“Okay, you have 15 minutes left.”

“...”

“3..2..1. Alright, put your pens down. Any more writing will result in the termination of your marks.” The teacher-in-charge spoke through the microphone.

“...”

“If only I’d written faster and I didn’t doze off at the start of the exam, the last 5 marks would have been mine. And I can have a one-grade jump.” The duck was clearly miserable as she trudged out of the hall together with her best friend.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, this is actually one of the few times I see you putting an effort in. Mind sharing what’s going on?” Hyewon asked.

The duck suddenly got flustered and tried to divert the girl’s attention.

“Why don’t we go to the PC cafe that you wanted to go so much. I can treat you with 2 slices of cake today, to celebrate the end of the mid-term exams.” Yena quickly brought up the idea.

“Sure. But after you got me the cake, I still have to know what’s going on.” Hyewon smirked at Yena for being the most obvious idiot.

“You’ll know why when we arrive at that place!” Yena’s face got redder trying to finish the sentence.

“Ohoho... I can’t wait. Let’s go now!” Hyewon said as she dragged Yena.

---

“Ring~~” The windchime gave a pleasant sound as the door swung open. The girls quickly took two empty seats next to each other before Yena was spotted blushing again.

“Yena, are you okay? You saw some hot dude?” Hyewon looked at the duck with much confusion.

“No no.. that girl is here again. Don’t tell anyone I’ve got a huge crush on her!” Yena stuttered as she nervously pointed her finger at a certain girl behind the refreshments counter.

The girl was shorter than average, but her features were pretty prominent, especially that voice of hers. She was singing an English song while preparing food for another gamer in the neighboring seat opposite to theirs. Hyewon can’t help but admire her deep voice from where they’re sitting.

“I’m actually impressed with you. I thought you were a goner when it comes to love but your taste isn’t that bad at all.” Hyewon teased the younger girl.

“S-shut up! She can hear!” Yena hit the older.

“Excuse me. Who can hear?” A clear, familiar voice broke through between the squabbles of the 99z. Both the girls instantly kept their mouths shut, not a sound was heard from them until Hyewon spoke up.

“Hey, you promised to get me 2 slices of vanilla cake. Don’t break it now.” Hyewon nudged the already frozen duck. “Also, my friend here would like to get 1 slice of fruit cake. Thank you.” Hyewon smiled while speaking to the radiant girl. Her eyes darted to the girl’s name-tag and memorized it for her friend’s sake.

“Sure, please wait for a while. We’ll serve it to you shortly.” The girl gave a bright smile, before taking her leave.

“She left.. Duck.” Hyewon pinched her friend so she’ll come back to reality.

“Huh..? What just happened? Did I miss anything?...” Yena asked Hyewon profusely after she left her blank state.

“Calm down, kid. I got hold of her name. Yuri, that’s a nice name.” The pretty girl could only stare at her friend being whipped.

“Hye, mind if you can wait for a while? I’ll get back as fast as I can. I have something I need to do.” Yena’s eyes never left the girl while talking.

“Yeah, whatever. Just be back after 5 minutes or you’ll have to treat me to a bubble tea drink.”

“Okay, wish me luck.” Yena grabbed all the courage she had and made her way to the girl.