I still remember the first night I downloaded the gaming app {Soulxhunter}

It was raining outside my hostel window, the kind of rain that made the whole world feel distant and blurry. I wasn’t looking for friendship. Honestly, I was just bored. Exams were over, my roommates were asleep, and my screen was the only thing glowing in the dark.

That night, I entered a random squad match.

And somehow, four strangers became my favorite part of life.

Cherine was the first voice I heard. Loud, dramatic, and impossible to ignore. She laughed at everything—even when we lost terribly.

Then there was Ruaan.

Quiet at first. The kind of quiet that made you curious instead of uncomfortable. He played like he had all the patience in the world, always covering for us whenever we rushed into danger like idiots. Sometimes he disappeared for days without explanation, then returned with a simple, “Missed me?”

And for some reason… we always did.

Theon was different. Smooth voice, sarcastic comments, late-night philosopher during lobby waits. He lived in another timezone entirely, yet somehow he was awake whenever one of us needed him. He used to say, “Sleep is temporary. Rank is forever.”

None of us believed him because he was always the first to fall asleep mid-conversation.

And then there was me

Susen.

The one who stayed online long after matches ended just to hear everyone talk about their lives. Different countries. Different weather. Different languages slipping into our conversations accidentally. Yet inside that tiny glowing team lobby, distance felt unreal.

We weren’t just players after a while.

We became routines.

“Good morning” texts from one side of the world while another was saying goodnight. Random voice calls. Sending pictures of food we couldn’t share. Laughing until someone muted their mic because their family was yelling in the background.

It felt strange sometimes—how people you’ve never met could know your heart better than people sitting beside you every day.

But the funny thing about online friendships is that they exist between reality and imagination.

You know their voice before their face. Their silences before their secrets.

And sometimes…

You begin to wonder what would happen if the screen between all of you disappeared.

Would Cherine still laugh so loudly in real life that strangers turned around to stare?

Would Theon still act confident face-to-face, or would he become awkward the moment conversations weren’t hidden behind a headset and keyboard?

And Ruaan…

Would his eyes look as calm as his voice sounded at two in the morning?

It’s strange, isn’t it?

How people miles away can slowly become part of your everyday life. You start memorizing their schedules without trying. Knowing who stays awake late, who gets quiet when upset, who sends random memes instead of admitting they miss everyone.

We never saw each other properly at first.

Just profile pictures. Usernames. Fragments of lives shared through blurry photos and unstable internet connections.

TO BE CONTINUED~

Susen's Pov:

Later at Night time was always our time.

No matter how busy the day got, somehow all four of us ended up back in the same lobby like magnets pulling toward each other again.

Sometimes the game stayed open for hours without us even playing properly.

We’d queue into matches, forget the objective halfway through, then spend the rest of the time talking about completely random things while losing terribly.

“Focus!” Cherine would yell.

“You’re literally driving the vehicle into a river,” Theon would reply.

And somewhere in the background, Ruaan would laugh quietly while I tried to breathe from laughing too hard.

Those nights felt endless in the best way possible.

The world outside my room would go silent—streetlights glowing faintly through my curtains, everyone at home asleep—while my headphones filled with voices from different parts of the world.

It felt unreal sometimes.

Like we existed in a separate universe after midnight.

A universe made of bad internet connections, game sound effects, and conversations that drifted everywhere.

We talked about impossible things a lot.

“What if we all met one day?” Cherine asked once during a loading screen.

Theon immediately said, “I’m not hugging any of you.”

“Liar,” I laughed.

“You’d cry first,” Ruaan added.

But after that, the topic never really left.

Slowly, our imaginary plans became a routine.

We’d create ridiculous fake scenarios about meeting each other someday.

Cherine insisted we should all meet in a huge city with neon lights because “main character energy matters.”

Theon wanted a beach house somewhere isolated where he could “escape society.”

Ruaan said he didn’t care where as long as the food was good.

And me?

I secretly just wanted to know what it would feel like to see them in real life instead of through screens.

Sometimes we got oddly detailed with our plans too.

Who would arrive first at the airport. Who would recognize who first. Who would be awkward. Who would cry.

“Cherine would definitely scream in public,” I said once.

“I WOULD NOT.”

“You absolutely would,” Ruaan replied calmly.

The silence after that lasted two seconds before all of us burst into laughter again.

And maybe that’s what made those nights so special.

None of us knew if those plans would ever happen.

Still, we talked about them like they were inevitable.

Like someday the distance between us would finally shrink into something touchable.

I remember one particular night clearly.

It was almost four in the morning for me.

The game had long been abandoned, yet nobody left the call.

Cherine had fallen asleep with her mic still on. Theon was humming some random song softly. And Ruaan…

Ruaan was talking to me quietly while the others slept on the call.

“Do you think we’d actually get along in real life?” I asked absentmindedly.

A small pause.

Then his voice came through my headphones, low and calm.

“We already do.”

And for some reason…

my heart never quite sounded the same after that.

TO BE CONTINUED~ 🍀

Theon's Pov :

Mondays were the worst.

Not because of school itself—but because Mondays meant silence.

After spending entire nights laughing together in calls, waking up the next morning always felt oddly empty. Like someone had suddenly muted the world.

I was sitting at the back of my classroom, half-awake, hoodie sleeves pulled over my hands while the teacher explained something absolutely nobody cared about.

My phone vibrated once.

Then stopped.

I glanced down immediately out of habit.

Nothing from the group chat.

Weird.

Usually by now Cherine would’ve spammed at least ten dramatic messages about school already. Susen would be awake too, probably complaining about assignments or how tired she was after staying online too late again.

But the chatroom stayed quiet.

Even Ruaan hadn’t texted since last night.

Actually…

Ruaan had been disappearing a lot recently.

At first nobody really noticed. He was always the quieter one anyway. But lately, he’d leave calls early, reply hours later, sometimes vanish for entire days before returning casually like nothing happened.

And strangely, Susen noticed every single time.

That was the part I tried not to think about too much.

Because whenever Ruaan went offline longer than usual, Susen became quieter too.

Not obviously.

Just little things.

She checked the chat more. Asked where he was indirectly. Stayed online longer than necessary.

And I noticed because…

well.

Because I noticed her too much in general.

“You’re smiling at your phone again,” my friend beside me said suddenly.

“I’m literally not.”

“You literally are.”

I locked my screen immediately.

Embarrassing.

The truth was, somewhere between all those late-night calls and endless conversations, Susen had become my favorite person to talk to.

She laughed at my dumb jokes even when they weren’t funny. She remembered tiny details about things I said once months ago. And somehow, even through a screen, she felt comforting.

But there was also Ruaan.

Calm, unreadable Ruaan.

The kind of guy people naturally leaned toward without realizing it.

Even me sometimes.

So of course Susen did too.

The bell rang loudly, pulling me out of my thoughts.

Finally.

The moment lunch break started, my phone buzzed nonstop.

(World War 3)— 27 unread messages.

There they were.

Cherine had returned to life first.

Cherine: I hate school I wanna go home.

Susen: You say this every Monday.

Cherine: Because every Monday deserves hate.

I smiled unconsciously reading the messages.

Cherine was the youngest among us, yet somehow the loudest. Sixteen years old and already capable of starting arguments in under thirty seconds.

Susen was trying to calm her down.

Which was funny because Susen herself was only seventeen but acted like everyone’s exhausted older sister half the time.

Then there was me and Ruaan—both eighteen, supposedly the “mature” ones.

Which was honestly hilarious considering our group chat name was literally World War 3.

I scrolled further down slowly.

Still nothing from Ruaan.

And right after that came Susen’s message.

Susen: Did Ruaan disappear again?

I stared at the screen a little longer than I should’ve.

Then typed casually:

Me: Probably sleeping through life as usual.

She reacted with a laughing emoji almost instantly.

And somehow that tiny notification made my chest feel lighter.

Pathetic.

I tossed my phone onto the desk and rested my head on the desk closing my eyes for a brief second.

Maybe this was dangerous.

Maybe getting attached to people through screens was always dangerous.

Especially when feelings quietly started growing in places they weren’t supposed to.

And maybe the worst part was knowing—

if Susen’s heart was slowly drifting anywhere…

it probably wasn’t toward me.

TO BE CONTINUED~🍀