"Ah… The first day of Summer Vacation," Shujinkou took a moment to inhale the fresh air coming through his open window before grabbing three distinct game cases. "What better way to start it off right than to marathon the Sly Cooper Trilogy?"

The instant he finished his sentence, Shujinkou's eyes darted towards the direction of a lone case laid spread across the floor.

"It's not like I don't like the fourth game in series, it's just that I just want to play the classic three…" he thought. "…Still can't believe that I got into the series by playing the games backwards. Thankfully, I never got far due to fear of confronting the guards and desperately trying to avoid street level, but it was still jarring going from the gameplay of 3 to 2 to 1… Especially from 2 to 1. It's a real good thing that I got over my fear of confronting people in stealth and stealth-like games of else I wouldn't be able to play a lot of the stuff I like. Huh, stealth was kinda like my horror back then."

The young man immediately slapped his cheeks, the sound of skin hitting skin echoing through the room.

"If I try to recap my entire gaming life, that'll be my entire vacation," he chuckled as he placed the first game of the trilogy into his Playstation 2. "Time to play."

The second he grabbed his controller and sat against his bed, his phone started to vibrate across his pillow. Shujinkou wasted no time in reaching for the hushed device and answering the call.

"Hey, Monika," he greeted.

"Hey, Shujinkou," Monika replied, her voice making it clear that she was in a good mood. "What are you doing?"

"Uhm, nothing much," he answered as he watched a familiar anthropomorphic raccoon run across his TV screen. "Just enjoying the first day of our break. Why do you ask?"

"No special reason. I just wanted to know if you wanted to hang out."

Shujinkou's eyes slightly widened as he watched the title screen of the game appear.

"…Hang out? You mean today?" he queried.

"Yeah," Monika answered. "That is, if you didn't already have plans."

"Um… No, I didn't have anything planned for today so… I'm available."

"That's good. What do you say we meet at that the parfait shop we used that coupon?"

"Um, Okay. I'll see you there."

The moment the call ended, Shujinkou placed his phone back down on his bed and waited. 5 minutes quickly passed by and he found himself still waiting.

"Huh. I expected me to have a bigger surprised reaction than what I did have," he said aloud in his empty room. "I mean, I guess I'm a bit nervous but I still expected a shocked reaction… It's strange, but I'm not complaining."

Shujinkou wasted no time in getting dressed and heading downstairs.

"I'm heading out, mom!" he announced.

"Oh?" Hiro walked down the steps behind him, giving Shujinkou the surprised reaction he expected earlier. "Where are you going?"

"I'm… going to go hang out with Monika today," he answered.

"Is this like a date?" she asked.

"Huh? What. No. No," he violently shook his head as he continued to say 'no,' stopping only when dizziness started to take effect. "It's not a date."

"I said something embarrassing, didn't I?" Hiro weakly chuckled.

"Uhm…."

"Right. I'm just going to go back upstairs now before I ruin the meet up any further. Practice my sewing, against my better judgment. That'll keep me distracted so I don't say anymore."

Shujinkou awkwardly scratched his right cheek as he watched his mother just as awkwardly walk up the stairs.

"A date?" Shujinkou thought. "Why would mom think that I was going to be heading out on a date? I mean, it's like there's anyone I know of who would want to go on a date with me? Probably just mom thinking I could achieve such a thing."

Later that afternoon, Shujinkou stood outside the parfait shop until he was approached by Monika.

"Hey, Shujinkou, been waiting long?" she asked.

"Not really," Shujinkou shrugged. "So… Um, did you have anything particular in mind regarding what to do today?"

"Not really. But how about we get something to eat before we do anything?" Monika suggested.

Shujinkou nodded his head and eventually found himself, for what he was sure the third time outside of school, sharing a meal with his club president

"So, any plans for the summer other than the festival," she asked.

"Nothing in particular," he answered. "What about you?"

"I think I'm about the same. Well, there is some work I'm thinking of, but other than that I'm about the same."

"Oh." Shujinkou fiddled with his food as he pondered on what to say next. "So… How's that story of yours coming along? Is it going well?"

"Mm-hmm," Monika answered.

"Any major breakthroughs?"

"Yeah. A few."

"Had any writer block moments?"

"Yes."

"Can I read it?"

"Nice try."

"Ugh…" Shujinkou took a sip from his drink as Monika giggled at his failed attempt. "I should probably give up. You already shown how determined you are to keep it a secret."

"Yeah…" Monika diverted her gaze and chuckled as her cheeks slightly changed to a red hue. "Very determined."

Shujinkou continued to drink his drink, trying his best to figure out why he would bring up something so awkward.

"So, did you think of anything you wanted to do today yet?" Monika asked.

"Um… I don't really know. I'll probably just go along with what you want," Shujinkou replied.

"No."

"No?"

"It wouldn't be fun to spend time together doing just what one person wants to do. Besides, I don't ever want you to think you don't have an opinion on anything.

Slightly taken aback by her words, Shujinkou scratched his right cheek as he pondered on something they could do together.

"Maybe you would like to…" the young man looked up and met Monika's curious expression. "Hm, would you be up for…?"

Moments later, Shujinkou strapped on a vest layered with infrared technology and then pretended to cock his complimentary pistol. He then placed it back into his holster just as he felt a hand land on his shoulder. He turned towards the owner of the hand and…

"Whoa…" he said, his voice layered with amazement.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing. It's just that you look like a real action heroine in your laser tag gear," Shujinkou complimented as he meekly scratched his right cheek.

"Oh. Thanks," Monika smiled just as the gate to the main game area opened. "Looks like the game's starting."

"Yep," a confident and determined grin plastered itself across Shujinkou's face as he reached his laser pistol. "Let's rock."

Shujinkou led Monika into the battlefield and quickly directed her into a darkened corner of the room.

"This field is a major free for all," he said. "Most engage in a war like scenario, while the remaining few try to act as snipers, hitting those too focused on those in front of them."

"So are we going to be snipers too?" Monika asked.

"Not exactly. We're going to be the sneaking unit."

"Sneaking Unit?"

"We're going to use the chaos to sneak across the field, keep our eyes on those who get picked off in the fight to mark the snipers, sneak our way up to their positions and strike."

"But after the first strike, we would give ourselves away to everyone else."

"Not exactly. You see if we stay behind cover as we fire, then we can sneak away while the surprised sniper will give away their position to the public. Then we can rinse and repeat until we eventually use cover fire on those on the warlines."

"You're very prepared for this, Shujinkou."

"Who a lot of stealth and war games could be applied to a real life game. But I should tell you that since this round of laser tag is a war simulator. The plan could very easily be sidelined."

Just then, Monika wrapped her left arm round Shujinkou and pulled him back just as she fired a perfect shot to another player's shoulder plate. The two then quickly found a new place for cover as the player's team began to fire on them.

"And the plan got sidelined right away…" Shujinkou shook his head in disappointment.

"A lot of battle plans in war end up that way," Monika said. "Shouldn't let it get to you."

"Well, only one thing left to do," Shujinkou gazed into Monika's eyes and she nodded her head in disagreement. "Move!"

The two quickly jumped out of cover and started firing at anyone and anything they could. 12 minutes of war time engagement later, Shujinkou and Monika walked out of the game very satisfied.

"That had to be one of the best laser tag matches I was ever in," Shujinkou chuckled gleefully. "I don't even really care that I gave a lot of people a lot of points."

"You also gained a lot of points yourself, Shujinkou," Monika complimented.

"I guess I did have a few good hits, but it doesn't compare to your performance in there."

"It wasn't that much better."

"Monika, you use movie level reflexes to dodge a lot of laser beam and landed a lot of what would be instant kill shots if the game was real."

"I guess we were both really into it. By the way… You looked really cool in there."

"Huh. Um, thanks. You were pretty cool in there too."

Shujinkou scratched his right cheek as Monika happily giggled.

"Well, we did what we I wanted to do," he said. "What do you want to do?"

The answer to that question lied in the local music shop. Shujinkou did nothing but watch as Monika wandered through the different sections until she finally reached out and grabbed the last CD case on a nearby display.

"That was a close one. I almost missed out on Yoki's new release," Monika said before breathing a sigh of relief.

"Yoki?" Confusion and curiosity circulated through his mind upon hearing a name that. "Who's that?"

"You've never heard of Yoki?"

"I… don't really follow popular artists all too much. If I know any, it's usually because I just stumble across them. The only ones I really pay attention too are the Vocaloids. Probably would be the only concert I would ever be interested in attending… One performed by fictional characters…"

Shujinkou awkwardly scratched his right cheek. Announcing his interest to go to a concert performed by fictional characters sounded really childish to him after the fact.

"Hm. Well, Yoki's a pretty popular singer. I don't know if she's as popular as Miku, Rin or the others, but she's still pretty popular," Monika continued.

"Really? What kind of singer is Yoki?" questioned Shujinkou.

"She's a mystery idol."

"Mystery idol?"

"Mm-hmm. No one really knows who Yoki is. In fact, we only know that she is a she because of her singing voice. But even though no one knows who she is, she's still a really good singer. You should give her a listen sometime."

With their goal at the store complete, Shujinkou followed Monika out of the store until a young boy and girl ran in past him. They were a pair of twins, running to who he could only assume to be their father. Their faces beaming with joy and the apparent closeness between them was all that was needed for the dam he placed over unwanted feelings to begin to crack.

"Shujinkou?" the young man was brought back from the line that separated reality from dreams and turned towards Monika's worried face. "What's wrong?"

"…Nothing. I just almost got caught up in my thoughts again," he answered, scratching his right cheek. "Um… You have any other ideas about what we can do today?"

For the rest of the day, Shujinkou didn't bother to add in any more of his own suggestions of what they could do; only relenting to that self-imposed restriction when it came to the final one.

After retrieving some ice cream, the two sat on a nearby bench as the sun slowly descended down the bright orange sky.

"Watching the sun set…" Shujinkou suddenly said.

"I know it's a bit of a cliché, but I always wanted to try it," Monika interjected.

"What? I didn't mean it like that. I was just stating the obvious," he took a bite out of his dessert and then scratched his right cheek. "Hey, Monika… Can I ask you a question?"

"What is it?" she wondered.

"Well... I'm kinda wondering… Do you hate being the school idol?"

"Huh? That question kinda came out of nowhere."

"I know. It's just that I've just been thinking about it ever since we talked at Granny Hisa's place."

"Oh…" Monika closed her eyes and remained silent until suddenly taking a bite out of her ice cream. "That's actually a complicated question that has a complicated answer."

"Well, you don't have to answer if you feel that way," Shujinkou insisted.

"No, I'll answer it. After all, I'm technically the one that brought up the subject in the first place. How can I explain it though? Hm… Well… Anyone would be happy when others would acknowledge the hard work they put into whatever they're working on, right?"

"Yeah. Anyone would like that."

"I didn't think much of the whole school idol thing beyond that and it's nice to know that at least no one really hates me. But it became pretty clear along the way that people didn't really like me for me. I realized that because when I thought about it, they don't know anything about me; they only know what I worked towards. And for the longest time, it seemed like no one cared to even try to know me better."

"Oh… Uhm…" Shujinkou once again scratched his right cheek as he tried to think of anything he could say to lighten the situation. "Good thing you ran into Sayori then. She doesn't really follow that kind of mindset."

"I know. It was surprising when we first met, but also really nice," Monika happily agreed.

"But you know… Even though I never thought someone so popular would feel ever the way you do, I think I get what you're saying. And when I think about it now, it's a real shame that not a lot of people see you for you and not what you can do. I mean, it is a fact that you're really smart; after all, you always get the highest test scores and you are athletic if what you pulled off in laser tag showed me anything.

But not only that, you're extremely humble. You could easily brag about what you can and have done, but you don't and focus more on encouraging others. You're also very bold considering you started your own club that you were well aware wouldn't become popular over night. And last but not least, you're a very caring individual that wouldn't hesitate to try and help someone who has a problem, even if you don't know them all that well."

Shujinkou could not help but feel surprised as Monika silently stared at him with bright red cheeks. He never seen her rendered speechless before.

"That's really sweet of you to say, Shujinkou," she finally said.

"I was just stating the things I learned since I joined the club," he replied as he scratched his right cheek. "Pretty sure the others feel the same way too."

He then went on to continue eating his ice cream as he watched the sun slowly cross the horizon. Monika simply smiled in response and placed her hand over her chest.

"Someone I like being around with the knowledge that they feel the same…" Monika quietly recounted.

"Huh? Did you say something?" Shujinkou asked.

"Not really," she giggled.

A/N: Finally finished another chapter after so many roadblocks. Sorry if it took too long, but now that it's finished I can finally enjoy the rest of my birthday. Hope you enjoyed today's chapter.