“Alright, now lie down, Iris,” Eniola said to Iris, who had laid on her lap where Eniola was draped on the chair. Currently Rogue was unwinding by playing some weird game where you have to balance on each other while lying down in the air. And Jay got none of it.

He was relaxed on the couch, scrolling through his phone and preparing for tonight. He was happy that Rogue had been admitted to the finals and for once in his life, he was actually being useful. But his excitement had worn down, and all he wanted to do was chill. It was like someone had doused Rogue with laughing gas, and it somehow skipped Jay on its merry way.

Rogue. He had joined a mere week ago, and of course, he wasn’t just going to click into the group right away. Somehow everyone decided he would be Keone 2.0, and he wished to be the opposite.

Rogue had already been friends for three years and had grown comfortable with each other. And it was like he was the odd one out who had been placed for placing sakes. They would always make some weird-ass joke and every time he asked they said it was some inside joke and refused to explain like it was some elaborate code to a grand scheme. He was a part of Rogue, but he wasn’t in Rogue like that.

They all had a part here, like a working machine. Theo was the leader, Lucia was the co-leader, Iris was the motivator and the researcher, and Eniola was clever and inquisitive.

Eniola was clever and inquisitive.

His brain repeated that Jay wasn’t comfortable enough to want to know. Hell, it seemed like every free thought he had, Eniola crept inside and occupied them for longer than they should. When she brushed past him, he felt his skin tingle at the touch. Or how he seemed to seek her out at every chance for, clearly, no reason. He noticed that when she was frustrated; she raised her hands to look bigger. She was beautiful too, with deep dark skin, thick bundles of curly hair, and that and that infuriatingly cute smile she flashed when she’d just destroyed countless asses in Rise of Shadows.

Jesus Christ, was he developing a crush on her?

Jay Yoon did not do crushes.

You’d devote your entire time to this one person with a skittering chance of them liking you back, only to find your soul sucked away and crushed by their rejection.

Hence the name.

No, no, no, no, and hell no. He’d met her a week ago, and she’d always brush him off and avoid him. Even that necessary heroic action, when he saved her from Keone, was just necessary. He would’ve hurt her, and Jay would never forgive himself if he did and could have prevented it. He looked down and didn’t realize that it turned his knuckles white and his tightening grip on his phone. He ungripped them.

They were wading into the friend’s territory by now, and partly because he basically info dumped his entire life story onto her. Besides, she was a smart girl and by the looks of it had traditional parents who wanted her to be a doctor and most likely marry some guy, so what difference would it make if he’d just like her? Hypothetically, of course.

“Remove the stools, Jay,” Theo grunted. Jay rose from the chair and pulled out the first chair from Theo, who began shaking under him. Then Eniola, Iris, then Lucia where they were all balancing on one another and shaking. He stepped back to look, as they all tried to move around with each other in one messy circle.

Finally, Eniola cracked up, and the circle came crashing down, and they all crashed and flopped onto one another. They all broke out into feverish giggles, and Jay felt himself push out a laugh just for laughing sake and to not look like the odd one out.

They eventually laughed themselves to tiredness and Theo retreated himself to his room while the girls challenged one another in Rise of Shadows.

Eniola caught his view and currently, the girls are streaming on Twitch and challenging the team who came to duel them. She looked determined like she was coated with fire and passion to play, which he admired over the last week. She’d enjoy where he was going tonight. But Theo was already coming with him.

His phone suddenly vibrated again and he looked down at the contact, eyes widening, he slowly got up, eyes hyper-focused before stopping against the wall and answering the phone and pressing it to his ear.

“Hello?” he said, in a shaky voice.

“Jay,” his dad’s low and raspy southern accented voice came through the phone.

“Dad,” Jay sighed in a reply.

“Where the hell are you? You’ve been gone for 2 weeks,” his dad responded, in an escalating tone. “I’ve given you your space and allowed you room to breathe, but I’m actually worried right now.

Jay replied in defiant silence, slumping back onto the wall.

“So your vocal cords have stopped working, that’s it,” his dad grumbled, before sighing again. “Where are you? Like really? Are you still in the state? Whose house are you at?”

“I’m not in Texas,” Jay finally replied.

“Then where are you?” his dad replied, raising his voice again.

“I’m in California,” Jay admitted. “I’ve been staying with some friends, so no need to worry.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. Right?

His dad sighed long and hard, and it echoed and rushed through the phone so that Jay could really feel his disappointment. His dad never said it outright before, but Jay also wondered if his dad was truly disappointed in him for not having a clear grasp of his life at the tender age of eighteen.

“And when do you think you’ll be home?” he asked. “Will you decide to come back, or will you run out of money and need me to come and get you?” The money part did happen and that’s why Jay was currently where he was right now.

“I don’t know,” Jay said. “I really don’t know, Dad.”

“Things did get out of hand,” he replied. “I never liked arguing with you and I hated how things were between us.”

Jay sighed definitely. “Maybe you should’ve thought about that before enabling Soyeon again. You know that we couldn’t trust her, yet you did it again!”

“She needed help,” his dad argued back. “And she’s your mother, Jay.

“Not since she left us,” Jay replied. “Do you even hear what you’re saying? She abandoned us and left us as a target for her gang lackeys. Do you even care about that fact, or are you just going to gloss over that because you still think the love you guys used to have is still there? Well let me tell you Dad, it’s not!”

Another sigh travelled through the phone. “I called just to make sure you’re okay and safe, and since you are, then maybe I should go.”

“You do that,” Jay replied, sighing and realizing the weight of his words hanging in the air. “Oh yeah. Soyeon found me in Los Angeles, so if you’re still looking for her, you know where to start.”

He took the phone away from his ears and ended the call. He slumped back onto the wall, before knotting his hands through his hair and huffing and sighed loudly.

Jay needed a distraction. He travelled down the hallway and practically bolted into his and Theo’s shared room, and it slid open.

“Hey,” Theo nodded to him from the top bunk. He nodded back to him, stepping over the piles of clothes that had made their home on the floor. Where the hell was Wendy?

Jay climbed over onto Theo’s bed, watching another stream on Twitch. He came to the side and began watching with him.

“So you ready for tonight?” Jay asked excitedly. “I hear this year’s gamercon is supposed to be epic.”

Theo exhaled before pausing by the stream. “About that. I promised Lucia I’d take her out tonight, so I double-booked,” he said. “Sorry. Girlfriends get priority.”

“Sure,” Jay sighed, feeling disappointed. “Girlfriends. Gotta love ‘em?” He said, as an idea slowly crept into his head. “Speaking of girls… how do I do that?”

Theos face lit up like a light. “Girls, you say?” He wiggled his eyebrows, smirking. By the looks of it, Jay had created a monster.

“Yes,” Jay sighed, already regretting this.

“Who’s the lucky lady in mind?” Theo suggested. “Was it that girl you were flirting with at that pizza place?”

Jay shook his head, “No, no, no. She’s different.”

“Different, you say?” Theo inquired. “Like how?”

“She’s smart and really clever,” Jay began, “She likes all the same things that I do, and she’s funny and determined. I usually never say this, but when I think of her, she makes me want to be a better person.”

“Ahh,” Theo gushed, placing a hand to his heart. “You’re in love.”

“Am not,” Jay quickly denied. He then frowned, “It wouldn’t work out. She probably doesn’t like me, anyway.”

“Hmm,” Theo pressed his fingers to his lips and looked to meditate. “You like Eniola, don’t you?”

A gasp barely escaped him. His cheeks heated, “No. No. No. Hell no! It is not Eniola!”

“Come on,” Theo prodded. “You like her. It’s so obvious. I was waiting for you to crack up.”

Jay looked back, blushing. “It’s not.”

“Oh yes, it is,” Theo told him. “I can see the way you look at her when she’s not watching. Your eyes light up so fast.”

“I do not know what you’re talking about,” Jay crossed his arms stubbornly and looked away. “I don’t like her,” Jay lied loudly.

Theo moved in closer to his face. “You’re blushing. You have a crush on her.”

“I don’t,” Jay shouted, before picking up a pillow and whacking him, which made him lean back. Theo fought back, taking another pillow before they broke out into a pillow fight like giddy little girls at a sleepover. They both ended up laughing that both their sides ached. It felt nice to unwind like this when so much lay ahead of them.

“Listen,” Theo suddenly said, all serious through the fun mood. “I think that if you do like her and end your compulsive denying, go for it.”

Jay stayed silent for a while. “For real?”

“Yeah, man,” Theo said. “And here’s a better idea. Since I can’t come to the gamercon tonight, you can take Eniola. She’s crazy good at Rise of Shadows and will love it.”

“Maybe,” Jay pondered, but it felt like he had already decided.

“But just be careful,” Theo warned. “Keone didn’t really treat her well.”

Jay coiled in shock. “They were together?”

“Not really,” Theo explained. “They both liked each other and had this weird-pseudo relationship slash friendship going on.”

Jay narrowed his eyes in confusion. “What happened?”

“Well…” Theo explained.

“Nevermind,” Jay cut off. “I want to hear it from her.”

“Excellent choice,” Theo said, patting Jay on the back. “If you’re going to go for her, which you should, please treat her well. She’s like a little sister to me and I don’t want to see her get hurt.”

“Of course,” Jay said.

“You have some nice kneecaps, I would hate to steal those from you,” Theo said randomly, prompting laughter in Jay.

“What the hell dude?” Jay laughed.

“Here’s a tip,” Theo said. “Confidence is key. Girls these days want a strong man who isn’t afraid of anything.”

“Okay,” Jay said, climbing down from the bed, and then walked out. Jay rolled his shoulders and braced himself, standing at the edge of the hallway like he was preparing for a SCOPE match.

He took Theo’s advice and held his head up high and walked with a confident gait into their living room. The girls were currently streaming another round of Rise of Shadows.

Eniola obviously took the win, and Jay stared at their celebration for longer than it should.

“That’s it for this round!” Eniola said to the camera. “I have officially taken the win yet again!”

“Donate,” Iris reminded them. “We’re broke at the moment!”

Lucia glanced at him, and her eyebrows widened. “We’ll be back in a couple of minutes!” Lucia said, much to Eniola’s confusion.

“What’s happening, Jay?” she asked, looking at him.

“Ah, nothing much,” he replied, eyes fixated on Eniola. Lucia and Iris began exchanging knowing glances.

“I have,” Iris began to say, searching for an excuse. “Cyborg stuff to connect to and think.” She got up before slowly walking away, waiting for Lucia.

“And I feel like I need to go,” Lucia said. “To Theo? Yeah. Bye.” She quickly got up and walked away, leaving Eniola and him. Alone.

Holy crap, they were alone. It wasn’t like it the first time. They were in the room together when he told him about Soyeon. He took Theo’s advice on confidence and slowly sauntered to the couch, while Eniola seemed to suddenly be hyper-focused on her controller.

Suddenly, multiple vibrations and phone dings rang into the air and Eniola took out her phone, eyes widened at all of them before shutting it off.

“You’re still streaming?” he awkwardly asked, not knowing what to do with himself, so he settled for awkwardly leaning on the counter.

She held up a controller, averting her gaze from his. “You want to play?”

“Sure,” he said, smiling. He practically ran to the couch, but then slowed down because he didn’t want to look too eager. He took a seat next to her, but then drifted away from her. He didn’t want her to feel weird and then quickly move.

“Let’s turn this back on,” Eniola said, reaching forward to the screen and unpausing the stream. “After that quick break, I’m back with a new guest! Jay!” The comments rolled down on the holo-screen.

“And I’m here to beat Eni in Rise of Shadows,” Jay confirmed, as Eniola raised an eyebrow.

“Fake news,” she quickly said to the camera. “I’m better than him and he knows it.”

“We’ll see about that,” Jay said. “I’m about to beat this legend.”

“No, you aren’t,” Eniola said, a smile flashing on her lips.

“Yes, I am,” he teased.

“Well,” she moved closer, closing the gap between them on the couch. “They say you should know your enemies. And I’ve been watching you and playing with you enough to know you’re not all that.”

“Now, now. When I win, you have to at least buy me dinner first. It can be your consolation prize for losing,” Jay said, moving closer as if it was a challenge.

“I will not buy you dinner,” Eniola scoffed, moving even closer. “Put a recipe inside of Wendy and get her to do something for you.”

“Well, maybe instead you could come with me somewhere,” Jay suggested, “I’m going somewhere tonight, and I’d think you’d like it.”

“I’m not going,” Eniola said, making him disappointed. “Because I never lose.”

“Quite bold, are we?” Jay challenged.

“Only because I have a reason to,” Eniola said. And it was only then had he now realized how close they had gotten, noses almost touching as his eyes swept down to her lips for an ungodly amount of time. They were full and round and dark rosy pink. For a moment, he wondered how they would feel against his own with his hands around her and-

But then quickly, she separated from him and went back to the couch away from him. He shook himself from the trance he was zoned into as a blush spread over his cheeks. He looked down shyly before facing her again. She looked away.

“Alright,” Jay said, growing excited. “If you lose, will you go with me?”

“Fine,” Eniola sang jokingly. “If you win, I’ll go with you somewhere.”

He had a mental celebration. His attention was now on the screen that seemed to blow up with comments Jay didn’t notice before.

Heteropathy: are ya’ll dating?

Aquasox: you guys make a cute couple!

Dendronomy: I ship it!

Jay scrolled down to see more comments there and coming in that we’re talking about how he and Eniola made a cute pair. He felt the edges of his ears ringing red.

“What are they saying?” Eniola asked, moving closer, reading the screen. “We’re dating?”

“Yeah,” Jay said faintly. “Yeah! We’re dating!” He said, wrapping an arm across Eniola. She shot him a glare that could burn through him.

He moved into her ear and whispered. “Look at the comments and look at the views. People think that we’re dating. And they’re slowly climbing up. If we put on this charade we can get popular.” He said, pointing to the screen.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “I’ll go with it. Only because Lucia wants more donations.”

“Okay!” Jay exclaimed. “So today, to decide our date for tonight, we will verse each other in a round of Rise of Shadows.”

“I want to stay home,” Eniola said loudly to Jay. “However, he has a surprise.”

They prepared their consoles before Rise of Shadows came up. Eniola had her usual avatar, Orla and Jay was playing Uncrowned King. They prepared themselves before they began defending herself on the other kingdom, attacking Jay’s avatar. Eniola was great at first, but he undermined her and beat her.

“I win!” Jay exclaimed, much to Eniola’s disbelief, seeing her gawk at the screen like it was fake. “That’s for today’s fans, but stay tuned for more content. And don’t forget to donate!” Eniola promptly ended and flopped back onto the seat, jaw unhinged.

“Get ready,” he told her. “I have somewhere special.”

“That was for real?” Eniola questioned. “I thought that was just for the stream. Viewers loved it. Now they’re not viewing.”

“Well, I don’t know, maybe,” Jay stammered, while Eniola peered at him curiously. He sheepishly reached behind his head, and somehow he forgot how to function. “I actually had a place in mind.”

“Oh,” Eniola said faintly, and Jay was sure she smiled. “Where?”

“As I said,” Jay said. “It’s a surprise. But you will like it.”

“Tell me,” Eniola prodded, moving closer to him.

“No,” Jay laughed. “Just be patient.”

“Why don’t you just take pizza girl?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Pizza girl?”

“That girl you were flirting with,” Eniola grumbles. Raya lost interest in him. They stopped texting. But why did it bother Eniola?

“It seemed like you were super comfortable with her and not me,” Eniola said. “If you wanted me to go so bad with you, why did you flirt so comfortably with her? Why did you want to pretend we’re dating when you already have something?”

He looked down onto the floor and mumbled, feeling a veil of some weird shame come down on him. He truly didn’t know why he had done that, especially in front of Eniola who he had all these feelings that meant more to him than just anyone else. Frankly, that scared him.

“You know what I think,” Eniola mentioned. “Maybe this whole macho and cocky attitude you have going on is really to cover up the fact that you’re awkward around women.”

The words that left her mouth hit him all like a ton of bricks, so hard he might’ve just stepped back. “What do you mean?” he stammered.

A smile crept onto her face. “You know I mean. You don’t have to keep flirting with all these girls if it’s just to prove a point of how masculine you are. You don’t need to hide like that. You can just be yourself.” Her words shocked him and for a moment he couldn’t think of it. She just opened him up like that, and just laid on a full analysis of a part of him he had always tried to be aloof about.

Was it true? Maybe. He never thought of it. Girls somehow came for him and he just flirted with them because it would be rude to simply ignore them. He wasn’t awkward or anything.

The way Eniola was simply looking at him made him feel like he was staring at more than his outside persona he showed to the world. She was truly studying him. Reading him.

Like a book that needed to be opened.

A wry laugh escaped from his throat at the sheer irony. The phrase was another thing he was aloof about when he said it. And now Eniola was truly doing it.

He ran his tongue over the roof of his mouth. “Okay,” he said, lingering on it. “I want us to go as friends,” he said, feeling the words that were coming off of his tongue a huge lie. “Or acquaintances, if we’re not there yet.”

She stayed silent for a while. “As friends then, because that’s all we are.”

Jay stood there awkwardly, averting his gaze to the room, ignoring the unfriendly faint beating of his heart and the swelling of cheeks. He swallowed back a gulp. “Tonight, 10:00 pm,” he finally said. “Are you going to be there?”

“Of course,” she said, smiling at him once again as his heart clenched yet again. He felt it was more than just a distraction to be with her.