Recall (3)

<Author's note: The things (racism, sexism, political views, etc.) depicted or mentioned in this story do not reflect the real world and are purely coincidences. If they do, please keep in mind that they are simply for world-building and are only work of fiction. Thank you for your understanding.>

4:22 pm.

Nathan and Nadia, his mother, were in the living room sitting at the sofas and watching TV.

As for Nazul, Nathan's father, he was still in the bedroom sleeping because had a very long and stressful night last night.

The show being aired on the TV was a white-skinned Asian drama dubbed in Muwinian.

Nathan doesn't watch dramas. He was waiting for the drama to end by 4:30 pm because that's when the anime show starts 4:30 - 6:00 pm -- 3 anime shows, 30 minutes each day.

Today was a special day. The anime show on the 5:00 - 5:30 pm time slot will be featuring the climax of the fight between the MC and the final boss.

All of a sudden…

Tang! Tang! Tang! Tang! Tang!

"Good afternoon!" a female voice said.

Someone was knocking outside of the gate and it was followed by a greeting.

Both Nathan and Nadia recognized the voice.

It was Karen.

Nadia peeked through the windows.

Tang! Tang! Tang! Tang! Tang!

"Good afternoon!"

She looked away and returned her gaze at the TV.

"Go open the gate."

Although Nathan felt a bit annoyed, he didn't dare to show it or else. If he did, the best scenario would be him just getting a spanking. The worst one, he won't be allowed to watch cartoons for at least a week.

He got up and went for the front door.

Tang! Tang! Tang! Tang! Tang!

"Good afternoon!"

"I'm coming!" Nathan said as he was trying to search for his slippers outside of the front door.

He found them and wore them before heading to the gate.

Kraaang!

Brrr…

He unlocked the gate and then pulled it open.

He saw Karen standing with her hands behind her back with a big smile on her face.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Guess what."

"What?"

She pulled someone from the side and then said, "Tada!"

"Tada!" the person said with a big smile on his face.

It was Vincent.

Nathan's eyes widened and he smiled before saying, "You're back!"

"Yeah! Come on, let's go to my house. I have some new toys."

Nathan was about to agree but stopped and then said, "But the anime shows…"

"Let's just watch it at my house."

"Uh…"

Of course, Nathan has tried watching at Vincent or Karen's house.

However…

When it comes to Karen's house, most of the time Kara will be watching children's cartoons or else she will cry.

Meanwhile, in Vincent's house, it's a hit and miss. Although Karen and Vincent also enjoy watching anime shows, they weren't that really interested in it. It's at best just a passing thought to them. They would rather do other things because there were too many toys to play with at Vincent's house.

Karen grabbed Nathan's arm and said, "Come on! Let's go already!"

"Yeah, come on!" said Vincent.

Seeing their excited faces, Nathan finally surrendered and said, "Let me ask permission from my mother first."

"Okay, hurry up!" said Karen.

Nathan rushed back to his house.

"Mother, Karen and I are going to Vincent's house."

"Vincent?" she said as she looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Didn't he and his family went on vacation?"

"Yeah. He just got back today."

"Don't bother them. Let them rest. They should be very tired from their trip."

"They're already here. Look, Vincent is outside the gate waiting for me."

Nadia peeked through the window.

Karen and Vincent noticed Nadia peeking so they waved and said, "Good afternoon, aunt Nadia!"

"Oh hello, the both of you. Vincent, when did you arrive?"

"Just now, aunt Nadia."

"Aren't you tired from your trip?"

"No, auntie. I'm fine. Can we play with Nathan, auntie?"

Nadia turned to Nathan and said, "Be sure to come home before dinner."

"Yes," Nathan said and then rushed to Karen and Vincent.

***

Vincent's house was a two-story house designed like a villa surrounded with high walls about 10ft tall with sharp glass shards on top and two red gates -- a small one and a big one.

They had two cars, one each for his parents, a German Shepperd, two maids and a small swimming pool.

Nathan, Vincent and Karen removed their slippers before entering the house.

Upon entering, they saw Vincent's mother talking to one of the maids.

Vanessa noticed them coming in so she waved at them as she said sweetly, "Oh hello, kids!"

"Good afternoon, aunt Vanessa," Nathan and Karen stopped for a moment and greeted respectfully before following Vincent.

If Nathan was going to describe Vincent's mother, she was a perfect beauty -- inside and out. Moreover, just with the way how she talks and moves, one could immediately tell she grew up in a rich family and was definitely a well-educated and classy woman. It was so obvious that one couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious when talking to her.

And another thing that Nathan noticed about her is that she always smell great.

"Where are you guys going?"

"We're just going to my room and play, mom," said Vincent said as he made his way to the stairs.

"Do you guys want some snacks?"

"Mom!" Vincent said with an irritated tone.

"Okay, honey," Vanessa said and smiled.

Ka-cha!

Vincent opened the door to his room.

It was a large room, at least twice the size of Nathan's room.

There were many toys, a TV set and also an air-con.

Putting aside the toys and TV set, Nathan's house didn't even have an air-con.

As for Karen, only her parents' room had an air-con and some nights she would sleep there.

"Look, my dad bought me this," Vincent said as he went over to a box near the TV set and started opening it.

Nathan read the name printed on the box.

'PlayerConsole 3…'

Karen went over to Vincent and said, "Don't you already have this?"

"No, this is different. The one that I have is PlayerConsole 2 or PC2. This is PC3."

"They aren't the same?"

"No, they're not. You can't play PC2 games on the PC3. But on PC3 you can play PC1, PC2 and PC3 games."

"Oh…"

"My dad even bought me 10 games and 2 extra controllers," he said as he gave the plastic bags filled with the PC3 games to Karen.

"Oh… Cool…" she said as she checked the cases of the games.

"Nathan, help me disconnect the PC2 from the TV."

"Umm… Can we watch anime first?" said Nathan.

"Just watch later. Let's try this new toy first," said Karen.

"But --"

"Come on, it's not like we won't be able to watch anime," said Karen.

Nathan was starting to feel a little annoyed.

"Let's just turn on the TV while we set things up," said Vincent.

"Great idea!" said Karen.

"Okay," said Nathan and then turned on the TV.

He immediately went to the channel where the anime shows he was waiting for were going to be aired.

It was a commercial break.

'It's okay. The show I'm waiting for is the second one. Maybe we can pause the game for a moment and watch it,' Nathan thought.

"Hey, come on, help us," said Karen.

"Look, I'm already disconnecting the PC2," said Nathan.

***

5 minutes later.

The PC3 was connected to the TV and they were playing.

To be exact, Vincent and Karen were playing while Nathan was watching on the side with a bored look on his face.

The game they were playing was a robot fighting game.

"Shoot! Shoot! Why is this robot not shooting?!" said Karen.

"Haha~! I got you now!" said Vincent.

Nathan yawned and then thought, 'I should've just stayed at home and watched anime.'

Karen's character finally died.

She put down the controller and said, "This game is boring!"

"You're only saying that because you lost~!"

Nathan yawned once again.

"Nathan, your turn," said Vincent.

"Be sure to defeat him!" Karen said to Nathan.

"I'll try," Nathan said as he grabbed the controller.

About a minute later, Nathan had the same ending as Karen.

"Looks like I'm going to end up being the undefeatable champion!" Vincent said with a big smile on his face.

"This is unfair. Unlike you, we can't practice like you!" said Karen.

"This is a new game. What practice are you talking about?" said Vincent.

"No, what I mean is --"

"Here," Nathan said and gave the controller to Karen.

She took the controller and said, "Whatever. Let's change the game!"

Nathan got up, went to Vincent's bed and sat down.

"But we just started," said Vincent.

"I said let's change the game!" said Karen.

"Okay, which one?"

She pointed at one of the CD cases and said, "That one."

Vincent grabbed it and switched the game.

This time it was a racing game.

And just like the previous game, the result was still the same.

"This game is boring!"

"Is that what you're going to say with every game?" Vincent said and smiled.

Karen got up, gave the controller to Nathan and said, "Defeat him!"

"Yeah, I'll try."

"No, do it!"

"Okay, okay!"

Unfortunately, it was the same result as well.

Karen took the controller from Nathan and then said, "Change the game!"

"Which one this time?"

She pointed at another CD case and said, "This one!"

"Are you sure? It's --"

"I said this one!"

Vincent switched the game.

"Where's my character? Why can't I choose?" Karen said as she kept pressing the [Start] and [X] buttons on the controller.

"This is a single-player game..." said Vincent.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried but you didn't let me."

"..."

"Here," Vincent said as he gave his controller to her.

Seeing Vincent gave the Player 1 controller to Karen, Nathan immediately thought, 'I can use this opportunity. They can play here together while I go home and watch anime. I just hope father is still sleeping because if he's awake and is watching TV, I won't have any chance to take it from him.'

He got up and said, "Guys, I think I'm going to head home already. I'm going to watch anime."

Both of them turned to him and said, "What?"

"I really want to watch anime. Today is the final fight," said Nathan.

Karen put down the controller and said, "Nathan, don't go. Vincent just got back today."

"Yeah, Nathan. Don't be like that. I just got back today and I really missed you guys and I was hoping we could spend some time together."

"It's not like we can't do this tomorrow," said Nathan.

Vincent got up and said, "Well, if you really want to go, let's go to my mom first. She bought some souvenirs for you guys."

"Uh… Do I really have to talk to your mom? Can't you just hand it over to me here?"

"My mom has it. Come on," he said as he went over to the door.

"Uh…"

Karen put down the controller, got up and said, "Since Nathan is going home, I'm going home as well."

Vincent turned to Karen and said, "You're also leaving?"

"Yeah. It's not like I can win against you anyway. It's boring."

"Okay, since both of you want to go home, then I can't do anything about it…"

Nathan suddenly felt bad.

*********************************************

Author's thoughts:

Hello, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading!

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