Grey clouds loomed above, forming spines of puff in the sunken sky. The only motion felt in the lonely street was the suffocatingly heavy breeze.
Hoku, Relia and the rest of his friends huddled outside a building with undistinct Chinese decorations noticable laking in the vibrancy commonly associated, but still acceptably welcoming.
"So what do you think?" Anderson asked.
The other guy in the group said, "Is this place new? I don't remember there being a restaurant on this street."
"Yeah, this place used to be a-"
"I'm freezing! Can we go inside, please?" Milly interrupted, hugging her arms together.
Anderson exhaled, putting his arms over his head, and the group entered the Chinese restaurant
The inside was well-lit with black banners with gold letters on the walls and sleek white clothed tables. Despite the barren wasteland outside, inside, there were a few customers eating.
A waiter greeted them and led them to a table.
Hoku took his seat at the leftmost seat with Milly sitting in the seat next to him. Relia briefly eyed the two, then sat on the opposite side. Anderson and the rest sat to the right side of the table.
The waiter brought menus, plates, and a large bottle of water, meticulously resting them on the table. Relia took a menu and thanked the waiter with a small bow. She and Hoku exchanged brief looks over the top of the menus.
Anderson started a conversation with the other two in the group. Leaving the rest to their own discussions.
Milly looked at Relia from across the table. "I like your ribbon," she said.
"Oh, thank you," Relia responded.
"Your name is Relia, right?" Milly asked.
"Mhm."
Milly paused for a moment.
"So how did two meet?" She asked
Relia's eyes wandered to Hoku, then she closed them, saying, "He tried to coerce me into putting on his coat."
"Oh, um-"
"She's making it sound weirder than it actually was," Hoku quickly commented.
"You don't have to act all nonchalant about it; I should admit it was a pretty smart ploy," Relia giggled, her glasses tinting.
"What are you even saying?" Hoku sighed.
Milly started scrolling through her phone, though she continued asking questions.
"You two have known each other for a pretty long time?" She asked.
"A few months now," Relia answered
"Oh. I thought it'd be longer," Milly remarked under her breath.
Hoku imagined the comment might irk Relia, but when he looked at her, she gave a mischievous smirk toward him, and Hoku shortly picked up on her intention, shaking his head in disapproval.
Relia continued as normal, "So what about you? How long have you guys known him?"
"Not long either," Milly answered
"That's what she sai-"
Hoku kicked her leg, making her bite her tongue mid-sentence.
"And hold on, Milly-" Hoku away from Relia as she was recovering from the blow. "We've been friends for some time now, haven't we?" He asked.
"If you say so," she said dismissively, raising her phone.
Hoku sighed with Milly, you could go from being her best friend to wondering why all of a sudden you had assassins sent to kill you.
Anderson suddenly interjected from the right side of the table. "Hey, where the hell is the drinks menu?! I'm dying of thirst over here."
"Here," Relia passed the drinks menu across the table.
"Oh, thanks!" Anderson proclaimed, taking the menu and reading through it in an exaggerated manner.
"So lovebirds, you know what you wanna get?" He asked.
Relia frowned.
"What's with that?" she whispered to Hoku with distinct annoyance.
Hoku shrugged.
"Asshole," she pouted, making Milly let out a barely audible snicker.
"Just ignore him," Hoku sighed.
"Is that your go-to response to everything?"
"I'm just sayi-"
"Look at you two, arguing like a married couple," Anderson interrupted. "You hear what I asked?"
"Yeah, I heard, you know, there's nothing going on between us." Relia snapped at Anderson.
"Uh oh-" Anderson said, hands planted on his cheeks.
"That's not what he's been telling us," he mouthed to her.
Relia's cheeks flushed as she turned to Hoku.
Hoku shook his head with an unbothered expression.
"How is that funny?" She asked, returning a sharp glare to Anderson.
Anderson sat back in his chair, smirking.
Relia glared, "So it's ok for guys to be friends, but if a guy and girl are friends, they've gotta be dating? That's pretty sexist, you know."
"Whoa, relax, you don't gotta make it a big deal," Anderson said.
"You've got yourself a keeper," he said to Hoku.
"I mean, she's got a point, man," Hoku responded
Anderson raised his hands in surrender.
"Order for yourselves then," he said.
There was an awkward silence that followed.
Then the third guy in the group started talking. "Uh, Hoku, I heard about the baseball club getting a new coach."
"...Oh yeah," Hoku answered.
"Got any games coming up?"
Hoku nodded.
"Cool."
"Better practice hard, then?" Anderson interjected
Hoku didn't respond.
Anderson then looked at Relia.
"So what about you?"
"What about me?" Relia responded passively aggressively.
Anderson paused. "Jeez, would it hurt you to be a little nicer. You want an apology or something?"
He sighed.
"What do you do? You like anything... outside of playing games?" He asked. "You know any celebrities? Watch movies or shows."
"No, I don't really pay attention to mainstream stuff". I doubt you'd know any of the stuff I watch"
"Oh, so you're on some hardcore shit." He snided. "You like arthouse films, or something."
"I barely watch movies, to be honest," she mumbled.
"Okay, okay."
Anderson nodded along, then chuckled.
"You just game away."
"Get your game on!" He shouted.
"Oh my god, shut up." The other girl snorted.
The rest of the group, even Hoku, laughed along. Relia, however, frowned.
Anderson continued, "Ok, ok, so you two... You play together, right? That uh beast battle game, right?"
"You told them, huh?" Relia whispered to Hoku.
"Yeah, it came up randomly," Hoku said awkwardly mid-laugh.
Anderson continued. "Ok, why don't we talk about something exciting? What level did you two get to in Beast battle?"
"How is that exciting?" Milly groaned.
"Well, what else is there to talk about? The test?" Anderson turned back to Relia, "Besides, now that you got Hoku into this shit, it's all he talks about"
"One day, all these lies are gonna catch up with you," Hoku said, pouring a glass of water for himself.
"What got you into it anyway?" Anderson asked Relia, "It's some kiddy shit, ain't it?
"I liked it as a kid, and now, for some bizarre reason, I still like it," she answered saying under her breath "Funny how hobbies work."
"You like the little animal creatures?" Anderson asked.
"Yeah, they're cute," Relia shrugged.
"Yeah?"
"So uh..." Anderson interupted himself with a snicker, "Do you ever dress up as them?"
Hoku nearly choked on his water.
Relia stared at Anderson for a moment, stunned by the question. Everyone else at the table stayed dead silent.
Eventually, she said. "No?"
Anderson scoffed.
Relia paused. Then opened her mouth.
"I don't understand."
"Hm?" Anderson pretended not to hear her.
"Why would you ask that?" She asked.
"Just a thought, ya know," Anderson tried to sound nonchalant, but a laugh was leaking out.
"That's a pretty big leap in logic. Do people normally dress up as animals?"
"Relia," Hoku said despondently.
"I'm just curious, is all. It's a pretty big leap in logic, isn't it?" She said.
Everyone but Anderson had a deathly look on their faces, especially Hoku, whose heart was beating fast.
Relia looked around at the awkward faces before finally staring at Hoku.
"What?" Relia asked.
"Is there some big joke I'm not in on?"
"Explain it to me." She turned specifically to Hoku.
"Ooh, she's got you on the ropes, man," Anderson snickered quietly.
"Shut up. Explain it." Her voice sounded eerily calm.
"I'm sorry"
"W-we saw... your cosplaying posts."
"Oh, he kicks, and he misses the goal completely," Anderson commented.
Relia stared at Hoku for a bit.
"But that's private, I never told you about that. " Relia said.
Hoku glanced nervously at Milly, who was looking down, then back to Relia "We... found your Instagram."
"Oh," Relia said.
Hoku couldn't read her face, but all of a sudden, tears started to build up in her eyes.
"Hey!" Hoku exclaimed with concern.
Before her tears could flow, she turned and tried to laugh it off, wiping her tears away. But when they continued, she abruptly stood up, stumbled past her chair and left the table.
"I'm sorry", she said, her voice faded.
Hoku watched her with shame, then buried his head in guilt
The rest of the group shared glances. Anderson scoffed and averted his eyes.
Eventually, Hoku worked up the nerve. He got out of his seat and ran towards the door, squeezing past a waiter.
Hoku opened the doors. The wind immediately assaulted his face, he closed the door and searched on either side of the street.
He saw her and ran in her direction
"Relia!" Hoku called out.
"Go away," she demanded.
"It's all my fault. we..."
"I shouldn't have invaded your privacy."
Relia stopped walking. Hoku continued..
"Listen, I think it's cool what you do. Really! It would've been cool if you talked more about it."
Relia turned around suddenly "Why? So you could tell them sooner?!"
A gush of wind pushed against her hair. They were both out of breath.
"It's not just that Hoku," she said, raising her hand.
"It's the way you just sit there while your friends make fun of me."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Anything Hoku."
"It's messed up the way they make fun of everything we're into," she said
"They're just poking fun," Hoku said.
"Don't baby them. They're bullies! I can't believe those are the people you call friends."
"Don't be so dramatic," he scoffed.
After seeing the way she looked at him, he added, "Look, you're right, okay, Andy can be a dickhead from time to time."
"The girl, too."
"Milly? Okay, she's a little clingy, but she's harmless."
"No, I saw you. I saw the way you looked at her. She's the one who looked it up, isn't she?"
Hoku looked away, his guilt painted all over his face.
Relia turned in frustration.
"I hate it, Hoku!"
"I hate the way everyone treats my hobbies like they're-"
"Like they're so godamn cringy."
Hoku narrowed his eyes "C'mon, let's not pretend like there aren't cringey aspects-"
"Of course there are! There are cringey aspects to everything, but the way they look at it with this disgust and superiority. I can't take it!"
"It's really not that deep."
Relia scoffed, "You always do this."
"What?"
"Deflect! especially with your friends. It's like you're scared to stand up to them, Hoku."
Hoku scrunched his eyebrows in ridicule.
"So, what, you just let them make fun of everything when you're alone with them? Relia asked."
"I guess. It's all light-hearted, Relia, nothing to get worked up about."
"Do you even... do you even care about the things we talk about?" Relia asked.
"Yeah, of course I do, but I'm not gonna defend it with my life, there are more important things to worry about."
"Right, because you have all this other crap you do," Relia dismissed, turning away again.
"Yeah, that 'crap' is my life, Relia. God, I can't believe we're actually arguing about this."
"I don't know what your problem is, but you spend too much time getting attached to this shit. You're letting it dictate how you feel in the real world."
Relia tried to say something, but she couldn't think of what and shook her head "I'm disappointed in you."
"Disa- stop talking like that, is the real Relia even in there, or did she get replaced by an alien?" He said, shaking Relia, and she smacked away his hand, tears returning.
"Relia... maybe I'm not the one who's scared of them. Grow up a little. People say mean things. But if you keep shutting them out like this, they're never gonna get to know the real you, they'll just know the weird loner chick who sits by the window."
Relia looked shaken; her tears were already filling her eyes. Hoku felt regret at what he said, but he continued.
"God, are you going to cry at everything anyone insults you or any of the stuff you attach yourself to? I don't want you to be like this forever."
Relia's voice lost it's arguementative edge "Like what?"
"Dependent on the only person who ever bothered to talk to you."
Relia looked to the floor, her eyes were filled with disdain and tears. Finally, she turned around and walked away.
Hoku reached out his hand but she shook her shoulder and kept walking
"You don't know the first thing about me."
Relia continued walking, tears dropping behind her.
After that, Hoku and Relia became distant from one another. Eventually, they stopped communicating both online and at school. Hoku continued to live most of his school days socialising and playing baseball at the club, although he eventually quit. Eventually, they graduated and fully went their separate way.