" "..." "
Both Yuriko and Takeru were looking at their screens, and seeing the result of their 3 rounds match, and the result was clear... Yuriko had won by a long shot
"... Yuriko..."
"Yes, Takeru?"
"Didn't you say you haven't played this game before?"
Takeru asked her that as he was making an angry and pouty face as little tears were forming in his eyes
"Actually, I was going to say I never played it on the arcade, but I did play the console version. But you were so quick to jump in that I didn't have time to say it"
"!"
Takeru made a shocked face when he heard that, but he quickly went back to his angry face, then he got out of the arcade machine while Yuriko did the same
"Now, Takeru. It's time for my reward"
"... Fine... ?"
When Takeru turned to face Yuriko, she almost immediately put her hands on both of his cheeks and made him look directly at her
"Then Takeru close your eyes"
"..."
Takeru had an idea of what Yuriko was going to do, but he still closed his eyes as she asked, then he felt a soft sensation on his lips, and he also thought that he heard the sound of someone losing his soul in the background. But with his attention being on Yuriko's kiss, he ignored it and forgot about that
Yuriko who was sharing her reward with Takeru noticed on the edge of her sight, a person that she had come to hate for quite some time, because of that, she put more passion into her already long kiss, so much so that Takeru was even trying to break off from the kiss due to his embarrassment, but Yuriko did a neck lock on him to prevent him from escaping
Only when she got satisfied, Yuriko stopped kissing Takeru but then she pulled him closer to her for a hug, burying his face in her chest as she did so. Her happy expression then slowly disappeared as she looked to the side, and stared at Daichi on the floor, seeing him made her contort her face in disgust and hate
"Haa..."
Yuriko looked away from Daichi with an annoyed sigh and went back to look at Takeru who was also hugging her while he still kept his face buried in her chest. Yuriko felt her anger dissipate as she patted Takeru's head, as her usual happy smile returned as well, then she stopped hugging Takeru and instead held one of his hands
"Come, Takeru. Let's go find somewhere to sit down"
"Okay..."
The two then walked away from there, with Takeru not even noticing Daichi's fading presence as they left. Shortly after they found a bench near the restrooms, and Yuriko sat down on the bench while kept standing
"I'll go wash my hands"
"Okay"
Takeru then walked inside the men's restroom, while Yuriko simply waited for him, but as soon as she was left alone, two delinquent-looking guys passed by and saw her sitting on the bench. Because of Yuriko's natural beauty, the three guys decided to approach her
"Hey, gal. We're seeing that you're all alone, don't 'chu wanna come to hang out with us?"
"We'll make sure to entertain you"
"..."
Yuriko looked at the two delinquents in silence with her usual smile before saying...
"This sure is cliche"
"What?"
"The hell you sayin'?"
"I'm saying that I won't go with you two, and then my boyfriend will appear to stop you two, because that's how these things usually end going like, with the delinquents going away like the cowards they are"
Yuriko who still had some pent-up anger from earlier vented it out on the two delinquents. The two didn't really get what she was saying, but they understood that she was looking down on them
"You sure talk big for a gal"
"Don't think we'll let you go that easily after saying that to us"
"..."
The two delinquents used their height to try and intimidate Yuriko, but yet again she simply looked back at them in silence, before she got up from the bench. The two delinquents were a little taller than average, but Yuriko was still taller than the two by a considerable margin, which caught them by surprise as she stood in front of them with her arms crossed
"I believe you two should think twice before talking to someone like that"
The two were quite intimidated by her, but they still refused to give up on having Yuriko come with them
"Alright, alright. Then how about you come with us so that we can buy you a drink"
"Yeah, let's just go have a nice talk, just the three of us"
"... *Sigh* You two are very persistent, but not as bright"
Yuriko got slightly impressed by their persistence, but she still found them more annoying to the point she even stopped smiling
"Just come with us already!"
Then one of the delinquents tried to grab her, and just as Yuriko was about to block his arm, all of them felt a chill running down their backs. The three looked at the source of their chills, and they all saw Takeru looking directly at the two delinquents with eyes devoid of any light as he wiped his glasses lenses
Then without saying a word, he walked toward Yuriko and then hugged her, without ever removing his stare from the delinquent
"Do you two have something to do with my girlfriend?"
"N-No"
"Y-Yeah, w-we were just leaving"
The two delinquents then did a 180 turn and dashed away from there, leaving Yuriko and Takeru alone
" "..." "
The two stayed silent due to the now awkward atmosphere, Takeru kept hugging Yuriko, while she made a confused smile as she wasn't expecting him to react like that from seeing the two delinquents hitting on her, then she felt Takeru tucking her clothes, making her look at him who had calmed down and was looking at her with a blank face
"What is it, Takeru?"
"..."
Without saying anything, Takeru simply glanced at the bench, before looking back to Yuriko, and she understood that he wanted her to sit down. The two sat down on the bench and remained silent as the awkward atmosphere remained
" "... ... ..." "
"... Hmm... Takeru... ? !?"
Yuriko in an attempt to break the ice called Takeru but before she could say anything, Takeru suddenly held both of her cheeks, made her look at him, and then kissed her on the lips, getting Yuriko by surprise. Due to the surprise, and usual lack of proactiveness from Takeru, Yuriko's quickly turned red as she felt her face burning from embarrassment, then after a few seconds Takeru broke off the kiss
The kiss was a short one, but it was enough to make both of them blush, this time with Yuriko being the one blushing beet red. Takeru who was looking at Yuriko then looked away embarrassedly
"S-Sorry... But... I didn't like... To see those guys... Talking to you"
Takeru said that in a very embarrassed tone, but Yuriko quickly answered him back...
"... Again"
"Huh?"
"Kiss me again, Takeru!"
"Eh!?"
Yuriko wasn't feeling satisfied with just that one kiss from Takeru, so she pleaded him for another kiss
"Ermm... Fine..."
Takeru who was now back to normal, embarrassedly agreed to Yuriko's request, so he once again held Yuriko's cheeks and gave her another kiss, but this time with some hesitation, and with him being the one blushing more. This kiss and somewhat longer than the last one, and when he stopped kissing Yuriko, he asked her
"T-this much should be fine, right?"
"Hmmm... One more time!"
"!?... ... ... Okay..."
Takeru once again kissed Yuriko just like before, and only after that third kiss, Yuriko felt satisfied
"Thank you, Takeru. Ah! Look at the hour, how about we go redeem our tickets and then go back home?"
"Okay"
The two got up from the bench and went to the reward counter, and gave the manager all of their tickets
"Give us the highest prize we can get"
"Got it"
The manager began counting the tickets, and after seeing how many the two had gotten, he went to pick their prize
"So what prize do you think we're going to get, Takeru?"
"Probably some plushie or something like that"
Then the manager came back with a scale figure box from a certain gacha game character
"You two are lucky, this is our most expensive prize and its the only figure we have"
"... Can we ge-"
Yuriko was about to ask if they could change the reward, but then she saw Takeru looking at the figure with sparkling eyes
"Do you want the figure, Takeru?"
"Huh!? Erm... Yes"
"Fufu, I see. We'll take it, thank you very much"
"You're welcome, let me put it in a bag for you two"
Meanwhile
Yamada was running towards the prize counter as he carried all of the tickets necessary for the scale figure with him
"Alright! Alright! Alright! Now all I need is to redeem these tickets... !?"
Then just as the counter appeared from a corner, he saw a very familiar scale figure box being put inside a bag in-between Yuriko and Takeru
"Nonononononoooooooo!"
Then he saw Takeru picking up the bag and taking it with him, as he left the arcade while holding hands with Yuriko. Yamada then wobbly made his way to the prize counter, hoping that the arcade might still have another scale figure
"D-do you have a-a scale figure o-of Misaka?"
"Sorry, kiddo. A cute couple just took it with them just moments ago"
"No... No... NOOOOOO!!!"
Yamada slowly fell to the ground as he felt as if all of his bones were melting from his despair
Meanwhile
"Nee, Takeru. Why did you want this scale figure?"
"... It's because it's from a character I like"
"Hee, is that so? Can I ask you why you like that character?"
"... ... ... Because... She reminds me of you"
"I see, I see. You really love me, don't you Takeru?"
"Yes..."
Yuriko was making a happy and amused grin, as she heard Takeru's reason for wanting the figure and for him agreeing that he loved her, but deep down, she felt a little annoyed that he refused to say that directly
Later that day
It was late into the night, and Yuriko was inside Takeru's bedroom, she and Takeru were on the tatami that he used to sleep on, with Yuriko pinning him down as she filled him with many kisses as punishment for earlier
"Fufu. So, Takeru? Are you going to say it?"
"..."
Takeru simply looked away in silence as his face was completely red
"C'mon, Takeru. Just say that you love me and you'll only look at me"
"I..."
"Hmm..."
"I... Y... Yuriko-baka..."
"... I don't mind that answer either"
And Yuriko went back on 'punishing' Takeru. Eventually, Takeru said what Yuriko wanted to hear, which made her reward him with even more kisses
(A/N Notes: Takeru can also be scary when angry or jealous... ... ... I think I've been reading too many romcoms with yandere or yandere-like characters, and seeing way too many Blue Archive jokes with yanderes)