“S-sorry, bathroom,” I stand up quickly. “Uhm, I think I’m going to puke again.”

I run towards the bathrooms, not caring if it’s for gentlemen or ladies, and I don’t even have time to close the door behind me. I’m lucky to make it and my expensive meal ends up in the toilet bowl. I feel surges of pain in my whole torso and my fever probably got even worse.

“Aefener, are you okay?” Liana finally catches up. Others follow but nobody has any idea what to do.

Liana wants to comfort me by patting but her hand freezes when she touches my back. She feels the swelling under my clothes and shivers.

“Fuck, he’s far worse than we thought,” she gulps. “How long have you been experiencing symptoms?”

“Fatigue started two weeks ago I guess,” I say weakly as I’m trying to clean the aftertaste in my mouth with fresh water. I manage but my legs refuse to work anymore and I collapse to the floor.

“We should call an ambulance,” Ingri suggests, worried.

“Please, anything but that,” I implore them. “It just psychosomatic… must be. I’ll take a break from VR altogether and my brain will calm down.”

“Well, I could take you home by car but are you sure?” Liana bites her lip.

“If it comes to the worst case scenario, then call an ambulance,” I insist.

“Alright, let’s go then. You need to lie down,” she nods. “Fefnir, can you…?”

Fefnir grabs me off the floor easily. With his support, I can slowly walk. Ingri ends up in charge of the tablet, quickly tells Gotrid what just happened and hangs up. Liana says goodbye to the waiter, assuring him to pay for my mess, and shows us to the restaurant’s private parking lot.

“Woooow,” Fefnir is astonished by the car Liana arrived in. “It’s the newest model of Tesla.”

I’m not an expert on cars but even I recognise that it must be super expensive and luxurious.

“Hop in,” Liana waves her hand and looks at me. “Try not to puke inside, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I have plastic bags in my pocket,” I assure her. I wouldn’t be able to pay for cleaning those seats with my whole month’s income, I’m sure about that.

“Ingri, I can’t take you too,” Liana stops the girl. “You’re still a minor, go home and tell your parents what’s going on.”

“No way,” Ingri protests and sits next to me. “I don’t want to go to hospital either but my parents would surely send me there. Fefnir, sit in the front, please, you’re too big. I’ll take care of Aefener here in the back, no worries.”

“A proper fan girl,” Fefnir remarks, laughing under his breath.

“Are you, Ingri?” Liana narrows her eyes. “Are you in Aefener’s fan club?”

“So what,” Ingri shows defiance as if Liana’s her mother.

“So what,” Fefnir repeats after her and sits in the co-driver’s seat. “If she wants to go, let her. We’ll send her home later.”

Liana resigns and starts the car. I tell her my address and she puts it into the navigation system. This model is autonomously self-driven so I’m surprised when she takes the wheel. She catches my surprised face in the back mirror.

“I like driving,” she mutters.

“Why buying the newest self-driven car then?” Fefnir asks and puts on the belt.

“Because it’s safe and I can relax when I’m tired. And because I can,” she shrugs. “Ingri, belt on and Aefener as well. Don’t act like kids back there, I’m responsible for you now.”

We obediently comply. Liana’s strict mode is especially scary in real life.

I’m afraid the drive won’t do my upset stomach any good but Liana’s driving steadily on purpose and the system helps her with that. I get sick only once when she has to stop suddenly because of a car in front but I manage to hold it.

“We’re here,” Liana announces when we’re standing on a parking lot in front the building where my apartment is.

“I expected you’d live in one of those fancy apartments for VR celebrities,” Fefnir says when he helps me out of the car. “This is still decent, though. Soundproof, right? Neat.”

“I have some personal financial issues,” I murmur, unwilling to tell him more.

I unlock the main door and we get into the elevator. I’ve never had any visitors and in a few minutes I’ll have three. Funny how things can go. I hope my kitchen isn’t horribly messy as I rarely bother cleaning after meals right away.

When we get off the elevator and appear from around the corner, I hear an angry shriek.

“Are you kidding me?!”

Erik is standing in front of my door, holding boxes of takeaway food. Did he want to surprise me? Or was he concerned because I didn’t respond to his texts? Crap, it’s Thursday around 12:30, right? We were supposed to have our first lunch together, it totally slipped my mind!

Unfortunately, all he can see is me and Fefnir as others are a few steps behind the corner. His expression turns wild. I can understand how he feels even without my telepathy. From his perspective, it must look like Fefnir is hugging me. Hell breaks out.

“I TOLD YOU THAT I DON’T WANT YOU FUCKING OTHER GUYS!”