[One Shot] SYNK: Virtual World [English ver.] {JiMinJeong}

Title: SYNK: Virtual World [English ver.]

Author: Riz Aino

Pairing: JiMinJeong (Karina + Winter) (aespa)

Clasification: PG–13

Genres: AU, romance, fantasy, drama

Word count: 1.6k

Summary: When ae Winter gets trapped in SYNK, a virtual world, JiMin does not hesitate to use ae Karina, despite her reluctance, to find her.

Notes: I wrote this story in Spanish a few weeks ago and I decided to translate it, you can find the original here.

Author’s comment: aespa has this curious concept with avatars in the virtual world and I came up with this and I couldn't stop until I had it done. Espero que os guste.

 

SYNK: Virtual World [English ver.]

 

            Opening the door, after the insistent buzzing of the doorbell, JiMin finds Yi Zhuo on the landing of the building and narrows her eyes, confused. She doesn’t understand why the girl is there, especially when MinJung is not at home. Yi Zhuo’s face reflects a minimal relief when seeing her appear, although worry, fear and anxiety are the feelings that can be seen most clearly in this one. That stops JiMin from being confused to being worried. Something must have happened in the lab.

 

            “What’s going on?” she questions.

 

            And that simple question triggers a series of explanations from Yi Zhuo that cause JiMin’s concern to flow into utter terror. The laboratory in which she and MinJung work has registered a cyberattack that has caused the destabilization of their systems and has severely damaged SYNK, the virtual world they develop, just when MinJung had entered it with ae Winter, his avatar. After stabilizing their systems and taking control of everything, reinforcing security, they have not been able to contact ae Winter and the only way to wake up MinJung and return her to reality is to find her.

 

            “You know the only ae ready to carry out the mission is yours,” Yi Zhuo finishes. “You also know that we would not ask you if it were not absolutely necessary”.

 

            And, despite the fact that after the little accident she had a few months ago with her ae and after that she did not want to know more about the project for a while, JiMin has no choice but to put on her shoes and run after Yi Zhuo. Her heart beating a thousand an hour out of fear, fear that MinJung will not return to her side and be trapped forever with ae Winter in SYNK.

 

            “I’m sorry for what happened,” is the first thing Aeri says to her when they both arrive at the facility where the laboratory is located.

            “If something has happened to MinJung, I swear to you that you will never see the hair of either of us in this place,” JiMin replies. And yes. It’s a threat.

 

            Aeri nods and begins to explain to her how the virtual world has changed in the months that she has not been working on the project and where they have lost all contact with Ae Winter. By the time they reach the room where the centre of all SYNK development is located, JiMin is completely clear on what he must do to find ae Winter and bring her back. She sighs deeply, however, when she sees MinJung lying down, surrounded by the cables that connect her to SYNK. It cannot be believed that a cyberattack has ended everything like this. She squeezes MinJung’s hand, even though she knows it’s useless because her girlfriend doesn’t feel the contact of the outside world in those moments, to feel a little more comforted before lying down next to her.

 

            “We’re going to send you to the exact point where we lost communication with ae Winter,” Aeri tells her, as Yi Zhuo and other people from the lab begin to connect her with her ae. “It shouldn’t be far, but be careful, I don’t know if SYNK has suffered any structural damage that we couldn’t fix from here and it could be dangerous”.

 

            JiMin nods. She’s scared. She’s scared because the last time she laid down in that place, SYNK nearly killed her due to a miscalculation that created monsters that shouldn’t have been there. But she has to overcome her fear and she has to find ae Winter and return to her safely so that she can wake up MinJung and go home. JiMin blanks his mind, relaxes, and takes several deep breaths. Around her she listens to the workers of that laboratory completing the preparations, but each time more and more and more distant until everything simply goes silent and she closes her eyes so that her whole world turns black.

 

            “ae Karina?” she calls.

 

            Immediately in front of her, darkness ceases to reign and small points of light begin to accumulate, forming a well-known figure. The pixels finish grouping in a few seconds and before JiMin appears ae Karina, her alter ego in SYNK, created through her physique, to navigate within that virtual world.

 

            “JiMin!” ae Karina says, surprised to see her there. “You haven’t been here for a long time. I missed you”.

            “I’m very sorry,” she replies. “Real life has kept me busy, but I need your help, that’s why I’m back.”

            “Sure, what do you need?” ae Karina asks.

            “I need to get into SYNK and find ae Winter, we can’t reach her from the lab,” she tells her.

            “No problem.”

 

            Ae Karina winks at her and JiMin closes her eyes ae for a few moments. When she opens them again, she’s no longer in the dark and ae Karina is not in front of her, but has become her. Around her, there are a lot of tall buildings, like the skyscrapers of the economic centre of Seoul, but the configuration of these is not completely finished and the drawing is still closer to a 2D than a 3D. That is the point at which they lost all contact with ae Winter, so ae Karina gets down to business, searching around that district, entering some of the buildings. Sometimes she hears commands in her brain from the control in the laboratory and goes where they tell her, but she still cannot find ae Winter.

 

             She begins to move away from the search hub and look at more of the surrounding buildings, hoping that ae Winter is there. She calls her. She shouts her name down the street and every time she enters a building. But there is no sign of ae Winter despite everything. She has three hours inside SYNK because in the laboratory they didn’t know if it was safe to send her in there for longer, less when they are still correcting the problems caused by the cyberattack, but she has already consumed almost two in the search.

 

             Suddenly, between the buildings, a shadow moves and ae Karina becomes completely still. In SYNK there should be nothing and no one other than ae Winter and ae Karina and, if she has not answered their call, what is stalking her cannot be ae Winter. Immediately, ae Karina tenses. The monsters she faced the previous time could not have returned… can they? But she doesn’t want to check it either. She is not going to stay there to be attacked. Therefore, she begins to move slowly, always watching the shadow between the buildings, holding her breath. Ae Karina heads towards one of the buildings until she hears a roar behind her that makes her hair stand. She is trapped.

 

            Carefully, she raises her left hand, where she has the command that connect her with the laboratory to ask them to move her from the area. However, she doesn’t finish the movement when the shadow in front of her jumps. Ae Karina then moves, guided by survival instinct, and runs to get away from the shadows, although they are chasing her. During the race she tries to reconnect with the laboratory, but before she does, a reflex catches her attention. She pauses for a second and looks up, discovering that on the roof of one of the buildings stands ae Winter, her sword in hand, reflecting the light of that virtual sun on the metal. Without thinking about it, ae Karina runs to that building and runs up the stairs, feeling like the monsters are getting closer to her, almost on her heels. However, ae Karina doesn’t give up until she reaches the rooftop and closes the heavy metal door behind her. Ae Winter is already there and helps her place all sorts of obstacles in place to seal the door long enough to hold off the monsters.

 

            “Are you okay?” Is the first thing ae Karina asks.

            “Are you fine?” ae Winter asks too, after nodding to her question. Ae Karina also nods. “My command was broken and I couldn’t get in touch with the lab,” she explains.

 

            Ae Karina doesn’t need to know anything else. She also doesn’t have time for more because the monsters are clawing at the door, wanting to go out to the roof, so she simply puts her arms around ae Winter and warns through the command to the laboratory that she has found her and needs them to return them to the laboratory now. She closes her eyes and when she opens them again, what JiMin sees is the ceiling of the room. She quickly removes all the cables that connect her to SYNK and ae Karina and gets up, going to where MinJung is, slowly getting up, with the help of Yi Zhuo. She can’t help but throw herself into MinJung’s arms, tears welling up in her eyes. She has been too scared… but finally everything is fine.