Chapter 9.1

I woke up normally. I didn't set up my alarm since I don't have to wake up early for school today. I checked the time and saw it was already 10:27 a.m., it was still too early. Well, too early for me on weekends. Liz said they will be arriving after lunch since the match is at 3 p.m. Remembering that my friends will visit my house later in the afternoon, my drowsiness vanished.

I'll just cook up a quick breakfast before cleaning my apartment room.

After eating my brunch, I cleaned my plates and proceeded to organize my apartment which is usually messy since I'm too lazy to tidy it. I can't have them thinking that I'm actually this disorganized. Changing the sheets, dusting the floor, spraying some air freshener, and cleaning most of my stuff took a lot of time. I opened my phone to check the messages from our group chat.

Liz: We're heading there right now, I'm excited to see the match with you Kat!

Lenna: I'm with Liz right now and we will both arrive in a couple of minutes. Save some snacks for us ;)

Katherine: You sure you guys don't need me to get you at the station?

I replied.

Liz: No need, we got this, we have goo*** maps after all and you already told us your complete address. It'll be a walk in the park.

I closed the messenger and open another app. A couple of minutes later while playing games with my phone a call came. It was Liz. I let it ring a couple of times before answering it so it makes her think I'm actually busy and not holding my phone 24/7.

"What's up?" I asked.

"The guard told us to wait in the lobby until they verify were really your guests.".

Ohh I forgot about that, this apartment complex is usually strict especially for unfamiliar people for safety reasons. It is one of the reasons why mom lets me live here on my own in the first place.

"Wait a sec, ill head down there now."

I immediately hang up and then proceed to go to the ground floor.

I notice them sitting in the lobby intended for the guest.

"Liz, Lenna," I greeted them.

"Kat!" Liz said excitedly.

"About time," Lenna smiled.

"They are with me, can we enter now?" I asked the receptionist in the lobby politely.

"Of course miss Katyusha. Please forgive the delay. It's just our policy to not let unfamiliar guests in." he replied.

"No, it's alright, It's my fault that I forgot to mention them beforehand," I said placatingly.

"Well, then let's go?" I said as I led the way to the elevator.

Liz and Lenna followed suit. The both of them surveyed the ground floor as we headed for the elevator. After we entered the elevator currently devoid of people since its a weekday, Lenna suddenly talked.

"Wow, I didn't expect your apartment complex to be this lavish. Ohh! Are you secretly a CEO's daughter or something?" Lenna said with amusement.

"You're exaggerating, It's not that luxurious. It has a good ambiance and is always well maintained so you get a good bargain for your bucks since the price is not actually that high. Their market target is just the upper middle class, not the billionaires." I explained.

Besides, were not short on money since mom and dad earns well and I also got the cash prize from the 1st AC to pay for it. Though my teammates and I had to split it into 4 so it's not really a life-altering amount of money compared to the prize now.

"Well, what matters the most is that it's safe and secure." Liz chimed in.

"Yeah, that's what my mother says too"

We chatted as we head towards my apartment room. After arriving at the front door of my apartment, I beckoned them to enter

"This is my apartment room, come inside"

They entered unceremoniously and then took in the view of my living room. I'm glad I cleaned it earlier.

"Wow, what a nice place you got here. It is neat and tidy." Lenna praised

"Yeah, it also has a relaxing ambiance and music too!" Liz exclaimed.

"Anyways let's head to my room for now"

I lead them to my room just on the opposite side of the kitchen.

"This is my room"

I opened my room and we head inside, a 15x18 feet room with a personal bathroom. A closet next to the door with a mirror right beside it. Next to the bed is various decorations placed on a standing wall table. Most of the decorations are cute stuffed toys and other miscellaneous adorable decors that I think would look well in a room.

At the other side of the door is the entrance to the bathroom. At the center of the room is a small table that is placed on top of a relatively comfortable carpet. On the far corner is my desktop pc. It rarely sees any use nowadays since I mainly play VR games now, but I still use it sometimes for projects or school assignments.

"Ohh, your room is clean and comfy. Mine's always messy since I rarely clean it myself." Liz suddenly said.

"Yeah, it's also quite....girlier than I thought it would be. You should have a look at Liz's room. It's full of toys." Lenna giggled.

"Haa? What did you just say? Did you just call my prized CoA figurine collection toys? Do you want to end our friendship that badly?" Liz bickered.

"And listen to this! She even has that limited edition Yuusha Schoolgirl Uniform figurine she keeps bragging about to me nonstop like a national treasure when she got it!"

"Of course! It's the hardest figurine you could get, I was super lucky that I got the last one before it run out! Die-hard male fans of Yuusha would kill for it since it is the only figurine available where you can see her panties!" Liz rattled off.

My cheeks suddenly reddened. Good thing they didn't notice since they're both busy bickering, but I mean, what the heck! Is that even legal!?

I suppose there was some kind of terms and conditions that allowed them to have all the monetization rights to the characters of their game or something when you first start the game. But I mean, nobody reads that so it's like cheating. Curse you and your greedy conglomerate company ways V-tech!

Are you happy now sis? Is this what you wanted to happen when you scanned your facial features into the game?

My heart sank at the thought of my sister.

...Sis. I'll be sure to continue your legacy someday when I'm mentally stable and skilled enough for it.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang distracting me from my spiraling thoughts.

"I'll go get it, wait here for a bit," I said as I quickly head towards the door to not let them notice my plummeting mood.

I don't recall having any visitors today except these two. But I doubt the security would let anyone suspicious in, so it could only be either my parents or my aunt.

I arrived at my front door and looked at the CCTV screen attached to the side that focuses on the door.

It was my mother.

I opened the door and she greeted me with a loving smile.

"How's my baby? Are you having any difficulties here on your first week here?" she asked

"Of course not, I'm old and responsible enough to live by myself you know," I rebuked.

"By the way, is dad not with you?" I continued.

"Ohh your dad has an important meeting to attend, so I'm the only one here visiting you today." She regretfully said.

"....I see"

While mom has been overprotective since my sister left this world, my dad allocated all his free time at work, attempting to change all his grief into productivity. At first, I thought that I was the only one affected by my sister's passing but it became apparent that my parents are greatly impacted by it too, it's just that we each had different ways of coping with it. I'm just the weakest one out of us three so I'm the only one experiencing panic attacks. It was naive of me back then to even think that they don't care about my sister at all. I guess I'm not as mature as I thought I am.

"Ohh by the way, I heard from Carlos you had visitors!" Mom bought me out of my musings.

Carlos was the name of one of the guards in this apartment. Mom has always been chatty and social (the complete opposite of me) so she probably got the information from talking to him.

"Uhuh, they're here to hang out."

"Ohh I want to see them," she said excitedly.

I have a bad feeling about this. But I don't think I have a concrete reason to decline nor the choice too since she will just barge into my room anyways.

"Fine, they're in my room," I said as I led mother to my bedroom.

I opened the door and saw Liz and Lenna looking at some of my stuff and decorations.

They noticed I have someone else with me so they instantly straightened their back and stood up.

"Mom, these are my friends Elizabeth Miles and Lenna Taylor. Guys, this is my mother," I introduced them to each other.

"My my, aren't you kids gorgeous!" My mother cried out.

"Thank you, You look beautiful as well Mrs. Katyusha" Liz replied politely.

"And polite too it's hard to believe my daughter made such wonderful friends like you girls. I was skeptical at first when I heard she has her friends here. She never bought any of her friends home, you girls must get along pretty well."

I don't like the way this conversation is going. My instinct is telling me to cut off their conversation. But it would be quite rude, so doing that would be out of the question.

"Well, we're pretty grateful to Kat too, she's dependable and always takes care of us." Liz politely said

"That's good to hear, ohh you can have some cake I bought whenever you're hungry. It's Kat's favorite cake from a famous bakery back at Ardmore."

"It.... is? I thought she doesn't like sweets?" Liz asked dubiously

Oh yeah, I remembered telling them that back at the cafe to look more mature.

"Oh of course she does. I bought two cakes since she can easily finish 1 whole cake all by herself. She always eats a lot whenever she sees sweets. She also likes it more if they have some sort of cute designs on them."

My face instantly flushed. To be fair, their serving is not that big so I can eat it by myself, and having a good visual presentation of a food makes it more desirable right? I can hear Lenna snickering in the background. Thanks, mom you always were really good at embarrassing your own daughter unknowingly, It might even be called a talent at this rate.

"Ohh you girls want to see some photos of Kat when she was younger? She was so adorable back then!"

Ok, that's enough, drastic times call for drastic measures. I have to do something now that it's come to this. My image will be in shatters if this keeps up, I have to salvage whatever's left of it somehow.

"M-Mom, we're going to watch the match now. You can just bother us later." I cut her off.

I pushed my mother (quite gently if I might add) out of my room to prevent any further destruction of my well-maintained image.

"Ohh alright you girls have fun! Remember to call me if there's any problem, I'll just be in the living room watching tv.

I shut the door after my mother left my room. looking right behind me I can see both Liz and Lenna smiling at me playfully.

I sigh

"Let's just watch the game"