As the morning dawned with low hanging clouds, the lights of advent seeped into my compact room. Rubbing my blurry eyes I walked to the window, as the choir set by the birds welcomed my ears in a sweet melodic wake up greeting. Cool! What a pleasant life.

Doing a few body stretches I grabbed my phone while enjoying this marvellous orchestra and checked for any notifications. There's some news and a few spam emails, also there are three messages from Alyssa marking the start of the game.

'Good morning Ren, let's start the game.'

'A- l love shopping, I can go shopping anytime and anywhere.'

Oh..so this is how we are playing the game. And what's with this 'A'. Isn't it common for all the girls out there?

Now, what Should I reply? Will she like it if I talk about soccer or any web series?

It took me few seconds to come up with something similar and stupid like her message.

'I love playing video games, especially those on mobile phones.'

Yup..this is the best one I could come up with. But what now? Should I wait for her reply?

But as soon as these words creeped into my mind, Alyssa dropped another alphabet as a reply to my message.

So, yeah..it seems like we are only sending Alphabets to each other.

'B- Food is bae but I don't want to gain weight.'

Wait, isn't it completely different from what she sent before. Looks like I can send anything as long as it's related to me.

Since we are talking about food, I wrote something about what I love to eat.

'B- I love to eat sushi. For some reason I just love it and can't say no to it.'

I sent this message and it's already been 10 minutes since then but I didn't get any response. Maybe it's better that I go brush my teeth first and freshen up.

After eating a minimal breakfast and a soothing morning shower, I just threw myself onto the bed and checked for her message but she hadn't even seen them yet.

I nearly threw the phone onto the table next to my bed but my phone started ringing. Is calling allowed during the game? Is she calling me?

To my disappointment, it was a call from Aster.

"Hello.. Aster"

"Hey Ren, I'm outside your house so come and open the door."

"There's a thing called a doorbell, normal people push that instead of calling, you know. "

" Cut me some slack and come open the door. "

"Okay, wait I'm coming."

Sometimes I don't understand what's going inside his head. He has always been like this, a little bossy, a little funny but always the same, same old Aster.

I opened the door and he didn't need an invitation to run straight into my room.

Immediately after entering the room he switched ON the table fan and jumped onto my bed and started scrolling through his phone.

"You know it's my room, right?"

He shifted his gaze towards me, almost looking straight into my eyes and replied with his ever favorite smug face.

"Like I care.."

I expected something like this..

"Okay, but would you care to explain why you blessed me with your presence today?"

"Well, nothing much, I just wanted to talk a little and ask for some advice and while I'm at it, I will look if I could be of any help to you about your childhood friend problem."

So basically he needs some advice, and since I have known him like a mirror for 3 years, I can tell he's trying to act like his usual self but he is failing miserably. I can clearly see the hints of uncertainty marked in his eyes or something like, maybe a discomfort on his face.

"So, what do you want to talk about?"

I sat on the bean bag and held my own phone in my hand as I'm still waiting for a reply from someone who loves going MIA on me.

"Let's deal with your problem first, tell me everything that you have been hiding all this time." He replied while chewing onto the chewing gum which he had apparently borrowed or more like stole from my desk.

"Why the hell would I tell you? You already know more than what you should."

"Oh..come on, we are best buds, and I won't be of any help if you don't tell the whole story."

"But.."

"No if, not buts."

Looks like he isn't going to stop until he knows the whole story..

"Okay, listen. She was with me for one year in middle school but since she was the only one who talked with me, I developed a crush on her."

"That much I know, tell me the good stuff."

"Be patient, you jerk, and don't interrupt me."

"Okay.."

"After one year, she transferred to another school and I never got to see her again. But yesterday, as you know I got a message from her and I don't even know how she found my id. And now we have started a stupid game."

"Oh so, your childhood friend came back and your feelings that drowned in the past started to sail again."

"No..no..it's not like I still have feelings for her. It's more like I want to meet my childhood friend again, not the childhood crush. I'm already over it."

"Oh.. really." He said in a teasing tone of voice.

"Yeah, my feelings for her, I abandoned them long ago. Right now all I want is to meet her and start our friendship again."

"In the end, all that's left is a faint memory, backed by the emotions of wanting that one person back into our lives whom we lost long ago. I understand what you mean"

The way he looked and said these words made me think that maybe he has gone through something similar. I don't want to hurt him by asking about it so I didn't stick my nose into his secrets.

"So, what now?"

"Don't worry Ren, I will try to look for clues in college, after all since she knows what you were doing, maybe she is a student in our college."

"Thanks Aster, and now what advice do you want from me?"

"Oh.. I totally forgot about that. Listen Ren, tell me what should I do?"

"What do you mean by, what should I do?"

"Okay.. don't tell anyone. There's a girl that I totally love but.. back in highschool I was friendzoned by her and that too without confession but I'm regretting it now..what should I do?"

He's totally talking about Rose, tell me why am I not surprised? The boy I raised is trying to be a man now. And damn I'm so proud.

They are really close and if I remember correctly they went to the same highschool. But wow they were hiding this friendzoned incident from me all this time. Sometimes I wonder why they don't tell me all this. And because of all this I get mad sometimes.

"Haha, it sucks to be you."

And he snapped on it.

"You jerk, I came here for your advice, not to watch you laugh at me."

"Don't worry, I know what you are going through. Acting like a friend to the person you love is one of the most stupid thing in the world."

"Then help me dumbass."

"Well, what advice would be better for a scaredy cat like you? I say go confess to her once again and see if her feelings have changed for you or not."

"What if she rejects me, no..i will probably get friendzoned again."

"Dude it's been ages since she friendzoned you.. and now you are near to your graduation, don't worry and just be brave."

I paused a little, looked at his face and grabbed his shoulders, and said it out and loud.

"If you want to be her future, not just her past then have some guts and go confess to her."

"Okay then, I will give it a try."

"That's my boy."

"But if I go and get rejected, don't you dare laugh at me."

"I won't, I will just announce to the whole batch that you got rejected."

"What a little devil you are."

But I'm happy he finally decided to confess his love to Rose. But will I be the third wheel if the two of them got together? Maybe it would be better if I try to give them some free time just for themselves.

"By the way, what's your plan for today?"

"Oh well.."

Buzz..buzz..

Suddenly, and finally my phone vibrated so I stopped mid sentence and started checking my phone. It was another message, another alphabet from her. And since I was waiting for it for a long time, I wanted to reply as soon as possible.

'C- I have a fear of heights and I hate bugs.'

Goodness! I can't believe that she is still afraid of heights.

I remember a small incident from the past and started giggling.

"Ahem..so you are just going to ignore your best friend who's in front of you for that childhood friend whose looks you don't even remember."

"Sorry..sorry.. I was just remembering some funny old times."

"Rather than her, focus on the person who's in front of you, will you?."

"Okay okay, but wait let me reply to her first."

'C- I have two lovely and hilarious best friends.'

This should be okay..now, or was that too personal to reveal? Then again she knew my exact location and precise activity so this was nothing!

"So, you were asking, how am I going to spend my day Aster?"

"Yes"

"Maybe I will play some video games, probably battlefield 6 again,or just study. What about you, what's your plan?"

"Well, I got what I came here for so maybe I will return back home and laze around all day. My goal will be to move at least a little so people will know that I'm not dead yet."

"The way you say it makes it feel like you are a jobless person who has lost the will to live."

"Don't say it like that, I'm not that hopeless. I just get bored easily."

"So, why don't you stay here and play games with me."

"Sorry but my friend's uncle's son's mother's nephew's little bird died so I have to attend the funeral and yeah it was a tragic loss."

"Don't joke around, wanna play or not?"

"Okay, give me the other controller and start the game."

"Good,here take this old one."

I gave him the controller and we played till the sweetness of the evening rolled in.

When the sun started to slowly fade away below the horizon and the stream of golden rays started to withdraw from my window. While the silent moon decided to walk onto the carpet of infinite stars, Aster decided to take his leave. I waved him a bye and returned back to my room only to find another alphabet on my path to know more about Alyssa.

'D- I have a phobia of blood.'

This message again reminded me of another incident when I accidentally cut my finger badly and she was afraid to put a bandage on it. But so far it looks like she hasn't changed much and somehow I'm glad about it.

'D- I am anemic.'

And now that I have sent the reply, I connected my phone to the charger. It's time to go buy some vegetables from the market. Afterall today both dad and I are preparing dinner together.

After the dinner I studied a little and checked my phone before falling asleep. Waiting is simply being a hostage of time, and that is a superlative of difficulty.