Ch 19

POV Shinji Makoto

"All right. Time\'s up. Put your pens down."

It\'s finally over.

It was a Friday afternoon, and the midterms were finally over. I guess I did okay? I thought, internally evaluating my performance.

I never realized it before, but when your exams are over it feels as if you have taken a good dump. During exam time your appetite reduces and you feel so burdened by all the stuff around you. But after exams your body becomes lighter, and your appetite returns back. As I was having these dumb thoughts I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

"Hey Makoto, how were your tests? Let me guess, all A\'s?"

"Mine went good, how were yours?" I asked in return.

"Oh, you know, it was so-so.", he responded vaguely.

"I guess you should focus more on books and less on football, right?"

"Come on, it\'s not like I\'m going to fail or anything."

"Are you sure about that."

"Well, probably."

"I wish you the best of luck for your supplementary classes then."

"Hey, c\'mon. Don\'t treat me as if I have already failed."

"Just kidding"

"So, can I ask something?" He said in a low voice.

I knew Nakamoto wouldn\'t approach me for no reason out of the blue. So, what is it now?

"What? Something happened?"

"No, it\'s not something that serious. You know there are rumours floating around about you and Nakano, right?"

"What rumours?" Normally, I would keep tabs on the class atmosphere and the rumours going around, but recently I was more focused on the exams.

"Apparently, you and Nakano are dating. I don\'t know how you did it, but congrats on getting together with the sleeping lion bro."

What? Me with Nakano, huh?

Noticing my confused face, he continued.

"Some people say they saw you and Nakano on a date at the amusement park during golden week."

It\'s good that Nakano wasn\'t around to hear this conversation, otherwise she would have definitely flipped out on Nakamoto. But still, defusing rumours is easy when you are this high on the school hierarchy. However, I still had few doubts.

"But that was a month ago, right? Why are the rumours popping up now?" On top of that because of exams I hadn\'t even been interacting much with her lately.

"Ah, that\'s because it wasn\'t someone from our class who saw you, it was someone from the first-years."

Oh. Now it makes sense. There were actually multiple reasons for this rumour to take so much time to spread and still not have much credibility. One, the source of the news is a freshman, who is not familiar with us and could have mistaken us easily for different people. Two, my interaction with Nakano was at an all time low, not at all like a couple would behave. And three, it\'s difficult to believe that a cold girl like her would date a fairly normal person like me.

"Well, it\'s true that me and Nakano went to the amusement park during Golden Week, but Nishikawa and Hiwari were there with us too. So I\'d appreciate it if you could deny these rumours from your side."

"Oh, so that\'s it." He said dejectedly.

"Huh, why do you look so disappointed on hearing that?"

"No reason. I just thought it would be pretty cool if you would be dating Nakano. I mean it is interesting if a person like her starts dating somebody, right?"

"I guess."

"Anyways, I\'ll be sure to resolve the misunderstandings. But you owe me one, alright?" He said, leaving the class.

"Yeah, thanks." I waved a short bye at him.

Me and Nakano huh? I can see where they are coming from. I mean we do seem pretty close from others\' perspective, but I don\'t know if you can call us romantically interested in each other. It\'s not like I have never thought of dating her, in fact in the past few months I have often found myself thinking about it. However, I don\'t think what the feelings I have for her can be called love, at least not currently. That is why I have decided to just go with the flow for now. Let us see what happens in the future. Haste makes waste after all.

I did not expect the future to be so rough though, even if I was not at the centre of it.

*******************************************************

POV Akari Nakano

"Haaah" I\'m so exhausted. Writing exams take a lot of mental energy. I\'m heading straight home after school and relaxing for the whole day tomorrow.

As I was changing my indoor shoes to outdoor ones, I saw Makoto leaving. I quickly stuffed my feet into the shoes and ran after him.

"Hey, Makoto, wait up."

He stopped and waved a hi at me.

"Hi, Nakano. Long-time-no-see."

"Yeah, it definitely has been at least a couple of weeks since we walked home together like this." I said catching up to him.

It felt as if he had vanished off the face of the planet for the past couple of weeks.

"Sorry, I was in the library cramming for the tests."

"Oh. So, how did you do on your tests?"

"They were good. I made a few mistakes on the language paper though."

"Yeah, me too. But I think I will pass every subject at least."

"Say, Nakano do you want to go celebrate the end of exams somewhere?" He asked while glancing at me sideways.

I-Is this a date? He is inviting me to a date, right? Wait. I shouldn\'t get too ahead of myself. He might invite other people as well. It might be just another event to get Nishikawa kun and Shizuo closer.

"Where should we go?" I asked nervously.

"I don\'t know. Where do you usually go to relax?"

"An arcade or something?"

But an arcade is not a place for a date, I continued in my mind.

"Cool. Then let\'s go to an arcade."

"When?"

"What do you mean when? I meant now?"

"Now?"

"Yeah now."

"Only us two?"

"Do you see anybody else?"

Why do you want to go if it is only us two? I wanted to ask this question, but I didn\'t know what answer I wanted to hear from him.

"What? Not going? If you don\'t want to it\'s fine. Just forget about what I said." He said, as he hastened his steps, leaving me behind.

I don\'t really know what to do. I am feeling so confused right now. I really want to ask him why he asked me, but I myself don\'t understand my own feelings towards him.

As I saw the distance between us increasing, I instinctively grasped his hand.

"I\'ll go."

**************************************************

POV Shinji Makoto

She accepted. That means she also has at least some good feelings towards me, right? To be honest, I asked her on an impulse, and didn\'t think she would accept.

We walked all the way to the arcade in an awkward silence, both lost in our own thoughts.

"Do you go to the arcade often?" I asked her as we entered.

"Not really, but I do visit once in a while."

"That\'s cool. I rarely go to the arcade. I have only gone to the arcade with the other guys in my class before. Never alone." I prefer to be stuck indoors after all. A noisy place like this is usually a no go for me.

"Huh? For real?" She looked at me as if I was some idiot.

"Y-Yeah, I just prefer less intense environments, alright."

"Sure, sure. Then how about competing with me? We\'ll see who can win at more games. The loser has to follow one order from the winner. Okay?"

"Just because I visit less doesn\'t mean I am bad at the games."

"Who said you are bad? I am just confident in my own skills."

"We\'ll see then." She smirked.

.

.

.

No, it can\'t be. The rhythm games, the dancing games, the crane games, I lost at all of them. Were all those hours of playing piano tiles for nothing? How could someone beat me so bad. I don\'t even know if I am that bad, or if she is just too good.

"So, what were you saying?" She smiled like an evil Disney queen.

No, I can\'t give up like this. I still have a few coins left. If I can\'t beat her in skill then I should try something else. My vision locked onto a certain machine.

"Let us try that game" I said pointing to a horse racing game.

This game is completely luck based. It\'s a simple game where if you bet on the right one you win more coins.

"All right, but don\'t forget you already lost. I have double the points you have."

Yeah, but so what. It\'s not about the competition anymore, it\'s about my pride. How can I lose at everything against an idiot like Nakano?

"I already know that."

"Fine then, hurry up. I already chose my horse." She said choosing a random one.

Alright, I need to feel the energy in my surroundings. Feel the qi in the air. Yes, I can see it. It\'s that one, number 11, I choose you!

I put all my remaining coins into the machine.

The machine started and the mini horses started moving.

My horse is in the lead now with Nakano\'s in the middle of the bunch. Hah, maybe I really can feel the qi. But my excitement was short lived. My horse started slowing down and some other horse took over. Soon the race finished with none of us winning. Isn\'t a game like this a scam?

"…"

"…"

"It\'s kinda plain."

"Yeah. It felt way more hype in my mind."

"Anyways, I won so you have to follow an order from me, okay?"

"Yeah, just don\'t make it anything crazy." I said despondently.

Maybe I should just stay at home. The competition outside is not meant for people like me.

"I don\'t have anything now, so I will tell you later."

"Sure."

We had spent over 3 hours at the game centre and it was already getting dark so we split up and went home after that.

I slept that night while thinking about Nakano.