Chapter 15: The Brothers' Accounts

The music was blasting to the point where the walls were beginning to vibrate. Mokuba knew this first-hand because the natural movement of the crowded party had shoved him against the wall of the townhouse. When Mokuba's roommate, Yoshito, had told him the party he was currently immobilized from would be one of the biggest parties off campus, Yoshito wasn't lying. Mokuba's decision to attend was purely out of curiosity; he was nearing the end of his first semester at the University of Tokyo without experiencing a real college party. His curiosity, however, disappeared the moment Yoshito ditched Mokuba instantly for a cute girl he saw across the room. He also wasn't a fan of how many elbows had been rammed into his side when he tried to follow Yoshito but to no avail. Rather than being elbowed, Mokuba let the crowd dictate his movement which was how he ended up against a wall.

"Wow, college parties really suck," Mokuba said out loud from frustration. No one heard him—Mokuba was barely able to hear himself. The music was just too loud. Mokuba decided it was time to leave despite having gotten to the party moments earlier.

"Excuse me. Pardon me," Mokuba said repeatedly as he shoved his way through the wave of intoxicated students. No wonder he got rammed by so many elbows, it was the only way to move around. Mokuba kept his eyes peeled to find an exit, hopeful he would find one soon.

Mokuba stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a familiar face just a few rows of people away. The two individuals locked eyes and waved.

"Serenity! Hey!" Mokuba yelled but Serenity indicated that she couldn't hear him. She motioned for him to come over to where she was standing instead. Mokuba didn't waste another second—he made his way over, shoving people aside if he had to.

"This way," Mokuba read Serenity's lips say and Mokuba followed. Serenity was near the front of the house and she opened the door so they could both escape.

"Thank you so much… I can finally hear myself think," Mokuba replied when they were outside. His ears were still ringing from the music, but he was feeling immensely better now that there was some separation between himself and the music.

"Are you okay? You look a little frazzled," Serenity responded, putting her hand on Mokuba's shoulder as if to check to make sure he was okay.

"Yeah, I'm feeling better now," Mokuba said, "It doesn't look like you were fazed by that experience at all."

"I'm just a little more used to it, that's all." Serenity guided Mokuba away from the townhouse and towards the parking lot, "Do you need a ride back to campus?"

Mokuba's eyes lit up—he was in luck. Yoshito had given him a ride over and there was no way Mokuba would be successful in dragging him out of that party early. He was hesitant to respond, however, and Serenity instantly picked up on that. She replied, "I haven't had anything to drink, if that's what you were worried about. I only went to this party because someone asked me to show up."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that…" Mokuba said, feeling guilty for having assumed Serenity was putting him in danger rather than doing him a favor.

"It's alright. You're a smart kid and you're just looking out for yourself," Serenity said with a smile. When they got to her car, she unlocked the doors and they both got in. "I'm happy I ran into you, Mokuba. There's something I need to tell you about."

Mokuba turned to Serenity, his eyes wide with curiosity. What did she need to tell him? The way Serenity said it too… Mokuba didn't know what would be happening next. He wondered if this was the part where Serenity would tell him she always had feelings for him, ever since they first laid eyes on each other back in Battle City. Mokuba then remembered she was actually still recovering from her eye surgery then so maybe that's not when they saw each other. Then again, didn't her eyes get fixed during the tournament? Mokuba couldn't remember but suddenly he became nervous. How would he tell her he didn't feel the same way? Or wait, did he feel the same way? Mokuba never had a girlfriend before so how could he know if he did or didn't feel the same way?

'Oh no, but what would Seto think?' Mokuba realized and he started to panic. Even if he did feel the same, which he definitely didn't but maybe did, what would they say to their brothers? How could he possibly the break the news? Mokuba began to spiral in his own thoughts and ran several scenarios in his head of possibilities. He wasn't ready for this… he wasn't ready to be a boyfriend and he certainly wasn't ready to date Serenity.

"Um, are you okay over there? You've been staring at your lap for about five minutes now…"

Mokuba's head jolted up immediately, "Yes! I'm so sorry… I was getting motion sick, so I needed to look down for a little bit."

"I thought looking out the window helped with motion sickness, not the other way around?"

"Oh, who even knows these days? Anyway, what did you want to tell me?" Mokuba spoke with such speed, he knew there was no chance of hiding his embarrassment.

Serenity laughed, "Okay, weirdo. Well, I wanted to talk to you about our brothers."

"Seto and Joey? Oh no, what did they do now?"

"They didn't do anything wrong, but I did find something…" Serenity stopped the car at the next red light and she opened her smart phone. She opened an app on her phone before handing it to Mokuba, "Have you ever heard of OkDuelist?"

"Um… yeah, I think I have. That's one of those dating apps, right? Why do you ask?"

"One of my friends sent me a screenshot of Kaiba and Joey's profile. I didn't believe them at first, but when I searched for their usernames online, I found them. I don't think these accounts are fake—they're really our brothers' accounts." Mokuba looked down at the phone screen. Sure enough, the profile pictures were exactly Seto and Joey's. If their photos weren't enough, the usernames were a dead giveaway— TheBlueEyedKnight and RedEyesKing. Mokuba was confused as to why the usernames sounded so similar but was even more confused to be looking at their dating profiles.

"I don't understand… Nii-sama never mentioned he was going to be signing up for a dating website. Did Joey say anything to you?"

Serenity shook her head, "No… but maybe they were embarrassed to admit they created accounts to begin with? I'm just worried about them getting hurt. Online dating can be a great way to meet people, but others can get hurt, especially if you're new to the dating world."

"Do they know that you and I know about the dating app?" Mokuba asked.

"No, I haven't told them because I wanted to talk to you first. I also wanted to tell you that I'm sorry because I think this might be my fault."

"What do you mean?"

"I may have told Joey and Kaiba that they need to hang out together instead of bothering you and me," Serenity responded and then frowned, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"Wait, you're telling me that you told them to hang out with each other and it actually worked?" Mokuba asked, dumbfounded but impressed. Serenity was surprised by this reaction.

"You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad? I've been telling Nii-sama to get a life since forever. He's never listened to me, though. I wonder if older brothers only listen to younger sisters…"

Serenity chuckled and replied, "Well, I'm glad you're not upset. I really wasn't sure whether to tell you or not since finals are in a couple of weeks and I didn't want to distract you with this."

"No, I appreciate the heads up. I will admit that I'm surprised by all of this, but I'm also happy to hear Nii-sama isn't spending his whole time in Domino City sulking without me," Mokuba said, "Will you let me know if you hear anything else? I won't ask Seto about this… I'll let him bring it up if he wants to. It'll be our little secret in the meantime. Does that work for you?"

Serenity smiled, "Sounds good to me!"

-YGO-

Seto had lived an unexpected life. In 23 years, Seto had become an orphan, a CEO, a billionaire, and given the title 'Sexiest Man on Earth' from a poll ran in a popular magazine. Despite the unexpected nature of these events, Seto had always secretly known he was destined for greatness, therefore making the unexpected happenings seem somewhat expected. One happening, however, that he would've never guessed was the fact that he would be sitting in the dining room of his house, with Joey Wheeler sitting across from him, the most annoying person he knew, setting up an OkDuelist account on his phone. This event was truly baffling and made Seto a little bit concerned with his choice for acquiescing to this dumb competition with Joey to see who could get a girlfriend first.

"Have you downloaded the app yet? You look like you're just blankly staring at your phone," Joey asked, bringing Seto out of his confusing thoughts.

"Before I download this app, I wanted to ask you something; are you sure people use this for dating? My understanding of dating was that people met each other in-person like at a club or a party."

"There are people who meet that way, but I had a feeling online dating would be more your style," Joey said, pressing away on his phone screen, "I have a hard time believing you've never heard of or even thought of online dating. It seems right up your alley."

"Now that I'm thinking about it, Mokuba mentioned it once or twice in the past…"

"Besides, you have to have friends to be invited to the club or a party and I'm pretty sure you don't have any."

Seto narrowed his eyes and glared at Joey.

"Oh, come on. Don't give me that look! I thought we could be frank with one another."

Seto decided it wasn't worth his time to start up a huge argument with Joey. He had work to do and by work he meant… online dating. Seto felt like, even just the concept of online dating, was completely foreign to him. Seto wasn't lying when he said Mokuba had mentioned it to him but that didn't mean he had come close to creating an account. When he downloaded the app, already he was bombarded with questions he had never been asked. The standard questions were easy; the app asked him what his age and gender was, what language he spoke, and where he lived.

"Wheeler, what should I write for this one part?" Seto asked.

"What part?" Joey asked, still clicking away at his phone and only appearing to half pay attention.

"There are a couple parts I'm unsure about. This app is asking me for a self-summary and what I'm doing with my life. There's also the 'What am I looking for?' question and I'd have to check my Duel Monsters spreadsheet to see what cards I'm currently looking for," Seto handed his phone over to Joey, "I do know how to answer that 'What am I really good at?' because that would obviously be Duel Monsters. I don't know anyone that would be on this and put any other answer, though, so what makes me different from other duelists on this site?"

"Oh Kaiba… you've got a lot to learn and I'm not very patient."

Seto immediately snatched his phone back from Joey and asked, "What makes you think I need handholding for creating a profile? I just needed some more background information on a couple of the questions they asked me. I'm perfectly capable of filling out the profile myself."

"But you also thought 'What are you looking for?' was referring to Duel Monsters cards which is why you should probably have me fill out the profile for you," Joey responded, reaching for Seto's phone. Seto pushed his chair back so that he was even further away from Joey's reach.

"Is that not a card-related question? What is it referring to, then?"

"It's a dating website. You're telling me you don't have the slightest idea what that question is about?"

Seto's blank face was not promising. Joey sighed—this girlfriend challenge was going to be a lot more work for him than it would be for Seto if they were having difficulties at the profile stage.

"I thought it was dueling and dating-related…" Seto replied, his voice trailing off as he stared at his phone again, seeking to find the answers he desired from his incomplete profile.

"It's a dating website specifically for people who are interested in Duel Monsters but the primarily goal of the dating website is to get people to date you. See how much time was wasted with me just explaining all of that?" Joey said, "How about this; I'll fill out your profile and then you can take a look at the finished product before I make the profile public. How does that sound?"

"Not a chance. I'm not a child, Wheeler. I'm perfectly capable of setting up my profile by myself," Seto paused to take a glance at Joey's screen. Joey didn't appear to be on the dating app at all—he seemed to be scrolling through another social media app instead. Seto continued, "May I ask when you'll be creating your profile?"

"I have no intention of creating a profile. The online dating will be your world but a ladies' man like me doesn't need a phone app to get dates."

"That can't possibly be the case. Besides, I believe the creation of an online profile should be mandatory for our bet so that we can both try to get a girlfriend using the same platform as the other competitor."

"Look Kaiba, I really don't want to create a profile because I don't want someone to know I'm on there." There was an instant shift in Joey's energy after that statement. It caused Seto to look up again from his phone and over at Joey. The mechanic seemed suddenly upset and appeared to be trying to hide it too.

"You don't want someone to know you're on the dating website? Who?"

Joey began talking to himself, ignoring Seto's questions entirely, "Well, I guess I could see if she's on the dating website at all and if she's not, then I suppose I could create the profile without any worry of her seeing me on there…"

"Who is the 'she' you are referring to?"

Joey snapped out of his thought and reached across the table, "Can I use your phone to see if she has a profile? Now I'm curious. Give me your phone!"

"Not until you tell me who you're talking about and why you're so interested in whether this person is on OkDuelist or not. Do you have a girlfriend already and you didn't tell me? I'm not interested in competing if I entered the competition under false pretenses."

"It's a long, boring story… I would gladly save you the time if you could just hand me your phone."

"Not a chance, Wheeler. I've got time and piqued interest now."

Joey put his face flat on the table. He really didn't want to tell Seto the story, but it was clear the CEO wouldn't budge without hearing it. Joey took a deep breath and then lifted his head, sitting upright at the table.

"I don't have a girlfriend… I used to, up until we broke up a while ago. It was Mai."

"As in Mai Valentine?"

Joey sighed, "The one and only."

-YGO-

A/N: Last time I updated this story, it was six months ago. I really thought I was going to revert back to my original publishing schedule. That clearly didn't happen and now the world has been turned upside down with coronavirus. To be honest, I finished this chapter weeks ago but with everything that's happening in the world, I became too overwhelmed to publish. I do hope to start writing again more regularly as it has always been a coping mechanism of mine and I'm pretty excited to show you where this story goes. Big shoutout to Rena Redhead for editing this chapter and for being my writing sensei! In the meantime, stay safe and well out there.