Yena’s hands were balled into tight, slightly pudgy fists, pressed tight to her waist, mimicking the closeness of her lips—closed almost as tightly, hugging each other in painful anticipation. 

She glanced up at the clock. Twenty minutes until she had to leave. Anxiety was caressing her adorable cheeks, speeding up her already beating heart. Her letter was in her back pocket, rolled up and squashed a little, and the ring was on the thumb of her right hand. It had been a mistake on her best friend’s part, getting rings too big for their fingers, but years later, it tamed her nerves (slightly) and had come to mean something greatly significant to her.

She tore her eyes away from the clicking machine on her wall, and followed the trail of clothes on the floor of her apartment in disgust. She hadn’t had the time or the patience to clean recently, and by recently she meant within the last year or two, so her home was more like a dumpster than a place to live in. She could waist her time cleaning now, but she was too nervous and cleaning made her angry.

Yena didn’t expect an invite.

Yes, she was Yujin’s best-friend-ever-in-the-whole-wide-world-forever-and-ever, but she didn’t expect Yujin to want her to play. She was a mediocre gamer (except in Mario Cart or the Garfield racing game she couldn’t remember the name of, she was great at those) and this was a very important game. Yena expected Yujin to invite the elite gamers that always attended every event and were always at the top of the leaderboard (after Yujin herself.) It made Yena wonder who else would be invited. Yujin loved surprising people, so maybe it would be just Yena and the gamers. Or maybe, it would be Yena playing against ten different virtual Yujin’s. She couldn’t even imagine how much that would stress her out.

She shook her head. That was a nasty thought. Glancing up at the clock again, the smaller hand was almost at the place she was waiting for it to be, so in her haste, she decided it would be okay to leave early. She would be the first player to arrive.

-

Player One: Choi Yena. Please choose  username.

Her hands shook as she touched what seemed to outsiders as the air. She didn’t expect it to be this nerwracking; especially with a whole studio of people staring down at her. 

“Can it include swears? No, that would be immature. Get it together, Choi.” She mumbled, slapping herself gently across the cheek and pressing the enter button.

TheGreatDuck. Confirm username?

Username confirmed. Please customise your avatar. 

Yena was going to have a field day with this.

-

The building was quite large. It was like a warehouse, really. Despite her attendance of mostly every convention known to gamers since she was six years old, not one of those venues compared to the scale of this one building. There was only meant to be eleven players. Why was it this big? She smiled. Though confusing, Sakura’s excitement wouldn’t cease. Yujin always was a bit of an oddball. Sakura had no doubt in her mind that this would be one of the most important games of her life. 

“Miyawaki Sakura? Here is your set. You are now player two. Please follow the instructions within the game.” A man spoke. A an earpiece was put into her ear and a lense into her eye, immediately starting up what she believed to be the title screen in front of her. Yujin really went all out. She even developed new technology for only eleven people to use. A genius, was what Yujin was, Sakura had no doubt. 

Player Two: Miyawaki Sakura. Please choose username.

Username? Sakura thought that Yujin would just send them in as themselves. She guessed that means they would have customisable avatars too.

saku39chan. Confirm username?

Username confirmed. Please customise your avatar.

Maybe Yujin wasn’t as unexpected as she thought. But Sakura did have to admit that Yujin knew very well how to make customising avatars a wonderful experience. That was Sakura’s favourite part of every game, and this was the best that she had ever seen. She could change the colour of her avatar’s skin through a colour wheel, she could design her own outfit and pick out any level zero weapon then customise it herself. Wait.

”Kura unnie, if you could change anything about the customisable features what would it be?” The pair were playing a simple game of Soul Calibur at a table in a cafe. The game had definitely gone downhill since the 2010s, but Yujin enjoyed the simple interface and easy gameplay, while Sakura was open to anything Yujin wanted to play because she was determined to beat the girl.

”I’m not sure. Maybe...weapons? I can understand that in most games you can’t have any weapon you want, but it would be nice to have a starting weapon that you could customise to fit your character and personality. Who knows, that may even boost your confidence and gameplay?”

Sakura laughed. Yujin really remembered that? That kid was really something. It was a shame she had to leave so soon, but Yujin had always told Sakura to not dwell on the past and focus on the present, no matter how hard it is to do so. 

“You can step down if you want. The game begins at midnight, so you have a little while. You can look around if you want.” The same man who had first introduced her to her set said happily, directing her away from the machines and taking her piece and lense from their respective places as gently as he could. 

“Sure. Thank you.” 

It wasn’t long until she had stumbled across the main room. It was definitely the biggest room in the lot, the size of its own small warehouse, but housed only eleven small standing sets and twelve larger screens in the middle. She could see that two of the sets had been lit up; one in a bright yellow, and the other in the representative colour Yujin had apparently given her as soon as she entered her chosen username, pastel pink.

 “Hey! Are you player two?” An unknown voice yelled from behind her, the sound echoing from wall to wall before finally stopping. She turned to face a small, cute girl with the cutest chubby sheets and lips that made her look like an adorable little duck. Ah, she knew who this was.

”Yes. Miyawaki Sakura. Nice to meet you! I’m assuming you are Choi Yena, based off of the description I was given of you a while ago.” Sakura answered sweetly, holding out her hand for a handshake and giggling a little at the girl’s lips as they formed another adorable feature on her face. 

“Yes! Wow, Sakura-ssi, I thought I’d never meet you. The elite gamer-actress-lady who played every February daily with Ahn Yujin. Wah, this is crazy.” Yena’s awe was flattering. She wasn’t that amazing, but Yena spoke as if she was a queen of the virtual world or something along those lines. 

“I thought the same about you. That kid always said she would introduce us.” 

At the mention of Yujin, both went into a comfortable silence. Speaking about this out loud was different than thinking about it. It felt more real, more raw, and it’s not that they didn’t like it, but more that they were not used to mentioning the girl’s name to another person in a way as casually and easily as Sakura had just done.

”Who do you think will come next?” Yena suddenly asked, breaking their silence and clearing a few times before. Sakura had to think about it. There could only really be two options now; other elite gamers (because even though she liked to say she wasn’t, Choi Yena was amazing at gaming and anyone would be lucky to have her skill), or the more probable option, which was Yujin’s own people. Choi Yena was Yujin’s best friend and Sakura was the girl who basically taught Yujin what gaming was. They both had heavy personal and emotional attachment to her despite their secondary roles as skilled gamers (and an actress) and it seemed more plausible to Sakura for Yujin to have picked people important to her seeing as this was her most important, final game. 

“I don’t know for sure, but one guess I have is Honda Hitomi.” 

“The girl from the home? The one who only yelled at Yujin?” 

“Yeah. I mean, besides us, she’s the only one I know of that could have the same or a similar level of emotional attachment to Yujin as we do. And if I’m correct, a lot of Yujin’s past is going to be sharing this room with us.”