Ishi wandered the grounds outside. He wasn’t paying too much attention to what was available for him and the rest of the students, since he wasn’t interested in doing any of it. Everyone else around him certain was though, with all the laughing smiles they had on. He had a very neutral expression on his face, which might as well as looked like a depressed frown compared to the people around him.

But he wasn’t sad. In fact, this was the most happy the boy had been in a long while. Kind of, since this was what he had been asking for the past couple of months now. Yet now that Ishi was getting what he wanted, it was a little disappointing. Somehow, it felt like something was missing that should be right besides him.

Last year when he did the same thing, but he didn’t feel this way. What was going on with him, he wondered. Perhaps Rinse’s influence did hit him after all. Not in any major personality changes, but more being less willing to live a life of idleness. Probably because she lived a life of idolness instead which gave him something to be interested in.

“You look like a real bored person.” While he was walking, lost in thought, a person running a stand called out to him. She was running a carnival game type deal with darts. “Care to give my stand a try?”

“Sure.” He came up and dropped a coin to participate. This was a simple game of popping balloons, so the boy figured that he’d be winning without much effort. He tossed the first dart. Miss. The second one came out of his hand. Miss.

“Aw, looks like you’re down to your last shot.” The host spoke teasingly. “Let’s see if you’ve got what it takes to win.” Ishi entered a state of laser focus with his last dart. He eyed up the target from his hand and prepared to throw.

“Wait!” A hand came from behind and stopped his attempt. It was Ryugi holding him back.

“What are you doing.” He pulled his arm away from her. “You’re going to mess me up.”

“Judging from your first two shots, I think you’re already messed up.” She took the dart from his hand with a nice slight of hand. “You’re thinking too hard, just do it. Don’t over think it.” Then she closed her eyes to make the throw with his last dart.

“D-don’t do that.” He scolded her, putting his hand up to protect his eyes. However, when she made her toss, a pop of a balloon proved her aim to be true.

“That was incredibly dangerous, but congrats.” The host handed a stuffed animal to her. “I swear this happens all the time.”

“Yay!” Ryugi did a small jump into the air upon receiving her gift. “Don’t think you can just take it because you paid for the darts.”

“I mean, I did pay for them.” He responded. “But I don’t care about stupid toys like that.” However, he did have another question for this girl. Why was she here with him all alone? She was a very popular student at school, maybe the most before Rinse made her arrival and stole all the thunder.

“Ah, they’re all too busy with their stands and stuff to hang out with me.” She answered. “Plus, some of them have little brothers and sisters in the first year and are helping with the play.” That reminded Ishi, he was going to have to check it out. Not because he cared about the story being told on stage, but to see what was to happen with his cousin.

“All right, bye then.” He then made his move to leave her.

“Wait.” She stopped him. “I’m really bored and I can’t just go do stuff here all alone. That would make me look lame.”

“Then go look for some other boy to take you around.” As stated earlier, she was a very popular girl. Surely nearly every boy near them would love to take her around like it was a date.

“I’m not looking for a boyfriend.” She replied, as if that was what he was suggesting. “But I wouldn’t mind being with a boyenemy.” Bad pun aside, he was in the same boat as her with the boredom problem. If this was the boy before Rinse showed up, then he’d just reject her. So he cursed the girl for turning him into what this could be called.

“Fine, but don’t say something stupid like that again. That’s one strike now.” So she tagged along with him as they moved along the fairgrounds. There were a ton of things to do thanks to the enthusiasm of the many students at this school regardless of age.

“I gotta say, it’s kind of lame that you’ve never even touched a girl.” Already he was regretting letting her come with him as she spoke about his time on stage. “You’re going to turn into a wizard at this rate.”

“It’s not that I’m undesirable. I just don’t want to spend my teen years chasing after girls. You’re really annoying at this age.” He countered. “Besides, it’s not like you’re any better than me. You haven’t had your first kiss yet either.”

“Shh!” She covered his mouth with her hand to prevent anything else from leaking out. “Don’t say that out in public.” It was the truth that he stated, but she had a reputation to upkeep at school. While some might find it weird, she did like that people believed her to be someone who had plenty of experience with boys. In fact, there were even some rumors that she had the attention of older men because she liked to hang out late at night.

“I won’t as long as you don’t grab me like that.” He yanked her hand from his face. Now her annoying perfume was still lingering under his nose. It smelt like some type of citrus, like an orange. “That’s two strikes now. One more and I’m leaving you on your own.”

“Fine, fine.” She relented. “Ooh, let’s check out this magic show.” He rolled his eyes at her childlike excitement over this. These things were painfully fake since it wasn’t real magic. Unfortunately he wasn’t the type of person to just appreciate the theatrics.

Ryugi, on the other hand, was much more engrossed in the show being put on by one of their fellow classmates performing a few simple tricks. And they were quite simple, things that revolved around picking out cards and making an egg disappear.

“I hope their next trick is less messy.” Ishi complained as egg fell down his face. It was neat that the person made it go away from the cup, but apparently the secret that magicians use with it involved just throwing it away.

“For a bit of trying to ask for forgiveness, we’d like the young man there to come on up.” They offered to clean him up, as long as he was a part of their next trick. “And that lovely lady standing with him should join in as well.” Ishi would’ve loved to reject their offer and leave, but unfortunately they just had to pick Ryugi to come up as well. She was excited to be a part of the show, and pulled him up with her.

A lot of the crowd murmured among themselves when they saw who they were. Their reputations presided them, especially after his time on the game show. It consisted mainly of shock that the pair were together, with many assuming that she was with him out of pity. After all, he admitted to the world that he had never known love, and everyone believed that she was a rather easy girl.

Ishi ignored it, but he did wish they’d be a little more quiet about it. What’s the point of whispering when the person you’re talking about can hear it all.

“What are we gonna do?” She asked flamboyantly as they wiped up his face. “Are you going to saw one of us in half?”

“I hope it’s not something that can kill me.” He responded. If it was her, then he didn’t care as much. “So please leave saws out of this.”

“Don’t worry.” Without warning, the magician handcuffed their hands together, his right to her left. It was just like with the three-legged race but now they were really trapped. “Now everyone, I’ll show you a neat little trick here.” He addressed the crowd, who started to applaud.

Normally being handcuffed to someone they despised would’ve caused more emotion. However, both Ishi and Ryugi knew that this was just a simple trick and they’d be free of one another in not time. So they bit their tongue as the boy leading the show commanded them to put all four of their hands together.

Then he placed a towel over them and said a few magicial sounding words. He lifted up the veil and… They were still handcuffed. But now it did swap places with each hand, so they ended up mirroring each other. “Eh? Don’t worry, I’ll just…” He did it again, and this time it still didn’t work. This went on for a little bit, where permutations such as one being handcuffed only, and somehow one of them was cuffed with the magician for a bit happened.

Finally, it returned back to their original positions. Unfortunate since both of them would rather not continue being stuck like this. Sadly this was also the time when the magician gave up on trying.

“Get the key then.” Ishi beckoned him, which only brought about even more bad news.

“About that…” They gingerly spoke, well aware that the two were very upset with this display. “I don’t know where the key to it is…” Ishi sighed, this day really was going to be a long one for him, not that it wasn’t already at this point.