The five of us started carrying the boxes upstairs, except for Jun, whose room was right next to the entrance. Since the building had the same layout, it used to be Sanae's and Risa's dance studio in HQ before the remodeling.

Aki's and I's room—the master bedroom—was the current dance studio in HQ, which used to be Sanae's and Risa's room. Umi's was the gym, and Tomokazu's was the recording studio.

We kept bumping each other as we carried the boxes. Luckily, there were no major accidents.

Eventually, only two boxes remained. I took one, while Aki took the other. I put it down on the floor of our room. Even though there were dozens of boxes in it, there still was a lot of space.

"It's quite big, huh?" I said to Aki when she entered the room.

"It might be big, but our apartments had a kitchen, a bathroom, and a laundry room each. Now, we have to share one kitchen, one laundry room, and two bathrooms between five people."

She pushed the box she was holding onto my chest, pushing me back a little, then walked deeper into the room. "At least we'll only be here for a few months."

My blood began to boil again, when a notification rang in my glasses.

Aki sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I…. What is it?" she asked as soon as she saw my face.

"It's a reminder of an appointment I have."

Her brows furrowed. "I don't remember our therapist scheduling an appointment for you only."

"It's not with the therapist, it's with Ceruty."

Aki's frown disappeared as her eyes opened wide. "Ceruty? Didn't he vanish after he was hacked?"

Confused for a second, I remembered I hadn't told anyone about my chat with him. "Right. I didn't tell anyone that I met with him after that happened because Chiharu was still spying on us, and I forgot about it until now."

The lack of expression on Aki's face wasn't a good sign, yet she didn't sound upset when she asked, "When is the appointment?"

"Now, actually. I'm already late, so I should get going."

She closed her eyes and replied, "Okay. I'll start unpacking everything." She then turned around.

"Come with me," I said, "we can—"

"I said I'll stay to unpack everything; the sooner we get it done, the better. Get back as soon as you can to help me."

She crouched down and opened a box. Not knowing what else to say, I simply walked out of the room.

I headed out of the building toward the nearby station. It was practically empty since it was the middle of the afternoon.

The station in the center of the city was only one minute away, while the arcade Ceruty and I planned to meet at was a two-minute walk away.

Even though I practically ran across the streets, it was worrying to see the practically empty arcade, with no trace of Ceruty. I tried to recover my breath as I jogged through its aisleways, to no avail.

I gave up after sweeping through the entire establishment. Aside from searching for him for five minutes, I had arrived ten minutes late. He probably left, or he just forgot.

"Kaito!" a guy shouted behind me. I turned around to see Ceruty, who bent forward to hold his knees as soon as he arrived in front of me. "I'm… sorry for being… late," he panted.

The most notable change on him was his hair, which now was long enough to cover his face. He had to sweep it away when he stood straight, revealing a striking grin.

"Kaito?" he asked after I had been staring at him for too long.

"Sorry, it's just that… you look like a completely different Ceruty compared to the one I met two months ago."

"Is that bad?"

"No. Now you're what I expected Ceruty to be in real life."

He laughed, "I'm glad. To be fair, you met me at the lowest point I had been in my life."

"That's true."

He grinned again. "Talking about Ceruty in real life; please call me Masato. Ceruty is my QNet persona."

"I'm used to Ceruty, though. But I'll do it if that's what you want."

His brows furrowed before looking down at the carpet floor and crossing his arms. A few seconds of confusion later, he replied, "Keep calling me Ceruty, then. Just refer to me as a girl because it's weird hearing someone call a guy Ceruty since she's a girl."

It was a strange request, to say the least, but there was no reason for me to refuse. "Alright. Shall we play a rematch of air hockey?"

"You read my mind."

We walked to the other side of the arcade and stood on each end of the air hockey table. A holographic prompt appeared in the middle of the table as soon as we both grabbed a paddle. Since it detected I was wearing glasses, a notification appeared on them as well.

"Don't even think about paying for the both of us," I said.

"I won't. Not working for two months takes a real toll on your wallet," he giggled.

A puck shot out from beneath the rail of the table immediately after my glasses recognized my command to make the payment and moved on its own to place itself perfectly in the center. A holographic countdown projected above the puck and started counting from five. As soon as it reached zero, the hologram disappeared and the puck was gently pushed toward my side for me to make the first move.

We weren't there just to play, however.

"You won't abandon your QNet persona, then," I said.

"Of course not. I was just going through a rough moment and I needed time to think about it."

"What about the people that won't watch you again because you're a guy playing a girl?"

"They can go…. I mean, it's their decision. I'll keep being Ceruty even if only five people watch my streams."

I smirked, "It hurts seeing you try to be polite. What if only four people watch your streams?"

"Then I'd have things to think about," he giggled. "Are you… still looking for a QTuber?"

"We were never looking for one," I answered, "but it'll be a good way to promote the business. And, as I said two months ago, we have good chemistry to work together."

The puck entered my goal while I was distracted, making Ceruty's score increase by one.

"Goal!" she boasted.

Another puck was promptly shot out from beneath the rail of the table toward my side for me to kick off the second round.

As soon as I hit the puck with my paddle, Ceruty asked, "That means you're going to hire me? I guess I should return to streaming first so that you can see my current statistics."

"You trusted in Blostars blindly; it wouldn't be fair for me not to do the same. Aside from that, you're an amazing entertainer; the number of spectators on your live streams and views on your videos proves it, and I'm sure they will be the same when you return, if not higher."

I expected a witty response from her, yet we kept playing in silence for awkwardly long. Eventually, the puck went through Ceruty's goal. About to celebrate, I noticed she was wiping her face with her arm.

"Are you crying?" I asked.

"I'm sorry," she sniffled. "I didn't want to say anything because my family has been very kind to me, but… the last two months have been rough. Now I'm happy because that's about to end."

Her words moved me. I wanted to give her a hug, but hugging someone I barely knew would've been weird. I also wasn't the type of person that gave hugs.

"Okay, I'm done," she sniffled once again. "I don't know what's gotten into me, I didn't cry at all before. I also cried when the police announced that they caught the hacker; she'll finally get what she deserves. Oh, and I was incredibly worried when I heard you were shot, but it seems you're fine."

"Thank you for the concern. And it's okay to cry; I cried a lot the last few months because of stress and anxiety, but I got better as soon as I started seeing a therapist."

"Maybe I should get a therapist too."

The conversation came to a halt, so I asked to break the ice, "How old are you?"

"I'm twenty."

"You're twenty?!"

She nodded. "Everyone reacts the same when I tell them."

"Because you could say you're sixteen and everyone would believe you."

Unexpectedly, her smile weakened soon after. "I know I should take it as a compliment, but I don't like being treated like a kid."

"Don't worry, we won't treat you like one. I had to ask because I was worried you weren't old enough to sign a contract, let alone to work."

"How do you think I had been living on my own?"

"I thought you were living with your parents."

She sighed. "So, am I hired or not?"

"You are," I smiled.

Out of nowhere, she hit the table and jumped. "Yes!"

"There's one problem, though."

The grin disappeared from her face. "What problem?"

"There's no space left in HQ, meaning you'd have to work from home."

"Wait, I was going to work in your offices?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but a thought attacked my head. "On second thought, maybe that's not necessary."

"Of course not. I'll be more comfortable streaming from my apartment."

Thoughtful for a moment, I replied, "That settles it, then, but you'll still have to come to HQ every now and then for meetings or just to say hi."

"Of course."

"Good," I smirked. "Anyhow, we just bought a new building, so you'll have a desk or even a small office, but that'll take some time."

Her eyes opened wide. "You bought a new building? Damn. I knew you were going to do well, but not that much this soon. You even toured with Aeryx. I actually went to a few shows, even though I'm not a fan of hers."

"Seriously? You could've come to say hi backstage."

"I didn't have my glasses, remember? And I didn't want to bother you after putting so much energy into the concert. It's a shame it ended how it ended, though."

"Yeah…."

"Wow," she uttered, "I have so many topics to talk about when I return to streaming. I can talk about you buying a new building, right?"

The words disappeared from my mouth. "Actually, I'd prefer you didn't," I laughed nervously.

"You shouldn't have told me, then. Don't worry, I'll spare you this one time, but be careful next time."

This is going to backfire sooner than I thought….

She smirked, "Already regretting hiring me?"

"Yes, but it's a good regret," I smirked back.

"That doesn't make sense."

"I know…. Anyway. Let's finish this match."