This was no mere gaming tournament. This was a bonafide esports event with all the dazzling lights and crowd to go along with it. Hakuta was at a loss for words and all their jaws were to the floor in watching everything around them come alive as they walked into the main event area.

“Okay, looks like this place ain’t going to be a complete snoozefest.” Said Rouko as they went deeper inside. Knowing the tenuous situation between Ninka and Hakuta. She immediately went into a mode of breaking the group up. “Ooh, I wonder if there’s any influencers here.” She grabbed onto her two friend’s arms. “We should go look around and see if we’re lucky.”

Rouko then proceeded to separate the girls from everyone. They quickly rushed off, somewhat with the other two being literally dragged along. Hakuta knew why it happened, and while it was a little sad in theory, it did give him a bit of a breather.

“Well boys…” He assumed it would only be his best buds and Iruka with him for the rest of the time. Unfortunately this would be far from the case when it came to his closest friends.

“Whoa, do you see that?” Itsuki cut him off, wrapping an arm around Yuusen’s shoulder to give him a good look. He had pointed out a popular booth that seemed to be set up on showing off some cool gaming gear. Of course, most people were likely here because of beautiful ladies who were hosting the spot.

It didn’t work on Hakuta since he thought most of the things for gamers were overpriced. Not to mention with his upbringing, his family was way too poor for those things. Unfortunately, this did work completely on his friends.

“And now we’re alone.” Said Hakuta as he simply watched both Yuusen and Itsuki depart for this booth. He knew he didn’t plan on joining them, and apparently Iruka wasn’t interested in coming along with them either.

“Wow, it really is just the two of us.” She said.

“Surprised you didn’t want to go with the girls instead.” He commented. While it was obvious that Rouko only grabbed her two close friends. It made more sense to him that she would want to be with the girls in this strange place.

“I came here for you.” She answered. If he was seeking her out as a girlfriend, that might’ve got his heart to skip a beat. Well, okay, it did, but she didn’t have to know that. “Of course I’m sticking around you. Now come on, I’m sure there’s something you had in mind before everyone ditched us.”

“Unfortunately this surprise is making me question what it is I want to do.” He replied honestly. “But I’m sure with this many booths there’s something interesting. So I don’t mind walking around a bit aimlessly with you.” Perhaps he had made a rash decision before when he said he didn’t want to be friends with her, Hakuta thought. It turned out she really was someone who would be worth hanging around.

“I hate to tell you this now, but I don’t really play that many games.” She said, viewing all the many banners which seemed to be promoting different video game franchises she had never heard of. “I mean, some things sound kind of interesting, but what am I suppose to know that’s good?”

“It’s just an opinion.” He responded, scanning for anything that might catch his eye and be of interest to her. “I mean, we don’t have to like the same things. And it’s not like I’m some authority of what’s good and bad.” Though there was one thing he saw which he felt would be fun for anyone. “Ooh, let’s go here.”

It wasn’t incredibly busy, which was a bonus for him. The booth he led her to was of a virtual reality setup of a new upcoming game. “You ever try out VR?”

“No, but it looks really awesome.” She was awestruck checking out the person before them moving about with the headset. Besides them was a screen displaying what they were seeing and doing. “You mean we can actually put ourselves inside a game?”

It’s still new tech, and it’s not perfect either.” He tried to temper her expectations so she wouldn’t be disappointed when it was their turn. “The arcade back home has something similar to this.” Obviously Hakuta never owned a VR headset on account of the price and his poor financial status. Still, the time he had with Shiuka at the arcade would forever be ingrained in his memory.

They didn’t have to wait long for their turn when the person running the stand called them up. Fortunately for them the booth also allowed for multiple people to play together. So they both put on their headsets and found themselves basically transported into another world.

This reminded him of joining alongside with Shiuka when they took on a bunch of fruit monsters. If only he could play again with her today, but it seemed that him upsetting Ninka would get in the way of that. It was now that he regretted getting her to that state, even if it was to keep her from flirting with him. Maybe he should do something to mend the cracks in their relationship.

But now wasn’t the time to be concerned with that. Right now he was standing besides Iruka as they prepared to enjoy a moment out in space. Something which neither expected they would ever live through in their lives. Though her inexperience with gaming came to light as soon as they begun.

“Oh my gosh!” She already panicked as the game loaded them into space, floating about among the stars. The scene would be romantic were it not for her freaking out. “Ha-Hakuta, we’re not on the ground anymore.”

“I know.” He replied to her, unconcerned with his current situation given that nothing was wrong. The headsets were quite immersive, but he already was fully aware that nothing was real.

“I can’t believe this.” She moved back and forth quickly. “I’m walking, but it’s like I’m not actually walking.”

“Okay, you should calm down.” He looked around as her avatar quickly rushed around, not at all getting the idea of floating about in space. “Seriously, you’re going to make yourself sick.” Hakuta tried to get near her, but wasn’t working out at all.

However, one unfortunate thing that neither of them remembered was that VR headsets of this magnitude still required wires. It was easy to forget this when having the gear cover their vision to bring them about to another world. But as she ran around in circles, she was setting him into a trap he didn’t realize had been built around him.

“H-hey, you really should listen to him.” The person running the stand attempt to talk to her, but it didn’t work. They apparently also tried to physically stop her, but this also failed as she moved about too fast in her panic.

“Yeah, Iruka if you’re scared, just take off your headset.” He told her, getting closer to her. It was at this point where her efforts in tangling up the cables, even if unknown to her, had born fruit. Hakuta didn’t see it, but he had tripped up on the wires she had surrounded him with. She then proceeded to run out of those cables and quickly they got tied up together.

“I-I can’t move.” She spoke, still in her panicked voice. “What’s happening?”

“That’s weird.” He commented, finally being able to catch her avatar, he held onto her to try and keep her from moving. Yet this was also when he found himself unable to do anything as well. “I can’t move either.” Though he did notice one of his hands gripping something really soft and squishy. It was nothing at all like the controllers they had been handing.

“You should’ve been a little more careful.” They heard voices from the real world and other hands getting on them. “I guess we should’ve eased you in a little more if you’ve never done this before.”

“I’m so sorry.” Iruka apologized with a little bit of crying thrown in for good measure. “It was so scary.” She also felt someone getting a bit handsy on her, so when she was able to see again. She would have some rather angry words to exchange to whoever thought it was a good idea to take advantage of her in this situation.

“It’s fine, Iruka.” Hakuta assured her things would be okay. “I promise I’m here for you. You don’t have to be so worried.” Finally, after a long while of getting some things untangled, they were able to get the headsets taken off for them to return to the real world and see again.

It was also now that both Hakuta and Iruka got their answers of what it was they were feeling that seemed a bit strange. Apparently in their entanglement, he had ended up losing the grip on his controller and in a twist of fate, grabbed a good portion of her admittedly large breast. “Ahh!”

He realized this quickly and rushed to pulled himself away from her. “Iruka, I’m so sorry.” The boy went into apologizing as fast and sincerely as he could. “I didn’t realize that I was touching you like that.” His face was a bright red in thinking that everyone around them saw exactly what he had done to her. The embarrassment was too much and before even getting a response from her, he had done something without thinking.

This being to get up and run away from her. That was easily the most humiliating moment of his life, and quickly he would regret leaving her behind almost as soon as he did it.

Hakuta stopped running after he had gained a ton of distance between them. He really found a way to mess up multiple times today. When it was supposed to be his day the most. “I’m such an idiot.” He wiped the sweat off his face as the boy was now faced with the disappointment of his actions. “I should go back.”

Yet before he was able to put action to his words. Hakuta was distracted by a sight. He had nearly missed it, with the figure being in the corner of his eye. But he saw it and immediately recognized who it was despite them wearing a mask to hide away their face. This wasn’t someone any of his friends knew, but there was no way he could forget that person. “Hey, it’s you!”

There was no way he would forget that mask.