Building Trust

"Man, screw those guys"
A teacher asked for your help, you couldn't say no
"I wasn't even gone for that long"
You look around the classroom, your friends didn't want to wait for you
You sigh, resigning yourself to eating alone
It's lunchtime so everyone's outside
Everyone except for one kid
A girl with blue hair wearing glasses
She's playing something on her phone
Have you ever seen her before?
Wait... she's that transfer student
She enrolled a few months earlier
Your classmate's interest in her died pretty quickly when she wasn't responding to any of their questions
Clearly, yours did too since you don't even know her name
She turns to look at you
You lock eyes for a second, then she goes back to her phone
That was weird...
You try to pay her no mind and focus on your food
After lunch your friends come back and you yell at them for leaving you alone
"Calm down man, it's not like you only have us"
They're right
You're the kind of kid that gets along with everyone
But you don't really feel like you belong to any of the cliques at high-school
"...Forget it"
You go back to your seat just as the teacher comes in
You fail to notice her looking at you
The next day, you decide to pay attention when the teacher goes down the attendance list
"...Ouro Kronii?"
She raises her hand
So that's her name...
You repeat it to yourself to make sure it sticks
When lunch begins, you try to approach her
"Um... hey"
She looks at you
"...H--"
"Hey Anon!"
Some classmates were behind her
Kronii hides herself from the embarrassment
She thought you were talking to her
"Wanna come with us?"
"Uh... No thanks, I'll just stay here again"
"Suit yourself"
Everyone leaves the classroom
You're alone with her
This time, she's not budging from her phone
"...Sorry about that, could we start over?"
She turns to you
"Hi... I'm Anon"
"...Kronii"
"Oh, that's a nice name! Haha..."
Wow you're good
You try to make small talk with her
She only gives short responses like "uh-huh" "yeah" "no"
She doesn't continue the conversation
She would very much rather continue playing on her phone
Once the chat dies out, you start eating by yourself
You try talking to her for a few more days after that
She clearly doesn't trust you, but you keep at it
"...Why are you talking to me?"
Kronii asks one day after pestering her again
"I... don't know"
"I just got interested for some reason, sorry"
You lock eyes again
"Hey, Anon!"
It's one of your friends
"What are you waiting for, dumbass? Come here!"
"Yeah, yeah shut up"
You get up and follow him
Your friend notices her staring at you

The next day, you stay in the classroom again
Why am I doing this? I'm such a fucking creep
While you're berating yourself, you hear something
"...Hi"
It was Kronii, she actually said hi first
"Oh... hi!"
Neither of you say anything for a few minutes
"...What did you do yesterday?"
"You mean, at lunch?
She nods
"Eh, nothing important. I promised them I'd play with them against another class"
"You play sports?"
"Kind of? I just play because I'm bored"
"...I see"
She goes back to her phone
She actually talked to you
You don't want to miss your chance
"So uh... what are you playing?"
"It's... this one...."
She shows you her screen
"Oh! I play that too"
"REALLY???"
She turns to you, with a very excited look on her face
What a miracle, she showed an emotion
"Y-yeah, I haven't gotten far though, the third stage kind of sucks"
"Ohhhhhhh yeah that part, it's no big deal you can do different strategies to get by..."
She starts chatting up a storm
She gives every tip and strategy possible to help you
Too bad she's not that good at explaining things
You can barely keep up
"Isn't the art so nice? It's the reason I even started playing"
"It is, I really like this character"
"Yeah she's so cute! I also really like the music too, I even found the soundtra--"
She realizes how much she's been talking
Her entire face is red
She tries to hide herself again
"I... I'm sorry..."
"For what?"
"I just... I'm weird"
"No, no it's fine"
You can't help but laugh a little, adding to Kronii's dismay
"You're an interesting girl"
She's bewildered by what you just said

You manage to keep talking to her after that
You find out more things about her
She also asks you questions
She's just a normal girl who is a bit socially awkward
Be that as it may, you're still interested in her for some reason
Might be the face she makes when she's talking about things she likes
Or how attentive she is when you're telling her your stories fucking around with your friends
Speaking of, their interest in her comes back
They start trying to talk to her
She clams up from too many people talking to her
You try to act as a mediator to help her out
It does, she seems more calm when you're around
She manages to make a few more friends, but just like you, she doesn't fit in any cliques
So you just keep talking to each other
They notice how much you stick together at school
Also how she keeps hiding behind you when someone tries to talk to her
"Is she your girlfriend, Anon? For how long have you been going out?"
Of course these questions would come up
"Shut the hell up... we're just friends"
"Suuuure"
Just friends, huh...
Were you even friends?
You might as well be, since she doesn't talk with anyone else
But does that mean you could be something else?
Something more than friends...?
...Why am I even thinking that?
You try to ignore your own thoughts
It's not like she'd be interested in that

One day, you keep talking after school
She always said goodbye before that and walked straight home
"Kronii. It's getting kinda late"
"Oh wow, it is"
"...Wanna walk home together?"
"...Yeah"
You keep chatting while walking
You learn she really likes Pokemon, though she hasn't been able to play much recently
Strangely enough, the both of you follow the same path, you don't part ways
Wait... am I bringing her to my house???
You start to get nervous
Kronii doesn't notice while she keeps telling you about a new game she found
"Oh, Anon. I live over there"
She points to a house really close to yours
"Wait, what?"
"What's wrong?"
You point to your house
"We live that close????"
"Huh!"
You laugh for a bit
"What a nice coincidence"
"No kidding"
You look at Kronii
"Maybe we could also walk to school together"
She's startled from the offer, but she manages to make a smile
"I wouldn't mind"
And that's exactly what you do from then on
Except you have to yell at her to wake up
This is how you met her parents, you're a bit embarrassed this is the way they find out about you
They do thank you for helping them with her
"Do you stay up late studying or something?"
You try to ask her while walking to school
Her grades are average, so that seems a bit weird
She blushes
"No I... I stay up reading other things"
"Such as...?"
"Don't worry about it"
She walks faster
"H-hey wait up!"
She refuses to talk about that topic, moving to games or anything else
That night, you receive a message
It's from Kronii
It's... just a link?
The url looks weird... You decide not to click on it
The next day, she asks you about it
"Sorry, Kronii. I couldn't tell what it was for so I didn't click it"
She pouts
"...It's a link for a manhwa"
"A what?"
"T-the reason I stay up late..."
"Ohhh..."
You check it out
You can't make heads or tails of what's being said
...It's in a different language
You now recall where she's from
"Kronii..."
"Do you like it?"
"I don't know Korean..."
"OH"
Guess she got too used to you and just assumed you knew
She's frozen, trying to find a solution
"Can you explain it to me?"
"Huh?"
"Or like.... narrate it?"
"Y-yeah! Yeah I can do that"
She goes to the first chapter and begins narrating
She's... really good at it?
Her narration is great, and even tries to use different voices for the characters
"Kronii, have you tried voice acting?"
"What? No, I just do this while reading sometimes..."
"You're really good at it!"
"Really?"
"Mm-hmm"
She smiles, she's happy you said that
She keeps narrating the chapters until you catch up
"Thank you Kronii, this is cool!"
"I'm... I'm glad you liked it"
You notice her breathing a sigh of relief
She did seem pretty nervous talking to you about her hobby
This becomes a weekly thing for the two of you, waiting for new chapters to show up
Sometimes, she'd call you at night whenever she found a new series
There's one thing that bothers you, though
Wait, since she says they're popular, wouldn't they have translations of some kind?
Sure enough, when you look up the titles, you find translations for all of them
...Nah
You decide not to read them
Hearing Kronii's narration is a million times better
Her voice is really nice, you love the effort she puts into voicing the characters
...Love...
Here come those thoughts again
You try to shake them off, but you can't
You enjoy spending time with her
So much so, you've been looking forward to seeing her every day
The more you think about her face, the weirder you feel
And yet, all of that disappears when you actually look at her
What the hell is this?
You toss and turn in bed, trying to make sense of what you're feeling
You aren't able to sleep that night

"Did you have a nightmare, Anon?"
Kronii notices your eye bags and gets worried
"What? Oh no, nothing like that"
"You sure?"
"Mm-hmm"
You talk about other things
She stays worried the entire day
Walking back home together she tries to ask again
You stay silent for a bit, then try to work up the courage to say something
"Kronii, have you ever... thought about love?"
"You mean like... loving a game or a series?"
"...I don't know... liking a person?"
"....Like friends??????"
"No! I mean like... like more than... ughhhhhh"
You struggle trying to explain
You've never felt anything like this before
"Forget it, it's not important"
Once again you don't notice her looking at you
She was looking at your hand
She tried to reach for it
She stops herself, and keeps walking with you
You try to forget about what happened

Some days later, you go shopping with your parents
You've been saving up for a game for a while, you immediately go buy it
While going back home, something else catches your eye in a thrift store
It's a Piplup key chain
You remember Kronii saying she really liked it
Thankfully, you had enough money left to buy it
...Thankfully?
You look at it
When the hell would I even have a chance to give this to her?
You put it on your desk in the meantime

You're chatting with Kronii as normal at school
"Oh yeah, I bought smash a few days ago"
She turns to you, she looks excited
"Not to brag, but I'm kiiiinda good at it"
You've never seen her play anything other than mobile games and she is good at those
You blurt out something without thinking
"...Wanna come over to play?"
...What did I just say?
"Lemme ask my parents first"
She fiddles with her phone a bit
"Oh!"
It seems they replied instantly
"Yeah! Let's go!"
She's smiling a lot
While walking home your worries keep piling up
Have I even cleaned my room?????
FUCK it I'm bringing it to the living room
Wait my family is gonna be there
What if I get them to stall her while I clean???
Actually, won't she be nervous with them?
You're screaming internally
You pull out your phone and message your mother
When you arrive home, Kronii slows down to a crawl
As expected, she realized what she agreed to do
"Uhhh I...."
"It's fine, only my mom is around"
"She's a nice person, don't worry"
She trusts you and goes inside
You introduce her to your mother
"Aww is this Kronii? She's adorable!"
"Calm down, mom"
"Now, Anon, you go do whatever you messaged me about while I chat with this cutie"
"I... yeah..."
I literally told you to not say that...
While you go upstairs you catch a glimpse of Kronii's face
She was silent but you could tell she was screaming for help
You clean up your room as fast as you can
When you come back down, your mother is already showing her pictures of you as a kid
You immediately grab Kronii's hand and lead her upstairs
"Awww I was about to tell her another story!"
Upstairs, Kronii takes a moment to recover
"I'm so sorry"
"No it's okay"
"Did she tell you anything weird?"
She smiles
"Nothing, don't worry"
This just makes you worry even more

You start playing some matches
She's... not as good as she said
You keep beating her
"I can beat level 8 cpu's though..."
You hear her mumble to herself
In one of those matches she's actually really close to beating you
You start to hear strange noises
You dodge her last attack and counter, ending the match
"GWAK"
...?
What was that noise?
"Kronii did you hear that?"
"H-hear what?"
"...Nothing, nothing"
The noises might be from the sleep deprivation
Looking at Kronii, she's visibly upset
"...Wanna take a break?"
"NO, I'm beating you next match"
The exact opposite happens
This time, you try looking at her right as you send her flying
"GWAAAK"
It was her
"Kronii?"
She realizes she's been caught
"...Please forget it..."
"No... it's fine"
"Huh?"
"...It's kind of cute"
"...Oh..."
You now realize how close you are to each other
You're both blushing and don't talk for a while
"Kids, wanna eat something?"
Saved...
You go downstairs with Kronii to eat dinner
You put the key chain in your pocket
Your mother bombards her with questions about the two of you
You feel bad for her, she just wanted to play
Once it got late, you walk her home
"...I'm sorry about my mom, I didn't expect her to be like that"
"Don't worry... I still had a good time"
"Even though you didn't win?"
She pouts
"Just you wait, I'll kick your ass next time"
"Sure you will..."
You stop walking
"...Oh, wait a second"
You grab the little Piplup
Might as well give this now
"...Here"
She stares at it
"I... bought it on a whim..."
"How'd you...?"
"I'm pretty sure you told me you liked it one day"
She grabs the key chain
"You remembered, huh..."
"Hm?"
"Thank you, Anon"
She smiles at you
The sunset shines on her face
She's beautiful
"Y-yeah, no problem"
You leave her at her front door and say goodbye
Once the door closes you go back home
You sit in the living room
"You okay?"
Your mother sits next to you
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine"
Nothing goes past her
"Just so you know, she was smiling a lot when I talked to her about you"
"............that doesn't help"
...At least you gave her the gift
You go upstairs and focus on anything else, then go to sleep
While walking to school, you talk acting like nothing happened yesterday
Your heart skips a beat when you see a little Piplup hanging from her phone

Time goes by in a flash
You become best friends with Kronii, you do everything together
You keep talking to everyone, and they keep trying to talk to Kronii
She's more receptive, even going out with the friends she made
Helping people out, giving advice
She even narrated a play one time after the theater kids begged her to
You recorded the entire thing and she keeps asking for you to delete it
You're happy she's come out of her shell
Even though she still prefers to hide behind you when talking to more than one person
You sometimes give each other gifts "on a whim", small things like key-chains
You keep every single one of them
You celebrate each other's birthdays too, coming over to eat some cake
There is one day the both of you avoid, Valentine's
You pretend it's not a thing
Which is something difficult when it lands in a school day where you have to interact
You know how you feel about her now, and it fills you with anxiety
Does she think the same way?
Of course, anyone else would tell you that she does
You just can't muster up the courage to talk to her about it
Still, every day is enjoyable thanks to her
One day, you play with your friends after school
You finish up early cause someone got hurt
After taking your friend to the infirmary you go to the classroom to pick up your stuff and meet up with Kronii
You see the girls talking to her
She's blushing and looking down
"Don't you like him, Kronii? Just pop the question!"
"N-no I can't do that..."
"Why not? I bet he feels the same way"
"You've been together for so long too"
"Yeah, I'm surprised you aren't going out already"
Oh god
She looks up finally
She notices you
She grabs her things bolts out of the classroom
"Anon I thought you were outside!"
They're actually upset
"S-someone got injured and we stopped early..."
"Well what are you waiting for??? GO!"
They push you out of the classroom and throw your schoolbag at you
You're stunned
What...
So it really was that obvious for everyone, huh
You try to find her
What will you even say to her?
It seems she does like you
Is it okay to go further?
What if you screw up?
What if she just stops liking you?
It's too late to think about that
You find her sitting down in the park, staring at her Piplup
You sit beside her
You don't talk for what feels like hours
"...Kronii?"
"Hm..."
"Are you scared?"
"Mm-hmm"
"...Me too"
You look at the park
"...Remember those days you thought I had nightmares?"
"Mm-hmm"
"I'm guessing you already know what happened"
She nods
More time passes
"...I just... don't know what to do"
You let her talk
"When you tried to talk to me... The first time... I didn't like it"
"Then you kept doing it... Like I was a new toy or something"
"I thought you'd stop eventually, especially when I tried to talk to you"
"But you didn't think I was a weird person"
"You slowly made me open up"
"I was so happy to have a friend at school whom I could talk to about whatever"
"Then it turned out we lived close"
"My parents were so happy that someone else was around to wake me up"
"Eventually, I started to feel strange"
"Whenever I thought about you..."
"You felt anxious?"
"...Yeah"
"But all those feelings go away when we're together, don't they?"
She nods
You both went through the same things
You can't help but laugh at that
"This is so dumb..."
"At least we're talking about it now"
"Yeah, but..."
You look at her
"All this time we spent together, I wouldn't trade it for anything"
"But these feelings won't go away"
"And I get scared thinking about acting on those feelings"
"I don't want to lose you because of them..."
"You won't"
She turns to you
Tears are welling up in her eyes
"How do you know that?"
"...I don't"
"I just know I want to be with you... For as long as you let me"
She hugs you
You hug her back
"...You took your sweet time, Anon"
"You too"
You walk back home holding hands
You start to talking about whatever
Game releases, how she can definitely beat you now
You laugh at the dumb jokes you come up with
It's like nothing changed
You arrive at her home
You say your goodbyes
You start to walk away
"Anon!"
You turn around
You feel something on your lips
A few seconds pass
She walks back, blushing
"...I told you I can beat you now"
She runs to her house, never looking back
You stare dumbfounded for minutes
You go back home in a daze
You eat dinner then go to your room
She got you this time
All the anxiety is gone...
All you feel is happiness
Neither of you have an idea of what's going to happen now
You simply want to stay together
And that's just what you'll do
Until the very end

t. Nameronii

School uniform
Pain