Lie to Me Again | ONC 2024

9 - Hot and Cold

"Your population is faced with famine, your treasury is emptied, but" —Mr. Manalo looked up from his computer screen, one thick eyebrow raised— "you've amassed quite the army this turn, Kobayashi."

Yuki tapped her notebook with a pencil, wishing her teacher would keep his voice down a little. She'd worked out a deal with Sila Devi, the girl lucky enough to be running the USSR, and she didn't want anyone to get wind of her scheme. "Are there consequences if I run out of food?"

Mr. Manalo clicked into another window, his mouse skimming across its grey pad. "No."

Perfect. "How does that saying go?" Yuki smirked mischievously. "Let them eat cake?"

With a sigh, her teacher waved a hand in dismissal. She supposed he couldn't encourage such flagrant disregard for the game's realism but if there was no consequence for committing what amounted to a war crime, why not do it? The next student took the seat by the teacher's desk to see how their turn had played out, while Yuki returned to hers.

As the most lax of the teachers, Mr. Manalo often allowed his students to talk during class provided their work was done and they weren't disruptive, something which Rhett took full advantage of as he slipped into the chair next to Yuki. "We making our move on the next turn?"

Yuki smiled at Rhett as he pushed his glasses up his nose, though inside she trembled with a nervous energy. She had to ask him today. Had to ask him before Sophia snapped him up like a flower not yet bloomed. "You think you'll be a convincing boy who cries wolf?"

"I'm not a theater kid just because I can sing," Rhett replied before frowning in thought. "Okay well, Mrs. Rana might've been won over by the singing, but I can assure you that my skills extend into the acting realm too." He rose and flourished an imaginary cape before settling into a bow, while Yuki applauded quietly. 

Only on the stage did Rhett's aversion to attention fade. He stepped into each role he played whole-heartedly as if he'd been born to them. Yuki adored every play he'd put on, every private concert he'd treated her to as kids. Rhett's brand of genius couldn't be bought by hours of practice under an instructor—it was the kind of talent that burned like the sun next to the cheap imitation of fluorescent lights.

But whenever jealousy had threatened to taint their friendship, Yuki only had to ask him to play any sport involving a ball and balance would be restored.

"Wanna go grab ice cream together after school?" Yuki asked, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. If Rhett had noticed her new haircut, he hadn't mentioned it. Hadn't remembered her birthday either.

He leaned back in his chair. "Isn't it kinda cold for ice cream?"

Yuki's eyes locked on his, a familiar twinkle glimmering in their grey depths. "But ice cream," she said again.

"Hot pie," Rhett replied, his chin tilting up in mock superiority.

"Iced coffee," Yuki dead-panned.

"Hot coffee."

"Cold noodles."

Rhett held up his finger and waited a moment before retorting, "Hot noodles."

"Compromise?" Yuki said, offering their customary olive branch.

"Convenience store run." Rhett nodded and it was like they'd jumped back in time. "You get rice balls, I get kimbap?" He still remembered that at least.

"Of course," Yuki said while Mr. Manalo called for the class to pay attention to whatever he'd pulled up on his projection screen.

"It's a date then, Snowflake," Rhett answered on the way back to his desk.