I woke up normally. I didn't set up my alarm since I didn't have to wake up early for school today. I checked the time and saw that it was already 10:27 a.m., it was still too early. Well, too early for me on weekends. Liz said they would be arriving after lunch since the match was at 3 p.m. Remembering that my friends would visit my house later in the afternoon, my drowsiness vanished.
I'll just cook up a quick breakfast before cleaning my apartment room. I thought to myself.
After eating my brunch, I cleaned my plates and proceeded to organize my apartment which is usually messy since I'm too lazy to tidy it. I can't have them thinking that I'm actually this disorganized. Changing the sheets, dusting the floor, spraying some air freshener, and cleaning my apartment took a lot of time. I opened my phone to check the messages from our group chat to see if they were on their way here.
Liz: We're heading there right now, I'm excited to see the match with you Kat!
Lenna: I'm with Liz right now and we will both arrive in a couple of minutes. Save some snacks for us ;)
Katherine: You sure you guys don't need me to get you at the station?
I replied.
Liz: No need, we got this. We have goo*** maps after all and you already told us your complete address. It'll be a walk in the park.
I closed the messenger and opened another app. A couple of minutes later while watching cute cat videos on my phone, a call came. It was Liz. I let it ring a couple of times before answering it so it makes her think I'm mostly busy and not holding my phone 24/7.
"What's up?" I asked.
"The guard told us to wait in the lobby to verify if we really are your guests."
Oh, I forgot about that, this apartment complex is usually strict especially to unfamiliar people for safety reasons. It is one of the main reasons why Mom lets me live here on my own in the first place.
"Wait a sec, I'll head down there now."
I immediately hang up and then proceed to go to the ground floor.
I notice them sitting in the lobby intended for the guest.
"Liz, Lenna," I greeted them.
"Kat!" Liz said excitedly.
"About time," Lenna smiled.
"They are with me, can we enter now?" I asked the receptionist in the lobby politely.
"Of course Miss Katyusha. Please forgive the delay. It's just our policy to not let unfamiliar guests in." he replied.
"No, it's alright, It's my fault that I forgot to mention them beforehand," I said placatingly.
"Well, then let's go?" I said as I led the way to the elevator.
Liz and Lenna followed suit. The both of them surveyed the ground floor as we headed for the elevator. After we entered the elevator currently devoid of people since it was a relaxing weekday, Lenna suddenly started talking.
"Wow, I didn't expect your apartment complex to be this lavish. Ohh! Are you secretly a CEO's daughter or something?" Lenna said with amusement.
"You're exaggerating, It's not that luxurious. It has a good ambiance and is always well maintained so you get a good bargain for your bucks since the price is not that high. Their market target is just the upper middle class, not the billionaires." I explained.
Besides, were not short on money since Mom and Dad earns well and I also got the cash prize from the 1st AC to pay for it. Though my teammates and I had to split it into 4 so it's not really a life-altering amount of money compared to the prize now.
"Well, what matters the most is that it's safe and secure." Liz chimed in.
"Yeah, that's what my mother says too"
We chatted as we headed towards my apartment room. After arriving at the front door of my apartment, I beckoned them to enter
"This is my apartment room, come inside"
They entered unceremoniously and then took in the view of my living room. I'm glad I cleaned it earlier.
"Wow, what a nice place you got here. It is neat and tidy." Lenna praised
"Yeah, it also has a relaxing ambiance and music too!" Liz exclaimed.
"Anyways let's head to my room for now"
I lead them to my room just on the opposite side of the kitchen.
"This is my room"
I opened the door prompting the two inside. The area is quite spacey, a 15x18 feet room with a personal bathroom. A closet can be found next to the door with a mirror right beside it. Next to the bed are various decorations placed on a standing wall table. Most of the decorations are cute stuffed toys and other miscellaneous adorable decors that I think would look well in a room.
At the other side of the door is the entrance to the bathroom. At the center of the room is a small table that is placed on top of a relatively comfortable carpet. On the far corner is my desktop PC, It rarely sees any use nowadays since I mainly play VR games now, but I still use it sometimes for projects or school assignments.
"Ohh, your room is clean and comfy. Mine's always messy since I rarely clean it myself." Liz suddenly said.
"Yeah, it's also quite....girlier than I thought it would be. You should have a look at Liz's room. It's full of toys." Lenna giggled.
"Haa? What did you just say? Did you just call my prized CoA figurine collection toys? Do you want to end our friendship that badly?" Liz bickered.
"And listen to this! She even has that limited edition Yuusha schoolgirl uniform figurine she keeps bragging about to me nonstop like a national treasure when she got it!"
"Of course! It's the hardest figurine you could get, I was super lucky that I got the last one before they ran out! Die-hard male fans of Yuusha would even kill for it since it is the only figurine available where you can see her panties!" Liz rattled off.
My cheeks suddenly reddened. Good thing they didn't notice since they're both busy bickering, but I mean, what the heck! Is that even legal!?
But I suppose there were some kind of terms and conditions that allowed them to have all the monetization rights to the characters of their game or something when you first start the game. But I mean, nobody reads that so it's like cheating. Curse you and your greedy conglomerate company ways V-tech!
Suddenly, the doorbell rang distracting me from my thoughts.
"I'll go get it, wait here for a bit," I said as I quickly headed towards the door.
I don't recall having any visitors today except these two. But I doubt the security would let anyone suspicious in, so it could only be either my parents or my aunt.
I arrived at my front door and looked at the CCTV screen attached to the side that focuses on the door.
It was my mother.
I opened the door and she greeted me with a loving smile.
"How's my baby? Are you having any difficulties on your first week here?" she asked
"Of course not, I'm old and responsible enough to live by myself you know," I rebuked.
"By the way, is Dad not with you?" I continued.
"Ohh your dad has an important meeting to attend, so I'm the only one here visiting you today." She regretfully said.
"....I see"
While mom has been overprotective since my sister left this world, my dad allocated all his free time at work, attempting to change all his grief into productivity. At first, I thought that I was the only one affected by my sister's passing but it became apparent that my parents were greatly impacted by it too, it's just that we each had different ways of coping with it. I'm just the weakest one out of us three. The only one experiencing panic attacks. It was naive of me back then to even think that they didn't care about my sister at all. I guess I'm not as mature as I thought I was.
"Ohh by the way, I heard from Carlos you had visitors!" Mom bought me out of my musings.
Carlos was the name of one of the guards in this apartment. Mom has always been chatty and social (the complete opposite of me) so she probably got the information from talking to him.
"Uhuh, they came to hang out". I spoke slowly.
"Ohh I want to see them," she said excitedly.
I have a bad feeling about this. But I don't think I have a concrete reason to decline nor the choice since she will just barge into my room anyway.
"Fine, they're in my room," I said as I led Mother to my bedroom.