unrevised.
/ chapter 28 /
*Ding-Ding!*
"Thank you for shopping with us! Have a nice day!" The employee beamed a smile for the last time before Ichika had left through the door.
"Ah! Hatori-san!" Exclaimed Ichika, almost bumping into the male Dragon who had been patiently waiting just outside the store.
"All done?" He asked her, tucking his hands into the pockets of his trench coat.
She nodded shyly and lifted the bag for him to see, before passing back his card.
Much to Ichika's luck, after browsing for some time, she had finally found a small section of the store that sold normal and comfortable sleepwear. She'd only purchased two pairs of silk pyjamas as she felt guilty for using Hatori's card.
"It's alright to spend a little more, you know. I gave you my card so you could get several things in there."
Ichika shook her head. "I-I feel bad. It's your money.."
Hatori raised his brows before his eyes softened at her. He placed a hand on her head and gently pat it.
"It's fine. I'll just make sure you get more things in the next round." He replied.
"The next round..?" She looked at him bewildered.
Without adding more to it, Hatori lead the way, but making sure he walked slowly so she'd be able to keep up with him. Ichika walked beside him this time so she wouldn't lose track of him like she almost had before.
They walked in a comfortable silence and she took in as much of the town as she could, seeing all the interesting looking stores and different looking people who passed by them. Then her eyes landed on a pair of teenage girls dressed in their school uniform, giggling and chatting excitedly with each other. It reminded her of the familiar scenes she saw when she stopped by Tohru's school. How happy and free those kids looked with their friends, which was completely different from how her school life was.
The fact that she was homeschooled prevented her from having the experience of a normal high school life. Akito and her parents had never allowed it.
Her eyes shifted to now a group of people standing in the corner of the street by a store. It was a mix with older female and male genders, who were speaking to themselves. In their hands, they carried folders and large texts books, and each carried their own bag. Ichika assumed they were college students. What she would be classified if she actually had the opportunity to attend college.
Not wanting to dampen her own mood, she shifted her gaze elsewhere. That's when she noticed that Hatori had disappeared and she stopped in her tracks with a frantic look. She could have sworn he was just right beside her. How could she lose sight of him so easily? Had she walked too far ahead of him?
But before panic could arise within her, Hatori finally appeared in her sight from out of the corner of her eyes and she sighed in relief. In his hands he held a cone with some dessert-looking thing inside of it.
She looked at it confused as he came to as stop in front of her.
He then offered it to her. "Had these before?"
She shook her head and carefully took it in her hands, staring at it in awe as she could finally see it up close. It was a thin layer of batter that was stuffed with cream and strawberries and folded into the cone. She'd never seen anything like this before.
"It's a crepe. I saw the vendor over there were selling some and I figured it'd be something you'd like. Try it." He urged.
Ichika blinked and stared down at the crepe for a moment. She then slowly took a bite from it and chewed hesitantly. After a few chews, her eyes lit up as she quickly went in for more happily. It was sweet and creamy and a rather light dessert.
Hatori watched her with satisfaction and felt contempt that she was liking it quite a lot. Though he didn't expect her to offer him some when she lifted it up to him with her eyes sparkling as if to demand 'have some right now'.
He didn't usually eat sweet things but he couldn't say that to her, especially when she was looking at him like that. He sighed softly knowing he couldn't say no to her.
Hatori leant down and took a bite from it as she held it, much to her surprise. He found her reaction rather cute as her cheeks reddened and she became a stuttering mess.
Ichika shyly withdrew to herself, nibbling on the crepe after that and kept her gaze elsewhere other than at him. Just as he was about to say something to her, the tune of a ringing cellphone interrupted them.
She watched as Hatori dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone, excusing himself as he turned away to pick up the phone.
While he was talking animatedly, Ichika couldn't shake off the playback of Hatori biting something from right out of her own hands instead of taking it like she thought he would, and it made her heart skip a beat every time she remembered it.
After a few minutes, Hatori ended the call but Ichika could tell something was bothering him when she noticed his eyebrows were knitted and he had a slight frown on his face.
"Is everything alright, Hatori-san?" She wondered, concern written over her face.
His eyes left the screen of the phone and met her gaze. He instantly relaxed.
"It's nothing to worry about," He brushed it off with a soft smile. "Come along, I'd like to show you a few places."
Ichika parted her lips and was about to add to her questions, but she realised she didn't want to press him for answers. She clamped her mouth shut.
Much to her surprise, Hatori took her by the hand and lead the way. She glanced down at their joint hands with stunned eyes, before she felt her heart warm up. Her lips pulled into a soft smile.
Hatori's hand is warm, she thought. She didn't want to let go.
Before she knew it, the two of them stopped right in front of a store she'd never seen before. She blinked in confusion as she was led in through the automatic sliding doors.
There was a buzz of excited chatter the moment they entered. Ichika noticed there were quite a few people inside the neon-lit area ranging from all different ages. Rows of different coloured machines scattered across, claw machines and hanging stuffed toy prizes.
She didn't know whether to be excited or scared. The amount of noises of cars, gunshots, explosions, revving engines, cheering and laughter she could hear was overwhelming for her, yet intriguing. It was as if she was in a whole other world.
"Where are we?" She turned to Hatori.
He gave her a ghost of a smile. "An arcade."
She raised her brows in question. What was that?
Hatori led her over to a seat right in front of a machine and sat her down. She stared at the screen in front of her in awe, seeing two funny-looking characters fighting in preview.
"It's a place where you can pay to play video games or win prizes. Shigure and Ayame used to drag me here a lot when we were in high school." He added.
"Video games?" She mumbled to herself, her eyes sparkling with interest.
"Here, I'll show you." Hatori offered.
She watched as he slipped a few tokens into the machine and slapped a button. He then stood behind her and leant forward to encase his arms around her in order to run through a demo with her, showing which button did what.
"So you press this to—"
Though unfortunately for him, Ichika could barely hear a word he was saying as she was too busy trying to steady her heart, afraid he'd be able to hear it from how close he was to her.
"—and that's how you can defeat them." Within that moment, Hatori had hit a K.O. and successfully took down the other player.
"A-Amazing!" She gasped, lightly applauding in awe.
"Mm.. is it?" Hatori mumbled, scratching the back of head.
Ichika turned back to the screen, not noticing his pink ears, and gripped onto the controllers.
"I want to defeat them too!" She exclaimed with determined eyes.
With a subtle chuckle, Hatori hovered over her again and this time he placed his hands on both of hers in order to guide her.
"Alright, here we go." He said, matching her determination.
Time passed as they slowly moved up a few levels. Hatori hadn't let go of hand even once as he guided her throughout the game while enjoying each other's company and exchanging words of excitement as they repetitively defeated each opponent.
It was then that they were finally able to reach the final boss of the game. The two bearers of the Dragon Spirit nervously exhaled as the fighting started. Silence and rapid movement were only seen and heard for quite some time. They were both too focused on the game.
With a last swing of the control and last slam of a button, they stared at the screen that now exhibited a flashing yellow-coloured banner all over the screen.
'WINNER!!' 'WINNER!!' 'WINNER!!'
"D-Did we do it? Did we win?" She gasped.
"I believe so." Answered Hatori, nodding.
Ichika's navy eyes lit up, and she turned her head to face him, beaming the brightest smile she'd ever done. Hatori's eyes widened as if the flow of time became slow. He could suddenly see blue delphinium flowers surrounding her form completely and became lost in her smile.
He subconsciously rested a hand on his heart, being unable to steady it. In fact, whenever he was around her, he had trouble steadying the pace of his rapid beating heart and he'd always ask the same question to himself. 'Why does it do that?'
Or maybe he knew the answer to that already but had wanted to deny it. There was something growing inside of him, something he had locked away for a long time after how much it had scarred him in the past. But when when he was around her, it freed itself, it wasn't something he could control.
Since when did he enjoy being in her company so much? To the point he would make up excuses just to see her, to be near her?
Did he even deserve to feel like this?
Apart from the growing feeling, there was also another thing that grew inside him too. Fear. Fear that he would end up hurting her. Fear that if he overexerted the growing feeling, he would wound up hurting her in the end.
Just like he did with Kana.
"Hatori-san?" Her melodic voice called.
He snapped out of his daze to find her looking up at him from her seat and her head tilted back. Her navy orbs filled with concern and wonder.
He accepted that Ichika still had a lot on her plate and he didn't want to add to it. She had her own roots of trauma she needed to deal with and still had a lot of room for self growth. He needed to put her needs first before his own feelings.
Hatori smiled silently and patted her head, causing a tinge of pinkness on her cheeks.
That's right. It wasn't time yet.
So all he'll do for now is to continue to watch over and support her. He'll keep all of it to himself until it was time.