So I have been thinking about this for a while now, and have decided to post this.

Back in 2004, I was into a website called Neopets. I had several friends on there, and we would normally chat through chat rooms about the website, and other related stuff. In the summer, someone else joined these chat rooms - I will call her from this point forward “C.” She became more involved in our chat room, and we started talking in a separate window. One night, she was very upset, and wanted to call me. I thought it was a little strange, but I gave it a chance. I gave her my phone number, and we talked for a while. Ever since then, we would call each other and talk about things going on in our lives. I won’t bore you with going into details, but everything was going great.

“C” introduced a new online game - Maplestory.

At this point, we called each other sever times a week, if not every day. If we didn’t talk on the phone, we would chat online. She liked to send text messages, so that became another way of communicating. Not long after, we were texting each other several times a day. It got to the point that we would contact each other every day - just to chat. I told her my true feelings since the very beginning - I thought she was beautiful. In our chat sessions, we would type “<3″, send each other emails with “<3″ as the subject, etc. Seeing as though we lived very far away from each other, it wasn’t feasible to meet. So, we continued throughout the years talking, texting, and switching between Maplestory and Neopets.

It eventually came down to a night when she called me drunk at a hotel room she was sharing with friends. She asked why I never say “I love you.” Maybe its me, but I think that saying “I love you” needs to mean something. How can I mean that if I have never met this person face to face. So, I decide to try to do the next appropriate thing. I told “C” that I wanted to come out and visit her. Everytime that I offered to come out, she either blew it off, or told me that she couldn’t get away from work. I thought, fine - whatever. Maybe she didn’t want to meet me, or maybe she was scared to meet me. Hell, even I was afraid of bringing it up.

Then, in the summer of 2005, while playing Maplestory, she met another person in the game - I will call him from this point forward as “M.” They would level together in Maplestory, and would go off by themselves. I tagged along, because I didn’t care about leveling. I would just hang on a rope, and we would continue to chat in the game. After all, it really didn’t matter to me because I still was able to spend time with her. However, at this point, she was ditching several of our friends that we met in the game for “M,” including me. Our friends were concerned, because “M” did not have a very good reputation. After talking with “C,” she assured me that it was ok. She didn’t mean to push everyone aside.

After a while, whether she led him to believe, or he just assumed, he referred to himself as her “boyfriend.” She told me about this, and her exact words were, “Don’t worry. You know how I feel about you, and that will never change.” So I brushed it off, and left it at that. I didn’t realize until after a few months, that “M” “hacked” in the game, and “C” was learning how to do it. She told me that she was continuing to train and level with him because “M” could get her the hacks, and teach her how to use it. Since the game that we played tries to patch these hacks, several different values needed to be changed. Eventually, she learned how to do it herself, and I though everything would be great. Now she will leave him alone, and he will just disappear.

(As a side note, “C” shared the hacks she got from “M” with me, and I did profit from them. However, I didn’t use them all of the time. I was paranoid, and didn’t want to loose everything I had done. So you can take this as, “Yes, I did use hacks in the game.” But, I stopped using them because I didn’t want to risk my account.)

Since “M” still thought he was her boyfriend, he wouldn’t leave “C” or I alone. Everytime that “C” wanted to tell him to fuck off, she was afraid of what he might do. After all, he is an experienced hacker. He has tried to hack into several of “C’s” and my accounts - not limited to Maplestory. So, she kept talking to him, because she was afraid of what he might do. He got her phone number (she might have given it to him - I don’t know). When we would talk, she would tell me the awful things he would say to her because she talked to me. “M” called her a fucking cunt, told her he wish she would die, and several other hurtful things. When he did this, “C” came to me all upset. After a while, she would laugh about it, and just brush it off. Things continued on like this for a while.

After a while, I think in spring of 2006, he went completely crazy. He told her more awful things, and said that she wasn’t allowed to talk to me. She called me, of course, and told me what he said. The only way he would leave me alone would be if “C” “broke up with me.” He wanted “C” to do it on the phone with me, but I refused. She once again assured me, “Don’t worry about this. This is just a fake show. Just do this so he will leave us alone.” So, I agree to log onto a messenger program. When I log in, I am invited to a chat room, where “M” and “C” are. She did exactly what she said she was going to do - “pretend break up.” I acted through it, calling both of them names, etc. I needed to make it believable. So, I leave the chat room, and the messenger program. Cindy calls me again, and we laugh at what we just did. I logged into my mail the next day, and saw that he copied and pasted the chat room log into my myspace account, my livejournal account, and any where else he could enter text.

I think that “M” knew something was up, because he kept telling “C” that he knew she still talked to me. She was still talking to me, but we never said anything to anyone, ever.

Things kept going like that for a long time, and once again I told her I would come out to see her. She said that was ok, and she was going to try to get time off at work. She told me she tried, but couldn’t get any time off.

Then, a few months later, “C” wanted to do something special with Maplestory. She told me the idea, and I was all for it. After trying it out for a couple weeks, she decided she wanted to move forward with it. But, she didn’t have any money to spend on it. I told “C” that I would pay for it. It was something that was going to make her happy, and her happiness was important to me. So I ended up paying about $50 for it. But, for me to even use it, I had to create a false identity (because “M” was still under the impression that “C” and I were no longer talking). Everything went well, and everything moved forward as expected. “M” would still call her horrible things, and he would try to send spam to my email address (haha). He tried several times to get into several of my accounts (I received several emails stating that someone from IP such and such requested the password, and that IP address matched his). Since I had access to the special idea “C” created, I had access to his IP address, and could match that to the emails.

At this point, I was getting tired of all the lies. All of my friends on Maplestory associated me with my false identity. At this point, I decided to create a WordPress blog, and start mapping out the lies that I had to tell - they also helped me keep my lies straight. I never told “C” about this. I didn’t think it was necessary.

December 2006 came around, and something happened on Christmas Eve. I couldn’t believe it. “M” had logged into “C’s” Maplestory account, and had deleted her characters. I guess this was the last straw for “C.” She ended up calling the cops on “M,” and she told them about his hacking in the game, his attempts to gain access to her accounts, etc. The police went to his house, and had a chat with him. They told “M” that he was not allowed to contact “C”, and that he could face charges for all of the crap that he had done. “C” told me that he had a website that would install a keylogger on a persons computer and he would steal all of their items on their Maplestory account (I don’t know if this is true, but I have heard this from several people. I never witnessed this, because, of course, I never went to the website. However, I did see him advertising this website in the game).

Finally. He had an order from the police in his hometown to not contact “C” anymore. I thought this would finally put everything to rest. But…

“C” wanted to know how “M” found out who I was. Originally, when I set up my original WordPress account, I made it so that Private posts would be private, and public would be public - pretty standard stuff. However, when associating tags with a private entry, it would still show the first few sentences of the post - even though it was private.

“C” knew that “M” was not allowed to contact her. So, to satisfy her curiosity, she signs onto a messenger program, and messages him. After several attempts, she finally finds out how “M” knew that “C” still talked to me. He googled my username, and saw the first few sentences of the private posts.

That is as far as I am going to take it. To “C” - I was going to respect your wishes, but after reading YOUR blog, all bets were off. I saw how you tried to trick me adding your newly created character on Maplestory. Grow up. Seriously. All I originally wanted was an explanation. After I received it, I let you be. You are paranoid for no reason. I never lied to you about anything.