It was now Wednesday, the third day of the seven they were granted to find someone for Hikaru to fall in love with. Waya had been deeply frustrated with the boy when he refused to admit that he liked Akira. It was obvious to he and Isumi, so why couldn't the two involved notice that they had feelings for each other? But, he eventually gave up. Waya, Hikaru, and Isumi agreed to meet again today at three, since miraculously, none of them were busy. Akira, however, had a game, so he couldn't go. Not that he'd want to go to the mall to watch the love of his life try to fall in love with some random girl. Waya knew at least that.
Once they had all met up in front of the Tokyo Station, Waya said, "Okay, now, today we need to look around until Shindou sees someone he deems worthy to be his girlfriend. Which is pretty much anyone." He laughed.
"Hey!" Hikaru yelled.
"Hey, Shindou, what about that girl you used to hang out with? Akari-san, was it?" Isumi said.
"Yeah, but I don't like her that way, and I already told her when she confessed," Hikaru admitted.
"Oh, okay."
"He's already told us he's never liked anyone, so I guess that would include her," Waya said.
"Yeah, so let's go!" Hikaru said, and led them inside the mall. "Wow, this place is big!" he said once inside.
"Haven't you been here before?" Waya asked.
"Yeah, but that was a while ago, and I don't remember it much. Akira was with me, though. I know something funny happened, because I remember he was laughing." He thought for a moment, pointer finger on his chin, then frowned.
"Why the frown? Is thinking too much for you?" Waya joked.
"No! I just was trying to remember what happened…."
"Why were you here with Touya, anyway?" Isumi questioned.
"I brought him here to get him a normal outfit. I practically had to drag him here, and then he wouldn't even buy one."
"Why?"
"Because he's Touya, duh," Waya said.
"I meant, why were you trying to get him a normal outfit?"
"I think he said he wanted to go to the arcade with me," Hikaru replied.
"Touya said he wanted to go to an arcade?" Waya asked, unbelieving.
"No, Touya said he wanted to go to an arcade with Shindou," Isumi answered.
"Right." Waya smirked. "So did you go?"
"Yeah. You know, he's pretty good at most of the games. Except Dance Dance Revolution. He sucks at that. He said he had a bad experience when he was little. Anyway, he ended up falling. Luckily, I caught him before he fell off the stage," Hikaru said.
Waya's smirk grew, and Isumi smiled. "Yeah, that is lucky. Those stages are pretty tall, so you wouldn't want him to hit his head or anything if he fell off," the older boy said.
"Right," Waya said. "Anyway, now that we know that Touya likes being held by Shindou, we should probably focus on finding Shindou a girlfriend, right?" He looked at Hikaru, who seemed to be spacing out. "Shindou?"
"Huh, what?" Hikaru said.
"I said, we need to find you a girlfriend."
"Right… okay, let's go."
"You don't sound very enthusiastic," Isumi noted.
"Oh… don't I?"
"Not at all," Waya said. He looked at Hikaru, faking suspicion. "Are you sureyou wouldn't rather go out with Touya than try to find some girl and fall in love with her?"
"Yes! I told you, I'm straight!" Hikaru yelled. He got a lot of looks thrown at him by random people who were walking by.
Isumi and Waya sighed. "Alright, then let's get going."
"Okay, now, where to?" Hikaru looked around. "Oh, look, Hot Topic! Let's go there!" He began to make a beeline for the store, but Waya grabbed his hood.
"Hold it! You're forgetting why we came here!"
"Am not! I just wanted to take a quick peek!"
"Maybe later, after we find you a girlfriend," Isumi said.
"Fine… but can we at least go before we leave, girl or not?" Hikaru pleaded.
"We'll see."
"Okay… then let's go that way!" Hikaru pointed left, and began walking, only to walk right into Ogata Juudan. "Whoa!" He fell backwards and was caught by Waya and Isumi.
"You okay?" Waya asked.
"Yeah… But that's the second time that's happened in three days…." Hikaru stood up straight, and then turned to look at Ogata. "Gomenasai, Ogata-sensei."
"It's alright, Shindou," the man said as Hikaru bowed. "Anyway, I was looking for you."
"Me? Why?"
"I heard what happened in Touya-sensei's Go salon."
Hikaru paled. "Wh-what?"
"Apparently you were talking with Sai."
"Uh…" Hikaru looked at his two friends behind him for help.
"Uh… Who's Sai, again?" Isumi tried, receiving a glare from both of his friends for the failed effort.
"He's a NetGo player, and if my suspicion is correct, he's also Shindou's teacher," Ogata said.
"He is not!" Hikaru said, loudly.
"Oh really? Well, I know you know him. I heard what you said to Touya-sensei."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't play dumb with me," the adult replied harshly, startling the three boys.
"I've told you before, I don't know Sai!"
"Yes, you do, and I need you to set up a game between us."
"I can't!" As he said that, Hikaru reached behind him and tapped Waya, pointing behind them all.
"Why not?" Ogata asked. Hikaru put three fingers up behind his back, and, getting the message, Waya nudged Isumi to look.
"Because I don't know him!" Waya tapped Hikaru's hand, and he started putting his fingers down, one by one.
…3…
""Stop denying it!"
…2…
"I'm not!"
…1…
"You are—"
"Run!" Hikaru interrupted Ogata and turned around as his two friends did, and they ran for it.
"Hey, wait!" Ogata yelled angrily after getting over his surprise. As the three boys ran around people, Ogata followed them, running into the crowd. They continued to charge down the huge walkway on the right side of the mall, past the stores on either side, ignoring people's yells of "Oi!" and "What do you think you're doing?"
As a bench appeared before the three, Isumi and Waya went around either side, and Hikaru managed to jump it. Ogata, however, was not so lucky, and he tripped over it, falling onto the ground. Then, as he tried to get up, another man bumped into him and he fell to the side, straight into the fountain. As he stood up, sopping wet, he saw the three boys run out the door of the mall.
"Damn it!"
"Oh, man, that was close!" Waya said.
"Yeah, but did you see that? He fell in the fountain!" Hikaru said, then laughed.
"Shindou, it's not funny," Isumi said.
"Yeah, it is," the partial blonde replied, and Waya laughed, receiving a glare from his taller friend.
"No, it's not."
"It is, Isumi," Waya said, then he and Hikaru laughed again, remembering the event.
Isumi frowned, then remembered it himself. "Okay, fine, maybe it is." The other two boys grinned, and Isumi followed suit.
"So, now that we can't go back in there, where should we go?" Hikaru asked.
"I don't know, but we should probably get away from here," Waya said.
"I agree," Isumi spoke. "But, Shindou, does Ogata-sensei do that a lot?"
"Yeah. At least twice before. It's really annoying. Besides, I can't tell him about Sai. He wouldn't believe me." Hikaru frowned.
"You're probably right… which means we should go."
"Yeah, and when we go home, we can check YouTube to see if someone got Ogata falling into the fountain on video."
Isumi sighed. "But that's after. Now, where to?"
"Can't we just skip this for the day and go to the arcade? We can go back to the mall tomorrow," Hikaru said.
"No. Shindou, you have less than five days to fall in love. It's not that easy, and it might even be impossible. We don't have time for that."
"I agree with both of you," Waya piped up. "We can go to the arcade and look for a girl."
"Yeah, let's do that!" Hikaru said excitedly. Isumi sighed again.
"Okay, but if we don't see any girls there, we're leaving."
"Alright, now, let's go!"
So, they started to head towards the arcade and away from the fuming Ogata.
Meanwhile, Akira had just won his game, and was on the elevator in the Go Association, about to leave. When the doors opened, he stepped out of the elevator, only to see Ogata, whose hair and clothes were wet.
"Ogata-sensei, hello," Akira said. "Why are you…?"
"Hello, Touya. Actually, I came here looking for you, and I didn't think I had time to go home and change," was the response from a finally calm Ogata.
"Ah… And why did you need to see me?"
"Has Shindou told you anything about Sai?"
Akira's eyes widened. "Wh-what?"
Ogata raised an eyebrow. "I assume by your worried reaction that he did?"
"Uh… no, he didn't. I'm just… surprised you think he has something to do with Sai."
"Really, now…. I'm not sure I believe that."
"Uh…."
"So, what did he tell you?"
"Um… that he doesn't know him…?"
"Touya, I need to know. Just tell me."
"Uh… sorry, but I have to go, or I'll be late. Bye, Ogata-sensei," Akira said, walking quickly around Ogata and out the door.
Ogata sighed. 'He obviously knows something. Why won't they just tell me?'
At the same time, Akira was thinking, 'He should give it up. I'll never tell him while Hikaru doesn't want him to know. Speaking of him, I wonder where he is… they said they were going to the mall, but the arcade would be easier to check, and it's on the way. I think I'll go there first.' Akira then started walking the couple blocks toward his destination.
Back at the arcade, three teens were walking through the doors into the room that was lit up only with game screens, colorful lasers, and random darkened lights.
"Okay, first thing's first," Isumi said. "Shindou has to find a girl he likes."
"Unless he stops being in denial," Waya added.
"I'm not in denial!" Hikaru yelled.
"Anyway, let's look around."
-5 minutes later-
"Shindou, that was the fourth guy you thought was a cute girl. Are you sure you aren't gay? We wont judge you or anything," Waya said.
"I told you, I'm straight! So stop it already!" Hikaru yelled, only receiving a couple glances this time.
Was it Waya, or was Hikaru becoming less convincing every time he said that? Maybe he was unsure?
"Hey, hun," a guy with long blue hair said to Hikaru, interrupting Waya's thoughts. "You're hot. Wanna go get a drink with me?"
Hikaru just stared at him. Why did this keep happening? "Sorry, no, I'm already with my friends. Let's go, guys."
The blue-haired guy just shrugged. "Suit yourself." He then turned around and walked off towards the room with the bar.
As Hikaru turned around, he came face to face with Akira. "Hey, hun," Akira copied. "You're hot. Wanna go play a game with me?"
Hikaru, Isumi, and Waya just stared at Akira, shocked at what he just said. "Um… You don't mean that, right, Akira?" Hikaru asked warily.
"Which part?" Akira replied.
"Shindou, I think he meant it," Waya said.
Seeing the look on Hikaru's face, Akira couldn't help but chuckle. "Relax, I was just copying that guy. I'm obviously not one to talk like that."
"…Right…" Hikaru said. For some reason, he was slightly disappointed, but he didn't know why. "Well… do you want to go play a game? You owe me a rematch at that racing game we played."
Akira smiled. "Sure. I'll be happy to beat you again." Waya and Isumi's jaws dropped at that comment.
"Shindou said you were good at the arcade games…" Isumi began.
"But we didn't think you actually beat him," Waya finished.
"Yeah, he's really good. And for me to say that when I play video games so often, you know it's true," Hikaru said. The two just looked at the green-haired boy, apparently still surprised.
"Well, let's go," Akira said, leading the way to the racing game. They sat down at the games and put 100 yen in the game, then pressed the start button and chose their cars. Hikaru chose a yellow and black one with an orange number five on the sides, while Akira chose a green and blue one with a red number one on each side.
"On your mark…" The machine started. "Get set… GO!" Hikaru and Akira both hit the gas pedals, and began steering around the turns. While Hikaru only ran into the railings every once in a while, Akira completely avoided them, as well as other cars.
"Wow," Waya said. "You really are good at this!"
"Yeah, when did you learn to do that?" Isumi asked.
"I think it's just common sense," Akira responded. He rarely got to play these games, so he must have just been gifted.
As the game finished, Akira winning again, Hikaru got up and dragged him to another game by the hand. "I bet I can beat you at this one!"
"You're on," the taller boy replied.
"Hey, Isumi," Waya said.
"Yeah?" Isumi asked.
"It's good he came, because this is much better than finding Shindou a temporary fake girlfriend."
"Yeah, and it looks like they're having fun. I guess Touya changed his mind and is actually trying to win Shindou over."
"Yeah, especially since he's wearing almost-normal clothes. I mean, a short-sleeved black button-up shirt over a blue one, with black shorts is a huge improvement compared to those argyle sweaters." Isumi looked at him funny. "I have to do my dad's wash, okay?"
"I didn't say anything."
"But you looked at me weird."
"Whatever. Let's go see what those two are up to," Isumi suggested.
"Yeah," Waya said, and they went to find the two other Go pros, who were playing Guitar Hero, with Akira barely winning. "He really is good."
"Hey, Akira, can we play DDR next?" Hikaru asked.
Akira's face paled a bit. "Must I play that again?"
"Well, it's pretty much the only game I beat you at, excluding the shooting games."
"…Alright, I'll try." He was obviously afraid.
"Don't worry, if you fall again, I'll catch you. I promise," Hikaru said.
Akira smiled, the normal color in his face returning, along with a tinge of redness. "Thank you, Hikaru."
"No problem. Let's go!" He grabbed his rival's hand and dragged him over to the DDR game, where he put 200 yen in the coin slot. "You can choose the song."
"Okay… How about that one?"
"Accidentally in Love? Oh, I've heard that before. It's a good song."
"Yes, it is, isn't it?" Akira replied. He then chose the song and the "easy" level.
"Do we have to play easy?" Hikaru wondered.
"Yes. You know I have trouble with this game. You'll beat me no matter which level we play at, and I'll more than likely hurt myself if we play something more difficult."
"Fine." They pressed start, and then the game started, and they started stepping on the arrows.
So she said what's the problem baby?
What's the problem I don't know
Well, maybe I'm in love
(Love)
Think about it every time
I think about it
Can't stop thinking 'bout it
How much longer will it take to cure this?
Just to cure it cause I can't ignore it if it's love
(Love)
Makes me wanna turn around and face me but I don't know nothing 'bout love
Oh, come on, come on
Turn a little faster
Come on, come on
The world will follow after
Come on, come on
'cause Everybody's after love
So I said I'm a snowball running
Running down into the spring that's coming all this love
Melting under blue skies belting out
Sunlight shimmering love
Well baby I surrender
To the strawberry ice cream
Never ever end of all this love
Well I didn't mean to do it
But there's no escaping your love, oh
These lines of lightning
Mean we're never alone,
Never alone, no, no
Come on, come on
Move a little closer
Come on, Come on
I want to hear you whisper
Come on, Come on
Settle down inside my love
Oh, come on, come on
Jump a little higher
Come on, come on
If you feel a little lighter
Come on, come on
We were once upon a time in love
We're accidentally in love
* Accidentally in love (x8)
Accidentally
* I'm In Love, I'm in Love,
I'm in Love, I'm in Love,
I'm in Love, I'm in Love,
Accidentally (x2)
Come on, come on
Spin a little tighter
Come on, come on
And the world's a little brighter
Akira had been doing well until the end, but at this point, his foot slipped and he began to fall backwards. Hikaru, seeing this, immediately stopped dancing and reached for Akira. Knowing he was too late to just grab him, he dove to land on his back on the ground, catching Akira in the process.
Come on, come on
"Akira, are you okay?" Hikaru asked, trapped underneath the other boy's body, arms protectively wrapped around him.
Just get yourself inside her
"Yes," Akira replied. "Are you?" He added, worried, he'd crushed his crush.
Love, the lyrics continued.
"Yeah, I'm good," Hiakru said. Akira then got off of Hikaru, who sat up, bringing their faces only inches apart, and looked into his eyes. He felt a shiver go down his spine right as the last line of the song played.
I'm in love.
And at that point, they both believed it to be true.
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