#riz the ball gukgak you have always been aroace to me

[ewwww-what]

Sometimes I try to talk about why I don’t like the idea of alloromantic Riz Gukgak but I make myself upset and end up needing to take a lap.

[the-writer-nerd-ro]

I'm not like you guys

Here's my Aromantic Riz story like I promised, just in time for Aromantic Awareness Week. It's set after Spring Break but probably before summer and the events of Junior Year (which I haven't started watching yet so no spoilers)

Enjoy!

Riz Gukgak had prepared an entire PowerPoint presentation to tell his mom about spring break but for some reason, he hadn't been able to plan out what he was going to say now, with his friends. 

“Hey, guys, can I talk to you about something I figured out on the trip?”

He knew his friends loved him and accepted him. He knew that he didn't need a whole strategy just to talk to them. He just had to trust them and trust himself. 

“Of course, The Ball. What's up? Is there another angle of the mystery that we missed?” Fabian asked.

“No, uh, no I don't think so. It's kind of about a different mystery. The mystery that is myself.” The words felt dorky as he was saying them but he refused to let his fears get in the way again.

“You can tell us anything,” Kristen said.

“I think… I think I'm not like you guys.”

“What? No, you're just as cool and important as all of us,” Fig said quickly in her “I'm placating” tone that she usually saved for Gilear. 

“Yeah, I know. I know I'm an important part of this group. This isn't really about that.”

“What is it about?” Gorgug asked, used to not always understanding what Riz was talking about. Unfortunately, this time Riz also seemed like he didn't know what he was talking about. 

Riz let out a frustrated sigh, not upset with any of his friends, mostly just upset with himself for not being able to verbalize this.

“Do you want to hold Boggy?” Adaine asked gently.

“Actually, yeah, that might help.” He cupped Boggy in his hands and let the happy little frog settle his nerves and frustration. 

“Okay, here it is. I'm not like you guys. I'm not trying to get my kisses in.”

That seemed like a pretty good way to explain it, but the rest of the Bad Kids seemed perplexed. 

“What?” Gorgug asked.

Riz sighed.

“Do you guys remember Baron?”

“You mean your fake romance partner?” Fabian asked.

“Yes, well, I only invented him because I felt awkward that you guys seemed so interested in hooking up and I just wasn't. For a while, I thought maybe I was just too invested in my cases, but confronting Baron in the Nightmare Forest made me realize that I'm simply not interested in having a romantic or physical relationship with anyone.”

The party took a moment to digest that information before nodding.

“Very cool, The Ball,” Fabian said.

“Yeah, you'll always be the one people want but can never have,” Fig said, her eyes sparkling as a new idea for a song was born 

“I always thought that Adaine would be the asexual one,” Kristen said, which made Adaine give her a look.

Riz slapped his hands down on the table, Boggy hopping back to Adaine at the sudden movement. 

“There's a term for it?!?”

“Yeah if you don't experience sexual attraction you're asexual and if you don't experience romantic attraction you're aromantic. And if you're both I think they call that being aroace.”

The look on Riz's face was radiant, the look of someone who finally had all the clues slide into place. He didn't say anything for a long time, just relished his newfound answers. 

Then the words were falling out of his mouth like a dam that had burst. “In the Nightmare Forest, my second greatest fear was that you would all find love and stop caring about me, that you would all move on and I'd be stuck and alone. But everything we've been through proves that I was wrong. And knowing that there are other people like me proves that I will never be alone.”

“We're never going to stop caring about you,” Fabian promised, with murmured agreement from the rest of the group.

Then Gorgug asked, “What was your first greatest fear?” 

Riz no longer felt awkward about his identity but he did feel awkward admitting this, “Sleeping on the job.”

The Bad Kids groaned and rolled their eyes, teasing him about his lame fears and workaholic persona, but even as they teased him Riz knew that they loved and accepted him and that that wasn't going to change.