-Ayako's POV-
I sigh heavily and stare at the wall blankly, my head buried in my arms as I rest on my desk. I grit my teeth a little as I try to block out the argument going on behind me. "Leave Shido alone Origami Tobiichi! You're clinging to him again!" Tohka's voice rang out shrilly.
"You're the one who's always sticking close to Shido and bugging him." Origami response in her usual cool tone, causing Tohka to growl and stomp her feet in anger at her tone. "Shido I made an extra portion of my lunch, would you like to have it?" She asks, ignoring Tohka's outrage.
"Don't listen to this witch Shido! You can have some of my lunch, not hers!" Tohka counters.
"Tohka, I made both our lunches so whatever you have I have too." Shido says in an exasperated tone as the two girls continue to fight over him.
"Yea but you said you made my lunch especially for me! That must mean you did something to my lunch that you didn't do to yours!" I groan inwardly at her flawed logic and the fact that they won't shut up and eat.
"How about we all just sit down and enjoy our lunch together? Ayako wanna join us?" Shido calls out but I ignore him, in truth I didn't really hear him as I try to drown out the world. I don't move as he calls out again but give a start as he taps my shoulder gently. "Hey Ayako you ok? You've been more quiet than usual today, are you feeling sick? Do I need to take you to the nurses' office or call Tsubasa to come get you?" He asks softly and I finally turn my head to look at him, but don't lift it from the desk.
"I'm fine, don't worry about it." I tell him in an emotionless voice which draws a concerned look from him. "I don't feel ill so I don't have to go, and Onee-sama's busy so don't bother calling her or else she'll be mad…"
"Ah I see, what's going on with Tsubasa? That's what got you in this mood after all, are you two fighting?" He asks, obviously picking up on my unhappiness as I mention Tsubasa's busy.
"No, Onee-sama is perfectly fine like always, we aren't fighting." I don't answer so he pushes more.
"Come Ayako talk to me. What's going on with you and your sister? Usually at the mention of her name you light up like a Christmas tree." He probes for more information and I just heave a sigh.
"Onee-sama was supposed to be off today and we were going to hang out after school and have some fun since it's been awhile since we were both free, but Onee-sama texted me saying she is getting dragged to a study group to help some of her classmates prepare for their upcoming test and won't be able to hang out with me." I reply in a nonchalant tone but it's obvious I care a lot, and my tone won't hide that fact.
"Well if you're free why don't you come hang out at the arcade today? It's been awhile and Kotori's busy after school so I got time, it'll be my treat." He says with a smile.
"Pass, I'm just going to go home and go to bed." I respond without giving it any thought and turn to stare at the wall again.
"You can't skip a day just because your plans fell through. Stop moping and come to the arcade with me." He insists.
"... Fine but you're buying me a milkshake too." I finally relent, hoping the milkshake will break the deal.
"Deal." I groan as he agreed to my ultimatum.
"Milkshakes? That sounds super tasty! When are we going?" Tohka butts in, cutting off her bickering with Origami to cut into our plans.
"Sorry Tohka but it's just gonna be me and Ayako today, she kinda needs a day to just hang out. Her sister's too busy to see her today so she's a bit down." Shido tries to explain. Thank you Shido, there is no way I can deal with Tohka today.
"Unacceptable, Shido you can't go out with another girl by yourself." Origami says, staring at the both of us and I just stare at her with a dumbfounded look. She doesn't seriously think I'm going to make a move or something on Shido does she? We have been hanging out all last year, so why is it any different now?
"That's right Shido! So I'll be coming with you." Tohka declares and Origami echoes the statement which causes Tohka to turn on her. "You don't have to come Origami Tobiichi! You weren't invited to come with us in the first place!" She declares loudly causing me to flinch and glance around.
"Neither were you but you're forcing yourself along anyway so I shall come too." Her logic leaves Tohka growling in frustration but she drops the argument.
"Well it seems like we're having more company then I thought for this trip." Shido laughs nervously and glances down at me, only to grimace at the look on my face. "Come on, it'll be fun, we're all friends here." I turn my head away and go back to staring quietly at the wall.
"I've changed my mind, this sounds like a catastrophe. I would rather stay as far away from that bomb as I can." I say, refusing to look back at him.
"Come on, you promised to come with, Ayako. Besides, wouldn't it be more fun to watch this go up in flames together then be at home by yourself?" He asks in a hopeful tone and I know he doesn't want to face after school alone. Before I can answer Tama-chan walks in and the bell rings, signalling lunch ending and it is time for class again.
-Later Ayako's POV-
"Took your sweet time getting out here." I say, glaring at Shido in annoyance as he walks out of the school and into the yard.
"Ayako! I thought you said you weren't gonna come." Shido exclaims in surprise and walks up to me. "What made you change your mind?"
"I promised I would come already, and it still sounds more enjoyable to watch those two try to kill each other in video games and argue then it is to hang out in an empty house waiting for Onee-sama to get home." I answer begrudgingly. "Now where are those two? If they take too long I'll leave without them and take you with me. You owe me a milkshake and I will not let those two keep me from my treat." I tell him adamantly, but my shoulders quickly drop as I hear Tohka's voice over the normal hustle and bustle.
"Shidooooo! Sorry it took me so long to get out here!" She cries loudly and I shudder internally. "Oh Ayako you're coming too?" She looks at me in surprise.
"Tohka I invited her first originally." Shido says cheerfully as Tohka jogs up, greeting her as she joins us.
"Oh right, she was so quiet during class I totally forgot. Hey Ayako why don't you ever talk with us at lunch, or hang out after school, we've asked you at least one other time this week. In fact, I know barely anything about you except that you're close to Shido." Tohka continues talking nonstop, changing topics at the drop of a hat like she just has to say what's on her mind or she'll forget.
"I don't like people so I don't talk. If it wasn't for the fact that Shido was so annoyingly persistent he and I probably wouldn't even be friends." I grumble.
"Shido isn't annoying! He is the nicest person." Tohka replies, defending Shido against my half serious comment.
"Shido isn't annoying, but you certainly are." Origami walks up and hugs Shido's arm to her chest.
"Origami Tobiichi, I told you to let go of Shido! You cling to him too much!" Tohka complains and hugs his other arm, pulling on Shido slightly. I shake my head and leave them behind, not caring if they follow me or not and make my way towards the local arcade.
I take the quickest route to the arcade, ignoring the bickering going on behind me despite the pleading looks Shido was undoubtedly sending my way. I reach the arcade well ahead of Shido and head straight for the VR racing game in the back, running my card over the scanner to add funds to the machine to play. I quickly check the high score and smirk as my gamer tag remains at the top of the list and pull the headset down. I finish the first race well in front of the AI, having set them on Insane difficulty for a quick warmup before getting to the real challenge.
I set the difficulty to pro and as I'm about to start the race my headset lets off an alert saying someone else joined the game. I smile wickedly, not feeling bad in the slightest at the poor sap that just joined me and starts the race. I quickly outpace the bots in the game, using all my tricks and knowledge to create an almost unrecoverable gap between them and me. I quickly check the placement of the other player and quirk an eyebrow in surprise as the scoreboard reads them in second place, the only position that is close to me on the map, and gaining at a surprising rate. I shift gears and hit the accelerator, putting my car in high gear as we reach the final stretch. I take the turn sharp, cutting off the car behind me and race to the finish. This person's good, but they won't beat me now, unlike them I haven't used all my nitro boost on this car, holding the high score on this machine gives me a slightly unfair advantage. Unlike my competitor I've tricked my car out to no end! I smile broadly and shift gears once again and hit my nitro button, launching me ahead of second place and onward to the finish line. I cheer silently to myself and remove the headset.
"Not bad, you're probably the best person I've played against in a long time, granted I'm a little rusty but still I'm impressed, I gotta know how you caught up to me after I had such a commanding lead." I turn to look at the other player and stare in surprise as Origami removes the head piece.
"I used a glitch that allows you to port through walls with no downtime, the only issue is that it puts you facing the wrong way. I can show you if you'd like." She says as she reaches for the headset again but I wave her off.
"Trust me, I know where all 9 wall glitches are on that map, I even know a trick to not turn you around, but using those hacks isn't nearly as satisfying as racing it with just skills and other little tricks, like the corner drift glitch, if you drift at the right time you can faze the front of the car through the wall and not actually make a collision on a few of the really tight turns that you generally lose a lot of time on." I explain.
"You have to show me all of them, I only ever found 7 spots that you could glitch through the wall." Origami scans her card on my machine and I shrug and put the headset on and replay the race, showing her exactly how and where to do all my little tricks and exploits, and still finish the race leagues ahead of the AI in the race. "With this I should be able to steal the high score now." She says confidently and I just laugh at her.
"Good luck with that. No one has ever hit my high score, but feel free to try, it's always entertaining to take on challengers." I walk off after to go find another game to dominate at since there isn't anyone who can beat me in my element.
"Hey Ayako, Shido told me I should ask you to play a game with me because you're the best." Tohka walks up to me, stopping me on my way to my next conquest.
"Yea I don't mind, but don't complain when I wipe the floor with you. When it comes to gaming I'm kinda the best there is." I brag and smile smugly but Tohka doesn't seem to notice or mind.
"Awesome how about this one?" She takes my hand and leads me to an older Mortal Kombat 6 arcade game.
"How about we do something not so old Tohka? These kinda games are a bit boring, I can show you how to dominate the shooter they have over here." I point to the newest Ninja Assault game that took up a decent bit of wall space. "I even know how to get some of the hidden weapons and achievements in the game, and it's really newbie friendly so I think you'll enjoy it." I turn to head that direction but stop as Tohka doesn't budge.
"Maybe next, but I wanna try this one first, it looks like a lot of fun." She tugs me toward the machine and despite my attempts to resist and dig my heels, I'm put in front of the machine with Tohka on the one next to me. "Ready?" She asks excitedly and I just sigh and nod in response. I select the character that I heard was fairly strong in this game as the selection comes up and after just a few seconds the match starts. I move in close to start the fight and instantly fire off a chain of the most powerful combos the character has, which results in my character randomly ducking, jumping, and throwing ineffective punches and kicks all over the place. I pause my failed assault for a moment before Tohka closes in. I guard her attack and go to counter only to have her combo launch me back against the wall and chain stun me over and over, cancelling my animations to keep me pinned. "Oh what does this combo do?" She asks before the machine calls out loudly, "FATALITY." I cringe as the second round starts and I approach her more cautiously and after I block her first few strikes I fire off another combo that once again fails and I growl in frustration while Tohka throws my character against the wall, causing me to bounce and she once again juggles me until she finishes her combo with another, "FATALITY." "This game is really fun isn't Ayako?" Tohka says with a joy filled laugh.
"Hey guys, how's it going… You ok Ayako?" Shido pauses and directs his attention to me, seeing the horribly dejected look on my face.
"Shido Shido I won! This game is super fun!" Tohka says happily and runs over to take one of the drinks from Shido, sucking it down while she bounces excitedly next to him. He shifts his gaze from her back to my slumped form.
"Don't, just don't ask Shido." I raise my hand, begging him to drop any questions he may or may not have about the situation.
"How did she beat you? I have tried so many different games to beat you and never even come close! Tohka has never played a video game like this but she not only got a fatality but almost a perfect on you!" He exclaims in shock.
"Look I'm bad at old games ok? I know all the inputs and combos for all the characters I like. I know all the fatality combos, the babality, everything but I put the inputs into the game faster than it can register! So everytime I play these older games I do terrible so I avoid them." My voice is laced with defeat as I explain my weakness when it comes to gaming.
"Then wanna play this one against me?" A wicked smile spreads across Shido's face as he points at yet another older game and I grimace in response. "Come on, there are TONS of games I wanna play with you Ayako."
"How about we get some food first? You promised me a milkshake." I dodge his challenge and shoot a glance at Tohka and smirk as her face lights up.
"Oh Shido let's go get some food! Come on come on come on! We haven't had anything since lunch and there are so many good places to eat around here!" Tohka explaims, tugging Shido's arm toward the door. Shido shoots a glare at me as my distraction worked perfectly.
"Shido you aren't planning on leaving without me are you?" Origami asks, appearing out of nowhere to claim Shido's unoccupied arm. "I agree with Tohka, we should go get some food. I know a restaurant around here that makes some really good oysters, they're very nutritious and tasty you know Shido." She adds, hugging his arm closer to her.
"How about the buffet across the street instead?" Shido offered as he disentagles himself from both the girls and leads the way out of the building.
"Hey Origami, mind telling me the name of the restaurant you were just talking about? I'm asking because I know my Onee-sama's a big fan of oysters and she always complains about how there aren't many good places around that have them." I snag Origami's attention as we leave and quickly add the name of the place to my phone. I thank her and follow Shido down the street to the crosswalk but pause as I hear a familiar voice and turn around. "Onee-sama… what are you doing here? I thought you were at school in a study group." I call out to my sister as she stands around with a group of people in nice clothes.
"Oh Ayako, what are you doing here?" Tsubasa turns around and gazes at me in surprise. "I thought you said you were heading home after school."
"Onee-sama what are you doing here?" I repeat my question and take a few steps closer. "You said you had to stay at college and that's why you said you couldn't hang out with me today, but you're going into the bar with those other people."
"Something came up and I had to meet these nice people here. They hadn't eaten so we came to this bar to enjoy ourselves." She explains.
"So you met with them rather than hanging out with me? You knew I was looking forward to hanging out with you today Onee-sama!" Anger creeps into my voice as I explain my frustration.
"It couldn't be helped Ayako, these are some of the people who came to propose a new business venture to me, however they were only in town for today so I had to cancel my study group to come to this." She replies a little impatiently.
"You always do this! I only really see you in the morning and at night! We never get to hang out, play games and just have fun with each other. You're always busy with Cupid, hey did you know you PAY people to do this kinda thing? Not like you ever really let them do the job, you always insist on taking care of it yourself!" I yell at her, my anger boiling over at the fact that she is constantly busy with her job.
"Ayako!" Her harsh voice cuts me off before I can continue. "I am the CEO of Cupid, taking care of business partners is my job. I know it's hard sometimes but this is how Cupid runs. Partners like it when I'm hands on and it shows in our success. We can talk about this when I get home tonight ok?" Her voice softens as she promises to talk it over later. I squeeze my hands into fists and grit my teeth. "Ayako?" I spin on my heels and charge off down the road at a sprint without a word. "Ayako come back!" She calls out after me but I don't stop. I catch Shido saying something to Tsubasa but they're too far for me to hear as I turn a corner and continue running. Stupid Onee-sama! It's not like I don't know all that but still you constantly do this to me!
I hear Shido call out for me but I ignore him as I turn the corner of the street and keep going. I don't want to be here! I don't want to be near anyone, I just want today to not have happened! I keep running until my lungs burned and my legs felt heavy, I stumble into the park and collapsed onto a bench. I scrub my eyes as I cry silently to myself and struggle to suck in some air. I sit there sniffling to myself as I let my brain catch up to what just happened before burying my face in my hands. I'm such a fucking idiot! Onee-sama was right, everything she said was right but I didn't want to listen to her. I just made myself look like an idiot in front of my classmates, worse I looked like a horrible idiot in front of her potential business partners! I grind the heels of my hands into my eyes trying to stem the flow of tears as well as to hurt or punish myself. I'm so stupid! What if I ruined her business deal because I acted like a little kid!
I sniff loudly and try to wipe my tears away as I hear someone walk up to me and a hand comes to rest gently on my head. "Ayako, do you want to talk about it?" I hear Shido's voice, filled with concern. I give another sniff and shake my head. "That's fine, I'll just sit here and wait until you are ready ok?" He sits down and bumps my shoulder encouragingly.
I grind my teeth and dig my heels into my eyes harder then ball my hands into a fist and slam them down onto my knees. "I'm such an idiot Shido." My voice is laced with self loathing. "I didn't even think, I just exploded."
"That's kinda the normal thing to do though, you do realize that's what emotions do to us right?" He jokes, knowing full well I understand that better than he ever could. "Look Tsubasa is the most chill older sister I've ever seen, I don't think she'd be mad at you." He says comfortingly.
"What if my outburst causes her to lose that deal? Sure it might just be one deal, and Cupid is doing really well right now, but what if this client leaves and starts spreading rumors about Cupid all because I had a stupid little freakout accident over my sister doing her job." I berate myself.
"Look, if they back out on making a deal because the CEO's high school sister had a fit because she missed her big sister and her emotions were running wild, would Cupid really want to make a deal with them anyway?" He asks and I can't help but laugh a little.
"I notice Tohka and Origami didn't follow you, are you sure it was ok to leave them to come after me?" I ask him, wiping the tears from my eyes and finally look over at him.
"Don't worry about it, I know those two don't really get along but they'll have to play nice for now. There was no way I wouldn't come after you when I saw you crying like that." I flush in embarrassment and stare at my lap. "Don't worry, they didn't see you cry or anything. They were far enough away that they didn't really get what was going on. For all they know you had a fight with someone you knew and rushed off in a hurry." I let out a sigh of relief and relax slightly.
"Thank's Shido, you really helped me out today. Guess I owe you one this time, so how about I get you to pass midterms this year and keep you out of summer classes." I laugh lightly and stand up, stretching a bit. "Come on, we don't want to leave Tohka and Origami alone together for too long, and you still owe me a smoothie." I reach out and help Shido to his feet. I turn to leave but pause as I see a young girl in a green rabbit hoodie hopping in the puddles left from the showers we had in the morning. We both watch her for a moment before she slips on the mud and falls on her face.
"Hey are you ok?" Shido hurries past me and kneels beside the girl, checking to see if she's hurt while I stand a few feet away. She sits up and sees Shido kneeling next to her and scurries several feet back.
"Please…" Her voice, small, timid, and fragile sounding. "Don't come any closer to me. Don't hurt me please. Please don't hurt me." She begs softly and Shido sits back, taken aback by it.
"I'm not going to hurt you, I just wanted to see if you were ok." Shido says but the girl stands up, grabbing the rabbit puppet that fell off her hand and runs from the park, leaving us in a stunned silence as she flees. "What was that about?" Shido asks.
"I don't know, but she wasn't hurt so it's not our business, come on let's get back." I lead Shido back to the girls and apologize profusely to them for running off like that. I join them for lunch but don't eat very much. That girl seemed really familiar, but I can't put my finger on it.
We finish up eating and I tell everyone I'm going to head home and clean up the house a bit before my sister gets home. I wave goodbye to them and sprint home to make sure I get home before Onee-sama so I can clean the kitchen and get everything ready as an apology. I open the door and run straight into something and bounce off, nearly falling over before something catches me by the waist, stopping me from hurting myself. "Are you ok Ayako?" Tsubasa looks down at me with a worried look, her arm around my waist, stopping me from falling.
"O-Onee-sama you're home!" My face turns a bright red as I stare up at her in surprise.
"I cut the meeting short so I could come home and make dinner for you, I was about to make some sweet curry since it's your favorite." She lifts the grocery bag in her other hand to indicate she went shopping. "I just got home, I didn't really expect you to be home for awhile so I haven't started yet."
"Why would you make sweet curry though?" I ask her, my voice catching a little in my throat.
"To say sorry of course, you were right, I have been neglecting you a bit recently so I thought making you your favorite meal would be a nice way to make up for today." She smiles for a moment before frowning as a tear slips out of my eye. "Ayako?"
"I'm sorry Onee-sama, I was so mean before with the things I said. I know they weren't true but I just wanted to hurt you because-." She hugs me tightly and shushes me softly while patting my back. "I'm sorry Onee-sama I didn't mean anything I said before!."
"Geez what a silly girl you can be, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry Ayako, sometimes I forget you're still a kid. You're so smart and reliable that it's easy for me to think stuff like this wouldn't affect you, can you forgive your Onee-sama?" She holds me tighter and presses her face against the top of my head, nuzzling into my hair as we hug each other. I nod my head and she nuzzles against me more. "Thanks, I don't know what I would do with myself if you didn't forgive me." She slackens the hug so she can look at me. "How about I make your sweet curry and after we eat we spend the rest of the night in my room watching movies? You can stay up late too."
I sniffle a bit and look up at her and smile. "Sounds like a lot of fun Onee-sama, I'll go wash up and come help you in the kitchen."
"Alright, I'll get started." She gives me one last squeeze before letting me go. "Don't keep me waiting too long though." She says as I hurry to the bathroom. I smile to myself and quickly wash my face so I can spend the rest of my night with Tsubasa.
