Only you » aoyama.

Chapter 13 : gift

Without thinking twice, I ran to my mom and hugged her. She said she would come later, but she returned after 2 weeks! My grandmother welcomed the teacher inside. "Hello miss [l/n]!", my homeroom teacher greeted my mom. My mom's jaw fell suddenly open. "Hirose?", My mom called my teacher by his first name. Do they know each other? My teacher also suddenly realized who my mom was. They turned out to be childhood friends.

My grandma called me from out the kitchen, so I helped her with preparing the table. "Put four plates.", my grandma told me. She wanted the teacher to eat with us. He couldn't reject because my mom was forcing him. "Thank you for inviting me.", he said shyly while he took place. My mom and grandmother were talking like they knew my teacher for ages. I've never seen my mom talking like this to a man again after my dad left us. I didn't know how to feel and was to exhausted to think about it.

I finished my dish and left it in the sink. "Thanks for the food, I'm going to my room to rest.", I excused. My mom was not very happy about this. She said I couldn't just leave when we had a guest at home. "She must be tired after the trip, Let her rest. I will leave too.", sir Hirose explained. It was weekend after all. But my mom still didn't let go of him. "Uh, yeah. I'm in my room.", I mumbled. My mom was acting very weird and I didn't want to stay a spectator of her acts.

I sat on my bed. There are so many things on my mind. Why Gotou was mad, how Aoyama felt, why mom came back.. But I don't want to think about that right now. I want to.. free my mind from all these worries. I crumbled in my bed and opened my laptop, placing it on my lap. I missed playing BeastHunter so much. Since I'm kind of addicted to it and couldn't play it during the trip.

                > welcome back!

The start screen of the game greeted me. I double clicked on it and quickly logged in. I gasped from all the notifications. My team was a very active one. They played matches all the time. Sometimes I couldn't keep up with them but they were in the top ten, I could not just leave them. They also helped me with leveling up my armors and weapons. I checked if any of the members were online, unfortunately they weren't.

Right when I wanted to click on a random match-where people get mixed with other random players-, I got an invitation.

Aoi Sanmyaku invited you to the jungle

I accepted it. My laptop was looping, so I waited a couple minutes for it loaded the map and surroundings. The player that invited me was a good defender. His builds are very high too. That must be the reason why I added him but his username... sounds familiar.

"Wanna kill the monsters!?", he messaged me.

He talks very funny, but why does he keep jumping on places where he doesn't need to jump? He made me giggle. It made me doubt if he was a professional player.

"Yes, let's go!", I answered.

The jungle was full with monsters, it was for gaining golds. The regular monsters are easy to kill but it's not that you receive allot from them. The big and red dragon types are the best. I rapidly changed my armor to enchanter mode. Like this we could attack better against the dragon. It took not very long, we killed it in a couple seconds.

"Let's kill more, I'm planning to save for a new sword~", the boy told me.

I could use some golds too. So as we agreed, we collected golds and diamonds. His stamina was high but mine was slowly dropping. I guess he noticed it.

"Follow me~~", he said and left.

Why is he so sure of his self, maybe I won't follow him and take all the golds? He trusted me too much. I didn't break our promise in the game and followed him. He was at another players place. He had friends that are such good players. I opened his friends information box. "Main power: healing", I read out loud. That must be the reason why he brought me here. Not long after the player healed me and gave healing pills as well.

"If you're tired of killing monsters, we can stop!", the player called Aoi said.

I felt bad but he was right. I invited him to the park. This place is more of a social place were players 'hang out'. I was scared that he would decline. Luckily he didn't. It sounds weird but  even if he acted totally different from Aoyama, he made me feel the same as Aoyama does.

"You're very kind, thanks for helping me in the jungle~", he thanked me.

It was not a big deal actually. Killing monsters is one of the main goals in this game.

"I need to go now, but before that, please accept this gift from me", he said and left.

He not only left in the game, but he also left me in confusion. We were playing for almost a half hour now. If he has plans I can't stop him though.

Aoi Sanmyaku send you a gift.

The notifications popped on my screen. I clicked on it to accept it. That was what he wanted right? It finally opened. "Woaah", I was amazed. It was an amazing strong weapon that only pros can buy. It was too much for what I did. I only helped him with killing a couple of monsters, why did he give me this? He also added a caption under the gift.

"Cheer up no matter what happens, I'm always beside you."

[next morning]

My eyes were hurting from the pain. I played all night long. I didn't want to stand up, but I have a meeting. The teachers gave us a task for Monday. A writing assignment about our trip. Thanks to other classes that convinced the teachers, it was a task we could do per two.

I got ready and took my backpack. Gotou can be mad at me, but school is important too. This is also a chance for me to talk with her. Downstairs my mom was waiting. Gotou's house was far away. It was my first time going to her house, however I knew her address. I thanked my mom and got off the car.

I pressed on the door bell. I could hear it ringing from outside. My mom was still waiting in the car, I waved to her so she could go. "I'm coming..", I heard a feminine voice. Perhaps it's Gotou's mom. She opened the door and made a surprised look. "How can I help you?", she asked friendly. I explained the situation, she knew nothing about it. Did Gotou not tell her? Her mom let me in and lead me to her room.

"Gotou, one of your classmates came. Please open the door.", she said.

It was quiet now. The silence killed my mood. I must done something very bad without knowing that I hurt her. Gotou opened the door at the end. Her eyes expanded when she saw me. "C-come in.", her voice trembled.

We sat on the ground next to a small table. "You know for what I came right?", I asked her. She nodded and took the papers that the teacher handed out. "Right.", I whispered. Her room was filled with cat plushies. They were really cute. "Did you made these yourself?", I asked out of nowhere. She took one and showed me the stitches. "Yes, they are all self-made.", her lips smiled a bit. She was not mad as before, she felt more.. sad. Gotou didn't say much, but her eyes told me enough.

"Gotou, I don't know why you are mad at me. But please stay friends with me."