Caragh had come home early, which was either good or terribly bad depending on the reason. This time it was good, and bad. The reason good, the timing bad.

Caragh had covered a friend's shift the day before, so today that friend was making up the hours, but that also meant she’d arrived home to find her children in the worst position she could’ve imagined.

And then she found out her son had made a friend. A female friend. None of what she’d seen mattered anymore, because her son, who never went out and never mentioned his friends, had a friend.

That son in question was none other than Ryu Hyuni, and he was currently sitting in his room with the door locked eagerly searching the internet for some way to vent. Caragh had taken his and Ruri’s headset, so now his number one method of venting was gone.

At the moment Ryu’s ears were on full alert, and his eyes were dashing back and forth from his door to his monitor. Sexual frustration was difficult to relieve when he didn’t have a photorealistic priestess to molest play with, so he was back to the basics. Then there was his plain old frustration. A sword and something to smash would help with that, in fact it would help with both his problems, but at the moment he couldn’t see that happening.

*Bzzt*

Ryu’s eyes jumped to his phone resting on his desk.

[Messages: Notification is hidden]

Ryu had always had a thing for privacy, which is his case was due to him not being comfortable with attention. That wasn’t to say he disliked attention; he just didn’t know how to deal with it. Putting that aside, Ryu picked up his phone.

[Shizuka: Your sister called me and said she was lying. Is that true?]

Ryu smiled. Ah, yes. Caragh had also made Ruri tell Shizuka the truth. He began typing his reply although he was quite slow. He didn’t use his phone much.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[Ryu: Yeah. I wanted to tell you but you kinda ran away.]

Ryu flicked back a short reply, making sure to not be too formal. Would it be weird if he did? He didn’t know, so he went for a bit of an in between.

*Bzzzzzzzzzz*

This time it was a call, but of course there was no ring. Ryu didn’t like the attention it could draw.

“I’m sorry,” said Shizuka, the instant Ryu accepted the call.

Ryu thought for a second about what he was meant to say. He didn’t dislike pity, it’d helped him a lot, but he didn’t like the impression it left on people. In this case he didn’t want Shizuka thinking he was weak, but he also wanted to get as much out of this apology as possible. Despite the fact Shizuka was at no fault, Ryu was still a sexually frustrated teenage boy.

“It’s fine, but-” Ryu let the sentence hang there for a split second, long enough to hear the silence. “-I’m a little busy at the moment. Do you think we can talk later?”

“Oh. Umm, yeah, sure. Just give me a call whenever you’re ready.”

“Cool, thanks.”

Ryu hung up, smiling as he did so. There wouldn’t be a call. There was never going to be a call, because now he had something even better, and it wasn’t pity. It was guilt.

“Ryu,” said Caragh, standing in the doorway.

At that instant two thoughts simultaneously ran through Ryu’s head: “How long has she been standing there?” and, “How did I not notice her?” Ryu immediately switched windows, preferring to keep his interests to himself.

“Were you talking to your friend?”

“Yeah.”

“Was it that girl?” said Caragh. “Did Ruri apologise to her?”

“I think so-”

“How is she?”

Ryu put down his phone and let out a sigh.

“She’s fine.”

“Mmm, that’s good.” Caragh nodded her head approvingly. ”You should invite her over, I’d love to meet her.”

“I think it’s a little early for that-”

“Don’t be silly, you’re just friends.”

Ryu inhaled as he felt a stabbing pain in his chest.

“Yeah, yeah...” said Ryu, locking his computer.

“Dinner’s ready so c’mon.”

Caragh left, and Ryu glanced at his phone, thinking about the girl at the other end.

“... Just friends.”