Home Visit (pt. 1)

‘Hot…’ Crystal groans, shading herself from the sunlight with her hand. Despite having sat in the ramen shop for a couple more minutes to cool down and enjoy the air-con, the refreshing feeling is instantly blasted away by the cruel, heartless summer heat as they exit the shop. The smell of sweat on the streets also certainly did not help their current situation, making things only more miserable for the two of them.

‘Ugh…’ Yan agrees. They flee to a nearby bridge, hiding under its shade to escape the sunlight. For a while, they just stand there, fanning themselves with their hands and clothing, regretting the moment they stepped out the shop just to burn in this weather.

‘So, what now?’ Crystal asks, grabbing a hair tie from her pocket.

‘I… don’t know,’ Yan responds, placing his still-cool hand on his forehead. To be honest, he should be heading home now. He only told his parents he’d be out for a couple of hours at the bookstore, but for some reason, even under this torture, he feels a little too lazy to head back. Well, lazy as in not willing to walk a couple hundred steps.

Or maybe he just wants to hang out with her longer. There is that possibility. Not that he’s willing to believe his brain is actually this insane to want to hang out with someone who’s essentially the opposite of him.

‘You wanna walk around for a bit more?’ she suggests.

‘Uh… I don’t know.’ He still can’t say no.

‘Or you can head up to my place if you want.’

‘Sure, I don’t know—’

Wait.

‘It’s just my uncle’s flat upstairs from the bookstore…’

Crystal continues to talk, but Yan’s mind is no longer on the contents of her speech. You can head up to my place if you want. A girl’s residence. On the first hangout. In the middle of the day. Her uncle and cousin are in the bookstore. He assumes her aunt is at home, but otherwise, there’s no one else. Just the two of them. Going to her place. Going to—

It’ll be fine. Just a normal hangout. It’ll be fine. Just a normal hangout. It’ll be fine… Yan quickly brainwashes himself to reduce his hormonal response. His face goes flat, devoid of emotion, his body robotic and stiffened. The heat earlier makes no impact to his body as his mind goes ice cold. Perfectly normal, just like every other day. Yup, going to a girl’s place alone is just like every other day. Perfectly fine.

‘You good with that?’ she asks.

‘Yeah, sure,’ he replies instantly. ‘Let me just call my parents real quick.’

Dialling his mother’s number, the other side soon picks up pretty quickly. Unlike his usual nervousness, there is a still calmness within him, ready to face any challenge up ahead—

‘Hello?’ his mother inquires.

The feigned calmness cracks in an instant.

‘U-U-Uh, Ma, can I, um, go to a classmate’s place, um, for the afternoon? Yeah, just for the afternoon,’ he stammers.

‘Sure, just come back before dinner la.’

‘Ok, um, bye.’

Fifteen seconds. That’s all it takes to convince his mother. Easy. Ice cold. He’s totally not sweating from head to toe.

‘What did she say?’ Crystal asks.

‘Oh, she said it’s fine so long as I leave before dinner,’ he responds as coolly as possible, serving only to convince himself he’s still fine.

‘Ooh nice! My parents will probably pick me up today before dinner as well so it should be fine. Lemme call my aunt, then.’

All that courage earlier only for Yan to realise Crystal hasn’t even asked her side of family for permission yet. Great. All he can do now is wait for the call to finish.

‘... Hello? Auntie?’ she says. ‘Yeah, can I have a friend over for the afternoon? Sure? Ok, thanks! Love you, bye!’

As Crystal looks at him with a grin, Yan finally breathes a sigh of relief. Thank god my efforts didn’t go to waste.

‘Let’s go, then!’

The ancient metal gate slides open with some effort before Crystal pushes the wooden door, the hinges creaking as she steps in. Inside is a decently-sized apartment, cleanly furnished and leaving much room for movement. Although the floor is made of cold tiles, a fluffy carpet sprawls out across the living room, inserting some homely warmth on the sterile ground.

‘Just take your shoes off inside,’ Crystal beckons as she kicks her own pair of crocs underneath the shoe rack.

Yan shakily enters, taking great care not to dirty or touch anything unnecessary as he cumbersomely, cautiously places his shoes on the rack. Just as he prepares to follow her inside, a pair of footsteps rush out from the inner corridor, and sliding out is a short woman, dressed casually but with a dignified appearance. There is a moment of shock when she notices Yan, but is quickly replaced by a wide, welcoming smile.

‘Oh hello, Crystal’s classmate!’ Crystal’s aunt greets. ‘Come in, come in!’

‘U-Uh, hello…’ Yan nervously says. ‘Thanks for having me.’

‘What’s your name?’

‘Yan.’

How did things become like this?

‘You want a cup of water?’

‘Um, yes, please.’

‘Crystal, get your friend a cup of water.’

‘Auntie, lemme at least wash my hands first, ok?’ Crystal complains before turning to Yan. ‘Oh, by the way, the bathroom's the first door on the right of the corridor.’

‘Ah, ok.’ He sits uncomfortably on the couch. Its texture is extremely pleasant and cosy, but he can’t bring his body to fully relax in this unfamiliar environment. He fidgets with his hands, not sure how exactly he should act. It’s not like he’s flustered or anything, but at the very least, this is the first time he’s been to someone else’s home that’s not his family in over a year. His friends aren’t the type to just randomly invite people over to their place, so naturally, this is way out of his comfort zone.

He takes out his phone, going into Whatsup and clicking into his friend group chat. No one has sent a message since summer started. Classic. His hands hover over the keyboard, preparing to send something to break the silence, but after a while, he closes his phone, unable to tell his homies the situation.

Soon, Crystal arrives with two cups of water, placing one in Yan’s hands. ‘Just put the cup on the dinner table later,’ she says before grabbing the remote to switch on the air-con. ‘Geez, why isn’t Auntie turning on the air-con even in this weather?’

‘Uh ok, thanks.’ Taking a sip of the cold water, his sweating body is immediately refreshed by the presence of hydration… and he proceeds to then chug the entire cup.

‘You’re pretty thirsty,’ Crystal comments.

‘Uh, yeah, probably.’

‘I’ll go back into my room,’ Crystal’s aunt announces. ‘I have my own work to do today. Have fun, you two!’

‘Ok!’ Crystal replies. ‘Now, what should we do?’

Did she seriously invite me to her place without any idea of what we can do? Frankly, this spontaneity scares Yan a little. He just sits silently, waiting for her to suggest some game or show or… something. What do people even do at others’ places?

‘Ah, you wanna try Hollow Warrior?’ She turns on the TV and game console, and eventually, a rather eerily dark home screen appears.

‘Isn’t that a singleplayer game?’ Yan has never played the platformer game before, but given its immense popularity, he more or less knows some bits of the gameplay. And all he can say from watching clips of it is that… It’s hella difficult.

‘Yeah, but we can take turns trying it. You can try first!’

‘But I’ve never—’

‘It’s fineeee. Just try it!’

‘... Sure.’ He’s succumbed to Crystal once again. Taking the controller, his hands begin sweating before he even presses ‘start game’. Not the best of starts, if he must say so.

After all, he is unfortunately not much of a gamer despite being chronically online.

He presses the button. The playable character seems to be quite cute and the atmosphere’s pretty calm despite being exceedingly dark. A good start. He wanders around, jumping around and slashing random obstacles… and eventually, he meets his first enemy: a flying mosquito-like thing immediately honing onto him like a missile.

‘You got this!’ Crystal cheers on.

Slash. Whack. Bam! The mosquito hits him. 4/5 lives left.

‘Aw c’mon…’ He leans forward, pressing his face closer to the screen. ‘Time to get serious—’

Bam! 3/5 lives left.

Bam! 2/5 lives left.

Bam! 1/5 lives left.

Well this is embarrassing. He looks at Crystal, who returns with a gaze of disappointment and maybe pity. Yan sighs. He’s a beginner. It’s fine. The game is known to be notoriously difficult after all.

Gathering up his courage, he goes and strikes the mosquito again. A hit. The mosquito finally dies, dropping a couple of coins for him to pick up.

‘Let’s go!’ He celebrates, jumping up to the next platform… for a second mosquito to appear and kill him.

You died.

‘Oh. That was it.’ He stares blankly at the screen. ‘Well that sucks.’

‘It’s ok, you can try again,’ Crystal encourages. ‘I was like this when I first started as well.’

Crystal actually being nice for once? This is a rarity. Taking her words to heart, Yan steels himself, revives at the spawn point, and begins his adventure again.

You died.

‘It’s ok, try again!’

You died.

‘Just one more time… You got this…’

You died.

He looks anxiously at Crystal, the latter now clearly losing her patience.

‘I, um, uh—’

‘I got this.’ She angrily snatches the controller. Before Yan can even realise what’s going on, she slashes rapidly through every enemy, coins literally falling from the sky like rain. Her movements are fluid, perfectly dodging each attack before delivering a killing blow to the poor enemy who dared to attempt to strike her. Soon, she reaches the chamber of the first boss, a gigantic horned enemy holding a massive mace, its stature many times the size of the playable character.

Without letting her take a break, the boss attacks, launching a giant shockwave towards the character.

‘Crystal, be careful—’

‘Shut up, stupid.’ She narrowly avoids the shockwave, quickly shrinking the distance before delivering a flurry of strikes at the boss. Enraged, the boss swings its mace wildly, and for the first time, Crystal endures a hit, the character flying back like a ragdoll tossed away by a child.

‘Jesus christ…’ she mutters, gripping her controller even more tightly than before. With a swing of her joystick, the character dashes forward, narrowly dodging the frenzied attacks before striking the boss several times again, this time knocking it down to the ground. As a grotesque small thing pops out of the boss’ helmet, she begins to hit it violently, mashing the buttons like there’s no tomorrow. It’s a scene where Yan can only describe as frightening, as if he is the boss whose ass is being beaten at this very moment.

There is no mercy. Moments later, the boss is dead. Crystal tosses the controller at the sofa and stands up, asserting her victory over the corpse on the screen, and in a way, over Yan.

‘Congrats…’ Yan finally manages to say, his body seemingly infinitely small under Crystal’s shadow.

‘How are you this shit at the game?’ she looks down at him.

What the fuck? For a second, Yan wants to just stand up at her level and shout at her face. Sure, he’s absolutely dogshit at the game, but it’s just his first time, and Crystal didn’t even encourage him—

Oh, she actually did. It’s just he played so garbage she took over out of frustration. It might as well be his fault that she’s in such a foul mood right now.

‘... I’m sorry,’ he replies weakly.

Perhaps it’s Crystal realising the harshness of her words, or maybe she’s just taking pity on Yan, but she quickly crouches back down and looks him earnestly in the eye. Her anger is all gone, replaced with a gentleness able to soften any heart.

‘It’s fine. I’ll teach you, ok?’ she says delicately.

‘Ok…’ Yan mumbles.

Her mood really changes way too fast.