Good riddance

He put his hands behind his head, loose hairs falling onto his forehead. Suppressing his excitement, he fixated on the screen as the female lead of the anime he loved trapped her love interest in an alluring position.

‘Yes! Finally!’ he shouted, louder than he realized.

An ominous presence loomed behind and as he swiveled around, in the doorway he saw his mom, laundry basket in hand. Her mouth hung slightly open, eyes widened as she locked onto his screen. He swiftly minimized the episode and slid his headphones off, offering her a gaze of ‘It’s not what you think’, to which she responded with a nod and a ‘It’s none of my business’ look and slowly closed the door.

A crimson hue tinged his cheeks, and once reassured of his mom's departure, he cautiously restored the near-concluded episode. However, the magnetic tension that held him was gone. Wholesome romance anime became his recent guilty pleasure. He long avoided such content, yet Luca's incessant praise for the latest dark horse roused his curiosity. And then, episode after an episode, he fell into a rabbit hole of wholesome romance.

With a deep breath, he shook off the embarrassment as he watched the clock turn to 3:57 pm. Joining voice chats used to be arduous, but as he spent time with Deilo and Emily, it became as natural as waking up in the morning. But now, after everything that happened, he sensed the same anxiety he used to. Not knowing what to expect, he entered the voice chat.

But reality couldn’t have been more obscure. His restless tapping on the desk was the only sound in the vast silence stretching between him and Deilo for the past couple of minutes. He’d expected the usual ‘What’s up? What you’ve been up to?’ instead of a single ‘Yo’.

His lips were on the precipice of breaking the ice, yet the words refused to emerge. ‘You were the one behind canceling our runs. She told you, hasn’t she?’

Thankfully, Sanakyu saved the day as his usual cheerfulness banished the awkwardness.

‘Finally! We’re back! Missed my carrots?’

Dave’s eyes glistened as he chuckled. ‘I bet your stor-’

‘Yeah, the Emperor is dying for some,’ Deilo interjected.

The interruptions kept repeating as their usual banter continued, which made it a dead giveaway that Deilo was indeed acting oddly.

A familiar bitterness lingered. Inadequacy. Of course, expecting things to pick up where they left off was naïve — an apology wasn't a magical undo button for consequences.

Momentarily, Emily joined too, stopping his tangled thoughts and enrapturing him in a voice he missed.

‘So,’ Sanakyu's tone shifted gears. ‘Anyone knows anything of Apollo?’

‘I think he said he would come,’ Dave said.

‘He will come on his warlock,’ Deilo explained. ‘He’s been running with Henser on his archer lately.’

‘Henser?’ Emily’s voice carried suspicion. ‘I thought they already had a solid static.’

‘They kicked their assassin out.'

Then speak of the devil — the man himself showed up.

‘Hey. I don’t have much time, so let’s get over with it.’

‘Why are you running on your warlock?’ Emily's voice turned rigid.

‘I’m out of entries on my archer.’

‘We agreed beforehand we would run today.’

‘Well, better with warlock than nothing, right?’ his response dripped with irritation.

‘Apollo, are we a static or not?’

‘Yeah, Miira, are we a static? Because since the new release we cleared what? Twice? And with Henser we ran at least four runs. Sorry, but I’d rather prioritize a stable group.’

Emily’s sigh hung in the air, a proof of her battle against her mounting anger. She agreed to run with Apollo’s warlock, but the ceasefire was short-lived. Even if they passed Ogelfor and Eriniel, pushing through the constant Emperor’s shield phases, was no longer a measly obstacle.

‘That’s it. Apollo, tomorrow you’re coming on archer or forget about coming at all. Your warlock is ridiculously under-geared,’ she finally reached her breaking point after hours of wiping.

‘Well, I suppose that’s it then. Have fun finding a new DPS during this time,’ he disconnected, leaving the four of them in a state of stagnation.

‘The nerve of this guy,’ she frothed.

The weight of Dave's own misjudgment settled within him. After all the points that Emily made about DPS not being the primary denominator in success, after he went through her trials to prove that he belonged, he disregarded all of it and invited Apollo. And now it was jarringly obvious. He not only muddied the waters of the group friendship, but introduced a piranha into their midst.

‘Let me talk to him,’ Dave said, grasping for a possibility to soothe the fracture.

‘Don’t bother. He never fit in with us, anyway. Good riddance.’

‘Sure, but he had a point. It’s going to be hard finding a DPS during this time. We could search for randoms but honestly, I doubt it will be any better than his warlock,’ Deilo remained calm as ever.

‘That fucking asshole, honestly. Who does he think he is? Let me take a look at their scores,’ she continued her rampage. ‘No way. No fucking way. There’s no way…’

Dave checked the leaderboards. There they were — Henser’s party at the top of the table. And not just at the top. The difference was a glaring minute's gap between them and the second-best time.

‘He told them. He definitely told them about our tactics. I mean, sure, they weren’t anything special, but it was unique enough to bring any party over the line,’ Emily continued.

‘We don’t know that,’ Sanakyu remained cautious.

‘Huh? We don’t know that? I know that. I can see that. The evidence is on the screen. Look, open their healer’s battle analysis. There it is. The list of skills used during the fight. See? There’s the pull. It started the moment Apollo joined. What a damn snake he is!’

‘I mean, even if he told about it, I doubt we had exclusivity over it. People inspect our battles just as much. They would see you used it and figure out the utility eventually,’ Deilo mediated.

They sat in an awkward silence as each of them started logging out of the game.

‘What about we change the mood for tonight? Want me to draw you?’ Sanakyu offered.