OFFLINE REALITY

I knew you were trouble when you logged in.

Sky just got home from a long day in school. He was physically drained, ever though he did not do any sports. Mentally drain as well because he spent the whole day trying to ignore the people around him. I wish I could just stay at home and live my life on the internet. Reality is too hard.

"Hey there, sweetie! Welcome home!" his mum greeted him.

"Hey mum," Sky answered a little too awkwardly before heading straight for his room. His mum just watched him as he walked on by, not making any attempts to stop him. Instead, she asked him if he was having dinner together later.

"No," Sky answered as he continued to walk towards his room, not bothering to turn his head around either. Sky knew that his mother was trying to make an effort to talk to him and knew that she had an upset look on her face but sometimes it was easier to just ignore it than to face it. That's exactly what Sky was doing now. To him, this was for the best.

Sky made it to his room and shut the door behind him. Now, he was safe.

———————————————————

"Behind yo- ah shit!" Sky was spectating Julyas as he tried to shoot down the enemies on the screen. It was a 1vs3 situation so it was difficult for Julyas to win the round. Nevertheless, Julyas put up a good fight and still went out of his hiding spot. In the end, even though they had lost the game but it was well-played.

"Oh man, I almost had it. I should have right-clicked instead, oh no~" July's was upset that he couldn't win the round and that made Sky chuckle silently. He didn't know that Julyas could sound like that. Like a kid who had just gotten his candy taken away from him. It was intriguing.

Sky couldn't deny that playing together with Julyas was fun. In fact, he started to look forward to it now. He would be bummed out if Julyas was not free to play with him. His followers too would be asking where Julyas was. It was as if he had found another escape, instead of playing alone and talking to his chat, he could talk to an actual person.

It made Sky feel like he was living again, like he finally had a friend.

"You're laughing at me, aren't you?" July's asked and he caught Sky off by surprise. How did he know?

"I'm not, " Sky lied blatantly, clearing his voice.

"I bet you he's smiling behind the screen," one comment said.
"Don't lie now, T-IAN. We can tell if you're smiling or not," the other highlighted.

"How can you tell if I'm smiling or not?" Sky asked his chat. It didn't make any sense. They never saw his face but his chat knew when he was in a good mood.

"They've been around longer than me to know, I guess. I have your stream open right now and boy oh boy is your chat exciting."

"Are you stream-sniping me? How dare you!" Sky could hear Julyas laughing from the other through his headphones, which meant the 8k+ viewers could hear him too.

"It's not stream-sniping if we're on the same team, isn't it?" Julyas pointed out.

"Yeah, you're not enemies so it's fine." The chat was backing what Julyas said so there was nothing much he could fight back with.

Sky nodded his head in response but remembered that Julyas couldn't see it. "I guess so. Don't do it when we're on the opposing team. It's not very nice."

"I don't think we will ever be on the opposing team. I'd rather much be playing with you." Sky didn't peg Julyas to be someone who would say such things. Too cringe, it almost made his hair stand end on end.