My Virtual Lover

Live 28: The Lies in Love

It was a chill conversation between the awkward gamers, Jury’s heart beats fast as he asks her if she’s interested in watching a movie with him. She doesn’t know much about Kani, but his playful gesture has always been captivating for the girl. She loves being teased by Kani’s flirtation, perhaps her loneliness affecting her judgment of things.

Still, in her t-shirt and short pants, she replies that she would love to watch anything with Kani in the discord. They’re in the server, alone with only the two of them talking to each other while he streams his downloaded Mortal Kombat film on his hard disk. They’re acting as if they’re sitting next to each other, side by side watching the movie hand in hand.

“Wait, who is that character?” Jury asks the man curiously.

“Don’t you know him? Surely, you do!” he chuckles. “It’s the one who controls the ice”.

“Is it Subzero!? I think it is” her enthusiasm influencing the male as she continues watching the movie unfold.

The fight scene is overshadowed by the intensity they share in the discord server, silence fills the room in anxiety and nervousness. Both parties are trying their best to be fun and comforting, but they don’t talk much. Kani asks if the streaming quality is fine since his internet is somewhat lacking.

Jury nods her head while giving him a thumbs-up, not that he can see the thumbs but it’s a gesture she often uses when she’s nervous. The two sit in silence, watching the movie on the laptop screen on each of their seats. Jury gasps in awe when various fighting skills are shown in the movie, it depicts the Mortal Kombat series quite well.

Kani doesn’t open his mouth, he merely listens and replies to Jury’s question calmly. As Jury then proceeds to be in awe, Kani suddenly asks an important question to him

“Say, what do you think of your life?” he asks out of the blue.

Jury raises her eyebrows, surprised to hear that coming out from the jokester’s mouth. Surprisingly, Kani can ask such meaningful questions out of nowhere. The boy then admits something that she wouldn’t think of hearing, Kani is lonely and hurt. He says this out loud as they watch the fighting scene of Mortal Kombat ensues.

“I wonder when the offline learning ensues, I want to meet the others” he admits somewhat sadly. “I haven’t seen anyone in ages since the COVID-19 pandemic attacks us”.

Jury stares at the ceiling of her apartment, feet are on top of her desk as she slouches on the office chair. The young woman knows that she is also on the same spot, she barely could feel the air and fresh nature to breathe with the mask covering her mouth. It’s suffocating her, but it is for the sake of her health and others.

“Say, do you currently with someone?” Kani asks that so simply, one can say he’s trying to acquire information about Jury’s relationship status.

“I’m seeing no one, I’m single because of a reason” Jury laughs dryly. “I used to date someone but that person dislikes me badly”.

“Care to share the juicy gossip? Speaking dirt of your ex is no big deal anyway” Kani smiles from the tone of his voice.

She tells the embarrassing stories of her anime nickname, the weeb girl that loves using childish made-up names from an anime she watches. The way she calls herself the Terror of Moon, Black Rain, it’s a childish name she often uses in her social media. Her ex doesn’t accept this too well, thinking that she’s too childish to even use such names.

“You’re embarrassing me, stop with your idiotic nicknames in your social media username!” Jury mimics her ex-boyfriend’s tone while mocking him. “It’s a disaster, it is something that I wish I won’t repeat ever again”.

“Do you hate your ex-boyfriend?” Kani asks her. “I wonder if having a relationship is as hard as what people say”.

“If you’re asking me honestly, then yes I dislike the way he orders me around” Jury stands up from her seat while twirling her bangs, enjoying the night view from her apartment window. “Not to the point of hate though, it’s just that he can be troublesome sometimes”.

“You mean most of the time” he smirks. “Don’t lie to me, you don’t like him”.

The two then burst into laughter, ignoring the glitchy streams before them. In the end, the movie doesn’t matter for both of them. They’re just enjoying each other company as they joke around, telling each other tiny bits of information about themselves. Kani then decides to open up, his relaxed tone tells that he’s opening up to her.

Jury senses this, her heart bursts into joy when she listens to his real-life stories.

“I was born from a village” he admits. “I’m not exactly the richest person on earth, but my brain is smart so I get this one cool scholarship to this famous Science Institution on Bandung”.

“You’re pretty smart, huh?” she teases the young man. “What kind of smart are we talking about?”.

“Well, do you believe me when I told you that I don’t need to take National Exams to enter the Institute because they took me in with the scholarship?” he chuckles. “While my friends having their exams, I play my APEX with ease”.

“What’s your major?” she crosses her leg while sitting on her silky bed. “I can guess that you’re quite a scientist yourself”.

He scoffs, telling her that she expects too much of him. He’s merely an Interior Design student, although he can choose a science major. However, he wants to use his artistic values along with his design ideas instead of using only one of them, thus he feels challenged in some ways. It was hectic at first, but he’s starting to get used to the constant homework he receives.

She tells him that she’s already a graduate, she took Visual Communication Design major but she somewhat ends up slightly into broadcasting. Jury can feel her sweat glistening on her forehead while tapping her fingers on the surface of her bed. It’s because she knows that she’s telling him one hundred percent the truth.

Again, it’s only an online attraction, to begin with, the woman is skeptical of the idea of her falling in love with a real person much or less an online one.

“Broadcasting? So you’re working in a radio station?” he sounds interested. “Tell me about it then, I’m curious about what your job”.

It was nothing but a poor lie she made since she’s not a broadcaster. Everyone on the internet knows her name, but not her true name. She goes with the maid persona that everyone adores in social media. There’s no telling what he will do if he knows her true identity as the gamer maid.

“Well, I’m just talking nonstop about various topics” she shrugs. “Not much to tell, you just need to be confident with what are you sharing”.

“Well, what topic are you usually into?” he asks her curiously. “I want to listen to you talking about it some other time”.

Jury stutters in her words, swallowing her saliva as she thinks of another excuse to fool him. It would be bad if he suspects her lying, she doesn’t want to damage the reputation she built to impress the young man he crushed on. She only tells her that she’s working in a small radio station to talk about games.

“Games? Your favorite thing has always been about games and anime” Kani sounds impressed. “You should have told me about it, I would love to listen to it”.

“Cool, I’ll tell you if I remember” she stutters nervously. “I’m not a fan of someone I know listening to me though”.

It was a lie so that he stays away from her, not listening to the non-existent radio station she spoke of. Her tactics are awful as it is, instead of staying away, the man is more curious than ever to know more of her. She appreciates her crush’s enthusiasm, but a part of her heart hurts that she’s lying to him.

“You don’t have to Kani, I’m fine with you not listening to me” she lowered her tone, trying to act shy to avoid the attention.

“Fine then, I guess we’ll just have to watch the movie again until you tell me in which radio station you’re working” he sighs, sounding a bit disappointed. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m into you or anything”.

He sounds flustered at the last part, he closes his mouth and doesn’t talk anymore afterward. Jury decides to do the same as she focuses her orange-ish gems on the laptop screen, not knowing the vibrating cellphone on her leftie shows a notification coming from the young owner of the cafe.

It keeps vibrating, but the woman was focusing her attention on Kani's gentle and shy voice.

“Hey, are you there Jury?” the cafe owner notifications show on the cellphone screen.