3 Nickname

'Fuck, since when are push-ups so hard to do?!' Axle raged while greedily sucking air from his mouth.

After continuously trying hard for another half an hour, Axle had barely managed to do 2 push-ups successfully. This was mainly because the system didn't count the half pushups and pushups with the wrong posture.

Every time he lowered his body for a push-up, his weight made it impossible for his hands to push it back up! And thus, he lay on the floor, tired. His muscles were sore and he needed to exert all his stamina to simply move his hands!

'Damn you, Rex! You make it look so easy!' Axle cursed in his mind while getting back on his feet, it was already a fact by now that he couldn't do the push-ups, so he planned to go for a walk right now and jog for 10 minutes, completing his other requirements of the task.

*Buzz*

Axle's mobile phone buzzed on the desk and he leaned his body to pick it up.

[KarmaCat- Hubby! What are you doing??? I just bought a new dress, tell me how is it??]

[image.jpg]

'Oh, it is her.' Axle looked over at the phone and then opened the pic, simply replying with an 'OMG GORGEOUS!!!!!', without even looking at the pic properly.

The KarmaCat, or Karma, was Axle's online girlfriend he had once met on Bonfire. He had initially doubted that she was even a real girl or just a trap to suck his money off. 

But soon he confirmed that she was a real girl who lived in a city that was about a 6-hour drive away from Axle's city. Yet, in a total of 1 year of their relationship, they hadn't even met once. It was online through and through.

[KarmaCat- Hehe thanks! I bought you a shirt too hubby!]

[Mikey- Oh you didn't have to!]

Axle sighed after reading the text. 'I feel I am not doing her enough justice… playing with her like this…' he was disappointed in himself, unable to give her the same love that she gives him.

She was literally obsessed with him, while he, being an insensitive, insecure, dumb, and dirty prick, didn't give her back even 1% of the love she gave him.

'But, would she even go out with me when I am like this? At least online she doesn't know how I am in reality…' Axle shook his head, throwing a jacket over himself, and got ready to leave his apartment after so long.

He was insecure about his chances with a real girl, a girl who could see his real face and his actual self. Thus, he did what he knew the best, hid on the internet, behind a mask that no one could see through.

Chatting with Karma on the way, he walked out.

'So, I need to walk 30 minutes, right? And then 10 minutes of jogging.' 

Axle first walked to a nearby park, which wasn't too crowded, only a couple few people were either walking, jogging or just chilling in nature's embrace.

The air was delicious, kudos to the latest air purifiers and artificial environment. None of the trees in the immediate surroundings were real, but they sure behaved like the real ones… at least partly. They ran on electricity instead of water and sunlight, and they filtered the carbon dioxide into oxygen. Close enough to the real ones.

Axle took off his shoes and socks, to feel the soft grass under his skin. Because he had heard that walking on grass is healthier, so no loss in trying it for himself.

[KarmaCat- Hubby, I miss you. When will you come to Pearl City? It has been a year since we met already. Can't you just take some time out of your busy schedule and visit me once? Just for a moment! You don't even need to spend much time with me, I just want to see you, touch you, hug you.]

Axle's steps froze when he read her message, how could he tell her that he wasn't like he pretended to be? Busy? He didn't even leave his room ever. He survived on his parent's allowance like a leech. He didn't work and neither did anything that he could tell to someone proudly.

All he did was waste his time on games.

He didn't even look like how he showed her, he had photoshopped himself to look slimmer and with sharper features.

[Accelerator- I will soon, baby. When is your birthday? I will come till then.]

(Accelerator is Axle's Insta account) 

[KarmaCat- REALLY???? No backsies remember!!! It is next month, 21 September! You really need to come, okay? I will never talk to you again if you don't.] 

[Accelerator- Of course, I will! I don't go back on my words.]

'Maybe I can go next month with the help of my system…' Axle smiled inwardly when he thought of meeting her, after all, she was a beautiful girl who by a stroke of tremendous luck, met Axle online and they fell in love.

He was simply intimidated by her charm and was so insecure about their future together that he didn't act upon his urges and feelings to go to her.

And before he knew it, half an hour was up. He didn't even realize how fast it ended when he was talking to Karma and was deep in his thoughts.

If it wasn't for some strain on his tired legs, he would have felt he was imagining it.

***

"Oh? Did the sun rise from the west today?" suddenly while jogging around the garden, Axle came face to face with a group of teenagers, all of them dressed in flamboyant and eye-catching clothes, having a youthful charm.

"Baby dumdum, what a coincidence to meet you here. How have you been?" a young man with blonde hair and metal piercings placed his hand around Axle's shoulders naturally.

'How much I missed this nickname.' Axle gritted his teeth and hissed sarcastically in his mind; this was one of the nicknames he was known for in his school. The nickname 'Baby Dumdum' to put it in simple words, compared Axle to a baby elephant. Fat, round, and heavy.

"Aww, did baby dumdum want to exercise and lose some weight?" a blond girl, whose face looked quite similar to that of the blonde man from earlier, asked with fake concern.

"Uh. Yes." Axle nodded and broke eye contact with the girl since he was too shy to keep eye contact with a beauty like that.

"So you want to lose weight?" another young man with red short, spiky hair, asked in a deep, cold voice. He was Rex— Axle's biggest rival… or rather, his idol in his twisted way.

Since Rex… was also his bully…