High school is always boring for kids who hate being forced to wake up early in the mornings, sit around for long hours being forced to retain information on several different topics five days a week. Isn't that asking too much of one person?

Not for Hanagaki Takemichi, the high school freshman managed to maintain his high grades and spend time with his girlfriend Tachibana Hinata for quite some time. His parents should be proud of him. They always lecture him about how important time management is and how it can be a way to help you become successful.

While they were on break, several students in the classroom sat around on their phones, watching funny videos, playing games with one another or making videos on KitKot. Sadly, Hina doesn't attend the same school as he did, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have friends at school.

Atsushi Sendou, also known as Akkun, Takuya Yamamoto, Kazushi Yamagishi, and Makoto Suzuki. Had all been his best friends since middle school. Were they in the same homeroom? Unfortunately, they weren't, but to Takemichi he was relieved. He doesn't know how good his grades would've been if he and his buddies were placed together in the same class.

Scrolling through KitKot like the other students in his homeroom, he found some videos amusing, heartwarming, and hilarious. He rolls his eyes as an ad for a virtual game appears on his screen. Nobody likes ads, they can be such a buzzkill. There was a time where ads weren't on KitKot, but with the rate of the social media app growing in numbers rapidly it came to no surprise that people wanted to advertise on such a popular app.

"Yo! i!" The booming voice came from his small friend Kazushi. The loud, red-framed, glasses-wearing teen always knew how to make himself the center of attention.

Takemichi was startled and accidentally tapped on his screen, downloading the app that was advertised.

Kazushi was accompanied by his three other friends Akkun, Takuya, and Makoto. Takuya bows in apology to the other students who clearly seemed bothered by Kazushi's loud entrance.

"What are you guys doing here?" Takemichi asks as they trot on over to his table.

"We were thinking of going to the internet cafe after-school. Wanna tag along?" Akkun asks.

"You guys couldn't just text me?"

"We wanted to stretch our legs and so should you." Kazushi tugs on Takemichi's shirt. Urging him to get up.

"I can't. I'm highlighting my notes." Takemichi declines.

"Ever since we got to high school you've been studying really hard, Takemichi." Makoto compliments.

"Well, our high school years are creeping up on us. Look at us, we're three months away from summer vacation. Next time we're back here we'll be in our second year." Takuya rubs the back of his neck.

"And then we'll be applying for colleges too," Akkun adds.

"No, I'm not ready to grow up! We just got to high school." Kazushi whines.

"That's why you guys have to take your studies seriously if you want to get into a good college. You don't wanna be stuck working part-time at a DVD rental store or something, that'd be super lame." Takemichi lectures his friends.

His friends all nod their heads in unison.

"Good. Now, about that internet cafe…"

.

.

.

"Aw, this totally sucks! You were supposed to go left, not right, Takemichi." Kazushi whines as he looks at the bold words on the screen saying ' R'.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm losing my touch. I haven't played in a while." Takemichi apologizes. " I'm a bit rusty, but I'll make it up to you guys, sodas on me?" He offers.

"Sounds good, Takemichi." Takuya agrees.

"I'd like grape flavor." Makoto orders.

"Green tea for me." Akkun follows suit.

"Well...I guess all that gaming had made my throat a little parched." Kazushi adds.

Takemichi laughs at his friend's attempt to play cool, "well, I'll be back. You guys can choose the next game in the meantime." He gets up from his computer to head for vending machines. Getting a soda for himself and his friends.

He would prefer to be studying right now, but he used his break time to scroll through KitKot and highlight his notes. To make up for the lost time he'd just have to study his notes before bed.

Upon returning with the drinks, Takemichi hands his friends their drinks, keeping one to himself, and sits down to play for another hour, maybe two. Okay, definitely three.

Distractions can be your number one enemy if you're a goal-getter. Everything can be seen as a distraction and that's what Takemichi struggled with the most. He'd gotten too distracted at the cafe earlier and lost track of time.

Takemichi sat at his desk inside his room, swirling on his chair, bored out of his mind. He'd play so many games early that studying didn't seem to interest him at the moment. His concentration was definitely broken.

A message from his phone alarms him and he checks it over. "Great, I'm short on storage." He sighs and goes to settings to delete the unnecessary apps and photos he doesn't use or need anymore.

"My virtual friend?" He reads aloud. He had no memory of downloading this app. This app was also taking up a lot of his storage on his device.

He sits there contemplating whether he should delete the game or not. Should he see if the game could free him from the shackles of boredom or...not?

"Welp." He taps out of settings and goes to the app. A bright yellow screen illuminates brightly on the screen, then a cute puppy dog icon appears. There were two options, new game or load game.

Takemichi taps a new game, which takes him to create his character. He chooses the male option and it takes him to a default character. He doesn't normally play games like this, this app audience was clearly intended for females, but the options to create a character and name them kind of immersed Takemichi.

"There. All done. Now….what should I name you?" He stares at the long-haired blond boy on his screen with dark eyes and a slight smile on his face. His character seemed very charismatic and cool. But, what would be a cool name for a cool character?

"Wait, let's adjust your height. I don't want you towering over me." Takemichi jokes and uses the slider to adjust the height of his avatar. "Let's see...should I give you a foreign name? I really like the name, Michael. It's funny if I named you after Michael Jordan despite your height." He jokes again.

"How about Mikey? It's short for Michael." Takemichi asks the avatar on the screen as if it'd talk back to him. He types in the name and presses enter. The terms and conditions notice appears next on the screen, but he scrolls down and presses accept all, he doesn't ever read terms and conditions and he definitely wasn't going to start now.

A tutorial is played through to let Takemichi know how to play the game correctly, but he skips that too. Eventually, he'd get the hang of it if he just wings it.

"You're my first virtual friend Mikey-Kun. Let's get along okay?" Takemichi smiles down at the phone before shutting it off to get ready for bed.