First return, second week - 3

Afternoon at an unknown day.

I'm currently at a park.

There was a sandbox with brown sand, a see-saw, a metal swing set with three seats, a dome where children can come in and hide, a five-feet slide, and the like.

Three children remained playing while the others already got fetched by their respective guardians.

There were about seven wooden benches with backrests situated around the park.

I'm currently sitting on one of them, and beside me there was a girl with short hair that reached about lower than the neck. She wore a yellow jacket and blue jeans.

I stood and went towards the nearby ice cream stand that was about to close.

"Two cones, chocolate please."

The server nodded and started scooping as I brought out cash from my pocket.

I exchanged the first ice cream with the exact amount of cash, and took the other one with the free hand.

I returned towards the bench where I stood from, with two cones of chocolate ice cream in both hands.

"Here."

I handed over both of them and let her pick, and she frowned before taking one.

"Too bad."

"Why?"

"I wanted mango."

"Oh."

The sunset turned the surroundings in a shade of orange, and felt nostalgic.

I watched the scene with the girl, and then I heard a familiar music.

The music started to become louder, and the girl's face became blurry.

"Wake up!"

Before I could make sense of my surroundings, everything turned blinding to the eyes as Reika tickled me.

I can't even open my eyes from the sudden attack, and I could only feel pain while I tried to fend off myself from the relentless finger that kept poking my sides.

I stood and searched for my missing phone and pressed on the power button. Seeing the time almost made me kick this sister of mine and send her back to sleep.

"It's only 3!"

"Shush! What's your password?"

I didn't even notice the PC turned on, and she wasn't able to get further from the login screen.

"Ugh..."

I typed in my password and opened the game.

Good thing it's already booted for quite a while, and everything loaded already.

With my account on auto login, it proceeded smoothly towards the character select screen.

"Wait!"

Before I could click on my GK, Reika grabbed my hand and moved the mouse towards the character I used the least-----the newly made Leon.

Ever since I've played this game, I refused to play the Leon class since it was fairly new, and playing an OP character doesn't mean that it'll be stronger than everything. I always wanted to pit myself against the odds, and using the GK was that path.

Going back on topic, Reika clicked on it as if there was no tomorrow.

"Don't spam it, it'll make the game load slower..."

"Fine, fine. Slow-ass metal chunk."

It took about thirty seconds before the game finally loaded, but it wasn't fast enough for my sister's temper to reach its limit.

"You wait like this everyday?"

"Not if I don't turn it off."

"Are you telling me to waste electricity?"

I could predict that our conversation flowed towards a one-sided beating so I just shrugged my shoulders and checked the guy from yesterday.

"Havi123, Havi123..."

"Don't scroll it, let me filter!"

I tried to take the mouse away from her hand and filtered the offline contacts, and there it is. The third name on the list.

"Go on, message him!"

"Don't you think it's strange? I mean it's only 3 AM and he's online."

"Heck, even you stayed up once and kept repeating 'kill, kill, kill...' and now you tell me that's strange?"

Well, she's right.

"Wait... They probably hadn't even met at school yet."

My words made her pause before she slowly stood properly, walked towards the door, and closed it.

"Don't tell me... oh no..."

I heard her muffled voice as it travelled towards my room saying, "I'll stay for another night!"

After that I heard a different door close, along with the stove turned on.

I opened the door just enough to see through the gap, and I saw her standing in front of the stove as it heated up the kettle.

"You need your coffee. Make me some, too."

She let out a faint sigh before replying with an affirmative.

I lied on my bed and tried to sleep more, but it wasn't long enough before the alarm sounded.

My dreams didn't even kick in yet, and I have to force myself to get up.

I went out the room and saw Reika using the same clothes that she used from the other day.

"I prepared you a boxed lunch. Wash everything before you go."

Looking towards the sink, I could only scratch my head with a bitter smile before she went out the house without any sort of parting words.

That's the way she is, and it would have been strange if she somehow did something unexpected.

In addition to my usual routine, I now have to clean up the dishes that she left from preparing food for us both.

Of course I was really grateful about it, but the sudden change of pace made me slower than usual, and as an effect, I reached the bakery quite late and there were already fewer people.

"Woke up late?" the madam asked, and handed me the bread I pointed at. There were barely any left and the sun was already starting to rise.

"Not really, but that also works."

"Here you go, you could eat it on the way, too."

I gave the exact amount and bit on the bread which wasn't that hot anymore.

"Why are you late?"

I was just about to turn around the corner when a familiar girl's voice sounded.

"Why are you here?"

Moriana was at the corner, partially hidden from view. I walked a few steps and saw her in uniform. There was a crumpled plastic on her other hand, and the other one held her bag.

"I planned to give you back that poem that you lended me, but seeing you late changed my mind. Hmph!"

"C'mon, I have my reasons..."

I could only try to plead for my poem as we walked towards the school, but my attempts were futile and she did not even say a single word.

Knowing her personality, I didn't pester her anymore and walked by her side and observed her instead.

Seeing a pretty girl early in the morning lifts up the mood of a young man such as myself, after all.

We reached the school and I couldn't see the guard anymore.

Everything went normal as usual, besides from the fact that Moriana was with me, which garnered the attention of almost every people after we entered the gates.

I wasn't so dense that I couldn't feel the stares of admiration, shock, envy, and probably even hatred.

It's not like I wanted this attention, but since she somehow waited for me at the corner, I can't help but accompany her to do her justice.

She let out a sigh as we rose upwards the stairs to our classroom before starting to talk.

"I've had enough of these stares, but it's not so bad once in a while."

"Why?"

"They won't stop even when I tell them to. Maybe I'll have to just find myself a real boyfriend for these thugs to stop bugging me."

I couldn't say anything to those words, and there was only silence until we reached the classroom with already a few students.

I dare not say that she's trying to make me court her at this instant, as she already rejected me a lot of times already. Had I not tried to bug her everyday, maybe she would've agreed. This time had no room for negotiation either, and the past events from last week didn't mean that she's becoming to like me.

It was all full of coincidences, after all.

I wasn't entirely stupid that I wouldn't be able to think of the past days we've been together. The conversation we had each morning, the bread, the day she showed me her casual clothes, then her unknown review from the poem I sent, and this morning...

But could that all become something for her to consider as important? Can I consider those things similar to flags?

My thoughts ran around and I became unaware of my surroundings.

Before I could even take a step on the classroom's separate floor tile, a force pulled on my sleeve and my body spinned a hundred and eighty before meeting Moriana's eyes. It was only after that that I saw her hand lower down after pulling on me.

"Are you deaf?"

I had no idea why she asked that question, but I felt like she was talking to herself a few seconds earlier.

"Nope... Did you said something?"

She stared at my eyes, and I couldn't help but feel a bit timid from how her gaze didn't remove itself from me. A few seconds later, I felt my face turn hot, and my ears went cold.

"Ugh. Nevermind."

"What? What is it? C'mon tell me!"

She walked ahead of me and went towards her desk, then I followed her after tossing my bag towards my seat.

Her eyes only focused in front so I blocked her view.

"Tell me, c'mon, tell me. Tell me. Tell me? Tell me."

She tried to look towards a different direction but I repeatedly went towards her line of sight. This continued until my breath was already starting to get ragged.

"ALRIGHT! Just stop."

I grinned after she finally gave up. She stood and beckoned, then leaned towards my ear. The next words was somehow surprising, but it didn't surprise me that much.

"I'll give you a chance."

"A chance for what?"

"Don't you like me? Weren't you trying to court me?"

"Sorry... for now I can't. Sure I do like you, but---"

I haven't even finished my sentence before she pushed me and sat on her seat again.

She rolled her eyeballs and slanted her mouth with a full indifference compared to earlier.

There were a few who probably heard us, and the thing with rumors is, it tends to be exaggerated as it goes over a lot of mouths and ears, destroying the actual truth.

I only knew what kind of news circulated when recess came, as Aiden and Brian brought their desks and went over for lunch.