It was rather early in the morning. The large HOMU statue stood in front of the main entrance to HOMULand, facing the rising sun and staring down at people entering and leaving the park. If that wasn't enough to remind visitors that they went to the correct location, the base of the statue also said the name of the park in large letters.
Mei and Kiana were already waiting at the entrance, and the time they agreed to meet up rolled over as Rei arrived.
"Sorry, I'm a bit lat-" He suddenly trailed off before he could finish his sentence when he saw Mei. She was wearing a relatively simple outfit, but even that was enough to cause him to freeze in place.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Kiana asked him.
"Rei, you're staring…" Mei awkwardly said, her face rapidly turning red.
He covered his eyes in embarrassment. "S-Sorry! I just… uhm… uh…"
"Come on!" Kiana impatiently said as she grabbed both of them and began dragging them into the park. "I can't wait any longer!" Through her pure strength, she dragged them straight to the gates, where she paused for a short moment to submit their park tickets, before resuming to dragging them into the actual park.
HOMULand was, strangely enough, not particularly crowded on this day and at this time, so the trio got to try any ride or attraction they wanted without having to deal with inhumanly long wait times. Though if they wanted to see every corner of the park, they would find it impossible as HOMULand was large.
So, so very large.
Rei and Mei originally wanted to go on some less… vomit-inducing rides first, but unfortunately, the park planners decided to put the most vomit-inducing ride front and center in the first area after going through the entrance.
And of course, Kiana wanted to try it, and of course, she would drag them both as collateral.
"C-Can't we try something else first?" Mei shuddered as she saw how tall the coaster was.
"No!" Kiana pouted. "It's my prize, so I get to decide which ride I want to go on!"
She didn't reply, because Kiana unfortunately had a point.
Rei and Mei felt uneasy as they passed by a wall of lockers with instructions to place their personal belongings in them, as the ride would invert multiple times. After leaving behind everything that they didn't want to fall out of the roller coaster, the trio waited in line. Kiana was giddy and ran in place excitedly, while Rei and Mei were already sweating profusely. Their anxiety and dread grew exponentially as the line of people in front of them grew shorter, and an ever-increasing number of people limped out of the ride, all of them looking queasy.
Eventually, they got into the roller coaster.
Kiana sat in the first row, humming in excitement as the safety harness locked in place and the ride began moving upward. Rei and Mei sat together in the row behind Kiana, the former trying his best to not look down and the latter mumbling "whywhywhywhywhywhy".
The ride reached the top and stopped just right before the drop. Each passing second felt awfully long as the ride continued to linger there, the view of the tracks' many bends, twists and turns, as well as the excessive amount of upside-down sections and loop-de-loops bringing a sense of dread Rei had never felt before.
"Come on," he said to himself. "Just get it over with faster… just get it over with faaaAAAAAAAA!"
The ride suddenly lurched forward and went rushing down the nearly 90-degree drop.
"OHGODOHGODWHYWHYDIDIEVENAGREETOTHISHELPWHYWHYWHYKIANAWHY"
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Kiana seemed to be the only one enjoying it out of everyone on the ride as the coaster reached the first turn and banked hard, pressing the riders down into their seats. The turn quickly led to a mercifully straight section of the track before the coaster went down a 70-degree drop and banked right into a corkscrew, before going up and back down again, this time straight into a large loop-de-loop, followed by a more prolonged inversion. Although in reality, the ride was rather short to compensate for the tendency to forcibly empty the contents of parkgoers' stomachs, to Rei and Mei, it felt agonizingly long.
Up, down, left, right, sideways, upside-down…
…
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity and some more, the ride came to a stop. Rei and Mei were petrified, unable to say a thing or move after being thrown around like that. Kiana, however, seemed unfazed, disappointed even. "That's it? Aww."
The safety harness lifted to let the riders out, and Rei and Mei immediately hugged each other, refusing to let each other go. Needless to say, it took a while before Kiana could drag them out, and when she finally did, they remained stuck together, unwilling to separate.
So Kiana hatched a fantastic plan on how to calm them down and get them to talk again. The plan? Why, get them to go on that one ride that lifts people into the sky and spins them around in every single direction possible! It was a flawless plan that could not go wrong at all.
After reacquiring everyone's personal belongings and spending some time and effort to drag them to the ride, and also some effort spent to push them into their seats, the pendulum began to swing slowly at first. The speed of its swings gradually increased, and so did its angle.
"Weeeeeeeeee!" Kiana screamed with excitement as the seats themselves began to rotate and the other riders began to scream more loudly. The pendulum continued to swing back and forth at higher speeds and larger angles until it finally did a full inversion.
And then another.
And another.
Unfortunately for Kiana, the third inversion marked the end of the ride, and she was disappointed when she felt the pendulum slowly reduce in speed.
There was another problem, however.
As the safety harness lifted, Rei and Mei tightly hugged each other again and refused to move. Kiana realized that her awesome plan to cure their fright had done nothing but make their fright even worse. Sighing in defeat, she resigned to drag them out of the ride and let them sit at a nearby bench to calm their nerves.
After some exertion, they arrived at a bench, and Rei began to yell. "WHY? KIANA! WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHY DID YOU-"
Kiana apologized profusely. "I'm sorry, Rei-senpai! I was just trying to help!"
"I-I-I-Is it o-over…?" Mei sniffed, her nerves still shot from all the adrenaline. "P-Please tell me it's over…"
Kiana decided to hug both of them to help them calm down. It took a very long while, but they seemed to feel slightly better now.
…
Rei and Mei realized they were hugging each other and separated immediately, their faces red.
"Where do we go next?" Kiana asked.
"C-Can we take a break first…?" Mei asked in return.
"There's an indoor boat ride in the other section of the park," Rei proposed. "We can ride that instead…"
"Sure…"
Kiana hung her head dejectedly. "Okay…"
\\\\\
The boat, being on underwater rails, slowly moved through various scenes decorated with a well-known stereotype of a country. The entire set was populated with HOMU figures everywhere, with the occasional giant HOMU and HOMEI overlooking the very yellow cityscape, whose theme would change depending on the labeled country.
Other than that, there wasn't much else to see, and it wasn't particularly interesting to Rei, Mei, and especially Kiana. The only thing it had going for them was that it was a nice change of pace compared to before.
It was however very interesting to a particular girl with gray drill-shaped locks of hair, who was sitting at the back of the boat and whose rather dull-looking eyes were hiding her excitement which she couldn't express.
…
Rei turned to look at Mei, who was completely silent, and he began wondering when he should confess.
…
Maybe I'll do it later… Too many people here, and I don't really want Kiana watching…
He sighed as the boat entered the scene labeled as 'Japan'. The HOMU figures seemed to be wearing yukatas now.
Mei would look nice in one of those…
\\\\\
Rei and Mei calmed down enough to entertain the idea of going to other attractions and let Kiana decide which one she wanted to go next. This time, she was at least more considerate than before and chose an attraction involving cars.
Mei sat with Kiana this time, and Kiana sat in the driver's seat. Rei was right behind them in a separate car. The cars were fully drivable and could be manually steered, but there were rails placed under the car to prevent it from veering off the intended path. It also meant that turning too much or too little would result in a loud bang and a harsh lurch.
Kiana seemed to not know how to control her steering, and she ended up going all over the place. The car constantly hit the rail below it, causing both occupants to lurch left and right.
"Kiana, you have to- oof!" Mei was interrupted when she was pushed toward the right. "You have to slowly- oof- turn the wheel!"
She seemingly ignored her advice, leaving poor Mei to be constantly thrown left and right, and all she could do was hope that the ride would end soon.
Thankfully, it did. Kiana was disappointed as usual.
"How was it?" Rei asked as he got out of the car himself.
"It was really fun!" Kiana replied. "I just wish it lasted longer…"
"Yeah… me too…" Mei tried to replicate her enthusiasm but couldn't.
"Is something wrong, Mei?" he asked.
"No, nothing. Is there anywhere else you want to go, Kiana?"
"I'm hungry!"
Rei checked his phone. It was already 12:15. "It's already noon?"
"Heh…" Mei scratched the back of her head. "Let's go to the park restaurant, Kiana."
"Yay!" Turns out even something as mundane as lunch made her excited.
\\\\\
They were now in a HOMU-themed restaurant. Rei and Mei ordered a sensible number of items on the menu, while Kiana ordered an absurd number of items, more than half of the entire menu.
When the food arrived, Kiana immediately went to work and was already busy stuffing more and more food into her mouth haphazardly with zero regard for etiquette. Saying her appetite was 'monstrous' would be severely underselling her ability to seemingly devour a full course meal in under 5 minutes. Rei swore he saw her pick up a plate of food and then pour the contents into her mouth like in those cartoons. It was a good thing that Mei had agreed to foot the bill beforehand. Rei would have no idea how to even afford all the food consumed by Kiana, especially at theme park prices which were notoriously high.
…
When she was finally full, there were now seven bowls of (formerly) rice alongside a large number of empty plates. With all of that said, Rei and Mei were not even a quarter of the way through their meal.
"Ahhhh… I'm stuffed!" Kiana happily exclaimed as she patted her stomach. "That was delicious!"
"I'm glad you liked it, Kiana," Rei replied.
"Still not as delicious as Mei-senpai's cooking!"
"H-Huh?" Mei's face went pink from that unexpected compliment. "Uhm… t-thanks?"
"…So, where would you like to go next, Kiana?" he asked.
"Hmm…" Kiana took out a map of the park from her bag. "I know! I want to try out the carnival games!"
\\\\\
Carnival games were plentiful in the park as well, and Kiana was keen to try her skill on every single one, confident that she could ace every single one and oblivious to the fact that each one was rigged so that her chances of winning were quite low.
She tried the water gun game and competed with Mei first. She wasn't very good at controlling the stream of water, and Kiana quickly snatched the win, earning a small HOMEI doll as a prize.
She was then paired against Rei. He had no idea why or how he could do it, but getting a bullseye was shockingly easy for him. He did not know why, considering he had never fired a gun or any safer and more child-friendly equivalents, but it allowed him to steamroll Kiana, which was rather unfortunate for her ego.
"HEY! NOT FAIR!"
"Well, you didn't hit all of your targets, so of course I won."
Kiana seemed to get more furious when Rei got a large HOMU doll as the grand prize.
"Hey! Why don't I get one?" she said as she held a comparatively pathetic-sized HOMEI doll.
Rei shrugged. "Because… you didn't hit all of your targets?"
"Hmph!" Kiana pouted before going back to playing the game. "I'll show you!"
This time, she was facing off a rather short girl with gray drill-shaped locks of hair.
She focused all of her efforts on hitting every shot.
+100
+80
+50
+100
…
She jumped up and down in excitement when the game ended, expecting to get the grand prize, only for the gray-haired girl to get the large HOMU doll.
"HEY! NOT FAIR!"
The girl turned towards her with a robotic movement.
"The Bronya finds this statement to be preposterous. The Bronya won fair and square."
"Give that back!"
Bronya simply stared at her with her dead eyes.
"Hmph! Fine!" Kiana reluctantly relented. "But I am a Kaslana! I will definitely win next time!"
"…"
Bronya looked deep into the Kaslana's blue eyes.
"…The Bronya accepts this challenge."
Their competition involved them going to every single carnival within the park. Kiana's absolute confidence in being able to beat Bronya was destroyed every single time. Even when she aimed her darts well, Bronya could score a bullseye every time. Even when she threw the ball as hard as she could, Bronya's more strategic throwing techniques allowed her to knock all the cans down before Kiana could. Even when she threw a ring at what she thought was the perfect angle to hook onto a bottle, Bronya threw hers with inhuman accuracy and precision.
It wasn't long until Bronya was holding tons of HOMU and HOMEI plushies, and Kiana was holding barely anything.
"Awwww! Come on! Not fair!" Kiana pouted.
"The Bronya has deduced that the games have not been rigged in the Bronya's favor."
"And how do you know, Bratnya?"
"The Bronya finds conversing with Subject Kiana Idiotka to be pointless."
"HEY! What did you call me?!"
"Idiotka. The Bronya has noted that Subject Kiana has started calling the Bronya names, and as such, the Bronya responded by calling Subject Kiana names."
"Why, you-!"
But there was still one final challenge.
The high striker.
Bronya went first. Although the previous games were more of a test of skill, this one required pure brute force, something she didn't have with her frail body. Still, she made an attempt and managed to get 300.
Kiana was sure, absolutely sure that this time, she would score the win. She took the hammer, raised it above her head, took a deep breath…
…and slammed it onto the target as hard as she could.
The display counted up from 0, and it inched ever closer to 1000…
…and it did.
Kiana had done it! She had finally gotten the grand prize! She jumped up and down out of pure excitement and joy as the operator gave her a large HOMU doll. Bronya watched as she seemed to be lost in her excitement, a very faint smile forming on her face.
Kiana turned around to face her. The large amount of prizes she got seemed insignificant to the one large HOMU doll she got, and the competition they had seemed to fade away.
"Thank you, Subject Kiana. The Bronya had a great time with you."
Kiana picked her up and hugged her, spinning around in happiness.
"Please let the Bronya go."
"Sorry," she immediately replied before setting her down. "I hope we can meet again someday!"
"The Bronya agrees with you and hopes to see you soon."
With that, Bronya turned around and left.
"How was it?" Mei asked Kiana.
"It was so much fun!" She smiled and ran in place out of enthusiasm.
\\\\\
There was another section of the park that could only be accessed by a train. All three of them sat together, with Rei sitting in the middle.
Rei yawned, already getting tired, and he inadvertently leaned on Mei's shoulder.
…
Mei was more used to this by this point, though her face went rather red. Kiana however wasn't exactly liking the scene.
"Hey!"
She pulled Rei so she could have him lean on her shoulder instead. Thankfully for her, he fell asleep so he didn't notice.
Mei felt a pang of jealousy as Rei seemed to smile in his sleep. She pulled Rei back to his original position, which was of course him leaning onto her shoulder.
"He's mine!" Kiana yelled before pulling him back, having zero regard for the implications of her words and actions. This back-and-forth went on for a long while until the train finally came to a stop. Rei woke up as the two were seemingly poised to play a game of tug-of-war with him being the rope. "W-What are you two doing?!"
Mei immediately retracted her arms and looked away in embarrassment. Kiana quickly lied while retracting her arms. "N-Nothing! Nothing at all!"
He glared at her. Her face went red before turning away as well.
As they exited the train, the first thing they saw was an attraction involving moving, spinning teacups, and Kiana wanted to try it, so they all went on the ride. The teacups were big enough to accommodate all three of them at once, and they all sat inside one.
The teacups then started spinning. There was a wheel in the middle that controlled how fast the teacups spun, and of course, Kiana wanted to spin it. She turned the wheel clockwise over and over, causing the cup to spin faster and faster, and causing both Rei and Mei to become more dizzy.
"Kiana, slow down!" Mei asked, but Kiana ignored her and kept turning the wheel until it couldn't turn anymore. She yelled in excitement as the teacup spun around quickly and glided across the floor, all while Rei and Mei got progressively more nauseous, feeling like they were put into a centrifuge.
After some time, the ride came to a stop, and the cups finally stopped spinning.
"Oh, thank god…" Rei muttered, struggling to keep his lunch down. "It's finally over…"
"W-Where do you want to go next, Kiana?" Mei asked, her head still spinning.
"I'm hungry!"
Rei looked at his phone, which displayed 18:31. Time seemed to pass so quickly when they were having fun, or in this case, watching Kiana have fun.
\\\\\
There was a ride that involved a haunted mansion. Or in this case, a mansion infested with a few Honkai beasts. The seats were enough to accommodate three people at once, and Rei sat in the middle, with Kiana on the left and Mei on the right.
As the ride went through the dark hallways of the mansion, Kiana puffed her chest and had a fearless expression on her face. Mei was however the exact opposite. She hugged Rei's jacket tightly, frightened by the mere expectation of a jumpscare. Rei was somewhere in between.
"Eek!" Mei whimpered when she saw a Honkai beast break through a window. She hugged his jacket more tightly, unwilling to let go.
The ride suddenly stopped, followed by an announcement.
"Remain seated please," the intercom blared in Japanese and then in English.
"Huh?" Kiana was confused. "Why did it stop?"
The ride then resumed before suddenly stopping again.
"Remain seated please."
Rei groaned. Who the hell isn't sitting down right now?
"Sir, if you do not sit down, we will have to remove you from the property."
"He's not referring to you, is it?" Mei muttered.
The ride then resumed without a hitch after that, though their immersion was broken beyond repair by this point.
\\\\\
It was getting late, and the park was about to close. Even Kiana was getting exhausted already. Still, they decided to ride the Ferris wheel before leaving.
This time, for some reason, Kiana decided to sit in a separate cabin from Rei and Mei. She didn't explain why, but they didn't press any further, and they sat in a cabin together, sitting beside each other. The cabin slowly inched upward, the sheer size of the park becoming quickly apparent.
It also turned out that a firework show was organized every weekend, and one was scheduled for tonight. A few streaks of light flew into the sky before exploding into various colorful patterns that lit up the clear night sky.
It was beautiful.
…
Rei felt it again. The urge to confess. He wanted to. It would be such a perfect moment, but he still didn't have the courage to do so. But he had to do something. An opportunity like this didn't come around very often, and he wanted to say it. He wanted to say what he felt about her.
…
"I…" Mei suddenly began talking. She shut her eyes and clenched her fists, seemingly struggling to say something. She took a few deep breaths and swallowed the lump in her throat before opening her eyes and quickly turning to face him. Using all of her effort and courage, she finally managed to say it.
"I LIKE YOU, REI!"
Time seemed to stop as Rei struggled to process what she had just said.
Did… Did she just… Did she just say that…
A sense of relief washed over him. He hadn't been able to muster the courage to tell her how he truly felt about her because he feared she wouldn't reciprocate those feelings. But now… now that she made her confession…
"I… I like you too, Mei…"
Tears were forming in her eyes. "R… Really?"
He slowly nodded, and any tension that was left in the air dissipated immediately. They shifted closer to each other, unsure of what else to say to each other.
"Mei…? You're crying… did I do something wrong?" he asked.
"No… I'm… I'm just so happy right now… I…"
He hugged her gently, and she hugged him back before sobbing. Not out of sadness, but out of pure joy. She had always felt disconnected from everyone else. Everyone referred to her by her social status and not who she was.
And then she met him. He barely even knew about her status and often forgot about it. He saw her as Mei and not the heiress of a large conglomerate. And when her father was accused of crimes that he didn't commit, he helped her get out of the hole she had fallen into.
He was the first person she could truly connect with, and she was forever grateful for it.
…
She stopped crying after a while, and they separated from the hug. They locked their hands together and gazed into each other's eyes. They wanted to do it. They didn't need to say a word.
Their lips met for the very first time.
The world around them melted away. Nothing else mattered anymore.
…
At the same moment, two heart pattern fireworks, one red and one purple, lit up the starry sky.
\\\\\
"You expected it to happen, didn't you?" Rei commented after seeing the smug look on Kiana's face as she left the Ferris wheel.
"Yup!" She puffed her chest, proud of her success. He chuckled a bit. Kiana can be smart sometimes. Just wish it showed in her studies… "Say, it's getting late. We should return home."
"Awwww!" She hung her head dejectedly. "I wanted to stay for a little longer…"
"Maybe next time."
Mei suddenly returned with two photos in hand and gave one to Rei. The Ferris wheel would take a picture of the riders when they were at the highest point, and it just so happened that the camera took the picture during their first kiss. The view behind them was spectacular, and by sheer luck, it showed a red and purple heart firework explosion. It was such a perfect picture.
Tears rolled down his cheeks as he turned to look at her. "Thank you…"
They smiled and held hands before walking in the direction of the park exit.