Dove POV

“Knock! Knock! Knock!”

The sound of knocking woke me up. I forced myself to open my tired eyes and saw that it was six in the morning.

Normally, ARF met at 6:30 in the morning; however, yesterday was a tiring day for us both physically and emotionally so we moved the call time to ten.

I looked to my side and found Hawk and Canary still deep in sleep. I dragged myself out of bed and slowly made my way to the entrance.

I opened the door and found Liza waiting there. A message popped up whether to allow Liza’s entry house to which I confirmed.

“Do you feel better?” I asked.

“Yes. Liza came here to speak with Hawk.”

“Alright, I’ll go wake him up.”

As I went towards the stairs, I found Hawk already climbing down. His eyes were still half-closed and his movements were sloppy.

“Who was it?”

“Liza. She wanted to speak with you.”

“I see.”

Hawk put his hand in his face and remained motionless for a minute. He then sighed, “I hope I can do it without hurting her… Dove can you stay upstairs for now?”

I nodded and followed Hawk’s request. I went back to the master’s bedroom where Canary slept. She seemed to be uncomfortable, so I lied down besides her and embraced her. She immediately clung tightly to me and mumbled, “Sister…”

Liza POV

Hawk appeared before Liza. Liza no longer felt nervousness in meeting him. With Father gone, Liza had to stand on Liza’s two feet. Liza would no longer run from the emotions Liza held.

“What is it?” Hawk asked.

Although Hawk was smart enough to figure out most things, he still preferred asking directly, since he believed it was better for words to be expressed and because he was not 100% confident in his ability.

Liza took a deep breath. Liza had readied myself for this moment, but the tenseness still remained there.

“Liza loves you. Please consider going out with me!”

“You realize how impossible a Player-Character relationship is?”

“No! It’s not impossible. No doubt, it is difficult, but Brother and Kard fought for their love, Liza will do so as well.”

Hawk remained silent and thought about his reply for a few minutes.

“I’m sorry. I was too scared to hurt you and avoided rejecting you directly by using our situations as an excuse.”

Hawk continued, “You are a really important person to me, but I don’t romantically love you. I do not belong in Reality. This fact will never change. Even if I do eventually love you, in the end, I will choose to return. When I do, I would be unable to bear being separated from a person I love while knowing she still exists somewhere. I am an emotionally weak person, so I will refuse to romantically love you from the beginning.”

Tears fell from Liza’s eyes. Liza knew from the beginning this would happen. Liza understood Hawk’s reason before he said it. Hawk knew Liza knew the reason but said it regardless to answer Liza’s feelings head on.

“Yes. Thank you… Can you forget all that happened due to my feelings and be friends with Liza again?”

Hawk smiled and replied, “You were always my friend.”

Liza came here for two reasons. First, it was to solve the awkwardness in Hawk and Liza’s friendship. Second and more importantly, Liza wanted to be rejected. While these feelings may not disappear immediately and will forever remain part of Liza’s life, the rejection signaled the first step of towards Liza’s future.

Dove POV

After half an hour, Hawk came back to the second floor as I waited on the sofa. He moved his body sluggishly not due to sleepiness but due to sadness.

“How did it go?”

I moved to the end of the sofa and pointed Hawk to sit beside me to which Hawk complied.

“I think I did it properly… but…”

This was bad… One thing I knew from Hawk from real life was that his emotions affected his performance a lot. Despite his great ability to read people, he frequently left himself open to being read. Also, he was easily distracted whenever he was emotionally unstable.

During our school days, I noticed how his exam scores fluctuated with his emotions. He committed a lot of careless mistakes whenever he was sad because he kept thinking about it. I had to do something to help him…

Hawk wanted to cry. At the same time, he didn’t want a weak Hawk to remain in my memory, but he also wanted me to stay by his side. It was weird, but this was how I think Hawk was. In that case…

I moved my hands around Hawk’s head and pulled it down on my lap. Hawk resisted on instinct, so I had to put in a lot of force.

“What are you doing?” he asked. Since he was facing my lap, I could not see his expression, but he was probably surprised.

I caressed his head and said, “It’s alright. I won’t see it from this position, so feel free to cry.”

Hawk stopped resisting and kept silent. As I continued to pat his head, I could never tell whether he was crying or not since he made no sound and the tears automatically dried if they fell on my pajamas.

I waited and waited and waited. Waiting for Hawk to tell me what happened. I disliked that part about Hawk. Every time he was emotionally burdened, he always kept it all to himself.

After a few minutes, Hawk’s erratic breathing returned to normal.

“Do you feel better now?”

“Yes. But let me stay like this for a little while longer.”

“I refuse. Please get up right now.” I said in a joking tone.

Hawk complied and sat up, “Why?”

“I only let you lie on my lap because you were depressed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even consider it.” I continued to tease.

Seemingly disappointed, Hawk sighed, but his sigh soon turned into a smile as he went to wake Canary up.

Hawk… I hope that one day you will no longer fear showing me your weaknesses. One day, I’m sure you’ll understand that I will stay by your side even with your weaknesses and accept you.