"W-why? Why…did you do this? Hajime-kun," Manoka said with tears in her eyes seeing the burned and beat-up body of the boy lying in the middle of the crossfire.
"NO! Hajime!" Hana shouted at the screen and hugged Hotaro closer to her. "Oni-chan, Hajime is hurt!"
"Will I get my popcorns?" Hinami asked meekly.
"It's fine, Manoka will do something about it," Hotaro said with a smile on his face and while Hana nods her head, Hinami fell back dejected.
"I just want some popcorns for the movie," she muttered.
The movie continued and there were thirty minutes of the movie left and Hana was a lot more concentrated on the story than anyone else. Hotaro and Hinami already knew what was going to happen so they just kept blankly staring at the screen. It was when Hotaro realized that he also had to get lunch ready and among all this commotion, he did not make anything for it.
He looked up at the clock and it was already time for lunch so he could not make anything now and then the thought hit him. He stood up taking the popcorn bowls from Hana and Hinami and went into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and got the curry and rice out from last night. His eyes fell on the cake that Julie made for his birthday and he could not stop his temptation.
He quickly cut out a piece from the five-layer cake and pick it up with his hands and started munching it down and quickly ate it. He went and washed his hands and heated the food. He made a little too much yesterday so a lot of curry and rice was left and would be enough for the three.
"How convenient," Hotaro muttered and peeked back in the living room seeing Manoka doing her special attack and he knew she had won now.
The curry was now heated along with the rice and he brought out the plates and spoons and put the rice and poured the curry over it. He had intentionally not refilled Hinami's popcorns since he knew that if he had, she won't be able to have lunch. Even if popcorn doesn't fill anyone's stomach, it does for Hinami for reasons even Hotaro is not aware of.
He took their plates out in the living room knowing Hana will probably be wanting to eat while watching the movies. He placed their plates before them and he looked behind him as the movie credits started rolling.
"So, did you like this movie?" he asked and Hana nodded happily.
"Yes!" she said raising her arms in the air.
"Now have some lunch," he said pointing at the plate and she happily nodded. "After that, we have dessert too."
"Yaay!" Hana said cheerfully not losing a single bit of the energy she had the moment she woke up today.
Hotaro deliberately decided to not bring the topic of the other movies since he knew what would happen once those movies start playing. He had no problem with having to deal with a scared Hana and Hinami but he was more worried about the aftermath of the movies. Hinami always gets scared of sleeping alone during this time and stays overnight at his house and Hana would probably also ask to sleep with him.
The problem was that he may not be able to fit all three of them in one bed so that was one more thing he had to worry about.
They all enjoyed the food to their heart's content and since the curry was kept in the fridge for a day, the curry tasted even better as the spices used had better mixed in it making it taste more flavorful. Everyone's faces could tell how much they were enjoying the meal. Each spoonful of rice with curry made a different expression of content on their face. So many in fact that some were just repeated in a cyclic order.
Once all the plates were cleaner than when they had first been placed down, Hotaro picked them up and went to the kitchen to wash them. While Hinami and Hana followed him to go and get a slice of cake each. Something that no one in this world could par with were the sweets made by Julie.
The sweetness was just right for Hotaro but it was also not too much for Hinami and Hana. They, on the other hand, enjoyed the cake just as much as Hotaro did, and whilst Hotaro was washing the dishes, Hana would go and feed him a bite from his slice along with eating her own.
"Oni-chan, let's go back to watching the movies!" Hana said jumping up and down in her place and then, silence filled the kitchen.
Both Hotaro and Hinami had serious expressions on their faces. They knew if they were to listen to Hana right now, something really unwanted was going to happen later. Never in their entire life had they processed so much information in such a short time but they had to. Both of them only had one objective in their mind.
To make sure Hana doesn't watch those movies.
Hinami's brain had already reached its maximum capability but she couldn't come up with an excuse. Hotaro, on the other hand, had some excuses in his mind but he was having a hard time deciding which one to use.
"Look, Han-"
Before Hotaro could complete his sentence, the sound of the doorbell ringing echoed in the house. They all looked in that direction.
"I'll go see that," Hotaro said wiping his hands leaving Hinami all alone with Hana who was looking at Hinami with her destructive adorable pleading eyes. She lets out a heavy, defeated sigh.
"Fine, let's put the movie up," she said and Hana ran towards the living room.
'If anything happens, it will be all Hotaro's fault.'
Hotaro opened the door only to be met with Akari who was about to press the doorbell again. She stared at him and he made way for her to enter the house.
"Welcome back Hajime-san," Hotaro said softly and Akari nodded.
"You guys still watching movies?" she asked him and he awkwardly looked away. "What's wrong?"
"Oni-chan!! What is taking so long?" Hana appeared behind Hotaro without him or Akari noticing it and started tugging on his t-shirt. "Akari-nee-chan, you also join her."
She quickly grabbed both their hands and started dragging them to the living room where Hinami was sitting down on the couch waiting for them. She looked at Hotaro with eyes clearly saying just how terribly she was defeated and Hotaro lets out a sigh.
"Hana, how about we do not watch this movie?" Hotaro said stopping the little girl in her tracks. "I don't think everyone will enjoy watching this."
"But…but…" Hana tried to object but Hotaro looked like he won't be changing his mind soon. "But I want to see this…"
"I said, didn't I? We shouldn't watch this movie," he said standing firm on his ground, and Hana looked down with a sad look on her face.
They all stared at the girl and suddenly, her shoulders started jerking up and down and quite whimpers could be heard in the room. Hana clenched her fists and kept looking down.
Everyone in the room looked at the girl and realized that she was about to cry. Not wanting that to happen, Hotaro panicked a bit and started thinking of ways to make Hana calm down but nothing came to his mind.
"Just let her watch the movie," Akari suggested and both Hotaro and Hana looked at her for some seconds and let out a sigh.
"Fine, we will watch the movie," he said and in an instance, Hana stopped whimpering and started giggling.
"Hehehe, you all are so easy to trick," she said while giggling and hopping on the couch. "Now it's time for the movies!"
The teenagers looked at each other and then back at Hana blankly and it took them some time to process that they were tricked by a six-year-old.
'Did that really just happen?' they all thought at the same time.
'Where did she even learn how to do that?' Hotaro wondered.
Beaten, they all sat down with Hana with Hotaro sitting next to her and then Hinami sitting next to him with Akari sitting next to Hinami. They somehow decided to all squeeze themselves on the couch together. Except for Akari, they all knew what they were about to witness.
Hotaro played the movie and as it started, even Akari understood what was going to happen. She grabbed the pillow closest to her and hugged it close to her chest. Hinami already had her nails digging in Hotaro's arms while Hotaro tried to keep a straight face out of all the pain he was feeling.
Hana, had no idea what they were about to see so she was very excited.
But little did the poor girl know about the things that come after seeing a horror movie.
Nightmares.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join the discord server for updates on all my books
https://discord.gg/fbSzW3F5r2