Kururu's agile hand flipped open his cell phone with practiced ease. What he was going to do next wasn't so practiced. His finger twitched, almost shaking, but he bit down on his lip to make it stop. It irritated him that he could feel this fidgety over a simple phone call. He dialed in 184 first. That was the prefix that would allow his identity to stay hidden. Then he dialed the rest of the number. He held his cell to his headphone and waited. It would be easy to flip it closed. Just one flick of the wrist. He cursed in his head. There was no reason at all to be such a coward. It wasn't like he was calling a stranger. And he did that all of the time...

Her voice in his ear was breathless, like she had been excersising or bathing.
"Moshi, moshi!" She said, the word used for "hello" to these particular Pekoponians. She sounded rushed, but still cheerful. She liked keeping busy. He paused, deciding to let her wonder for awhile longer. She repeated the greeting again, this time more like a question. Then there was a long pause.
"Uh...who is this?" Instead of sounding irriated, she sounded intrigued.
"Hmm...well, if you won't tell me who you are...let's play a little game."
Kururu stifled a laugh. He watched her on the screen as she sat down on the couch.
"I'll ask you 'yes' or 'no' questions... But if you answer with your voice, I'll probably recognize it. That would take all the fun out of it..." There was another pause. "I know. If the answer is 'yes' press a button on your phone once. If it's 'no' press it twice. Okay?" Now Kururu was really holding a laugh in. She could be talking to anybody, and she was playing phone games. He wondered what other kinds of things she did on the phone. But this idea was clever. Whenever a button was pressed on a phone, usually a number, both people could hear a high-pitched beep.
"First question, then. Are you a male?"
Kururu pressed number 9 and they both heard one beep.
"Ah-ha. I thought so... Do know who I am?"
One beep.
"Do you work with me at the office?"
Two beeps.
"Ah. I wonder where else... Do you know me personally?"
Kururu paused at this. He didn't know her as well as he'd like, but he pressed the button once anyway.
"Well, that narrows it down a bit." There was silence, and then... "Do you have pink hair?" Kururu was puzzled for a second, and then he knew she thought he could be Haru, her old boyfriend. He pressed twice.
"Hmm. Okay..." Then she giggled.
"Are you a human being?"
He smiled. Two beeps.
"Then you must be one of the Keronians!" His heart stood still in his chest at how cheerful she sounded.
"Are you green?" Keroro. Two beeps.
"Do you have a tadpole tail?" Tamama. Two beeps.
"Do you love curry?" She giggled at the end of that, and Kururu pressed the number 9 once.
"Ah, ha! Kuru-chan!"
"Ku, ku! Hi, Aki..."
Her voice turned alarmed.
"Oh! Is something wrong? Here I've been playing phone games..."
"If something was wrong, I wouldn't have played along, Aki. Ku, ku, ku!"
"That's true. But Kuru-chan! I'm surprised! You're usually too busy to do something like call me. And you have your cameras." Kururu blushed. He thought it amusing that Aki knew he spied on her with cameras, but she didn't prohibit it.
"Well, I was just bored. Sometimes I actually do run out of things to do. I see that you don't, though." She giggled slyly, knowing he was watching.
"I was going to start on dinner, actually. I hardly ever get to cook it myself, but I thought I'd surprise Fuyuki and Natsumi. How about you come up here and help me out? Do you have any good ideas, Kuru-chan?"
"Ku, ku! I always have good ideas."
"You do. I feel like something with a lot of vegetables, and I could use a steady hand. What do you think?" Her voice sounded so suggestive, like she was asking him to help her in the bath.
"I think I will. Nothing else better to do anyway."
"Oh, good. Arigato, Kuru-chan!"
"Nyooo..."
He flipped his little phone closed and smiled. His plan had gone better than expected. He was always up for stealing more time from Aki Hinata.