Would you be my-

"IF YOU DON'T MIND WOULD YOU BE MY FRIEND!?"

Wait, what?! That was, huh!? I start laughing a bit. Oh shit, she's leaving.

"Wait, don't go," I say half between laughs

"..." She looks back at me with a pouting face

Ahhhh, she's so adorable

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you, It's just that you threw me off a bit."

"...Why." Such an innocent little girl. I kind of want to corrupt her but at the same time, I really don't. Ugh, decisions, decisions.

"Well, I felt you staring at me so I asked you what was the matter. But you said you needed a private space to say it so I thought it would be a confession." I say still with a smile.

She looks down in embarrassment. Should I tease her, probably not, I'm not sure how she would react.

"Never would I have imagined that you were gonna ask to be my friend, Nobody does that anymore," I say in between giggles.

She starts to leave again

"Wait, I want to be your friend. But before that, I have two things I'm curious about.

"...Okay."

"Ummm, why were you staring at me so intently?"

"Well, I... I came in halfway through school this year, so I've been trying to make friends but I'm too shy. Then I saw someone who didn't hang out with anybody either so... I've been trying to figure out how to ask you..."

What kind of sheltered life did this girl live? Asking to be friends?... Actually, that's fine.

"Then second question, why would you ask me? If you asked anybody else I'm sure you would end up with more friends."

"Well... I'm no good with new people so I thought that since you didn't hang around when I only have to get used to you."

"Didn't you consider that there might be a reason why I was alone, you know I could be a horrible person everyone avoids."

"... Well, you didn't look like a bad person since you are always helping out in class."

Oh, the things I did to stave off boredom. Who would've thought? Well, it's fine, plus someone like her, I kind of want to see if I can corrupt or not, well I'll take my time deciding.

"In that case, I would like to be your friend...errr...did you ever introduce yourself?"

"Oh, I'm Mary!" she says a bit flustered

<I can't believe I forgot to introduce myself, how embarassing>(Mary)

"I'm Luis," I say extending my hand" please take care of me."

"... What do you mean by-"

"Oh, it's just a phrase don't worry about it. So, new friend, what do you want to do then?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you said you wanted to be friends, you must have something to do in mind, right?"

"U-um... no... I just ...I just..."

What should I do about this? I don't know either. I haven't had friends in a while. What do normies do nowadays?! Just act calm then.

"*clears throat* Well, for now, want to exchange phone numbers?"

"...Yes" she says looking down

This girl is making ME embarrassed too, geez. Just keep your cool and get through this the best way you know, fake it till you make it.

"Okay. Then"

We write each other's phone number.

"Well for now, why don't we head to our own homes."

"Okay...bye"

"See ya."

We both leave our respective ways, that was a bit too- I feel a familiar presence from the Conner of the building. Don't tell me this girl, I enhance myself, use sense to find her.

"Hello."

"Ummm...hello"

"Done having your expectations crushed."

"Wha-what do you mean?"

"Please, any sensible person would assume that to be a confession if they weren't able to hear it."

"Shut up! I didn't think anything like that!"

"Wow. Looks like even you can get flustered, maybe this way you won't always act like a smart ass."

I don't answer and walk away towards the train station. Meanwhile, I see Tara speed off to somewhere, what is she up to?

<Now then, why don't I have a bit of fun>(Tara)

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Mary's POV

Oh god, that was so nerve-wracking. I just need to calm myself and breathe. Breathe in, breathe out, okay. I finally have a friend though! But what do I do? What if I do things that I'm not supposed to and he ends being not being my friend anymore. I-

"Hello"(???)

"?!?!"

Who is that? It scared me, should I say something back? But I missed my chance!!! I didn't think anybody would talk to me.

"Is there a problem?"

"Uuuummm... no... it's just that...I haven't seen you before so... *mumble* I don't know who you are and*mumble*"

"Oh, ok then I want to ask you, would you be my friends"

"Yes!"

"So then, would you like to come to my house tomorrow?"

Is this what friends do? I made two friends today, I'm so happy!

"Okay."

<This girl is easy to fool, she could get in trouble if she's this much of a pushover.>(???)

"Okay then, here's my phone number and I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Okay."

She walked away as fast as she told me this. This might be the best day ever! Wait, she didn't tell me where she lives or her name, she only gave me a phone number. How am I supposed to visit her? My phone rings. 'By the way, if you take train *, three stops down, walk towards **** I'll be waiting for u tmrw, just make sure to hmu when u get off at the station'. "Hmu?" what does that mean? I better try my best to research so I can keep this friendship going!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Luis POV

I got home after that little encounter with Mary. Geez, how am I gonna get along with her? I get the feeling that she won't get my jokes too much. Well, she's smart since she has the same advanced classes as me. I'm doing my body strengthening routine. As always, but this time I'm adding a bit of magic to it. In order to make sure that I'm able to use both magic will body strengthening I make sure that I use fire element on my right and wind element on my left. It's a bit of practice for both wielding both elements at the same time, and fatigue-relieving. It's pretty hard. I can only do it about a minute or so at a time before I lose concentration and end up having to take a small break an restart again. Which makes my usage of magic lower than before, so in order to deplete it I use some big fire and wind spells. Well, I say big but the strongest fire speel I have is a 2-meter wide spell with a 4-meter range. And for wind, I have a slash that has a width of about a 3 centimeter and a range of 8 meters. Well, these are the spells that I try when I'm close to nighttime and I want to just deplete my mana as much as possible. Usually, I practice the other spells that were useful like a fireball, wind ball, fire roar and things like that. I continue this training until someone familiar pops their head above the ladder with a grin on her face. Oh great, here she comes, however, I'm not as flustered as before, I think, so she won't be able to tease me.

"Luis," she says cheerfully

"Yes?" I say somewhat annoyed.

"Are you doing what I told you to do correctly?'

"..."

"What is it?"

Why didn't she mention the thing with Mary? Is she planning something?

"...No, nothing. Yes, I am."

"Then continue, don't let me bother you."

"Okay?"

This is hella suspicious but If I bring it up I wouldn't like to either so I will just do my own thing and continue exercising. I continue the same exercise along with the practicing of the spells that worked whenever my concentration broke and I spot Tara messaging out of the corner of my eye. This really doesn't give me a good feeling. Well, whatever, I'll leave tomorrow's problems to tomorrow's me. I finished training and had another small chat with Tara, after that we went downstairs and I went to sleep. However, I was still bothered by the fact that Tara didn't bring Mary up even once. Well, I'll just go to sleep.

I wake up to my alarm clock, yes even on Saturdays, actually and Sunday are the biggest training days for me. I go crazy and divide training to the first and second half of the day. Due to the mana assimilation, I've been doing it usually takes between 2 to 2 and a half hours to completely be replenished again so I divide my training from 6:30 to 12 and from 3 to 10. I start my training. Flame dome, wind dome, flame ball, enhancements, Trying to kick the air as I did before. So many ways I used magic and tried to be as creative as possible as well as muscle strengthening Training was going smoothly until-

"Luis, come down here for a sec!"

"I'm busy Tara!"

"Yeah, but I can't find where my keys are."

Mhhhh, I see. That was a code we came up with so that I knew if we had visitors. Pointless? yes, but we just wanted to play around so it was fine

"Okay, I'll help you find them."

I walk down the emergency stairs and come in through the window.

"Mary?!"

"Ummm...Hello."

"Wha-what are you doing here?"

"I thought that we were-"

"Okay then, now that we're all here we can go already!"(Tara)

"Tara, what do you mean? Go?Go where."(Luis)

"To Times Square of course!."

"Go to Times Square? Why would I go?"

"Didn't you agree to do so," she said as she eyed to Mary

"You don't...you don't want to go to Times Square with us?" Mary said somewhat sad.

But then what about practice, but also I just became friends with here. I look at Tara with a smile on her face. She's enjoying this, then I look at Mary who has a somewhat distressed face. I couldn't believe the words that left my mouth.

"I'll go."