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The couch resting above the taskbar is the usual hangout spot for any of the stick figures. Whether it be resting, listening to music, or just chatting, it has been in their presence even after everything that has happened. It stands strong, free for anyone to use, withstanding even the most unthinkable circumstances that the group has faced. Usually, it would be like that. Anyone could spend their time there, sitting peacefully, after getting it out of their website home into Alan's monitor.
Yellow thinks otherwise.
The usual unoccupied couch is terrorized by two familiar stick figures for the third time this week.
There really isn’t a problem if there are more than two or three of them; as it is the case most of the time. Nowadays, however, Green and TSC have been taking up space so that none of the rest can even lay a foot on the cushions. Yellow tried to sit there once in the past week, using his laptop as always until Green plopped himself on his left and TSC on his right. Sure, it was peaceful. If the increasing tension in the bickering of the two qualifies as peaceful, then yes, it was.
“Okay, listen here, starfruit, the crafting table is obviously the best. You can’t make anything without it!” TSC argues, closing the distance between him and Green, who’s on the other side of Yellow.
Green snorts. “Really, apricot? I’ll have you know that your crafting table can’t even make every block in Minecraft. It can’t even play music! The note block is the best.”
“Alright, I’m done with you, fruit bowls.” Yellow left the scene with his laptop under his arm, as there wasn't a way to find a middle ground on the topic of which Minecraft block is the best?
While he’s accustomed to disagreements between them, the tension isn’t entirely the reason why neither he nor the rest can sit there properly anymore. Well, maybe yes, it has its contributions, but there’s something that Yellow has been noticing. Something he intends to uncover.
“Hey, Yellow! Can I have some redstone? I’ve been testing what kind of potion redstone can make.”
Blue sees his friend pacing around his room—adorned with anything related to redstone, technology, and other wirings he can’t exactly name—with a hand under his chin and an expression of what he labels as “Yellow’s thinking face.” He waves his hand to try and catch his attention, but to no avail. With the lack of response, the blue stick figure slowly approaches, careful not to startle Yellow. As he lifts his arm to tap the other’s shoulder, futile are his efforts when Red yells behind the doorway with the same question.
Yellow is forcefully dragged out of his reverie and mutters something incoherent out of the blue to his redstone-deprived audience.
“What was that?” Red asks as he eyes Blue, who simply shrugs.
“There’s something going on between Green and TSC, lately,” is what Yellow utters before he shakes his head and finally acknowledges his visitors. “Anyway, what was that?”
Red and Blue exchange a glance and back at Yellow like they’ve just been hit by an iron golem in the guise of an epiphany.
“Wait… they do look like they’ve been spending more time together, don’t they?” Blue says and looks over to Red, his face asking for confirmation.
“Aren’t they always like that, though?” Comes his reply as he enters the threshold.
Confusion and doubt surround them, and Yellow takes the chance to reveal the thoughts that have been circling in his head for days on end.
“No, no,” he waves a dismissive arm at Red’s remark. “They’ve been really close these days and don’t get me started on how they laugh! I may not be a musician like Green but his laugh definitely sounds higher-pitched with TSC like there’s something… just something! I can’t explain it.”
It takes less than a second for a plan of action to conceive in Yellow’s mind and he dashes to the corner where a command block staff lay untouched and grabs it to create diagrams on the nearest blackboard. As the sound of zapping and occasional grunts of dissatisfaction continues, Blue and Red take a seat on two of the planked chairs, attentively waiting for Yellow’s next words—the redstone request completely forgotten.
“I can only list a couple of possibilities up here,” Yellow gestures to his forehead after finishing his illustration. “Before they become a stretch.”
“But I think these two—” he smacks the staff on a chalk version of TSC and Green, and whips his head to the two listeners. “—are planning something and they’re purposefully making the couch unavailable so we wouldn’t know anything,” he straightens his back.
“That, or we’re just overthinking things and there’s really nothing going on.”
“Eh, but that’s boring!” Red throws his arms in the air as Blue nods sympathetically. “Besides,” the blue stick figure starts. “It’s like they’re in their own little bubble when they’re together, and I keep getting squished between that!”
“Yeah! It’s not just on the couch, either. They were both helping me feed my animals, oh and they’re really cute by the way. One of the eggs hatched and the chick was so adorable! Anyway, they started looking at each other weirdly and competed for who can feed the most cows! Now I’ve got 126 of them on the farm.” Red ends his sentence with a huff that earns a concerned hum from Yellow.
“Interesting… it’s like they’re getting more competitive with each other but they’re also not fighting. It’s like the only things running in their mind are each other.”
A wave of “Definitely!” and “Yep!” cascade inside the four corners of Yellow’s room, confirming his suspicions with witnesses. A pause lingers before a torch of ideas sets ablaze in his mind; he snaps his fingers. “I want to get to the bottom of this!”
And it appears to be that the other two are as enthusiastic about uncovering the truth as he does.
“Count me in!” Red exclaims, throwing both arms in the air for emphasis.
“What’s the plan, Yellow?” Yellow smirks at Blue’s query; an idea is already brewing in his head.
“Okay, so I’ve been thinking…”
Three colored heads pop out behind the open animation window in unison. Locking the target with their eyes, they watch a familiar hollow head hunkered down inside the blank canvas, his back facing them, and drawing of what appears to be multiple flower stems; all small enough to fit in their hands. Alan’s mouse is nowhere in sight.
Yellow concludes that it’s probably just TSC having fun with drawing like what he usually does. Perfect timing to execute plan 1 without having to deal with a spectator noticing them.
“Spying on them? We should be sneaky!” Suggests Red after Yellow explains his first plan through another blackboard diagram drawn with the command block staff.
Blue raises his hand. “We should use invisibility potions!”
“That could work...” Yellow pauses, voice low as he weighs other factors. “...if the potion didn’t have status effect bubbles. If it runs out and they catch us, they might get suspicious.”
The temporary students consider his point and nod. After a few seconds of audible humming to elicit ideas, Red pipes up. “What should we do?”
Blue whips out a spyglass from his pocket and looks through the magnifying lenses.
“See anything?” Yellow whispers from behind Blue, his hand gripping Red’s shoulder who’s also trying to get a good view of whatever TSC is doing. All their focus is directed at the hollow head, for any subtle change in his behavior can greatly offer them clues, though the distance between their position and TSC is not exactly in their favor. It’s Blue who suggested the far proximity to avoid having their friend sense their movements, and Yellow proposed that he should be the one in charge of the lookout as his eyes are suited for long distances—his keen eye has always given him an advantage at spotting even the smallest of details.
Unfortunately, TSC’s behavior isn’t exactly what they can consider as suspicious.
Blue sees nothing but TSC doing his hobby, engrossed in the details of the bouquet artwork with a slight blush on his cheeks. “He’s currently painting the petals with orange,” he reports. “Oh, and he’s coloring the other flowers with green paint… he’s doing it again with the others. Huh… there’s definitely a lot of gree—"
“What are you guys looking at?”
As if they spoke of the devil, the assailant is met with a chorus of yelps and raising of guilty arms—
—and a heavy spyglass falling on his head. “Ack—”
“Green! Fancy seeing you, here!” Yellow almost cringes at his uncharacteristic glee, and sheepishly waves, quickly wiping the sweat threatening to fall on his forehead using the same hand. Blue and Red wave languid arms at him with the ones not supporting their bodies, as they’re both lying on the taskbar after being startled out of their wits.
Massaging his now bruised head with one hand, Green takes the miraculously unharmed spyglass with the other, his attention switching back and forth from the three to the unaware orange stick figure like a tennis ball on the court, and they’re on the opposite side of the net. It’s only a matter of time before he makes a shot where none of the three can even swing to defend.
“Why were you guys spying on Sec?” Is how Green swings his metaphorical racket, sending the ball to zoom at a speed that none of them can reach. Usually, he would join them—no questions asked, maybe suggest a thing or two to ensure maximum success on whatever prank they might be pulling. He does none of that when he notes how on edge all three of his friends look like they’ve just been caught red-handed.
Yellow swears he can see stars in the form of redstone torches, embers crackling like a voice mocking him saying “Well, you’re busted, buddy. Better luck next time!”
“We were testing how good the spyglass works outside of Minecraft!” Bless Red for being quick on his feet.
The ball is sent flying back to Green’s court, and he fails to move, winning Blue, Red, and Yellow a point for their imaginary match.
Yellow fights the urge to shake his head. I don’t even play tennis.
The suspecting squint they receive brings their heart rates back up, and they look in all directions except for Green. The suspects collectively sigh when he shrugs and makes his way over to TSC. They exchange pitiful looks and exhale, both in relief and defeat.
Plan 1: Fail.
It takes them another day to proceed with their objectives after accepting that pushing through with their antics on the same day will only raise more suspicions.
They’ve conjured up a new plan! Yellow’s a little doubtful, though.
“Are you sure that’s gonna work?” He crosses his arms, turning his head slightly over Red’s shoulder to check at Green sitting on the couch with a note block propped on the taskbar. A distant melody reaches their ears, and it’s surely another song he’s working on. One thing Yellow is certain: Green does not like being interrupted while he’s working.
“Of course!” Red assures and waves a dismissive hand. “I’ll give you a signal if I need backup. See ya!”
“Wait! What’s the signal—”
Instantly, Red runs to Green and flumps on the downy cushions, leaving him and Blue waiting for any developments behind an open Windows Music Player. Underneath the music window is TSC, reclined on his folding chair, reading a newspaper and listening to “1 Hour of Birdsong Sounds (Relaxing Nature Sounds)” or whatever it is that he found on YouTube and downloaded. The remaining primary-colored stick figures quietly scale the music window and listen to Red and Green’s conversation, their auditory senses heightened with a little potion Blue concocted to get the ball rolling.
“What ‘cha working on, Green?”
If Green refuses to entertain Red’s prodding to notice him, they won’t even bat an eye. So, imagine their surprise when the musically-inclined stick figure pauses his playing to acknowledge Red. “It’s just a simple song,” he starts, grinning proudly. “It’s not done yet, but I kinda want it to be memorable.”
Blue and Yellow share a look, both expressions locked with shock and wonder. What strikes them the most is the subtle glint in Green’s eyes as he talks about the song, like he’s describing something so precious and worthwhile. Red is just as caught off-guard as them, but he keeps the show on. After all, he once did perform a magician act while Yellow worked behind the scenes. While that show ended up nearly destroying Alan’s computer, this isn’t entirely different.
“Is it dedicated to something?” The question leaves Red’s mouth before he processes where his mind even dug up the idea. He almost takes it back until Green’s demeanor shifts slightly. He chuckles and props his elbows over his knees, back hunched and eyes directed at the note block, though his focus appears to be elsewhere. “Maybe.”
There, Red catches sight of a small, orange petal sticking out beside Green that can be mistaken for a candy wrapper if he didn’t look closely, and instantly recognizes its origins. “Orange!” He leaps to his feet before he can think; an admonitory finger points at the clueless victim.
Heat begins to creep up Green’s face and he sputters a feeble “H-Huh?”
“Orange was drawing that yesterday! He gave that to you?”
Yellow quickly nudges Blue’s arm to give him the spyglass, which he nearly drops in Yellow’s haste. With the spyglass in one hand and the other supporting the weight on his knees, Yellow peeks an eye through the lens, adjusting the clarity to see the alleged bouquet.
“Blue, Red’s right!” He whispers without taking his eye off the spyglass. “It is the bouquet that TSC was making. But why would he give that to Green?” His magnified sight can’t miss Green’s hand secretly caressing the flowers with a fond smile on his face before he takes it out to give Red a clearer view. But why would he?
“Maybe he’s proud of it?” When Blue answers, it’s only then that Yellow realizes he vocalized his thoughts. “But why?” This time, he asks aloud.
“Well yeah. It’s pretty, isn’t it?” The green stick figure answers Red, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
The action is not unusual for them to see, but the appearance before them surely is. Red makes no hesitation to point it out. “Your face looks really bright right now.” Blue and Yellow—while having the spyglass on—didn’t need to have a sight enhancer to see how Green’s face has turned a hundred shades darker.
“Really?” He laughs, shaking his head. His eyes dart to the side and it looks like he’s not only avoiding eye contact with Red, but also with a certain hollow-head. At least, that’s what Yellow concludes.
“I don’t know where you’re getting at but you’re acting weird.”
It’s now Red who shifts in his seat, hands fighting the urge to fidget out of panic. “What makes… what makes you think that?”
“I saw you guys huddled together looking at Sec, yesterday. It sure didn’t look like just testing out the spyglass, to me. What were you guys really doing?” Green returns the bouquet in his pocket and crosses his arms, somehow managing to look more intimidating by narrowing his eyes, the blush on his cheeks already dying down.
Red gulps. If this is his way to divert the topic away from him, it surely is working. The red stick figure already has a half-baked excuse ready to be pulled out of the oven when Green mindlessly tilts his head up to release some tension in his neck, but all the alarm bells clang in Red’s ears that he swiftly throws himself at Green, both hands grabbing his head to look at anywhere except up.
“What in the net are you doing?!” Green manages to say between squished cheeks, resisting Red’s firm grip.
Excuses won’t work now, Red chides himself, wracking his brain for anything quick to blurt out that can save him from this mess. Anything!
Then he remembers.
“CHICKEN!”
Green blinks.
And so does Blue and Yellow.
“Chi…cken!” He repeats through gritted teeth as he puts emphasis on each syllable, forcing a smile behind his panic.
Green, who’s already out of the loop and deprived of his music composition, is having none of Red’s antics. He has his hands ready to haul Red away from him when all of a sudden, Blue pops out from behind the couch and separates the two with both hands.
“When did you—”
“Can I borrow Red for a sec?” Blue cuts Green off. “Need some of his extra cows for a potion I’m testing. See ya!” And they dart back to the Minecraft house, Green’s protests growing fainter as they go.
The door is slammed behind them and the room—Yellow’s room—is silent, save for their heavy breathing and panting. Blue slides down the floor and exhales in relief.
“Glad you guys got the signal,” Red playfully punches his arm and sits next to him.
“That was the signal?! How are we supposed to know chicken was the signal?!”
Yellow follows shortly after, and carefully avoids getting in the line of fire to at least lessen Green’s suspicions. Seeing that Blue obviously helped Red escape, Yellow getting into the mix will only make him realize that the three of them have been planning this whole ordeal from the beginning.
Plan 2: Fail.
“Okay, two of our plans failed, and Green has probably told TSC about everything that has happened, and we’re nowhere near the truth!”
Blue and Red watch with sympathetic eyes as their friend frantically paces around his room, the door now blocked with a pile of heavy planks and unused redstone machines. Just in case the other two members of their group decide to barge in with the long-awaited question “Why were you guys spying on me and Green?!”
A shudder crawls over Yellow’s body. He does not want to be found out before he can fix this problem. It has happened with the command block, next with the Minecraft textures, and he hates to add anything more to that long list of mishaps. But with how their current situation is going, maybe that list might find itself with another bullet point.
“Alright, we’re clearly going about this the wrong way,” Yellow says, plopping down on a chair and resting his elbows on the desk. “The reason why we keep failing is because we’re not looking at this whole thing from a certain angle. There’s gotta be something we’re missing.” He taps a finger over his chin, brainstorming the other possibilities of the recent developments. Blue walks over to him with Red tailing behind and pats Yellow’s shoulder to get his attention.
“Well… maybe we can use what we currently know.” Yellow considers Blue’s words and looks over to Red who nods enthusiastically. The consolation eases his nerves and he exhales, taking his laptop out to encode all useful information. “Hit me with it.”
The other two exchange a relieved smile after successfully helping Yellow relax and start reporting their sightings.
“Well… yesterday,” Blue starts as Yellow’s fingers hover over the keyboard, ready to type as he speaks. “We did see that Second was drawing a bouquet. They were all in the color of green and orange, though,” Yellow nods to inform he’s getting everything down. “And well, I kinda noticed his cheeks were a little bright.”
“Wait, that happened with Green, too!” Red interjects. “When I mentioned that Orange gave him the flowers, he blushed! He’s also making a song for someone. Maybe you guys have an idea who could that be?”
A wave of silence washes over them as more pieces of the puzzle start fixing in place. “They started calling each other nicknames, too…” Yellow mutters as all of their eyes widen.
Realization punches them like a golem.
In haste, Yellow slams his fingers on the keyboard and opens the Google search bar, accidentally adding typos from the fizzling anticipation of having their suspicions confirmed to be true.
[What does it mean when my friends blush at each other a lot?]
“Oh my Alan,” Yellow manages to say under hitched breath.
The three of them huddle together to gawk at the results. All are worded differently, each with their own biographies and opinions, but there is a recurring theme. A theme that none of them even considered despite how blatant it was before their eyes.
Crush.
Attraction.
All signs point in one direction, and there isn’t any other proof to say otherwise.
“How did we not think about this before?!”
Red almost answers Blue’s question when they hear banging on the other side of the door.
Three different hands slam the laptop close in a fit of panic as they dart towards the blocked entrance to quickly remove everything to the side. They can deal with the mess later. They have to deal with this first. Plan 3 in action.
Two expected stick figures stand in front of them; Green and TSC’s arms are both ready to punch the door down when Yellow opens it, eyes sparkling with a mix of shock and exhaustion. They can say the same for Blue and Red. But Red looks a lot more enthusiastic about it than Blue, TSC notes. Green almost checks up on Yellow with how stressed he looks but he’s ultimately silenced with his next words.
“You…” Yellow breathes, voice low that the other two are almost unable to hear it if not for the tense silence.
What they don’t expect is the sentence that comes out of the trio’s mouths in chorus.
“YOU GUYS LIKE EACH OTHER?!”
The plan is simple. To just ask. Entirely different from the complicated ones they’ve executed before. None of them are sure if it’ll work. Heck, they’re not even sure if they’re right, let alone to have that one sentence confidently said in front of the two targets. Blue’s not complaining and neither is Red. Yellow sure isn’t either, but when they see the immediate reactions they get in return, maybe the thought isn’t so far-fetched after all.
“Well, yeah! You guys didn’t know?” It’s Green who answers after an eternity condensed into a second, face flushed with a hand rubbing the back of his head. The three of them look at TSC expectantly, who’s wearing the same confused expression but with a familiar darker shade of orange tinting his cheeks.
Blue doesn’t understand how they’re acting calmer than what they’ve anticipated. “Wait, wait, are we missing something here? Was this something we should’ve known from the start?”
The other two share the same sentiments.
“I thought you guys knew about it?” Green glances at TSC for confirmation.
“I thought you told them?” Is what he replies.
“No, you said you’ll tell them. I said I can just tell them if you don’t want to,” Green stands with his arms akimbo and the rest of the group watches the two of them with curious eyes, with a perfect blend of confusion and surprise.
“Well, we obviously don’t know!” Red exclaims with his arms raised in frustration.
“What’s going on between you two?” Yellow adds.
A snort escapes Green and TSC takes the opportunity to disclose the overdue revelation.
“We’re dating.”
An explosion of mixed reactions floods the staircase and the sound of Yellow dropping to his knees is overlapped with Red’s burst of congratulations and Blue’s applause.
The yellow stick figure regains his composure but finds no strength to stand. He’s dealt with a lot today. Resigning to his fate, Yellow sits on his feet and looks up at everyone else. “Since when?!” His voice comes out weaker from the fatigue.
“Two weeks ago,” Green answers and wraps his arm over TSC’s back which earns him a playful jab in the stomach. He contemplates for a quick second before all pillars of knowledge fall into place, and he snaps his fingers with a free hand. “So that’s why you guys were spying on us! Should’ve known.”
“We thought you guys were planning to take over the internet, or something,” Red quips and joins Yellow in sitting on the floor. Colder than he expects but he likes it that way.
This time, it’s TSC who snorts and crosses his arms. “You guys really have an interesting way to spice things up.”
A laugh finds its way out of Yellow’s mouth as the other primary colors take amusement in the dilemma they’ve unknowingly put themselves into, coaxing their embarrassment with the conviction of at least finally knowing the truth. Blue and Red interview the two with sparkling delight as both Green and TSC fill in all the information they want to their hearts’ content. Turns out the nicknames are just a one-time thing but Green seriously considers it. TSC rolls his eyes fondly.
Watching his friends look at each other with such admiration regardless of their thirst for competition makes Yellow realize that they do fit perfectly together. Not flawless, but perfect for each other to fit. Looking at their interactions from a different angle, them eventually getting together isn’t far-fetched, after all. To top it all off, their couch interactions were probably the biggest clue that all of them overlooked. Yellow shakes his head and smiles at no one in particular, finally regaining the energy to stand.
“Maybe we should’ve looked a little closer.”
Plan 3: Success.