It's been three days since Garden's been napping in the hospital.
He'd disappear in the morning, come back to visit during the day and stay till night.
Earth was too busy with investigating Solstice's disappearance to keep tabs on him.
In the end it was concluded that Solstice wasn't dead, since neither the body nor the doctor that performed the surgery could be found.
Stella's spirits lifted since then. Though he'd sometime look towards the window with worry lacing his blueberry blue eyes, he snapped out of it whenever Garden popped in to visit.
One day he came to see Stella playing a game on his phone.
"What's that?"
"Ah, it's a game Dad was developing. I was hoping he might be online..."
"Another?" Garden was unsurprised Mr. Solstice was the chairman of a toy company and owned an independent game company called BloodShake. He personally developed the game, though according to Stella he worked with a team of people online as well.
Despite all the talk, Garden had been to busy with school, soccer and his duties as a student council member to get into it.
Now he had no titles. He was free and perfectly open.
"What's the name of the app? I'll download it right now."
"The Vampire In The Room."
Garden echoed it as he looked to type it up but nothing appeared.
Stella smiled knowingly.
"Ah, it's a closed server game. To play you have to be invited, a background check is normally made on the players but don't tell anyone I said that..."
"The heck?" Garden raised a brow.
"The players are sent things in the mail you see? If you do well, you can convert in game currency into a check..."
"Thats... I've never heard of such a game."
Stella nodded.
"But it's okay, Papa had already made an invite link for you...so...there." Stella was tapping and typing away at his screen.
"Ding!"
"eh?"
A fancy black letter with blood red trim appeared on Garden's screen.
"E-eh? What is this? There wasn't a notification or anything!"
Stella simply smiled.
Garden clicked on the letter and it opened. Bats exploded onto the screen, painting the screen black.
It was pitch black but he could hear footsteps.
A roundtable appeared.
A tall waiter walked into view however he was too tall for his face to fit in the frame. A red milkshade slid into view, the lights flickered before finally turning off and within the darkness a wide tooth grin came and slurped up the contents before burp roaring in the person's face.
(BloodShake!) The child's whisper was eerie.
"Hold on! Did you voice this?"
"You could tell? I was trying not to sound like me...guess my voice is too high." Stella frowned.
"This is so fricking cool!" Garden didn't hear his complaints, he was too in awe.
A character creation screen unfolded in a dark setting at a bar, the lights flickered and a single spotlight finally focused away from the table at the front door.
The character already looked like Garden but he could still change things like eye, hair, skin color, and other facial features and shapes, including piercings and teeth shape.
Garden made his jade green eyes greener like iridescent emeralds, made his hair a darker red and made all his teeth pointy and sharp. He also gave himself elf ears.
"eh?! Yout class is already assigned to you?"
"That's right."
"That's no fun!"
"Different skills are assigned to everyone though. Attackers, Defenders, Supporters, and Tricksters. No matter how passive your class is you raise them up well they can be strong enough..."
"Huh? I thought this was one of those asymettrical horror games from the name of the title."
"It is. But it's not just that. Why don't you play? We're in different lobbies but you can still make sure to send an invite. The tutorial starts once you enter a lobby, kay."
"Eh, can't I just choose a lobby?"
"No. Though once you level up... well I shouldn't say anything. Just play!"
Before he could however, the nurse entered the room.
"So it really is true, your little friend is here again, isn't that nice Stella? You're not alone anymore." Her name was nurse Ahn, he had overheard many of the nurses talking to Stella about her and how much she had favored him as she had even asked the other nurses to frequently check up on him during her absence.
Though Garden personally think she dotes on him too much, he didn't find it surprising. Stella didn't bother wearing his glasses so his baby face was exposed to all melting the hearts of all the females. It had always been like that. That's why boys always tried to bully him when they were young.
Lingering behind the nurse was a girl with pink thick rimmed glasses who was slightly on the chubby side. She was wearing overalls over a heart printed shirt. Her hair was tied up into two long wavy pig tails reminding Garden of a cocker spaniel.
"Ah, you're also here Ms. Iseul." Stella greeted her with a polite smile.
"Who's that?"
"She's Ms. Ahn's daughter."
"Ahhh..." Garden nodded.
"Since she wasn't doing anything at home, I thought it'd be nice if she could stop by to keep you company, but then everyone kept telling me there was no need since your little friend is here."
"Why are you only visiting him now?" Iseul Ahn asked with folded arms. Her tone and gaze was accusatory.
"Hey..." Ms. Ahn turned to glare.
Iseul raised her chin and mouthed the words "What?"
"Now, what matters is that his friend is here." Ms. Ahn said.
"He's been alone for the longest, do you and his Dad think visiting him a few times will make up for that?" Iseul disregarded her Mother, who looked up to the ceiling and closed her eyes.
"He originally accompanied me back at my previous hospital but my Dad moved me here, now that Garden's also living nearby he's... visiting." Stella explained.
"I see." Ms. Ahn smiled before leaning closer to her daughter. "Do you hear that? It's not like what you're thinking so quit it."
"Are the two of you really friends?" The girl continued. "I mean the two of you... one's a nerd while the other's a jock-
"We were both on the same soccer team." Garden interjected. "Why do I need to be interrogated by someone I barely know? Who the heck are you to judge based off appearances like this?"
"You played soccer, Stella?" Ms. Ahn guffawed. She seemed to be imagining something adorable. "A petite little thing like yourself..."
"I bet he was forced into it!"
Garden sucked in his cheeks. Stella had a delicate frame while it was quite obvious Garden was the athletic sort. Even back at the academy everyone would always go "Aw, he plays soccer?" So many times, "He doesn't look it." Whenever they went out to play, he'd always be accussed for bullying Stella into doing an energetic or taxing activity. And each time Stella would always say.
"Our relationship isn't what like your thinking at all. I would like it if you stop insulting my friend, please."
Garden snapped his fingers. There it is.
Then Stella added. "My Father has always been busy, however we always communicated on my phone, it's also not as if he's never visited me. From an outsider's perspective it'll seem like he doesn't care but that's because they don't know him."
Mentioning his Dad triggered his agitation huh?
"Look, no matter how you try to sugar coat it, your Dad's selfish. No matter how busy he is, he should still see his son! And although I may be wrong about this person does it change the fact that you were alone all the time? I know being optimistic is your thing but like seriously you let people take advantadge of you, I'm only saying this out of concern. You need to open your eyes."
"I think you need to open your eyes miss." Garden stood.
"Huh?"
"Although I'm sure Stella was lonely at somepoint, I can say this since I grew up with him. Mr. Solstice loves his son very much. I have many fond memories of sleeping over and Mr. Solstice always giving Stella the last and biggest piece of chicken-
"You're still remember that, you and your grudges!"
Garden held up a hand to shush Stella.
"Although I don't know what's been keeping him away, I'm sure its for a good reason, and not at all because he doesn't love his son."
Nurse Ahn clapped her hands together to end the tension.
"Well, that's that. Don't you have something to say to him?."
"I-If it's as he says, I have nothing else to say."
"This brat..." Ms. Ahn broke character.
"I appreciate you being worried about me but I'm fine. If it eases your mine, you can still come visit."
"Huh?"
Garden's expression was disapproving.
Iseul pursed her lips.
"I was just going to pop in anyway before I went to the library to study."
Stella nodded. Before smiling."I see. Then, see you."
"Yes." Iseul rotated on her heel before stiffly walking out the door.
Ms. Ahn apologized as she left after taking out his empty breakfast tray.
"You really are too nice,"
"She's a nice girl, but sometimes she says things that betray her actions. So I'm going to pretend I didn't hear anything." Is what he said but Garden knew he was bound to start worrying more about his Dad.
"In short a tsundere?"
"Huh? Well, actually yeah."
"Ugh. You attract the whole spectrum don't you?"
"Its not like that, she has a boyfriend."
"Really? You sure she didn't lie about that?"
"What makes you think that?"
"Her behavior just now, what if she lied as a defensive mechanism. She could visit you without you worrying."
Stella blinked, his expression blank.
"Hmmmm...is that the case?"
"Seriously man, when are you getting out of here?"