Haruka POV
I didn't know where we were going next after our lunch together, so I was dragged along by Keiji. I thought he would choose something boring like an art museum or something educational, so I was very surprised by Keiji's choice for the next place for our date...
The arcade.
The colorful lights flash with different kinds of games all over the place. You can hear people winning tickets or winning prizes everywhere. I survey the arcade. Children, teenagers, and adults are everywhere playing and enjoying themselves. And now Keiji and I are here.
My eyes light up. "Where do you want to go first?!" I excitedly ask and Keiji chuckles.
"Why are you laughing???" I blush embarrassed and avert my gaze. "A-Also why did you choose to take me here?" I ask.
"It's a date," Keiji answers, "If anything, I should take you to a place that you'll enjoy, so I chose this place."
"Well I guess you're not wrong about that..." I mumble trying to sound composed but I couldn't keep my excitement in.
I grin. "Come on! Let's go to the claw machine first!" I take his hand and Keiji's eyes widen surprised.
"Sure," Keiji says with a gentle look on his face as I pull him along with me.
Third Person POV
(Meanwhile...)
"Bokuto we lost them," Konoha bluntly states and Bokuto's mouth drops.
"How?!" Bokuto cries out and Minako giggles.
"I mean, you were eating all those plates of food so of course they were going to leave earlier than us," Minako adds and Bokuto pouts.
"Such a fail," Mai teases and Komi snickers.
"Maybe we shouldn't follow them anymore. They had good vibes together when we were watching them, so I'm sure it will continue to be that way," Kata points out.
Konoha nods his head. "Just call Haru out and let's go home."
"But we can't drop spying on them now!" Bokuto cries and Haru flies down landing on Bokuto's head.
"Bird found, let's go," Konoha states and everyone's about to leave but Haru pulls on Bokuto's head trying to tell Bokuto to follow him.
"You guys, I think Haru knows where Akaashi and Haruka is!" Bokuto proclaims and starts to follow the flying owl.
"Geh!" Konoha and Komi blurt out as they watch their captain carelessly follow a bird.
"Is he really going to follow an owl?" Mai questions.
Konoha and Komi sweatdrop knowing that they might possibly lose their captain if they were to leave him alone.
"He would," The two of them state and the three girls sweatdrop.
"Bokuto wait!" The five of them cry out and follow Bokuto as well.
Haruka POV
(Back to arcade)
I suck at the claw machine. Each try costs 50 yen and I wasted 500 yen not getting a single thing. I sweatdrop. Is it that hard to get a large plush animal or even a pillow?
Keiji calmly watches me and I stare at him with a deadpan look. "Claw machine games are not as easy as they look on TV, it's a very hard game that requires accuracy and skill," I explain.
"Pfft. Which you don't have," Keiji teases and a vein pops on my head.
"If you're so confident then why don't you give it a try?!" I argue and gesture for him to play as I move away so he could try.
Keiji stares at the claw machine and puts the money in.
I huff and cross my arms. "Teasing me and all, but I bet you that you won't win a single thing and then I'll be the one to tease you. After all, these games are always rigged--"
"Winner!" I hear the machine call out and my eyes widen as I watch Keiji take out a large dog plushie from the prize box.
My mouth drops. He won??? Like he was able to actually grab it with the claw?!
"I mean, some claw machines are close to impossible, but this one isn't. It's just that you have to pay attention to how the item is sticking out. Don't get the hard ones, just aim for the easy ones that are possible to--"
"Do it again!" I excitedly tell him.
"Sure..." Keiji says surprised.
After a couple times, he was able to get another plushie and pillow. My eyes beam seeing how talented Keiji is at the claw machine.
"So you're not angry about not being unable to win anything?" Keiji questions, surprised by my unexpected reaction and I shake my head.
"Of course not!" I grin. "I admit I'm jealous, but I'm not angry about being unable to get anything. It's amazing that you could get so much in only a couple tries."
"I see," Keiji says with a small smile and my heart skips a beat seeing his natural smile.
"Anyways, let's get some more prizes!" I happily tell him as I push him back to the crane and he chuckles.
I watch Keiji try to get another plushie and I realize that maybe I can get along with Keiji. I always try to reject him even when we were first introduced as siblings, but now I see that Keiji isn't as bad as I thought at all. Even though he teases me, he helped me many times. He's a good guy.
Keiji POV
"Let me get a bag for all of these, I'll be back!" Haruka excitedly says as she runs off in search of a large bag.
In the end, I was able to get six large plushies and three pillows with 1,500 yen. At first I was planning just to get one plushie, but Haruka was so excited to watch me play, I just started getting a bunch of things from that claw machine.
I sweatdrop. I don't know what she's going to do with all these plushies and pillows though.
"You lose! Please try again!"
I look over to the claw machine and see a family playing on the claw machine.
"You lose! Please try again!" I watch the father fail again trying to get something from the claw machine for his daughter. It looks like it's been like that for a while.
The father turns to his daughter. "Sorry sweetheart, I couldn't get you anything," he says and the child looks sad to hear her father say that.
"B-But..." the girl stutters almost ready to cry.
"Honey, your father wasn't able to get anything. We can go to exchange your tickets for a small plushie if you want," The mom says and the girl looks over to the claw machine at a particular dog plushie in the claw machine.
I look back down and see the same dog plushie in my hand.
(Flashback)
"Kei-kun, what's wrong?" The girl with short black hair asks as she tilts her head seeing her friend sad.
"It's nothing," I tell her with a monotonous face but she knew it wasn't my usual calm look.
The small girl purses her lips and smiles. She takes out onigiri from her lunch bag. "Here you go."
"Why onigiri?" I ask, staring down at the onigiri she offers.
"You didn't say that you were sad about not having lunch, but I knew you were," she grins. "Mom always tells me it's important to eat, so here's some onigiri for you to eat, that way you can be happy," she smiles with a finger pointing to the corners of her cheeks.
A small smile forms on my face. "Thanks."
Her eyes widen and she grins. "No problem Kei-kun!"
(Back to reality)
I walk over to the girl and hand her the large dog plushie that I won. "Here, you can have mine instead."
"Are you sure?" The mother asks and I nod my head.
"It's fine with me. I have many other plushies anyway," I tell her and the girl's eyes sparkle.
"Thank you so much!" The girl smiles as she lovingly cuddles the dog plushie.
The father looks over to me. "Thank you very much," he smiles and his daughter takes his hand and her mom's hand then leaves.
"I brought the bag," Haruka says and I turn around.
"Did you see the whole thing?" I ask.
"I did," Haruka shrugs.
"Sorry about giving away a plushie. I knew you were excited about them," I apologize and she shakes her head.
"You don't have to apologize, it's fine," Haruka smiles. "I don't need that many stuffed animals or pillows. Seeing the girl happy made my day. And besides, what really made me excited was watching you play."
"I see," I smile back and Haruka's eyes widen.
"You know..." Haruka mumbles with slightly red cheeks as she averts my gaze. "I find you a hard person to understand. You're mean at times, but other times you could be really sweet," she awkwardly explains. "But Keiji, you're a good person. I've come to realize that," Haruka states.
I lightly chuckle. "It's because I learned from the best."
"Eh? What do you mean by that?" she tilts her head and I shrug.
"Are there any other games that you want me to beat you in?" I smugly ask and a vein pops on her head.
"Huh?!" Haruka irritatedly says and points to the air hockey. "Then let's see who can win that!" she competitively declares as she stomps over to the air hockey machine.
I watch Haruka walk from behind and reflect back to the young girl that I knew from the past.
"Keiji, are you coming?" Haruka excitedly asks, waiting for me to come over to play.
The tips of my lips turn up. "I'm coming," I tell her and the two of us continue to play in the arcade for our entire date.
Third Person POV
(Meanwhile)
"Bokuto, where are we?" Komi asks as they ended up following Haru to a place that they didn't know.
The five of them angrily glare at Bokuto and Bokuto stares at the brick building blankly.
Bokuto tilts his head. "I don't know?" he answers and they all glare at him.
"Bokuto!!!" They all angrily shout and Bokuto's hair droops down as they start scolding him for following Haru.
Little did they know, they were at the back of the building of the arcade where Akaashi and Haruka were.