(TWST Idia/Cater) so i'll dance with Cinderella

The Mall Date (Part I)

notJustGirls Today at 5:42 PM
IDIA COME ON OPEN THE DOOR
come onnnnn
srsly u know i'd never do u like that 😡
cmon u know i had nothing to do w/ that post right??????????
😭
😭
😭
😭
also u probs noticed already but i stopped knocking
coz some LOSER across the hall yelled at me
but its all good
well not for u bc instead of banging on ur door im blowing up ur discord dms
COME ON IK U CAN SEE THESE U BLUE HAIRED DUMMY
idia come on those guys were just being stupid
dammit its so hard to sound sincere on discord but I PROMISE IM TELLING THE TRUTH
i showed u my truth plz respond
haha
OKI NVM NOT TIME FOR JOKES ITS TIME FOR MAXIMUM CAY-CAY
knocking down ur door is surely something my clones and i can handle
*cue suspeeshus music*
ok thats it the doors coming down bye

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Now, to understand what's going on here, we must go back to the very beginning ... —er, of the day, that is.

After what seemed like an eternal deliberation with Ortho, Idia finally decided on where he would maybe invite Cater to hang out. He would have liked to not leave his room, but then Ortho pointed out that inviting someone on a date to your bedroom would be weird. At that time, a passing Heartslabyul student had loudly proclaimed that they had seen MagiCam Influencer #1146 at the mall the other day (crazy!), which prompted Ortho's suggestion: "I didn't know there was a mall on the Isle of Sages. Why don't the two of you go there?"

This, of course, brought an onslaught of groaning, anxiety, and well-founded excuses from Idia. After Ortho soothed and rebutted, the mall-date plan was suggested, accepted, and implemented so quickly that Idia was surprised to find himself standing nervously outside the Isle of Sages' Mall the next morning.

Cater had yet to arrive—or so he thought—and Idia amused himself by hiding in a corner and opening the Blueddit app to troll people on the forums. He was twenty-seven negative karma deep into a thread when he noticed a figure bouncing toward him.

"You're here early," commented Cater. He handed Idia what looked like a cup of boba tea, and his smile was almost embarrassed as he said, "I mean, I've been here for like an hour, so umm ... maybe you're more normal for getting here—" he checked his phone, "—twenty minutes before we agreed."

Idia flushed. He was twenty minutes early? Gods, he really hoped that didn't make him look too eager. What was he talking about? Of course it did! Oh, wait ... Cater had just said he'd been an hour early. Did that make him eager for their date-hangout-sesh, then? GODS, it totally did, didn't it? Although Idia's face didn't turn any redder, he felt his heart grow warm. Okay, he was totally trusting Ortho in everything Cater-related now.

He took a sip of his boba tea. He should've expected the flavor from the color of the drink, but he was pleasantly surprised by the taro taste.

Noticing Idia's expression, Cater beamed. "Don't hate me, but I totally asked your brother what flavor of bubble tea you liked so I could surprise you. Also—WAIT, stop drinking, let's take a selfie. As per the uzhe, I promise I won't post it."

After the picture was taken and phones were pocketed, Cater led the way into the Isle of Sages' Mall. Idia had been to malls before. Admittedly, they were all virtual, but he knew what they were and was glad to find that what he discovered was not all that different from the generic mall lots he'd seen in video games. Same assortment of department stores, same kitschy kiosks, same food court. His gamer soul longed to examine all the different places, but his social anxiety reminded him that it would be so much easier to do so on a video game.