97 Friend

[The quest (Make Her Stop Crying! - SSS) has been accomplished.

*Daily Quest Function unlocked

*Storage Function unlocked

*Stats Function has been upgraded. 

*Time Marbles (F)-[3x] has been sent to the Storage Function.]

'Huh... Well, that's convenient.' 

Zel was currently walking down to the Subdivision's Park. If he was told yesterday that he'd be sitting on a bench while eating ice cream with a girl tomorrow, he'd probably be laughing his ass off.

But what was happening right now? It wasn't just a girl, it was a very beautiful girl. The ice cream was also chocolate! His favorite desert in the world! How could this day get any more surreal?

'What do I say?'

But even good things can get dicey. His predicament from earlier was gone. He wasn't going to die if he didn't do anything, but he also felt like he was dying from embarrassment if he doesn't. He looked at his right where a beautiful, young girl was eating ice cream while petting her cat.

He didn't care about it before but this girl was really too attractive for him to hang out with her. Her long hair was tied to a ponytail that rested on her right. She wore a yellow sundress, showing off her smooth shoulders and healthy white skin.

He looked down on his body and couldn't help but lament. He might have gotten a little bit slimmer due to what happened yesterday, but he was still fat. He doesn't even know what he looks like, since he went out without doing anything to groom himself except for brushing his teeth. He can't even breathe properly, feeling stressed out from the pressure.

'Why would a fat, ugly kid like me even get the chance to meet such a girl? Much less talk to them. I should probably leave.'

The young boy was so preoccupied with his thoughts, something that happened a lot these days. The dreams he was having for the past week was stressful enough. The event yesterday still hasn't exactly sunk in, and now he was sitting next to the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He was so distracted that he didn't see the young girl beside him look quite anxious as well.

'Oh my god! I just talked to a boy! I wonder if he doesn't like me? He hasn't talked to me for a while now.'

Emilia felt the hand petting her cat tremble.Mr. Whiskers didn't mind it, however, as having it vibrate actually made the massage for the feline feel better. It was even mewling in pleasure, rubbing its small head against her hand. If it was earlier today, the kitten might not even look at Emilia, much les show so much affection. This was all thanks to him.

"So, uh, do you live here often?" Zel gave Emilia a rough smile that lacked any confidence. His healthy skin turned red, however, as he scrutinized what he just said.

'Shit! Live here often?! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!'

Playing it cool like he didn't say anything wrong, Zel merely licked the side of his ice cream while waiting for an answer. Not realizing the inner turmoil he just made the girl beside him experience.

'Oh my god! How did he know that I move around often? Does he recall me from yesterday? But I thought he didn't remember me meeting him before!'

"M-my family just moved here a few weeks ago. I'm a sickly girl, so my parents move around to find me a good doctor. But I think we'll probably stay here, though, cause I stopped getting sick."

Emilia looked down at Mr. Whiskers, not wanting to look Zel in the eye. In all her nine years of living, this was the first time she talked so much to someone her age. It felt nice.

"Oh? Then you probably don't have any friends?" Zel smilingly responded as soon as he processed her words. But his smile turned to a cringe when he recalled his words just now.

'Damn it, idiot! Think before you ask! Ahhh!'

Internally screaming once more, Zel gave his ice cream another lick. But this lick ended up taking a huge chunk of ice cream. His mouth was aching from the cold so he just swallowed it without care. He was acting so unlike himself, but luckily Emilia wasn't looking at his direction.

"..." The girl just gave her strawberry ice cream her attention. She knew that having no friends was embarrassing. Though she didn't blame him for asking, it did bother her that it was true. Nothing cuts deeper than the truth.

"I'll be your friend, then! I'll introduce you to my other friends too!" Zel was worried about her look. It bordered on tears once again, which wasn't a good thing if the system gives him another death sentence. Thankfully her eyes brightened up when he said so.

"So? What about it? Want to be my friend?" Seeing her expression change, Zel added with a smile.

"Ok! I'll be your friend!" Emilia finally looked up to Zel. His soft eyes that looked very worried made her heart flutter, though she didn't know why. He also looked quite cute which made his almost pouty look seem more adorable.

"Hehe. I got a friend Mr. Whiskers!" 

"Meow." 

The little girl lifted her cat high in the air, but the cat didn't seem to care. Its face was nonchalant like it wasn't anything special. Though this reaction didn't lessen the girl's happiness at all. What did make her pause, however, was that she dropped her ice cream due to her sudden movement.

"Ahh! Oh no!"

'Shit!' This was the cutest noise Zel ever heard, as well as the scariest one. He wasn't about to wait for any 'dings' to sound out before he handed his ice cream her way.

"It's not strawberry like yours but I swear chocolate is good too! Try it!" Zel who was actually quite full already, due to having that previous large bite, gave Emilia the most sincere smile he had today.

"But, it's yours. I don-"

"If you're my friend, then I want to share with you. Come on, taste it." Emilia was quite unfamiliar with the closeness that Zel was showing. But she didn't hate it, actually, she quite liked it. Nothing has ever made her feel more happy than what he has done for her today. He was a good friend.

"Really? Thank you." A bright smile formed on Emilia's face. One that threatened to steal Zel's heart if he wasn't mindful. He had to be careful next time or he might not be able to control himself and end up looking like an idiot.

'Sigh. So unfair.' Zel was almost blinded by that radiant smile. The world was so big, yet why is his body so ugly? Then he recalled Emilia's face.

"Hey! Do you go to St. Legaspi? I think I've seen you before..." 

"Yeah, I'm in Class 3-A. Did we meet before?" 

Emilia tried to hide her embarrassment as she recognized him much earlier. But she couldn't just tell him because she was scared. Scared that he might know about her secret.

"You're the pretty girl that looked at my manuscript!" 

"!!!"

Zel had a thoughtful expression as he finally remembered who Emilia was. The girl behind him who was snooping at his work, one that he was shy to show to people other than his close friends. He wondered when they would start filming.

"Oh. Oh! Yeah, that's right. I guess we're classmates, then." 

"Cool! Then I'll introduce you to my friends when we go tomorrow. It's Friday tommorow, right? Wait, why are you absent?" Zel was able to connect a few dots and suddenly found it confusing as to why the girl wasn't in school. That was until he heard her next words.

"Hmm? You didn't know?" Emilia was visibly confused. It was all over the news yesterday.

"Didn't you know that the school is holding an event? I think they said that an important Alumni came back, and he was having some sort of product reveal there." Emilia was glad to have helped her new friend. She was smiling the whole time she was speaking.

"Do you know what it is?" Zel wasn't able to read any announcement on the message board. Then he remembered, he didn't open it yet today. He only had the 'TotallyNormal' app on screen this whole time.

"Something about a vial, I think?"