Chapter 23: The First Friend!

He grew weary of coding in his room and decided to check up on his only online friend, Nagisa.

Booting up the game, he allowed it to rest and load up its features before doing anything else. Finally, Nagisa sent him an invite to join her in the lobby session.

"She's still around, huh?" He said as he joined her in the session.

"Hello!" She screamed into the microphone.

"Hmm, Hi." He replied as he clicked to inform his teammate that he was ready for a game.

Yet, she seemed interested in a different topic. "Where have you been?" She asked him aggressively friendly.

"Out and about." He impatiently answered while waiting for her to click the button.

"Why haven't you been online?" Her online avatar crossed her arms.

"Busy." He answered her with a single word.

"Busy? With what?" She asked once again. Her character ran in place, holding her breath.

"Life, work, and school." His temper grew short.

"Ha, I see." Nagisa felt a little left out, but she wanted to be involved one way or another. "Want to exchange phone numbers?" She asked him while her dark figure in the room reached for her phone.

"Hmm." His cheeks flushed redder than ever before, caught by surprise.

"Okay, here's mine." She gave her phone number to him.

He was shocked but smiling while typing every single digit with excitement. "Is this what it means to be f-f-friends?" He asked her over the microphone.

"What do you mean?" She confusingly asked him.

"Is this like, you know. Being friends feels like?" He said to her, which caught her in a huge shock.

Feeling a little sad by his comment, she luckily knew what to say. "What do you mean? Do you just now consider us friends?" She seemed to wait for something.

"I, uhh." Suzuki couldn't think up anything to say to her. "So we're not friends?" He confusingly asked with a teary-funny expression.

"No, I meant the moment you added me online. We have been and hope to be friends for a long time." She replied to his worries with a soft smile.

"Hmm, sounds good." He said as hiccups from crying took over him.

"You know, Nagisa-Chan, I have never had someone to call a friend," Suzuki opened up with tears streaming down his face. "Is this what it feels like to be happy with a friend?" He asked while trying to wipe away the river of tears.

"More or less," Nagisa's reply came in and out of the microphone while wiping away the tears in her eyes.

"What do you mean? What is a friend anyway?" He asked her with genuine confusion.

"A friend is someone that you can trust." She explained.

"Someone you can talk to and vent about your day to." Nagisa hugged her teddy bear in her dark room.

"Someone that can lighten your mood." She placed her head on top of the cozy teddy.

"A friend is someone who will stick by your side through the thick and thin and whatever else life has in store."

"A friend is someone who worries sick for you when you don't answer their calls, seeks the truth in your place, and is willing to be with you at all times."

"For me, that's what a friend is in the simplest way I could convey the concept to you." Nagisa tried to explain the concept of friendship in simple terms to him.

"Then, Nagisa-Chan, what promoted you to care for someone like me?" He asked her the critical question as the river of tears came to a stop.

"That's, uh, very private right now." She told him as she instantly left the lobby while blushing.

"What's with her?" He said to himself as he laid back into his gaming chair while heavily blushing and blabbing about how he had a friend now.

"I just made a friend?" He asked inwardly with excitement brewing in his mind.

"The loner everyone avoids just got a friend, more than anything, a girl that's my friend too!" He shouted inside his apartment with happiness. "Ohh, I don't wanna lose her at all!" Exclaimed Suzuki as he jumped off the chair with excitement.