“Wait, they are on the left, attack them, what are you doing?” Mouse clicks were heard throughout the small room. There were only four people on my team, but three people were already dead and only one player left - and that was me. With a scream of displeasure, the girl furiously made my way through the thicket on a small map and tried to knock out the last two members of the other team.

One mage character jumped at me with a spell from the corner of the building, but she foresaw this and used the cast for instant healing and killed the mage. Only the last berserker remained.

Nervously following the map, listening to even the slightest sound of footsteps, she walked tensely across the map. The girl could just sit still and wait, but there was no patience left. But then the notorious inscription “DEFEAT” appears on the screen. She stared at the screen in shock and realized: she had stepped on a trap-spell of the same dead mage.

With a sigh of displeasure, she leaned back in the seat and with a clatter she threw the headphones onto the table. The gaze didn’t leave the white ceiling: red and green lights were weakly reflected on it. She slowly turned her gaze to the corner of the room and once again saw a source of multi-colored light: a small and decorated Christmas tree.

The Christmas tree. And here she is alone in her small apartment in front of a computer. Actually it was nothing unusual for her. The computer, the Internet and games have long become a pleasant part of her life and she got used to not celebrating Christmas. It was a shame to spend it like that, but there were simply no other options.

But now she was playing games and waiting tensely. She moved closer to the computer again, went to the main menu of the game and entered the list of friends. Capaldi was still offline. With displeasure, the girl leaned back in her chair and couldn’t get rid of unpleasant thoughts from her head.

They met when one rainy day she decided to play, even when her head was splitting from pain. One round after another, she lost. Anger was born inside and even this headache got stronger.

But, what angered her even more than usual, the typical random choice of the opposing team, as always, threw different teams to her, but for some reason, each team always had the same player - Capaldi.

She remembered this name for a long time after that day. Each time she developed an absolute hatred for him, because it was as if fate laughed at her and this person killed her over and over again. She was already starting to think that he did it on purpose and even specifically wrote down his name to find him.

Finishing another lost round, the girl with hatred typed a message to the notorious Capaldi. She invited him to go to a one-on-one battle and deal with everything. He agreed, but explained as if he didn't do all this on purpose.

The girl went to a battle with him, but ... lost. It seemed to her that he was just lucky and she challenged him again, and again, and again. But she lost every match. This hit her pride hard, especially since she played this game for more than a few years. She had already ceased to be angry with the guy and simply accepted that he was better than her, especially since he didn’t boast about winning, but simply said that he was lucky.

Now she has already asked to just play with her and to lowkey teach her. And he didn't refuse.

So they played for a week and then decided to talk through voice chat. And then, to mutual surprise, she found out that he was a guy of her age and not some child, and he found out that she was a girl.

They added each other on social networks: and the girl was simply stunned. This guy was really cute. Even attractive. It turned out that his real name was Huang Guan Heng, but he asked to just call him Hendery. He was Chinese, which meant he was at a great distance from her, which ... upset her.

They began to communicate often, every day, constantly played together and before going to bed they began to call each other and talk about everything. Hendery was a professional esports player and he won international competitions in this game. And now she understood why he won in those battles so easily.

And she also found out that he has three older sisters and sometimes they were just unbearable to him. She found out that he has a dog, which was his best friend. She also found out that he was a year younger than her and he also felt lost in life and was very lonely.

And she fell in love. With a person whom she has never seen in real life. She saw him through video calls, heard through voice chats, and knew more about his life than probably his parents, as he did about her.

And somehow it so happened that he confessed to her too. He simply said that he liked her a lot, that he didn’t feel the same with anyone as he did with her. He offered her to date, but she didn’t agree: she was afraid that it wouldn’t work out, that it would simply give her empty hopes.

The guy tried to convince her for a long time that he was serious and sincere about his feelings, but then he gave up and they remained at this stage of non-relationship. Although they didn’t stop talking: Hendery sent her gifts with or without reason, for her birthday, for celebrations he made up, and for holidays that were celebrated only in China.

She always sent him something in return and wrote letters. There was always something more personal and special about letters than simple messages. And he thought so as well, each time sending a letter to her back.

He invited her to visit him, but she couldn’t. She was still a student, and she simply didn’t have such money. Hendery said that he also wanted to visit her, but couldn’t for the same reason.

And this time it was their first Christmas together. They both believed that this was a special holiday, much more special than birthdays, and wanted to spend it together, at least through a video call. But there were about two hours left until the end of Christmas and the guy was not online either on social networks or in the game.

The girl sighed desperately and checked the guy's status again: he was online four hours ago. Where is he?

Her phone rang suddenly, making her jump in place, but the girl was immediately delighted, grabbing the phone and answering the call.

“What took you so long?” She was satisfied, but on the other end of the line there was only a long silence. The girl frowned, but then she heard not quite what she expected:

“Sorry, your delivery is late today, it is stuck in a traffic jam. The driver will reach you in twenty minutes. We apologize for the delay.” For a second she was taken aback, but then she remembered that she had ordered fried chicken. She sighed in displeasure and grunted okay, and hung up.

What difference does the chicken make if Christmas is already