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When Kaede smiles, Risa feels a warmth in her chest bloom. It’s always so radiant, so sincere that sometimes, it causes a tight feeling within her. Kaede’s smile, so bright and warm, reminds Risa of the sunflowers that dance under the warm hue of the eternal sunset.
And when she laughs, Risa feels her cheeks getting a little warmer while the light flutters in her chest grow, and Risa thinks that it’s this moment that Kaede’s the most beautiful.
Whether as Kaede or as Maple, the girl’s smile is always infectious, always enough to lift her spirits.
She also can’t help but return the smile with one of her own, barely aware of how mesmerised her own expression is.
Until Iz points it out one day.
“Huh?” Risa, or Sally, as per her in-game name, only gives the light-haired crafter a blank look.
They had gone out to hunt some monsters to do some level-uping. However, halfway through, Maple had ended up playing with May and Yui by the empty field while Iz and Sally took a break a small distance away.
Iz pauses, a contemplative look on her face before her lips curl into a knowing smile.
“Nothing. Just thought that you really do like Maple-chan.”
“Of course,” Sally answers obliviously, without missing a beat. “I’ve known Maple for a while after all.”
“Right,” Iz hums, a little amused.
“What’s wrong?” Sally tilts her head curiously.
“Nothing,” Iz continues to smile mysteriously.
Nothing at all.
“Maple?”
The incomprehensible mumbling next to Sally causes the brunette to turn her head, finally noticing that her friend had already dozed off against her shoulder.
How adorable. Sally can’t help but think, reaching out to smoothen traces of stray hair from Maple’s forehead.
It’s a lazy afternoon in NWO, and the pair had been re-visiting the first two levels, doing more exploration while enjoying the familiar sights. Even if they don’t find new areas, it was fine. After all, there aren’t any new events or any pressing things to do at the moment.
The cool breeze brushes against her, and Sally idly watches the small ripples across the surface of the river. She’s glad that things have calmed down a little, giving them the opportunity to relax and hang out together like old times.
And not for the first time, she thinks how lucky she is that she has found a game that both she and Maple can both have fun playing.
Maybe it’s because she’s too used to playing games alone, but the gratitude that Sally feels towards Maple is immeasurable.
The girl who’s always stumbling upon the weirdest things, the girl who’s always so cheerful and kind, yet still such an adorable airhead who everyone can count on. Her carefree spirit and enthusiasm drawing Sally in like a moth to a burning flame. Maple’s the kind of girl you can’t just peel your eyes away from— an eccentric yet oddly charming person.
Yawning silently, the brunette finds her eyelids drooping. Maybe it was because of how serene Maple looked when she’s asleep, or maybe it was just too comfortable lying against the [Supersize] Syrup.
Just for a while… Sally thinks to herself as she shuts her eyes. Oboro, making himself comfortably, curls up on his master’s lap, his white fluffy tail tucked against his own body.
It’s only two hours later that Yui and May found the pair, asleep against each other, hands clasped tightly together.
This is it. Sally thinks. The rush, the thrill of excitement coursing through her blood— this sensation that continues to burn in her is exhilarating.
She lands her last hit on the poor lad that was in her way, an almost maniacal grin plastered on her face just as he dissolves away. It has been a while since she’s able to let loose like that.
She grabs the stolen medals and returns to Maple, holding up two fingers in a victory sign, still grinning wildly.
“Welcome back, Sally,” Maple greets her friend warmly.
Even though this was a short free-for-all event that resembles the second event, Sally had wanted to go all out. Even more so when Maple Tree decided to make this a friendly intra-guild competition. They had decided on the teams randomly through lots and as luck would have it, she and Maple ended up in the same team.
The prospect of fights between players had fired the brunette up as usual and Maple really can’t say no to the sparkle in Sally’s eyes.
Honestly, whenever Sally— or Risa, gets all excited like this, the girl is a force to be reckoned with.
Quick on her feet and always a step ahead of others, Maple had always thought that Sally was amazing. The brunette always seems to have a good head on her shoulder. But her competitive spirit and drive, her penchant to always push herself to the limit, always dragging Maple around to new adventures and special places— it’s all these different aspects of Sally that Maple likes.
Whenever Sally returns to her with this dazzling grin of victory on her face, her heart would inevitably surge with a wave of affection for the girl.
And Maple thinks that this is what she loves about Sally the most.
“Faster! Faster—!”
The sound of Maple laughing against the wind that’s rushing towards her face causes Sally to chuckle.
Sally makes sure to tighten her grip against Maple’s ankles so the latter won’t fall off her back, before she yells back, “Ready?”
Maple nods against the nape of Sally’s neck, her arms still wrapped around her friend. She’s glad that she had taken off her armour— Sally’s back is warm, and it’s almost addicting just how comfortable it is to stay on her friend’s back, and to be piggybacked. It’s reminiscent of the warmth of the sunshine that first bursts through the dusk, and together with the faint scent of the surrounding field, it makes Maple feel at ease and very much at home.
There isn’t really a need for Sally to carry her now that she has Syrup, but she misses the times where Sally would just pick her up on her back and start dashing through the roads.
Hence, their situation now— with Sally’s willingness to spoil Maple a little as a reward for completing their tests. Maple thinks that sometimes, Sally spoils her too much, but when the girl waves it off with an easy-going smile, Maple finds her worries vanishing quickly.
“Maple, be sure to hold on to me—!” Sally says light-heartedly, causing a nostalgic smile to slip through Maple’s lips.
And a split second later, Sally dashes off again, an ear-splitting grin stretching across her face as adrenaline kicks in.
Her grin only widens when Maple pumps her fist up in a gleeful cheer.
“Hey, Maple, Sal— eh?” Kuromu’s words are interrupted when he feels something bump against his ankle just as he steps into the guild.
“Syrup?” The shield-user questions the green tortoise.
Syrup makes a sound of acknowledgement, looking up at Kuromu with huge eyes.
“What’s up? I was just looking for your owner.” Kuromu squats down and faces Maple’s pet. The tortoise yips and taps his front foot on the ground.
“Hm?”
Syrup starts to gesture vaguely with his foot, pointing at Maple and Sally — who are seated further in the guild, laughing freely over something that Maple had just said — before he taps his foot on the ground again.
Kuromu wonders if Syrup is trying to tell him something.
“Maybe he’s trying to tell us to not disturb Maple and Sally?” Kasumi’s voice comes from behind.
“Really?” Kuromu looks at Maple and Sally before he looks back at the tortoise. Syrup yips. Kuromu blinks.
That’s probably a yes.
Seconds later, Oboro comes trotting in, joining Syrup, and yelps, as if in agreement.
“Ah… I got it, we’ll leave your owners alone.” Kuromu pets the two animals reassuringly. Leaving the strange request aside, he could always come back again later.
“Shall we go then? Maybe we should invite Iz too— Hm?” Kuromu halts when he realises that Kasumi seems to be a little distracted, seemingly deep in thought.
“I see...” Kasumi muses out loud as some sort of understanding finally dawns on her. She glances over to where Maple and Sally are, not missing the soft and affectionate look on Sally’s face as she gives a happy Maple a head pat.
Kasumi chuckles to herself.
Really those two…
“There, there,” Maple pets the small white fox that had dashed into the guild and had climbed up onto her shoulder.
Oboro yelps happily, rubbing his head against Maple’s palm, easily soaking up all the attention he’s getting. Maple giggles. Sometimes, seeing how excitable Oboro is reminds her of Sally.
Speaking of which, if Oboro’s here, that means Sally should be nearby too.
“Where’s Sally?”
“I’m back!” A familiar voice calls out from the door.
Speak of the devil.
“Welcome back, Sally~”
Oboro lets out a short and excited bark just as he jumps off Maple’s shoulder, and lands easily on his owner’s head. Sally scratches under Oboro’s chin, causing the fox to whine happily.
“You’re earlier than I expected,” Sally says as a greeting.
“Turns out that I was able to finish the chores earlier than I’d expected.” Maple grins. “So I came here early. Looks like I logged in at the right time.”
“Yup. I’ve also got all the materials that Iz wanted.” It wasn’t too difficult of a quest and she did have some time to kill before Maple logged in.
“Iz doesn’t look like she’s around so I should probably send her a message to inform—“
“Sally, hold still for a bit.” Maple’s voice suddenly cuts in.
“M-Maple…?” Sally freezes in her steps when Maple closes into her. She can feel warm breath tickling against her ears when Maple speaks, and suppresses a shiver. Her throat suddenly goes dry, her face feels oddly hot and the tips of her ears burn. Her heartbeat quickens and Maple’s leaning close— too close to her and—
—and then she feels a soft brush of a finger against the top of her ear.
Eh?
“Sorry, there was a piece of leaf on your ear so…” Maple trails off sheepishly when she slowly moves away from Sally.
It takes Sally three whole seconds to fully register what just had happened.
“T-thank you, Maple,” Sally clears her throat. Her cheeks are still a little warm and her heart’s still pounding a tad faster than usual.
“Say, where’s everyone?” She tries to change the subject, hoping that her friend hasn’t realised the slip-up. Why is she even acting so weird anyway?
“Iz-san and Kasumi just went out. Kuromu-san says he’s hunting alone today and Kanade’s in the library. I think May-chan and Yui-chan mentioned that they can't make it today.”
“So it’s just the two of us left huh,” Sally says out loud. It has been a while since they had spent time together with just the two of them.
“Hmm… in that case...” She trails off, thinking back on the hidden areas she’d discovered on the game forums. She eyes Maple, who gives her a quizzical look.
“In that case…?” Maple echoes.
Sally smiles to herself before she grabs Maple’s hand on impulse.
“Wait— Sally—?”
“Let’s goooooo—!” Sally proclaims as she leads Maple out of the guild, bubbling with a newfound sense of excitement.
“Stay still and don’t move,” Kaede instructs the girl in front of her.
“Mm.” Risa tries not to shift, sitting cross-legged as she feels Kaede run her hand through her locks of hair. Kaede’s touch is slow and gentle, almost soothing.
“Your hair is always so smooth and soft,” Kaede says enviously, as she begins to partition out three separate locks at one side of Risa’s hair, starting a side braid.
With practiced ease, Kaede begins to weave the locks together. She takes her time, humming to herself as she works her way down.
Risa does not even bat an eye, settling herself comfortably by Kaede’s side, relaxed. She occupies herself by flipping through game magazines, content with just spending some time in relative silence with Kaede. Spending time online is always a blast but being like this— in each other’s physical presence at the comforts of Kaede’s room is fun too.
Kaede has always had a fondness for playing with Risa’s hair— it’s one of the things that she likes to do sometimes when Risa comes over to her house to hang out.
And when Kaede’s done, there’s a self-satisfactory smile on her face, her chest puffed out smugly (and adorably). Risa can’t help but glomp her friend, throwing her arms over the dark-haired girl.
Really, Kaede can be too adorable for her own good.
Back when Maple saw pure exhaustion hanging in Sally’s expression — breaths heavy, matted hair sticking onto her face, she felt something in her heart lurch as an emotion that borders on panic and fear started to twist within her.
She knew that this was a game— but seeing Sally almost defeated by a troop of players from the Order of the Holy Sword stirred something in her. A flash of fear for thinking that she was almost too late, her heart almost jumping out in worry for Sally who could barely hold herself up— the whirl of emotions within her had pushed her to react just as she reached her friend.
She was extremely glad that she had made it in time.
She knew that Sally wasn’t invincible. She knew that Sally had also been out fighting for hours.
And when they reached their base only to see Dread about to steal their orb, her muddled thoughts about Sally had broken off momentarily as she immediately defended their orb.
She finally felt her heart rate slow after the ordeal just as the rest of their friends returned and she tried to not think about her overreaction.
But—
—seeing it in real life is an entirely different thing altogether.
Risa, who had just been playing volleyball during gym classes, was on her knees after being hit by an incoming ball, clutching her side, her breaths in short and harsh pants.
“Risa—”
Kaede is already next to the fallen Risa.
“Are you okay?! Risa!”
“She’s running a high temperature!” Kaede barely hears someone yell.
Gut wrenching with worry, she has to bite her inner lip when she sees how feverishly red her friend looks. Her chest feels tight at the sight, and she’s trying to quell the pang of panic that hits her.
No one had noticed that Risa had been feeling unwell— not even Kaede herself. Regret gnaws her insides as she berates herself.
It’s only under the strict and quick instructions of their teacher that Kaede finally starts to move again.
It doesn’t take them too long to get Risa to the school infirmary.
“Don’t stress yourself out too much. Your fever just went down,” Kaede chides Risa gently. Risa looks slightly better, although she still has to stay in the infirmary for the rest of the day. The latter props herself up slowly against the pillow, a palm against her throbbing forehead.
“Mm,” Risa murmurs, her eyes shifting away from Kaede in guilt. “Sorry, I got a bit careless. Guess I won’t be able to log in today.”
“It’s fine.” Kaede shakes her head. She’s sure that their guild will understand too.
The tender and understanding look on her friend’s face makes Risa feel even worse. And despite Kaede’s attempts to hide it, Risa knows and notices how her friend’s lips are pursed tightly, a hand clenching the hem of her skirt.
“It’s not your fault.” Risa blurts out.
Kaede looks at Risa in surprise before her expression softens a little. As expected, it’s hard to win against Risa, Kaede finds herself thinking. Of course Risa would notice.
“I’m— I’m sorry.” Risa apologises again. She knows better than anyone else that there’s always a limit she can push herself too. In the game, and in real life.
“It’s fine,” Kaede says again, her voice a tad softer.
Risa’s throat constricts, the words that she wants to say are stuck in her throat, and she’s unable to say anything in return.
Kaede gives Risa’s hand a tight squeeze, and this time, Kaede doesn’t falter, wearing a familiar smile, so gentle and warm that it melts the pool of guilt within the recesses of her heart.
“Rest well, Risa. I’ll be here until you wake up.”