After a stressful day, Kaede’s return home always started with a triathlon, which consisted of buying a few groceries and doing a quick clean. Finally, an unhealthy menu ordered on Uber Eat to accompany her while she played.

The woman was a veteran video game player. Every man she dated found out the hard way as she would feign being weak to only finish them off with a perfect K.O in combat game and the whole squad wipe out on the military fields of Ghost Reckon and Call of Duty.

She stopped with Marco, as she dedicated a valuable percentage of her time to please the man. The end of the relationship just taught Kaede what a waste it was, and she should have played her games instead of hopping and barking like Eddy Murphy’s fiancée in Coming to To America.

To stop herself from procrastinating during her burnout Kaede went back to her first loves reading mangas and playing. The current literature trends depressed her, always the same:

- CEO x virgin, but BDSM friendly assistant ploy.

- Mafia boss x girl kidnapped while buying tacos.

- Thirsty five-hundred-year-old vampires x seventeen-year-old minor, etc.

All this did not boost her mood. The woman preferred reading Tokyo Ghoul or playing in Luigi’s Mansion. The light-hearted activities appeased her. She stopped going to the gym, not wanting to cross Marco or anyone else. Kaede found another psychical course that helped her maintain a good heart rhythm just as well. And combat games allowed her to evacuate the frustrations at work.

Kaede switched on her PlayStation 4. Someone was going to bleed on the war field, and it would not be her.

The woman completed season 3 without any difficulty she gained in experience, and as a true fashionista, all her weapons were in gold.

No one messed with KuroQueen.

As in real life, she had no friends on-line, but people invited her to join their squad for raids when they saw her level.

Kaede sat comfortably, took a bite of her pepperoni pizza, a sip of her Aloe Vera water, which represented the only diet part of her meal, and wiped her hands. She waited for the game to charge and uploaded her season 4 pass for Call of Duty Modern Warfare.

Six pending invitations waited for her, but she chose the one who invited her to wipe out other factions in a one and one combat mode.

Behind his screen, Dominque too prepared himself.

He played with his real squad members.

Unlike other players, Dominque’s faction knew what weaponry to use and how to conduct a successful mission. The squad was one of the highest-ranking in France. The infinity ward even approached the team to ask members to become beta testers for the game. Gaming was currently Dominque’s job by default.

The man played for free and gave technical advice on how to make the infiltration mission more immersive. Like Kaede, it allowed him to escape from the dark thoughts that haunted him. He knew that for the people he left behind in Paris, he was someone different. If Dominque could bear the person he became, the people around him could too.

Dominque had fun, and now God gave him a wake-up call. The man adapted his lifestyle as much as possible, and he believed he did a pretty good job. Of course, there was that one night when Dominque drank to celebrate his return, and he still could not get over in which place he woke up since he had not taken a sip of alcohol or abused his body. Things were going well, and Dominque hoped they would continue that way.

“Alright, guys, are you ready.”

Everyone answered.

Dominque heard gulping sounds of someone drinking, another where someone flushed the toilets.

The man sighed, “Matthew, how times do we have to tell you to turn the mic off when you go to the toilet with your headphones.”

“Sorry, guys.”

They were in four corners of the world, yet they connected with the game.

“Alright, guys, we have an Invitation for a 6V6 deathmatch.”

“Oh yeah, they’ve been asking for weeks,” Simon replied between to munches.

Dominque grinned, “let’s annihilate them.”

Some people mislead themselves as they imagined adult life as one filled with work, bills, taxes, and family life. Not many believe that their existence from age twenty-five and up can be fun. It’s usually the moment where one finds a stable job, and the money comes in, letting the person enjoy the simple but also the useless things in life. Yes, there are obstacles, but sometimes just like now, one could have the leisure of just laughing.

Matthew whistled, “Dom, look at three o’clock; we have a warzone pimp.”

Kaede’s avatar was all everyone could see on the screen with her all gold. The attire made the men laugh; it was a pure fantasy created by Infinity Ward. Players could have customized weaponry, which didn’t make sense as no real soldier carried around objects visible by satellite. The gold jeep finished the men off; they chuckled like hyenas until the killing began.

“Simon, Jared, on your right, your right.”

The men were experts, whether virtual or real, Dominque’s faction was slick and decisive, but here in front of the gold pimp called KuroQueen, they were getting the whiplash of their gaming existence.

“Simon, watch the bitch.”

“Why do you say, bitch?”

“Look at the name; only a girl would call herself KuroQueen.”

“Unless she’s a trans or non-binary,” Dominque added and smiled, thinking of how Lorenzo upgraded his knowledge on sexuality daily.

“True, or she’s probably a 13-year-old.”

The gaming world was ruled by kids, even in a game like Call of Duty.

“Whatever guys, thanks to the pimp, their faction is winning. It’s is so embarrassing.”

Kaede laughed while imagining how they felt.

Why did people rave about this faction?

Dominque’s team was predictable, like all the males she knew. The squad thought they mastered and saw it all, and so they took their challengers lightly. Kaede profited from the element of surprise as she sneaked up on her opponents while they attacked someone.

“Dom, watch out.”

Luckily his rapid reflex saved him. He went on a one and one combat. For Kaede, it was just about fun for Dominque; it became an affair of pride. He was the last man standing; he could not let down those who fell before him, or could he?

“Noooooooooooooooooo,” his squad yelled in unison.

“Dom, don’t tell me you’re dead,” Lay said in dismay.

Matthew giggled, “he is so dead, that player torched his ass.”

“Man, you died,” Simon added.

Furious Dominque sent out an invitation.”

“Man, what are you doing?”

“I can’t, guys, I can’t accept this.”

Three more matches followed with two wins for Dominques’s faction, making it a draw with Kaede's first win.

“Simon, it’s your turn,” everyone heard in their headphones.

“Okay, guys, I’m out; it’s baby bottle time.”

Simon took time out to be at home with his family as he was a father for the first time.

“Okay, Simon.”

“Me too, Dom.”

Everyone signed out; Dominque wasn’t sleepy. Restless, he sent a message out to KuroQueen:

what else do you play?

To Dominque’s surprise, he got an answer if not to say a scroll: Zelda, Grande Theft, Elder Scroll, Need For Speed, the Last of Us, Assasin Creed, and every single game one could think of was on the player’s list.

They chose Need for Speed and raced together; at 4 AM, the man’s DualShock 3 controller slipped out his hand as he gradually drifted into slumber Ville.

A 9 AM, Kaede woke up head sprung as though she partied all night. She rushed to the bath and howled at her reflection, the raccoon eyes and hefty three leveled staircase bags under them.

She resembled a zombie from The Walking Dead; why did she overdo it with the games?

It was that BoyScoutMakveli’s fault.

The Da Stuff party was only hours away. She could go in with the face of Kung Fu panda after a hangover. What finished Kaede was the thought of being late. She went to grab her phone and dialed, “eh, Joseph; I’m so sorry.”

Stressed, the woman paced around the four corners of her apartment like a lunatic phone in hand, biting her nails. Lateness was not one of Kaede’s attributes. Even for dates, she didn’t mind being the first there also if it made her seem eager. She heaved the guilt made her have a panic attack.

“Kaede, what’s wrong, huh?”

“I’m so sorry, Joseph, but I’m running a little late.”

Joseph chuckled, “Kaede, are you serious. We’ve got other keyholders to come in at 2 PM.”

“But Joseph, I-.”

“Kaede, Marco, is there. What do you think I pay him for? He’ll do the job. Let the man be something else than a mannequin for once.”

Kaede grasped her head, “I’m so sorry, Joseph, I don’t know what happened. I know it’s an important day.”

“Come on, Kaede, it’s nothing. Listen, promise me one thing to wear a dress. One that will make fashion bloggers gasp with envy, then you can say we’re good.”

Kaede was not a fan of skirts and dresses anymore; she preferred the reassuring flexibility of trousers. When she wore dresses, they were oversized or loose.

“And another thing, don’t wear one of your I’m as pregnant as elephant dresses. Think femme fatal.”

“Joseph.”

“It’s the deal, Kaede.”

“Alright, alright, femme fatal.”

“Okay babes, be beautiful, see you later.”

The man hung up, and Kaede fell back on the sofa.

Crazy thoughts began to race through her mind; what was the team going to think?

Would they gossip? She was supposed to set an example.

Kaede sat up and looked at her tv screen, which displayed a message:

You’re a good player. Let’s do it again sometime.

Pff, who did he think he was.

Kaede had a find a solution for her beaten visage; she grabbed her phone once more and called Sephora. Joseph wanted a femme fatal. She was going to offer him a WYSIWYG.

“Hi, is Dima in today? ㅡYes, great, does she have a slot ㅡI have an emergency. My face has to go from under construction to high maintenance if you know what I mean.”

The girl on the phone laughed, “alright, madam, I can book you for 11: 30 AM.”

“God bless you, thank you so much.”

Okay, that done, all that was left to do was find the dress that could kill a man in one view.