"Wow, that's so cute! Minato, get it for me."
Standing slightly behind Arisu as she begged me at the claw machine corner, I sighed wearily.
"Hey, until Tanaka-senpai gets here, we don't really need to pretend to be dating, do we?"
"No way! If we don't start acting like it now, he'll know it's fake."
"Is that how it works?"
"That's how it works. So come on, get that for me."
She pointed at a white rabbit plushie.
But something that big—there's no telling how much money it would take to get it. Actually, I probably can't get it at all.
"Waste of money. Pick something else."
"What? No, no, I want that one!"
"H-hey, don't pull on me."
"Hehe, I'm not letting go until you get it for me."
"Fine, fine."
Giving in to Arisu tugging on my sleeve, I reluctantly took out my wallet.
"Haa... But if you don't get it in three tries, give up. I don't have money to burn."
"Hehe, okay. Hey, do you think we look like we're dating?"
"I dunno. I've never had a girlfriend."
When I brushed it off, she puffed out her cheeks and said, "You're no fun." I guess Tanaka-senpai fell for this kind of cutesy act too. I find it a bit of a hassle, honestly.
I prefer someone more independent... No, what am I thinking?
"What's wrong, Minato?"
"N-nothing. Come on, let's do this."
Pulling myself together, I put in 100 yen and operated the claw.
The claw went straight down toward the plushie, which was obviously too big to grab.
Arisu watched excitedly, while I felt cold inside, thinking I was wasting money on something so pointless. But when the claw closed and hooked onto the tag, lifting the big plushie into the air, my eyes went wide.
"Huh?"
"Wow, amazing, amazing!"
The plushie was carried over to the drop hole and fell in with a soft thud.
"Wow, you got it! Minato, are you a genius?"
"...It was luck."
"Geez, why are you so cool about it? Look, look, it's so cute!"
Holding the plushie she'd won, she showed it to me and said, "I'm so happy, I'll treasure it."
I just calmly replied, "Yeah, yeah." Do I really look like her boyfriend?
Come to think of it, why were we doing this again?
"Hey, when is Tanaka-senpai coming?"
"Ah, now that you mention it. Maybe he's not coming because of the tournament coming up?"
"Hey, come on. So this was a wasted trip?"
"Come on, let's wait a little longer."
After that, we walked around the arcade once, waiting for Tanaka-senpai, but he never showed.
I managed to convince Arisu, who wanted to stay longer, and we left the arcade.
---
◇
"Ah, that was fun."
"No, seriously, that was pointless. Damn."
When we got outside, the sun was starting to set.
Since she said her house wasn't far from the arcade, I was walking Arisu home.
She was holding the plushie carefully the whole time.
"Come on, it's fine. I got this plushie out of it."
"I wasted my time and lost 100 yen."
"Ah, if you say stingy stuff like that, you'll never get popular."
"I don't want to be popular, so it's fine."
"Hehe, well, thanks for coming with me today. Can I ask you again sometime?"
"What happened to the 'just for one day' promise?"
"But Tanaka-senpai didn't show up."
"How should I know?"
If you're going to ask a favor, plan it better first—I started to say, but then she stopped walking.
"This is my place. You live in that apartment near the school, right, Minato?"
"Yeah. I'll just walk home slowly."
"I see. Okay, thanks for today. See you at school."
"Yeah."
I gave a small wave to Arisu waving from her doorstep, then headed home.
It's been a while since I went out without working, but it's still tiring.
Well, I do something tiring every day, but it's a different kind of fatigue. Listening to someone, watching their expressions, matching their pace. All that stuff everyone does—right now, it's utterly exhausting.
If this is how it is, maybe I should have turned Arisu down.
Come to think of it, what was Yuzu doing? Did she go straight home? Or did she find another guy... No, none of my business.
We're not like that.
"Huh?"
As my apartment came into view, I looked up at my room on the second floor. I saw a figure in front of the door.
When I got closer...
"Welcome back."
Yuzu was crouched in front of the entrance.
She looked up at me lazily.
"You... have you been here all this time?"
"No way. I went home once, but I was bored, so I came back. Well, you were later than I thought, so I got bored waiting."
"...You heard about today from Arisu, right? So if you knew—"
"You didn't tell me yourself."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. Come on, hurry up and open it. It's muggy outside, I'm all sweaty."
Flipping her collar to cool off, she knocked on the door as if to say "Open up already."
Confused, I unlocked the door. Yuzu went inside first, acting like she owned the place.
"I'm taking a shower."
She took off her jacket and headed straight for the bathroom.