Chapter 18: Gaming Buddy

He arrived home, flustered and his nose red from all the crying Suzuki walked and faintly announced. "I'm home." He sat on the floor and slid under the chabudai table (A short-legged table). He laid back on the cold floor and held his forehead.

"Why is this all happening to me?'' He curled up into a ball. "I don't want to sleep right now." He sat up and looked in the direction of his computer.

"Fine, just checking." He got up, curious to know if Nagisa was online. He turned on his desktop and challenged himself. "If she's not online, I will go to sleep, but if she is. Then, I have to sit here until she invites me." His computer screen shone.

As he started the game, it took longer than usual to load, which caused his nerves to start throbbing. His heart raced, and his mind struggled to find common ground with his challenge.

"Okay, never mind." He shook his head in disagreement with the challenge, but he couldn't go back on his words now, so he stuck it through and watched the game boot up. Surprisingly, Nagisa was online.

"Oh, okay, good." He was in relief. He caught himself in such comfort. It made him question what he was saying, "why do I care so much about her?" He asked inwardly. Then suddenly, a notification ringed through his monitor.

Ding!

{invitation from Nagisa}

[Accept? Or Decline?]

Smiling, he huffed in relief and accepted the invite from his lousy gaming buddy.

"Oh, Suzuki-San, want to go on a mission with me?" She asked faintly through the microphone.

"Hmm," replied Suzuki smiling from one ear to another.

"W-What mission are we doing today?" He asked her.

"A good one! A massive one!" She replied, screaming into her microphone.

Annoyed, Suzuki said inwardly, "and here we go again, she's going to break my ears." He chuckled. "But that loudness of hers is what makes her different." Suzuki smiled through all the pain in his heart.

"Hmm, what kind of mission." He asked her to prompt her to get even more excited.

The two made massive progress through the game for the next couple of hours. Then, suddenly the two felt exhausted, so they decided to step out of the game and load into the lobby.

"What a mission, 3000 gold pieces for a silver goblin?" He said as he stretched out.

"Right? That was almost too easy. No wonder everyone thought that was a scam." She said as her black figure in the dark room lit by led-lights stretched into her chair.

"Umm, Nagisa-San, I wanted to ask you something." Said Suzuki through the microphone as he retook a seat.

"What is it?"Nagisa tried to sit up in her chair.

"About your VR set, where did you get it from?" He quickly asked her.

"Ahh, I see that someone's interested." A grin formed from one ear to the other on her face.

"Hmm," Suzuki hmmed in agreeance to her statement.

"That's cool!" She pulled up the website to help guide him.

"Okay, go to NerveTracker.com," She leaned into her desk and planted her face into her palm. "Go to VR selection, and look for nerve tracker set 2.0." She told him more about it. "This is an updated version of mine that I just recently ordered too. I know it's kind of expensive, but it's worth it, trust me." Nagisa wanted him to trust her.

"Expensive? That's not just "kind of" expensive!"

"That's a ton of money!" He screamed inside of his head but soon calmed down and replied.

"Hmm, I'll trust you." He spoke into the microphone nervously. "Uhh, maybe I can sell some of my stocks to rebound for next month's bills." He cried inside while working on the purchase.

While finishing up the order and receiving the receipt to his email, they sat there in the silence of the lobby for a few minutes until Suzuki said. "I-I need to go sleep." In agreement with him, she replied.

"Me too. I'm exhausted." She huffed a cloud of air out.

Suzuki was shy but determined. So, he nervously opened his mouth to speak. "Umm, thank you, Nagisa-San. Goodnight." He hastily said before he hovered over the "leave lobby" button and pressed it before she could even talk.

Once again, Nagisa seemed happy. With her cheeks glowing red, she spoke with a smile into the empty lobby. "Your welcome, Suzuki-San."