"