Chapter 1

Everything was perfect. Yes, including my tiny half-basement studio apartment that was no bigger than the bathrooms in the house I used to live in. Even the fact that I needed to jump right into a part-time job the following week to cover my living expenses was no skin off my back. I’d left that hellhole of a house and finally gained my freedom. That alone was more than enough to make me happy. Everything should’ve been perfect, so…what was this? “I thought I told you to make yourself scarce,” the man in front of me said, looking at me as though I were a cockroach under his foot. “And yet there you were, raving like a rabid dog at the crown prince’s homecoming banquet.” I was no stranger to the hatred on his face—to the not-so-hidden desire to trample me out of existence. I’d been on the receiving end of plenty of those disdainful looks back when I lived in that house… But it wasn’t something that ever got easier. “Just what possessed you to act like that?” His ocean-blue eyes glared daggers at me, and my lips quivered of their own accord. It was at that moment that a white rectangle appeared out of nowhere before me, like a pop-up on your computer screen. The window was filled with text. 1. The hell should I know? 2. Nothing in particular, really. 3. (In a groveling tone) I…I just… ……What on earth is this? I opened my mouth to try to get some answers, but it felt as if something was stuck in my throat. My voice… It’s not working! I stood there speechless as the blue-eyed man evidently decided he was tired of waiting. “It would be in your best interest to start talking,” he said, the threat clear in his tone. He looked ready to kill me as soon as I gave him a reason. I’m going to die if I don’t say something. It was instinct alone that drove me to press the third option on the screen. “I…I just…” The words that came out of my mouth were identical to the selection I’d made. Huh? What the hell is happening? My mouth hung open in dumbfounded shock. That was undoubtedly my voice speaking, and yet I couldn’t believe it. In fact, this whole situation felt surreal. One minute I was asleep, and the next I was opening my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling, met with the hostile sight of sinister-looking strangers scowling down at me. My head was still fuzzy, as if I’d just awoken from a deep slumber. “‘You just’ what? Explain yourself,” pressed the man, face set in an intimidating glower. My vague response clearly hadn’t satisfied him. As if on cue, new text appeared in the window floating in my vision. 1. I apologize. I’ll be more careful, I promise. 2. I told you—it’s that stupid maid’s fault. 3. Those vermin weren’t showing me my due respect! Me—the only daughter of House Eckhart! I don’t have time to stand here figuring out what’s going on. Someone is angry, and not answering them will only make things worse. I’d learned that lesson hard and well and could apply it here, even without knowing the specifics of the situation. Giving the man a calculating once-over, I quickly made my choice. “I apolo—” “If a tepid apology could mitigate things, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place,” he said, cutting me off. With how little he let me get out, I had my doubts that what option I chose really even mattered. His sharp tone made my stomach plummet, and I flinched out of reflex. The man continued his tirade, paying me no mind. “Penelope Eckhart,” he said coldly. Penelope…Eckhart? “The family name will be rescinded from you for the foreseeable future.” That name, those lines of dialogue—I’d heard them before. My head flew up, and I finally got a better look at the man who was standing a slight distance away from the bed. I hadn’t been able to study him closely before, flustered as I was. He wasn’t a member of that house; in fact, he wasn’t even Korean, but instead a foreigner I had never seen in the flesh. His eyes were as blue as the sea, his hair black as obsidian. And above his head was a long bar reminiscent of the battery indicator on a smartphone, along with text made up of shimmering white letters. An…affection meter? Unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, the word above his head read Affection. “Starting now, you will be under probation. Social functions are of course forbidden, but neither are you to leave your room. You must reflect upon what you did wrong and how you will conduct yourself going forth—” He broke off, pausing for a moment. “……What are you looking at?” His previously stony expression creased in displeasure at my lack of eye contact. I couldn’t help it, though, too busy staring at the spot above his head to respond. [Affection: 0%] This doesn’t make any sense… I couldn’t stop myself from shaking my head in disbelief. This whole thing was preposterous. Well and truly impossible. “It seems the talk of you losing your mind holds some truth,” the man bit out in disdain at my inexplicable behavior. With one last lingering glare, he turned on his heel and walked briskly to the door, as if he couldn’t stand spending even a second longer in the same room as me. The letters [Affection: 0%] followed him, growing smaller in the distance. I don’t even know what I did wrong… I tried to make sense of the situation, staring after the man in a daze. “Heh…” A scoff cut through my confusion, and I followed the noise to find a pink-haired man standing in the shadows of the door, his arms crossed. He had the same blue eyes as the man who’d just left, but his held open derision. [Affection: -10%] White letters glowed above this man’s head, too, shining a score in the negatives. “Got what you deserve, stupid wench,” sneered the man, his coarse words belying his pretty face. He turned to exit as well, letting the door slam shut behind him and leaving me alone in the room. I sat there for a while, stupefied, unable to wrap my head around what had happened. After what felt like hours and hours of ruminating, I came to the realization that both men had oddly seemed familiar, even though I’d technically never seen them before. “This can’t be real, right…?” I muttered. Apparently, now that I was by myself, the invisible hand clamping down on my vocal chords was gone, but I barely noticed. How could I, when the situation dawning on me was too absurd to even believe? “There’s just no way.” It should’ve been impossible. The game I’d been playing right before bed was now a reality before my very eyes—and with me as one of the characters, no less. “I must be dreaming.” That was the only rational explanation. It had to be! But no amount of pulling my own hair or pinching my cheeks seemed to wake me up. “N-no… No, no, no! This can’t be happening! Nooo!” Penelope Eckhart. A name that was unmistakable. The villain in the latest and hottest dating sim…and the protagonist of the game’s “Hard Mode.”