"M!" Aki aroused M's attention.
"Listen, I have unique nicknames for them," Aki continued, referring to the nicknames she prepared for Mario and Matthew.
"I will call Matthew 'Yu'! Then Mario is 'Rio'!" she said with her usual happy gesture. She did her little claps before she sat on the chair's armrest where M was sitting. She then held onto his right arm.
"Where in the world did you pick up those names? That's not theirs," M replied dreary.
Aki just pouted her lips again and rebutted like a child. "I did not pick anything up! Why do you always say I'm picking something up?!" In addition, she casually let go of his arm.
"Because you get your nonsense from everywhere."
"I'm not picking up anything! I've thought about it all! Besides, it's not nonsense, it's ideas! It's called ideas. IDEAS!" Aki defended herself and folded her arms— trying to look angry.
"You two are fighting again," interjected Mario who was with Matthew and had been listening to the argument between these two.
Matthew can now bring out his mischievous side even when Aki was around. At first, he was reluctant to show this side of him. Only Mario, Mharc, and M knew about it.
"Why do you want to call us those names, Aki?" Matthew asked her with a hint of curiosity and humor at the same time.
"Because it's cool!" Aki replied. She seemed to be drowning in her own imagination while clapping her hands small and fast.
"But that's not our name," countered Matthew who was slightly amazed at the girl's reasoning.
Mario, on the other hand, laughed even more when he heard the shallow and strange reason of the young lady in front of them. "Right! Why do you have to call us those names? What is it again? Tiu? Miyo?"
He tried to remember the names that Aki mentioned but he was not sure if he remembered them correctly.
'What is it again? Is it Chu? Shu? Zu? Zhu? Ryo? Nio? Neo? Gino? Gio? I'm dead, I can't remember!' If anyone can hear his thoughts they'll also hear his worried laughs.
"It's 'Yu' and 'Rio'! You're not listening!" Aki lectured her friend Mario which made the young man laugh even more.
"Besides, that's your name! Yu from Mat-yu—Yu! Then yours is Rio. Ma-rio, Rio! See? Isn't that your name?!"
Aki was a little annoyed because the three men in front of her laughed at the same time.
"Don't laugh! Don't make fun of me, that's really your name!" she scolded her friends that were still laughing at her.
Aki has become closer to these Mortals. They considered her now one of the gang. She was always included in everything the troop does.
"Looks like you're having fun here without me," Mharc greeted as she approached them, carrying the snack she had prepared.
This girl liked to cook and invent food combinations, that was why among their friends she was always assigned to that matter. The only condition was that the older ones—M, Matthew, Mario, and Aki —should finish her food, whether it tastes good or not. They were lucky and the meals prepared by her were often delicious so they didn't have to force themselves to eat them.
"Sis, they're making fun of me with the names I want to call them," she pouted her lips and complained to her friend, hoping for her to take her side.
Mharc couldn't stop laughing at Aki's facial expression alone.
"Oh! Sorry, Sis," she apologized to Aki for laughing uncontrollably. "What do you want to call them? It's not too outrageous, is it?" she asked, teasing her.
"You guys are so mean to me. Yu and Rio. There! Isn't that acceptable?!" she responded, trying to guilt-trip her friends.
"Huh? Where did that come from, Sis?"
The three men laughed again at Mharc's question. This time, they laugh harder.
"See that, Aki? Even Mharc doesn't get it either." Mario spoke. He was next to Matthew who was sitting on a long sofa.
"You're always like that!" said Aki in a sullen tone.
She explained the origin of those nicknames. In the end she also convinced her of what she meant.
"And besides, I want to call you uniquely! I don't want to call you names just like everyone else's," exclaimed Aki.
Eventually, she was able to convince Mario and Matthew with the nicknames she wanted to call them. The two young men can't do anything but agree because whether they want to or not, that's what the naughty Aki insists on calling them. It seemed like this was really their role in the gang—to follow the wishes of their two female friends.
"What about me?" M said in the middle of their conversation. His colleagues did not understand what he wanted to convey.
"What do you mean?" Matthew asked him. He was frowning while their other friends just waited for M to answer.
"I'm the only one in the gang who doesn't have a nickname," he said, pretending to be sulky.
Nagtaka naman ang magkakaibigan sa sinabing iyon ni M.
"Isn't it'M'?" Aki asked in confusion as the other colleagues nodded their heads as if they were thinking the same thing.
"That's what other people call me too," he explained before turning to Aki. "I thought you wanted to be unique? Didn't you just say you wanted to call each of us differently?"
"Yes! The names I came up with are unique, aren't they? For Mharc it's 'Sis'. Because she is the youngest among us and no one else calls her that in school. That's unique, isn't it? For Mario, 'Rio'. I'm the only one to call him Rio because others call him Mario. It's also unique. As for Matthew, it's 'Yu'. That's also unique. They always call Matthew 'Matt'." Aki was catching her breath after her lengthy explanation.
"And me? What about me?" M asked again when he didn't hear his own name in the list that Aki had mentioned.
Mharc, Mario, and Matthew were listening silently, also interested in where the conversation of the two were going. Until they couldn't stop laughing at Aki's unexpected answer.
"M. Just M. Your name is just M. Right?"
"Your name is only M!" Mario repeated what Aki said and burst out laughing again.
"Woah! You're the best, Sis!" joyfully commented the youngest of the group, Mharc.
"Why are you laughing?" Aki asked their three laughing friends, confused while M just frowned.
"It's because my name is not just 'M', you dumbbell. Have you ever seen a parent who gave their child a one-letter name?"
"What's your name then? You never said it. How can I think of a unique nickname for you?!"
"Never mind. I don't want a unique nickname anymore," he replied, annoyed to Aki, who was also annoyed by him.
"You're just envious. Because your name is only 'M'! Don't try to piss me off. You're not gonna win," she rebuked. Her voice was low but tinged with annoyance.
"That's enough, you're going to fight again. It's your fault, brother. Don't be jealous of us!" Mharc reprimanded Aki and M but still can't help but tease them in the end.
"I am not! Tsk."
'A day can't go by without these two arguing,' thought Mharc. Meanwhile Mario and Matthew were still laughing.