Chapter 17: First Date
It was almost 8pm—only ten minutes until 'go time,' according to Joey. Seto was feeling more annoyed than he was feeling nervous; Joey had suggested the two of them set up their first in-person dates on the same night, at the same place, and at the same time. The two twenty-somethings arrived at the bar a half hour early, per Joey's recommendation, so he could reserve both of their tables on opposite sides of the bar but within sight of one another. By setting up the dates this way, both would be able to verify that the dates had occurred but without intruding upon the other's date. While this made no sense to Seto, he had decided days earlier not to fight Joey on his recommendations. Fighting Joey wasn't worth the time spent exchanging words so Seto silently let Joey lead the way.
Seto scanned the bar to take in his surroundings before slipping out his phone. The bar was already bustling with people, as Seto expected from the most popular bar in Domino City. Joey recommended the bar, Take Two, because it was located in the heart of the city and because it was considered 'trendy.' Joey backed this assertion up by saying the bar had incredible reviews on Yelp… and that the last two dates he had taken to this bar had gotten him laid afterwards. Seto wasn't interested in a one-night stand but, again, went along with the plan because he was so disinterested in fighting with Joey about it.
Seto looked up again from his phone, as the minutes inched closer to 8pm, and saw Joey sauntering towards him.
"Why do you keep wandering over here? Go sit at your table and wait for your date," Seto snapped, looking back down at his phone, pretending not to know Joey.
"I just wanted to check with you one last time before we got started to make sure you were all set. I also wanted to ask if you wanted any last-minute advice before your date arrives. Did you mentally line up topics for discussion?"
"Wheeler, if you don't go away in the next five seconds, I will send you to the hospital again," Seto whispered.
"Alright, alright, I'll leave. But before I do… did you practice the emergency signal in the event that we need to leave early? It looks like this." Joey grabbed the bottom of his left earlobe with his hand and gave it the tiniest tug. He then said, "It's subtle, but effective. Will you remember it?"
"I told myself I would blindly accept your advice on this whole dating experience… but why again do we need an emergency signal? What could possibly happen that I would require you to cause a scene?"
"You've never been on a date before. Believe me, if things go wrong, you'll be happy to have an excuse to get out."
Seto rolled his eyes, "Whatever you say. Now leave."
"Yep, will do. Good luck," Joey said, scurrying across the bar and back over to his table on the opposite side of the room.
With Joey gone, Seto returned to his phone. He noted that the time was 8pm exactly so Seto would be more vigilant with scanning the room for his date. Seto opened up the OkDuelist account to review the profile picture of his date one last time. She was supposedly on the shorter side—only 5"4 and a brunette with dark brown eyes. She was one of the first girls to have matched and messaged with Seto on the dating app about two weeks ago. Seto thought she had soft, caring eyes and also enjoyed the fact that she was able to write in complete sentences. Joey told Seto that abbreviations said more about the dating app culture than the women that used the abbreviations but still… Seto liked that she didn't fall victim to using abbreviations in her messages.
"Hey, are you Seto?"
Seto immediately locked his phone screen and rose to his feet, "My sincerest apologies for not noticing you walk over. Yes, I'm Seto. I'm assuming you're Hina?"
Hina's smiled disappeared when Seto turned to face her, "Hold on, are you Seto Kaiba?"
"I… am. Is that alright?" Seto asked, unsure about Hina's reaction to him.
Hina started to chuckle and said, "Wow, I just wasn't expecting that. I mean, when I saw your profile picture and you told me your name was Seto, I just assumed I was being catfished. I wasn't expecting to actually go on a date with Seto Kaiba."
"I will admit that I'm a little out of practice when it comes to dating but what exactly does catfishing mean in this context?"
"Let's sit down and I'll tell you, how about that?" Hina said, flashing a smile Seto's way. Seto was still confused but welcomed the opportunity to sit down rather than awkwardly standing across from her. He was sure Joey must've been watching that strange encounter, but he tried to put it out of his mind and focus on the woman sitting across from him. Hina was wearing a white tank top coupled with a tight jean jacket. The outfit wasn't too flashy which put Seto at ease that he had listened to Joey's advice about not being too dressed up for the date. Joey said that overdressing for a first date would be seen as taking the date too seriously which would scare women away… or something.
"Can I get you guys started with something to drink?" the waiter asked, seemingly coming out of nowhere.
"I'd like a glass of white wine. It doesn't matter what kind, but a Pino would be great."
"I'll have the same, thanks," Seto replied.
After the waiter took down their orders and disappeared, Hina leaned forward, "Just so I'm clear, I'm not being pranked, am I? You're really Seto Kaiba and we're really on a date right now?"
"That does appear to be the case… do I need to show you my employee ID to prove it?" Seto asked, slightly annoyed, "What makes you think otherwise? Do you have something against Kaiba Corp.?" It would be just Seto's luck to end up on a date with a woman who had a personal vendetta against his company. Seto refrained from asking any more questions about this—he wanted Hina to speak for herself.
"No, I don't have any issues with Kaiba Corp. and I don't mean to offend you. It's just that there are a lot of people on OkDuelist that pretend to be you. They upload your pictures as their profile and fill out their profile in a way that they think you would fill out the profile. You were the last person I was expecting to meet tonight."
Seto was intrigued, but suspicious, by this. He leaned forward and said, "If you thought I was a fake Seto Kaiba instead of the real one, why would you go on a date with me"
"You were the first fake Seto Kaiba to actually set up a date with me other than blow me off or not show up. The fake ones never meet me in person."
"You tried to set up dates with the other Seto Kaiba profiles? Are you a weird fan of mine?"
"No, I'm just running a bit of a social experiment right now," Hina paused for a moment while worry washed over her face. She said, "Oh no, that probably sounds really weird."
Just then, the drinks had arrived. Seto took his glass and motioned for Hina to take hers with a smirk. Seto replied, "That doesn't sound weird at all. I'd actually like to hear more about the results of this experiment. It sounds way more interesting than us discussing what our hobbies are." And with that, Hina and Seto clinked their glasses and began to converse.
-YGO-
"…So, you were the Battle City champion?"
"No, I was a Battle City finalist. I did come in third place, which basically makes me the champion."
"But you didn't even finish in second place."
Joey's eyebrow twitched uncontrollably but he tried to distract from the twitching by taking a long swig of his beer. The woman sitting opposite from him was Mio; she had short black hair and dark brown eyes. She was wearing a hot pink head band and tight black skinny jeans that matched her hair but, Joey's eyes, clashed with her sea foam green button-down shirt. Joey couldn't be completely sure, but he was getting the sense that his date may have been younger than him, but he refused to ask. Joey knew better than to ask the forbidden question.
"You know what? We've been talking too much about me. How about you? What brings you to a website like OkDuelist and inspires you to swipe right on this handsome mug?" Joey said, winking at Mio.
Mio chuckled and brushed her hand against Joey's, "I thought you were kind of cute and I only date blonds. I don't play much Duel Monsters, but I would love for someone to teach me more about it."
"For the record, I think you're incredibly cute and I could absolutely show you the ropes of Duel Monsters some time," Joey responded, leaning in and tucking some of Mio's hair behind her ear. The two of them were only inches apart from the other's face and Joey could feel Mio's breath become slow. Joey resisted the urge to fist bump himself; the truth was, Joey hadn't lost his swagger. Beating Seto at this rate, Joey had determined, would be a breeze.
Joey took Mio's hand, "How about we get out of here? We could head to my place."
"Sure, I think that sounds great," Mio replied, bouncing out of her seat to follow Joey out of the bar.
Joey and Mio were halfway to the exit when Joey halted suddenly. Mio collided with Joey's back and her hand slipped out of his. She walked around to see what Joey was looking at.
"Is there a problem?" Mio asked, looking from Joey to the direction he was looking. Joey appeared to be staring at a woman that had just entered the bar. There was a man standing with the woman, his arm slung around her neck. The two appeared to be together and Joey seemed to be mesmerized by this. Mio followed up her question with another question, her heart starting to sink as she put the pieces together, "Do you know that woman?"
"I've got to go… it was nice meeting you," Joey said, turning around and running away from the exit. He ran back over to the table he was previously sitting at and yanked on his earlobe in Seto's direction. He yanked it a couple of times, but he could see that Seto wasn't looking in Joey's direction. Joey took a moment to process his inner conflict but then saw the woman and her date walking towards him. Joey thought fast, making a decision he knew would piss Seto off but there was no other solution.
"Kaiba, I'm sorry but we have to go," Joey said frantically, slamming his hands on the table and interrupting the conversation between Seto and Hina.
"What's going on here? Is this your friend?" Hina asked, looking at Joey.
"Wheeler, what is the meaning of this? I thought you came up with that idiotic emergency signal for this exact reason."
"The emergency signal only works if you pay attention to it, Kaiba! Where were you about two minutes ago?" Joey yelled, yanking on his earlobe.
Seto got up and placed some cash on the table, "Hina, I apologize for his behavior and mine. I have to go, unfortunately, but I will give you a call next week so we can pick up where we left off."
"I don't understand, what's going on?" Hina asked, getting up as Joey and Seto turned to leave.
"I'll call you and explain later," Seto said, grabbing Joey's arm and heading towards the exit. He felt too ashamed to face Hina when he said it, but he felt some relief knowing the two of them would never see each other again. Seto didn't know if Hina would ever pick up his calls again and that somehow made the embarrassment he was experiencing slightly better. Seto muttered to Joey under his breath, "Once we get out of here, you're going to pay for this."
"That's fine by me, as long as we can get out—" Joey's legs froze in place and Seto's did too.
"Kaiba? Joey? What are you doing here?" Seto recognized that voice and twisted his head to see where it came from.
"Mai Valentine, it's… you," Seto replied, feeling completely uneasy as he came to realize why Joey had been in such a hurry to get out of the bar only moments earlier.
"Friends of yours, Mai?" A deep voice asked and then a man emerged beside Mai, wrapping his arm around her waist. Seto was beginning to pick up where the extra layer of awkward was coming from—it was clear that this tall, dark handsome man was Mai's date. Seto turned to Joey to see his reaction but the mechanic's face was completely blank. It appears his shock was making him speechless which was prolonging the very awkward situation they were in.
"We'll be going now…" Seto rambled before grabbing Joey's arm again and continuing towards the door. Seto and Joey were able to make it to the exit without any other difficulties or distractions. Seto, for some reason, felt out of breath when their feet hit the sidewalk outside of the bar. The night was brisk and cool, and the streetlights illuminated the neighborhood full of people that were trickling into the bar.
"What the hell was that, Wheeler? You ruined my date because you ran into your ex-girlfriend? You couldn't hide in the bathroom or something until I finished the date?"
"Could I have a second of sympathy before you yell at me about ruining your night? Have you considered the chance that my night might be worse than yours because of what I just had to experience?"
Seto sighed and said, "Come on, let's get out of here before Hina comes out and sees us. You really made me look like a fool! I think that should make you lose the competition by default." Seto grabbed Joey's arm and started yanking him again, this time down the sidewalk towards where he was parked. Joey didn't resist Seto's manhandling in the slightest, he let his feet follow whatever direction Seto was dragging him in. Joey's head was bent forward with his eyes were fixated on the ground. It only took about two minutes to get to Seto's car, but the CEO could sense there was something wrong.
"Don't make me ask what's wrong. You know I don't care so can you please just spit it out so we can move on?" Seto responded. The last thing he wanted was to listen to Joey's woes, but he didn't want to sit through an uncomfortable car ride either. "Okay, I'll say it. We ran into Mai at the bar… so what? You were on a date, so was she. You guys have been broken up for some time now so who cares?"
Joey took a deep breath and looked up, "The night we created our dating profiles, I try to look up Mai. When I didn't see her profile on there, I assumed it was because she wasn't dating anyone and wasn't trying to date anyone. I know it's stupid, but I guess I thought that she wasn't putting herself out there because she was hoping we would get back together. It never crossed my mind that she wouldn't be on OkDuelist because she's dating someone else…"
Seto opened his mouth to say something but then immediately decided against it. Despite the incredible education he received as a child, there was nothing he thought he could say to help a man with a broken heart. Seto gave Joey two pats on the shoulder and then motioned for him to get into the car. The night was a total bust for both competitors but Seto knew giving Joey a ride home was the least he could do.
-YGO-
A/N: Happy weekend everyone! It's been a terrifying couple of months and there's still so much uncertainty in our world right now with regards to this pandemic. I've been trying to give myself the time I need to relax and process everything that's been happening. Writing has been a good distraction for me but recently it's been harder to immerse myself in the writing. I hope I can push through the writer's block and continue to publish chapters. I have many funny chapters and scenes planned out—it can just be difficult to get into the humor mindset with everything going on. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you're staying safe! See you in a month or two.