noob glanced up at the leaderboard on display high above their heads.

1st place: guest 666.

2nd place: noob.

3rd place: …..

they didn’t bother reading any more names. only theirs & sixer’s alone was enough. they glanced off to the side, looking at their best friend whom was sat beside them. sixer was also looking up at the leaderboard, grinning triumphantly. noob’s heart ached. they hadn’t seen sixer smile in a while…& why hadn’t they? because sixer hadn’t won in a while, that’s why.

sixer was changing. noob was sure of it; they could see it happening right in front of their eyes, the shift in their best friend’s personality, sixer’s appearance changing & her recent competitive nature. sixer had never been much of the competitive type before; she’d been content simply playing games with noob, having fun every step of the way. now, it was all different, wasn’t it? sixer was more competitive than before. she got upset in ways she’d previously been foreign to whenever she lost, yet after returning after a week’s absence, she suddenly got all the better at the games noob used to have a blast playing with her at. now, those very same games just felt like a bomb ready to explode if sixer happened to lose to someone better than her.

noob used to be better than sixer at those games. used to be—now, sixer overpowered them in every single one, not mattering whether sixer was playing with or against noob in the games. she grinned whenever she glanced up at the leaderboard & saw her name up there next to #1, yet her whole mood seemed to sink whenever she lost, or even came 2nd. sixer had never lashed out at noob whenever the latter came first instead of her, yet noob was nervous about what would come if sixer’s competitive nature got out of hand.

they decided to confront her.

the beach, the very location the two had met, was where noob found sixer. she was staring off into the sea, the tide lapping at her feet as it came in. noob walked right over to her, standing by her side. they swallowed before speaking; they were nervous. their eyes darted to sixer’s glitching arm before returning to their friend’s face. they weren’t smiling as they usually did.

“sixer… what’s going on, hm..? you’ve-.. you’ve been acting really strange lately…”