Ten2: nah, it's fine. you're not overstepping, you worry too much. and it was nothing special really. did i already mention that i like anime? oh i think i told you before that i draw them sometimes. i just think japanese animes are cool and i kinda wanna have a japanese name so i chose tento. it means the sun. tento is also a japanese sun god.

No way.

It is like every single word of Poll echoes in Eujae's head as he sees Ten-Ten's whole message. Anxious, he shifts his phone to his left hand when he feels the jitters on his right hand.

No, it's just a coincidence, Eujae tells himself and tries to relax. Poll can't be the real person behind the username Ten2. Those two people are like night and day. They are too different from each other.

Eujae pauses to reflect upon the words to describe Poll and Ten-Ten. Night and day. Different. Total opposites. But are they really?

He never noticed it before because his relationships with those two are a far cry from each other. Poll has always been the bane of his existence while Ten-Ten is a source of comfort. He never considered the possibility of them being alike, but thinking about it now, don't those two have a lot of similarities?

Poll is an art student. Ten-Ten mentioned that he paints and draws.

Poll loves sweets. So does Ten-Ten.

Obviously, both of them are fans of anime.

However, those are not enough to assume that they are the same person. After all, those traits are not out of the ordinary. Even within their small circle of friends, Eujae can find someone who has those characteristics.

Lia and Nick are good at arts too.

His cousin also has a sweet tooth. Even Cloud is fine with lots of sugar in his food.

As for anime, Nick and Risa also watch them.

But just how many of those anime fans want to have a Japanese name? More specifically, a Japanese name Tento which means the sun? Eujae frowns as a part of his mind starts to make arguments.

Desperate to find an explanation for all the questions, Eujae runs the search engine on his phone. Perhaps, Tento is a common Japanese name. Perhaps, Poll and Ten-Ten just both happened to look for a name that means "the sun" and Tento came up as the top result. That must be it. And it is not unusual for people to want to have a celestial name. Poll and Ten-Ten must have picked the first thing that caught their attention in their searches.

But as he types 'sun' on his translator to know its Japanese equivalent, Eujae doesn't get the result that he expected. Tento doesn't come up on the top result.

Eujae shakes his head in denial and tries for different searches. There must be something that makes the word popular. Otherwise, why would both Poll and Ten-Ten come up with the same name? He refuses to believe that it's because they are the same person.

He searches for 'Japanese names related to the sun.' A lot of suggestions pop up but none of it is Tento.

Eujae remains resolute. Scowling, he hits the backspace and types 'Japanese god of sun' on his phone browser. Again, the name he's looking for doesn't appear on the most popular result. It is only when he decides to narrow his search to 'Tento, Japanese god of sun' that he finally gets the result that he wants to see.

Tento. The sun, providence, god. The sun god in Japan.

Conflicted, Eujae runs a hand on his hair. He doesn't know if he's supposed to be relieved to know that the name with the specific meaning does exist on the web which means Poll and Ten-Ten are not the only people who know about it. Still, experiencing first-hand how difficult it is to find even on the internet, Eujae feels uneasy. What are the odds that two people who have a lot in common will wind up choosing the same name that's hard to search?

Feeling drained, Eujae puts his phone down and closes his eyes. He is aware of what he's been doing since earlier. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he's known from the start that it was futile to look for something that would separate Ten-Ten from Poll. It's just that he couldn't—and still can't—accept the idea that the online friend whom he adores so much is the same person who always gets on his nerves. How did that even happen?

Eujae didn't want to yield to the truth that was why he desperately looked for an excuse, something that would confirm that everything was just a coincidence, anything that would point out that Poll and Ten-Ten were not related in any way. It was because he was totally in denial that Eujae pointedly ignored the voice in his head that has been screaming at him, telling him about the most obvious connections between those two.

Significant details. Major similarities that leave no room for doubt.

Poll and Ten-Ten play the same game. Eujae knows because the time Nick insisted that he should be playing the game where he met Ten-Ten, their friend also mentioned that Poll was playing it. Or it was more like Nick was whining about how the male Torres twin didn't want to play with him, didn't even want to give his account's name, just because Nick was not as good as Poll in the game. That was why he tried to get Eujae, who was not even a gamer, to play too. At first, Eujae showed no interest in it, but curiosity got the best of him in the end. He signed up, played a little, and then met Ten-Ten. He never told Nick about it.

The strong resemblance between Poll and Ten-Ten doesn't end in the kind of game they play. If anything, it's just the beginning.

Eujae can see everything clearly now, everything that he failed to realize before.

Ten-Ten has someone he detests. Poll has Eujae. And in both cases, enemies belong to the same circle of friends.

And then, there is this one important date, the deciding factor for Eujae to give up looking away from reality.

Third day of December. The first personal information that Ten-Ten had shared with Gaele. It is Ten-Ten's birthday.

Eujae never asked about Poll's birthday but he knows when it is because of Tem. The Torres twins were born on December 3. The same month and year as Eujae's birthday. The same exact date as Ten-Ten's.

There's no use denying it anymore. The more he seeks for proofs that Poll and Ten-Ten are two different individuals, the more he finds clues that confirm the opposite thing.

This is crazy. Eujae can't fathom how this whole thing became possible. Of all the people that Ten-Ten could have turned out to be, why does it have to be the one person who has nothing but hate for Eujae? It is like fate is playing a terrible joke on him, on them.

His phone vibrates again, making him realize that he's left Ten-Ten on read.

He picks up his phone, smiling wryly, when he sees that Ten-Ten has sent him another text. For the first time since they started chatting with each other, he doesn't feel thrilled reading his friend's message.

Ten-Ten's follow-up text is just another puzzle piece falling into the right place.

Ten2: i dont think you'd care to know but the truth is my real name is associated with the sun. i am named after some solar deities.

Eujae lets out a weary sigh, unsure what to feel about the whole discovery. He doesn't plan to change the way he treats Ten-Ten; that would be too suspicious. But how can he keep at it, knowing that the one behind his virtual friend is the last person who'd want to be friends with him in real life?

Nonplussed, he covers his eyes with a hand and mutters, "What am I supposed to do with you now, Apollo?"