Chapter 65.


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">After that, the two of us moved about from game to game trying out each one that caught our eyes.


    <span style="font-weight:400">But eventually, I reached my limit. I ran out of games I thought would be fun for both of us to y and I didn’t know what else to try. By now, I was honestly pretty tired too. I figured we could y at least one final game.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Struggling to make a decision on a game to y, 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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">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 gue 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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Dancing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I mean, I could at least y 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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I couldn’t help but drop down to my hands and knees.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What are you doing?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m sorry. But that game is forbidden. It is banned by the arcade.” Yeah. That’s it. It’s banned.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s banned? Then why do they have it here?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Reasons.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, it looks like someone’s about to put a coin into the machine though. Are you really telling the truth?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh… someone’s about to y 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 y right at this very instant? They couldn’t wait even a minute longer? Who is the bastard that is messing with me?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wait, isn’t that Alicia?” Rosa suddenly pointed out.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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 y the exact game Rosa coincidentally picks out. This is rigged against me, isn’t it? I’m being plotted against by someone.


    <span style="font-weight:400">God, is that you? Can you hear me? Please show me a sign if you’re messing with me right now.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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?


    <span style="font-weight:400">It was you all along, wasn’t it Alicia!


    <span style="font-weight:400">I’m just going in circles now.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I stood up andposed myself.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Come on, let’s go try it out with her.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I was dragged by the hand to the DDR machine where Alicia was located.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, Alicia, mind if we join you?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Startled by someone suddenly calling out her name, Alicia spun around in the middle of the song she was ying. Butterfly by Kon on what looked to be the hardest difficulty with a fullbo going with no misses.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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 yed this game a lot and had mastered it to a high degree. As expected of a popr girl with so many friends.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? You guys want to y too?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh, yeah, a bit. It looks like fun.” Rosa scratched her cheek as she nodded in affirmation.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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 ce for this one I was more than happy to hand the role off to her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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 ying with her.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m a bit tired and need to rest a bit. I’d be d if you could keep herpany. Besides, it looks like she does want to y with you.” I pointed at Rosa.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Rosa, are you really fine with that?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, yeah. Let’s y it together.” She felt a bit like a kid who wanted to y 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?


    <span style="font-weight:400">I was now d 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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then… if that’s what you really want.” A warm smile grew on her face when she agreed.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh… that? Well… I sort of became a third wheel. They’re actually over there ying 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 y cupid for. Haha...” She had a troubled smile on her face.


    <span style="font-weight:400">When I heard her exnation, 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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rosa looked at me, shocked by my sudden outbursts.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">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?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh. Mr. Boyfriend, you say something to your girlfriend. She’s going to ruin your date if she brings me along.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I let out a helpless sigh and raised my hands, “As long as my girlfriend wants you toe 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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What? But… but… I’ll just be a bother…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Stop trying to make excuses. If you were really a bother, we wouldn’t be asking you to apany us on our date in the first ce.” I raised my hand and ced 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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She closed her eyes and grumbled, “I’m not a kid, I can at least fix my hair myself.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then fix it on your own next time.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hmmm… don''t you two seem pretty close?” Rosa asked with a curious gaze.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“We’re not close at all.” Sheined as though she were ming me for all her troubles.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, what she said.” Ipletely 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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rosa shot us a knowing smile but said no more about it.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, forget that troublesome stuff for now. Let’s just y, have some fun, and enjoy ourselves.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“R-Right.” Alicia was still a bit stiff. On her way onto the dance pad, she shot a few furtive nces my way. Seeming to still wonder if this was really okay.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I rolled my eyes flippantly dismissing her worries.