"Hmm… I'll put Wind Mage on the rearguard, Blackguard Cavalier on the vanguard and lay one green card face down." Owain proudly announced to the other teenager standing on the other side of the table, as he stared down the card game tentatively. Morgan's brain was trying to read Owain's actions.
Normally Morgan would immediately see what Owain was doing. He was just that much better at the game. He knew how to set it up so that he could see what Owain's main card was, and how to shut it beforehand. But now… now he seemed distressed. Anxious, almost. To Owain, that wasn't good.
"You've done something differently this time."
"Huh?"
"Normally you'd take this exact action, but you'd place a blue card down, not a green card."
Good read.
"I'll discard this blue card on my hand, pick up this one card from the mound and place face down two yellow cards."
Well, that was the bad part of his read.
"I place down Kayiero, Hunter of the Desert! Remove all yellow cards in your orb power section, which means… that's all of them, you're done for."
"Nice plan."
Morgan stood up and kind of stared out of the window of the small apartment the two shared. That was completely unlike Morgan. Owain had been his closest friend for the last… Owain was 21 now and Morgan was 20, so that must've been some 6 years at this point. During their years in high school, they'd spend their afternoons going to one another's house and nerding out for a couple of hours. They were borderline inseparable when it came to their dork-like outgoings. After the two spent so much time together, it was bound that they'd know one another inside out.
Morgan knew the quality of an apple based purely on touch. He always used the smallest rubber plug for earphones. He always placed his shoes beneath his desk.
He always looked out of the window when he was thinking of her.
"Morgan, you're not being you today."
"Eh?"
"You've just lost to me and you're staring out of the window, you don't do this stuff normally."
"She's coming any time now."
"I know, I know. Just chill out for a while, I don't know, take a nap, watch some anime, do something that doesn't make you too focused on her."
"Yeah, sure."
That she they were talking about was Owain's cousin, Cynthia. She was also part of the trio of dorks that hung around and did stuff together. Alongside the many things that Owain knew about Morgan, he knew that for many years he had harbored a crush on Cynthia. Same went for Cynthia's crush on Morgan. Problem is, the two only told that to one another on the day Cynthia left for college. And so, whenever the pair had a chance, they'd be alone together. It was a bit too much of a romantic comedy in Owain's eyes, but they were still the lovely pair of dorks they always were, and they were so damn faithful to one another, he couldn't help but wonder if they were actually in love with one another. It wasn't out of the realms of possibility, to say the least.
The next few hours were a few lonely hours for the two. Morgan stayed in his room, laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling and muttering to himself – he did that when he was nervous. Owain threw himself at the sofa and waited, reading Boku no Hero Academia. He was actually really enjoying that one.
The only audible thing was Morgan muttering to himself and the tick-tock of the nearby clock. That noise kept for hours on end.
And then came the world's most wonderful noise. A knock on their door. Morgan bolted upright, and Owain was sure that he had never seen his friend run at such speed, opening the door so fast it quickly banged against the wall, and delivering one of the most passionate kisses he had ever seen, which had an equal and opposite reaction of an equally passionate kiss from a girl that was shorter than him and had her hair done in a pair of badly-kept pigtails which were died cobalt.
Owain allowed himself a large smile at the scene developing in front of his eyes. Seeing such a scene of pure love was something that you didn't see every day, and it certainly made his heart feel warmer at that moment.