"H-Hold on a second… you're saying you love someone like me, even after I told you I was a guy?!"
"Yes, I am tired of hiding my feelings for so long! My feelings for you won't change, even if you're a guy beyond this screen, because I love Angelica, specifically."
Angelica grew quiet, glancing to the side, and withdrawing eye contact.
"Well, now that you mention it; we've been in a party for quite some time, and I could see the looks you gave me… but I always thought they were the looks of someone who cares for me as a friend and not someone who loves me that way."
"Angelica…"
"Everyone I end up around only wishes to get closer to me for reasons like this. They don't see me as a friend, but rather as some beautiful woman they can sleep with. Is that how you viewed us this entire time, Lucifer?"
"No, that's not how I viewed you at all! I count you as a friend, truly! I mean it!"
"That's hard to believe... but I'll take your word on it because I trust you."
"…I'm sorry if I caused you any trouble."
"Nah, you didn't cause any trouble, it's fine." Angelica snickered, "I'm glad you at least told me the truth, because friends don't hide secrets from each other, right?"
"Well, yeah, they don't, I suppose you're right." Lucifer looked to the side, scratching his cheek.
Angelica smiled.
"But I'm sure you'll find someone out there who will love you for who you are. I'm not someone who's looking for any relationships right now, I already have a lot going on back home, and it's been hard for me, so worrying about another person is going to be kinda stressful; I hope you can understand, and I'm sorry if it sounds selfish."
"No, no! I completely understand that. We all have things going on outside the game, and it's the same with me." Lucifer sighed, "I even have an abusive father who comes home every night and takes his anger out on my mom. He beats her senselessly, and there's nothing I can do about it."
"That's horrible—what kind of sick bastard puts his hand on his wife—absolute scum!"
"Yeah, he's scum, but I don't have to hear it if I play the game with you guys, that's why I'm always online." Lucifer crossed his arms frowning, "Honestly... sometimes I wish we could just live inside the game and never have to go home again, I wouldn't mind that whatsoever."
"Well, as nice as that sounds, I wouldn't wanna be doing any of that with a family back home..."
"Yeah, you're right, for you guys it's different, but for me; I wanna escape reality and live here indefinitely."
"I dunno about that, sometimes we wish for something, but when we get it—it ends up being worse than we thought." Angelica crossed her arms, pitying Lucifer, "I would be careful making those kinds of wishes, Lucifer."
"Right… but I seriously doubt anything would change if it actually happened!"
"You're an idiot."
"Huh?!!"
[PRESENT TIME]
"So, you're telling me that Lucifer admitted his love for you? Is that it?"
I heard everything Angelica told me, and now it started to make sense.
"Yeah… I'm assuming that's bad, right? You don't look too happy about it."
"Yeah, it makes sense now. It all happened the night we set up camp."
[TWO YEARS AGO]
Chirp—Chirp—Chirp.
The crickets chirped in the night.
Zombies roamed around the campgrounds but didn't attack from the campfire keeping them away as a source of light.
Floating ghouls traversed the sky, circling around the campsite.
Skeletons with swords, axes, and shields roamed through the forest, their bones heard cracking.
And werewolves were heard howling in the distance.
During the night, vicious mobs spawn. It's dangerous to attack them as they always end up in hordes. Having a torch with you is the best way to keep them away, or by lighting a campfire.
"Angelica is sleeping..." Lucifer woke up inside his tent, hearing the monsters roam around him, which he ignored.
The demon proceeded to unzip his tent and sneak outside, quiet in his movements.
"I haven't heard anyone snoring, or making any sounds; I wonder if they're alright."
Lucifer was cautious about his teammates, so he snuck toward their tents, unzipping them silently.
The first tent he visited was Angelica's. He peaked his head inside, realizing she was fast asleep, but there was a journal right beside her.
"Oh, good, maybe I'm worrying too much—hold on a second—is that a journal?" Lucifer gazed at the notebook, curious as to what it was for, "Eh… I'm sure peeking at it wouldn't hurt." He let his curiosity get the best of him, tip-toeing inside her tent, and grabbing up the journal before sneaking back out.
But to his surprise—
"Gyaah!" Lucifer jumped in his skin, meeting Emperor face-to-face, "Emperor! What are you doing awake? I thought you were asleep— Eh?" Lucifer trailed his eyes down Emperor's body, realizing he was covered in blood that slowly started to vanish into particles, "You were out killing mobs?"
"Yeah, I decided to gather a few materials before we headed back to the Main Lobby. But what are you doing sneaking around Angelica's tent?" Emperor frowned, lowering his brows.
"I was just checking on everyone, making sure they were okay. Trust me, bro, I wasn't doing anything suspicious."
"The Eyes of the Emperor can detect lies, but I don't see any trickery from you." He squinted his eyes before closing them, realizing Lucifer was telling the truth. "As long as you aren't spying on the girls, then I guess it's cool." Emperor turned around. "I'm going to bed, get some sleep for our travels tomorrow."
"R-Right! I'll see you guys tomorrow then."
"Alright." Emperor made his way back to his tent, zipping it shut.
Currently, Angelica and Lilith were logged out of the game, leaving their Game Avatars to sleep, and Emperor would do the same, however, Lucifer decided to stay inside Isekai World Online and read Angelica's journal out of curiosity.
He made his way back to his tent, opening her notebook, and flipping through empty pages, eventually stumbling across a page full of paragraphs.
"Here it is, Angelica's handwriting." Lucifer was flushed in his cheeks for a moment, "Even her handwriting is beautiful! Oh, what am I saying? Maybe I'm obsessing over her too much." He decided to read the page, admiring her beautiful handwriting.
To him, it was like reading a holy gospel.
"I don't know how to feel, everything at home has been hard, and the government has been treating me and my family poorly. Reality is cruel, but the best part of my day is being online with my friends, seeing their smiles, and not worrying about the real world. We play together, tease one another, and have fun. It's more fun than you would ever have in the real world, and I love them dearly for that." Lucifer was reading her writing, closing his eyes in contentment, "Oh Angelica… someone beautiful as you shouldn't have to suffer this much."
And so, he continued reading; "Lucifer, Lilith, and Emperor are my closest friends, I don't know what I would do without them. They always make me happy, they always cheer me up when I want to cry or whenever I get angry. They always show care for me when nobody else would—friends like these are what make life worth living, but when I think about it, Emperor has always been there for me from the very beginning. He's shown the most care out of anyone else, and he's willing to risk it all, just to see me smile. Honestly, someone like him gets on my nerves sometimes, but I adore him." Lucifer slowed down his reading, widening his eyes in shock, "...What is she writing? Angelica, are you saying that I don't make you happier than Emperor?"
Lucifer frowned, continuing to read the journal; "Somebody like Emperor is the type of person I would fall in love with, but honestly... that's pretty gay. I'm not saying that being gay is a bad thing, but… it's whatever, forget it. I don't even know why I'm writing this, maybe I feel some type of way. But besides that, life in this world is great, and I only wish it was reality." Lucifer closed the notebook, dropping it to the ground, "This whole time, Angelica was in love with someone else. She lied to me! She betrayed me!" He fell to his knees, lowering his head in shame, "I'm not good enough for her... I'll never be!"
[PRESENT TIME]
"You idiot! Why didn't you take the notebook away from him!? You just said you saw him hold it when he walked out of my tent, so why didn't you snatch it away?!" Angelica was holding me by the collar, glaring at me in rage.
"I didn't know if it was your journal or not, so I didn't wanna be pushy about it."
"Pushy?! He walked out of my tent holding something in his hand, shouldn't that be proof enough?!"
Well, she was right, but there's more to it.
"And after that, you stayed in the game and pretended to log off, right? You apparently heard everything by using the 'Ears of the Emperor', realizing that Lucifer was reading my personal stuff."
"Yeah, that's exactly right, but I didn't interfere because I was slightly curious too…"
SMACK!
Angelica slapped me before crossing her arms in annoyance.
Ouch…
"What I said in my journal was during my time of depression. I was some lost soul who didn't know their sexuality, or what they were attracted to. We all have those problems, and I'm sure you experienced them as well."
"I have, and that's exactly why I'm not teasing you about it," I responded, snickering.
"So in conclusion, you're assuming Lucifer despises me because I 'quote on quote', had feelings for you? Is that it?"
"That's the only logical conclusion I can give you at the moment. Do you remember after we made our way back to the Main Lobby, Lucifer left our party? He departed without telling us why, only saying 'I have to find my own journey'. You and Lilith asked him what he meant by that, but he gave us no context."
"So you knew exactly why Lucifer left this entire time? Why didn't you tell anybody, Emperor?"
"Because if I did, you would've felt bad and put the blame on yourself. I didn't wanna see you put yourself down. And it's like you said; you were depressed during those times."
"But Lucifer was your friend as well!"
"Yes, but there was nothing I could do to help him, he was mad, believing you had feelings for me. Lucifer must grow and realize that having your heart broken is the way of life."
"Lucifer..." Angelica gazed at the ground, saddened. "I didn't know this was the reason you left." She deeply sighed, "If I ever run into him—I'll try to talk it out—we can't continue being enemies over some grudge in the past."