PLEASE HEAD OVER TO THE "Falter" REMAKE INSTEAD.
'Falter' will get slightly more mahjong-centric soon. As much as I'd like to make all chapters equally accessible, it's pretty much impossible to 'dumb down' mahjong. You just have to know the terms... or allow your eyes to glaze over/discontinue reading. Your choice. I've put up some helpful Japanese mahjong links on my site if one wants to try exploring uncharted waters.
I may write up a post as a crash course in mahjong when 'Falter' necessitates it, but so far I think we're okay.
Hisa set her notebook down on the desk lightly and pulled the chair out before motioning Fukuji-san over. "Here, take a seat."
"Thank you," Mihoko nodded as she took the offer and sat straight on the edge of the chair.
Hisa retrieved one of the swivel chairs from the mahjong table and tugged it up beside her, plopping down smoothly. She leaned over to flick on the switch and sat back down as the familiar hum of the computer reached her ears. She took a quick glance sideways and gave Fukuji-san a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"Don't be so tense," Hisa advised with a smile. "It's not like the computer's gonna bite."
"Sorry," Mihoko said apologetically. "I'll try my best."
"I'm sure you will. But before that —" She put both hands on Fukuji-san's shoulders and felt her tense upon contact. "You're as straight as a ramrod. Sit back in the chair and relax, alright?"
"Right. I can do this."
Only she could be this serious for something like learning how to play an online game, Hisa thought warmly. It was kind of cute, but she imagined Fukuji-san would treat it as more of her teasing if she said it out loud.
"Okay, first step!" Hisa said in a bright voice. "Try going to the Yahoo homepage like you normally do when you check your e-mail from the computer."
She wasn't half as bad as she made herself out to be, Hisa thought as she watched Fukuji-san use the computer. She opened the browser and pulled the page up at a reasonable pace, though perhaps on the slow end compared to their peers. Her typing speed, Hisa assessed, was probably around average.
Not bad, not bad. With what Fukuji-san had been telling her, she wouldn't be surprised if the girl used hunt and peck typing instead.
She opened the cover for her notebook and let it run. It probably wasn't going to take too long to show Fukuji-san, after all.
"Okay, good. Now scroll down a bit, and look on your left here," Hisa pointed.
Mihoko moved her mouse pointer to the scrollbar and clicked the downward arrow several times.
"Right, so you just click on 'Games' here."
Click.
"Scroll down a bit again."
Click click click click.
"Good. See this? 'Recommended Games'."
Mihoko gave a soft affirmation.
"Just click 'mahjong'. You can't miss it — it's always at the top left-hand corner. Scroll down a bit again."
Click click click click.
"Right, so you see these tabs?" Hisa gestured to the row along the top. "They're different rooms you can play in. You can pick from Social, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Ranking Matches. Level-wise you should play Advanced or Ranking Matches, but we'll start on Social since you're not used to playing online."
Mihoko nodded. "But there are so many rooms... which one should I pick?"
"There's a limit of two hundred people per room, but it's probably easier for us if we go to an emptier one. Try clicking this one — Room 12."
A login page popped up.
"Um..."
"It's fine," Hisa assured. "You just haven't logged in yet, so put in your e-mail address and password like usual. I'll login to mine while you do that."
"Okay."
Hisa took her notebook and placed it in her lap, quickly typing in her account password. She pulled up the page she needed, logged in to her Yahoo account and opened up Room 12.
Another quick glance in Fukuji-san's direction revealed she was still trying to log in.
"Sorry," Mihoko said rather flustered, "I'm not used to the keyboard layout."
"Don't worry. Take your time." Hisa watched her fumble again, and realised what the problem was. "Ah, sorry. Don't worry, I won't peek at your password." Hisa made a show of turning around slowly and covering her eyes in an exaggerated fashion, balancing her notebook on her lap.
She felt a hesitant hand on her shoulder after several clacks and pauses on the keyboard.
"You done?" She kept her hands clasped over her eyes.
"Yes, you can turn back now."
Hisa turned back and flashed a grin when she saw the tolerant smile on Fukuji-san's face.
"What?"
"I just hope you aren't like this around your first-years," Mihoko said as she shook her head slightly.
"Oh, of course not. But you're different."
"... I am?"
"Yeah, we're in the same year. I goof off with my classmates too."
"Right, that makes sense." Mihoko turned back to the computer screen. "So I logged in... should I pick Room 12 again?"
"Yup. And on the left here you have the option of either joining a table or creating a new one. If you create a new one..."
Mihoko clicked the button.
"... you'll get all these options to choose from to customise what type of game you want to play. I usually just leave it the way it is and start. You can do the same."
"Right, okay."
"And all you have to do is 'sit' down at a spot, and do one of two things — wait for players to join, or play against the computer. In our case..." Hisa lifted her notebook and tapped on her touchpad. "I'll be joining... and you can click the button that says 'Robot' to fill the remaining spaces with computers as opponents."
Mihoko furrowed her brow. "Okay."
"It might seem a bit confusing at first, but I think you'll get it once you start playing. The biggest challenge is getting used to pointing and clicking on a screen instead of physically drawing and discarding tiles. You ready?"
"Y-Yes."
"Okay, I'm going to click 'Start Game' now..."
—
It was rather energising to play against Fukuji-san in her first online mahjong game. They'd decided beforehand to play the first game with both screens in each other's view to facilitate the learning process. Like a foal trying out its legs for the first time, Fukuji-san made little slips and blunders as she tried to find her balance.
"Fukuji-san, you just discarded a dora. This," Hisa pointed to the middle of the screen, "acts as the dora indicator."
"Ah, I see."
Or...
"Are you trying to make a closed hand? If you know you're not going to call, you can click this to automatically pass any pons or chiis."
Or...
When they were both distracted and engaged in conversation, "Make sure you discard within twenty seconds, or it'll automatically pick one —"
"Ah!"
And...
"Ueno-san?"
"Hm?"
"How long have you been in tenpai?"
"For a few go-arounds... why?" She couldn't hide her amusement. Somehow she knew where this was going.
"Why didn't you declare ron in the second last go-around?"
"Well, we did say this was to help you learn how to play. It would've been odd to cut it short."
"Yes..."
She could almost hear the "but..." that wanted to follow. It wasn't like she didn't understand Fukuji-san's reservations. Regardless of the unfamiliar medium, it would still be difficult to accept some sort of handicap from an opponent who wasn't giving her all in something like mahjong.
"It's not like I'll give you a handicap or go easy on you when we're playing for real," Hisa said. "I'd lose if I tried doing that, yeah?" she added with a little nudge.
"You can bet on it," Mihoko smiled as she issued her soft-spoken challenge.
"Alright, then let's get it on," Hisa declared.
The gauntlet was thrown and accepted.
—
"Buchou... are you in there?" a voice grumbled through the closed door. "You told me to wait downstairs at one, and it's one-thirty already..."
Hisa noted the tone of desperation seeping into his voice near the end.
She arched her eyebrow in response to Fukuji-san's questioning look. They were in the middle of a game now, and she was in tenpai. Hisa decided to declare riichi, going for a three-sided wait instead of her usual tactic. With Suga-kun providing a mild distraction in the background, would Fukuji-san fall for it?
"... longer than that before, so that's not a big deal, but it's blazing hot outside today. And the humidity only makes it worse. The good thing is I don't have to wear my school uniform, but the clamminess is killing me."
Hisa watched Fukuji-san out of the corner of her eye. She seemed fairly focussed, despite Suga-kun's continued complaints over the hot weather. Luckily they'd both avoided the worst of it by meeting up a bit before the afternoon heat really hit, but they'd spent more time playing mahjong than she expected. If they left now... well, at least the station wasn't that far from Kiyosumi.
"... there to do? I scrounged all the supermarkets and convenience stores for deals to stay within your budget, bought all the snacks and brought them back here, went to the mahjong parlour to confirm the dates with Fujita-pro who just said you could've called instead —"
It was the last go-around — and it ended in an exhaustive draw.
Hisa peered at the screen to see Fukuji-san's hand, but she didn't have any of her winning tiles, making it impossible to tell whether the distraction worked or not.
Well, there were always more opportunities — both online and in person.
"Buchou," Kyoutarou wailed, "are you even in there or am I just talking to myself?"
Hisa decided to act before Fukuji-san gave her another one of those 'Won't you please see what he needs? We shouldn't leave him hanging...' looks like when she'd left Morikawa-kun to his own devices the week before.
"Excuse me," she muttered as she stood and strode over to the door.
She really needed to work on that. She was a sucker for those innocent pleading looks — ones from her devious sister withstanding, as she'd developed immunity to them over the years — and ended up succumbing more often than not.
With a hand on her hip, Hisa put her very best charming smile on her face and opened the clubroom door with a flourish.
"Oh, you're here!" Hisa beamed with surprise. "It's a nice day out, isn't it?"
"Buchou, you know how hot it is, don't you?" Kyoutarou plucked at his sweat-drenched T-shirt listlessly for emphasis.
"Oh, don't be like that. Sweating helps remove harmful toxins from the body, you know." Hisa added delicately, "Though B.O. can... be an issue."
"Don't look at me like that! I showered! This morning!" he said defensively. "And why didn't you open the door sooner?"
"What do you think?" Hisa arched her eyebrow and gestured behind her with a sideways tilt of her head.
"What do you mea —"
Hisa watched Suga-kun's eyes widen and his jaw grow slack when recognition hit. His reaction was only as expected; given his obsession with Nodoka, it was obvious where his... tastes lay.
After a long moment, she ran a hand through her hair and muttered to him, "Okay, enough with the gawking. I'm sure you're troubling her with your questionable gaze."
"B-But buchou! That's —!" he whispered loudly.
Fukuji-san stood and had a friendly, welcoming expression on her face, seemingly oblivious to Suga-kun's behaviour. Either that or she was very good at acting.
"Hello, you must be Suga-san. Your club president has spoke much of you," Mihoko smiled. "I'm —"
"Y-Y-Y-You're that really hot — I mean, you're the captain from Kazekoshi!" Kyoutarou blurted out. "I-It's hot! Really hot today, isn't it! Man, I can't believe the weather!"
It was like a trainwreck seeing him with Fukuji-san — Hisa couldn't take his awkward attempts at interaction, and finally shooed him off. He was the type to have weird fantasies when given the chance, but freeze up when confronted with an actual girl. She shook her head.
And more importantly, shooing Suga-kun away was to prevent him from doing something completely dumb in front of Fukuji-san and make it awkward for everyone.
Hisa leaned against the door that she closed on him, and sighed inwardly.
"He's not like that usually," she explained regretfully.
"It's all right," Mihoko said politely with a half-smile.
Hisa looked at Fukuji-san. It was hard to tell for sure, but she distinctly got the feeling that Fukuji-san was aware of where Suga-kun was staring, and winced in response. Luckily, the neckline of her tunic dress wasn't that deep, so thank goodness for small mercies.
As Hisa maintained her gaze, she decided Fukuji-san looked pretty good in casual clothes. The look was finished off with a nice-looking pair of cropped jeans and a pair of flat mules. Hisa hadn't given much thought before to what Fukuji-san wore on non-school days, but what she wore now seemed to suit her. She broke out of her brief reverie and continued with the line of conversation.
"Still, I'm sorry about his behaviour," Hisa apologised. "It might've been better if you didn't meet him; I was planning on getting Suga-kun to help me after our little mahjong tutorial, you see."
Mihoko furrowed her brow. "I'm sorry, did I intrude upon your time? You said you'd show me how to play online, but we never said whether we'd be playing several games after or not."
"Ah, no, I didn't mean it that way," Hisa clarified. "I just ended up losing track of time playing," she admitted.
"Then... perhaps we can find fault with the dealer who won on small, quick hands continuously in our third game. That game took close to an hour."
"Or," Hisa rejoined, "perhaps we can find fault with the player who took close to the full twenty seconds to decide what to do on every turn... including for chiis and pons."
"That was only during the first round," Mihoko protested.
"Oh, really?"
They grinned at each other for a moment before bursting out into laughter and quiet giggles.
"And perhaps we can find fault in Suga-san for arriving on time, as well."
"Oh, good one! I like that one," Hisa approved.
Mihoko smiled in response. "Joking aside, perhaps I should take my leave? I've taken up a lot of your time today," she said with an incline of her head.
"Well, I do have to pack everything so we can just grab and go Friday morning," Hisa conceded. "And I really don't feel like calling Suga-kun back here right after driving him away just now."
And she definitely didn't need to hear him beg to be included in the upcoming camp for the onsen either. There weren't any mixed onsen at the place they were staying anyway, but that crucial fact seemed to have slipped his mind.
"It's partially my fault that you don't have Suga-kun's help right now. Maybe I can...?"
She was sure that Fukuji-san really did want to help, but it really would be taking advantage of her generous nature by accepting.
"Hey, I really appreciate the gesture, but I can't start slave-driving Kazekoshi's Captain, right?" pointed out Hisa as she walked up to her notebook and closed its lid. "I'm sure I can handle it."
Mihoko gracefully deferred to Hisa's decision. "I understand. Then..."
"Oh, wait," Hisa said with a start.
"Yes?"
"I almost forgot," Hisa said with a grin. She walked over to Fukuji-san, holding a folded piece of paper in her hand. Lifting it up for her to see, she said, "This ultimate online mahjong cheat sheet is for you."
"Ah... thank you," Mihoko blinked. She accepted the piece of paper and looked at it curiously. "May I unfold it?"
"Of course. It's not even a present or anything, so you don't have to ask, you know," Hisa laughed.
"Ah... yes."
Hisa enjoyed the light blush on Fukuji-san's cheeks from her momentary lapse. She realised she was finding the girl more and more interesting by the second.
"Naturally," Hisa couldn't resist adding, "this also means getting a piece of paper for me in return as thanks is unnecessary as well."
She was rewarded with an even more flustered response for her efforts. But Fukuji-san didn't take the bait and chose to overlook it.
"Thank you again for this," Mihoko said wryly with a half-smile.
She'd regained her composure but the blush was not subsiding just yet.
"No problem. Anything to see you blush," Hisa grinned.
Mihoko pressed the back of her hand across her cheek self-consciously. "I can tell you're enjoying this, but I should be leaving, lest I distract you from packing up."
"But it's only Tuesday. I could just come here tomorrow or even the day after," Hisa supplied unhelpfully.
"Even if you live very close by, surely there are more exciting things to spend your summer vacation time on?"
"Hmm, perhaps," Hisa relented. "Then should I walk you to the station?"
"I think I'll be fine this time. I can remember the way now."
"I guess I can't blackmail you into letting me walk you there like last time..."
"Very regretful, I'm sure," Mihoko smiled. "Thank you for today."
"The pleasure's all mine. Give me a call when you want to play — I'm free most nights."
"All right. See you later."
"See ya."