In the end, it turned out that neither Lineth nor I enjoyed the game as much as I thought we would. The main reason for this is that we were both quite uncomfortable with the stares from the girls in the arcade, although they were mostly directed at me, I was sure they were also looking at Lineth, perhaps wondering who my companion was. It got to the point where we basically had a small crowd watching us play a motorcycle game, and most of the girls were looking at my ass while I was driving, which was just starting to get annoying instead of hot.

Also, Lineth wasn't very good at video games, I beat her most of the time. Still, playing for a while helped Lineth get her mind off the previous incident, and when I felt the mood had settled, I took Lineth out of the place.

Or at least that was my intention when Lineth planted her feet on the ground as we reached the exit. "W-Wait." She spoke stiffly, as if it took her courage to say the words.

"Yes?" I tilted my head slightly, looking at the girl curiously.

Lineth turned her hand and moved my arm, and now she grabbed me, only to start pulling my arm somewhere. "Follow me."

I followed Lineth's moving figure with curiosity, I thought the girl was more cowardly, but grabbing my hand was quite brave, at least for someone like Lineth, who basically stiffened every time our sides brushed or something like that. I didn't think much of it, though, and kept walking behind her. We passed some games we had played and also some girls who were watching us.

Was this what celebrities who hate fame were all about? It was certainly annoying, and I wasn't even famous, just good-looking by that world's standards.

I had always made fun of celebrities who claimed to hate fame. I would watch them with their perfect smiles and expensive clothes and say that fame was bullshit. Sure, for the people watching them behind the screen, like me, who wished for at least a little of their beauty, charisma, or money, it was like telling a cripple how tiring it was to walk, that you wished you could be in a wheelchair all day and just roll around. It was insulting in an irritating way.

But now that I've lived a little bit of what it's like to have eyes on you, I can really say that for some people, being famous can suck. Always having eyes on you, watching you. It's not something I really enjoy. It was fun at first, but now it just makes me uncomfortable. Anyway, I tried to look on the bright side and not complain like those celebrities I used to see on TV. Instead, I focused on Lineth, who had slowed down.

Lineth approached the area with the various claw machines, especially the one I had seen earlier with the moon-shaped stuffed toys, and I had an idea of what she was going to do.

When we stopped in front of the yellow machine with stuffed toys in the shape of the moon, the sun and other planets, Lineth cleared her throat. "I saw you looking at these stuffed toys, so... which one do you want?"

I couldn't help but smile, I saw the stuffed toys because they reminded me of Luna and I thought maybe I should bring one to give to her, I didn't expect Lineth to be so observant.

I pointed through the glass of the machine at the one that caught my attention. "The moon." I said simply, and she was happy to oblige me.

Lineth nodded, quickly positioned herself to move the lever and the red grab button, and after moving it a bit, she quickly dug into her pants and pulled out a silver coin and an embossed slot machine shape. I stood behind her, watching intently what she was about to do.

"There's actually a trick to these things." Lineth whispered as she put our last token into the machine. "Not many people know this, but if you infuse it with essence at just the right time, it can make the claw clench tighter and not let go of the toy." She revealed proudly.

I hummed and looked at Lineth carefully, there were always tricks to these things as far as I knew, but they were always fake or just silly like pressing the button a certain number of times or something, but Lineth seemed to be concentrating as the claw descended, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she could feel my gaze, her lips forming a thin line as beads of sweat threatened to form on her forehead. Concentration, perhaps, or nerves.

"Goddess, help me, just this once..." I heard her whisper.

Perhaps some god or goddess heard her plea, for the claw caught the fluffy, white, moon-shaped stuffed toy and carried it safely to the storehouse for retrieval.

"Yes!" cheered Lineth. She quickly bent down and picked it up, turning around with a beautiful, happy smile, holding it out to me, "Here."

This was surely one of the best gifts anyone had ever given me, so I quickly approached her and took the moon before pulling her back with one hand and hugging she sincerely. Maybe it was an overreaction, but to me it was the minimum courtesy for a gift. Actually, I debated whether I should give her a kiss, something like a reward for her —and for me— but many people were watching us and the mall wasn't exactly far from my house, if I kissed her it would cement that Lineth was my girlfriend or that I was a slut if anyone here saw me kissing another girl. I still hadn't forgotten my real goal, to make my family proud. Not to be a waste

I didn't see myself in a relationship with Lineth right away, maybe in the future, but I wanted to know my options first. After all, I might even be able to have a relationship with my beautiful purple-eyed teacher. It might sound demanding, but a life of never being chosen, who happens to be the selector, was definitely a blow to the ego. I wasn't writing Lineth off, I just wanted to experiment a little.

I pulled away from her after a while, and even though she was frozen, she looked very cute with a blush and a slightly smug smile that commanded over my shoulder, probably to the girls behind me who were probably watching us.

I gave her a gentle karate chop to the head. "Don't look so smug." I laughed.

She laughed back. "Sorry, you just fulfilled a life goal for me."

That piqued my curiosity and I raised an eyebrow, "So, which one?"

"To be hugged by the hottest guy in the world."

"..."

"..."

"Thank you." I said after a while, it actually made my heart race a little. Maybe this world really was turning me into a damsel. I just hoped it was a harem world.