Cross Mirage

Acceptance (2)

My arm trembles violently, and I smash the big red button in front of me so quickly and so fiercely that I swear the entire machine will break down if I keep this up for any longer.

With each bash the character on the screen, a lethargic cartoon snail, inches its way towards the goal. However, Ji-Hong is doing the same as well, and his snail is reaching its goal faster than mine.

The screen flashes white for a moment, followed by the sound of trumpets and the announcement of the winner.

"Again?" I bellow frustratedly as I realise my snail is barely three bashes away from victory. How does he keep winning at every game we play? "Stupid snails! Stupid game!"

Ji-Hong merely chuckles at the results. The game has a childish, comedic nature to it, where players are engaged in a variety of mini-games with vastly different requirements. Some require speed of hitting your button, like the snail game we just played, while others require accuracy of deduction, whereby you have to hit the button at appropriate times in order to score a point for yourself. So far, Ji-Hong has won about twenty out of twenty five games on this machine.

"Ah, I give up!" I grab my bag and stomp away from the machine.

"Hey, wait for me!" Still laughing at the results of that silly game, my friend makes his way through the crowds of people with me.

The sounds of plastic clattering, digital chimes and rings, blasting music and rapid bashing of machines can be heard filling the air. Ji-Hong and I make our through the sweltering arcade. With only the glaring lights of the machines' screens lighting the way, it's a little disorienting for me to navigate through the gloomy, clamorous maze. Eventually though, we're able to find our way out of it, and the fluorescent lights of the mall stings my eyes as they fail to adjust to the sharp contrast of illumination.

"We're done already?" Ji-Hong asks, making his way to my side.

"Yeah. We've been at it for two hours already, geez..." I sulk. "And you beat me at pretty much almost every game, like always."

"Sorry." He rubs the back of his neck in shame. "Well, maybe if we tried that basketball machine one more time, you'd have won."

Basketball? Against him? Screw that; he's not ashamed at all!

"You asshole!" I smack him on his arm, earning myself another chuckle out of the usually-expressionless giant. He's been laughing a lot since we've been playing at the arcade. While I may have been thoroughly beaten by him at everything, it warms my heart to see him enjoy himself like this.

I want to see him smile more, like that. I want to hear more of his hearty, innocent laughs.

The two of us make our way to the supermarket at the storey below for some water. As we walk past the stores, something catches my eye. I make a beeline towards a bulletin board to get a closer view of the flyer with what appears to be anime characters on it. It's weird but whenever I spot anything related to anime, I just can't help myself to take a second glance at them.

"Ah, this is..."

The 15th Annual Unmyo Ani-Song Contest: a singing competition at an anime convention that's about to happen in a month's time in this mall. Competitors are allowed to choose their own songs, but the theme of the songs of course, must be related to anime.

"You can sing?" Ji-Hong asks.

"Well, I guess. I used to take vocal classes when I was a child. Stopped when I was thirteen or so though, when I immigrated to Unmyo." I answer, whipping my phone out to take a picture of the flyer. "Honestly, this looks really fun. I guess I'll send my butler the details. Oh, and maybe inform my fans too! Oh, but hmm... what if I'm not that good at singing anymore?"