Lunch break. Yuuki, having contacted Rio beforehand via phone, went to meet up with her at the usual spot.
Yes ticket tucked away in his pocket, he made his way down the familiar path where Rio nervously awaited him.
“Y-Yui’s yes ticket...”
Rio took the ticket, gazing intently at the hastily scribbled yes, her hands slightly shaking. What looked like an ordinary scribbled over piece of paper she held like a winning lottery ticket.
“The plan was to tear it up right in front of her face, right?”
“A-Actually, now that I really, really think about it, she took the time and effort to make this. It’d be too cruel.”
“She made it in like five seconds.”
The “effort” put in was exactly zero. Despite quite literally holding the yes ticket within her palm, Rio seemed a bit down.
“Something wrong?”
“I think Yui hates me.”
“Why’s that?”
“I DMed her earlier and she...” Rio paused.
Maybe they had some kind of falling out and now Yui stopped responding to her DMs.
“She took ten minutes longer than usual to respond. She left me on read; she never does that.”
“Let’s try to be a little more patient, okay?”
It appeared to be nothing more than minor paranoia.
Counting the exact time it took for someone to respond was already a little weird but Rio also had the intimidating “insta replier” vibes.
“What’d you send her?”
“I asked ‘How was it?’ to which she responded ‘Piece of cake’ to which I replied ‘Sure was.’”
“Ooh, not good.”
“I-I didn’t know. Now things between us are weird and awkward. B-But with this...” Rio gulped as she gazed upon the yes ticket. She appeared to be lost in thought for a second before abruptly sticking it out just short of Yuuki’s nose. “Y-You keep it. Using this to earn her friendship is heresy.”
“Didn’t we agree to tear it up right in front of her face?”
Rio’s true intentions had briefly raised their ugly head. Seems like she noticed there’s a much quicker path than ’exercising’ the seatmate killer.
“I’ve been thinking about it and, if Yui only befriended me as part of her game, fixing her would mean she stops giving me attention. Maybe keeping things the way they are is... for the better.”
Not that she gave her much attention to begin with. The thought crossed Yuuki’s mind, never to be uttered as it was just that, a thought.
“A-Anyway, just take it, okay?” Rio said, shoving the yes ticket into his palm, her former “I’m going to save Yuuki!” enthusiasm nowhere to be seen.
Having second thoughts this late into the game simply wasn’t going to cut it.
Yuuki waved the ticket around. “What do we do with this then?”
“Wh-What do we do with it?” She responded to his question with a question, an awkward stare off ensuing.