It was a 20-minute ride to the Amber Pass station. Yuel carefully monitored the expected arrival time on the app to wake up the sleepyhead in time.
"Nia, your station is next." He lightly nudged the sleeping log.
"Muu." Nia produced a weird sound but showed no sign of waking up.
Well, I guess it's time for the usual trick. Yuel fished inside Nia's bag and took out a bar of chocolate. "Here, do you want one?"
"Muuu?" Nia responded to the treat even though her eyes were still closed. "Aaaaam!" She tried to bite the chocolate, but her mouth failed to grab anything.
"... uuu?" Nia opened her eyes a little, just the bare minimum. "Gimme."
"Only after you fully wake up."
"I'm awake. Fully awake. The most awake I've ever been." Nia stretched her small hands in pursuit of the elusive chocolate bar.
"Alright, here you go." Yuel surrendered the treasure. "Your station is next."
"Ok."
After a couple of minutes, they got off the bus.
"Is it a long walk to your house?" Yuel asked.
"Um, about 5 minutes?"
"Then, I'll go with you," Yuel said. "It's getting late, and you still seem sleepy." Besides, according to the timetable, my next bus is in 30 minutes, so...
Nia squinted her eyes. "Suspicious."
"What is?"
"You're never that caring. There's gotta be a hidden agenda here."
"What do you take me for...?" Yuel made a face. "As I said, I started this whole thing, so I'll make sure to see it through to the end. That's all."
"Hmm. Well, maybe it's not that weird, after all." Nia realized. "You're always a sticker for the rules."
"Yes, I suppose you could say that." I'm sure she didn't mean it as a compliment, but whatever.
And so, Yuel followed Nia's wobbly lead. Even though so much time had passed since the exercise, the girl was still barely standing on her feet.
"Here it is," Nia announced as they went up the stairs. "Thanks for the escort. Though, as you saw, I'm perfectly fine."
"Yeah, I sure saw how 'perfectly' you wobbled here. Like that one time you nearly ran into a streetlight, and that other time you nearly tripped over a step."
"Gufu...
"Anyway, make sure you eat something good for dinner," Yuel advised. "Your body lost more energy than it's used to, so I'm sure it's begging for an energy injection."
"Hmm. Eat something good..." Nia mumbled. "Do I even have anything for dinner today?"
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, I mean, I'm not sure Mom prepared anything."
"I see."
It was a familiar story. Yuel also had to wonder every day whether he'd be eating dinner or instant noodles. Such was life.
Nia shrugged. "Worst case, I have lots of chocolate."
Yuel raised an eyebrow at that. "Chocolate? Are you calling that a meal?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"That's not what I'd call a healthy dinner," Yuel said. "Don't you at least have instant noodles or something?"
"Oh, those ran out a few weeks ago," Nia reported. "So, now it's a hit-or-miss for dinner every day, mostly a miss."
"Does this happen often?"
"Yep."
"Is that so…" Yuel frowned. That explains her bony structure. Her food situation is even worse than mine!
At least in Yuel's case, his mother always made sure there was food, even if it was instant noodles. Yet, Nia seemed used to living off chocolate.
I'm amazed she still has any teeth left if that's what she eats every day. Yuel thought. Anyway, this isn't good. She's just finished exercising for the first time, so her body is going to demand more food than usual.
"How do you survive on just chocolate?" Yuel asked. "Don't you get hungry?"
"Nah, I'm used to it-" GROWL. Her stomach objected to the statement. "Eh? Weird. Is this some special sound the stomach learns to produce after exercising?"
"No, it means you're hungry."
"Really? Huh..." Nia massaged her stomach like it was some foreign object.
"As I said, this is normal," Yuel explained. "You burned more energy than you're used to, so the body feels the need to demand more food than usual."
"What a needy brat."
"It's basic physics. You lost energy, so you have to replenish it."
Nia pouted. "Isn't this kinda backward? Wasn't exercising supposed to make me more energetic?"
"Yes, in the long term," Yuel explained. "The idea behind exercising is burning energy in order to convince your body to produce more of it. In most cases, people already eat too much food, so they have an abundance of stored-up energy that's begging to be burned. That's why exercising makes them more energetic and helps them lose weight at the same time."
"This sounds great as an ad, but in practice, the process is a huge pain."
"It sure is," Yuel agreed. "I wish the human body didn't need that kind of trickery to stay in shape. But this is something we inherited from our ancestors, so we just have to deal with it."
"These damn ancestors should've just lived off chocolate." Nia pouted. "Anyway, you keep quiet, you." She pointed at her tummy. "No matter how much you complain, the best I can do is chocolate."
"Hmm." Yuel frowned. This isn't good. Her body needs proper food. Thinking of it, I feel like I also exerted more energy than usual today...
Carrying that sleepyhead around was no easy feat. His muscles have been complaining ever since.
The plan was to treat myself to some pizza once I got home. Yuel thought. Pizza will appease my body way better than instant noodles, and it's a fitting meal to celebrate today's achievement. But…
He wasn't the only one here craving a good injection of calories. Nia was in the same boat but she didn't have the same options.
"Say, do you like pizza?" Yuel asked.
"Hm? Yeah, it's awesome."
"I have two pizza coupons," Yuel said. "Want me to order some?"
"Oh, pizza!" Nia's eyes sparkled for a moment, but she soon regained her composure. "Um, but is it really alright? I mean, it's your coupons…"
"It's all good," Yuel said. "I keep them for special occasions, and I'd say today is one such occasion."
"Hm? What's the occasion?"
"The factthat you successfully exercised today for the first time."
"Oh. Hmm. Yeah, that's an occasion, alright." Nia nodded. "So, you wanna eat at my place?"
"Yes, that's what I was thinking," Yuel said. "Is there a problem?"
"Um, well…" Nia twisted her lips. There's no problem, right? At least, I don't think there is. But…