Virtual Reality ￫ A. Yamada

Level 004

જ⁀➴.𖥔 ݁ ˖༉‧₊˚.

"𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 doing?" Yamada's voice startles you as you turn around frantically. He was leaning over your shoulder, which led to your faces being very close. Heat began to rise in your face as you turned a bright red. Mostly out of embarrassment for snooping on his computer.

When you made eye contact with him, you couldn't help but think of what you just saw. Your online crush you've been obsessed about is right in front of you!

"I-I'm so so sorry! I didn't mean to snoop on your computer!" You hide your face in your hands and quickly get out of his chair. You shyly look back to see Yamada closing the game.

"Do you play FoS?" Yamada asks as he looks back at you, with his typical indifferent expression.

"S-Somtimes!" You blurt out. You couldn't help your nerves were all over the place. You wanted to run and hide.

Yamada has a confused but slightly concerned look on his face.

"Are you alright, [Y/N]?" Yamada takes a step closer to you.

"I'm fine! Totally fine! I-I just wanted to check your levels on FoS! That's all!" You explain yourself nervously. You know your face is blushing a bright red, but you couldn't help it for the life of you.

Your online crush is... your classmate! Your school project partner! And you're standing in his bedroom with him ALONE! It was all too much for you to handle. You tried to back up but end up backing into his bed, falling backwards. Even more embarrassed, you quickly sit up and exit the room.

"I'm sorry!" You can't take it anymore, you quickly put on your shoes and open his front door.

"Wait, [Y/N], where are you going?" You can hear Yamada approaching you, but you were way too overwhelmed.

"I-I'm just going on a walk! I'll be right back!" You close the door and run away from his house as fast as you can.

The cool wind blanketed your face as you kept running, but the thoughts creeped into your head.

'They're the same person!' You kept repeating in your head. Losing your breath, you eventually stop and sit on a park bench to regain your energy. You definitely needed the fresh air.

Suddenly, the guilt starts to set in. Maybe you shouldn't have ran away from Yamada... but the revelation was just too much.

So this means when you both had to get home at 17:30 the other day... The two of you were actually going home just to play FoS with each other?!

Everything was adding up, and it was hitting you like a brick. All the times you thought the two of them must've been a sheer coincidence... you feel like an idiot. You should've realized sooner!

"What do I do now...? Do I tell him..?" You nervously bite your nails, thinking back to all the times you wondered what FoS Yamada looked like... or what he was like in real life.

And he's everything you expected him to be. Calm, cool, attractive...

"...Oh god [Y/N]. Get a hold of yourself." you lecture yourself. You realize you should probably head back.

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You open Yamada's door and shyly walk in. Yamada walks over to the sound of his front door opening.

"Do you feel alright, [Y/N]?" He asks in his usual tone. You laugh nervously as you push your hair behind your ear.

"I'm alright, I just needed some fresh air." There was another silence as he narrowed his eyes. He definitely suspected something was up.

"I fixed your laptop." Your eyes widen, you completely forgot about that. You smile warmly.

"Thank you so much, Yamada. I-I should really get going now." You say apprehensively, gathering your laptop into your school bag. You begin to walk back towards the door before you felt your arm being grasped.

"Wait." Your heart begins to beat faster. Why was he stopping you? You were too nervous to look at him in the face, you didn't want him to see your face; a blushing mess.

"... Do you want me to teach you how to play FPS?" You forgot you asked him to teach you how to play. But that wasn't really the biggest question in your head. He wants you to stay.

You turn around and look at him, still taken aback by how he grabbed you so suddenly.

"I-I guess I can stay a bit longer." You almost whisper.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stop you. If you want to leave you are free to—"

"No! I want to stay!" You blurt out suddenly. "I mean, I don't mind staying a bit longer."

Yamada smiled, just for a second. But you saw it, and the butterflies were dancing in your stomach once again. Everything felt even more overwhelming, especially knowing the truth now.

You follow him back to his room. He grabs a char and sets it beside the gaming chair at his computer desk. Your faces being lit up by the colourful LED's.

"Here, you can sit in my chair." He pulls out his gaming chair for you to sit in. You smile timidly before sitting as he gently pushes you towards his desk.

"Now, let me just open it." He suddenly reaches for his mouse from overtop of you, making you blush from how close you were to him. He moves his cursor to an FPS game and logs into his account. You closed your eyes for that part, not wanting to see his personal information.

"Alright, so..." Yamada begins to methodically teach you about all the controls of the game, but your mind was lost elsewhere.

You gazed at his face as he was talking. The LED's from his computers switched gracefully between each colour, the light illuminating his features. You feel yourself getting lost, listening to his melodic voice. It was deep, but soft, and comforting. You didn't really notice these things before, but you feel you have a completely different perspective of him now. You know him differently now.

"... and shift is for crouching. Does it make sense?" You snap out of your ogling.

'Shit! I didn't even listen to what he was saying!'

"Yup! Got it! Shift is for crouching." Yamada raised an eyebrow before sitting down in the seat he put next to you.

"Don't worry, you're not playing against real people, they're just bots." You sigh in relief slightly. It's not like you're totally devoid of playing video games. You got this!

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"You suck at this."

"These bots must be set on hard mode! I barely even get a shot in!" You say angrily, crossing your arms in frustration.

"Pfft—" Your eyes widen as your head snaps over to Yamada. He had a smile on his face and was trying to cover it with his hand. Was he... laughing? Your heart skipped a beat.

"The bots are on easy mode." He says, his smile still apparent on his face. You can feel yourself smiling too. When Yamada smiles, it's like the world stops for a moment. Like nothing matters, and everything will be alright.

You feel like you've known him for a while.

And you have.

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Level 004 Complete!