"Ooooh, look at that!" Exusiai suddenly said with an excited tone as they walked towards the exit of the mall, her finger pointing to something that caught her eye,
"What is that?" Ghost asks her as he looks in the direction of her index finger that pointed to a sort of machine placed on the ground right next to the wall of the mall.
"Well, this isn't something that extraordinary or anything. It's actually just a machine that measures your height and weight if you put a quarter in it. Man, I haven't seen one of these in a long time."
She then took a glance at him,
"let's use it! I'll go first!" With excited steps, she made her way to the machine and inserted a quarter in it, before she stepped onto the machine itself. After some brief seconds, a display of numbers appeared on the screen attached to the machine,
159 cm
54 kg
"Sheesh, I think I've gained some weight. I need to stop eating so much. Maybe exercise a little more. Come on, you go next" A little disappointed at her own results, she then ushered Ghost to go next as she handed over a quarter to him,
"Oop, take off your sword. Here, lemme hold it for you."
"Right."
He then stepped onto the machine, and within just another few seconds, the screen showed his results,
172 cm
41 kg
A slight surprise hit Exusiai as she looked at the screen. Logically speaking, this made no sense whatsoever to her. She looked at Ghost's build, and he was definitely bigger than her in every way. (Even boobs)
"Welp, I guess this machine's broken. There's no way you're that light. Heh, maybe I'm not as heavy as it said afterall." She then said to him in a more uplifting tone than before.
"Let's....go" Ghost said to her, a little timidly,
"Sure."
Exusiai and Ghost then finally exits the mall and onto the streets they walk once more, only to realize that they'd spent almost all of the day as the evening sun shines a deep red onto them in the middle of the ever so bustling downtown Lungmen.
"Huh, it's already evening." Exusiai says to Ghost as they walked by each other's sides.
"Yeah. In the end, I didn't even get anything done today."
"Well, I'm sorry about that. I just wanted to get you some clothes." Exusiai says back to him, her tone intentionally a little annoyed, as she looked away from him in a way to purposely tease him.
"Right, thank you for doing so. I had a good time walking around today with you." Ghost, used to her usual episodes of doing this, casually replies back.
"Hehe, of course you did. You were with me after all" Exusiai answers him back, a small gleeful smile quicky forming on her face as she said so.
"...Well, for now I think I should get myself a place to stay tonight." Ghost says, as he pulled out a brochure from one of his pockets that he got from Hoshiguma earlier on in the day. It had a list of well known hotels in Lungmen written on it.
"Hmm....you want to stay at a hotel?" Exusiai leans in besides his shoulder, curiously looking at the brochure in his hand. After a moment, a suggestive smirked formed on her face as she slowly whispered to him,
"Or.....do you want to stay. with. me?"
"No."
"Oof, shot down just like that."
After that small skit and a minor discussion between them, with Exusiai's guidance, the two made their way to a hotel listed on the brochure that wasn't too far from where they were at the moment. It didn't look like the grandest of hotels, but according to the brochure it still ranked quite high on the list of recommended hotels.
They'd already wasted some time just looking in appreciation at the sky-piercing building itself, but as the two stepped inside through the grand entrance, as expected, Ghost was almost immediately entranced by the spacious lobby of the hotel, decorated in a minimalistic style with a whatnot simple yet soothing design and started to, once again, take more pictures.
It's only his first day having a phone, and he's already caught over 200 pictures with it.
Exusiai could only smile at him, for she thought it was probably useless to tell him to stop anyway, and besides, why not let him enjoy his time here? But Ghost suddenly stopped, and as if something had all of a sudden struck his consciousness, he turned his head, looking sharply at Exusiai as he slowly took small baby steps towards her,
Exusiai was a little puzzled by this, but when Ghost finally stood right in front of her, he asked her,
"H-how do you get a room?"
Upon hearing that, Exusiai stifled a giggle at him, humored by how she thought he was being overly dramatic over such a simple question,
"D-don't laugh at me, I just don't know these things, okay?!" He tried to defend himself from the embarrassment he was feeling over his own question,
"Sure, sure. Just follow my lead." After finally managing to contain herself, she went on ahead to the counter of the lobby with him closely following suit, and with some guidance here and there by Exusiai, Ghost managed to converse with the person who stood behind the counter and they finally acquired a room for the night.
"See, it wasn't that hard."
"Yeah, it wasn't as difficult as I'd thought it would be."
The two then started to make their way to their given room, the air silent as they walked through the beautiful hallways that had dozens of doors on each side which in its own way caught Ghost's attention as he, well, took more pictures. After what felt like only looping hallways and an short elevator ride, they finally arrived at the room.
"Well, thanks, again, for everything today. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." Ghost says to Exusiai before he stepped into the room, leaving Exusiai with a waving hand as he said his goodbye to her. The room itself was one on the higher floors of the hotel, and it had a big window that gave way to a breathtaking view of the city from above.
"Now that's a very beautiful view." He says to himself,
"I know, right? Coming to this hotel was the right choice."
"Yeah, it sure was-"
A sense of realization struck him as slowly, he turned his head to face besides him, and sure enough Exusiai was stood just beside him.
"....Why are you still here?" He asked, curious at the sight of someone he'd already said goodbye to mere seconds ago.
"Did you really expect I'd leave you alone here with the way you are now?"
"I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself now"
"And I insist I can take care of you."
Left thinking that it'd be useless to even argue her out of there, a small sigh escapes his mouth,
"Fine. I'm in your care again, I guess."
"Hehe~"
After a quick look around the room and finally settling in the stuff they bought, the two people then sat on a couch in the middle of the room. An awkward air of silence filled the atmosphere as they didn't know what to do alone together in a room.
"...I'll go take a bath first." Ghost finally says something, breaking the awkward air between them, and also slightly startling Exusiai,
"Huh!? O-okay, sure, go ahead." Exusiai fumblingly responded to him. And so he got up from the couch and started to make his way to the bathroom, leaving her alone in the middle of the room. Bored with nothing to do, she only idled the time away as she waited for Ghost to finish.
"...Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking here...." She mumbles to herself as she sat alone on the couch in the now empty room. It turned out she'd instinctively followed him in when she herself was actually ready to head back home.
"We're alone......a boy and a girl....in a hotel room" Her thoughts then wondered around..
"Nah...he wouldn't know how to do anything like that, he's just like a kid in all honesty, haha..." Now, what did she think about exactly? I don't know, ask her.
After more silence only accompanied by only the sound of the shower water hitting the floor in the bathroom, the sound finally comes to a stop as the bathroom door slid open, mildly wet footsteps slowly could be heard approaching her,
When he finally came into her view, he was topless, leaving his upper torso laid out for anyone's eyes to see. For a moment she had her vision stuck on his body, observing closely his body's skin. She could see an unnerving amount of scars on parts of his body, presumably battle scars, as expected of a soldier. There was even a scar carved in a way that coincidentally resembled a claw mark, as if it was inflicted upon him by a mont3r on his chest.
Then she realized she was looking at his bare body.
"W-what are you...G-go and wear something!" She fumbled around a little, immediately averting her gaze from him in embarrassment. It wasn't that she'd never seen a guy's body before, but the circumstances she was in at the moment made this a whole other kind of experience for her.
A thought then promptly raced across her mind
"...M-maybe he's not just a kid anymore...."
Ghost then rather suddenly snapped his gaze at her, and started to walk towards her,
"....M-maybe he actually wants to...well, he is a guy..."
He then sat besides her on the couch.
"Eeep!"
Caught a little off guard, her face reacted to look at him, and the two then looked at each other face to face, her face starting to look more and more flushed with every passing second. The fact that there were many other places to sit upon in the room but he still chose to sit besides her must've meant something, right?
Ghost then suddenly leaned in towards her,
She leaned back a little from him at first, but eventually she slowly moved back towards him and closed her eyes, mentally preparing herself for what she assumed was him trying to take the lead. Her heartbeat raced as her mind thought of what would ensue after this, still taken aback by the fact he'd advance so boldly on her,
"M-maybe we shouldn't-"
Only for him to just lean past her and actually reach his hand out to grab something behind her,
"...shouldn't what?" He asked in a confused tone,
She slowly opened her eyes, and saw that Ghost was back to his original position on the couch right besides her, and in his hand held a plastic bag you'd normally get from a visit to your local hospital.
"...what...were you doing...?"
"My bag was behind you, so I had to lean in to get it. Why?"
Feeling dumb that she got herself worked up over nothing, she only had a stoic expression on her face as she looked at him dead in the eyes, before proceeding to frustratingly smack him on his back,
"Well, you should've taken it before you went into the bath!"
"Ow, why are you mad?!"
"I'm not mad." Or so she said, but she was making a 'hmph' face at him,
"Then why did you hit me?!"
She didn't answer him, but only made her discontent even more clearer to him by frowning more and giving him the cold shoulder. Ghost only let out a small sigh at the confusing attitude she's putting on towards him, as he then turned his attention to the bag in his hand and pulled something out of it,
It was a white roll of bandage, the same ones in a stack on the table from when he was still in the hospital. He then started to wrap his own left arm, although he was a bit struggling trying to do it by himself. Exusiai, still with a slight pout on her face, eyed him,
"what are you doing now...?"
"The doctor said it'd be best to make sure I still wrap this around my injured shoulder every now and then. Just to be safe"
After hearing his brief reply, a conclusive thought presented itself in her mind,
"...that's why he wasn't wearing a shirt, he needed to wrap his injury up first.."
She was starting to feel a little guilty over her own misunderstanding of the situation. After some thinking, she suddenly inched over to him, and with a swift motion her hand snatched the bandage from his hand,
Ghost was a little surprised and froze for a moment in response, only letting out another small sigh as he turned his head to look at her, his expression clearly asking her, 'what is it now?'.
"Here, I'll do it for you. You can't do it by yourself, can you now?" She said timidly to him. Not really knowing how to respond, seeing as her attitude was a little all over the place, he only silently obliged to her offer and laid out his hand for her.
As she carefully wrapped his arm in white bandage, she noticed more scars on his left forearm, but she felt it was a little peculiar. In contrast to the regular scars in the shape of slashes you'd usually see, it looked more like small burns. Not to mention the fact he always wore an armguard, she'd thought it was weird there were even scars there in the first place.
"....Hey, you always wear an armguard, don't you? But why are there still scars on your forearm?"
"..."
"...?"
No answer. Or rather, no answer was willing to be given, as he looked away from her, in a way that clearly indicated that he wanted to avoid answering. She probably won't get an answer even if she forced him to, so she decides to let it slide for now, focusing on her own task at hand.
"Welp, here we go...and done!"
"...Thanks."
He thanked her before moving his arm around in a circular motion, making sure the bandage was properly wrapped onto it. He then stood up and reached out again, this time into another bag you'd normally get from buying something at a mall, pulling out a plain shirt and wearing it. But after he wore the shirt, a sound could all of a sudden be heard. It sounded like a sort of grumbling, and for some reason it felt really close.
"...pretend you didn't hear that." Exusiai suddenly said in a timid tone, her face averted once more again from him, this time embarrassed for a whole other reason.
"...Let's get something to eat..?" He suggests in response to her. It seems that the noise actually had come from her empty stomach. They were walking around a lot today, so it's only natural.
Ghost then looked around the room, and surprisingly enough his eye caught an actual kitchen was in the room. He then went to it, and saw a fridge, which conveniently also already had ingredients in it. Exusiai, after recovering from her embarrassment, then shortly followed him there,
"Woah, so hotels also have kitchens in their rooms? That's convenient." He said in a delighted tone.
"Well, not all hotels have kitchens actually. In fact, I think this might be my first time seeing one." She replied to him, to which he only nodded in acknowledgement. He then made his way to the cupboards in the kitchen, and opened each of them one by one, seemingly in search of something. Exusiai only looked at him with curiosity, before suddenly his face lit up and his hand pulled out a pan from one of the cupboards,
"Waitwaitwait, are you trying to cook for me?"
"well, yeah."
"Since when can you cook?"
"Gummy taught me some time ago. I asked her to. Figured might as well test out my newly acquired skills now that you're hungry and all." He explained to her, which prompted an impressed expression to form on her face.
He then scoured through the fridge, carefully choosing the ingredients he's going to cook with. When he finally finished setting up everything he needed to actually start cooking, his hand then reached out to pick up a knife he'd set aside on the table, only for it to be snatched away before he could grasp it. He looked at the perpetrator with a questioning face,
"That's really nice and all, but nope, no way I'm letting you cooking, not now. The doctor told you to rest, and that is exactly what you're going to do." She said to him as she shoved him aside from the chair he sat on. His face turned visibly sad and disappointed.
"But-"
"Nope. No buts. Go sit and wait on the couch, I'll let you know when I'm done, kay?" She then instructs him with a stern tone, a little softer towards the end. With a sulking face, he slowly walked towards the couch with dramatically slow and heavy steps to express his disappointment and sat on it. He felt a little irritated. She'd already dragged him all over town throughout the day, so cooking wouldn't be that big of a deal, wouldn't it?
But as he looked at the girl in the kitchen putting her effort into cooking for them, he gets reminded that most of what's happened today was for his sake. The thought surfaced a small smile on his face.
'What's he doing, smiling by himself?' On the other side of the room, in the kitchen where the person in question was busy cooking, she thought to herself as she looked at him. But she then made an almost proud face, as she thought maybe he's grinning because he's happy at the fact she's cooking for him.
But then again, she thought back to when he wanted to cook for her. The ingredients he'd taken were all arranged nicely on the table before he even started, and the ingredients itself consisted of many various stuff. From just a glance, she could tell he wanted to cook a lot for her, and he was really looking forward to it.
After some time only accompanied by the sound of the sizzling of food on the pan, the meal is finally finished as Exusiai serves the dish she's put her heart into onto a pair of plates and carried them over to the small coffee table in front of the couch where Ghost sat on.
"Here, it's not anything fancy, just some simple fried rice." She said as she placed the plates on the table right in front of him, but it seemed that Ghost was preoccupied with something else to the point he didn't even notice her there.
"...hm? What are you doing?" Curiosity hits her as she peeked over his shoulder, only to see that he was writing something in a familiar looking book. Her poking head startled him a little, causing him to instinctively close the book shut on her before she could sneak a read on the contents of the book.
"N-nothing, really." He awkwardly said to her,
"Oh really? Why're you being so secretive about it, then?"
"It's really nothing."
"Hmph, if you say so." Exusiai dismisses the subject before taking the plate of fried rice she'd just placed on the table and now giving it to him,
"Here. eat up"
"Thanks."
"Itadakimasu," The two said together, before taking a bite out of their respective plates,
"This is good!" He says after a bite of the fried rice. Exusiai smiled,
"Heh, is that so?"
"Yeah!"
"I'm glad. Now, gimme that book."
"What."
"I'm kidding. I just want a piece of paper, could you tear one out from your book?"
"Sure..?" Confused as to why she'd want that, he still reached out for his book and tore the last page and handed it to her,
"Oh, and a pen." To which he also let her borrow the one he'd just been using moments ago. She then scribbled something onto the paper,
"...There...and done."
"What did you write?"
She then showed the paper to him. It had the words, 'Free Meal' written on it in big bold writing, with some smaller words written beneath it. The paper was also decorated with small doodles here and there, which he thought was cute. He then leans his head closer to the piece of paper and started to read the smaller words,
"This ticket grants its holder(Exusiai) a free and exclusive meal prepared by Ghost. This ticket is valid till the end of time and can be used anytime and anywhere." He then lifts his head and looked at Exusiai with a puzzled face. He's got the gist of things, but 'why?' was the question he wanted to ask her,
"You wanted to cook for me, didn't you? I only stopped you today because I'm worried, that's all. I've already dragged you around for long enough today, so the least I can do is cook for you, right? So until the time comes, I'll be holding onto this ticket and when I do use it, you better be ready to cook me up something that's going to blow my mind out, kay?" She explained to him in a soft voice, yet still with a hint of excitement escalating towards the end.
"AndIwantedtospoilyou."
"huh?"
Still, hearing her words made Ghost's face brighten up, possibly from happiness that she does want to eat his cooking or possibly even the challenge she's set for him.
"Heh, you bet. I'll show you and then beat you at your own game."
"Ohoh, ambitious are we?"
The two then continued to enjoy their meal together, occasionally interrupting the other with small chit-chat.
"But still, what is that book you're writing in?" She asked, still curious. It seems she really won't take 'it's nothing' as an answer. Ghost had a contemplating pause, before finally letting out a small sigh,
".....Since you're so interested in it, I'll tell you then. It's a diary." Hearing that, a playful smirk immediately formed on her face,
"Ooooooh, a diary? I didn't know guys kept those"
"Well, Istina did mention once that words.....uhh......words....uhhh...well the point is, words are a good way to express yourself."
"Express yourself, huh?....can I read it?"
"Nope"
"Please?"
"Not yet. I'll let you read it when I'm finished with it."
"People don't usually 'finish' diaries. I mean, they are a somewhat personal record of someone's life. So unless if that person dies, then I guess it's finished." Exusiai points out his use of words, explaining why his use of it was wrong, to which he fell silent for a moment as he thought of what else to say,
".....okay, I guess until I run out of things to write."
"Promise?"
"Yeah."
Time passes, and the clock strikes 10.00 p.m. They've finished their meal and had already cleaned things up, and were really left with nothing else to do. The atmosphere feels as if its reverted back to its original state, awkward and silent. Ghost looks like he's just staring into the air.
But in contrast to the first time, this time Exusiai breaks the silence,
"Hey, how 'bout we play something?" Her voice snaps him out of his trance,
"...Sure...But what is there to play?" Ghost questions her back. Surely a hotel wouldn't be so generous as to provide more than the bare minimum of entertainment than the usual TV?
With a grin she said,
"Hehe, I've got the perfect thing with me," She then reached into her own bag she'd been carrying around for almost the entirety of the day, and slowly unleashed a deck of cards.
"Tada!"
"Oh! I know that! It's uh...the thing W carries with her, right? It's called poker cards, right?" Even before Exusiai could say anything more, Ghost excitedly cuts her and names what was in her hand, although he wrinkled his eyebrows quite hard just trying to remember what the name was.
He probably just wanted to impress her and himself that he knew what it was, even though it was really just common knowledge. But nevertheless, Exusiai was still somehow humored by how much effort he seemed to have put in recalling what a deck of cards was called.
"Yeah, it sure is."
"But why do you have those in your bag though? Do people, like, always carry them around or something?"
"Erk, not really. I initially thought you'd still be stuck in the hospital....so I brought this along in case we got bored."
"....Were you planning to stay with me all along?" His mouth blurted that out as the thought suddenly crossed his mind the moment he heard her say that. This prompted Exusiai to awkwardly stagger,
"...N-not necessarily. I thought you'd be bored alone." She swiftly thought of something to say back to him, but she didn't exactly deny his words.
"Ooookay. But I don't know how to play cards."
"...It's gonna be a pain to play a full round of poker with someone learning from the ground up....hmm.....Ha! I know, I'll quickly explain to you the arrangement of the cards, and we'll play truth or dare instead!
"....How does that work?"
"It's really simple. We'll both draw a random card from our given decks, and however has the highest value gets to dare the other to do something, or make them tell the truth on whatever questions we ask them. The other person is the one to decide if they take a dare or truth."
"I see!"
"Right, let's go through the cards.."
She then unpacked the deck of cards from its box, and laid it on the table in front of them and arranged them in an order that would make her job of explaining to Ghost easy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yeah this is getting a bit too long, I'll continue it in another chapter.
And as of writing this, I noticed that this thing has gotten 200 votes. It may not seem much, but to me, the mere thought of someone reading this, let alone actually taking the time to vote it is something that brings me a great sense of pleasure. I didn't even think people would actually read this, so thank you for even considering to read it this far! :D