On her bus ride home she thought about how popular George was becoming on YouTube.

Even when he couldn't keep in contact with her, she still kept up with his character Frank, and all of his vulgar endevours.

Despite the crude, offensive humor, she still laughed and enjoyed his content.

She leaned her head against the bus window as the lights dimmed.

She wondered sometimes if finding his humor funny made her a bad person.

But the reality was, you can find something funny without having or behaving in the same way as someone else.

Plus, George himself was the opposite of Frank.

She chewed on her lip.

She then pulled out her phone, searching for George's number before texting him, asking if he was free to Skype that night.

She got his response a few blocks away from her stop.

Joji: yeah

Was all it read.

She stared at her screen, heart slowly ripping itself apart as she stared at the single word of a reply.

She turned off her screen, then closed her eyes shut, keeping in the built up tears from the past year.

When she reached her stop, she climbed off the bus, quickly making her way home and going straight to her room, and turning on her laptop.

She signed in to Skype as quickly as anyone could, immediately spotting George's icon which held the little green dot, signalling that he was online

To her surprise, before she could even press call,  he had called her.

With wide eyes and her heart in her throat, she accepted it, and it took only a few seconds for a tired looking George to appear on the screen.

Neither of the two really knew how to begin as they stared at one another.

George then took his face into his hands and began rubbing it.

Then, with his head hanging in his eyes, he froze.

"Fuck," he breathed, sitting up once more.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

George looked into the camera, then his eyes scanned the screen, as if he was taking in the details of her expression.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said.

Emi pursed her lips.

"Don't lie to me." She said.

George bit his lip, rubbing his eyes again.

"You can't tell mom." He said, looking very troubled.

"What is it, George?" She leaned into the camera.

"I... Was... In the hospital. For a few days. They did, tests on me and they discovered that I have this... Sort of brain defect? It like... It gives me seizures. They're mostly stress induced... And... Uh..."

Emi felt the tears brim her eyes once more as her bottom lip trembled.

"The first one was pretty bad... I hit a table on my way down... And the...blood..." George stopped and gulped hard as he looked at Emi's almost overflowing eyes.

"George..." Her voice quivered.

Never more in her life had she wished she could hold someone so much. So tightly.

She wanted, she needed George in her arms, she could only imagine how scared he must have been, she could only imagine the terror that it must have brought.

She couldn't think straight, her thoughts jumbled and crashed in such a way that it left nothing to compare it to.

"Its..." George attempted to steer the conversation to a lesser degree of the topic.

"Its finals week. Its stressful. The channel is stressful. I'm working two jobs again."

"Again?"

George nodded.

"I had a third, but..." He pointed to his head and smiled sadly.

Emi nodded.

There were a few moments of silence.

"なぜ以前に私に言わなかったのですか？" ( Why didn't you tell me before? ) she asked.

George pursed his lips, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"Emi-" he sighed.

"No, George!" she stopped him.

The tears spilt from her eyes.

"Just tell me."

George looked down, eyes veiling heavily.

"私はあなたに心配したくなかった。" ( I didn't want you to worry. ) he let out.

"ジョージ、私は、とにかく心配していただろう！私はあなたに非常に自信を持っていますが、あなたは今、私から世界中にいるのです！" ( George, I would have worried, anyways! I have so much confidence in you but damn it you're across the world from me right now! ) 

Her eyes widened as she brought a hand to her mouth. 

she cursed. 

She didn't just curse, she cursed... at George. 

George stared at her, gaze unsteady.

"George, I'm sorry... I- I didn't mean to do that, I take it back, I'm sorry, you're already stressed out, you don't need me doing this to you, I'm..." she let out half a sob, purring her head down. 

"Emi..." George spoke softly. 

She kept her head down, vigorously wiping away her tears. 

She heard George let out a sad, breathy chuckle. 

"ああ、私はあなたが私を見るように私はあなたの顎を持ち上げることができたらいいなあ。" ( Oh, how I wish I could lift your chin so that you'd look at me. ) he let out. 

Emi let out a sad chuckle. 

She wiped her tears and looked up at Joji, realizing that she should just savor here time with him as she shined him a small smile.

George smiled. 

"私の女の子がいる。" ( There's my girl. ) he said, resting his chin in his hand, rings shiny on his pinky finger.

She let out another laugh, pushing her hair out of her face.

"So, lets move off of this. What's new?" he asked.

"Well... I'm starting school soon..." Emi admit.

George's eyes widened.

"Really?" he asked, looking excited.

Emi nodded.

"It's not too far from the cafe, and... It's really nice there. The campus has a lot of plants."

"I'm proud of you." he smiled.

"Thank you."

The two smiled at one another.

The problem still weighed in the back of Emi's mind, but, she didn't know everything.

When the call had ended, an hour or so later, she didn't know that he stayed at his desk.

She didn't know that he'd opened up a browser.

She didn't know about the savings in his bank account.

She didn't know that he was scrolling through the airport website.

She didn't know that he was buying a ticket for the summer to Japan.

She didn't know.