"Cassie!"
Cassie heard that a member of the club called her. She looked at the time and then gasped when the break time was over. She should hang up her call with Natasha.
"I wanted to talk a little bit more, but that seems impossible," Cassie didn't have a choice.
"Club activities, right?" Natasha assumed it was related to the club activities of Cassie.
"Right," Cassie confirmed. "We'll talk later. Don't keep it to yourself if something happened, Nat."
"I won't, Cass," she swore.
"Good that we're clear," Cassie was relieved to hear that.
Cassie ended the call.
She didn't want to go home straight, so she would go to the park first.
She didn't expect to see her classmate and seatmate, Liam, at this park. She thought the park would be free just for her or perhaps her and Leon, but that wasn't the case for today. She wanted to be alone, so it was best for her to leave the park and go home.
"You came this far, and you'll leave?" Liam asked.
"I want to be alone," she answered.
"But I bet you're not going to be alone after I leave," Liam replied.
She was confused about what Liam told. "What are you talking about?"
"Sis Natasha!" she heard the voice of Leon who called her.
"I'm talking about him," Liam referred Leon.
When Leon got near to Natasha, he was surprised to see Liam was at the park as well. "Eh!? Brother Liam!?"
"Yo, Leon," Liam waved his right hand with a beam.
"I thought you're still at school doing those club activities or whatever," Leon pouted.
"Sulking aren't we?" Liam chuckled when he saw the pout of Leon. "I'm here, so no club activities today," he patted the head of Leon.
"Really!?" Leon wanted to make sure, so he asked Liam for confirmation.
"Of course," Liam confirmed.
"Yay!" Leon rejoiced. "Oh, I want to go have some fun in the arcade!"
"Fine by me," Liam didn't mind. "I'll call Mom for a sec."
Liam pressed the numbers to dial his mother.
"Can you please come with us, Sis Natasha?" Leon pleaded.
"Eh?" she didn't expect that Leon wanted her company.
"I want to play with you as well, please?" Leon had his puppy eyes on. "Or do you have something to do?"
She felt bad to refuse Leon, and besides, he gave her candies to cheer her up, so it wouldn't be fair if she wouldn't pay him back.
"Uh, I'll leave a message to Mum and Pops, and that should be all right," she agreed to go with Leon.
"Yay!" Leon beamed, and she didn't even realize that she smiled at the cuteness of Leon.
"Sorry for getting dragged into this," Liam apologized. "Leon can be a bit forceful sometimes."
"Oh no," she shook her head. "It's fine. Leon cheered me up, so this is a compensation."
She sent a message to her parents that she would return home late as she got invited by a friend. She felt bad that didn't specify who she was with. She would tell her parents the details later once she got home.
**
Liam paid and then got the arcade machine coins. Leon wanted to ride the mini-carousel machine, so Liam inserted two arcade machine coins to make it work. Leon got excited once the mini-carousel started moving.
Liam looked at Natasha, but he noticed that she had that pensive look. "Hey, are you all right?"
She went back to earth when she heard the voice of Liam. "Hm?" she hummed, uncertain of what to tell. "Um, yeah, I think."
"I saw that," she didn't know what exactly Liam meant, but she assumed it must be the photos of her and Baker. "I honestly don't care if it isn't true or not, so don't be bothered about it."
Usually, a simple-minded person would thank Liam, but she wasn't that kind of person, she was a skeptical one. She didn't know why Liam told that to her, so she would ask. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I don't know," Liam wasn't really sure why. "Maybe it's because I'm thankful Leon had someone to talk to when he's alone."
Basing on what Liam told, it was safe to assume he saw her and Leon together at the park. "So you saw it."
"I had to see who Leon talked to," she understood what Liam meant.
**
"I made a friend!" Leon looked excited.
"Really?" Liam asked, starting to wonder who was it.
"Yeah!" Leon nodded. "I think she's from your school based on her uniform and has the same age as you, Brother Liam."
He expected he made a male friend, but Leon told 'she', so it was a female friend. "Who is this friend, Leon?"
"Her name is Natasha Lee! Sis Natasha!"
**
"Leon considered me a friend, huh," she smiled when she heard the story from Liam of how he got to know Leon talked to her.
"He wouldn't if you're a bad person," Liam smiled, recalling how Leon looked cute when he talked about Natasha.
"I can be a bad person, you know," it just slipped impulsively from her lips.
"I can tell you the same thing," Liam countered.
"Yeah, of course, you can," she wouldn't disagree with that.
"I want to break the line of us being strangers," she was surprised, so she looked at Liam, but he looked earnest about it.
"Is that another way of rephrasing 'let's be friends'?" she asked.
"You're not bad at catching things up," Liam smiled.
"You aren't just another admirer of mine, right?" she wanted to make sure Liam wasn't.
"100% sure," Liam confirmed. "Besides, I like someone else, and that someone is way prettier than you, so you can erase that skeptical thought of yours."
She didn't know Liam liked someone else. She was curious, but she didn't bother to ask because it might be something personal to him.
"Let's be friends, Liam," she wanted to make a friend, so she wouldn't refuse a hand who asked her.
"Good thinking, Natasha," Liam was delighted to be friends with her.