"I can't do that, you wretched woman! Are you trying to get me fired?!"
Lisa watches her friend's expression turn vicious, but she was too used to her overreacting that she didn't feel one bit of remorse.
"Can't you just tell Ms Bae I forced you to do it? Please, do a bro a favour."
"It's not like you're the one with the job anyway, she wouldn't care!"
The blonde sighs, tapping her fingers lighting on the countertop of the arcade, wrecking her brains to think of what to say to convince her friend with sun-kissed, silky hair. She was sometimes jealous of her hair.
"Okay. How about this? You fill this entire basket of tickets for me as much as it can take to the brim, and chicken will be on me for the rest of the week. How's that sound?"
Her friend, Jisoo, had her eyes widened in glory, before the girl immediately retrieves a basket from the stack just behind her. She was a sucker for chicken, and she worked at the arcade full time. It's been barely a week since she started, and she interviewed for this job because she was a sucker for games. Her all-time favourite was the arcade hoops. She threw them balls like crazy.
"Any amount of chicken?? One whole week??"
"That's right."
"Holy shit! This is better than winning the lottery! Lisa Manoban is paying for my chicken?? What the hell happened to you?? You were always the one trying to freeload off me!"
"I do not!" Lisa grits her teeth threateningly, "Just hand me the basket, quick. And I hate to break it to you but winning the lottery is better than one week free of chicken."
"Maybe, but I don't get this treatment from you at all even though your ass is so rich. This is once in a lifetime." Jisoo beams proudly, the sounds of the ruffling tickets in the counter drawers fuzz for a bit before Lisa was welcomed with as per her request.
"I can't believe I'm risking my entire job for this. The company's first policy is to not give away any free tickets and here I am, giving you an entire basket worth of eighty dollars. All this for chicken. Lalisa don't fail me now."
The blonde's eyes widened, "Eighty dollars??? Tickets costs this much?"
"Yes. You don't know because you don't ever come to arcades. What brings you here today anyway? And why're you stealing these much of tickets for? I still don't understand why wouldn't you just pay for these damn tickets, they're worth nothing compared to your savings."
Lisa smirks devilishly, "Oh, I just wanted to drop by to ask you out for supper and visit your workplace for a bit, check in on you since you just started working here. But I got caught up with something else. And it's a secret. Also, making a deal with a friend is more interesting rather than paying eighty bucks to a random ass arcade place. Thanks for the tickets!"
Jisoo shakes her head as she observes her silly friend leave the counter, hand gripping onto a basket full of tickets that she had just red-handedly stolen right in front of her face.
Lisa heads back to the standing machines, where she had been still for almost an hour now before the trip to get more tickets for a certain brunette.
"You sure you don't want your money back?" She finally hears her give up after their collective discussion about the brunette insisting to pay when all Lisa wanted was permission to watch her play. She'd feel the guilt for personally violating the pretty girl's comfort space, so she set that as a deal instead to make her feel better about the odd stares she was presumably giving the latter.
No, she wasn't a creep or anything. She just loved how sparks seemed to fly around the brunette when she spammed the machine with enthusiasm. It was exhilarating watching her play, the way it gives Lisa butterflies in her stomach. It was the first time she felt the need to waste her time in an arcade. Not for the games, but for the intoxication she feels just by watching someone else. Someone so bewitching and captivating even from her back.
She couldn't take her eyes off her. The girl looked like she was in heaven when she was around the machine. And Lisa was the sort of person to take in the energy of someone else as her own.
Lisa also lied about the price of the tickets, which, was part of the plan just in case the brunette was the type to insist on paying till the day of her death. Rather than getting the girl to pay her an eighty, she'd feel better with a twenty. Besides, she couldn't take the brunette's money because she didn't even pay for these tickets to begin with. She got it off a deal with her friend.
The blonde silently reads the room around the shorter girl when the latter turns to face the same machine this time with a shit ton of tickets.
For the rest of the time till the arcade would close, Lisa represses the feeling of sore growing at the sole of her legs while she stood and watched. The brunette's jubilation was so addictive, she almost forgot the time, and everything around her.
That was until Jisoo comes around from behind to check on the machines and slaps her on her bum, simultaneously snapping her back to reality. The arcade was closing.
"I can't believe you're still here. Are you sure you aren't sick in the head or anything? Because this is starting to creep me out."
Lisa rolls her eyes, collecting her bag from the ground and slinging it over her shoulder, "Is it so weird for me to be at the arcade?" She asked.
It was supposed to be a rhetorical question, when the chestnut hair lunatic nods bluntly.
"Yes."
The blonde lets out a discontented grunt, "It's never too late to try something new, Chu."
"Holy shit. Coming from you?" Jisoo scrutinises her, "Something's definitely going on with you. You're never at the arcade!"
Lisa listens on, and realises the brunette had been hearing their conversation this entire time.
"I don't think you have to remind me of something I do myself."
Jisoo gapes at her for a good moment, dramatically, "This isn't Lisa. I know this isn't Lisa. Whoever you are, you better bring my friend back!"
The blonde chuckles at her friend's comical expressions. This girl was just too good at story-telling and facial articulation she could literally just drop the arcade job and audition for acting instead. It wouldn't be a surprise to Lisa if she passed on first try and became the lead actress of an anticipated film.
"You're hilarious." Lisa says, but Jisoo directs her attention to the brunette by the side, ignoring her because their conversation would get nowhere now that she couldn't be bothered. She figured the blonde was just not in the right state of mind today and she was going to leave her be. Maybe she took the wrong pills too.
"Oh, it's my favourite regular gamer again." She waves.
Lisa stares back at the brunette when she not only waves to Jisoo, but to her as well.
"Lisa, right?" She sends a small smile coyly, "Thanks for the tickets again."
When the brunette turns to leave, Lisa couldn't get herself to call her back and ask her for her name. Or her number. She was foolishly blushing, her feet bluntly rooted to the ground, and then out of the blue, Jisoo screams into her ears.
"So you said secret?!? What secret? You are literally in an open arcade! And those tickets were for her?! I thought you were finally trying the games out! Holy shit, my arcade is a match-maker!"
"Shut your bitchass up!" Lisa covers her friend's mouth with her palms, afraid the brunette might still be around the corner.
"You fancy her, huh?" Jisoo nudged her playfully, eyebrows wiggling, "It's not a surprise, really."
"Meaning?"
"Well, she's pretty. She comes here a lot. And almost every time, some boys would try to ask her out, that's if she's here during the afternoons of course. I could tell they were all being rejected even from the counter."
Lisa laughs, but Jisoo smacks her back.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. She's cute alright, but you never know if you'd ever stand a chance. You might just get rejected like one of those boys. Don't come crying to me when that happens."
Lisa smug smiles, "I'll never know, so let's give it a try shall we?"
"Whatever floats your boat, Manoban."
"Do you know her name?"
"Yes-"
"What is it?"
"but I won't tell you."
"Screw you."
"I was not even done with my sentence and you interrupted me, bitch, don't screw me."
"Screw off."