After school, Kouji met with the girls as was agreed upon. As much as it was odd to him that two of the five he had grown acquainted towards were not going to be here. Perhaps the less there were, would decrease the chance of something bad happening.

“Well, where to?” Anastasia asked him.

“I didn’t really think of anywhere to go.” He answered.

“Nice job.” Waa had her usual sarcastic quips towards him. “You’re the one that started this, and you don’t even have an idea of where to go?” She sighed. Stuck with a foreign girl, slow girl, and an idiot boy. It looked like she was the one that had to take the reigns here. “How about… The arcade?”

“Hmm…” Kouji thought about it. On one hand, it would cost some money. On the other, those machine only accepted coins. “Let’s go.” Their next destination was agreed on unanimously.

“I am surprised you wanted to go to the arcade.” Anastasia commented as they walked. “I would have thought you already have a lot of games at home.”

“True.” She admitted. “I pretty much got every port of an arcade game that exists. But, there’s an appeal to going out and playing on the real machines.”

“It’s like… A movie theater, right?” Yuma added in. Waa agreed on that point. Sure, she could sit in the comfort in her home to enjoy playing games. Especially on her giant TV, all alone in her room. But there was just that charm of an arcade. Those machines, the sounds of other people playing. Plus, there’s just some things that can only be done there.

“We’re here.” Kouji announced, as they came up to the entrance. Inside, it was pretty much what he expected. Flashing lights, that stuffy feeling as it crowded with people, the tapping of buttons. Yep, this was certainly an arcade.

“Come on.” Anastasia wasted no time in grabbing him away from the others. “Let us go find something to play on.” In an instant, the two of them disappeared in a flash, leaving Waa and Yuma on their own.

“Well, don’t be too excited to stay.” Waa stated monotonally, before brushing it off and going to find a fighting game. Without any plan, Yuma had no choice but to follow her small friend.

I didn’t think you’d have somewhere already in mind.” Kouji said, his arm just being yanked by her.

“I do not.” She admitted. “But if it is with you, then I am sure it will be fun no matter what.” He wasn’t sure what to make of that statement. Sure, he was the first person she actually befriended here upon moving from a faraway country. But this just felt like a baby bird hatching from an egg, thinking that the first thing they saw was their mom.

“Have you ever been to an arcade?” He asked.

“No.” Was the simple answer she had for him. However, something did catch her eye anyway. “What about this?” She pointed over to a machine that had a motorcycle. It was one of those racing type games, trying to give you the experience of the real deal.

“Sure, this looks like fun.” He said, getting on top of it. Kouji had assumed they would just take turns as he put in a coin to start up the game. But he should’ve remembered what everyone says about assumptions.

“...And up we go.” Anastasia hopped up and sat right behind him. Then she tightly hugged her arms around him.

“What are you doing?” He asked, given a little shock from her actions.

“Is this not what people do on these?” She asked, resting her head over his shoulder. “I thought this would be fun.”

“I guess it’s fine.” He allowed it. Plus, they would save some money instead of doing it separately. So he began the race, but staying on the road wasn’t the only thing in his mind.

He swore, either this girl was very naive, or knew exactly what she was doing. Because… Well, because her chest is not what people call small. In fact, he could tell them exactly how large they were, seeing how pushed up they were.

He tried to stay focused. Really now, was he going to be the type to just get flustered over some big breasts? After all, he already got a hand on one of them. Surely, that should’ve built some resistance?

Well, if resistance to the mental game around her chest wasn’t an issue. The way she was grabbing him was. Anastasia was acting so scared about falling off, even though this was just a ride. It’s not like he was really driving them on a motorcycle through the windy hillside roads. One where if he messed up, they be sent careening off to plummet to their dooms.

But that’s exactly what she thought, when he messed up in the game. No thanks to her help, by the way. She slipped off, holding him tighter than before.

“Wait, Anastasia, j-just let goooo-” He tried to convince her she would be fine, but she didn’t listen. Instead, she tore him off the ride as well. Which sent the two falling off the fake motorcycle and slamming onto the ground.

Well, if there was one thing he definitely liked about her boobs. They were handy in breaking a fall.

“Are you okay?” He asked, getting off of her. However, he found her to be simply delusional from hitting her head a little.

“Oh Kouji…” She said, speaking with that faint airy tone of someone about to pass out. “I am always okay when you are here…” Then she blacked out.

***

“What’s up with her?” Waa asked, as she saw him carrying the knocked out girl to their table.

“Just a little bit of an accident.” He answered. Anastasia didn’t show any signs of injury, so hopefully she’d be fine. Kouji set her down gently onto a seat.

“Well, if you’re done ditching me, maybe we can try a hand on some other game.” Kouji thought it was weird to just leave a passed out girl, but Yuma offered to watch over her. She wasn’t really into the things on display here. Instead, she just sipped on her soda to pass the time.

So he took Waa up on her offer. It wasn’t like he had anywhere else to go. Her idea of fun, was one of those dancing machines. The type where you stomp your feet onto some arrows in timing to the beat and icons on screen. Personally, he thought it was kind of embarrassing to play a game like this in public.

For starters, he doesn’t dance. Plus, with everyone watching, it just felt like a weird thing to do. Who would want to watch strangers play video games?

“Here we’ll both work together.” She said, putting in two coins to the both of them.

“Um, are you sure?” He asked, more unsure of himself as a crowd began to form. “I don’t exactly have what you call a right foot.”

“Too late now.” She dragged him on the stage, the people began to cheer in anticipation of the song. Kouji was filled with anxiety of their expectations. He heard about those wizards of the dance game. Those people made it look easy, but he didn’t even know the proper steps.

He grabbed onto the rails around him. Looking down at the arrows below him, it just seemed to get smaller and smaller, like he was about to fall. Yet the game hadn’t even started yet.

“Hey.” She grabbed him back to reality, Kouji turned to look at her. “You’re always showing me new stuff, so don’t worry. I got your back.” Was that genuine? He wasn’t sure, seeing how much that girl messed with him. A part of him thought she might be setting him up to be humiliated in front of all these people.

Still though, he chose to trust her. He released his iron grip from the railing, and took his position. That was when the icons of arrows climbed up the screen. Judging from the arrows at the top, he was certain that they corresponded to the ones under his feet. So, if he hit it when they reached the top…

The first notes were a success. He got the timing right, and things were going along swimmingly. Now he could see why she wanted to play this game. However, things were only heating up, and soon the song picked up pace.

Hitting the notes when they were slow was easy. But now his eyes were blinded with just how many filled the screen. Was this her plan to get him to lower his guard?

“Kouji, just calm down.” Waa said to him, seeing how much panic was in his feet. The way they stamped the ground, he was getting frustrated with all his misses.

“How? I can’t keep up?” She had to come up with a way to help him, quickly at that. Then, she came up with an idea. Hopefully it’d work, but she was sure it would. Especially after she’d seen his teaching style.

“Just look at me, and copy my moves.” She commanded him.

“But, then I can’t see the screen.” At this point, he was certain she was playing him a fool. That sounded like a silly idea.

“We’ve got the same notes, and I’ve played this song a million times.” At this point, her body could do this without her mind interfering. Kouji knew that between doing that, or continuing to fail in front of everyone there weren’t many options here.

So he chose to hope that she wasn’t about to prank him, and turned to face her. Waa did the same thing, not missing a beat as he paid attention to her movements. It took a little bit, but soon, he was doing exactly as she did. That also included all those movements she did with hands and arms, despite that not being important to the game.

When they did that, the crowd went crazy in cheers and claps. For a second, he turned to look at the screen. He was hitting every note now.

“Hey! Pay attention to me.” She yelled at him, causing him to focus back onto her. Now that he was looking at her, it wasn’t just her dance moves that caught his attention. There was just a certain glow to her that he never saw before. She was… Having fun. Not only that, but the way his heart was beating. This way he was feeling… It was fun.

The showing everyone was watching was amazing. The way their movements were in sync. The way they mirrored each other. This moment was special, one-of-a-kind, even for regular patrons of the arcade.

The song reached its final climax, and the two were more than ready to handle it. Masterfully hitting all the notes, it hit the high point. It was then, when she knew the song was about to end, that Waa got caught up in the moment. The last note to hit, the one that was the arrow that pointed straight to each other.

She stomped on it, and used it to jump up to him. Kouji almost did the same thing, as he was in the mindset of copying her. However, his body did the right thing, and caught her in midair. Thankfully, she was a very small girl, so holding her up was no challenge for him.

With that final move, the crowd, which had grown from people curious to the commotion, exploded into applause and cheers. What they just got, was truly a priceless moment.

Still holding her, Kouji simply smiled and bowed his head. The two of them were exhausted, breathing heavily from their fun game.

He turned his head down to look at her. The glowing, flashing lights of the screen was the only thing illuminating her face. Waa, was she always this…

“Um, Kouji?” She broke him out of his trance, as they were still standing there. “You… Can put me down now.” Waa realized just what she did in the heat of the moment. What she did was… A little regrettable.

And perhaps a little… Honest.