#ily ...

yuna is the ugly friend. this, she knows.

a designated title since elementary school, the pain of being relentlessly bullied never quite left her, even as she grows into her twenties. she knows she’s supposed to, but should cannot be confused for could.

she supposes she might be grand in her own might if her best friend since childhood wasn’t quite so … perfect. she was gorgeous – the kind of beauty everyone could agree on. she was kind – had to be, to reach out to yuna even while she was the targeted kid, and be friends. intelligent and well-spoken, demure and funny at the appropriate times. it would be hard to believe such a person existed if yuna hadn’t literally been by her side since they were seven.

the problem with perfection, though, is that no one can top it. not even yuna.

staying in the shadows is a fact she’s mostly accepted. she puts herself out there, and she commends herself for that. she has a sharp tongue and intellect, traits she puts to good use as president of the debate club. she is forcing herself to dance in the middle of the room to garner attention, a whirlwind to counterbalance her best friend’s steady grace. it’s a dynamic they’ve well-established.

and yet, yuna was greedy sometimes. she too, was sometimes the envious fans of her best friend’s, wishing she could be just a bit more ladylike, just a bit more feminine, softer and more careful with her words, more aware of what to say and when to say it, to be so overwhelmingly adored as well.

but, sometimes in life, a hierarchy is established and yuna isn’t half-bad at following them.

perhaps that’s why she enjoyed gaming so much, she mused to herself. it was an unlikely hobby, one accidentally stumbled upon – introduced to it by her cousin. but she quickly found the lore and process of levelling up to be fun, and having such a powerful persona admired by many. friends to call her own.

recently, she had made a new online friend, and they’ve been on her mind more than others. yuna had just finished a long day at school, and felt she deserved a little break, so she logs on in hopes her friend would be online.

> hey! :-) > had a long day at school today ... :( > hope you had a better day than me … ? are you free to chat/game a bit?

For every ∯ I get I will say/confess something without specifying for whom it is meant