"Well, how's the cross-training?" Loter asked, following Hiroku into the elevator.

"We won." Hiroku clicked the button to the first floor.

"Nice! Which squad did you spar with?"

"Kashner's squad."

"Kashner?"

"The one with the DoLock siblings. "

"The one with your cousin?"

As Hiroku nodded in confirmation, the elevator arrived at the second floor. The door opened and revealed Key and Glacia behind it.

Key greeted them zestfully while entering the elevator, "Yo, you guys ready for dinner? I'm starving." He draped his arm around Loter's shoulders, sharing away half of his weight.

"He's been excited ever since I told him about the match," Glacia explained and followed in. She automatically stood beside Hiroku.

"I won, Lot. Just like everyone else on the squad, pal," Key said. He shook Loter side to side as he spoke.

"Great, who did you spar with?" Loter asked, swaying accordingly.

"Kiznaq, Lot. I destroyed 'im on the basketball court, and I destroyed 'im in the simulation. 'E might be able to bend lightning, but 'e ain't gonna bend this back."

"Nice work. How did you defeat him?"

"Oh, I was waiting for you to ask." Key then began describing his fight, exaggerating multiple details and omitting basically all the parts where he struggled. He fluently and vividly told the story on their way to the dining hall.

Loter listened attentively, fully caught in between the narration; Hiroku stayed quiet; Glacia chuckled and repeatedly corrected Key to increase the accuracy of the summary.

Drowning in Key's loudness, they entered the dining hall. Just like every other day, the dining hall was filled with chattering. As they walked up to their usual table, Loter spotted Kirane at the other table. He gave them a fierce glance, which Loter could not tell if others noticed.

Ramiron was already at their table. She casually waved and said, "Yo."

"Hi!" Loter called and reached his hand over his head to wave with his arm straight.

For dinner, Hiroku and Glacia were eating two identical bowls of ramen. Key rewarded himself with an entire roast chicken. It caused Loter to abandon his own order, which he did not bother to pick up from the food counter. He did not even remember what it was. Ramiron had three giant bowls of macaroni that fully surpassed Key's roast chicken in volume.

Within minutes, the chicken duo had got their hands and mouths all greasy. Hiroku quietly shifted his chair away a bit in response, unintentionally getting closer to Glacia. She paused a second and also moved her seat closer to Hiroku.

"Cross-training." Loter chewed chicken meat. "Sounded so fun." He chewed.

Glacia giggled.

"Aye, it is," Ramiron replied. Key only nodded. He was too busy eating the chicken.

"Key." Loter chewed. "Told me about his match. How about you guys?" He continued, "How was your match? I heard you all won."

Glacia was the first to answer. "I faced two at once—"

"Wow."

"—I collapsed a building to finish one and threw rocks to shoot down another one."

Hiroku suddenly added while looking away from Glacia, "A volley of rocks."

Glacia seconded with much more enthusiasm than moments earlier, "Yup! I raised a volley by charging debris pieces with energy and bouncing them upward. Dior was running in circles. Couldn't dodge my bullets."

"Oh, you destroyed them! Didn't they fight back?" Loter asked.

"Dior shot a laser, but I just canceled it. He can't do much really."

"I think Key's story is much more exciting—"

Interjecting Loter, Ramiron abruptly said, "Hiro and I matched against his cousin. I rolled over him. Hiro didn't even get to play."

"Really? How? I heard Kiznaq saying he's the strongest on campus."

"Nuh, I'm the strongest now," Ramiron smirked and proceeded to explain her newly tested ability.

The dinner time passed joyfully with one topic after another. Glacia brought up the new fashion show that just aired on Grossfilm. Key and Loter obviously did not participate. To everybody's surprise, Hiroku had watched the show. However, he refused to participate in the girls' show discussion.

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Midway, Loter asked Ramiron why she would be interested since she almost only wore her sea green polo shirts and rarely switched up to red and yellow. Ramiron answered that she mostly wore polo shirts for their practicality. With some hesitation, she brought up the fact that all her clothes were tailor-made.

Loter attempted to keep asking and got slapped in the head by Key. Swiftly, Hiroku changed the conversation to local news, which Glacia and Loter knew nothing about. Loter kept asking questions, which totally led him away from the previous topic.

After dinner, Ramiron just teleported her way to her dorm. She could not do this in one step, yet she could still travel much faster than the rest of the squad. Hiroku, on the other hand, told everyone he wanted some peace and walked away. Glacia chased behind him under Key's incitement.

On their way back to the dorm, Key told Loter about a FPS game that they could play together. Loter instantly agreed. The rest of their night was spent gaming on their computers. Loter used and laptop, and Key used his desktop.

Walking on the stone-paved path between buildings, Hiroku momentarily slowed down his steps and increased again. Behind him, Glacia just followed. For what felt like an eternity, Hiroku did not look back. His head just stayed facing the front deliberately and lifelessly. Until, suddenly, he halted. Standing blandly, Hiroku turned back. His brows were knitted, neither angrily nor sadly. There was a faint pity inside.

"What's wrong?" Glacia fretted.

She blinked. He hugged her tightly in his arms.

Shocked, Glacia was stunned for a second and even tried to escape instinctively. When she realized what was happening, she attempted to hug back, but Hiroku already drew his hands back.

"Sorry." His eyes avoided hers.

"Don't be. I don't mean to…" She softly held his hands.

"No, I shouldn't have done that." Hiroku lightly pulled away. Glacia wanted to strengthen her grip, yet his hands just slipped out.

The cool wind went by from behind, blowing on Glacia's naked shoulders and waist. Her body lightly quivered. She felt Hiroku's suffocating sadness coming into her. Then, a surge of rebellion gushed out of her.

Glacia stepped forward and hugged Hiroku forcefully, locking him in her arms. Her left cheek was touching his right cheek.

As tears glided down Hiroku's face, he embraced Glacia back. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he sobbed and repeated. His volume was lower, yet his crying tone was higher.

Glacia quietly listened. She felt Hiroku rubbing his damped cheek against her neck and his ponytail lying on her face. Hiroku's heat went through his pullover and crop top, warming Glacia's scantily clad body.

It was a guilty satisfaction and warmth that filled Glacia when her love was responded at his lowest. She knew she was not supposed to, yet she was happy.

Glacia was sincerely glad that Hiroku relied on her more. Although she had no idea what Hiroku was going through, although she had no access to his thoughts, Glacia was delighted for being important to Hiroku.

This was the romance she was searching for. This was the love she sought from Hiroku.

After the ninth yawn, Loter lost them their last game. It was the fourteenth round, seven to six, overtime. Loter whiffed his nineteenth shot at B main in Key's maniacal laughter. Both Loter and the enemy were the last ones alive. They strafed and hard pressed their left click until Loter was spammed in the head.

"Not a single shot! Full mag! Not a single shot!"

"This is madness! Hahahahahaha."

Loter's online teammates shouted. Their voice vanished as the match ended, and the giant word "Defeat" presented itself on Loter's screen.

"I think it's enough for today, pal. There's no way—" Key was interrupted.

The yelling of his roommate was sent through the microphone, "It is midnight! Fucking Eleven-thirty-five! Open the damn door, Key! Open the—" Key shut his microphone and typed "see you tomorrow" before going offline completely.

Loter closed his laptop and lay on his bed. He got back down to turn off the light and got back up again. Loter stayed sober for a long time while the excitement of the game gradually faded. He stared at the darkness just like having his eyes closed. There was nothing on his mind. He could only sense the vigor inside him. He felt every breath and noticed every heartbeat. There was a faint dissatisfaction. It was blurry enough for Loter to bear but clear enough for him not to ignore.

Then, a thought emerged: I miss my father. The dissatisfaction became brighter, more conspicuous. Loter turned to face the wall, suffering this involuntarily and undeniably. He always found flipping to the side and curling together was more comfortable than the default supine style. However, the change of pose could not wipe his feelings away.

The darkness only pushed Loter closer to the dissatisfaction. It would be easy if it were simply sadness. It really would. Yet, there was no sorrow in his head. It was just a dissatisfaction, a loud one.

More things started to enter Loter's mind: his girlfriend, his room in his home, his previous school, his old life, etc, the things he could not get back. Eventually, Loter thought of R.O.S. He still had R.O.S.'s number. He could call him now!

Loter rolled off the bed, his heart fully elevated. He grabbed his phone and typed in the number.

"Ring."

"Ring."

"Ring."

"Ring."

"Loter, are you alright?" The nervous voice came from the phone.

Too excited, Loter forgot to speak for an instant.

"Loter? Loter, are you there?" R.O.S. was almost yelling.

"Uh! Uh, uh, yeah, yeah. I'm here." Loter finally pulled himself back in the moment.

"Are you alright? What went wrong?"

"No, uh, actually, nothing went wrong. I just miss you," said Loter. He could hear a strong sigh of relief.

"You'd give me a heart attack one day," R.O.S. jokingly said and asked, "how's school?"

"I love it! I played basketball. I played games, and I made friends! People in my squad are awesome."

"See? I told you hero schools are great."

"Oh, and we have this thing called cross-training. It's people sparring in simulations. It's so cool!"

"Interesting. Who did you spar with?"

"I didn't really get to use it because it's just my first day. I'll be able to join next month, tho."

"Alright, how about anything negative? You can't have everything being perfect, can you?"

Loter glanced toward the ceiling to recall his memory and began finger counting. "Oh, those are embarrassing. Vice Principal Neosol carried me onto the campus because I fainted halfway in the mountain—"

R.O.S. responded with a constrained chuckle.

"—a girl saw me wearing only a towel. We became friends later. And I sort of scratched a teammate's arm when he tried to spar without protection."

"Yes, it sounds like you." R.O.S. let out another constrained titter. "At least you didn't blow anyone's skull."

"Mentioning of skulls, how's the gangster I killed the day you met me?"

After a short instant of silence, R.O.S. dodged the question, "Don't worry. I handled it."

"Oh, did you give money to his relatives?"

"Sure… Let's go with money. I gave the man's parents some money to shut them up, so they don't tell the police."

"Okay, how's it going for you?"

"The local government wants me to help with their recent investigation. By the way, I mean Coral Cobble's local government."

"Wow, that's so cool! Is anything big and bad happening in Coral Cobble?"

"I don't know yet. They just sent me the offer today. I will tell you about it the next time you call, alright?"

"Yeah, that'll do."

"Also, don't call me in the middle of the night. Enough sleep is really important for old men like me."

"Yeah, I will remember that."

Loter hung up the phone and jumped onto his bed. All his dissatisfaction was wiped from his heart. Grinning sweetly, Loter closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Neighboring him, Hiroku also fell asleep, yet he was weeping quietly by himself. The guilt he felt was just too much for a teenager to handle.