I waited, frozen by the door, waiting for my answer that I had come all this way to receive. I listened to see if I could hear anything moving inside, any signs that anyone was even in the room, but all I heard was a loud silence. In that moment I felt defeated, realizing I had come all this way for nothing, but still, my concern for him was there. Just as I was about to throw in the towel and walk away, I heard a shuffle from inside the room, then the door slowly opened. I let my eyes crawl from the floor to look at the person inside the room, and that's when our eyes locked. 

“It's you, Byte” I whimpered as if about to cry. 

“I didn't expect you to come here” he replied in a cold tone. 

“Why wouldn't I? We’re friends, you're my friend! I haven't heard from you all day! You weren't at school, you ignore my messages, and then I turn around and hear rumors that you are seeing someone now? What the hell is going on?” I scolded as I let myself into the room. “This just isn't like you” I whined. Byte closed the door behind us before turning to face me.

“Are you saying you still care for me?” Byte said with a troubled look on his face. 

“Of course I do!” I shouted in anger, “why would you ever think I wouldn't, huh?”

Byte appeared to be beside himself, appearing as if the words I spoke out of rage, worry, and love, were confusing to him. Something wasn't the same, he appeared conflicted. 

“I thought you didn't want me anymore” Byte explained in a sad tone. 

“What? Why would you ever think something like that?” I asked in shock. 

“After you had me take the sponsored room from the school I started to feel lonesome. Even when we would see each other after school things just didn't feel as they were. Although we spent time together virtually every day, things just didn't feel the same. Despite feeling downhearted and isolated, I ended up making friends with a girl from class 1-A, Mei Suzuki. She told me that my test scores were incredible and she would love to be with someone who was smart like me, so she asked me to date her. I had no reason to deny her. I explained to her what happened in the past few months and how I felt about it. She told me that ‘No one who actually cared about me would be in such a hurry to get me out of their home.’ It hurt me to hear and I started to believe that you really didn't care about me anymore.”

My mind became cloudy as the stream of words made its way into my brain. ‘This time’ I thought. ‘This time it really is your fault’ I thought to myself. ‘I should have just told him to say, everything was going so great, and I had to throw it away.’ I wanted to cry, I wanted to bawl my eyes out, and tell him how sorry I was. But now was not the time, I needed to help him see the truth. 

“Byte, do you actually like her?” 

“What do you mean?” he asked. 

“Do you actually have any feelings for her? Do you even know her well enough to even say you could have feelings for her?” 

He didn't respond for a moment, he just looked to the floor and shook his head. 

“I don't know” he finally stammered. 

“Then why are you dating her?” I questioned. 

I could see the confusion in his face, and knew he didn't know the answer for himself. But before he even had a chance to try and explain what he was thinking, I spelled it out for him. 

“She's using you Byte, she doesn't like you, there's now way she would like you! She doesn't even KNOW you.” I explained angrily. “She's using you for intelligence, she doesn't actually care about you.” 

Without warning, something happened that I had never expected to see. An outpouring of emotion from Byte, in the form of tears. I was so surprised that I just stood speechless for a moment, watching it unfold. ‘This emotional response...would have never happened months ago’ I thought. 

“I'm sorry, I've been such a callous fool, I can't believe how jaded I've become” he said between sobs. 

I walked over to him and gave his head a soft rustle. “There there, everything is going to be okay.” I said in a reassuring tone. I hugged him and held myself close to his body as he shed the rest of his tears. After he was done crying we sat on his bed in silence for a few minutes. I didn't want to interrupt him, as I’m sure he had much to think about. After all his eyes were just forced open, and the light was blinding them. 

“What should I do?” Byte asked as he held his head in his hands. 

“I think the only thing you really can do at this point is to rip off the bandaid and break up with her Byte.” I explained with one hand sitting on his shoulder. 

Byte slowly got up from his bed and moved over to his desk to grab his phone. He then sat back down on the bed close beside me and opened his contacts. He sat with her name open on his phone for a good while. ‘This would be hard for anyone to do, let alone someone who has never dated anyone before’ I thought to myself. 

“Alright” he said, his usual tone of voice returning to him as he dialed her number. Just as he brought the phone to his ear, there was a light rapping at the door.