“Oh.”

Ryu removed his gear and looked around awkwardly. The intricacies of social interaction weren’t exactly his forte.

“Don’t worry, you beat me,” said the girl, walking towards Ryu. “C’mon.”

Ryu trailed after her as she exited the crowd, which quickly found more people to throw into the ring.

“I’m Kana,” said the girl, stopping once the two of them had left the crowd.

Ryu looked at her and wondered why such a pretty girl would be in an arcade beating people up. Maybe he was sexist or some other overly used term, but he’d have thought she’d be out on the street window shopping or something along those lines. The girl looked at him expectantly.

“Oh, I’m Ryu.”

“Mhm… so you play VR right? What’s your ID? I’ll add you.”

“Uh, do you have something to record this on?”

Kana got out her phone and looked at Ryu, telling him to go on.

“It’s rhyu#1477.”

“I’ll add you next time I logon,” said Kana, putting her phone away.

“Cool, I’ll see you then,” said Ryu, turning on his heel to leave.

“Are you leaving?”

Ryu stopped and turned back. “Sorry, I thought we were finished.”

Kana nodded left to right. “No, no, it’s fine. You can go if you want.”

Ryu considered staying, but he really wasn’t sure where any of this was going. “Thanks, I’ll probably be online tonight, well, I’m online most nights.”

Right after saying it Ryu felt a little ashamed. He’d basically just told Kana he did nothing but play games all day. Not exactly uncommon in these times, but it still wasn’t impressive. Then again, what chance did he have with a girl like her? Is what he thought.

***

For the second day in a row Ryu arrived home early, and this time he found Caragh and Ruri both in the kitchen cooking something up.

“Did you finish early again?” said Caragh, as he stepped past the door.

“Err, you could say that.”

Caragh stopped chopping something and looked to Ryu. He knew that meant “tell me more”.

“I quit.”

Caragh opened her mouth, but Ryu beat her to it.

“My boss was going to fire me anyway.”

“Oh,” said Caragh.

He could see the expression on her face, subtle but evident. The slight drop at the corners of her lips and the lowering of her pupils. Their families budget, the very food they were cooking at that moment, it would all have to be reconsidered. Cutbacks would need to be made.

“I’ll find another job,” said Ryu.

Caragh put on a smile and nodded her head. She didn’t- couldn’t, tell him anything else. She'd gotten so used to having Ryu’s help that going back to how things once were seemed impossible.

“Dinner won’t be ready for awhile,” said Caragh.

Ryu took one last look at his mother before leaving for his room. Once he’d shut his door he threw his bag on the ground and took a seat in his chair, leaning back into it and staring at the ceiling. While sitting his eye’s jumped to his headset.

“Guess I won’t be gaming tonight…”