“They seem rather slow, don’t you think?” Gabriela said.
She supposed? “I guess…” Melissa said. “I never- um, I always try to get my duels -- when I have to duel, which isn’t often, um, I try to get them over with quickly so I guess so.”
Melissa could feel the question coming. She imagined Gabriela whipping around, looking her dead in the eyes and asking, “Well, why are you in the Entertainment Dueling Club if you don’t like dueling?” and she mentally scrambled for an answer. Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
-Proverbs 28:13 (NIV)The answer -- like, the actual answer -- was that, well, that was why she laid awake each night struggling to sleep, desperately trying to find a way that both got her out of unwanted commitments and also left her not feeling like she didn’t just let everybody else involved down. What was this, night three? She’d hoped being with Gabriela would help it go away.
The closest “good” answer, though, was “Well, I wanted to try something new.” And that was, well, it was still far enough away from the truth that she couldn’t justify to herself using it as an excuse. The phrase “Good answer”, then, was a misnomer. There were no good answers, and it was pointless to even try.
Well, she didn’t have to justify herself if she didn’t have to, right? And maybe Gabriela wouldn’t ask? Maybe if she avoided the conversation entirely she wouldn’t have to do any justifying at all.
Thankfully, Gabriela was way ahead of her, jumping ahead to answering the other question Melissa had already asked. “I don't think there's anyone I couldn't defeat as it stands,” she said. “Well, except…” But she didn’t finish her sentence.
Melissa waited a bit longer to make sure that she wasn’t about to, and jumped in. “Except who, Hitomu?” she said. “You had that duel against him at the coffee shop, right?”
She squeezed Gabriela’s hand again. “You don’t have to hide that from me, I was there too. And don’t worry too much about that. Beating everyone is kind of his thing.”
A thought. “At cards. He beats everyone at Duel Monsters.”