A Day With Sota

The promised day had finally arrived. 

By the time Sota was ready to depart, he was already fairly wired. The start of the day with Ren coincided with when he'd normally be sleeping, so he had elected to go without. That gave him plenty of time to get ready, though! By 10:00 AM, he had already cleaned the beat-up car, showered, and gotten dressed all before his fifth cup of coffee. 

Before he knew it, it was time. He grabbed his things and hopped  out of the bedroom window. He made his way to the car and plugged in the address Ren had given him. The caffeine was making his hands jitter - definitely not the anxiety - and the car almost felt small with how crowded his nerves felt. 

He took a deep breath, rolled down the windows, and headed on his way.

Ren lived about fifteen minutes from Sota. He used that time to get collect himself. He was determined to stay on this new path, but he knew his anxiety was going to be the real challenge today. If things went a certain way and his feelings ended up growing, then things could get complicated very quickly.

It's fine, let's just get through today. Just One More Day...

Those were the thoughts as he continued the serene drive through the woods.

***

[Sota]: I'm here! Come out whenever you're set to go.

With that, Sota sat back and waited. There was a part of him that worried about 'what ifs'. He recalled the confrontation with Ren's grandfather -  what if he came out and caused trouble?

Before he could get too deep into it, however, she appeared. 

She had her training bag with her, but she wore slightly more stylish clothes than usual. They looked quite good on her, which Sota felt uneasy about thinking. 

"Hey, Ren," Sota greeted as she opened the door, trying not to let his nerves show. 

"Hey, Senpai!"

"You don't have to call me that outside of class," Sota assured her. "Just 'Sota' is fine."

"Oh, okay then! I'll try my best to remember."

Ren got in the car and closed the door... and then a moment of awkward silence passed between them. 

For Sota, it was a lot of nerves. Choosing to ignore your inner thoughts did not prevent the intense emotions from swirling up inside. He was also the one who initiated, so he had to keep it together. For Ren, her awkwardness was simply because she had never done this before. She had never actually been given the freedom to go out and spend time with anyone outside class.

Eventually, Ren was the one who broke the tension...

"What is this?" she asked. 

Sota followed Ren's gaze. She was looking at the silver chain that was hanging from his rearview mirror. At the bottom was a pendant; the letters "EQ" in stylistic fantasy font. Sota's face grew a bit pale when he saw it; he'd forgotten to take it down. 

"Oh, that?" Sota laughed. "Just something my siblings put there. Sometimes they'll use the car, so they like to decorate it..."

"You're a terrible liar."

Sota's gulp was almost audible as his heart sank a bit. In that moment, he remembered Riku's text from the other night. 

[Riku (Queen)]: Have fun, big boy! And don't try to be sly, she'll see right through it and tear you apart! <3

Honesty it was, then. Hopefully, his nerdiness didn't cause things to get awkward before the day even began. He was 'Senpai', after all - this was a new side she hadn't yet had exposure to.

"It's the insignia for a game I used to play a lot while I was growing up," he admitted. "It was a big online multiplayer game called Everquest."

"I thought so!" Ren exclaimed. "I love that game!"

Sota almost fell out of the car in surprise. He stared at Ren, while she blissfully took the chain down and began examining it thoroughly.

"You've...played?"

"Yep! A long time ago, my mother dated someone who was big into games. He had it and used to let us play it from time to time. It was short-lived, but it was a blast when we did play!"

"You don't say..."

 "Yeah, I had a ranger that I loved to play! I wasn't very good at it, but fun nonetheless!"

Sota breathed a sigh of relief. She was her normal talkative self, and hadn't been estranged by the gaming reference. 

"Since Riku isn't with us, we can't do a private class at the dojo. So, we'll start heading towards some place to grab lunch," Sota suggested. "You can tell me all about your gaming days on the way there..."

"Sounds good!"

***

With the conversation having started up in earnest, Sota and Ren both felt a lot more natural about the situation. The nearest town was about twenty minutes away, but it flew by in a flash. 

By the time they made it into town, they had decided to go to a Chinese Buffet that was near the main road. They had a lot of variety, and Sota wasn't going to need to break the bank to pay for them to eat. 

"You sure you don't want me to pitch in any?" Ren asked. 

"Don't worry about it," Sota assured her as he paid the entry cost. "It's your celebration, right? Besides, what kind of Senpai would I be if I let you pay?"

"I guess so," she laughed. "Thanks, Sota!"

Hearing her say his name made him shiver. Not in a bad way, but she had always referred to him as 'Senpai' because of their relationship in class. That wasn't the current situation, though. She was spending time with him as 'Sota'. For someone who had felt invisible for so long, it was surreal to be acknowledged for who he was, not what he was...

And she seemed to be just as happy and interested in spending time with him, regardless.

"Let's get our food and find a good seat," he suggested before his thoughts trailed off too far. 

"Sure thing!"

The two headed into the restaurant. There were several buffet tables lined with different options. They both grabbed a plate, loaded up on their respective items, and then found a seat. There was a window-side booth near the back of the restaurant that wasn't completely isolated, but was still quiet enough that they weren't front-and-center. Not too long after they sat, one of the waitresses brought over waters for them to drink with their meal. 

"I haven't come here in a long time," Ren admitted as she started to dig into the food. 

"It's one of my favorites," Sota admitted. "A lot of food and it's reasonably affordable. It helps a lot when you're low on money."

"Oh? Does your work not pay you much, then?"

A reasonable - albeit dreadful - follow-up question. Getting to know one another was par for the course, but he had a lot of things he wasn't proud of. His instinct was to think about fabricating something. In this situation, though, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not only would she sniff out the lie, but he wasn't going to lie to one of the students he helped train.

"I actually don't work," Sota admitted, fidgeting under the table. "I'll get one-off days of work every now and then, but never anything permanent. I mostly have survived off of graduation money I received back when I finished high school."

"I see... Does that mean you're in school doing something else?"

"I left college about a year ago. I will occasionally take an online class, and someday I hope to finish out my computer degree, but it's a slow and steady type of thing..."

Sota waited with bated breath for Ren's response. Any time this came up in conversation, girl or otherwise, it was typically met negatively. Disdain, disapproval, disgust. He was going to be twenty in about a month. While he wasn't expected to have his entire life together, people did expect him to be more than a jobless home-dweller that hid out in his room all day. 

"That sounds really cool!" Ren exclaimed, still fully engaged in the conversation. "I was thinking about some sort of engineering degree once I'm out of high school, but not entirely sure. They don't do that sort of thing online, though, so maybe I'll have to pick your brain when I get there!"

"Maybe," Sota responded, surprised. 

"Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong...I just wasn't expecting you to respond the way you did. Most people get pretty judgmental when I tell them I'm not working..."

"Screw them!" Ren blurted out, waving her hand as if to dismiss all of it. "People suck. They don't know what's going on in other people's lives."

Sota was surprised at her how curt her response was. He had always experienced Ren as the bubbly one - not the blunt and cynical type. It was surprising to hear something like that come out of Ren's mouth. 

Different as it was, he couldn't help but appreciate it.

"I'm not going to argue with that," he chuckled. "People aren't the greatest. If they don't have a use for you, they're often quick to toss you aside and leave you to fend for yourself."

"You can say that again..."

It was dark, but the two laughed nonetheless. While the reality may have been grim, they were able to share that grimness with each other. It meant a lot to have someone to talk to that understood the viewpoint. 

As the rest of the meal went on, they only fell deeper into conversation. There was no awkwardness or forced moments. Even  when he was in school, when Sota would have lunchroom conversations, he always felt like he was going nowhere. He would either get one-word responses, or the other person would turn him away altogether. Even when Sota accidentally knocked his glass over and sent water everywhere, Ren immediately helped out and was supportive. When the waitress repaid him with an empty fortune cookie bag, they laughed it off like it was nothing. 

"Must be a bad omen," Sota chuckled. 

"Who needs omens, anyway?" Ren shrugged it off. "Let them try to ruin our day - we'll show them!"

Regardless of what happened, it just naturally worked. 

Is this what they mean by 'chemistry'?

Sota's hesitation lingered momentarily. In the back of his mind, he was very cognizant of what he had just thought about. Fortunately, Ren made it very easy to keep them at bay. 

"So, what's next?" she asked with a smile. 

"Hmmm. I had brought up an arcade at class, and we were just talking about video games. How does that sound?"

"Awesome!" she almost jumped out of her seat in excitement. "Let's do it!"

Her giddiness was palpable. Sota was excited that she seemed to be into the arcade as well, but more notably, he was just happy that she was happy. This person, who had given him a blissful escape from his daily nightmare, needed to be happy. Sota valued her happiness, and it was all the more meaningful because he got to be a part of it.

They finished their meal, grabbed their things, and got back to the car. All the while, continuing to hold conversation and getting to know each other better. 

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Sota glanced to one of his mirrors and saw her reflection in it. Just like months ago when they had sparred, her eyes were still transparent. She was smiling, she was alive, and she was happy. Not just happy because she was out in the world, but also because he was there with her. 

It brought Sota to a unique and somewhat terrifying realization.

This is no longer a theory. There is something here, and it is real...