Evie thought about it twice with pursed lips before asking the question. She had long been wondering about it, and she wouldn't be able to sleep at night if she didn't get an answer.

Plus, she also needed closure for what had happened. It would be ideal if they could talk — all three of them.

"What happened to Saya? Is she going to come?" Evie asked.

Although she tried to conceal her feelings with her stoic expression, her voice subconsciously trembled, exposing what she felt at the moment.

Ren's face darkened, and a tense heavy silence lingered between them.

Leonel tried to pacify the situation. "Don't worry about her. We'll talk to her after things calm down a bit," he told her while shifting his eyes between Ren's grim face and Evie's curious one.

Saya hadn't shown her face ever since, and Ren had blocked her numerous times. And as for Leonel, he tried to contact her but failed.

Leonel bet that Saya had blocked him too.

"Is that so?" Evie didn't feel any anger for Saya. She did it because she liked Ren, though her methods were wrong.

Saya caused her pain and a lot of heartache, but she was willing to make amends because she was Ren and Leonel's friend.

"Stop worrying about her," said Ren and changed the topic. "The maintenance is finished. Let's log in and finish this quickly."

'So we can still have time with just the two of us.' Ren's mood was lifted at the thought of their date.

Right now, he didn't want to talk about Saya. He was no longer angry with her, but he also didn't want anything to do with her anymore. He didn't want to see even her shadow.

Leonel stretched his arms over his head. "Finally. Time to get myself scared to death."

"You're rather excited, though. Is it because of Isolde?" Ren joked.

"H-huh? No way? W-what are you even talking about?" Leonel denied it but was betrayed by his reddened face. He then quickly bolted out of the living room and out of the unit while muttering to himself.

"Why would I be excited about seeing Isolde? We see each other all the time. Come to think of it. We see each other a lot . . ."

Ren chuckled after seeing Leonel's reaction. It seemed like his friend really had a thing for Isolde but was ignorant of it — either he hadn't realized it yet, or he was ignoring his feelings because of the recent events.

Isolde was often seen together with Leonel, and anyone who wasn't blind would see that the two had gotten closer than before.

It was only a matter of time. Ren deducted.

Watching Leonel whispering to himself until his back faded into view, Evie couldn't help but ask Ren.

"Is Leonel going to be alright?" Evie didn't know how to phrase her question, and she felt like she didn't have the right to pry into others' love life.

"Don't worry about him and worry about us."

"Huh?"

"Have you thought long enough about moving here with me?"

Evie caught her tongue, and she immediately checked if Ren's parents were peeking from the kitchen. She knew that they were listening even though she couldn't see them.

It just felt like they'd know what they were talking about, so she reprimanded Ren.

"Lower your voice."

"Don't worry about my parents. Knowing them, they would be glad to let you stay here. I'm an only child, and they badly wanted a daughter. You coming here fulfilled their wishes."

It was a strategy to get Evie to stay. Ren was sure that his parents already wanted Evie to stay, so he didn't hesitate to use them as a reason to make her think twice about moving in.

Everyone wanted to please their in-laws, right? Ren smirked at the idea.

"I-I'll . . . I'll think about it."

Good.

Ren beamed. "If you want, we can have our own house. Just the two of us? I've already bought a lot in Diamond Valley, and construction is already ongoing."

"Egh?" Evie looked at him with wide eyes. She was surprised, not because of his suggestion, but because Diamond Valley was an exclusive subdivision where the price of a mere one square meter lot was no joke.

It was one of the most expensive lands in Zone A — way more expensive than a commercial lot.

"Or, we can buy a house somewhere you want, and we can plan the house together," said Ren, squeezing Evie's hand.

Evie closed her eyes tight while her face reddened. "No."

Ren was going too fast with this relationship. She didn't even know if they would last until the end.

But she couldn't deny how happy she felt when Ren spoke about planning a house with her. It made her feel like she belonged somewhere — like she wasn't alone anymore.

"But I will think about staying here," she immediately told him before he could say something outrageous again.

"That's good to hear." For now. Ren thought.

"Well, let's go," he said as he stood up from the sofa.

"Let's log in and finish the two servers early, so we can explore the server that you wanted to check."

Evie's pod was already delivered and set up in her room, along with her clothes and all of her personal belongings that she left in her previous apartment.

The only thing everyone was waiting for was her official go signal that she would be staying here with Ren.

"Mom, Dad, we're just going to log in to the game," Ren said to his parents, who were sitting in the kitchen and pretending to do something, so they wouldn't be accused of spying.

"Ren . . ."

Ren and Evie stopped at Troy's voice.

"Yeah?"

Troy and Helen looked at each before they locked eyes with their son with serious faces.

"You're . . ." Troy cleared his voice when it choked and continued, "You're sleeping in different rooms' . . . right?"

Ren's stare went through his parents' souls. Evie's face heated up so much that steam was almost leaking from the top of her head. She felt so embarrassed.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)