Chapter 65. Executing Operation, Codename: Date, Afternoon. (1/4)

After that, the two of us moved about from game to game trying out each one that caught our eyes.

But eventually, I reached my limit. I ran out of games I thought would be fun for both of us to play and I didn’t know what else to try. By now, I was honestly pretty tired too. I figured we could play at least one final game.

Struggling to make a decision on a game to play, I said, “Uh… let’s see… what else is there? Rosa, are there any other games left you saw and are interested in trying out?” I tried seeking out her opinion when I couldn’t decide. There was always the possibility that she was curious about a game and hadn’t spoken up about it yet.

Her eyes wandered around the arcade and inspected it. Eventually, her eyes stopped on one. She pointed at it and asked, “What’s that one? I’ve actually been curious about it for a while, but it felt like you were avoiding that area.”

When I confirmed what it was, my face cramped up. How did I forget about this? I’d been unconsciously avoiding the area like the plague without even realizing it. Of all things to catch her eye… why? Why is it DDR! Are you fucking with me, God? Why do you continue to dig up my trauma over and over again? My greatest weakness.

Dancing.

I mean, I could at least play the game, all you did was tap the arrows on the ground with your feet, but I looked like a clown when it came to dancing.

I couldn’t help but drop down to my hands and knees.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry. But that game is forbidden. It is banned by the arcade.” Yeah. That’s it. It’s banned.

“It’s banned? Then why do they have it here?”

“Reasons.”

“Hey, it looks like someone’s about to put a coin into the machine though. Are you really telling the truth?”

“Oh… someone’s about to play it? I guess... I confused it with a different game I was thinking of. My bad. Haha.” Really? Why am I so cursed? Someone just had to go and decide to play right at this very instant? They couldn’t wait even a minute longer? Who is the bastard that is messing with me?

“Wait, isn’t that Alicia?” Rosa suddenly pointed out.

I looked up and verified the bastard was indeed Alicia. Are you doing this on purpose? The person who just happens to know one of my greatest weaknesses, dancing, just happens to show up at the perfect time and play the exact game Rosa coincidentally picks out. This is rigged against me, isn’t it? I’m being plotted against by someone.

God, is that you? Can you hear me? Please show me a sign if you’re messing with me right now.

When nothing happened my head sank dejectedly. Who is this invisible unseen enemy? Wait, invisible? Aren’t they actually right in front of me? Alicia is my enemy. How did I forget that?

It was you all along, wasn’t it Alicia!

I’m just going in circles now.

I stood up and composed myself.

“Come on, let’s go try it out with her.”

I was dragged by the hand to the DDR machine where Alicia was located.

“Hey, Alicia, mind if we join you?”

Startled by someone suddenly calling out her name, Alicia spun around in the middle of the song she was playing. Butterfly by Kon on what looked to be the hardest difficulty with a full combo going with no misses.

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Despite not looking at the screen, her feet still moved. Some might think she was moving about randomly right now, but I noticed she was hitting perfects on all the symbols scrolling up to the top of the screen. It seemed to be muscle memory. She’d obviously played this game a lot and had mastered it to a high degree. As expected of a popular girl with so many friends.

“Oh? You guys want to play too?”

“Uh, yeah, a bit. It looks like fun.” Rosa scratched her cheek as she nodded in affirmation.

I, on the other hand, opted to wait this one out and rest “Not at all. You two please enjoy yourselves.” Since Alicia could serve as Rosa’s partner in my place for this one I was more than happy to hand the role off to her.

Alicia stepped off the gamepad and scolded me with a finger pushed up against my chest to rebuke me, “What are you talking about? You’re on a date with your girlfriend, you should be playing with her.”

“I’m a bit tired and need to rest a bit. I’d be glad if you could keep her company. Besides, it looks like she does want to play with you.” I pointed at Rosa.

“Huh? Rosa, are you really fine with that?”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s play it together.” She felt a bit like a kid who wanted to play with her best friend. When I thought about it, this might have actually been the first time she’d ever been to an arcade. She’d moved about from country to country her entire life with her parents after all and was probably also preparing to follow their footsteps the entire time too. When would she have had the leisure to do something like go to an arcade with that sort of busy lifestyle?

I was now glad that I’d chosen to bring her to the arcade for our date. It let me see a much more childish side to her I’d never seen before.

“Then… if that’s what you really want.” A warm smile grew on her face when she agreed.

“By the way, where’s the group of friends you came to the mall with? Did they ditch you or something?” I decided to ask the question that had been bothering me for a while now.

“Oh… that? Well… I sort of became a third wheel. They’re actually over there playing games as couples. As soon as exams were over, many students, both among the guys and girls approached me, asking if I could help introduce them to someone. They wanted to get hooked up with someone and spend the Christmas holidays together to make some good memories. Since I was friends with so many people... I was flooded with these types of requests. I’ve still got three more days’ worth of groups I have to play cupid for. Haha...” She had a troubled smile on her face.

When I heard her explanation, I was genuinely ticked off. If they want good memories, they should make it themselves rather than take advantage of this stupidly nice girl's kindness.

“If you’re so busy worrying about other people’s happiness, when are you going to find the opportunity to be happy yourself, you stupidly kind girl?” I couldn’t hold it in and blurted that out in frustration without thinking.

“This is what happens when you make friends with everyone. They will just use you for your convenience whenever they want then throw you away when your use is up.” I really was more irritated than I imagined.

Rosa looked at me, shocked by my sudden outbursts.

“Now, now. There’s no need to be so mad. It’s true I don’t like them either, but let’s just forget about them and enjoy our time. Besides, if they don’t want Alicia, my precious first friend anymore, then it’s fine if we take her with us.”

See? Isn’t it fine, just making friends with a minimal number of people? If you befriend those actually in need of friends, they value you much more like Rosa. Why can’t this girl understand something so simple?

“What? No way. I can’t go with you two, you’re on a date together. I’d be intruding too much and killing the mood if I tag around like a pesky fly.”

“I’ll get mad if you say that. You’re not a pesky fly. You’re my precious first friend. If you call yourself that again I won’t forgive you and I’ll drag you along by force if I have to.”

“Uh. Mr. Boyfriend, you say something to your girlfriend. She’s going to ruin your date if she brings me along.”

I let out a helpless sigh and raised my hands, “As long as my girlfriend wants you to come alone and that makes her happy anything is fine with me. If you being here makes her happy, that's the only thing that matters to me. You’ll just have to put up with my girlfriend’s selfishness.”

“What? But… but… I’ll just be a bother…”

“Stop trying to make excuses. If you were really a bother, we wouldn’t be asking you to accompany us on our date in the first place.” I raised my hand and placed it on top of her head while I took the opportunity to fix her hair a bit. It’d gotten a bit disorderly from when she’d been dancing to the song just now.

She closed her eyes and grumbled, “I’m not a kid, I can at least fix my hair myself.”

“Then fix it on your own next time.”

“Hmmm… don't you two seem pretty close?” Rosa asked with a curious gaze.

“We’re not close at all.” She complained as though she were blaming me for all her troubles.

“Yeah, what she said.” I completely agreed. We were enemies. Wait, didn’t I say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Oh well, no point correcting myself now.

Rosa shot us a knowing smile but said no more about it.

“Well, forget that troublesome stuff for now. Let’s just play, have some fun, and enjoy ourselves.”

“R-Right.” Alicia was still a bit stiff. On her way onto the dance pad, she shot a few furtive glances my way. Seeming to still wonder if this was really okay.

I rolled my eyes flippantly dismissing her worries.