A few days had passed since the party. Hoku found himself drowning in awkwardness whenever he was around Relia. And, any time she tried to approach him after class, he'd find himself making all kinds of excuses, or one of his other friends would swoop in and drag him away for a conversation.
One day after school, Hoku managed to slip away from the classroom unnoticed. Or so he thought. As he would be caught moments later at the gate by Relia.
"Hoku," she waved.
"Have you seen the new Beast Battle game?" She asked bluntly.
"Relia," he blurted, slowing down his pace and meeting her at the gate.
"I'm going to the library, I really gotta study," he muttered insincerely.
"Oh uh..."
"I could join you."
Hoku took some time to come up with a response.
"-If that's okay," she finished.
"I really gotta concentrate."
"I won't distract you, dude," she laughed, trying to hide a voice affected by offence.
"I really need to study too," she whispered.
Hoku sighed heavily.
"On second thought, I might just study at home, it's easier, ya know," he said unconvincingly, moving past her.
Relia didn't respond verbally; she just looked sad.
Hoku observed her expression with one lowered eye and scratched his head. His words waited for him to make up his mind.
"We can... hang out after school, on the day of the test."
Relia's mouth softly shifted into an earnest smile.
"I'd love to."
Later, after they took the test, Hoku found him self sitting after class, face planted to the table, sat next to the girl in the window seat once again. The girl he felt he betrayed in some way or another days prior.
Relia didn't comment on his slumped state of dejection. The test was pretty hard after all. She instead eagerly reached into her bag to pull out her DS.
"Did-" she said, breaking the silence.
Hoku looked up slightly, not looking at her, though.
"Never mind," she halted.
She opened up the DS, then closed it, then opened it again, fiddling and flipping the top up and down.
"So how have you been lately?" She asked.
"Fine, I guess."
"I see."
She softly exhaled at something in her head.
"That's good."
"Hoku-san, very good indeed." She joked with her arms crossed.
A silence followed, and some time after, Hoku got up from his seat, making Relia observe him carefully to measure his intentions.
He travelled to the front of his desk and stood idly as he stretched his arms up and exhaled.
"You mentioned the new BB game before, right?" He recollected.
"Oh yeah, that's right. Have you played it yet?" she asked, pushing her DS to the side.
He moved his hands down behind him and leaned back on his desk, eyes towards the whiteboard, avoiding contact.
"Yeah, I uh... I actually beat it yesterday," he muttered.
He figured she might be mad considering his whole studying excuse.
"Wow", she exclaimed.
Hoku tried to hide his smile.
"Already?"
You're fast," she said, voice deepening as if they were in a sword fight and he just teleported behind her.
Hoku scoffed. Almost laughter.
"So how was it? Any good?" She asked.
Hoku nodded.
"Nice."
Hoku looked to the floor in thought for a moment, then, without moving his head, he asked.
"So what about you?"
"Mmm, I'm not too sure exactly where I'm at, maybe the second town," she said, excitement creeping into her voice.
Hoku laughed a little.
"I meant how you're doing."
"Oh."
"Uh, fine. just like you," she answered.
"Yeah," he said as his chuckle faded.
Relia started to side-eye Hoku with a bored look, like somewhere in between suspicion and confusion.
Out of the blue, she stood up, and without a word, she manhandled and grabbed the back of her chair and dragged it audibly through the room like some kind of horror movie villain, weaving it out from her table, moving it closer to the front of the classroom.
Once she reached the front of Hoku, who shuddered knowing that he could no longer look down as he would just be looking at her legs, she placed her chair backwards so that it rested her arms on the top of the backrest and sat reversed, facing directly towards him.
Randomly, she puffed out her cheeks, making a strange face.
"Uh?" He output, looking around in confusion.
After a second or two, she sighed with closed eyes, making her weird expression evaporate.
She opened her eyes and intently stared at Hoku.
"I can't keep being awkward for the rest of my life."
"Especially not around you."
That got Hoku's attention as he silently matched her gaze.
"Hoku, listen."
"You're my best friend."
"And I uh think you're really cool."
"What I'm trying to say is-"
"Every time we hang out, it's like the highlight of my day or something."
"But recently, I don't know why. But I feel like I've been kind of distant with you."
"You?" Hoku interrupted brazenly, his earlier apprehension was murdered by the absurdity of her statement.
"Hmm"
"Relia, if anything, I've been the distant one... ever since the party"
"The party?"
"Oh, right, I forgot about that. How did that go?"
"I uh-"
In the end, Hoku just looked away and shrugged.
Relia squeezed his hands tighter, making Hoku look back at her with a slight blush.
"No, that's no good, we gotta find something we can actually talk about"
Hoku's eyes wandered back to her.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"Games, anime, books," she answered with complete straightness.
"All the greats, huh?" Hoku joked with a smile
"Wait, books? What books do you read?" He asked with a hint of shock.
"Hey, don't sound so surprised, dude, I read."
"What Books? Romance?"
"That's so sexist, why would you just assume-"
Hoku held a smug face of disbelief. Relia deflated.
"Yeah, ok, you got me."
"But is that so wrong?! I can't help it. I know they can be corny at times, but I love my bad boys, and all the ladies."
Hoku smiled.
"Do I fit that bill?" He asked hesitantly
"You?" She asked in shock.
"You wouldn't happen to have a tragic backstory I should know of?"
"I guess I used to be kind of chubby when I was a kid."
"Close enough. Welcome to the club."
The two sat silent for a moment.
"Okay, it's your turn. What do you wanna talk about?"
"Oh, we're taking turns with this shit?" Hoku asked.
"Yup."
"Uh. Uhhh..."
Relia watched him patiently.
"Sorry, I shouldn't put you on the spot, I-"
"No, it's fine. Let me think of something."
Relia showed wide eyes and a slightly agape mouth, which quickly evolved into a smile.
"Do you-"
"No, no. Enough with the questions. I feel like you know everything there is to know about me," she complained.
"Hey, I'm struggling to come up with material. Can you be a bit more supportive here?" He snapped.
"You can't fault me for wanting to know more about my disciple."
"I doubt you wanna hear about baseball and anything else I've got going on"
"Yeah, you're right, I don't wanna hear about that all that stuff."
"Me? But you're the gamer."
"You're a gamer too, aren't you?"
"I'm hereby graduating you from Relia University."
"..."
Hoku struggles to come up with anything, so Relia decided to open her mouth again.
"Hmmm. Do you have any waifus?"
"What nows?"
"You know, like your favourite girls in any of the games I showed you."
"No."
"How come you never give the girlies any love?"
"Why the hell would I? I'm not really into all that shit."
"What shit? Women? Hoku, you should've told me sooner."
"Alright," Hoku chuckles dismissively.
"Well? if you were to reeeally think about it. Do you have any favourites?"
"How about... Jaxie from Blood Prince?"
Hoku hesitated to answer.
"Hey, I flaunt the men all the time, so there's no point in having any shame around me," Relia assured.
"No, she's too noisy, gets on my nerves," he admitted.
"Hmmm, okay."
"What about Opal?"
"She's kinda weird, I guess," he answered.
"Blasphemy. Linsy?"
"She's useless, always getting saved or sidelined"
"I'm flabbergasted."
"Exilia, Kelly, Amadour? the dragon?!"
"Relia, Blood Prince isn't the only game I've played."
"Yes, but it has the best main female cast of any piece of fiction (In my opinion)"
Hoku sighed.
"Uh, well, if I had to pick one of my favourite characters from the game, who happens to be a girl"
"Go on."
"I don't know, maybe Jones."
"Jones?"
"The carrage girl..."
"Where would you like me to take you?" Relia imitates in an English accent.
Hoku shrugged.
"She's not even part of the story, dude," Relia groaned.
"She has no development past refusing to take you to the final boss arena. Barely any real character traits. WHAT CAN YOU POSSIBLY LIKE ABOUT HER?!"
"She's polite, I guess."
"Polite...
"Polite, huh? Interesting. Very interesting, Hoku."
"Yeah? And what's so interesting, Professor Relia?"
"Now I know what kind of girls you like."
Hoku gulped as a drop of sweat manifested on his brow.
"O-ok?"
Relia paused.
"I'll consider it when I recommend your next game."
"You're gonna recommend me a game based on my alleged interest in a fictional NPC?"
"Alleged? You told me, mr. And who knows, next time I recommend you a list of RPGs, I may sneak a dating game in the mix."
Hoku's eyebrows crease at the bizarre assertion. "Please don't."
After a short pause, they both laugh in response.
Once Hoku regains himself, he asks, "So uh. What about you? Do you have any... Wifus,"
"Oh yes! To be honest, every single character in Blood Prince is my precious little baby."
"Jones too?"
"Don't push it."
The sound of chatter and rustling bags escapes the hallway.
"Oh dear," Relia smiled ", and here I thought Opal would be right up your alley."
"She's always switching sides, and she's constantly trying to get the main character to give in to his inner darkness. What's up with that?"
"Yeah. don't you kind of wanna see that happen too?"
"It's messed up. Besides, I thought the story was way better off when the MC was in control of his own actions. "
"Okay, well. You also need to consider the fact that she's kind of stacked. So I mean if you weigh the options,"
"Uah. " A sound escaped Hoku as he was about to say something, until his train of thought was completely eliminated.
"Alright, that's ridiculous."
"What? She is, isn't she?"
"You know what? You're on timeout, in fact, you're getting benched for the rest of the match."
"Why?"
"I can say what I want cause I'm a girl."
"You're a guy, so you can't," she teased with her tongue out.
"Well, I'm putting it on record that I did not put her boobs into consideration when determining whether I like her character."
Relia held in her laughter. "I can't believe you just said that you perv."
"Oh, ok. See, now this has gotta be some form of discrimination."
"But seriously, while we're on the topic of tiddies-"
"Relia." Hoku sighed, "You can't have seriously and tiddies in the same sentence."
"Hear me out."
"Oh god."
"Terin's mom."
Hoku was about to scold Relia, but then he lingered for a second.
"...I can see..."
"You see it, right?" She asked excitedly.
Hoku nodded lightly.
Relia was about to burst out laughing, but before she could.
"I should warn you, fiend, my mother was the greatest knight commander in the history of Asterias," Hoku imitated quietly.
Relia was stunned.
"What?" Hoku asked.
"You know if he were real, he would kill you for saying that about his beloved mother"
"Oh my fucking god, Hoku! That was a perfect Terin impression," she outburst, struggling to hold her laughter back.
"Seriously?"
"Do it again."
"I sho-" Hoku paused to get the right tone "I should warn you, fiend-"
Suddenly, the door of the classroom slid open.
"Oola la love is in the air," an interruption came from the door.
Three students entered the room. Hoku's friends: Milly, Anderson and the other th.
Hoku stood up in an instant to greet them
Relia stared at the empty space where his face had just been. Her gleeful smile slowly started to drown out into a dark glare as her eyes remained glued to the spot.
"Hey, you guys are still here?" Hoku asked.
"Yeah. Milly dropped her phone in the science lab," Anderson complained.
"Anyway We're going out for drinks, you comin'?"
"Hmph," Relia muttered under her breath, making the group partially acknowledge her existence.
"What's the occasion?" Hoku asked.
"Celebrating us all failing that test," Anderson sighed.
"Speak for yourself, "the other girl in the group commented
"So you coming or what, man?"
Hoku looked away, and Anderson picked up on his hesitance.
"You can bring her if you want."
Milly's face turned sour.
"No, she doesn't really like these kinds of things," Hoku answered.
"Who said that. I'll come," Relia said plainly, making Hoku look at her sourly.
The group, aside from Milly, whistled and jeered at Hoku, who stood cluelessly with a look of uncertainty, before Anderson grabbed his shoulder and the group marched onwards to the door.
Relia packed away her things and followed behind. She took one last look at her seat at the window before turning her head and closing the classroom door behind her.