Zooble sat next to Gangle, watching as she sketched yet another character in her sketchbook. Even though Zooble would never admit it and risk ruining their stoic reputation, they had to admit that the way Gangle would get so focused on her drawings was adorable.

They gave their head a shake to clear it. That was what somebody who had a crush on their friend would think, and they definitely didn't have a crush on Gangle. If they said that enough times, they'd be able to believe it and push their feelings for Gangle away.

They had to push the feelings away, because they couldn't dare to have any small bit of hope that them and Gangle could be something. After all, in the Digital Circus, hope only led to more pain and suffering in the end.

Zooble was so lost in their thoughts that they didn't hear the footsteps behind them until it was too late, and Gangle's notebook was snatched away from her.

"H-hey! Jax! Give that back!" Gangle whined, trying to reach for it, but Jax held it over his head so that Gangle couldn't grab it.

"So," he teased, "What have we got here?" He flicked through the sketchbook mischievously. "Last time I got my hands on your notebook I saw that lovely little letter for Zooble on the last page. Anything as interesting as that this time?"

While Zooble blinked in confusion, wondering what he could mean, Gangle shook her head, mortified. "Y-you—no one was supposed to see that! I told you not to ever bring that up! J-Jax, please just give it back!"

Jax only smirked, continuing to flick through thr sketchbook, scanning over the drawings. "Yeesh, no wonder you dropped out of art school. Even I could do better than this!"

Gangle gasped, taking a step back, and Zooble's patience finally snapped. "Knock it off and give her the sketchbook back you absolute—"

Jax rolled his eyes. "What's the big deal? Doesn't an artist want their art to be seen?"

Gangle opened her mouth to reply but Zooble cut her off. "Not by someone like you! Jax, give her the notebook back now!"

Knowing he wouldn't, Zooble lunged for it, managing to grab it, and tugged it out of his hands. But Jax didn't release his grip on one of the drawings he had been looking at, and as Zooble grabbed the book back from him, the drawing Gangle had clearly put so much work into got torn in two.

Gangle let out a small squeak, watching as it fell to the ground.

Zooble's gaze snapped up to Jax. "Now look what you've done! Are you happy now?" They demanded accusingly.

Jax laughed. "Of course I am! I've just done everyone a huge favour. Right, Gangle?"

But Gangle wasn't there anymore. She had already ran to her room. Zooble cast one more threatening glance at Jax before hurrying to Gangle's room. They'd make him pay for this later, but for now their priority was making sure that Gangle was okay.

Arriving at Gangle's room, they lifted their hand and knocked on the door.

"Hey, Gangle? It's just me, can you open the door?"

There was no reply, and Zooble let out a sigh, but then they heard a faint shuffling noise and a moment later the door clicked open and Zooble was met with a broken looking Gangle.

Gangle glanced up at them then looked back at the ground with a heavy sigh.

"Can I come in?" Zooble asked gently, and Gangle stepped aside to allow them into the room.

Zooble sat down and patted the space on the bed next to them, beckoning for Gangle to sit down, and she did, keeping her eyes fixed on the red carpet.

"I'm so sorry," Zooble whispered, "I can help you remake the drawing if you like, and I promise I won't let Jax get his hands on your sketchbook again. I get it, Jax sucks, but letting him see you like this will only make him keep doing it. So please, don't get so upset over the drawing."

Gangle let out a small sob. "Don't you get it? It isn't just about the drawing! It's...everything! The drawing is just a small part of it, the drawing is just what's finally broke me! All of his jabs and mean comments, they've all been building up to...to this!" She wailed.

Zooble placed a hand on Gangle's shoulder. "I'm really sorry. I-I didn't know he was hurting you this badly."

Gangle tucked her head against her knees. "I've never liked myself. I've never been able to find anything even slightly good about myself. But my drawings, my art skills...are the one positive thing about me,  the one thing I'm good at. I dropped out of art school because I never believed I was good enough. But here, with all the time I've had to myself, I've been drawing a lot more, and I thought I was improving. I thought I was getting better, and maybe I'd finally be good enough. But to hear him say that my drawings are bad...it reminds that I really am just a failure, and that there's nothing about me that's worth caring about."

Zooble felt a stab of sympathy. How long had Gangle felt this way? I care about you, they wanted to scream, I love you so much! But the words didn't come out.

"That's not true, Gangle," they said instead, "Your drawngs are amazing. And you're just as amazing as they are."

Gangle let out a dry laugh. "You don't have to lie to me."

Zooble blinked sadly, leaning closer to Gangle. "I'm not lying, I—"

Gangle cut them off. "I'd like to be alone for a while, if that's okay?"

Zooble sat still for a moment, surprised, but nodded and stood up. "Y-yeah, of course," they stuttered, "Just uh, come get me if you need anything, yeah?"

Gangle only nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow," Zooble said as they approached the brown door, and, throwing another glance at Gangle, they spoke up before they could overthink it. "I love you."

Gangle didn't respond.

***

Zooble woke up the next day, staring at the ceiling and trying to convince themself to get up. Every day here was such a chore. The last thing they wanted was to get up and be dragged along on another pointless adventure.

But they looked out the window in their room and sighed. There wasn't really a concept of time here, but they had eventually realised that they could guess roughly what time it was based on how bright it was outside.

It seemed that they had slept in longer than usual, and with a groan, they finally got up and left their room. The table was empty, meaning that breakfast had already ended, confirming Zooble's suspicions that they had gotten up later than usual. Zooble then noticed that everybody was sitting on the coloured couches.

Everyone except Gangle.

"Has anyone seen Gangle?" Zooble asked, walking over to the group, growing more concerned as they watched Pomni share an anxious glance with Ragatha.

Jax finally spoke up. "This is what happens when you sleep in, you don't get to watch your friend abstracting!"

Zooble froze, their heart lurching for a moment before remembering that this was Jax. Of course he'd say something like that.

"Ha ha, very funny," they rolled their eyes sarcastically, trying to keep calm and not show how frightened they had truly been, then turned to Pomni, Ragatha and Kinger. "Where is she? Still in her room?"

They all stayed silent until Ragatha finally spoke up. "I'm so sorry Zooble, it must have been when we were all sleeping. Pomni and I went to check on her after Jax told us what happened, and when we got there she was already..."

"Wh-what? No, stop! This isn't funny!" Zooble snapped, because they were joking. They had to be joking, that was the only explanation. If Gangle had really abstracted...

Pomni stood up, walking over to Zooble. "We're holding her funeral later today. I'm so sorry, Zooble, I know you two were close."

Zooble started running. They had to get to Gangle's room. Then, they'd open the door,  Gangle would be sitting there drawing in her sketchbook, and everything would be fine. It had to be.

But when she finally arrived the room, she stopped dead. Gangle's sweet, adorable picture on the door had already been painted over by a red X, and Zooble sank down to their knees with their back against the door and their head in their hands.

This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening. It wasn't happening, this was another one of their stupid nightmares, they'd wake up in nothing more than a few moments and everything would be okay. Gangle would be right there.

Zooble quickly got up, pushing the door, but it was already open. All of Gangle's things were scattered and strewn all over the place, clearly from when she had abstracted. But sitting clearly in the middle of the bed was her sketchbook.

Numb with grief, Zooble managed to drag themself over to it, and with a shaky hand, picked it up. They gently flicked through it like it was the most valuable thing they had ever picked up, and they realised instantly that it was. It was the last piece of Gangle they had left, and that made it more precious than anything in the world.

It hurt to see all of the drawings in it, it hurt more than anything, and then they finally got to the last page. There was a letter, written in Gangle's pretty cursive handwriting. Zooble thought back to what Jax had said. 'Last time I got my hands on your notebook I saw that lovely little letter for Zooble on the last page. Anything as interesting as that this time?'

Too curious to hold back, Zooble began to read it.

Zooble,

I know I could never say this to you face to face, in fact, I don't know if I'll even be able to hand this to you, but even if nothing else, writing this will get these crushing feelings off my chest. You mean so much more to me than you even know, every day here is awful, but with you, things aren't so bad. I've loved getting to know you. Even in my real life, I've never had many friends. You're the first one who's really understood me. And even though loving anything in this circus will end with it being taken away from you, I can't help but love you, Zooble. I love everything about you, your laugh, your personality, the way you always listen to me and accept me, the way you're actually interested in my drawings...I just love you. I don't want this to ruin what we have, but I want you to know this, just in case something happens and I never get to say this to you. I don't know what my future holds here, but what I do know is that I want to spend it with you. So, thank you for everything,

Gangle.


Zooble hadn't realised they were crying until they noticed tears landing on the note, and they quickly wiped them away. They didn't know if holding onto this note would keep Gangle's memory alive or just break their heart, but as they held it close, they knew they could never bear to let it go.