Story Time 6: Cheer Up

Summary: Karma just flung his first semester exam. What would Manami do to stop him from feeling down?

Okuda Manami had a smile on her face for the rest of the day. Her achievement in Science was fantastic, beating the infamous chairman's son, Gakushuu Asano and the best in science among The Five Virtuosos, Koyama Natsuhiko. It was hard to describe the overflowing happiness in mix of shyness and awkwardness that she experienced when the whole class rejoiced and congratulated her. It felt good to finally being able to contribute to Class 3-E's assassination effort. A message of "Congrats Manami, we are so proud of you!" from her parents was the icing to the cake.

But now she had an important personal mission.

Sweet-natured as she was, the girl quickly agreed to do a favor for her homeroom teacher. But when his smilw morphed into a devious grin, she feared for the worst.

"I believed you are close with Karma-kun, correct?"

"Yes, I am." A relief sigh escaped her lips before the girl realised what she just blurted out. Her face was flushed within seconds, "I-I mean…"

"As a friend, of course." He was back to his normal face, seemingly satisfied with her reaction, "You see, Karma-kun didn't perform as well. While he still managed to get 13th position for composite score, not scoring in top 5 in Math has hit his ego quite hard."

The glasses girl half laughed at the fact. She could only dream to reach that position. But then again, her redhead friend had scored near perfect in the 1st midterm.

"Sensei believe frustration is important for Karma-kun to learn from his mistakes. However, I believe he had seen his error. It's not good to dwell in failure for too long. Can I count on you to cheer him up?"

"Cheer Karma-kun up huh… But how am I supposed to do that?"

While running after the rest of the classmate, her head was brainstorming with few possible ideas. He knew Karma-kun like sweets, comics, games, and on top of that, pranks. But creating a prank concoction would take some time and he would have been home by then. The poison glasses was not too sure either whether town library owned the comics he liked.

"I suck at it, but it seemed to be the only choice now…"

So when her eyes came across her delinquent friend, she immediately called him. Like a magic spell, it stopped the boy in his track.

"Okuda-san. What's up?"

"L-let's go to the arcade! Exam just ended, time to have some fun after all studying. Then afterwards we can… We can…" she could feel his eyes telling her to go on, "Grab dinner or something?"

She tried her best to keep her tone natural. But as soon as they fell into a quick silence, her mind was filled with endless questions. Did she make her attempt too obvious? What if he refuse? What other things could she do?

His eyes looked deep into hers, before he replied,

"Sure, why not?"

XXXXX

Shooting game was a walk in the park, thanks to aiming for a Mach 20 creature on daily basis. The arcade staff could swear that if those two joined competition for Silent Hill, they would have been a champion.

Other games were completely different story though.

While the redhead seemed to work his magic around all games, the girl had to chase after her bounced basketballs and hockey disc, almost slipped twice while playing Pump-it-Up, and would have died if it was actually her inside Mario Kart. To add salt to the wound, a kid barely older than ten was finishing a round of the racing game with complete ease beside her.

All pride the glasses girl had from her exam suddenly vanished into the air. Apart from studying and creating poison, her other skills were close to zero.

"Don't worry, you will get the hang of it once you played them often enough." He replied, while his eyes concentrated on claw in the glass box, "Got it!"

Her hands clapped as he knelt to take the prize. It was a black rabbit with a red ribbon and cat bell tied around its neck. She leaned closer to admire the cute doll, but his hand was quick to offer.

"It's okay Karma-kun, I-"

"No, I want you to have it." His tone was firm, "A thank you present for someone who cheered me up, even though she knew she sucks at arcade games."

Even though a particular word was supposed to be hurtful, it didn't have that impact. The only thing crossing her mind now was how foolish she was to think he didn't see through her.

Hesitantly, her hand reached for the rabbit. Her thumb pressed into the stuffed toy, as if testing whether what happened in front of her was real. There was a foreign feeling rushing through her, a happiness which was different from when her parents and friends congratulated her. And she didn't know how to express it.

So the only thing she could say was:

"Thank you, Karma-kun."

It was difficult to take his eyes off her. A tint of blush complemented her gentle gaze and smile very well as the nerd cooed at the bunny. Involuntarily, his lips curved into a smile which he never know he had.

The redhead had to admit that his guy classmates got to be blind to easily side glance this girl. Just look at how cute she-

Wait, what the heck? Did he really just…

If not for her being completely engrossed with her new possession, she might have seen something very interesting. However, the boy had regained his composure when his knuckle came in contact softly with her head. Okuda flinched, despite the lack of impact.

"Next time, let's go to something you like too. Movies and sweets cafe are totally cool with me. We can always set a compromise."

"O-okay."

By that time, the sun had long set and the whole town was bustling with lights from nearby shop. As if to confirm his guess on time, his stomach had started to grumble in protest. The redhead slipped his hand back to his pockets.

"Since it's getting late, how about getting dinner together?"

"Eh? Y-you didn't have to…"

"You said before that we will grab dinner or something right? I am yet to congratulate you on your test result, so at least let me treat you for a dinner. You've paid for the arcade after all."

Without giving her any time to retort, he walked away. It was only then she realised that he had grabbed her phone. The girl made a small run before both of them walked side by side to their destination, her gadget was back in her possession.

XXXXX

Unbeknownst to them, a certain yellow creature was hiding behind a bush on the side of the road. People passed by with caution and glanced suspiciously, as this huge man had his eyes fixed at a pair of middle school students. One tentacle was used to write his notes, while other was used to snap some pictures.

"Today, Karma-kun had a date in arcade with Okuda-san and won her a doll. Then he insisted to take her for dinner. Awwww~" a light shade of pink emerged on his yellow cheeks. It was clear that he was in a full fan girl mode, what's with the flowers floating around him.

However, it didn't take very long for a police officer to notice an abnormally tall man, looking completely suspicious in hat and black sunglasses.

"Hey, what are you doing? And you are not supposed to step on the grass."

"Eh?" His camouflage was supposed to be perfect. Sweat started to form in his face, "I-"

"Sir, please follow me to- Hey, don't run away!"

To his chagrin, the officer chased him with admirable speed. The octopus teacher couldn't use his Mach 20 speed in public after all. The pair, on the other hand, never notice the commotion behind them.

Hello everybody!

So one down. I was about to make their dinner scene, but realised it would be toooo long (I tried to keep each chapter around 1000ish at most). I'm thinking to make it as part 2, in which I would tell why Karma said stuffs about running away at school assembly and Okuda being all shaky.

Anyway, read and review! If you are too shy to post publicly, feel free to PM me.

kuroneko