Ch 43

POV Kei Shimabukuro

"So what should the punishment be?" Hiwari san asked us right before she started her turn.

"What about just money? It is simple and easy." Kei chan suggested.

Just then a brilliant idea came to my mind. I vetoed Ha chan\'s idea.

"But that wouldn\'t be any fun would it? Besides I don\'t think any of us are in a dire need of money."

"What do you want it to be then?" Hiwari san turned towards me and asked.

"How about the loser has to go buy all of us drink? That\'s fair game right?"

Seeing the other two agree to my idea filled me with anticipation for me to finally execute my plan.

.

.

.

"I… lost." I uttered as the yellow ghost ate my last heart.

I had scored lower points than Hiwari san. Although Ha chan\'s turn was still left it was obvious he would score higher than both of us.

My original plan was to make Hiwari san to bring us something as her punishment for losing while in the meantime I could take him somewhere else and spend some time with him alone. Unfortunately, my plan backfired. What I didn\'t account for was the chance I would score lower than her.

The reason for that was the confidence in my own skills. After Ha chan and I were separated, I sometimes went and played this game alone. I thought this practice would be enough to put me over Hiwari san. Was it because I was not able to perform at my best, or maybe Hiwari san is just better than me at this, I don\'t know.

"Kei chan your turn is over." I felt a tap on my shoulder as Ha chan\'s voice came from beside me.

This woke me up from my thoughts. I nodded to him and reluctantly stood up from the seat.

"By the way, the loser has to get the drinks from the vending machine at the entrance right?" Hiwari san said with her usual neutral tone, as if everything was normal. But her words echoed like a clap of thunder in my ears.

I whipped my head towards her but she hurriedly averted her eyes from my face and turned her slightly blushing face the other way.

Wait. Wait. Wait. Did she just use a uno reverse card? If previously I was feeling even a little guilty before, now, all those feelings evaporated into nothingness. No this can\'t go on. I had to do something now.

"Wait."

My sudden exclamation turned a few heads from the people around us.

I know it was hypocritical of me to think this way when I was going to do the same to her, but I really didn\'t care about morality right now. Those things can be left to the fourteen-year-old kids on twitter.

"What happened Shimabukuro san?" Hiwari san asked me with a tense face.

"You happened that\'s what" - Is what I would I have liked to say.

The only thing I can do now is to try to stop her plan from succeeding flawlessly. And for that I had to use my strongest card.

"All of us know that Ha chan is better than both me and Hiwari san. How about we give him a handicap?"

"What handicap may you be talking about Shimabukuro san?" Hiwari san asked with a nervous expression.

"Just reduce his lives he has. Let him start with only one life." Before Hiwari chan had a chance to counter my move I turned to Ha chan and looked at him straight in the eyes with a smile on my face, "You will do that won\'t you Ha chan?"

"Yes." Ha chan replied reflexively.

Now that the player himself had accepted Hiwari chan couldn\'t object to this and had no choice but to wait for the results. Of course, it is possible that Nihshikawa kun will still win in the end, but at least I have done the best I can.

.

.

.

"As expected playing with only one life is too much of a handicap." Ha chan commented as the game over message flashed across his screen.

"I won?" Hiwari chan was in a daze as she said that.

"Congratulations Hiwari chan." I said sarcastically to her to which she didn\'t respond.

Even though she won she didn\'t get what she really wanted to do and neither did I.

"Alright what do you guys want?" Ha chan asked us getting up.

Now that he came last place it was his responsibility to go get us drinks. Only now I realized a fatal problem with this plan. If Ha chan left then both of us would be left alone. And after what had just transpired between us the mood would definitely be awkward as hell.

After Ha chan was out of our sights the silence arrived as expected. Hiwari chan\'s cheeks were red, probably from the shame and embarrassment.

"Umm. Should we at least take a walk around this area?" I finally tried to break the ice.

Hiwari chan only nodded. After walking around a few uninteresting games, she finally opened her mouth.

"T-That was an impulsive decision, so don\'t take it to heart Shimabukuro chan."

To be honest, if I were in her place I would have gone for more. In fact I was already feeling guilty from my initial plan. Also, it\'s not like I don\'t know her feelings. When you consider it\'s her birthday today as well… Of course she would want to be more selfish.

"It\'s fine. I would have done the same." I replied trying not to make it sound like an offhand comment.

"How about we play that?" Hiwari san pointed towards a coop zombie shooting game.

"Alright." I nodded. It seems like both of us had the same idea to remove the awkwardness in mind.

After a few minutes of my hand vibrating because of the \'recoil\' of the gun the words \'game over flashed on the screen. Since a few kids wanted to play the same thing, we didn\'t start the thing a second time and left in search of something else.

The good thing was at least we had a conversation going on now.

Just then I caught sight of a familiar figure in the crowd.

"Makoto kun?"

"Hmm? What happened Shimabukuro chan"

"Oh nothing, I thought I saw Makoto kun just now. But maybe I was just mistaken."

"He likely met the others and is with them right now."

"Ah you are probably right."

He probably found Nakano san and is with her right now. Why would he be wandering alone?

"Should we go get a picture there?" Hiwari chan said just then while pointing to a purikura.

"Sure." I consented.

It had been a long time since I had gone out with any friends and even longer since I took a purikura with somebody else.

We entered the booth and selected the background and poses, since it was her birthday I let Hiwari chan do most of it.

"Alright pose now."

I didn\'t realize that getting in a pose in a time constraint was more difficult that I thought it should be.

As I was about to pose for the third picture I went off balance and my elbow hit Hiwari chan in the stomach.

"Aanph"

*snap*

"So-" I was about to apologize but stopped after a second when I turned towards her.

My elbow had been driven into her massive chest, not the stomach.

It felt better than my pillow…

Right then the edit option came on the screen.

Neither of us said anything, only looked at each other in silence.

"let\'s edit them quickly and leave." Hiwari chan said breaking the silence, but my mind was still on the feeling of her massive chest. Didn\'t she say that Ha chan had touched her chest? If that is true then I probably already lost. There is no way he can be not charmed by her after that.

With great difficulty I turned my face towards the screen. I don\'t need to say it explicitly, but the last picture obviously didn\'t come out great. I had a complex look of confusion on my face and due to Hiwari chan\'s moan and she had a contorted red face.

*riing~riing~riing*

Just then a loud ringing came from Hiwari chan\'s phone which made her jump back in surprise. Unfortunately, I was standing right behind her and her suddenly jumping back gave me no time to move out of the way. To gain stability I grabbed the first thing that I could get my hands on. Again, not a great idea to grab somebody else\'s body for stability when they are not expecting it.

The end result was that we both collided and crashed into the door causing the lock to snap which made the door swing open. The next second I was lying in the floor face-up and Hiwari chan lying the same way on top of me. Not only that my hands were wrapped around her waist as well.

After a few seconds I finally realized what was happening and let my hands go. What I really didn\'t expect however was people standing just outside.

"Akari, let\'s count this as a draw."

"Alright."

Moreover, they were people I knew.

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