Lisa walked out of the call center that morning.
It's almost noon, she thought as she checked her CID, Maybe I should go buy a snack...
Lisa turned to the escalators farther away, then pulled out a small square-shaped case from her pocket. She opened it, took out one of the two small metal circles inside, and placed it behind her earlobe. It stuck to her skin using suction, and soon the sound of music began playing into her head.
The device she was using was an earbud that worked on the principle of bone conduction, and had the advantage of leaving her ears clear despite playing music. There were many other advantages and comforts, but Lisa had no interest in listing them.
She stood on the escalator in silence, nodding surreptitiously to the music. Then the next moment-
"You're Lisa, right?"
Lisa jumped, almost falling off, then turned wide-eyed to see a dark-skinned girl with waist-length dreadlocks standing beside her. She grinned and waved.
"Hi, my name's Hannah. Nice to meet you."
Lisa blinked in surprise, then smiled wryly. "Hi. You startled me. You're near the front in class, right?"
"That's right." Hannah nodded.
"Cool. What brings you here?" Lisa asked as they neared the top of the escalator.
"I'm here to buy a few things from the electronics store. You?"
"I'm just hungry."
Hannah chuckled. "That's it?"
Lisa laughed. "I called my dad earlier, and before that I was busy with yoga."
Hannah nodded with a smile, "Ah. Of course you'd be hungry."
"Yep, so I'm getting snacks," Lisa said as she pushed her hair over her ear.
Hannah looked up at her hair for a brief moment. "I like your hair clip."
"Thank you," Lisa smiled. "Just so you know, I just got it last week. It's been four years since I saw it."
Hannah blinked in surprise, "Really? How?"
Lisa chuckled. "...Well, there's this friend of mine. I gave it to them as a keepsake when we parted four years ago. I told them to return it when we met again, and surprisingly, they did."
Hannah smiled at the look on Lisa's face. "Could that friend be Liam Paxton?"
Lisa froze, and slowly her face began to redden.
"Aww," Hannah giggled, "How sweet."
"...Whatever," Lisa muttered as she turned her head away.
"Oh, you're so cute!" Hannah laughed.
Lisa turned to her with a look of indignation, and Hannah laughed even more.
"The two of you are so different!" Hannah wiped a fake tear from her eyes.
Lisa fell silent and looked at Hannah in shock.
"You... you know Liam?!"
Hannah flinched back in surprise at the reaction. "Y-yes, why?"
"That antisocial nerd talked to you?!" Lisa exclaimed, grabbing Hannah's shoulders.
"Wait-"
"How did you do it?! When did you do it?! Liam's basically allergic to social interactions! And girls are even worse; he gets paranoid around them immediately! I mean there's a reason... but that doesn't matter. How did you crack the code?! If you can tell me, we can finally fix him!"
Hannah blinked in disbelief.
I didn't expect the girl with Hypnosis as her power to be so... earnest.
Hannah had approached Lisa out of a mixture of curiosity and caution. She knew Lisa and Liam were pretty close, and she had seen Liam's reaction to being late. Though she didn't think too deeply about it, she couldn't help but be slightly on guard against Lisa.
She had struck up a conversation, and was pleasantly surprised at how easily Lisa picked it up. However, she couldn't get the nagging thought out of her mind that this could be how her power worked. That she was nice to people with some motive behind it.
However, Lisa's responses kept challenging that thought. She never pried, was surprisingly cheerful, and funny. Her reactions were honest, and the surprising story behind the hair clip convinced Hannah that she wasn't a bad person.
What finally put her doubts to rest was the joy she saw in Lisa's eyes at the mention of her closest friend's name.
To be honest, Hannah smiled at Lisa, I was expecting hostility or jealousy. She's a pretty nice girl. That Liam is pretty lucky, to have such a person worrying over him.
"Heh. The store I'm going to is near here," Hannah grinned. "We can talk on the way."
Lisa smiled back, "Sure."
****
"Honestly, I don't know what I was expecting," Lisa sighed. "Of course she got you to yap for two hours by introducing a robot. Typical PaxWiki behaviour."
Liam's ears reddened. "Don't call me that!"
"Why not? It's cute, right?"
"It is not cute, and I couldn't care less if it is. Stop calling me that." Liam growled.
Hannah laughed at the two. "Are you sure you guys aren't an item?"
"Don't even joke," Liam sighed.
"Not with this guy," Lisa smirked. Then she tilted her head towards Lee. "How the heck did the two of you become friends?"
""We aren't friends.""
Lisa and Hannah exchanged knowing glances, then Hannah asked: "Then how did you guys come to know each other?"
"I'll explain," Lee said whilst wiping his mouth with a napkin. "It all started when Kazumi challenged him to a fight..."
Lee proceeded to explain the entire sequence of their acquaintance, from Kazumi's insults to Lee's advice.
At some point they stood up to leave, and Liam began arguing with Lee over the details of the story.
"I did NOT cry!"
"I heard sniffing."
"SO WHAT?!"
Lee continued the story as they walked to the escalators, out the mall, and down the road to the dorms.
"And that's how we know each other," Lee finished.
Liam was growling beside him, and Lisa and Hannah were laughing quietly.
"I-I'm s-s-so sorry-haha-mmph!" Lisa said as she covered her mouth and tried to pat Liam with a shaky hand. He slapped her hand away, eyes as hard as flint.
"I don't need your pity."
Lisa couldn't hold it in any longer, and she burst into laughter. Hannah, who was doing her best to hold it in, caught Lisa's laughter and burst out laughing as well.
"This is your fault," Liam sighed as his eyes softened at the sight of them laughing.
"So what?" Lee chuckled.
"You suck man."
"So do you. At combat."
"Shut up. So what if I can't beat you in combat? I didn't train my whole life. And honestly, the fact that you and Lisa use violence to try and hold me back is hilarious. Can't you beat me at words?"
Lisa and Lee flinched at the same time, and Hannah's laughter doubled in intensity. Liam smirked at their temporary silence.
"Hm? Are you admitting that I'm right? Come on Lee, you gotta have some wise parable to counter right? Or will you increase the intensity of our spars because of this?"
"...I-"
"And Lisa," Liam smiled, "What's so funny? To be perfectly honest, you're much cuter when you get angry. Right now you look like a clown."
"HAHAHAHAHAAA!" Hannah began to tear up as the other two gave Liam death glares.
"Come now, don't look at me like that. Or are you trying to beat me up with your eyes? You, the boy so seemingly competent yet dragged a clearly introverted person to help you deal with girls, and you, the girl who gets embarrassed at the simplest things?"
Both Lee and Lisa gritted their teeth in frustration as Liam began walking away with his hands behind his head.
"Hey, I'm feeling pretty refreshed now. Oh?" He put a hand to his mouth, not bothering to hide his smirk. "Don't tell me... I actually got to you people? The oh-so-wise Master Lee? And the cheeky clown Lisa? How surprising! To think that mere words could make such violent people quiet. How rare."
Hannah almost choked on her laughter as she walked up to Liam. The two walked farther off, then stopped.
"Come on you two," Liam laughed. "You're usually so active. Hurry up!"
Lisa and Lee remained silent. Then, the moment Hannah and Liam were out of range-
"Kill him," Lisa muttered.
"Was already planning to," Lee whispered.
"I'll deal with Hannah."
"Good."
With that, the two walked quickly to catch up to their targets.