Chapter 139: Phone Call

As Xinya puttered around the kitchen, making a cabbage stir fry with pork belly for them to dine on, Wei took her phone and went to her room. Connecting her pod USB to her cell, she downloaded the app that would allow her to be able to talk to any of her friends on her friend list when she isn't in the pod.

Once the app was fully installed, she disconnected her cell from her pod and moved to sit on her bed, that she hasn't used in what seemed like forever. Making herself comfortable against the headboard, she opened the app up and scrolled down until she found Wandering Sound's name.

She stared at his name for a while, debating to herself on rather she should call him or not. Being able to talk to him out of the game felt very real to her, it was like she was taking and unknown step in their relationship.

Taking a deep breath, she tapped his name and pressed the call button, just as she did so, she realized that he might not even have this app, and calling him would lead to nothing. Just as she was about to worry herself to death with that thought, a male's voice could be heard on the other end of the line.

"Hello? Roaming Wind?" Wandering Sound asked in disbelief. He couldn't believe that she would talk to him outside of the game like this, especially after the talk they had earlier. He had thought it would take some time before she was willing to speak to him again.

"Yeah, it's me." She said nervously while picking fuzz balls off the sheet beside her. "I called because I think that we need to talk some more about things before we log back in the game.

Nodding softly to himself, Wandering Sound agreed, "I also think that we need to."

"Should we introduce ourselves?" Wei asked timidly. "It's weird to be calling you Wandering Sound over the phone like this."

"I don't mind, as long as you're comfortable with giving me your real name." Wandering Sound emphasized. He didn't want to rush her into anything, but he also knew since she was willing to give him her name, she was on the road to forgiving him.

Wei went silent for a moment, she began to ask herself if she was really comfortable with Wandering Sound knowing her real name, only to find that she was. Although she did know that there were people out there who would scam people out of their personal information, she knew that Wandering Sound wasn't like that.

"Yeah," Wei answered quietly. "I'm fine with it."

Smiling to himself, he said, "Well let me introduce myself. My name is Shu Qiang."

"Nice to meet you Shu Qiang, my name is Pan Wei." She said with a shy smile on her face.

"That's a beautiful name," Qiang told her. "It must be as beautiful as you are."

"Oh.." Wei didn't know what to say to that, was Qiang flirting with her, it felt like he was, although that made her happy they still hadn't talked. She wanted to know what was going through his mind before they could move on to other things.

Qiang knew he shouldn't have teased her, it wasn't the time for that. They needed to talk about what he had hidden from her. "So should we begin our talk about you know."

"It really hurt me, you know. When I learned how you hid your true identity from me." Wei admitted to him.

"You don't understand, I didn't mean to hide it from you," he explained. "It was just that I was so happy that you like me for me and not for my fame. I was going to tell you my true identity in the game, I was just waiting for the right moment."

"And when would that have been? When another player came up to you for an autograph?" Wei sarcastically asked.

Shaking his head, Qiang hurried to reply, "No, of course not. I like you, Wei, I just wanted to make sure you liked me for myself before I told you I was famous."

"You 'like' me?" Wei asked, pausing all movement. She wondered what type of like he meant. Did he mean as friends or something more? She had always thought he was just kidding all those times he flirted with her inside of the game, but now she is not so sure.

"You should know how I feel about you by now, Wei," Qiang said calmly. "Your the only one I wouldn't want to see hurt."

"But you did hurt me. I planned so much with you, only to find that you were hiding things from me." divulged Wei.

Giving the back of his neck a rub, Qiang said, "I know, and I'm sorry, but you must understand why I did it right?"

"I do understand," Wei told him a matter of factly because she understood where he was coming from. Being lied to still hurt, but she could forgive it. She knew that if she was in his shoes that she would have probably have done the same as him. "And I forgive you, but please don't withhold the truth from me again."

"I promise, I won't. This will be the first and last thing I will withhold from you, as long as I can help it." Qiang sincerely told her.

A bright smile graced her face when she heard that, "That's all I ask."

The two of them continued talking, with Qiang telling her all about his life as a singer in the game and why he quit becoming an explorer. While Wei told him all about her mom and how she wanted to prove that she could support herself on her own while playing Haven Online.

"That's why I wanted to leave with you," Wei told him. For the last twenty minutes, they have been discussing if they should still split up from the group, with the way things are now. "Drifting Cloud even said that once we go to Arkala, he was settling down for a while, so I would have to go off on my own anyway."

"Really?" Qiang asked. He was surprised that Drifting Cloud would let her go off without him, he knew how protective he was of her.

"Yeah, he said that since you would be with me, he didn't have to worry," explained Wei.

Knowing that he had Drifting Cloud's approval made him smile a little, "Than that's fine, the next part of the treasure dungeon can't be done until we level 65 anyway, by then I think you will be able to hold your own."

"I think so too," Wei said. The two of them continued talking until Wei heard Xinya calling her to come and eat. After saying goodbye, Wei hung up her cell and left her room in a way better mood than how she entered it.