“Have you ever heard of Plot?”

“No, I-” “Of course u didn’t! When was the last time you used your phone for something that wasn’t receiving calls and checking your bank account?”

“...”

“That's what I thought.”

As they waited for the pizza delivery to arrive at the entrance gate, the conversation between him and the lady, who was just a bit shorter than him, began to turn to preaching.

“U should check the App Catalog on ur phone, isn’t it more advanced than mine? There are a lot of mobile games with proper stories, u know? That’s called having a Plot.”

“Hm, and what about it?”

Sigh~

“U were cuter... The point is that in those stories there are some clear signals that let the player know when a character will lose or even die. That’s called Death Flag by the player community.”

‘Player...’

“So, what got you into that subject? Weren’t you complaining about me buying soda just now?”

“Shh, shh. That’s ur problem, u’re too thoughtless. Every time. Every damn time you leave for that job that u don’t even need to do, u send me a mere, ‘I’m going’ message. And that’s only because I complained about u leaving without saying a thing.”

‘If you know that then why are you complaining?’

“You also told me to not spend money willy-nilly... and to cook when I’m hungry.”

“That I did. But what, you thought that just because I was out for the day I’d never see a problem in you drinking more soda and ordering pizza for dinner? Drink some water for duck’s sake.”

“...Okay.” “Oh, great. Now u’re gonna ignore me till I’m silent, such a mature adult that u are.”

“...”

He wasn't sure what to say, so he looked to both sides of the road. There were cars coming and going all the time, however, the same couldn’t be said about the delivery bike he was waiting for.

He glanced at her and she still seemed mad, pouting even.

‘Hm... ah, this is a good chance.’

“So, Lara.”

He felt a bit anxious after calling her name. What if it was visible? Wouldn’t it be weird? Maybe it was better to step back for now? Those thoughts emerged in the short period of silence between his call and her response.

“What?”

“About those mobile games...”

Her expression brightened at the mere mention of mobile.

“...do they also have stuff like, quest information?”

{Displaying the Quest List feature.}

Before he could see her reaction to the question, the small rectangular screen popped out of thin air right between them and started to grow to the size of a large TV. He even noticed that the side that was about to touch the wall retracted itself, while the opposite side became larger in exchange.

“...?”

Weirdly enough, there was no audible reaction from her. He wasn’t sure why but it would be the first time that he had seen her become speechless, which would also mean that these notifications and features are visible. The thought of seeing her surprised expression for the first time made him a bit nervous, but he turned around to close the screen nonetheless.

“What was that!”

The expression she had was the angry one but a tier above in aggressiveness. It felt a bit disappointing for him but her reaction was enough.

“Well, you see-” “U ask me something then just ignores what I say and turns around? Is that funny to u?”

“Huh?”

...

The conversation came to a stalemate for a lengthy minute there. After all, the one who ended up with a surprised expression was him.

‘I couldn’t hear anything after calling out the quest list, that’s the only answer I can think of...’

It was important to figure out how the system worked, yes. But it wouldn't do any good to leave the situation like this for any longer.

“No, I was just... I’m sorry.”

“Haa, okay. So, why did u ask about it?”

“I just heard something about a mobile game... with a sort of personal information feature?” ‘Sorry, it's a lie.’

“Perso... u mean the profile tab? It’s not that uncommon tho. Do u have any lead more concrete?”

“Wait, is that profile tab a new thing? I never heard of it.”

“Not really? I don’t know about the games u used to play but it’s pretty common on mobile games. It shows ur statistics and others detailed stuff, in dating games, they show ur progress with other characters... and, are you smiling?”

“Quê?”

“Hee, are u that interested in mobile games now? Should I help u with that, Lu-” “My name is Toushiro.”

He blocked her mouth while looking to the sides to make sure no one listened to it. He was just about to glare at her when her eyelids half-closed and her eyebrows dropped slightly, she seemed annoyed but that didn’t stop her from licking his hand.

“What- Why you.” “Tastes sweet.”

‘How...!’

He took a step away from her side, and from the corner of his eyes, he could see a motorcycle with a container on the back approaching. It was only because they slowed down to check the address that he noticed the brand on their jacket.

“They’re here, you can go now.”

“Why should I?”

“Who is gonna carry the pizza?”

“Me?”

“As if.”

They parked in-between two cars, picked up the pizza box in the container and a small machine then walked up to the couple after noticing Toushiro waving.

“Here you go, sir.”

The young man let Lara hold the pizza box, while Toushiro paid by touching his card on the blinking screen at the middle of the machine. After confirming the payment went through he just said, “Good evening,” and drove away.

“Must be a new model.” “Does it matter?”

Toushiro shook his head.

“Anyways, keep your back straight for a bit.”

“What for-”

He pulled her down by the shoulders, causing her to slightly bend her knees. Placed the pizza box on top of her head and opened it right then and there.

“It’s looking good.”

“I can’t believe u did that.”

“I told you to go, no?”

Mumble, Mumble.

He closed the box and let her do as she pleased after listening to her murmurs with a perplexed expression.

‘...I’d better not try to understand what that was.’

Was his only thought as they got back to his apartment.

Once they got to the third floor they stopped in front of the door under the number three-zero-three, and she had him hold the pizza box while she unlocked the door.

“I knew it. Are u so lazy that u’d only lock it with one turn?”

‘I was coming back soon anyway...’

Toushiro averted his gaze, without voicing his reply, as it would only bring more reasons for her to complain. Instead, he got inside before her and took off the sandals at the entrance.

After getting inside he placed the pizza box on the kitchen counter and took the soda out of the bags before storing them into the fridge.

Click-

“I’mma take a shower.”

“Okay.”

She walked through the room turning the lights on while getting to her bedroom, going as far as opening the glass doors to let the air in.

He set up the plates on the counter, brought some glasses, and proceeded to cut a slice of pizza for himself after washing his hands. Both the bacon and the cheese sides were stuffy like a small slice of cake, but soft like marshmallow to the bite.

The cheese stretched like a thread connecting his mouth to the pizza on the first bite. He savoured the pure taste of it, before putting some ketchup over the slice he was holding and taking another bite.

The last bite was a piece of the border that had catupiry as filling. It wasn’t as soft as the insides of the pizza, but this creamy feel, was for some, the refreshment that they needed so they could enjoy the pizza all over again.

After savouring the after-taste for a bit, he breathed out in relief. Before turning the cutter to the bacon side, he poured some more soda into his glass.

“Did you really leave these rags in- Hey, why are you eating already?”

“There’s plenty...?”

She bundled the dirty clothes into a ball and threw it at him. It was a hard, quick decision between blocking it to protect his pizza or avoiding it and keeping himself clean... or he could just grab it in the air.

“...”

“What?”

“I’ll wait, so... go wear something.”

Toushiro signalled to her towel-covered body, with water dripping from the ends of her long brown hair and wetting the wooden floor.

“U’d better wait.”

He closed the pizza box while watching Lara go into her room with heavy steps. The thought of her slipping occurred to him and caused him to muffle a laugh.

‘Why did she wash her hair today?’

“Oh well, I will bring the condiments she likes as an apology.”

After... around fifteen minutes? Lara came back to the living room in a dress fitting to her not-so-slim body. The dark blue one-piece dress, along with black low-heels shoes, gave the impression of a real lady approaching him.

“Did u really wait?”

“...?”

Weirdly enough, her voice was what snapped him back to reality.

“I did, but...”

“Hm? What is it?... Oh, are u curious about my attire?”

‘Saying it in english doesn’t make it more impressive but...’ “Maybe?”

She sat down beside him and supported her chin with the back of her hand. Toushiro waited patiently for the response while staring at her.

“Well, u know...”

...And suddenly she seemed flustered.

“It’s because I- I just felt like it?”

He let a chuckle escape his mouth as he opened the pizza box. Except for the one missing slice, the pizza was still a beautiful meal to the eye.

“Ok, sure. Let’s enjoy the pizza while you’re still ‘feeling like it’.”

With the pizza cutter, he took the honor of cutting up a slice and placing on her plate, along with her favorite condiments. She had a similar reaction to his after taking a bite of the mozzarella side.

“It’s so good!”

“I know, right? I even like it as is, without ketchup.”

“Mhm, I still prefer to top it with mayo.”

“I know.”

After saying it, Toushiro became silent for some time before raising the question.

“Should I download a mobile game?”

“Muffu?“

“No, just eat first...”

After hurrying to eat and gulp down her drink. Lara picked up her phone and moved her seat near his just to browse on the online game store.

“Okay, so, I know u like RPGs, so I recommend this game for starters.”

“Track Fight?”

“No, it’s Track And Fight, they excluded the middle word on the store but it shows in-game.”

‘It’s a turn-based RPG with search features...?’

“These preview images look very nice. The path-find and the skill tree, is this a famous game?”

“No way, it’s quite old, you can’t even matchmake parties on it anymore. But the single player is fun enough.”

He nodded while waiting for it to download. And just as she said, the in-game contents weren’t any attractive or real unique, it lacked an intro scene but had a not-so-boring loading screen. The tutorial was story integrated so it was supposed to feel forced, like spending your money on an item just for the sake of it, but it didn’t.

The game’s objective was to have the player grow into a pathfinder, everyone started at the same point but branched out during the skill tree while actual items became less important as your skills grew.

“Honestly, it’s not bad. I don't know about the other methods but the tail-chaser branch is great with enough patience. Having to master far-sight before it doesn’t feel like a waste now.”

“I’m glad u’re enjoying it.”

“Yeah, thanks Lara.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“It even has the profile you told me about. I just have to go back to the lobby to show... profile.”

{Displaying the user’s personal information...}

{Decide upon an username: ___. (Max of 13 characters) Warning: It cannot be changed afterwards.}

Chapter 3 - Play Mobile, or Immobile Play.