The Real RPG of Life Series: Memoirs of Friendship [FIN]

Chapter 19: The Gift (Natasha)

Logging out that night, I had a lot of questions on my mind. Once more, the mysterious blonde girl from Chris’s class clouded my mind. Why was she dueling with Chris? Rather than that, the question I had buried deep inside me resurfaces with much intensity that I thought my heart might burst.

“Why… why were you two there at the station before?” grabbing the closest plushy toy I had, I held it tight, and laid to bed, thinking, feeling, wondering.

The following day was a Friday, I still have another day of classes; another day of being left alone and distant by the rest of my class. As I enter our classroom, it was the same usual thing: they would pause for a while and look at me soon going back to their own conversations.

“Good morning Natasha.” Greets Alicia, one of the two people who would still notice my existence in this class.

“G-good morning, Alicia.” As I glanced over Kathy’s place, I notice her looking at me, which she replied with a nod.

“Geez, they still won’t talk to you huh?”

“It can’t be helped… I do seem pretty unapproachable.” I laugh faintheartedly.

“But still…”

“It’s okay. At least, someone still talks to me right?” I pretended that everything will be fine; that it will fix itself if given time. But, even waiting can be disheartening, when you know it might never come at all. But amidst all of this, somewhere deep inside me, I still held on to a wish; a wish that one day, someone would talk to me once more other than Alicia and Kathy. I feel responsible for everyone who got caught by the other Yuit’s attacks. After all, the Doppelganger incident happened because of my actions.

Even as class ended that day, no one bothered coming to me and say their apologies, rather, it didn’t matter if they apologize or not. I just wanted to be friends with everyone again. But we can’t please all people, even if we were the ones who have been wronged.

As I went home that day, lying on my bed and wondering,

“Does Grandiel still need Yuit?”

I thought about it long and hard, all throughout the night; my avatar is too well known now, that I am an easy target not to myself but to people who knows my avatar. But if Yuit was gone, maybe, everyone would be able to enjoy playing once more.

My relationship with Chris; my hesitation to leave Grandiel; the transfer student Brianna. With all these things in my head, I never noticed to fall asleep and being woken up in the morning by an alarm. Not my usual morning alarm, but a notification from my calendar. I must have marked a particular event I needed remembering.

[October 4th: Buy a present for Chris]

It was 6 days before Chris’ birthday, the 10th of October. It was a Saturday today, and there were no classes today. I step downstairs and saw my mom already cooking for breakfast.

“Oh Nat. Good morning.” She greets with a smile.

“Good morning mom…” I was still half asleep at that point but the thought of buying a Chris a present was still in my mind that I asked the wrong person about it, “Mom, what present do guys like?”

“Eh?”

Realizing it all too late, I try to change the topic, “U-Um! T-that’s is, for dad’s birthday of course!”

“Your dad’s birthday? It’s still in June Nat.”

“W-w-well I was just asking… f-for future reference I guess…”

“Whatever comes from you should suffice your dad, you know. A shirt or a pair of socks should do nicely.”

“O-Okay… thanks.” Just before I could walk back to my room she calls me out again, “Nat.”