"There's nothing to do…"

After a few hours, Hayasaka had grown slightly bored of staring at her bedroom ceiling.

Of course, she was no stranger to times when she had a day with no plans ahead of her. After quitting her job, she had suddenly found herself with a lot more free time than usual.

"Well, no point in staying in bed all day."

Hayasaka slowly pried herself from her bed, scanning her closet for a viable outfit

"Hm… I don't really have any plans, so I'll just throw on some sweats for now-"

Right as she had gotten changed, Hayasaka heard her phone notification go off.

"Hm? It's probably just Karen complaining about the recent lack of her OTP again-"

However, Hayasaka nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw the person that sent the message.

Secretary-chan?!

What she saw was a picture of Fujiwara wearing her usual smile and a puffy jacket and skirt with tights. She appeared to be waving to the camera and standing in front of some sort of building.

What's she doing?

Hayasaka's question was quickly answered by a second message from Fujiwara that read:

"I was gonna invite the tabletop games club along with me to the arcade and wanted you to come too!"

A slightly amused smile appeared on Hayasaka's face as she read and reread this pair of messages.

So you headed to the arcade before inviting us? Well, in any case, this could be fun, so I'll let her know I'm coming.

"I'm on my way. I'll be there in about 30 minutes."

Upon receiving a sticker with a bear giving a thumbs up, Hayasaka put her phone to sleep and was about to head out of her house before looking down at herself and remembering:

Ah. Right. Clothes.

###

"I'm… finally… here…"

In the span of 32 minutes, she had found an outfit (leggings, beige jacket, black shirt and skirt), put on makeup (nothing major, just some moisturizer and concealer), and hitched a ride (on her motorcycle) to the exact spot where Fujiwara had told her to go to.

"Let's see… If it takes the TGC about 10 minutes to get here, they should probably be here by now, so if I just look for them…"

Hayasaka began to look around, trying to find Fujiwara's face among the crowd.

…

After several minutes without results, she started looking for pink hair instead.

"Oh, there you are, Secretary-chan!"

Within moments, Hayasaka had spotted Fujiwara right inside of the arcade, entering as soon as she noticed a distinctive bow against bright pink.

"Where's everyone else?"

Hayasaka raised an eyebrow as she watched Fujiwara begin to grow slightly restless, averting her gaze and tapping her foot as she simply said:

"Oh, them? They're not coming."

Hayasaka took a moment to process this information, her mind working a lightspeeds to keep up with the intake and generate a proper response before replying with:

"Hah?"

Fujiwara began to scratch her cheek, her voice taking on a sheepish tone.

"Well, I messaged them, but it turns out that all of them already had plans to play rust."

Hayasaka was unimpressed.

And that's why you set up plans before the day of.

Fujiwara gave an exasperated sigh, shoving her phone back into her pocket.

"Stupid Ishigami, always stealing away every girl he sees…"

"Did they tell you they were even gaming with him? And do you seriously get the impression that he gets a lot of girls?"

Fujiwara elected not to reply, only grumbling something about "Well, she's chasing after him and he's always surrounded by them in the discord server…"

I wonder what about Ishigami pisses her off so much. He seems pretty ok to me.

"Well in any case let's head in! What kinda games do you wanna play, Hayasaka-san?"

Hayasaka thought to herself for a moment before giving a shrug.

"Not sure. Never been to one of these places before."

"Oh, is that so? In that case, let's-"

Fujiwara's voice stopped abruptly and Hayasaka looked around to see if there was anything interesting that had caught her eye before a shrill cry from Fujiwara brought Hayasaka's attention right back on her as she said:

"You haven't been to an arcade before?!"

Hayasaka shook her head.

"Nope. Mirin and Subaru never liked these kinds of places since they said that it 'fostered competition and negativity' so I can't say that I've been to an-"

Before she could even finish her sentence, Fujiwara grabbed her by the arm and began dragging her, marching straight ahead.

"Secretary-chan? What the hell are you-"

"5000 credits, please."

Hayasaka looked around to find Fujiwara holding a 5000 yen note out at the cashier who seemed to be mildly bemused.

"You're spending 5000 yen?!"

Fujiwara raised an eyebrow at Hayasaka before giving her a reassuring smile.

"Oh, don't worry! I've already got 4500 credits in my account, so we'll be fine."

Hayasaka began to go pale as she resisted the urge to drop to her knees on the spot.

"You… you have over 9000 credits?"

Fujiwara gave a thumbs up.

"Well, 9500 to be exact. In any case, let's go! I'm gonna get you on every single one of these machines if it's the last thing I do!"

Hayasaka let Fujiwara drag her all around the arcade, listening to her idle chatter as they went from machine, to machine, to machine.

"Let's see… Claw machine? No… Gachas? Nah, that doesn't seem right- ooh! Let's try this one!"

Hayasaka came back to earth after having mostly tuned out Fujiwara to find herself standing face to face with…

"A shooter game?"

"I'm surprised you know what that is! Here, take this."

Hayasaka took the plastic gun and stared at it for a few moments, wondering what to do before the machine came alive. Hayasaka was almost immediately taken aback by the gruesome-looking zombies that appeared on the screen right after Fujiwara inserted the tokens. For every zombie that Fujiwara shot in the head, a loud explosion was heard that sent shockwaves down Hayasaka's spine.

"I didn't know you liked horror, Secretary-chan."

Fujiwara looked over, raising an eyebrow.

"Eh? You didn't?"

"Yep. You didn't strike me as the type."

"And you?"

Hayasaka shrugged.

"I'm ok with games, but I don't really like a lot of movies. Like, you don't have any control in that type of situation, you know?"

Without missing a beat, a devious smile appeared on Fujiwara's face as she said in an overly innocent tone:

"I guess I know what we're doing this halloween~"

Hayasaka went pale.

"Hah? What's that supposed to-"

"Don't just stand there! Help me kill these zombies!"

Hayasaka's attention snapped back to the screen but when she tried to cock her gun back, it didn't move.

"Fujiwara? I think that this gun is broken."

"Hm? I'll take a look."

Fujiwara took the gun from Hayasaka's hands for a second before a slightly annoyed look appeared on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, Hayasaka-san. Just wondering: did you try the trigger?"

…

"Thank you for your help, Secretary-chan.

Contrary to Fujiwara's expectations, though, aside from one mishap (When Hayasaka ran out of ammo, Fujiwara was not expecting to have to explain that the arcade did not, in fact, have actual magazines for them to load), Hayasaka was actually a relatively capable assistant. Her aim was nearly perfect and there was hardly a shot that she hit that wasn't perfectly placed.

"You're picking this up pretty quickly, Hayasaka-san."

"Well, I used to play a lot of pc shooters and I've played with BBs, so I guess I'm pretty familiar with this kind of thing."

Fujiwara watched as Hayasaka threw a grenade and shot the boss's weak point 10 times in a row, not missing a single shot, and proceeded to do all the cleanup herself. Fujiwara sighed at this, a tired smile appearing on her face.

"You really just had to be that cool huh?"

Hayasaka looked over at her as the 'high score' notification flashed in front of them before giving a peace sign and a smile.

"Well, I try."

Fujiwara let out a snort of laughter before seeming to go deep in thought for a moment. Hayasaka watched her close her eyes and think to herself before Fujiwara's eyes shot back open as a wide grin appeared on her face.

"I know! Why don't we have a bit of a competition?"

Hayasaka raised an eyebrow.

"A competition?"

Fujiwara nodded.

"Yep! We go around playing different arcade games and see who wins more?"

Hayasaka appeared to consider this for a moment before giving a shrug.

"Sure, why not-"

"Ah, but it would be a shame if we just had a competition with no stakes, right?"

Hayasaka stopped in her tracks, slowly turning around to face Fujiwara.

"What are you suggesting?"

A dark grin began to spread across Fujiwara's face as her voice started to turn sickly sweet.

"Oh, nothing much. I was just thinking that the loser has to do any one thing for the winner."

Punishment games! As the ultimate way to prove your worth, punishment games require strength, knowledge, and willpower to win and as such, only the toughest and most badass players can survive! Not only that, but punishment games can have a lasting impact on one's social life as well as their relationships! In the midst of this whirlwind of information, Hayasaka has only one question:

"Why do you want to do a punishment game all of a sudden?"

"I thought it would be fun."

She didn't even miss a beat… Then again, I guess that this isn't exactly out of character for her. Sometimes I seriously wonder what's going on inside her head…

Meanwhile, in Fujiwara's mind…

Why is she so good at that game? Is she just good at everything? I've gotta find something she's not good at!

Looks like business as usual.

"Alright! First game's going to be a crane game!"

Hayasaka was slightly confused.

"Hah? You're choosing?"

Fujiwara simply gave Hayasaka a smile before walking off to the crane machines. Hayasaka stared at her as she did before a realization hit her like a truck.

This girl! Is she seriously choosing all the games?

By completely rigging the rules I mean 'taking a home-field advantage', Fujiwara gives herself an upper hand right off the bat! As Hayasaka walked over to the crane machines, she could've sworn she caught yet another snide look from Fujiwara that was quickly disguised as a normal smile as she said:

"Well? Why don't you start us off, Hayasaka-san?"

Not even giving me the basics, huh? Well, let's take a look here…

Hayasaka looked down at the controls on the machine.

Hm… a couple buttons to move the crane left, right, up, and down, then one to actually try to grab the prize. So as long as I plot the trajectory of the claw on its descent and perfectly loop it around the loop in one of the prizes, then…

"Hey, Secretary-chan?"

"Yes?"

Hayasaka decided not to mention Fujiwara's annoyingly wide smile.

"I just have to get one item to win, right?"

"Yep."

Hayasaka narrowed her eyes at Fujiwara, annoyance beginning to settle in the back of her mind.

Does she seriously think that I'll fail and end up moving something right next to the drop chute and make things easy about her?

Hayasaka grit her teeth, meticulously tracking the claw down to the millimetre!

Well, in that case, she's just made the worst mistake of her life.

The claw dropped down and picked up a keychain and Hayasaka and Fujiwara stared in anticipation as it was positioned right over the chute and…

###

Why is she so good at everything?!

Current score - Hayasaka: 32, Fujiwara: Well…

I haven't even won a single time! Even when I take her to the luck-based competitions like those stupid rigged wheel-of-fortune machines, she manages to eke out a victory no matter how many times I try!

At this point, Hayasaka's bag was practically overflowing with tickets and various trinkets she had won.

"So, what's next, Secretary-chan?"

Now it was Fujiwara's turn to ignore Hayasaka's sickly sweet smile.

I need to think! What's something that I'm really good at that I can apply to an arcade game? Think… think… think-

That's when it hit her.

"Alright, Hayasaka-san! I've got an idea for our next challenge!"

"Hm? Of course. What do you have in mind-"

What on earth is that?

What Hayasaka saw was 2 plastic drums embedded into a machine with foam mallets on either side.

"A rhythm game?"

Fujiwara merely smirked as she handed Hayasaka a pair of mallets.

"You ready to get started?"

Hayasaka smiled as she took the mallets, twirling them around her hands before grasping them tightly.

"Always have been."

Fujiwara suppressed laughter as the song began to play, thoughts flooding from her mind faster than a tsunami!

I've got this one in the bag! Not only am I a piano prodigy, but music itself is my area of expertise! Not only that, but since rapping, my sense of rhythm is impeccable! Knowing all that, there's no way I'll lose!

###

Current score - Hayasaka: 33, Subject F, 0.

"How are you so good at this?! Did you train at this arcade overnight or something?"

"I guess I just have a knack for this kind of thing~"

Hayasaka had just had 3 perfect runs in a row. Naturally, Fujiwara was blown away and frankly, completely shocked at this result.

"I don't get it… How are you so good at this?"

Hayasaka merely shrugged, her smile as obnoxious as ever.

"Well, when your reflexes are as good as mine, it's a lot easier to hit the drum at the right time."

Immediately, Hayasaka could detect a change from Fujiwara's childish rage to a more sullen lifelessness.

"Hah? Reflexes? Don't tell me…"

Fujiwara leaned ahead of Hayasaka, her expression completely blank as she asked:

"Have you been watching the symbols and hitting them right when they're crossing into the left side?"

Hayasaka raised an eyebrow.

"Is that not how you're supposed to play?"

"That is absolutely not how you're supposed to play!"

Hayasaka nearly jumped into the ceiling from how suddenly Fujiwara's voice jumped up several octaves. Fujiwara's voice had gone from devoid of life to absolutely furious in the span of less than 3 seconds.

"You've gotta feel the rhythm! Otherwise, the whole game is pointless! It's a rhythm game, not a reflex game! If you want reflexes, then just do the goddamn human benchmark or something and stay out of the arcade!"

Hayasaka sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Well, it's not like I can turn off my reflexes or anything…"

This seemed to placate Fujiwara as her expression became slightly more subdued. She thought to herself for a few moments before a smile began to form on her face, something that made Hayasaka slightly uneasy.

"Hey, Hayasaka-san? I think I have an idea."

Hayasaka was slightly more uneasy than she was before.

"What do you want?"

Fujiwara said nothing, merely taking a piece of black cloth from her bag and walking up to Hayasaka.

"What are you doing? Secretary-chan? Why are you-"

###

"Ha! You suck! Why are you missing so much, Hayasaka?"

It turns out, playing a rhythm game blindfolded is harder than it looks. Fujiwara calmed down after a little, her voice took on a slightly confused tone.

"Seriously though, I expected you to be doing better than you are. Do you just not have rhythm?"

Hayasaka scoffed as she missed enough hits in a row to score a big fat game over at that very moment. She took off her blindfold, staring at the 'game over' screen for a few minutes before turning over to Fujiwara.

"It's not like you can do better- wait, what?"

When Hayasaka took a look over at Fujiwara, the second thing she noticed was the 'A' ranking that Fujiwara had gotten.

The second thing she noticed was the piece of cloth wrapped around Fujiwara's head, covering her eyes.

"Hah?! You got an A with your eyes closed?"

Fujiwara took off her blindfold, giving Hayasaka a quick smile.

"That, my fair lady, is the power of rhythm."

"Huh…"

Hayasaka watched as Fujiwara was about to put her blindfold back on before…

"Wait."

Fujiwara stopped as she felt a hand on her shoulder before turning to see Hayasaka looking directly at her.

"Could you teach me how to do this, Secretary-chan?"

###

"In the end, you picked it up surprisingly fast, Hayasaka-san."

Fujiwara watched as Hayasaka scored yet another perfect run while blindfolded. Hayasaka took off the blindfold, simply turning to Fujiwara with a smile.

"Still, I'm surprised you were willing to teach me. Didn't you have some sort of flashback last time?"

Fujiwara stopped for a moment and thought to herself. Why, exactly, had she agreed to this? It would've been easy to simply continue to mop the floor with Hayasaka before moving onto another game, so why'd she spend the time and effort to teach her through this? Even though it was relatively painless this time around, it could have very easily not have been. Fujiwara simply shrugged as she started to walk towards another game.

"It's probably because you're so good at everything else that when I found something you weren't immediately good at, I was more relieved than scared. In any case, let's go to the next one-"

Rummaging around her pockets, Fujiwara quickly realized that she didn't have any tokens left.

"Hayasaka? You got any tokens?"

Hayasaka patted herself down before shaking her head.

"Nope. In any case, now's as good a time as any to call it a day. I mean, it's almost dark out."

Fujiwara checked her watch, seeing that it was already 7 pm.

"Hah. I guess we should start heading home."

Once the 2 of them exited the arcade, they stood outside in silence, not exactly sure what to say. After about a minute of awkward silence, Fujiwara gave a strained smile and wave.

"Well, I'll be going then-"

"How about I walk you home?"

Fujiwara stopped and stared at Hayasaka for a moment before going a little red.

"Eh? You don't have to do that. I'll be fine."

Hayasaka looked away, her expression as inscrutable as ever as she spoke in a monotone voice.

"It's dangerous for a girl to be alone by herself when it's dark out."

"What about you?"

"I'll manage."

Fujiwara sighed as she gestured for Hayasaka to follow her.

"Fine. Let's go."

###

"By the way, I'm sorry about today."

Hayasaka raised an eyebrow at Fujiwara's uncharacteristically low tone.

"What for?"

"I mean, I invited you over to meet with the rest of the TGC but they didn't show, then I suckered you into spending all your time on one thing, so sorry."

Hayasaka kept looking at Fujiwara's slouching frame and dejected expression, giving a sigh.

"Look, you were being a little annoying and smug, and you could definitely stand to get better at planning-"

"Gak!"

Fujiwara took 10 points of damage!

"But I actually had fun. I'm glad that I had my first time with you, Secretary-chan."

Fujiwara stopped walking in her tracks, slowly turning around to face Hayasaka.

"Eh? You mean it?"

Hayasaka nodded.

"Mhm. It was fun. If you don't mind, I'd like to hang out with you more often."

Gradually, Fujiwara's expression turned from shock to joyfulness as a wide grin made its way onto her face. Her whole body perked up and she almost seemed to be bursting with energy as she said:

"Yeah! I totally agree! There's a bunch of places that I want to show you, so we definitely need to hang out more!"

Hayasaka giggled at this over-the-top display, replying with a hint of enthusiasm in her voice.

"Mm. We should."

Fujiwara kept walking, but when she turned around, she noticed that Hayasaka's face was illuminated by the light of her phone.

"What are you doing?"

Hayasaka didn't even look up from her phone, continuing to walk past Fujiwara.

"Oh, me? I'm just-"

She stopped herself mid sentence.

"-texting a friend."

Alarm bells immediately started ringing in Fujiwara's head.

Eh? A friend? Why would you do that here? Couldn't that wait?

"Which friend?"

"Oh, uh…"

…

Why isn't she saying anything?

Fujiwara started to narrow her eyes at this, her gaze practically drilling a hole into Hayasaka's back.

I don't understand. Why would she feel the need to hide that from me? I don't know why unless…

That's when the realization hit her.

Is she texting her crush?

Immediately, countless scenarios began flooding through her mind!

Seriously, why does everyone hide this stuff from me? First Kaguya-san, then Miko-chan, and now Hayasaka-san? Then again, we're not that close, so I guess it's not unforgivable, but still! It would be nice to have someone talking to me about that sort of thing every now and again…

Meanwhile, in Hayasaka's mind…

Phew. It's a good thing I didn't say that I was asking Ishigami for his uniform.

Fujiwara was entirely mistaken!

I mean, she already talked about how much she hates it when Ishigami steals people away from her, so it's good that I caught myself.

"Well, we're at my house now, so I'll see you later, Hayasaka-san."

"Yep. See ya."

And as Fujiwara closed the door behind her, Hayasaka caught a glimpse of a frown on her face.

Wait, is she mad? Did I do something wrong? I'm so confused…

Result of today's battle: Hayasaka's loss.