4. she denied

Rachel Hofstetter was dumbfounded twice in her entire life.

First time when she was pulled by a huge group of girls in middle school who picked on her, pulling her hair and bullying her because she was one of the boys and not normal.

And second, when James Tran picked up the call which she never expected to.

Immediately Rae started her cam, busying herself with the next set of streams and games, diverting her mind to her job and drowning herself completely with everything but the stranger.

The one 30 second call was causing her mind to work on thousands of scenarios and questions, especially how and why didn't she know about Sykkuno's twin? And that James was the same J who had passed unruly comments the other day.

Post lunch, Rae's schedule was to pick up groceries for the week and help Janet in fixing her room. Being done with streaming, and avoiding Sykkuno's calls and messages, she procceded to eat lunch alone in her room.

Poki and Janet had different lunch schedules owing to their streaming commitments and Rae was too hungry to wait for them. So she hopped into the kitchen and smelled the take-out noodles that had arrived.

Being busy with streaming and online gaming at the most 12 hours everyday gave no time to the girls to cook something for themselves. At times, Janet who did have a thing for cooking would wake up a bit early or end streams to just cook something and even Poki helped in baking some sweet goodies.

But Rae hated cooking like she hated being killed in Among Us at the first round.

It was too big of a task for a ten minute thing, she'd often say.

Right now she slurped the noodles and ate with her mouth full, hungrily as she started a random movie to watch. It was some romcom and Rae wasn't personally a fan of romantic movies now that her heart had broken.

She would rather be a 29 year old single woman, than have a heartache.

'Yea yea.' Rae chirped, shaking her head and watching the couple on-screen kiss. 'Just get a room, argh.' She gagged.

A stifling giggle was heard from behind her, 'Romcoms eh?'

Rae sighed, nodding at Imane who stood on the door, her hands folded across her chest. 'Stupid Romcoms.'

Imane chuckled entering in and pulling the small stool from besides, 'Then why do you watch them.' She shrugged, 'All you do Rae is criticize them.'

When Imane and Rae first came across each other, which was three years back, Rae was a hopeless romantic and Imane was someone who never believed in romantic tales. And now, when Rae's heart was broken and Imane's was stolen, things were quite the opposite.

Imane was engaged to the love of her life, and Rae wanted nothing as such again.

They both turned towards the screen where the girl and the boy were now separating, because what's a romcom without separation.

'There's literally nothing to watch.' Rae answered, taking another huge bite of the noodles. 'And you know I cannot watch horror movies in broad daylight.'

Imane nodded, 'True. You're actually a psychopath, Rae. Syk sometimes do be telling the truth, you know.' She said, eating a bite from Rae's box of noodles.

'Sykkuno and truth.' Rae rolled her eyes, waiting for Imane to finish her bite. 'Did you even know he was a twin?'

Imane's eyes widened, she quickly gulped the morsel and looked astonished. 'Sykkuno is a twin?'

'Yes. He is a twin.' Rae said, annoyed about not knowing this, 'And guess who is his twin?'

'Who?'

'That stupid J guy.'

'Oh.' Imane said softly, but then she looked at Rae, confused. 'Wait. How do you know?'

Rae then had to narrate the entire morning incident to Imane who would have kept glaring at her if she didn't.

'Whoa. What happened then?'

'Nothing. I think Sykkuno called back, but I didn't wanna break my head.' Rae shook her head, 'I don't want to embarrass myself again. And especially if that J guy speaks to me again, imma kill him.'

Imane chuckled, shaking her head. 'Rachel, my sweet Rachel.' Imane said pinching Rae's cheeks, 'Get ready for the weekend then.'

With that Imane procceded to leave as Rae furrowed her brows, 'Why?'

Imane only laughed back. 'You'll see.'

_

'WHAT?'

'Yea... yea...'

'NO!'

'No... why...'

'Because it's a four hour drive!'

'So you're denying because it's a four hour drive or... you know... some something.. else?'

Rae hated when Sykkuno hesitated nervously around her. It showed he wasn't comfortable and being good friends had made Rae step into Sykkuno's comfort zone.

And now again she was making him uncomfortable and she didn't like it.

'Sykkuno, listen, it's nothing about you.' She reasoned picking up a pack of chocolates and hunting for orange juice as she walked through the aisle of the supermarket. 'I don't think I'll make it.'

Sykkuno had invited her and all their Among Us gang for a quiet dinner party at his house since he had recently shifted to a new apartment in Las Vegas. As much as Rae was proud of the fact that Sykkuno was stepping out of his shell of being alone and hosting a party all by himself, she didn't wanna associate with his twin.

Especially not after the current incident.

J sounded like a rude snob and she couldn't deal with rude snobs in a surreal way.

'Um, Rae.' Sykkuno said softly, he didn't wanna force Rae to join them but he loved her company. 'I know you're having different commitments but I'd be happy if you could make it.' He said, the sincerity in his voice would melt anyone. 'And, I probably know you're upset because I hid about my brother.'

Rae stood still, intently listening to Sykkuno hesitate in uncomfortable aura again. 'Um, I guess, if you could come, we could face to face resolve this.'

Rae smiled, she was supposed to be angry on Sykkuno but she just couldn't. She smiled, putting two large cartons of orange juice in the cart.

'Okay. I'll tell you about it.' She said.

Sykkuno nodded, and then realized Rae wouldn't be able to see it so he agreed.

'Also, Rae?' Sykkuno said, his voice more vibrant and confident. 'You do mean a lot to me. Corpse, Toast, and you are pretty much the only close thing I have. Your friendship means a lot to me.'

_

If you liked the chapter, drop a vote, drop a comment and wait for the next to come!

P.s. none of the pictures used in the story are mind. Credits to the original artists.