Chapter 10: Dinner with friends

It’s 5.35, I head towards the place Lance texted me earlier. He lives in a rather big apartment complex 40 minutes away from campus.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

“Come on in! it’s open!”

I enter the apartment, there’s a small hallway with a door to the side containing a single bed bedroom. There’s also a small living room with a kitchen attached if you follow the hallway.

Looks like Fudo beat me to it, he’s already sitting on the living room couch, playing with a cute little girl not older than 12.

“Ooh no you got me Sakura haha- Oh, hey Reo! Lance already started cooking since it took you so long.”

“Yeah, Sara was hogging the bathroom all afternoon. It’s seriously a pain living with her.”

“Bro, you have no idea how jealous I am, she’s a real beauty. Aren’t you afraid of receiving a bad co-habitation score if you guys are constantly arguing?”

I sit myself down opposite from Fudo and his sister.

“We haven’t received a score yet, I think they’re waiting for the support-Machia to join before they will start evaluating us, although they’re just really delaying a score of 0… Speaking of beauties, aren’t you also living with one Fudo~”

“I don’t want to hear about it! He does look kind of good in those dresses though… NO, not like that! *SIGH* just my luck to room with a trap…”

“Big-bro, what’s a trap?”

“D-Don’t worry about it Sakura, you’re too young for that stuff.”

“Sakura’s already 9 years old! Stupid big-bro.”

While Fudo’s arguing with his little sister I decide to check up on Lance.

“Hey man, what are you cooking? I’m surprised it looks this good.”

“Ha, it better look good, I’ve been living on my own since I was 19 and it’s just a simple oven-lasagna.”

He pauses for a moment, it looks like he’s contemplating something, but then he starts talking again:

“Can you now tell me why you suddenly proposed a gathering Reo? Or is it really just to blow of some steam?

“I can’t get anything past you, can I Lance? Ha Ha… I wanted to ask a favor of you…”

“Yeah of course, we’re friends, what do you need?”

“It’s kind of difficult to do here, can the two of us go to your room after dinner?”

“Reo !? I-I’m sorry, I’m just not into you like that.”

“Obviously not like that!”

“I know, I know. I was just messing with you man. Let’s discuss in my room after dinner.”

…

Damn, Lance can really cook a mean lasagna.

“Hey Reo, can you help me with my assignment? Let’s go to my room. Fudo you can stay here and play with Sakura, I’m afraid you won’t be of any help.”

“Hey are you calling me stupid?”

“N-no no of course not, but you’re already in the wood [III] class so you probably don’t remember this assignment.”

“Fine I get it, but if you need any help with your practical, you can always rely on me! I’ll start doing the dishes with Sakura then.”

“Alright, thanks Fudo.”

…

“So, what do you need from me Reo? You better not confess here. My heart just isn’t ready yet~”

“Come on man stop joking around… But I’m serious about my request, this might be very rude of me, but I’ll need to look at your fireball-gift-cartridge… alone… I know it’s not very reasonable of m-“

“Okay!”

“Seriously? You know I could just run away with your cartridge after you hand it to me right? You’re not even going to ask me why I need it?”

“We all got some secrets Reo… even me… all I can tell you right now though, is that this fireball-cartridge isn’t my gift-cartridge. Because I’m keeping secrets from you, I don’t expect you to tell me yours either. And if you run away with my cartridge… Well, I’ll just tell your roommate you secretly took some nude photos of her, she would definitly hunt you down, whatever the cost.”

“Y-You wouldn’t…”

“Not unless you really fuck me over Ha-Ha.”

“Don’t worry man, I just need half an hour alone with the cartridge… I’ll tell you everything when I can, I promise…”

“No worries man, take your time.”

After Lance leaves the room, I take the cartridge and insert it in my chest… nothing happens for a while until a window appears:

Yellow Revealed Cartridge: Fireball

Store

Eject

Analyze

There isn’t a programming option... In its place, there’s only an Analyze option.

…

Let’s check it out.