Ch 40

POV Akari Nakano

I hope he learned his lesson and doesn\'t do stupid shit like this again. I swear the next time he does this I…

My thoughts couldn\'t go forward from here. Honestly, what would I really do if he doesn\'t stop? If somebody else did this kind of nonsense I would have completely separated myself from him long ago. But for some reason he always finds a way to be around me.

When we reached the arcade I was finally ready to relax myself and stop thinking about everything else. As soon as I got the chance I separated myself from the group with the toilet excuse and went around playing the arcade games on my own. This time I was careful enough to not give Makoto a chance to come after me. As I was walking away I could feel his eyes on my back.

I got a strong urge to turn around, but I held it in and continued walking away. For some reason the more I walked the worse I felt. When I turned around the corner I finally felt his eyes leave me and I breathed a sigh of relief. I don\'t know how to describe the emotions I was feeling.

I wasn\'t feeling sad or depressed, but I definitely wasn\'t feeling cheerful either. It was more like feeling… tired? Is it stress?

As this thought came into my mind I couldn\'t help but crack a smile. Since when did Makoto start causing me stress?

I threw all these thoughts in the back of my head and started up a game of pacman. Nothing like a retro game in an arcade to calm your mind.

.

Ah shit. That was the last life. The score was displayed on the screen with the game over flashing below it.

I just missed by making it into the top 10 leaderboards by a few hundred points  Right now I was in 11th position. If I had a few more tries I could probably get in the top 5.

Right as I was going to put in another coin to start a new game I heard the other guys voices approaching.

My body impulsively got up and hid behind a purikura booth.

"Ha chan look pacman machines. We used to play them back when we were in elementary school, do you remember?" Shimabukuro san\'s voice came from the same machine I was using.

"Of course I do. But that was not in the arcade, some candy shops used to have them and we used to play it there."

From the conversation I could hear Shizuo, Shimabukuro san, Nishikawa kun and Makoto were all there. It seems like Hinata and Suzuki kun went off separately.

As the others were chatting with each other I was wondering what my next move should be. I definitely couldn\'t just walk out straight, Makoto would definitely realize I was hiding here. The problem was I myself didn\'t know why I went and hid.

As I was wondering about these things somebody tapped my shoulders. I was startled and looked back and of course of all people Makoto was standing there with that infuriating grin of his on his face. Right now he was the person I didn\'t want to face the most.

Why is everything I do seen through by him? Like give me a break.

"How-"

But before I could complain about anything Makoto took my hand and pulled me into the purikura booth.

As soon as we entered he fished out some coins from his pocket and put them into the slot, and selected the background and poses.

"What are you doing?" I finally asked

"Taking a purikura. What else do you do in this place?" He said as he made a face at me as if I was an idiot.

"Makot-" Once again I was interrupted as he pulled me towards him.

"Here pose. 3-2-1."

*snap*

"Change pose. 3-2-1"

*snap*

"Again. 3-2-1"

*snap*

"Alright done. Now add the effects"

I instinctively followed his words. Only after the picture was taken did I realize what was happening.

"Makoto STOP!"

That finally worked.

"Okay?" He looked at me with a blank face as if he didn\'t know what I wanted to know.

"Don\'t act clueless. Tell me, how did you know I was hiding here?"

"…"

"Tell me. I am pretty sure you shouldn\'t have been able to see me at all from where you were standing."

"Haa… Fine. But I have a condition as well."

"Don\'t act smart. I am not going to agree to anything. First tell me the condition."

"Why are you so high strung? Relax. And don\'t worry, my condition is very simple."

Relax? Relax he says. The reason for all my troubles is you and you want me to relax?

After taking a couple of seconds to calm myself down, I gritted my teeth and asked him, "What condition?"

"Can we edit these pictures together?"

At his words my anger melted away in a flash and I suddenly felt dumb for getting so worked up while talking to him.

"Alright."

Only then I noticed the pictures that were taken.

"Why-"

"Huh? What did you say Nakano?"

"Why are these couple pictures?!"

"Do you not like it?"

"Of course I hate it." I snarkily replied

Although I said that I could feel my face slowly heating up slowly.

"Is that so?" Makoto looked at me as if he knew what was going through my head and continued, "Well, too bad. That is my condition."

I slowly made my way to the display and added the last few effects before pressing print.

"Now tell me. How did you know?"

"Its just observation. Remember the last time we came to the arcade?"

I nodded as he continued, "I remember the username you used back then. The pacman machine here had the same username with the game over thing flashing."

"But I could have forgotten to reset the machine and left. How did you know I was hiding nearby?"

"Nakano how well do you think I know you? Are you someone who is satisfied with not being in the leaderboards?" he said with a questioning smile that shook me. His words made my heart beat faster. This why I want to avoid talking to him. He is the only one with whom I lose my composure when I talk to him. My heart feels as if it has turned into stress-ball.

Although the inside of my body felt mushy I was confident I didn\'t show any of it as Makoto just continued his reasoning.

"Since you wouldn\'t have left on your own something must have caused you to do that. The highest chances were the reason being us. If that was true then all I had to do was to find the most convenient hiding spot around that pacman machine from where you could observe us."

My face at this moment was completely dumbfounded.

"Of course, I must admit searching here wasn\'t my first choice. I searched a couple of other spots before coming here."

*Shing*

"Oh the printing is done. Here." Makoto said as he passed one copy to me.

"What am I going to do with this?"

"If you ask me I would suggest putting it up somewhere in your room so that you can always remember me anytime."

"Shameless." I snorted as I turned my blushing face away.

Just then Hinata\'s voice came from outside the door.

"Suzuki kun come here. Let\'s take a purikura."

As soon as I heard this sentence the door handle turned and my heart almost burst from the sense of dread I felt at the moment. However, the door didn\'t swing open the next second as I expected.

"Oh it\'s occupied."

"Thank god you locked it." I said with a sigh of relief.

"Hmm? What would happen if she saw you?" Makoto asked as if he didn\'t understand.

"Obviously, I don\'t want to be seen together with you."

"That much I can understand after looking at your reaction, what I wanted to ask was what would happen if she saw us together."

"She already teases me a lot, if she saw us taking couple pictures here I will never hear the end of it."

"Oh. So you\'d rather stay in this locked place with me who you hate so much rather than be seen by your friends? Looks like you don\'t hate me as much as I thought." He looked straight into my eyes as he said that.

"Who said I don\'t hate you? I just don\'t want others to have the wrong idea."

"Well that sucks doesn\'t it. Anyways, I really need to go to the toilet so I will be going out now." He said as he took a step towards the door.

My body moved on its own to block him.

"Makoto don\'t play games with me. You know what you are doing."

Unfortunately, he didn\'t take my words seriously and tried to sidestep me.

"What do you mean Nakano. It\'s the same thing you tried to do before."

Yes, I did. But you stopped me didn\'t you? And what are you doing moving so slow? This isn\'t some quick-time event that you are moving in slow-mo waiting for me to press triangle. I easily caught one of his hands in vice grip and pushed him against the opposite wall.

"Let\'s see how you go to the toilet now." I said with a twinkle in my eye. It isn\'t everyday I get to take out my frustrations directly on Makoto, so I was feeling really satisfied.

However when I looked up at his face there wasn\'t any sign of pain but… happiness?

Is he a masochist?

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