A/N

Yes, I know I'm evil.

Enjoy.

🎮𝕁𝕒𝕪🎮

It has been one month and seventeen days ever since I planned to meet up with Nya. I feel pathetic for even counting.

Of course, we haven't gotten past the planning stage yet.

Is she waiting for me to ask her out? Does she not actually want to meet? It's all too confusing.

Then again, something inside of me says that this is all a bad idea. I mean, how would she react if she knew that it was me the whole time? What if she turns out to be some crazy fangirl who just thinks of me as her celebrity crush? Would she even be comfortable even knowing a celebrity who's in the middle of a messy divorce?

I sigh.

Yet, when I see her in the game, all my worries fade away.

I start to type in a hello, when a voice interrupts me.

"We have voice chat for a reason, you know."

I jolt awake from my small fantasy, realising where I actually am.

I apologise for the distraction to Cole, then turn to the camera and do the same. The chat is going crazy for whatever reason.

Cole's eating chips behind me, so he luckily didn't notice me staring at Nya's avatar for five minutes.

I hesitate to look at the chat, but when I do, I'm relieved to see that not many people noticed there as well.

"Sorry guys. Just a bit out of it right now with what's been happening and all," I make up a lame excuse that isn't completely false. "But hey, I'm back now, so..."

As my eyes hovered over the chat, more and more people started joining the stream.

And now that Nya was nowhere to be seen in the game, I decided to close it and play something else for a while.

"Try out Fist2Face, maybe?" Cole shouts from behind with a stuffed mouth, and the chat seems to agree, though they can't decide between me playing the original or the sequel.

My eyes are already too tired from the screen, so I take my headphones off for a bit and sigh.

"Can you take over for like ten minutes?"

Cole's job of watching over the chat is much easier if I'm being honest, but I won't deny that it's the most important one. We've had some media outlets joining in to get some info out of me recently, another lovely gift by my parents' decision.

Cole, of course, agrees, cracking his knuckles as he sits on the chair.

"Alright guys, let's show him how you actually beat a raid boss."

I roll my eyes, scrolling through the chat with a smile on my face.

Some people are donating, others are spamming emoji, while others are just joining.

I scroll back up to see the list of people that joined, hoping that a journalist isn't one of them.

Throughout the luckily few new viewers, one username catches my eye.

"DJ_Nya," I mumble to myself. No... It's silly. It can't be... It sounds ridiculous!

Still, my hope is there.

I bite my lip and choose to ignore it, returning back to the game after Cole's finished with his session.

Just two more hours, then I can end the stream and text her.

Maybe.

🕹🕹🕹

"I can't do this." I clutch my phone nervously, trying not to hit send. "Nope. I can't do this."

"Just do it," Cole tells me, "you've been typing that thing for hours now."

"But what if you're right? What if it's some crazy fan or a stalker?"

"I don't know, dude," he flops on my bed, taking my phone from me. "What I do know is that she's probably been staring at your text bubble floating in there for like forty minutes."

And as he says that, he sends the message.

"No, no, no!" I try to wrestle him and grab it from his hand, but he unsurprisingly overpowers me, placing the phone on my drawer instead.

I continue trying to reach it, he continues to wrestle me, we continue to fight.

Until, suddenly, we hear a ding.

I quickly push him off and grab my phone, almost dropping it in the process.

As I unlock it and see the message, my heart pounds.

DazzlingJamminNya: Is 7 okay? :)

I feel as if my brain has completely stopped working.

Cole nudges my shoulder, a grin on his face. "What are you waiting for? Answer!"

I realise that I'm too much of a coward, so I instead send her a thumbs-up emoji.

Not my brightest move, I know.

I'm ready to put it back down, when another question pops into my mind.

SuperstarRockinJay: How will I recognise you?

Part of me hopes for a picture, but alas, I don't get one.

DazzlingJamminNya: what's your favourite colour?

I raise an eyebrow.

SuperstarRockinJay: blue

DazzlingJamminNya: Mine too!

My heart skips a beat and a smile stretches across my lips.

DazzlingJamminNya: I'll be wearing a blue shirt then ;).

SuperstarRockinJay: sounds good to me!

I try to take a deep breath, but I don't get to as Cole harshly slaps my back.

"You scored a date!" he tells me in a cheerful tone, and I feel my face heating up.

"It's not a date," I say. "Just... you know!"

"Sure..." he says, wiggling his eyebrows. "Come on, let's go pick an outfit for you."

Just as he gets off my bed, the door creaks open and Cole falls silent.

I'm not delighted, to say the least.

Edna is standing in front of my father, who doesn't dare to look at me.

"Hon, your father wants to tell you something," she says, clearly as uncomfortable as I am. She then looks at Cole. "... Privately. Sorry, dear."

"Nah, don't worry about it," Cole puts his shoes on and grabs his phone, awkwardly squeezing past my dad as he leaves. "Good luck, dude."

I wave back, hesitant to face my father.

And as Edna closes the door, I feel the last bit of hope in me fading.

I don't know whom I see whenever I look at him anymore. On the one hand, he's obviously my dad; on the other, he's my favourite superhero, the one I've looked up to since I was a kid.

However, there's also the third option, which is unfortunately the truth; he's nothing more than a cheating womaniser.

I've only got mum now, I know that.

He sits on the edge of my bed, sighing. "We have a rendezvous with a lawyer in a few hours," he tells me.

I can't help but pout. "I'm not a kid. Why do I have to be involved?"

He still refuses to look me in the eyes. "Your mother wants to leave you a small deposit before she leaves."

"Where is she going?"

He bites his tongue, immediately regretting his words. "We'll talk with the lawyer."

But I persist, following him to the door. "No, where is she going?"

The door creaks open again, and the moment I see my mum, I look at her dead in the eye and ask once again.

"Where are you going?"

She refuses to speak, instead trying to caress my cheek. However, I only see red.

"You're leaving me too, aren't you?" I say, immediately regretting my words as I see her tear up.

Before I can apologise, my father steps in.

"I said we'll talk with the lawyer," he hisses and drags me out the door, my mum slowly following behind.

And in those moments I realise, I'm a terrible son.

🕹🕹🕹

"Shintaro? You're going to Shintaro?" I jump into the conversation, rather rudely interrupting the conversation between my mum and the lawyer. My dad stays silent, as always.

"It's for the best, sweetie," she tells me. "I just need a break from... all of this."

"Well, when are you going to visit?"

She clears her throat, looking away. "I... I don't know."

"Mr Gordon, it would be appreciated if you didn't interrupt my negotiations with my client," my mum's lawyer says, and my dad's attorney nods along.

"Well, what am I here for then?"

The lawyer looked through her papers, finally landing on the one she wanted. "Your mother has made a deposit of 10K to your bank account, and you are here to confirm that."

I look unimpressed, though I don't even question the amount of money she's given me. "Really? You just need me here to confirm a deposit?"

"Be respectful, Jason," Dad whispers to me, but I can't care less about his words.

"No, you're adults, you should settle this on your own," I get up despite them trying to stop me. I turn to my mum, trying not to well up with tears. "If you want to run away from him, fine. But you can't expect me to just forget you if you give me a bunch of money as a goodbye gift."

I then look at my father, but before I can say anything even worse, I stop.

"I'll be home by midnight," I say, calmly making my exit.

As I close the door behind me, plenty of employees are looking at me. I know they all heard my words, but I don't care at this point. I think of the one thing that I have left today, which is by far the most important one.

Nya.

As I walk out the front door, I try to brush off my previous thoughts, focusing on new ones instead.

I open my phone, check the time, and...

20:30PM.

🕹🕹🕹

I try to catch my breath as I step into the comic store, my eyes frantically scanning around to spot a blue shirt.

But alas, no one is there.

Not a single person; not even the employees, who are presumably in the back room.

I'm alone. And I've messed up.

Great.

Suddenly, I hear small noises coming from the very back.

As I slowly approach, right in front of the NDR (Ninja Dance Revolution) machine's dance floor sits a gloomy girl. One that I (unfortunately) recognise.

I try to walk away slowly as not to cause any drama, but she spots me before I can leave.

"What are you doing here?" she asks, a little defensive.

"What are you doing here?"

"Why do you care?"

Having nothing else to do, I sit beside her, staring in the distance.

"I don't know. Just curious," I shrug.

She seems surprised for some reason.

After a bit, she speaks. "How come you're here?" she asks me again, but her voice is softer this time around.

I hug my knees, trying not to cry. "Just had a hard day and needed to relax."

I decide to avoid the 'accidentally standing up the girl of my dreams' part for now, knowing that she already doesn't have the best impression of me.

"I get that."

Despite the two of us sitting very close to one another, I don't care. Of course I had to mess up every one of my relationships in a single day. First my mum, then Nya...

I can at least text the latter but why bother? Just scrolling through the dozens upon dozens of messages asking where I was are more than enough to make me realise that it's over.

I'm a jerk.

"Your streams are pretty good," I hear a voice say.

As I look at her, a small but tired smile forms on my face. "You really think so?"

She slowly nods. "They're good background noise for when studying... and gaming."

"I... I'm glad you think so."

As I turn around, I stare at the NDR's colourful screen and pull a coin from my pocket.

"Do you play?" I tell her.

I can't help but blush myself as her cheeks turn a bright pink. "Maybe another time."

The fact that we've met so many times can't be a coincidence, right?

I take a look at her again, noticing she's wearing a red, oversized jacket.

My heart skips a beat at the thought of her being the one.

But, of course, I had to mess it up.

"What are you wearing under that?"

I cover my mouth quickly as I realise what I just said, which leads to her scooting away cautiously.

"Excuse me?"

"No, no, no, I really didn't mean it like that. I just wanted to see what you were wearing!"

... That doesn't sound much better, come to think of it.

The door swings open, and a blond boy starts jogging towards us.

"There you are! Man, I still can't believe he did that to you..."

His voice trails off as he sees me.

"You know Jason Gordon?" he exclaims, now running towards us.

Uh-oh.

"Can I get an autograph?" he immediately asks me with pleading eyes, and I obviously can't deny.

As he fumbles to find a pen and pencil, the girl gets up and starts walking away.

"I'll wait outside," she says, only giving me a sad wave as she leaves.

Make that three people I've ruined my relationship with.

And as I sign the autograph, I realise that those people are never coming back.