Side-Quest

It was early in the morning, maybe too early. The Sun was still shy, and my windows were properly shut this time around. Yet, defying all that, my phone vibrated.

Once. Then twice.

Then, the next second, it wouldn’t stop, it was like automatic gunfire.

“Urghhh!”, I grumpily got up and unlocked it.

Soejima was bombarding me with text messages.

“I DID IT! I DID IT!”, she typed on all caps.

“... Did what?”, still half-asleep, I asked.

“I made a co-op update!”, she wrote.

“... Did you pull an all-nighter?”, I inquired.

“... Maybe”, Soejima responded.

“Sora… That’s a little irresponsible, isn’t it?”, I argued.

“Not at all, I’m all good!”, she rebutted.

“If you say so… But you haven’t even announced the thing, you don’t have a deadline… Why the rush?”, I kept on with my questions.

“It’s… It’s for you to test it…”, she sounded extremely upset.

Suddenly, the realization of the fact I was being a dumbass hit me like a truck.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean it like that! I was just worried about your health! Sorry, Sora!”, I got up from my bed in fright, sat on the edge, and just about facepalmed myself.

I couldn’t even remotely imagine how she was reacting to my apology. My heart thumping in my chest, I kept my forehead resting on my hand. No reply.

I took a deep breath.

Well… It can’t be helped. I already apologized. God damn it, I need to be more weary of what I say right after waking up. Or just refuse to answer people before I grow conscious.

“God damn it…”, I whispered. “She’s doing it for me…”, I kept on mumbling.

My heartbeat accelerated.

“I need to go out”, a conclusion was drawn.

Thus, I immediately reached out to my best friend, Ryuma Watanabe. As he’s a couple years older and a legitimate ladies’ man, I hoped he’d be able to offer me any semblance of advice in regards to Soejima, because at that point…

“I’m nothing sort of a disaster”, I let out a final whisper as the phone call connected.

“Yes, Toki?”, he answered.

“It’s been a while, right, Ryu?”, I tried sounding just a little bit cool.

“Yeah, indeed, man. What’cha been up to?”, he asked.

“I’m… Beta-testing for Soejima”, I admitted immediately. There goes my cool.

“WHAT!?”, he screamed, and I put my phone a good two palms away from my ear from that point onward. “SERIOUSLY!?”, he insisted.

“Yeah… But that’s actually the reason I wanna talk to you…”, I mumbled.

“A-ha… My, my, Tokitsu… Aren’t you a forward young man?”, Ryuma asked.

My face immediately grew hotter than the sun, and I was positive my cheeks were red. Thankfully, Ryuma wasn’t here to see it.

“Meet me at Savepoint, today, at 4pm”, he said with his usual mysterious, sophisticated tone. “I’ll take the liberty of bringing my loved one, Haruka”, he added.

“Right…”, I just agreed. “Still, a different one already?”, I whispered.

“Be seeing you then!”, he signed off, and I let out a long sigh.

Before I could realize it, the day went by. I was probably a bit too anxious while I waited for Soejima’s reply. Savepoint was a casual bar that served both as a couple’s meeting spot in the afternoon as well as a happy hour with alcoholic beverages in the night. It had some old gaming consoles and CRTs for the customers to play on while they waited for their food.

And I headed there as soon as the clock ticked 3:50. I arrived perfectly at 4:00. Yet, somehow, Ryuma was already there, his head lowered in an attempt to look serious.

I sat down in front of him, as he stood silently with his girlfriend staring at him.

“Hey, Tokitsu”, he finally greeted me, and looked me in the eye. “Long time no see”, he added.

“Yeah…”, I swallowed hard.

“I’m just teasing ya, man! Why ‘re you so tense!? Haruka, love, this is my buddy, Shigeo. I call him Tokitsu, though. That’s his online nickname”, he introduced me.

With a shining smile, Haruka greeted me with a gentle head bow.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!”, she said, her voice both soft and warm.

“It’s my pleasure, really”, I bowed back.

“So… Tell me what you gotta tell me, Tokitsu”, Ryuma put his elbows on the table and joined hands.

What are you, The Godfather!?

“Geez, love! At least let him order something first! Aren’t you his veteran?”, Haruka interrupted his serious posture.

“Ah, dang it! True! It’s on me today, Toki. Go all out”, Ryuma handed me the menu.

“And also! You have to tell me how you two know each other! … If it’s okay with you delaying your story a bit, Shigeo”, Haruka said.

I’m impressed… A girl has finally tamed Ryuma. Maybe it’s because he finally went for one who wasn’t older than him… I gotta hear about how they got together later.

“Of course, Haruka! We do have the whole afternoon, after all”, I replied. “If you’ll do the honors, my veteran…”, I teased Ryuma as I opened up the menu to order.

“Sure, sure… Tokitsu was two years my junior in high school, and we both helped out in the library from time to time. He learned I was in the band club, and we started talking about music… And lo and behold! We’re both video game music fans. That’s how it all started”, Ryuma explained.

“Fascinating!”, Haruka smiled. “Are you a musician too, Shigeo?”, she asked.

“Oh, no, no! Not in the slightest. I’m just a fan…”, I shamefully replied.

“He’s not good at playing… But he is a fantastic listener. He gets what the music is sayin’, ya know?”, Ryuma tried to lift my mood.

“Oh…”, Haruka sounded surprised.

“I’ll have an espresso and a strawberry shortcake, please!”, I called the waitress.

“Coming up!”, she replied.

“Thanks!”, I made sure to be polite.

“Man…”, Ryuma uttered. “What are you, a 15-year-old princess, to have that strawberry shortcake?”, he made fun of me. I knew he wasn’t serious, though.

“Something wrong with it, dear?”, Haruka pinched him for the comment.

“Heh”, I laughed just a bit.

“Hey! No fair, he’s my buddy! He knows I’m kidding!”, Ryuma asked for mercy, still being pinched at full force.

“So, Ryuma… To tell you the truth about why I called you here…”, I began.

“Yeah?”, he started paying attention as soon as Haruka let him off the hook.

“I met Soejima at the Indie Game Expo, in-person… And she’s this super cute girl… So I wanna get along with her better. I need help”, I finally admitted.

“SOEJIMA IS A GIRL!?!?!?!?”, they both shouted.