The image of Annath’s face kept me annoyed for an hour, until it was time to walk back to the warm-up pods before our next match. Soon enough on the same day, I found myself backstage once again, fifteen minutes early, waiting for Veyra and our next match.

  I scrolled the forums on my phone, passing time with memes, since I definitely didn’t want to see any discussions related to our earlier match right now. I sipped my cola.

  A notification about a personalized post forum post came. I glanced at it, reading the title.

  My drink burst out of my mouth. I fell into a coughing fit.

  Why is this here?! I thought, staring at a post I’d seemingly missed. I immediately checked how many upvotes it had, and how much visibility it had received.

  The post was thankfully not on the front page. It was buried under more important posts, such as predictions for Dragrath’s one versus one run and discussions about his build, as well as clips from the guild battle with Zenith Protocol versus Syntrix ongoing right now.

  Our post, however, still had over nine hundred thousand upvotes, having almost made it to the front page. The title read, “Assassin A kissing Veyra?” The attached image was of me kissing her on the cheek at the LAN event.

  By SnowMenAreCool, 236,573 upvotes: “These two might be my new favorites to watch right next to Dragrath. Their group stage fight against Luxueux was insane. I can’t believe they scored against Annath.”

  Reply By Appletrinity, 195,335 upvotes: “Annath was alone, though.”

  Reply By SnowMenAreCool, 181,268 upvotes: “Still more than impressive. For a debut match in Worlds, saying you killed Annath at all is insane. Fingers crossed they don’t get eliminated right away lol.”

  By Plageuersz, 97,267 upvotes: “Wait, is Veyra paralyzed?”

  Reply By SmallChungus, 21,456 upvotes: “No wonder her casting is so good. She probably lives in Wonderwind.”

  By Greenwitch, 12,589 upvotes: “<3”

  Reply By Plinko3, 28,867 upvotes: “Veyra is completely red oh my god.”

  Reply By SigureFan, 24,197 upvotes: “They’re so cute omlqwertiqwuytjkh”

  Thank gods they didn’t catch the full kiss, I thought. The image only had the cheek kiss that I gave her afterward. Veyra was indeed red in the pic, and I was red now. Just thinking about the kiss made all sorts of warm emotions rise to my head. Her face was just so soft and nice and—

  Veyra’s face emerged as she arrived backstage from the accessible entrance with her assistant. They spotted me, and Aree brought Veyra next to me. I flinched my look away.

  She must have noticed something was off. “Aiden?” she asked. “Did something happen?”

  “Oh, nothing,” I said and straightened my posture.

  She gave me a side-eye that could also be interpreted as a pout. “Your face is red.”

  “No it's not,” I said, and tried not to say anything cute. I’d promised to let her properly warm up without distracting her. Our next opponents were from the lower end of guilds we’d be fighting. It was a guild called IkeaDepot. They were good despite their ridiculous name, but not nearly as good as Luxueux, for example. We’d probably beat them even if we blundered a few times.

  Veyra kept eyeing me, wondering what was wrong.

  I couldn't stop myself. I blurted out, “Why are you so cute, Veyra?”

  “W… Huh?” she stuttered, taken aback. Her voice was suddenly higher. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Why do you look so good in real life, I don’t understand.”

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  Her face reddened alongside me. “Aiden, we have a match in ten minutes!”

  “I’ll carry this one,” I said. “You can take a break and relax if you want.”

  “You agreed you’d let me focus…”

  “Sorry, I failed. You’re too huggable. Can I give you a headpat?”

  She pouted at me. “A headpat? Really?”

  “Pretty please?”

  The pout only got worse. Worse, as in even cuter. Her eyes wandered off, then back, and she said, “Well… If it will help you focus, sure?”

  I placed my hand on her head, patting her and feeling her hair. So soft and beautiful. She must have placed a lot of care into making herself look nice. I made full use of my hug pass and moved closer, leaning my head on her shoulder.

  I said, “You smell way too good, oh my god.”

  I could feel her heartbeat increase. She breathed in and said, “Well, there goes my warm-up… Thanks.”

  “I’m pumped now,” I said. “We’ll win. I’ll lock in, just for you.”

  “Aiden…” Veyra said. “You’re stupid.”

  “You’re beautiful,” I said with a grin.

  She pouted at me.

  “And cute,” I added. “And your glasses are pretty.”

  “Aree is right behind us, you know…”

  Veyra’s assistant was looking away, her face just as red. I grinned wide. “Alright, thanks for the buff. We’ll win for sure now. I’ll carry.”

  Her pout stayed on me, until she asked, “Do you really mean that? You actually get pumped up from teasing me?”

  “Yep,” I said. “I’ll win one versus three if you’re too flustered to fight. I won’t even need Astral Defiance. And I’m not teasing you. I meant every word.”

  She faced my eyes, as if trying to decide whether I was lying or not. “Well… You’re also kinda cute… I like the hoodie.”

  I paused. “Really?”

  “Yeah, and your Shadow Dashes are decent as well,” she said. “You would look pretty hot if you won this one versus three.”

  My mouth hung open for a second. Was Veyra actually complimenting me? Oh my god.

  “Yep,” I said. “Our opponents, those fuckers, won’t stand a chance. We’ve won.”

  “Do you even know who we’re up against?” she asked with a sigh.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’ll beat anyone right now.”

  “And, uh…” She stared at me. “What if I give you a kiss? Will that also give you a strength buff?”

  “That will take us straight to the finals.”

  She kept staring at me. “Well, um… give me your cheek.”

  I paused. Wait, is she serious?

  Nervously, I leaned closer, offering her the side of my face. She wrapped her arm around me and pulled forward, her lips touching my cheek, and she gave me a little peck.

  My heart blew up while we stayed there for a short while.

  “Um, Aree?” Veyra eventually said. “Help. I’m stuck.”

  “Yes!” her assistant said, and she helped her sit straight up. “Your opponents are here, by the way.”

  I turned my head to see a group of European men in their mid twenties giving us looks. IkeaDepot’s members sat close enough that there was a chance they’d heard us—and from the frowns on their faces, they probably had.

  The match started soon after. I held Veyra’s hand for the walk-in. We loaded into the arena, quickly went over our opponents’ items, and started the match.

  IkeaDepot got fucking destroyed.

  These poor idiots didn’t stand a chance. I danced with them so hard they didn’t land a single hit. I killed their mage before he could even think of casting a single spell. They didn’t have time to cry before they were knocked out. We won two-to-zero effortlessly, eliminating them from the tournament.

  “Told you,” I said to Veyra after the match.

  She shook her head with an amused smile. “We both know that was an easy opponent.”

  “True enough,” I said with a sigh. We were in the losers’ bracket, meaning that our opponents were the ones who had gotten the short end of the stick during the group stage. Our next opponents would all be easier, at least until we had to fight whoever Annath knocked to the losers’ bracket next.

  “I’ll let you focus for the next ones,” I said.

  “I can give you one hug or headpat per match, at most,” Veyra said.

  “Well, we better win everything, then."

  For now, we won the next two brackets two-to-zero as well. Team Seraphina couldn’t deal with the [Astral Defiance] and [Shadow Dash] missile in the slightest, giving us an easy win. The harder opponent was definitely NomNom Catones, who also fell to the losers’ bracket after fighting Eon Covenant. They gave a much better fight than they had in the group stage. I needed a lot of support from Veyra, but with both of us fighting at full strength—Veyra interrupting spell cast-times and pumping damage, with me taking the fighters' attention before they could do anything to her—we defeated them.

  The crowd of NomNom Catones supporters left in disappointed silence, seeing their team already eliminated. Anna and my mom were beaming, though, trying to get my attention while jumping with their banner. I smiled and waved at them.

  “Is that your sister?” Veyra asked later backstage. “She's in the front row every match.”

  “Yep,” I said. “And she’s smart. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was studying in between matches.”

  She thought for a bit. “I wonder, would they like me if they knew we were going on a date after Worlds?”

  “My mom and my sister would like you a lot,” I said. “They’d love to meet you. I’m not sure about my dad.”

  “He’s the one who kicked you out?” Veyra asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I don’t really care about what he thinks, though. If he doesn’t like you, he’s free to have his own incorrect opinion.”

  She snorted, a vague smile on her face.

  Hold on, I thought. Why am I already talking as if she’s my girlfriend?

  Well, there was no way I’d let her go now. She was the one I wanted. I knew already. And I really hoped she felt the same way. I just needed the right moment to ask.

  We prepared for the last match of the day, which we knew would be the most difficult one after Annath: Team Sleepy Dads.

  It was Henrift and his friends.

  20 chapters ahead on !