Chapter 25: Encounters in the arcade
"Hey, Ryu." Koizumi tugged Ryu's hoodie from the side. "Get me that."
"There's no need for him to do that, Tomio." Yuki pushed Ryu aside. "I'll get it for you."
Koizumi watched Yuki try the claw machine. Once Yuki entered 100 yen, she started moving the claw around. "Which one do you want?" she asked.
Koizumi leaned against the glass pane and checked which one she liked best. "That fluffy pink elephant."
"Just wait; I'll get it." The claw aligned directly with the stuffed toy. Yuki then hit the button, watching the claw grab the toy.
But as the claw slowly went back up, it wasn't able to grab onto anything.
"Huh?!" Yuki took out more coins from her purse. "I'll get it again."
"Pfft..." When Ryu saw Yuki fail, he couldn't help but laugh.
Yuki looked to the right, glaring at his smirking face. "What are you laughing at?"
Ryu averted her eyes and tried the other claw machine on their right. "It's the pink elephant, right, Koizumi-san?"
"Yep," she said, walking to Ryu.
"Tomio, I've almost got it!" Yuki pulled Koizumi towards her. "Watch me!"
"Got it!" The claw got the item and pulled it up, moving it to the hole to get the prize.
Koizumi looked at Ryu, and so did Yuki.
"Tch. He was just lucky." Yuki focused back on her machine, and again, she failed.
Pulling out the stuffed toy, Ryu gave it to Koizumi.
She smiled as she finally got what she wanted. However, Koizumi didn't mind it if no one could get it.
She tightly hugged the stuffed toy and looked at Yuki.
"This thing is probably rigged!" On her 9th attempt, the claw finally grabbed onto something. "Yes, yes, yes."
With the claw leading it into the hole, the claw plummeted the stuffed toy to the side, not into the hole.
Yuki slammed the glass. "This thing is really rigged!"
"Don't do that, Yuki-chan." Koizumi comforted her, "It's okay if you weren't able to get it."
"I guess my first try was just all luck." Ryu continued on the claw machine even though he had already got what Koizumi wanted.
Unlike Yuki, Ryu got another stuffed toy off the machine. As he pulled out the purple bear, he walked towards Yuki, still on the claw machine.
He tapped her back, and she looked behind her shoulder. "What's up, stalker? Want to make fun of me?"
Holding the stuffed toy behind, Ryu waited until Yuki gave up. Unexpectedly, she had already run out of coins.
She turned around, leaning her back against the claw machine.
"Were you able to get one?" he asked, smiling.
Yuki showed both of her hands. She then rudely said, "Do you see me holding anything?"
'Why is she rude to me?! What have I ever done to her?'
She looked down at Ryu's hands. "Oh~ Are you hiding something behind you?"
With Koizumi checking other games, Ryu showed Yuki the stuffed toy on his back.
Yuki didn't know why he showed her this, so she said, "Is it for Koizumi-san? I think she'll like it."
He shook his head and laughed. Ryu then looked at Yuki. "It's for you," he said, smiling.
"Eh?" Yuki probably thought Ryu was practicing what to say to Koizumi. "That's good."
Ryu pushed the stuffed toy at her, making her hold it in her arms. "You're welcome."
'T… This is for me?' Yuki's head started spinning, like a Rubik's cube trying to be solved. 'But why me?'
After giving the stuffed toy to Yuki, hearing the response "That's good" wasn't what he expected. But given her attitude towards him, he ignored it.
Placing both hands in his pocket, Ryu looked around and said, "Let's go?" trying to make this less awkward for him.
Coming back to her senses, she stuttered as she said, "T-This is really for m-me?!"
He nodded. Ryu didn't know why she asked that question when she had already accepted it.
Seeing Ryu walk past her, she said, "W-Why?!"
Ryu stopped walking and looked at her. "I just wanted to give you one. Is it bad?"
She lowered her head, looking at the bear. "No..."
'Was it a bad idea to give it to her?' Ryu sighed. "Now, let's go. Koizumi-san might wander around and leave us behind."
"Y-Yeah, you're right..."
--
"Incoming call: Bank account."
"Hello, baby~."
"Hi, Tomio-chan."
"Why did you call?" While holding her phone, a man started walking towards her.
"I was wondering if Ryu had come yet?"
"Un, he came already. We're at the arcade right now."
"Hello there, sexy." A man with flashy clothes leaned his arm against the wall, trying to catch a conversation with Koizumi.
"I'm on the phone," Koizumi said to the man with a smile.
"Tell Ryu that I might not come back to the mall. The girls from the toilet are still here complaining to the police."
"Okay, Is that all?"
"Yep. Bye, Tomio-chan."
"Un. You too."
- End call -
"Are you done with your call?" the man asked, straightening up his posture.
Scrolling through her phone, Koizumi nodded at him.
"Are you free?" He took out his wallet and continued, "I was hoping we could grab a few drinks."
"I'm here with my friends," she said, without looking at him.
The man showed a grimacing smile. "They can come too. The more, the merrier."
Koizumi looked at him with disgust. Just looking at his bright green shirt and purple pants would make any person blind if they were to stare at them for too long.
Adding his black curly hair and glasses, he might be some guy that worked for somebody. He was skinny. But not as skinny as Seiji and Oda. He still had some fat within him.
But aside from his clothes, the other thing you could immediately notice was his eyes. His eyes were red with dark spots under them. He was probably deprived of sleep, which Koizumi didn't care about.
"Will you pay?" she asked.
'Hoho. I've hit the jackpot. Boss will probably let me play with girls later on after he's done with them,'
"Hey!" Koizumi snapped him back to reality.
"W-What?" He took a step back after hearing Koizumi raise her voice.
"I said will you pay?"
"Yes, I'll pay. You girls can order anything you want."
"I'll call them so they can come here. Wait, a minute..."
--
Walking behind Ryu. Yuki pulled out her phone and answered it.
"Hmm? What is it, Tomio?"
"Where are you guys?"
"We're still at the arcade looking for you."
"Go straight. I'm in the corner, together with a person wearing flashy clothes."
"Mhm. We'll be there."
- End call -
"Was that Koizumi-san?" Ryu asked, looking left and right.
"Un. She said to go straight. She's with a flashy dude."
Ryu walked towards the arcade machine on his left. "Oh shit. They got Street Fighter II here--"
Yuki pulled his ear when she saw him sitting down on the chair. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Ow..." Ryu stood up and caressed his left ear. "Since we're at the arcade, aren't we supposed to play?"
"But Tomio is waiting for us."
"C'mon, just one round." He pulled out the remaining coins from his pocket. "You can have a go too."
"No." She continued walking, leaving Ryu behind.
But she stopped. Yuki turned around and saw Ryu enjoying his game.
Ryu bent over to the side and showed a smug smile. "You can still play, you know."
Though Yuki wanted to go back to Tomio, she felt somewhat open whenever she was around Ryu.
She looked at the stuffed animal wrapped in her arms and took a deep breath. Yuki walked towards Ryu's arcade machine, leaning her back against it.
"So... how do you play it?"
"Eh? What did you say?" Ryu kept hitting the buttons on the machine. "I remember the combo being like this!"
Yuki sat on the other chair of the arcade machine on the left side of Ryu. "Give me the coins."
"Get them in my pocket—Shit! This dude deals a lot of damage." Ryu played a lot of these games in his hometown. Convenience stores around his neighborhood always had an arcade machine.
"I'm not touching you!" Yuki exclaimed. But seeing Ryu focused on his own, she placed the stuffed toy in front of her on the machine and crept her hands into Ryu's left pocket.
With her hand inside his pocket, Ryu suddenly shouted, "Fuck, I lost!"
[Insert a coin to continue]
Ryu looked below him and wryly said, "Ou~ You're already taking action. I like that."
"N-No!" When Ryu shouted, he slightly stood up and sat back. With her hand in his pocket, the shock nearly made her fall from her chair.
But luckily, Yuki grabbed onto something to keep her from falling.
"Okay, okay. Stop squeezing it!" Ryu's expression turned sour. "It hurts, you know!"
Yuki immediately sat up straight after getting the coin from his pocket and pulling back her other hand from his crotch.
"It's your fault! Why did you even have to shout!"
Ryu shrugged. "The game was speaking to me."
"What the heck are you saying?!" Yuki inserted the coin into the machine. Fighting with Ryu about this would be worthless, though he really had to be blamed for this happening.
[Press start to play]
"..." Ryu sighed in defeat. "Have you played these things before?"
"No..." she answered, trying to find the word 'start' itself.
Ryu pointed towards the red button and said, "Press that to start."
"What's next?" she asked, looking innocently at Ryu.
He explained to Yuki the basics. "This is the joystick. It's for the character to move. And these buttons are the moves. Just spam each one of them. You'll be lucky to get a combo if you do."
He stood up from his chair and walked behind her. But as he moved back, his butt hit something soft.
Ryu turned around. And the person who his butt bumped into looked at Ryu with her eyebrows raised.
"Ando-kun...?"
"Okuma-san...?"