Roommate Wanted. No Betrayers.

Chapter 3

Kronii had not read the message. She had not looked at the preview. She had tried, wherever possible, to forget the message was even there. "What message?" Is a thing she might say if someone asked about it. Which nobody did because for everyone else it didn't, and for Kronii it might as well not have. "I don't think this thing even does texts." She said to herself in the mirror one night where she definitely wasn't thinking about any hypothetical message from any hypothetical betrayer.

She lasted three days.

It was 2am, her stream long since finished. She sat alone in the living room, under the dim atmospheric lights Fauna had insisted on. Her heart beat hard in her chest. The bright glow of her screen shone the placeholder background she hadn't gotten around to changing into anything burning itself into her eyes.

She opened the messaging app, hit Fauna's name and let the thing she feared in.

Hey Kronii!

Great to hear about the room, Sana would want it to be used :) Thanks for all the holiday messages and sorry for the late returns, I just happened into an area with cell service :3 I'm good, it's really beautiful here but I'm starting to miss conversing with people rather than animals and plants ^^ Hope you're doing well too and I hope the new roommate is too! I should still be back in April!

See you in a couple months!

Fauna

Kronii placed the phone down. She wasn't sure how the message had made her feel but she definitely didn't feel the need to re-read it.

"Of course she wasn't screening them." She whispered to herself. "I knew where she was going. Of course they have no cell service."

She might have laughed at herself but there was no need. Instead she just, sat. Her heart still thumping away, keeping her awake as her mind and body tried to wrap things up.

"Kronii?" A gentle voice called out through the room. "Why are you still awake? It's past 6am!"

Kronii turned to look at Mumei who was half dressed with a work blouse and PJ bottoms. Her hair was down, and the first light of the morning was dancing through her tawny locks. She opened her mouth but didn't know what to say.

Mumei approached, her face changing from a playful smile into an expression of concern Kronii hadn't seen before. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," Kronii stammered out. "I uh, guess I lost track of time."

This did nothing to assuage Mumei's look of concern. "Kronii, I've only known you a week and a bit, but I know for a fact you don't just simply lose track of time." She placed a soft hand on Kronii's own. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Kronii felt herself tremble just a little under the touch of Mumei, she'd not been touched in even the smallest way for so long. "I'm maybe not okay." She admitted falteringly. "But really it's nothing that you need to bother yourself with."

"It's okay!" Mumei said, squeezing Kronii's hand encouragingly. "What are friends for?"

"Huh? Are we friends?" Kronii blinked.

"Are we not?" Mumei looked a little dejected.

"No no! Er, I mean yes. I-" Kronii stammered. "I just figured we haven't known each other long. So I didn't want to assume..."

"Well I haven't really known anyone very long so maybe it's different for me." Mumei joked. "But, yeah, I kind of just assumed we were already friends."