The last thing Sora wanted to do on this particular Saturday night was get put onto someone's blacklist for life.

"You think she cute, don't you? Dude, then go talk to her!" A harsh clap on the back. A groan in response. "Stop being a wimp—you got nothing to lose. Promise."

"Wait, that's not even the problem here because I never said that I—"

"I mean, the worst she can do is reject your sorry behind, but—"

"Riku, I hate to break it to you, but I have no intentions to—"

"Here, as your almighty best friend, I'll give you a little push. Literally."

"God freaking—"

A shove.

A stumble of footing.

A collision.

A glass-shattering sound. Literally.

Two pairs of blue eyes clash—one of surprise and the other of pure mortification.

Sora blinks.

"I am so sorry."

He looks at the young woman, and for a second, a strike of familiarity hits him. However, he quickly shakes the feeling off—he never met a redhead before.

Riku in the background simply has his mouth agape in an "o" shape as he unconsciously takes a step back. This isn't the outcome he was expecting. Maybe he needs to lay off on the muscles—they could be deadly without him knowing sometimes.

"… It's okay," comes the slightly-annoyed voice. She reaches for the napkins by the side with a little edge in her movement. Sora winces, as if she had just struck him. He wouldn't blame her if she actually did. After all, he—Riku—caused her to drop her glass and spill the contents of it all over herself and her white dress. Sora feels for her—he would be bummed out too if that happened to his dress shirt.

I think I just ruined someone's Saturday night. His eyes fleetingly dart to her side to see her company: a bunch of girls. He mentally groans. A girls' Saturday night out too. How unfortunate.

"I'll pay for cleaning," he lamely tries. The redhead doesn't even spare him a glance as she tries to wipe off most of the wine with the napkins. One of the workers behind the bar quickly goes over to clean the hazardous floor now littered with glass shards. Sora was hoping Riku could sweep over to his side, share some of the blame—since it all his fault to begin with—and help make their way out of this by swooning the girls with his charming good looks, but when it was taking a little bit too long, Sora knows he is on his own. Jackass.

"It's fine," she coldly states. "A simple wash in the washing machine should be enough."

Sora feels guilty, knowing that a "simple wash" isn't going to cut it. "No, seriously, I—"

"I have a boyfriend."

Whoa, there. Okay. Sora has to keep himself from doing a double take as his eyes widen by a fraction. Did it look like he was flirting with her? Oh no, that was not his intention at all.

"Sorry," he blurts out, not sure on what to say. When he really thinks about it, an apology as a response to this doesn't seem quite fitting, but it is the best he can offer. The redhead doesn't seem fazed as she raises an unamused brow. Nevertheless, she doesn't say anything in response. They both turn and smile apologetically to the worker who finished sweeping up all the glass.

Sora turns back to her, and he feels his smile falter a bit. "Last offer on the cleaning."

"You're good."

"Alright."

And Sora awkwardly leaves the group of females to return to the Riku who is pretending he doesn't know the guy at all.

"Thanks a lot, you jerk," Sora mumbles as he grabs his jacket from the chair. "C'mon, let's go. I don't know how much embarrassment I have left inside me to last."

Riku laughs nervously as he follows the brunet out the exit. "Sorry."

~Two weeks later~

"It's six."

"Sora, don't kid with me because there's no way in hell that this mathematical mess is a simple—oh, it really is six."

Sora releases a sigh as he clicks the top of his pencil in his hand. Riku, his apartment mate, snickers as he watches Sora attempt to study while helping out a friend over voice call.

"Tell Namine that you got your own stuff to worry about," Riku says quietly, only loud enough for Sora to hear. Sora turns around from the kitchen table. Riku smirks. "You're way too nice."

"I don't know if that's a compliment since nice guys always finish last," Sora responds with a roll of his eyes. He switches from clicking his pencil to twirling it, only for it to fly across the room. A small curse slips through his lips as goes over to retrieve it.

"Sora! Wait, I don't get this part. Can you—"

"If you want me to explain a theory, test your luck somewhere else because I don't know anything about them," Sora quickly intervenes, already reading his friend's mind. The voice call grows cold, and he knows the blonde is already hitting up Roxas for desperate help. What am I, an expendable tool?

"Alright, I don't need you anymore," the blonde says after two minutes of silence, proving his point. "You have served your purpose."

Sometimes, Sora wonders how he even met Namine. His mind momentarily travels back to the distant past of freshman year college. He starts to remember the annoying messages some girl in math class kept sending him, and it all begins to come back to him. But he doesn't mind; after all, it made him able to meet the girl.

"I'm hurt that you're using me like this. Way to hide your manipulative side," Sora scoffs jokingly. He could hear Namine just stick her tongue out at him. Feeling that he finished his job, Sora is about to end the call and return to his hell of an English paper. However, Namine hits it out of the ballpark and decides to ask the weirdest question at the weirdest time.

"Sora, are you interested in anyone?"

Riku in the corner spits out his water. He hurriedly grabs a few paper napkins to clean up the disgusting mess. Sora raises an eyebrow, but realizes that Namine could not see it.

"What a one-million-dollar question," he mutters in an amused tone. "Too bad you're not going to get a one-million-dollar answer."

"Which is?"

Before Sora could even answer her, Riku appears right by his side and pulls the mic close to his mouth.

"Namine, are you going to hook him up with someone? Will you? I have to say, you have a lot of cute friends. Please take this super-hot, but super antisocial guy who just plays games all day out on a da—oof!" Riku gets cut off as Sora pushes his face away from the mic and takes it back. Namine is heard chuckling in the background.

"The one we should be having concerns about is you, Riku," Sora attacks the silver-haired. He doesn't understand how a sexy guy like Riku is still single. However, he doesn't say any more when Riku shoots him the deadliest glare ever.

"We're talking about you right now, not about me," Riku deadpans to change the subject. The slight twitch of one of his eyes signals to Sora that the topic of Riku's singleness is one that no one should step foot on.

"What, you interested in me, Namine?" Sora says with a smirk, turning his attention back to the call. He delivers this as a joke, and Namine knows this very well as she mocks a choke.

"Drop out of college and become a stand-up comedian because you're absolutely killing me right now," she says in a sarcastic monotone.

"But who will help you with math?"

"…"

"Sometimes I wonder if you're gay, Sora," Riku sighs. He then begins to look the brunet up and down from his head to his toes. Sora could feel the self-consciousness flood him as the silver-haired begins to give him a score. "You're never interested in girls."

"Because they're never interested in me," Sora states plainly. There is no hint of shame in his voice when there should be. Both Riku and Namine wants to correct him about this, but they don't want to add more to his non-existent ego. The guy is already too perfect—there is no need to mold him into a more perfect dude. Sora Hikari is nice, smart, and oddly caring and gentle when he needs to be. However, the guy is so dense, someone could knock him in the head with a coconut and he wouldn't even bat an eyelash.

He obviously isn't gay either, since he lives with Riku without ever jumping the guy. Riku considers himself as a not-that-bad looking guy too.

Riku clears his throat at a thought. Asexual? He makes sure to keep this thought to himself though—it is a very sensitive topic to openly interrogate about. For now, Riku decides to stay quiet and make more observations later to form a valid conclusion.

Sora settles his pencil down onto the table. Finding how this mysterious topic is going nowhere, he switches it to a more important matter. He doesn't seem to get the hint that there is a reason why Namine even asks in the first place. He simply assumes that she is just giving him her daily roast of the week. "This week, what are we going to do for BGC, co-president?"

"BGC? What does that even stand fo—oh, Board Game Club. Wow, why did you decide to call it that?"

"Because it sounds… lame just calling it Board Game Club," Sora admits. This earns another laugh from Riku. "Calling it by an acronym makes it sound… cooler. If you know what I mean."

"Alert, alert, we have a superficial president here, alert!" Namine shouts.

"Such a wholesome club. Playing board games together. How cute," Riku comments as he pats Sora on the back and returns to his original post of doing his daily at-home work out. "Invite me out to one of your guys' outings one day. It sounds fun."

Sora assures him an invite, but deep down, he knows he is not going to anytime soon—the female species needed some sort of salvation.

"I recruited some of my friends to come too," Namine informs. Sora doesn't get the slightly mischievous tone she says this with. "It took me forever to convince them, but they're coming."

"Xion and stuff right? Actually, I don't know who you hang out with, but sure, yes—this club needs more members. The more the merrier. Let's meet up at, uh," Sora is about to recommend his apartment, but when he sees the glimmer in Riku's eyes, he decides against it. "Can we host it at your apartment?"

"Even better."

Sora blinks. "And why is that?" Before Namine could pull up a nervous response, Sora saves her the trouble. "You think my place is trash or something?"

"Course not… course not."

~.~.~

People always call Sora the nice guy. He's always looking out for others, he always puts himself second (of course, within a limit), and he's just someone everyone would like to be friends with. Riku always says he's too chill for his own good too.

However, there is better way to phrase all this into one sentence: Sora Hikari is just one big pushover. And Namine knows this very well.

"Get us some drinks. Oh, and desserts too. Yum, cake and pastries from Aqua's Bakery. That sounds really nice."

"Dude, I bused here, I don't have my car with m—" Sora plays hot potato with Namine's car keys. When he has a tight hold on them, he stares at her incredulously. Under normal circumstances, Sora would be the biggest gentleman in the whole wide world, but Riku and Namine are two different stories.

"Problem solved," Namine grins. She is on the floor of her living room with three other people—Namine's friends, Sora presumes—as they play a classic: Snakes and Ladders. A typical warm-up game. More people is yet to come, since there is another forty minutes before the actual event begins.

"Don't blame me if I crash your car."

"Oh, please. I dare you."

She doesn't get a response since Sora already makes his way towards the door. He likes to act tough sometimes, but everyone knows that he will never say no. Deep down, Sora sees no harm in it either, so he doesn't complain.

Xion nudges Namine with the end of her elbow once the spiky brunet leaves, gaining the blonde's attention.

"Hm? What's up?" Namine asks.

"You think they're going to talk at all?" Xion looks at the door where Sora just left through and frowns. "I don't know, it might be too intimidating for her. She's… shy."

"Please, a person would have to be blind to mistake her ferociousness as shyness," Selphie adds. To make her point, she paws like a ferocious cat that is ready to scratch someone's eyeballs out. "It takes a blind man to see a girl through all that."

"I mean, I think Sora's nice," Olette says timidly. "I don't think he would… be mean. He's patient."

"Especially if in front of a pretty girl," Selphie adds.

"I really think he's asexual though, so it doesn't even matter if she's ugly or smoking hot," Xion states with a shake of her head. "I bet huge money on it—no, my whole house. Just take it all. A girl or guy can be inviting him into his or her pants and he still won't take the hint that they want him."

"You're pushing it a little bit there, Xion, but—"

"Am I wrong?" Xion gives a side-glare to Selphie, and the brunette immediately shoots up her too hands in defense.

"Never said you were. Never did."

Namine shook her head to quell all the speculations that are floating around in their innocent game of Snakes and Ladders. "We'll see how things go later! Now, we roll the dice. I'll make sure you all go down!"

Twenty minutes later, and Sora locks Namine's car with one hand while the other holds two bags of goodies that she requested for. No hint of agitation is shown on his face as he hums a catchy tune under his breath and takes the first few steps towards the apartment door. He slows his pace, however, when he sees someone also walking up towards the door with five boxes of boardgames in her skinny arms. With her brilliant red hair, he doesn't recognize her as anyone he has ever seen before in Board Game Club. He smiles a little bit at her enthusiasm of bringing all those games over. Yay, new member. He nods in approval when he sees the games she brings. Good game selections.

He quickens his pace a little bit so that he could potentially greet the new member—since that is his duty as co-president—as they enter Namine's apartment together. Instead of a friendly greeting and introduction, however, he finds himself suddenly catching the girl from behind as board games tumble off her arms the moment he is right behind her. One board game even pops open and scatters all the cards on the ground. The redhead had tripped on a small, uprooted crack in the cement.

"Ooh, close one," Sora says, mostly to himself as he stabilizes the swinging of the two plastic bags in his hand while the other gently wraps itself around the slim waist. Namine wouldn't be happy to see all her desserts all squished and mushy from inside—he would be asking for a good flaming. Namine is a scary force sometimes. Sora doesn't realize how uncomfortably close he is to the girl—which he notices smells very nice, coconut?—as he worries about the state of the food until she rips his arm away from her. A little bit harshly too, might he add.

When she turns around, it doesn't take long for Sora to recognize her as the girl he—Riku—unfortunately spilled wine on a few weeks ago. He doesn't have time to visibly react to this revelation however, as he watches her skin go from a creamy-pale color to a hot and furious red. He feels guilty once more. He didn't know that he made her that mad by just touching her. He understands though: personal space is a very-much needed thing.

"I'm sorry," he says as he stoops down to help put all the contents back into the box. He stacks the remaining four that didn't pop open in a pile next to him. Again, he doesn't know exactly what he is apologizing for, but he means it if it could make her feel better. He wouldn't want to be scaring away a new member on the first day already.

The redhead doesn't say anything as she quickly takes away all the boxes back within her hold and stands up. He follows her and attempts to say something else, but she quickly whips her head forward and doesn't spare him another glance. From behind, Sora could see how her ears burn. She's so upset. He looks at his hand curiously and gives it a small clench before he opens it again, wondering if it truly is something he did. Hm… He lets his thoughts sink back into the depths, however, as he figures that it is best to simply leave her alone. Maybe the stain in her dress isn't coming off and now she forever hates me.

Sora doesn't blame her as Namine opens the door for the both of them.

"Kairi! Oh, Sora." It is obvious—the differential treatment as Namine makes space for the two of them to enter. So, she's Namine's friend. Sora jokingly shoves the bags of goodies into her Namine's hand once he enters, which the blonde accepts delightfully. The girl named Kairi quickly shuttles herself into the living room, making Sora feel a bit worse. He makes a note to apologize to her again later if there is a chance.

"Are you going to pay me back?" Sora quickly says when Namine begins to dig into the contents, spoiling her happy mood. "Never said they were free."

"Shut up. You get free money anyway from your internship doing nothing," Namine hisses, and she turns on her heels to return back to the living room. Sora simply chuckles as he closes the door and follows her trail. He is happy to see the living room occupied with more people as they all play different board games scattered across the floor.

"In an hour and half, I'll be discussing game strategies if anyone is interested," Sora announces for everyone to hear. He smiles as everyone gives their nods of acknowledgement while their focus is on the games.

"Sora, do you want to play with us?" Xion asks as she beckons him over with a hand. He curiously makes his way over to Namine's group of friends, squats, and peers over to see what they are playing. He doesn't realize how he is peering over the head of Kairi until he sees her quickly move over to the left and away from him. It is subtle, but he catches the motion nonetheless.

"Um, I'll pass for now," he politely declines. Sora wonders how long this blacklist will last—maybe he should've been more persistent about the cleaning.

Namine shoots a brow up questioningly. "I thought you liked Catan. You definitely like to rip me off of everything."

Sora chuckles nervously as he shrugs. "Not feeling the mood to crush all of you right now, so."

"Sora Hikari, what did you just say?" Selphie growls, grabbing him by the shoulder and shaking him lightly. His laugh heightens the atmosphere around him as he calms the brunette down. Across from him, he sees Olette frowning at her empty flask of water and takes this as his escape.

"Olette, would you like some water? Here, I'll grab you a glass." He smiles at the sunflower girl when she utters a soft "yes, please."

"Yo, this is my place you're offering water in," Namine quickly interjects. "Who said you could rummage through my drawers like you own them?"

"Who has taken care of your drunken ass more than he would've liked?" Sora shoots back, all in good humor. Namine shuts up at this remark as Sora rolls his eyes and enters the kitchen. When he comes back, he sees all the girls just huddling up together in some sort of exclusive circle. Not wanting to intrude, he simply gives Olette a tap on the shoulder and settles the glass of water onto the floor. However, this causes everyone to yelp at his sudden appearance, and the whole circle disperses as if it never existed in the first place.

"Sora, why are you here again?" Xion says stupidly.

"I've always been here," he blinks, confused on what he is supposed to do. Before he could question what on Earth they are jittery about, the doorbell rings. He goes over and gets it. Much to his delight, his good friend Roxas stands in front of him. However, the sight of who is next to him causes Sora to close the door.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on up here!" Riku shouts, immediately shoving his foot in between the door. The two play a silent game of pushing before Sora lets loose his hold on the door defeatedly and sighs dramatically. "I feel so hurt here!" Riku continues to cry. "Namine and Roxas invited me to play board games—except one person! My own best friend! What happened to my invite, man?"

"Slipped my mind," Sora grins. He honestly does not have anything against Riku; he just never thought the guy would ever appreciate board games enough to ever attend one of their socials. Today is going to be the day where he could potentially be proven wrong. "Come on in. Everyone's already getting into the mood!"

Roxas holds up three packs of cards in his hands. "I know it's a board game club, but we are incomplete without card games!"

"You betcha."

As time goes on, Sora appreciates the fact that Riku is honestly playing the board games, but he realizes how deficient Riku is with his knowledge about them. So, he finds himself spending most of his time explaining how each game works as the silver-haired takes his baby steps.

"Wait, why can't I do this? It's a higher number!"

"Riku, again, there are special cards," Sora laughs. He calmly re-explains the rules, and everyone is mystified at how Sora is not getting impatient with the guy. "That's why these cards won't work when this is in play."

Riku lets out a silent "ah" as he absorbs Sora's guidance. "Okay, I'll try to remember that."

When Sora feels that Riku is competent enough to be on his own, he takes on his duty as co-president and begins to move around the room to peep in on every group. Namine has been doing the same thing as she teaches a newcomer a few neat tricks for a certain magic board game.

"You're always out to get me, aren't you, Xion?" he hears Selphie pout as he approaches their group. They had long ditched the board games and is now playing a four-player card game. The girls ignore his presence as they attempt to out-do each other every single round.

Sora decides to go over to Kairi, since he believes there is still some sort of way he can save their possible friendship. Nothing can't be burnt if there is nothing to burn in the first place. He doesn't know if Kairi notices him stooping behind her to view her cards, but when he gets close enough, he figures that she is alright with it when she doesn't react. Yay.

"You should do this," he softly says as Selphie slams down a straight with hearty laughter. His finger glides along the cards he suggests her to play. He can see her visibly stiffen up as she scooches to the left a little bit, failing to respond to his piece of advice. His spirits dim down a little bit, but he quickly gets elated when Kairi plays what he advised her to do.

"Hey, no fair! I call cheating!" Xion suddenly calls out. "You can't gain help from the master of games here, Kai Kai!"

"Xion, I see you pressuring Olette with your eyes!"

Sora is honestly surprised when he hears her cheerful voice laugh with Xion as they all begin to argue about fairness in the game. The only time he had heard her talk was the accident at the bar, where every word she delivered was like a stab to the heart with ice spears. Glad that she seems to be enjoying the whole social, Sora smiles to himself. Not wanting to get involved with their mini-dispute, however, he quickly moves on to see how the rest are doing.

~Three hours later after the social~

"What is he, the Ebola virus? God damn, I've never seen anyone resemble a brick in real life before."

"Wait, no, it's because—"

"No buts, I'm saying the hard truth!"

"I agree with Selphie."

"Not you too, Olette!"

"Give me your phone."

"Xion—"

"No, give me your phone right now."

"But I—"

"Once Xion is determined about something, she isn't going to give up."

"Namine…"

"Ah hah! Good distracter, Namine! Now where is he…"

"Xion!"

"Sent." A pause. "Sent as well."

"Dude, that's so weird! We're not even friends yet, and you just sent a—"

"Just shut up and watch the magic happen."

~.~.~

Sora steps out of the shower and puts on a fresh change of clothes before he exits his bathroom. He can hear Riku's loud music through the walls and gives one side of it two loud knocks with his fist. Within ten seconds, the music becomes inaudible. Signal received. Sora gives a silent appreciate to Riku for his cooperation as he grabs his phone from his table and flops onto his bed. His hair continues to dry as he drapes a towel over it. He would blow-dry it so that he could hit the bed faster, but his hair is already dry enough, so he doesn't. His goal is to have soft hair like Riku's—it's not like he actively touches it because Sora just knows by looking at it—so he hopes the ultra-moisturizing conditioner Roxas gifted him for his birthday kicks in effect.

I might as well have a desert up here, Sora thinks as he feels his damp hair. Mom wouldn't want that. Sora wants his mom to be proud of having a well-kept son, so he keeps a note to achieve that. Phone in his hand, he begins to scroll through his various social apps. He isn't much of a poster, but he likes to see how his friends are doing from time to time. Nothing spectacular usually happens though—just the events of daily life.

Today, however, something peculiar catches his eye as he opens a certain app—a friend request. His mind instantly goes back in time—did he meet anyone new lately? Of course, random friend requests would be sent from time to time, but most of the time, it would be because he would actively exchange contacts. Although, seeing no point in contemplating such a silly small fact, Sora goes ahead and checks who it is.

Kairi Lockhart.

Sora blinks. Oh?

He squints his eyes to look at the small thumbnail, but he figures he could just click on her name to go view the whole dang picture full-sized. Duh, Sora, duh. He does, and he gets his confirmation.

It's the girl he managed to land in the blacklist of. This request surprises him, and he clicks the accept button without too much thinking behind it. He forgets his self-policy of not letting anyone into his private social account so easily—and by self-policy, he just needs to at least hold a conversation with the person at least once—but he is a little bit too happy at the fact that his guts might actually not be hated as much as he thinks they are.

Yay.

Sora believes that this is the only pleasant surprise for the night. He gets another thing coming when he sees a message from her too. Hm…

He begins to feel the sketchiness. But he opens it anyway.

Hello(: 4:15 p.m.

Sorry, ignore that. 6:06 p.m.

Oh, yeah. Definite sketch.

But he answers it anyway.


Y'all already know the answer as to why I started another fanfic :)

Leave a review to let me know how you feel about it~ Back for the break, so expect updates (?).