After practice, Sena watched Julian preparing to return home—despite her offer to have dinner together, he mentioned their plans to play the game together.
"Thank God I told him about the spare machine," Sena whispered as she watched his figure walk into the second shower room.
"Haa…"
Sena touched her chest while leaning against the closed door, panting after their long practice. Each time she felt their distance closed, Julian became like the past. Suddenly, he would look at her with a complex expression.
"Why did he look so sad?
Sssss~
She flicked the shower on hot, and the water pelted her body, mixing with the expensive body wash she bubbled between her chest. Her mind returned to their fight when Julian suddenly stopped after she hit him for the first time. He called Sena's name.
'The way he spoke made my body shudder.'
What confused her was that he suddenly called and told her about a game a week ago. After he finished speaking about it, Sena couldn't deny how much she wanted to play, a place to test her limits as a swordswoman.
Thud!
Unable to calm her anger, she punched the tiles with a bang and closed her eyes tightly as bubbles flowed from her shampoo. Sena chose the scent of honey and vanilla that Julian liked flowing down her face.
'Does he no longer have any feelings for me.'
Her hands brushed along her body, unable to forget the tingles on her skin each time he whispered her name in his deep voice. Or when Julian's hand brushed against her, causing jolts of electricity to flow through her body during their training.
'But if that's true, why would he come here?'
"I don't get it."
Sena couldn't help but shake her head, placing both hands on the cold wall—as steam and water filled the wet room, she took deep breaths. She couldn't help but remember how focused Julian was during their sparring, the faint scent of his body, and the warmth of his touch.
'I want to find out why he acted so strangely.'
That image of Julian felt strange.
She couldn't help but freeze, her chest tightening with a dull ache.
'It was the first time I ever saw him cry.'
With a look of determination, Sena clenched her fist and decided that she wouldn't accept his words from the phone call and would make him say it to her face.
"Otherwise. I won't let him escape so easily!"
PAH!
The moment she gazed at her figure on the mirror wall, a smirk came to her lips as she washed the soapy suds from her body. "I won't lose, Julian!"
Because the young lady of the Kang Group never lost something she wanted.
So, after today's training and the mixed signals, she believed in her chance to win him back.
The pair then left the showers after thirty minutes.
Sena and Julian walked into the main flat complex for women. Many of the residents looked at him with curious and worried eyes.
Because Sena didn't want others to see him in his training outfit, she made him wear a pair of spare jeans and a T-shirt she had prepared secretly for when he visited.
"Come on, I live on the top floor~ it's the best flat hehe and Maria isn't home today!"
As the heiress of the Kang group, it was impossible to let her live alone so easily, so Maria, a family friend thanks to her parents, offered to stay in the flat. Only then did Sena gain permission from her overly worrisome mother.
'I can't believe I lost control of my emotions.'
Julian's mind became conflicted during their duels, and bitter and depressing feelings overwhelmed him.
The image of Sena's death almost became a trigger, causing something inside him to reject his cold idea of pushing her away. He struggled to treat her the same because most of his past emotions vanished when he regressed ten years of solitude, dulling his nerves and mind.
"What are you standing there for? Come inside, Julian."
He suddenly lost focus and noticed her at the door, leaning forward while wearing tight shorts and a loosely fitting bunny T-shirt.
'I am not dense, though she's trying to seduce me.'
Sena's lips curled into a teasing smirk while she beamed at him with both eyes closed in crescent moon shapes. "I always wanted to bring you here~ ehehe." Without waiting for him, she skipped inside, her light body soon reaching the end of the hallway as Julian rushed after her.
"W-Wait up!"
"No way~ you should be faster."
The moment he entered, the sly fox turned back and pressed a button on the wall; with a bleep, the door slammed shut and locked before she deactivated the manual exit buttons.
"Sena?" His voice sounded a little concerned.
Normally, she wouldn't bring him upstairs, worried her mother or roommate would report it. Yet, he couldn't deny that his heart started to beat faster when she acted cheekily and played around like this.
"Hmmm?"
"The door is locked."
"Hehe~ I know, now you can't run away or escape before you satisfy me."
The pair gazed at each other before Sena's cheeks became bright pink, like a cartoon.
"A-ah! Not that way!"
"Hahaha."
Somehow, with Sena acting so confused and cute, he couldn't help but forget about the future… no matter how little time they had left in this normal world, he wanted to treasure it together.
"Don't laugh at me! Hurry and come into my room~ I will show you the custom units I bought!"
"I'm coming, don't be so impatient."
Julian walked inside, his mind clearing already.
The world and his actions had changed from the last time.
He refused to rush into the game and become focused on only power because if he did that and neglected himself and Sena.
'What would be the point of regressing again?'
Expensive art works, some childish and others from past competitions, littered the walls. Sena had paid someone to decorate the flat, or maybe it was Maria.
'Ah, that's a painting chosen by Sena, definitely.'
He noticed a picture of a kendo champion who retired five years ago, someone who trained Sena's father and grandfather in the past.
The moment he entered her room, the first thing he could sense was the scent- a warm strawberry flavour but not too strong, along with two huge black VR units. The thing that shocked him was that they were a pair unit.
A special and rather cliché item, a lover's version of the VR unit, not necessarily for 'those' kinds of games, but they could be used for that. The true usage of a pair unit was being able to log into the same place at the same time and never be separated while in a game.
'But wait, I am sure they also came with overpowered features?'
Bonus experience when paired, teleportation to each other's position, cheaper items and higher drop rates while in a group together.
However, the downside was being able to touch each other during the game, which could lead to friendly fire and collision.
"Ehehe~ are you embarrassed to enter this with me?" Sena teased him.
Julian didn't know how serious Sena was about this, because of the communal VR lounge on the first floor, but ignoring that, he wanted to call her bluff.
"Are you sure you want to?"
Julian didn't mind.
In the days when the world started to collapse, bathing became a luxury, and you would have to do it with several other people. Even if you were shy or an introvert, there wasn't any choice but to do so.
'Because those damn beasts have a good sense of smell.'
When he removed his shirt, Sena's eyes became like stars before she turned beet red and suddenly rushed out of the room with a cute cry.
"Will I be able to enter the normal game if I enter this machine with Sena?"
Though it might have seemed he had other intentions, his main goal was to enter the world and see if this unit could bring him to the normal Avalon to help his plans. Although attracted to Sena, he knew to prioritise important things.
"A-Are you really going to enter it with me?" Sena's lovely voice sounded from the door as she peeked inside.
Julian turned to face her and smiled brilliantly. "I am. Don't you want to?"
When she heard his question, Sena looked like a deer in headlights.
Oblivious to her internal strife, Julian continued to examine the unit. He removed his clothes and caused the young woman to squeak, "Kya?!" Before he climbed inside the spacious VR unit, filled with blue-coloured gel with a different texture.
At the same time, he considered upgrading his unit to this one.
"Ah, wait. I'll enter, don't start without me."