Chapter Text
His aama knows a lot of things, but she doesn't know blue.
This was something that he was certain of. His aama taught him a lot of things, after all. She was the one who held his hand and guided him to learning how to cook his favorite dish. The one who patiently pronounced the letters she had pointed out so that he could learn to read. The one who wiped the mud off his face and always knew the best things to say to cheer him up when he's down.
But Naib knew that his aama didn't know blue. She was familiar with the concept of it, and she knew about things commonly associated with that color. She knew that the sky above their heads is a beautiful shade of blue, and that the river would usually sparkle in a pretty shade of aqua in the early mornings. She knew that her son’s eyes were of the same shade, too, and that these were exceptionally bright when the sweet boy was interacting with his family.
Little Naib, young and naive that he used to be, had tugged at her hand and inquired curiously about her situation.
“How come aama can't see blue?”
There was no malice in his tone, nor was there any trace of condescension. In fact, perhaps it would be most apt to call the question one borne from worry and curiosity.
Back then, his aama laughed softly, a gentle sound that was similar to the tinkling of bells. Although she had always given him her time whenever he asked, he was still more than happy to bask in the attention that was solely given to him for that night.
There was a hand on top of his head. His aama's fingers carded through his hair, stroking and putting her young son at ease.
“Should I tell you a secret?”
He looked up at her, eyes wide in surprise.
“A secret?”
“In the past, your aama had seen what blue looked like.”
“Really?” He asked, his mouth opening slightly.
Let it be said that he was interested in the conversation. Naib stared at his mother intently, as if he wanted to burn the words she was saying into his mind, to remember what he could now tell was a new lesson that she wanted to tell him.
“That's right. Once upon a time, I was able to see blue.”
There is a story that she told him. In the past, people could see the world in vibrancy, from every little hue and saturation, everything and anything. And so, it has been easy to find love and comfort in every little thing.
“The gods love us lots and lots, you see,” was what was whispered to his ear in the silence of the moonlight. “The world is beautiful, and it is even more so when we find comfort in each other. So the Weaver of Fates casted a blessing.”
“A blessing?”
There was a chuckling sound.
“That’s right. They want us to one day find the person that fits perfectly with us and to find happiness. That’s called Chhāya Dristi.”
Naib repeats the last two words, wonder in his tone. But then he frowned after a while, his eyebrows scrunching together as he thought about it.
“But aama , that doesn’t sound like a good thing at all!”
“You don’t think so?”
She hugged him that night, as if holding in her hands something precious that she couldn’t bear to lose grasp of. And she told it to him—the words that he would undoubtedly remember for a long, long time.
"Your world is a painting missing one brushstroke. When the color comes, your heart will know."
It wasn’t that his mother could not see the color blue. She had not lied when she said she used to know what it looks like, but she hadn’t always known it either.
His aama’s blue came when she had found the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. However, he had taken it away with him when he inevitably passed, leaving her canvas an unfinished portrait of something that she could never see again anymore.
“It’s a secret.”
There is something that everyone is obsessed with, and that is the concept of soulmates.
It was something that appeared so many years ago with no explanation nor warning. In the beginning, it was believed that the inability to see a certain color was a new case of color blindness. But after a few more instances of people ‘diagnosed’ with the new variant reported having finally seen their special color after meeting certain people, it became clearer what had been going on.
In a few more years’ time, the majority of the people had someone to call their soulmate. It was only a matter of managing to find them somehow.
Literature, music, games and even films have been made centered with this idea. For children who have been hearing about the reason for why they can’t see specific colors, it would be their dream to one day find the person who will one day give them the color that they were lacking.
But for Naib, the reality wasn’t quite as rose-tinted as it was portrayed to be.
There are several reasons for this. One reason was that he, himself, doesn’t seem to have his own soulmate. When he was younger, his classmates had been discussing colors that they couldn't see. Although he has always been a quiet child, this was a topic that anyone could easily get into. So he found himself being dragged along to the discussion.
There was none. There wasn’t any color that Naib couldn’t see.
They had a set of colors on a paper, and his classmates would point at each one to see what each of them couldn’t see. But Naib had squinted at every single one and realized that each of them was as vibrant as the last.
Naib had no soulmate.
This was something that his friends and classmates used to pity him for, but seeing as he didn’t seem to care much about it, they eventually chose to forget about it. It wasn’t that significant for him anyway, and he wasn’t the only one who had none. The case was rare at this point in time, but there are still people who can clearly see the world as it has always been.
The second reason…well, that was something that wasn’t as easy as the first. He knew that soulmates weren’t quite as beautiful as it was constantly said to be.
He’d already known this when he was a child. His mother, who cannot see blue, which had been the color of his late father’s eyes, had always had a touch of sadness in her every movement. She would look at him and see his eyes and smile, but it was always tinged with sadness. She could stare up at the morning sky and let out a tired sigh before lowering her gaze again.
Having a soulmate may have been happiness for others. But eventually, it will be a source of grief. In every waking moment, the lack of the color that once filled one’s world will serve as nothing but a persistent reminder of the space that was left empty next to them.
His realization of this was further solidified as he grew up. His neighborhood wasn’t the nicest. He had seen soulmates argue and hurt each other, had seen them use their bond as an excuse to keep another firmly tied to them even when nothing was clearly going right anymore. It wasn’t as beautiful as it was always portrayed to be.
Of course, his last reasoning was that there are other things to think about rather than soulmates and bonds with other people.
Most specifically, Naib had been spending most of his time practicing the game that he decided to go professional on. Even when there weren’t official training sessions with his team, he would still find himself sitting down on the sofa of his team’s shared apartment, face buried on the screen of his phone as his fingers busily played the game.
That particular day, Lily, one of his teammates and friend, pulled along her gaming chair so that she could watch him play, spinning around her seat whenever she was getting a little bored.
“You know, captain, you should definitely come out once in a while.”
There was the sound of a siren in the game, an indication that it was already the late game and the gates could finally be opened. Naib only hummed to indicate that he could hear her, but didn’t look away from the screen.
Lily shook her head at him and looked up to the clock.
“It’s not even time for rank yet, you’re locking in too much,” she mumbled, fighting back the urge to poke at him. She was saying this, but she also didn’t want to break his focus too much. “Come on, cap, lighten up a little!”
“Are you asking for the team to go out together?” Naib asked her.
Lily was a very outgoing person. However, there are times when she wasn’t very straightforward. She would first try to drop hints of what she wanted and would only give up and tell the truth when nothing was working.
The girl lit up as soon as he asked the question.
“As expected, the captain knows what I’m saying immediately!” She sat up and clapped her hands. But almost immediately after, Lily seemed to deflate a little. “It’s easy to convince you and Shiyi to come, but it would probably be impossible to drag Luca along with us…”
“Huh?” the team captain paused, finally looking up at her. A quick glance on his screen would show that the two of the survivors successfully managed to escape through the exit gate. “Why?”
Lily gasped, almost a little too dramatically. “It can’t be—Captain, do you not know yet?”
He was used to her act, so he was calm when he asked, “What happened?”
“Lately, I think…I think Luca finally found his soulmate!”
That…was not something that he expected.
Naib blinked in surprise at the news. He sets his phone down to properly look at his friend, who seemed eager to tell him all about what she found out.
“His soulmate?” he echoed to make sure he heard right.
“That’s right! You know, just a few days ago, I asked him what I should wear. I forgot he couldn’t see purple, so I almost took back one of the options I made him choose between. But then! Get this, captain!”
“What is it?” He entertained her enthusiasm.
“He stared for a long time at my purple jacket! Like, he really stared for a while, like he’s in a daze! And then he said I should probably go with that one!”
In a daze, huh? If he really finally met his soulmate, then it was possible that he was just getting used to finally being able to see purple, which was a color that he used to not be able to see longer than they’d known each other.
“And then I asked him how he could tell it was a good color for me when he can’t even see it properly, and he—I’m telling you he really looked so out of it! But he told me he could see it! He sees purple now!”
There was the sound of footsteps from the staircase. Since he was facing that direction, Naib could see Qi Shiyi’s figure slowly coming down from upstairs, dressed like she was about to go outside for a run. The other girl glanced curiously in their direction when she heard Lily’s energetic storytelling, and some sort of understanding crossed over her eyes when she put together pieces of what was being said.
“Is that so?” he said, if only to calm down the girl that was getting fired up over what she was saying. Then, he redirected his attention to Qi Shiyi. “Good morning.”
“Good morning, captain,” the other person replied easily. “Working hard again so early in the morning, I see.”
“It’s just a casual game.”
He picked up his phone again to quit out of the post-match menu. However, he didn’t start a new match just yet.
“Since you said so.” The tall girl walked across the apartment, from one side to another to put on her running shoes. “Also, if you’re doubting Lily’s story, it was the truth, I guess.”
“Really?”
“Huh? I’m not making it up!” Lily defended herself immediately when she heard what her captain had to say.
“I know,” Naib told her. “But there are times when you come to the wrong conclusion. It’s good that you’re right this time, though.”
“I—” She had nothing to answer his words with.
Qi Shiyi glanced at the ceiling as she was recalling a memory. “I remember when we went home together last week. When we met up, I saw that he was with a girl. Hah. It was surprising to find that guy, who seemed to be more interested in games and his experiments—”
“And his hamster,” Lily added.
“....And his hamster. Yes, that kind of guy was talking to someone about something unrelated to game strategies for more than fifteen minutes.”
Naib felt a little funny hearing this. “Could it be that he was just being sociable lately?”
The two girls gave him a look that was similar to each other. It seems they weren’t amused by his words.
“Captain,” Qi Shiyi said, her tone more serious this time. “Please don’t doubt a woman’s intuition.”
Lily could be seen nodding along to her word. Naib had nothing to say to this, because he wasn’t a girl himself. If this was something they were insistent on, then he should just let them run along with this idea until it is confirmed or denied if Luca really did meet his soulmate, and if it was that girl. The former was definitely likely, considering that he could see his color now. As for the latter, there are too many people to choose from, so it might not specifically be that person.
Still, he was a little curious.
“Do you know who the girl was?” he asked.
Qi Shiyi was about to say her “see you before lunch” line, but had to stop when she heard the question. The corners of her lips twitched slightly in amusement.
“In fact, it was someone familiar.”
“Oh?”
“That girl from BLK—what’s her name? Tracy, I think.”
If Naib had been drinking something, he thinks he might’ve spat it out.
“BLK Tracy? That Tracy?” he asked in disbelief.
“Oh! So it’s her!” Lily nodded thoughtfully. “I guess I could see. But Tracy seems like a pretty quiet girl, our Luca would have to do some work for this. Ah, but why did you react like that, captain? Is it a bad thing?”
“No, no…It’s not like that.”
“The captain is friends with her teammate.” Qi Shiyi knew a little more than the others about the team captain because she heard people talking about it in the academy in the past. “They still hang out once a week.”
“So that’s why you’re out every Saturday!”
Yes, Naib was rather close with a BLK member, who happened to be Eli. Because of this, he had talked a handful of times with Tracy and knew her well enough. He had a soft spot for her ever since he found out that she couldn’t see blue, the same color that his mother was also lacking in the past.
“...I should ask Eli if she could see her color now as well…”
That would all be but a verbal confirmation.
He mumbled those words, but Lily was close enough to hear it. A grin crept up her face to show that she approved of the plan.
Qi Shiyi left soon after that, and she would surely be back as she said, an hour and a half before lunch. This is because she enjoys cooking the meals for the team. During her run, she would most likely stop by a grocery store as well to buy the ingredients for whatever it was that she will be cooking for the day.
“Oh, I forgot to ask Shiyi if she wanted to hang out too…” Lily looked a little disappointed when she remembered what they were talking about a little too late.
Naib glanced her way for about five seconds before saying, “It’s fine. Just ask her later when she comes back.”
“You’re right, captain.”
She gets distracted easily, especially with topics that she wants to talk about. Hopefully, Lily would remember to talk about it with the other girl later.
He turns his attention back up the stairs, where two of their teammates still haven't come down yet. He knew that one of them won’t be down unless he had something to do. As for the other person…
Naib exited out of Identity V and stood up.
“Oh? You’re done playing already, captain?” Lily asked, watching him go.
“Yes. I should probably talk to Luca himself.”
“That’s—”
She almost fell off her chair. “Ah, captain! You’re going to ask him straightforwardly? How brave! You’re really amazing! As expected of the team captain, Naib!”
He sighed in exasperation at her words, before going up the stairs. He passed by a few rooms, one being his own, before his feet came to a stop just in front of the one a door away from the end of the hallway.
His hand came up, and he knocked.
Thankfully, there wasn’t much of a wait for him. From the other side came a faint, “come in”, so he didn’t hesitate much anymore.
Naib opened the door and leaned by the doorway, an expression of amusement briefly flashing by his face. Inside, he could see Luca just sprawled over his bed, showing no intention of sitting up even with the team captain standing by his doorway.
“You look like you have a lot of problems,” he muses. For him, this, in a way, confirms that something really was different about Luca Balsa. After all, this guy is always in high-spirits on a normal day.
Said boy groans and rolls over, burying his face in a pillow.
“Captain, did they tell you?”
“Of course they did.”
“Right…”
“Congratulations. You can see purple now.”
“...Yeah.”
He really looks like he was crushed between the skies and the earth. Seeing the person who was always a little eccentric and loud like this was a little amusing to watch.
“Why are you acting so down when you finally met your soulmate?”
“...”
Luca peeked at him from the pillow. Impressive, he truly looks like he’s got a thousand problems that he was dealing with.
“I don’t know how to deal with it.”
Luca’s father hadn’t married his soulmate. In fact, he didn’t know how his parents got together even when they weren’t destined for each other. Therefore, as the child who was stuck between them, he was unsure of how to act when dealing with someone that was supposed to be the “other half” of their soul.
The reason why he was comfortable enough to tell Naib this was because he knew that the captain had no soulmate, and would therefore probably understand him to some extent. Which he did.
“Just don’t rush it, then.”
“...What?”
“Aren’t you a genius? Just think about it for a while until you get an answer.”
Even if he wanted to laugh at the hopeless situation that his teammate and friend got himself into, he was still their team captain. He was someone who finds himself helping them out and looking after them, especially when they’re troubled.
“Until I get an answer…” Luca mumbled to himself. After a brief pause, his eyes seemed to have lit up his fire of determination again. He suddenly sat up and smiled at the other person. “You’re right, captain. As I thought, you’ve calculated just a little faster than I have this time!”
Naib held himself back from sighing. There it was, the confident academic who always spoke his mind whenever he found there was a need to.
Yes, this little family of theirs was a little strange, but he finds himself not minding.
“But there’s something I’m curious about.”
Naib tilted his head at the other man and pushed himself away from the door. Luca looked thoughtful as he observed the older person in front of him. “What?
“Aren’t you a little lonely, captain?”
“...What?”
“I don’t mean it in a bad way, of course,” Luca made sure to clear up before continuing. “And I know you said you don’t care much about the soulmate situation. I’m just a little curious, was there ever a time you wished you had one?”
A sudden silence descended upon the room.
Naib stood there for a while, scrutinizing the other person’s face and expression. He wondered if this was a sort of test, relevant to whatever kind of answer the young genius was looking for when it came to figuring out how to deal with having a soulmate. However, he was unable to find anything unusual.
“You already knew I didn’t think about that, so why did you still ask?”
Luca had a meaningful look in his eyes. He looked like there was something in his mind, but he didn’t say this out loud.
At that moment, there was the sound of a notification ping that cut through the tension of the room. Both of their attentions turned towards the nightstand, where Luca’s lit phone was resting. Without much haste, he picked up the device to look through the new message that was sent to him.
Naib debated whether to go. But at that moment, he heard a groan.
“You’re kidding.”
Raising an eyebrow, the team captain asked, “What happened?”
“An annoying guy is asking me to meet up with him,” Luca grumbled.
Annoying guy?
“Oh, it was someone I met.from the academy I was supposed to go to. I call him annoying because he has these moments when he makes me go around without warning.”
“...I see.”
“But seriously, this time, it’s annoying! It’s too far! I don’t know how to get there!”
Naib didn’t understand something. “Can’t you just not go?”
Luca stared blankly at him. “That’s—I guess that’s true as well.”
The captain crossed his arm. Why is this guy complaining when the solution is so simple?
“Then don’t go.”
“...Well.”
A few days later, Luca still went out to wherever it was that person he was meeting up with wanted to go to. He said that it was necessary because the poor guy wanted to ask something about whatever it was that he was studying, and Luca said that he could not miss the chance to help someone with his genius.
Naib honestly thinks he just got flattered so much that he ended up agreeing in the end. Luca may be smart, but he is someone who enjoys showing off once in a while, whether it was in gaming or in his other talents.
Still, it was pretty far from their shared apartment, so the young genius ended up asking Naib if he could accompany him on the way. Because Naib was someone who easily gives in to his teammates, he ended up agreeing. It was the reason why he was walking around inside a park, looking for a certain someone.
Luca was busy staring at his phone, trying to locate his friend that they were supposed to be meeting. Naib made sure to cover his face even more when he saw the number of people that were wandering around nearby. He tugged his cap lower down his face and made sure his face mask was properly pulled up.
“Captain, you’re acting really suspicious right now,” Luca chirped just next to him, snickering slightly. He didn’t give a response to the unprompted comment. “Oh, there he is.”
The younger man hurried off as soon as he said that. He only looked back once and urged the other person that was with him to hurry along. Naib shook his head and fastened his pace.
They stopped in front of one of the benches where one person was sitting. When he saw the two figures approaching him quickly, he stood up from his seat and greeted the familiar Luca who had been waving even before he was done walking.
“Hey there, Campbell.”
“Balsa. Good to see you here.”
While the two were exchanging pleasantries, Naib was still busy observing his surroundings. He hasn’t been around this area because, apart from it being far from the apartment, he would always stay at home to hone his skills in his game. This was the reason why Lily would usually tell him to touch grass every once in a while.
Should I tell Lily I did as she keeps on insisting? He thought to himself, his lips quirking upward by a millimeter.
Because Luca finally found who he was looking for, Naib had planned to disappear for a while to look around while the two talked. After all, this was something that he has nothing to say about, academics not really being his specialty. He had already located an ice cream truck just a short walk from here and was intending to buy some for eat while he was walking around.
With the intention to follow up on the plan, he looked towards the two people who were finally done with their greetings.
“Luca, send a text when you’re done. I will come look for you here if you do.”
“Oh. Alright, captain.”
Said person easily agreed with his words, waving a hand again as a non-verbal way to tell him ‘see you later’. Naib also decided to excuse himself from the person that Luca was with. He raised his head to meet the other person’s gaze, which he had been feeling was burning into his flesh with curiosity for a while now.
“Then…”
He paused.
Ah?
Naib blinked once, a little confused. Then, he blinked for the second time to make sure that his eyes were functioning properly.
Something is strange.
It wasn't obvious at first. But looking at the man in front of him, there was something that he had never seen before. It wasn't the burn marks that marred one half of his face, nor the piercings that were on his nose. But rather…
His hair and eyes. It was a color that Naib has never seen before.
It was similar to black, but for some reason, it was darker than how it was supposed to be. It was the first time that he had seen such a color that it stunned him quiet for some time. Because of this, he failed to observe the miniscule change in expression from the person that was standing in front of him.
There was the sound of a throat clearing.
“Ehem.” Naib sees a hand held out in front of him. “Norton Campbell. What about you?”
He shook the shock out of his system and took the hand that was waiting for a handshake. “Naib Subedar.”
Just two steps away, Luca looked at him carefully, as if he was trying to figure out something. His eyes slowly moved towards Norton Campbell. His mind was coming up with various assumptions and hypotheses for the strange interaction that the two had just had. However, nothing made sense to him.
“Is something wrong?” He decided to ask instead. Since he was the person who asked the team captain to come with him, he thought he should take some responsibility if something had gone wrong. Even if he seems like a carefree person who just goes along wherever he wants to, he was actually pretty conscious of himself and those around him.
Naib was the first person to break away from the handshake.
“Nothing,” he says. “Then, nice to meet you, Campbell. I will be going first.”
“...Likewise.”
Naib turns around to leave without much fanfare. That's always been his style. There was no reason for him to linger around too much anyway.
Walking around the park was strange. He felt like he hasn't had nothing to do for quite some time now. Before today, the only reason that he would come out of the apartment was for when it was his turn to do grocery shopping, when he wanted to buy some snacks to eat while he was playing, or when there was a game with a specific venue that they had to play in.
Of course, there's also times when Lily would try to drag the team outside with her to hang out, but it was different from now. There was someone to direct where they were going. In contrast to that, Naib seemed to just be walking around with no particular direction in mind.
There was definitely something strange, though.
Looking around, he could see the same strange thing that he had seen when he first met that person, Norton Campbell.
Every dark-haired person’s hair seemed to have gotten darker than what he was used to. None of them reacted much to this fact, as if there was nothing strange happening and that everything is completely normal.
There was a strange feeling at the pit of his stomach. An itch that was telling him what was wrong.
However, there was no way, right?
Shaking his head, Naib continued on to his initial goal: to look for an ice cream to eat while waiting.
Norton Campbell was interested in him, he knew that this was a fact.
When he'd come to pick Luca up from his little discussion, that man had paid too much attention to him, even for a simple farewell. His eyes barely left Naib’s direction, and the way he stared had been one of lingering interest, one that made his eyes glimmer curiously. One that made goosebumps rise from the other man's arms.
“Would I see you again?” Asked the other person, but the attention was too uncomfortable for him that he avoided a proper answer to the question.
“Maybe.”
There was a number written on a piece of paper inside his pocket when he left. That guy made sure to give it to him, making him accept it no matter how quickly he tries to leave.
Of course, Luca was able to catch on to this quickly. His mouth opened and closed for a while in surprise, before shutting close to a small, amused grin. He did not miss the ‘Oh?’ that left the younger man's mouth at all.
He was interrogated as soon as they were alone.
“Are you going to text the number Campbell gave you?” Luca poked at him, trying to get answers. “I think you should give it a shot, you know, cap?”
He shot a look towards his friend, who was looking greatly entertained about the turn of events.
Was Luca happy because he gets to witness someone else going through similar problems that he had to go through for the past few days? It was very likely.
“No.”
“Why not? He's a quiet guy like you, captain. I think you might even hit it off if you talk to each other!”
“Not interested.”
“Not—Aw, you're no fun at all,” Luca pretended to sigh in disappointment. “Lily would say the same if she was here.”
But she was not, so the comment was brushed off without much thought.
Unfortunately for him, Luca Balsa was anything if not persistent. He did not let go of the matter even when they were already halfway back to their shared apartment. It came to the point when Naib thinks that the two girls that live under the same room as them would surely know about what would happen, with how loudly and insistently Luca was talking about it.
“He's pretty popular, you know?” Luca was listing off for him. “I heard that when he was younger, he was a good baseball player but had to stop because of some illness or something. You like sports, right? That's one more thing that could be added into the list of stuff you two could talk about! It's a common interest!”
The issue was that Naib himself wasn't interested. He gave a pointed look at the other person.
“Aish, don't be like that! Okay, let me continue. He doesn't seem like a very clingy person, or at least that's what everyone else says about him. Which means that even if you're busy playing games all day and night like you usually do,” —It's the truth, but he made sure to send a glare to the chatty young man— “There won't be much issue at all! He won't care about that kind of thing too much, and might even work around your schedule.”
“Why don't you date him?” Naib shot back, a little tired of the exchange.
“I would, but alas! He's not interested in me. And…”
And I've got a soulmate now.
The unspoken part didn't have to be said out loud to be understood. Naib sent him a look. Luca cleared his throat after the short silence.
“And lastly, I bring you the most important point!”
Naib hesitated, debating whether he should entertain this guy’s ramblings. But then again, if he didn't, it would be building up until their next conversation, and it would definitely be double the amount of headache by then.
“And that is?”
“He doesn't have a soulmate either.”
“What?”
Naib’s steps faltered slightly. Seeing that reaction, Luca grinned at him triumphantly. He was no doubt thinking that he was finally successful in catching the interest of his indifferent captain.
“Everyone who knew him was aware that he doesn't have a soulmate, actually. It's been that way for a long time. I'm pretty sure there's a large number of people who were secretly disappointed that he wasn't their other half.”
No soulmate, huh? What a funny thing to say.
“Balsa.”
Luca immediately straightened up and smiled innocently. He knew that tone too well, realizing he might've pushed too much.
“Yes, captain?”
“I'm going to have to make you play hunter rank for five games in a row tonight. It's perfect training for self-restraint.”
“What—No! Captain!”
“You can only join the training after you're done with the matches.”
“Captain!”
He ignored the attempts to get him to change his mind, leaving his complaining friend to lag behind him.
Naib wasn’t a fool.
When he was younger but old enough to understand, he had spent his nights eagerly thinking about the possibilities, about multiple instances of how he would meet his soulmate. Someone who would know him even when he didn’t say anything, whom he could find comfort in when things are tiring…When he was told that he was someone who does not have a half waiting for him somewhere and looking for him—
Well, who wouldn’t be sad to know that?
But it was alright, because he knew how to accept it. Even when he’d seen the sadness in his mother’s eyes, who hoped that he could find someone who would love him as easily as breathing, even when the people around him would be talking so brightly about things they want when they finally meet their other half…It was fine.
He had long accepted that he doesn’t have his.
So then, why am I suddenly seeing a color I’ve never seen before?
It was so subtle that he wouldn’t have noticed what was missing had today not happened. Because it wasn’t something that was loud or colorful, not anything that most people would think about. It was so discreet that even the children who had multiple colors on paper printed out forgot to add the color as well.
Black. The color he had been missing was black.
To him, black has always been a dark, muted gray. Not anything that was so void of anything that it threatens to swallow him whole. Oppressive, but at the same time, quiet.
It wasn’t that I had no soulmate, it was just that my missing color was like that, he mused, feeling some form of pity for himself.
He knows that Norton Campbell knew as well. Maybe, like Naib, he didn't know that he had one because it was an inconspicuous color, which was why he said he didn't have a soulmate as well. Nevertheless, he was someone who had suddenly shown unsettling interest towards the person that he met for the first time today.
When Naib was finally surrounded by the secure four walls of his room and sitting on top of the comfortable sheets on his bed, he wondered to himself a short question that he had been thinking about for some time now.
“I wonder what my color was for him.”
In the end, the piece of paper in his pocket remained unread and unused.
He originally thought Luca had gone ahead and blabbed about the situation to the others. He'd forgotten about the encounter until a week later, when he'd just been minding his own business eating dinner, when Lily finally burst out with the question she'd been wanting to ask for a few days now.
“So, captain…do you have something going on with this… Norton guy?”
Naib, who was stuffing himself full with dinner, almost choked in the middle of chewing. He had to quickly swallow and drink an entire glass of water to avert the crisis.
Still coughing slightly, his eyes raised to meet his teammate’s sparkling eyes.
“What?”
He turned his attention to Luca for the briefest moment, suspecting that it was him who told the others. However, he looked just as surprised as Naib at the fact that, other than them, she also knew.
Qi Shiyi turned her head to the side and covered her mouth to stop herself from smiling too obviously. Joker, who had no idea of what had been going on until it was brought up, almost dropped the fork that he had in his hand.
“The captain is dating someone?”
“No!” A rare moment of him losing his cool happened on the dining table. He quickly calmed himself and cleared his throat, frowning at Lily who was unconvinced with his answer. “I mean, what are you talking about?”
“You're not…You didn't answer him yet?”
“What? Answer what?”
“Isn't he interested in you?”
What the …Naib ended up pinching the spot just between his eyebrows, feeling like he had aged by a few years. “First of all, how did you find out about that?”
“So it's true?”
“No. We only talked once, that was it.”
“Oh,” Lily looked a bit disappointed that there was nothing more happening. “That person has been lingering around lately asking about you.”
“Lingering around?” Naib repeated incredulously. By that, does she mean like a weird stalker? How annoying. It was already difficult to not be stalked since they are a pro esports team, most especially for Naib who had been in two generations of OPH. Now this guy was doing this?
“He must’ve thought he could do whatever he wanted just because he knew Balsa…”
Hearing the captain use his surname rather than his first made him flinch slightly. Luca, in his mind, was yelling at Norton Campbell.
What do you think you’re doing, pulling this kind of thing? Even if you’re interested in the captain, that was no way to approach him! Especially when it comes to someone like Naib Subedar!
“No, that’s not it,” Qi Shiyi resumed eating her meal while also talking about the context of the situation. It seems she was the one who decided to clear up the bad choice of words. “From what I heard, he was acquainted with Aesop Carl from BLK as well. Since he’s on the same team as Eli Clark, he probably asked about us. That’s how he managed to ask us about you. Balsa already knew him, so he must’ve also been bothered about it every day.”
No one asked how she managed to acquire this information. Somehow, Qi Shiyi picks up these sorts of things from people she had been classmates with when she was in OPH Academy. Although not everyone managed to get into the team, she still ended up keeping in touch after making up with them.
“That’s right, it was Eli Clark that introduced us to him,” Lily supported. “Shiyi and I were at a cafe when we ran into those two. That’s how we met.”
Naib felt a little dizzy at the information that was being sent to him. “Eli did…?” he mumbled to himself, feeling a little annoyed and confused at the thought that his friend easily introduced his team to that guy whom he doesn’t even know well.
But then again, Eli has always done things without warning anyway, and most of his actions ended up turning out well…
“That’s right, a good deduction,” Luca nodded at the girls, but he looked like he had lost some sleep over the past few days. “I already thought he was annoying, but this is a different level than usual.”
“But I’m curious.” Qi Shiyi peered at him with an odd expression. “What did you do for someone to be attracted to you?”
There was the sound of someone gasping.
“Captain is plenty attractive! He is, if only he’s not curled up on the couch every day playing Identity V!”
“Yeah, if he goes outside once in a while, he might really pull people.”
“That’s right!”
Joker sighed and shook his head, deciding to just lay off the conversation and to keep eating. This kind of matter isn’t really something he’s very good at. Seeing this, Naib felt a kindred spirit in the way he looked like he was a little worn out.
Naturally, he made sure to contact Eli Clark shortly after finishing his meal. He knew that it was already late and the other person might be busy having his own dinner, or maybe he was preparing to go to bed. Still, he sent a text message, knowing that it would still be seen sooner or later.
As expected, Eli answered the morning after. He seemed a little amused by how his phone was spammed in the middle of the night, demanding an explanation about what he was losing his head over with.
He replied with a simple text.
Hah…what’s he talking about now?
Finding no energy to go out for the day, Naib lowered his phone and laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling. From an outsider’s perspective, it might be a funny mirror to Luca several days ago when he had walked inside the other man’s room.
Give it a try? Why?
He wasn’t quite sure if Eli was aware of the fact that the two of them had a high likelihood of being soulmates, but just the idea didn’t really make him feel eager to contact Norton Campbell at all. As someone who had already made peace with the fact that he doesn’t have a pair, it was a little uncomfortable.
He tossed the paper away into the farthest corner of his drawer the day after he had gone out with Luca. He had no plans on inputting the series of numbers into his phone and sending a text first, absolutely none.
Or at least, he said so.
A friendly match with BLK gets organized by Friday, the day before the weekly meetup that he had with Eli. He gets to see the accomplice to the perpetrator, who unfortunately also happened to be his friend.
OPH won the first match, but BLK won the next. Not really eager for a third round, the two teams decided to call it a day, deciding that the match ends with a draw. Anyway, they didn’t have a fiercely competitive relationship with each other, so winning didn’t matter too much.
Naib pushes himself away from the table where he had been hunched over, massaging just around his eyes to get rid of the mild fatigue from staring for a while at his screen. He hears someone on his left, probably Luca, stand up from where he was and move to the direction of the opposing team.
Hm. Is he going to talk to Tracy?
He could see Lily and Qi Shiyi carefully watching their teammate’s actions as he walked over to have a friendly conversation with the decoder of the other team. Naib shook his head at the invested expressions that they wore on their faces. Taking another quick look, he noticed that Joker was already engaged in a conversation with BLK’s hunter. They must’ve been familiar with each other, considering the fact that this was the team that Joker was contracted with before he moved to their team.
When he looked forward, he caught the gaze of his friend, who had just come up to talk with him.
“Hello, Naib,” Eli Clark greets him, looking at him through the glasses that rested on his nose bridge.
He squints his eyes and frowns. “It’s you.”
“Are you, by chance, angry?”
“Don’t bullshit me, you know what this is about,” he grumbled, moving his eyes downward as his frown deepens.
“Did Norton say or do anything to cause this displeasure?”
He held back a scoff.
“He asked about my teammates and me. You gave him information about us.”
“He’s a friend, it’s not too bad, right? I like introducing my friends to my other friends.”
“Quit acting innocent.”
Eli says all these things, but Naib knew that there was something else there, which was why his friend had been more than happy to get Norton Campbell to meet most of the people in his team. He wasn’t really in the mood to go along with this matchmaking game that this person was playing, though.
He sees the BLK player tilt his head, the gesture similar to what his owl usually does. “Although you’re an introverted person, you’ve never really been so against meeting other people. Is there something wrong, Naib?”
He opened his mouth, but ended up closing it quickly again.
Because he’d known Eli for quite some time now, of course this friend of his would also believe that he didn’t have a soulmate. Therefore, it would be awkward to suddenly blurt out that he thinks he finally found the other half that he didn’t even realize he had. And, from what Luca told him, Norton Campbell has also told everyone that he wasn’t bound with anyone.
“I…” he struggled to come up with a reason. “I just don’t like it when people stick their noses into what’s not their business.”
Eli nods, understanding where he was coming from.
“I understand, Naib. If you would really hate it, I could kindly ask him to back off. Although it might be a little disappointing for him.”
“...Okay,” he sighs in relief. “Thank you, Eli.”
They talked about other things after that, deciding on where to go tomorrow for their usual hangout instead of talking over the phone. There was only a short time to spend before the members of OPH had to leave and return to their shared apartment. He bid farewell to the other team’s members, noticing that Luca seemed a little happier on the way back.
He must’ve made a little progress, then.
Back in his room, he thought about how Eli looked a little sad to hear that Naib really didn’t want anything to do with Norton Campbell. This made him think for a bit.
From what Qi Shiyi told him, it was originally Aesop Carl who knew that person most and was only recently introduced to Eli. Then, there must be something about that person that made him likeable enough for the smart Eli to approve of.
“Ugh.”
He glances towards the firmly shut drawers, where he had left the note that contained a certain person's contact information.
This is a terrible idea.
Even so, Naib ended up standing up and fishing the paper from the farthest corner where he had hidden it. The series of numbers stared back at him almost innocently.
He saved the number on his phone. However, just as he was typing a greeting, he ended up hesitating and stopping from what he was doing.
This…should he really initiate contact?
Since Norton Campbell did not have his number, it was impossible for the other person to reach out to him first. That means that giving him this ultimately gives him the power to decide whether or not he wanted to form a connection between them.
He can’t shake the feeling that this was something irrevocable, should he finally decide to send the text.
“It’s late,” Naib muttered to himself, deciding to leave the message as a draft. “I should sleep on this and decide tomorrow.”
The morning before he was supposed to meet up with Eli, Naib ended up visiting his mother for the first time in a while.
It wasn’t that he didn't want to visit her. It was just that he hasn’t got much time to do so ever since the new OPH assembled together. There were so many things to deal with and he had to help everyone adjust to the new team that they had joined from that moment onwards.
His legs brought him to where he had to go, passing by numerous other gravestones without glancing at it. The motions and steps were almost muscle memory to him by this point. In his hands, he held a bouquet of flowers that he had bought prior to coming.
The familiar gravestone was something that remained unchanged over the years. He knelt down and laid the flowers before her image, before quietly brushing away some dust and dirt that had accumulated during the time that he hadn’t come by. When the place was sparkling clean again, he took a step back and sat down in front of her gravestone.
“Hi, aama,” he said lightly, eyes staring unmoving at the picture of his mother. “It’s been a while, sorry that I can’t come until now.”
It was easy to talk to her like this. Her image captured her in just a little past her youth, just like how she looked in Naib’s memories. There was a beautiful smile on her face that he could easily match with the woman in his past.
“A lot of things happened,” he continues. “I told you about everyone in my team quitting after that COA tournament, right? But…it’s okay now. There’s other people in the team now. I’m sure you’d have loved to meet them.”
He idly talks about everyone new in his team—Lily, who was a popular streamer who had aversion with close relationships that she had hidden well before joining the team. Qi Shiyi, who was a graduate from OPH Academy. Joker, who approached him confidently despite the loss that he had faced during COA VI to ask to join the team. And lastly, Luca with his weird and eccentric, but lively genius.
He could imagine that she would’ve also been invested to know about how Luca finally met his soulmate. She always loved to hear those kinds of stories.
When he had finally ran out of stories to tell her, Naib fell silent for a while, eyes locked on the flowers that he bought for her.
In the end, he decided to tell her.
“ Aama, I’m not sure what I should do right now.”
It was quiet.
No one responded to his call for help. Still, he hadn’t expected much anyway, so he just kept on talking with his eyes downcast.
“We were wrong, I guess. I have…I have a soulmate after all. I think you’d be really ecstatic about this. I just—I guess we thought I didn’t have one because the color I was missing back then was black. I guess I got used to how I had always seen it and assumed what I was seeing was really black.”
Everyone was more focused on vibrant colors anyway. Who’d have thought his was that? The sight of the people in the park that day gave him a dreadful feeling. However, coming back to the apartment and seeing a different shade for Qi Shiyi’s locks confirmed what he was trying to reject at first.
“I don’t know, though,” Naib admits, his voice small and quiet. “I don’t know if I should go along with this thing. After all, I had already accepted that I won’t have anyone like that.”
His mother never judged him, so he had no troubles spilling to him the problems that lingered around his mind.
Naib was unsure. While having a soulmate was supposed to be a grand thing, a blessing for people who had finally met their other half, it was nothing but a heavy burden for somebody like him.
He was reluctant, and he can’t even figure out why.
They want us to one day find the person that fits perfectly with us and to find happiness.
Or maybe he did, he just refused to acknowledge it. Because for him, having a soulmate was something that wasn’t synonymous with happiness. His mother, who had lost hers too early into her life, the people in their neighborhood when he was younger, those who had wasted opportunities in their life for their so-called other half…
A sigh left his mouth.
As the team captain of OPH, he had always presented himself with quiet confidence and assuredness. However this time…
“I really don’t know what to do.”
This was the truth.
He left after he spilled everything he wanted to say. Somehow, after telling his thoughts to his mother, he finds the burden a little lighter compared to how it had been previously. He sent a message with his phone and went to go look for Eli in the cafe they said that they would be meeting up in.
He chatted with Eli about the most mundane things. They’d updated each other about the esports scene, how they were feeling about the next COA season, the opponents they might face, how they get along with everyone in the team. In a way, Eli had taken to looking after him ever since they met during high school.
A lot of things have been going on in Eli’s life too, apparently. There were several adjustments that had to be done in BLK since they were trying new things. As for what it was supposed to be, it wasn't disclosed to him because he was still the captain of the enemy team.
He checked his phone only when they were saying goodbyes to each other. He had felt the vibration that indicated the arrival of new notifications earlier, but he decided not to look at it until the day was over.
His lips, against his will, twitched slightly. This was something that didn’t get past Eli’s watch.
His friend just watched him for five seconds. Eli, inside his mind, was debating whether to call him out on this expression and ask about it. But seeing how the smile was quickly smoothened out, he thought that it was probably not the right time to ask about it yet. He raised a hand instead and initiated bidding Naib a proper goodbye.
They parted ways soon after that. Naib turned his head back to his screen and finally sent a reply just before heading back home.
He gets off the bus and walks all the way back to the shared apartment. There were barely any traces of sunlight by that time and the path was quiet. The places around the neighborhood where they live were actually pretty calm. Not many were obsessed with esports, so it was easier to walk around without being recognized and surrounded by fans.
The keys jingled as he brought it out to open the door. There were shoes by the doorstep, so he knew his teammates were inside.
The first to greet him was Qi Shiyi, hunched over by the kitchen counter and reading a recipe book. When she heard someone come in, she looked up briefly to see who it was.
“Captain, welcome back,” she greeted.
“Thanks,” Naib acknowledged before coming a little closer to peek at what she was looking at. “Are you trying something new for dinner?”
“That's right. I picked up a recipe book on my way back earlier. That reminds me, I was planning on baking something tomorrow. Would you like to have some?”
“Oh. I won't reject, of course.”
“I will take note of that.”
He looks around, feeling a little strange because of the calmness of the apartment.
“Where is everyone?”
“Lily is streaming inside her room. I don't know about the other two, but they didn't go out either.”
“I see.” Turns out it was Lily’s weekly streaming session. That explains why she wasn't there to liven up the living room.
The girl refocused her attention on the recipe book. Naib decided that was his cue to leave. Turning around once more, he headed up the stairs to return to his room.
Only when he was surrounded by the familiar walls of his own space did he open his phone to check what had been the reply to his previous text. As expected, there was already something waiting for him there.
"If this is in your For You page, this message is for you. What's for you will soon come to you. You've waited long enough, and this is the moment you will finally meet your soulmate. Perhaps you've met them already. Don't waste more time and don't let go of them anymore. Like or comment on this video to cla—"
He closes his TicTac almost as quickly as he opened it. Whatever game the world was playing on him today, he was not in the mood for it.
“Huh? Captain, are you actually going out?”
He took one look at the confused and shocked expressions of his teammates’ faces and raised an eyebrow.
“Yes? Why are you reacting like that?”
“...No, nothing.”
He feels eyes burning into the back of his head. Naib hesitated, before turning to look at Qi Shiyi, who hadn't said anything when she saw him descend the stairs.
“By the way, are you still making that thing you told me about yesterday?”
Her eyes narrowed by a millimeter. If he hadn't been looking at every twitch of her face, he might've missed it.
“Yes. I will save some for you.”
“Thank you,” Naib says sincerely. Then, he turns his attention to two other members of the team. “Don't eat everything and leave some for me.”
“Yes, captain. We won't touch your share,” Lily reassured, smiling up at him and patting Luca's shoulder. The expression she wore didn't reassure him at all. But he knew that there are times when their faces could be misleading, so he decided to trust those two for the meantime.
He told them he would be back after a couple of hours and went up to the door. But before he could leave, he heard someone call out to him.
“It's difficult to take the first step, but even more so to leave everything to chance,” Qi Shiyi spoke quietly, but loud enough for him to hear. “That's the reason why people take matters into their own hands. Ultimately, making a decision rests on one’s shoulders.”
He hesitated. Hearing those words made him realize that Qi Shiyi probably had an inkling of what he was planning to do for the day.
Naib glanced back a little, but didn't fully turn to face her.
“That's why I made a choice.”
“Okay,” she nods. “I hope you won't regret that.”
Huh?
Why does it sound so ominous when she says it like that?
Seeing how he remained unmoving from where he was, the girl decided to explain herself.
“My family believed that it is better to endure and sit still when deciding on something, and choosing to act would only bear fruit to regret. However, there are instances when doing nothing is the worst course of action.”
He chuckles at those words.
“I will remember that.”
Lily looks up to give them strange looks, not understanding the conversation. But it has already ended, and the team captain finally decided to step outside of the apartment just as he said he would.
Just as the door fully closed, he heard the two girls start a conversation amongst themselves.
“What's that about?”
“Nothing to worry about.”
The place where he decided to meet Norton Campbell was the mall. But when he arrived at the entrance exactly at the time when they agreed to meet up, he found out that he was the first one to arrive.
He clicked his tongue and adjusted the fake glasses on his face.
“Late.”
“So your habit of making people wait is limited to text messages.”
The sudden voice startled him. Naib turned his head and found the person he'd only seen once making his way towards where he was standing.
Norton Campbell was taller compared to him. He also had a sense of fashion that made him refreshing and good to look at. Naib recalled the times when Luca told him that this person was popular with other people, and understood a little where he was coming from.
There was something that wasn't as obvious when they'd first met at the park, though. Because of the closer distance between them, Naib irritatingly took note that he had to look up slightly to meet the other person's eyes.
Norton Campbell also took his time to observe the man in front of him.
“Surprisingly, pro players knew how to touch grass.”
“Was that a jab?” He quirked an eyebrow, unimpressed.
“I was just checking if you'd blow a fuse.”
Naib huffed inside his mind. If he was someone who easily falls into attempts to bait him to get angry, then he wouldn't be a pro player at all. It takes quite a lot of hate and rage messages for him to get to the rank he was in Identity V.
“I don't understand what this meeting is for,” he gets straight to the point. “I’m telling you this straight away. Although we seem to be matched by something stupid, that doesn't mean we have to go out with each other.”
His words made Norton Campbell pause.
Then, with a slow gesture, he raised a hand and rested it on his chin.
“You don't believe in fate?”
Huh? What a weird thing to ask.
If this question was asked to Naib a few years ago, when he was a child who loved to listen to his mother's stories about soulmates meeting each other and finding happiness, he would've firmly said he believes in it. But he'd already spent years by himself, and was already quite comfortable with the idea of being independent.
“I don't like having intangible things dictate my life.”
“Oh,” Campbell’s eyes seemed to glint in interest. “See, we have more things in common that I thought.”
“...”
That wasn't supposed to encourage him.
The other person turned his attention to the mall, smiling in a way that doesn't quite reach his eyes.
“Then let's go in, shall we?”
It's been a while since Naib visited the mall.
Most of the things that could be found there were just clothes and furniture. Those are things that he was uninterested in, and Campbell doesn't really strike him as the kind of person who'd spend his time shopping either.
…On the second thought, he paused, glancing at the carefully put-together clothes that his companion was wearing. Maybe he would.
They didn't talk about much at all in the beginning. Instead of looking at whatever clothes there was to see like he thought they would do, they headed straight for the food court.
Naib stared at the place with a blank face.
“If we were going to eat, shouldn't we have just gone to a cafe or a food park?”
“I wanted to eat this place’s takoyaki,” Campbell said dismissively.
“... There's shops that make better takoyaki than here.”
“I want this takoyaki.”
Naib had his impression when they first met. Since this guy was studying in college, he assumed that he might be a smart guy like Luca, except probably more quiet. He must also he a little interesting if Eli thinks he was someone that could get along with Naib.
But what is this?
He almost didn't expect the childish stubbornness, not to mention attempting to annoy him upon seeing each other.
For the entirety of the time they were together, Campbell seemed to be trying his best to annoy the person who came to this place with him. He'd been unreasonable and had changed his mind about what he was about to do multiple times. Naib, who prided himself for being patient as the introverted but reliable team captain of OPH, found his eyes twitching slightly at some point.
After a while, Naib couldn't handle it.
“You're being annoying on purpose, aren't you?”
“Me?” Campbell’s eyes shifted to him almost lazily. “What are you talking about?”
“Stop fooling around and just say what you originally wanted to bring up when you made me come here.”
The taller man’s face shifted to a more amused expression.
“Are you annoyed yet?”
His eyes narrowed to show just how much self-restraint was being used at the moment. The fact that he had to look up as well just so they could talk was not helping.
“I have other things to do.”
“That's right, you don't like me right now,” Campbell nods, and he had the audacity to look satisfied as he did so. “I don't like you either. That's the reason why, even if we're soulmates, it'd be better to stay away from each other.”
“Hah. Glad we're on the same page,” Naib flowers.
“However.”
The pro player looked to the side and resisted the urge to sigh.
“You know it too, right? Completely having a relationship that has fallen apart, where we don't see each other…I'd lose the color I have again.”
This, he knew as well.
Naib’s mother, in the past, couldn't see blue because she could no longer spend her time with her husband. There were also several instances of people not getting along with their soulmates, choosing to stay away from each other. It always ended the same way—they gradually lost the color that had been returned to them.
Of course, having already lived a life where he couldn't see some parts of the world as it should be seen, it was something he could easily adjust to. So he doesn't care if he doesn't see Norton Campbell again.
Said person pointed to himself. “You see, I'm a geology student. It's pretty difficult to get through some things when I can't see what I was supposed to see. I make mistakes that should've been easily avoided otherwise. Someday, too, in my career, I would have to look at things where color is important.”
“...So what?”
“Let's make a deal.”
There was a seriousness in Campbell’s tone this time. One that made it clear that he wasn't making any sort of jokes right now.
“...What deal?”
“I won't bother you, and you won't bother me either. We just live our life as we always have.”
“Uh-huh.”
“But at least once a month—just one day every month, let's see each other. I do want to still be able to see all colors anyway.”
Hah.
This was a little one-sided.
Naib’s color made it so that there wasn't much difference if he could see black or not. He rarely goes out at night anyway, and it doesn't make that much of an impact whether he could see it or not.
But this person apparently needed it.
Naib looked at him critically for a while, and asked, “What color is it?”
“Huh?”
He repeats himself, this time a little louder.
“What color did I give you?”
“Oh, that.” Norton Campbell evenly met his gaze, then let out another one of his insincere smiles. “It's green.”
Ah.
Seeing as it was a color that was literally everywhere, Naib could understand why he needed to see that particular color. He nods slightly, understanding where the other man was coming from.
“It's not like it does anything much to me, so I don't care much,” he slowly said. “As long as this meeting doesn't interfere with my schedule.”
“Yes, of course. I have my own life, you know? That's why I specifically said we mind our own businesses.”
If it was like that, then it was easy to decide.
“Alright.”
“...Really?” Norton Campbell looks at him closely, as if trying to see if there was something in his expression that would give away the fact that he was messing around at some point.
Naib rolls his eyes. “Yes. But just once a month, got it?”
“Once a month,” Campbell repeats, looking far more satisfied for reasons that he couldn't quite pinpoint. “Alright. It's a deal.”