Episode 5: Arcade Date

"Twenty tokens, please."

"Here you go."

I tried to take all of the tokens but was interrupted by her. She took half of them and smiled at me.

"This place is huge, what should we do first?" she asked. "I bet you'll start with those shooters first."

"Yeah, sure."

We went straight to the arcade machine with a hand-held toy gun. I looked at her as she took the right side, being the second player. She saw my eyes and grinned at me.

"Better aim at those heads!" she exclaimed. If this were a normal location, we'd surely scare the nearby people.

"I bet I'd have a higher score than you." I challenged her.

"Bring it on!"

And so, the zombies started to appear on the screen. They spawned as if ready to make the person have a heart attack. Sometimes, the camera would abruptly move revealing a shocking jumpscare. She'd instinctively use the gun as a shield at times in which I laughed.

After some time, we moved onto the fighting games. After all, it's more fun to compete with each other; at least that's for me.

"Ohoh, I've been here a lot of times already and played this game a million times." She sat down on the opposite side. "Better be prepared to taste defeat!"

"I'll have my instincts as a gamer to take over me."

The game started. It was time to pick a fighter. In an instant, she chose a character. I gulped realizing what she said earlier was true.

In the end, she did win. I was clueless with the moves and yes, the gamer instincts did not take over me. She was smiling the whole time as we moved to our next destination.

The karaoke can only accommodate 2 people. It was an exact fit to our situation. We went inside and simply inserted two tokens. The television has now become fully functional.

"I'll go first, okay?" She then started pressing buttons below the television. "Just pick any song from this book." She handed out the song book.

She started singing. Although not as perfect as the original singer, it has emotions in it. Oh, and just to add, the song's about romance.

I looked up all the songs I know from the book. It ended up to a song that's familiar to all of us as it is viral, and the singer sang well. And another fact, it has a part where you have to reach a high tone in which I'm not confident on.

The song ended while I clapped for her. She was sweating a little but none of that mattered as she was smiling proudly.

"Your turn," she said using the mic and afterwards handing it to me.

I cleared my throat and prepared mentally. I'm about to embarrass myself by using my unhinged vocal chords. And what's worse, it's in front of her.

I started to sing. It went well for the first part. It climbed up to the climax without worries. And then the last part, where "that" tone has to be reached. At this point, she started singing with me.

"Under the white moon!~" Our voices synced on that part. We both know that we did not reach the right tone. But what matters is we had fun.

The karaoke finally came to a stop as the time allotted reached zero. She then suggested that we take pictures in the photo booth, in which we did. Four poses for one photo, totally worth the two tokens. She kept it hidden in her wallet as she asked for it.

"It's about time we get physical," she suggested.

"Let's go 'there' then already."

Basketball in an arcade is really a hot shot in the Philippines. It's always filled with guys who're either trying hard or casually shooting balls to the hoops. The same goes to our case for today.

"Watch me not miss a single shot on this." She inserted the token. "Or maybe you'd like to join?"

"Sure, I'll try." I prepared to grab the balls that's about to fall. "A wimp like me shouldn't just stay a wimp." I smirked.

The buzzer started and we both moved. She took the first shot while I went for the second. Hers went inside, I missed. Sometimes, it would come to a point where we both threw the ball at the same time, resulting in the both not going inside the ring. We'd laugh as we both knew it's a rare thing to happen; but can casually occur when two or more people play.

Everything was going well when suddenly, a group of guys rested on the side of the basketball machine. He was looking at her with a weird look. I panicked but only inside.

"Excuse me miss, but could you perhaps, let us use this machine." I instantly looked at the other basketball stalls with me realizing that their intention isn't what their mouth is spitting.

She continued shooting at the ring as the game's not yet over. Although she does this, I could see the change in her eyes. On the other hand, I was rooted on the floor by just simply looking at how many of them are here. In estimate, I'd say around five to ten.

"Hey girl, just let us-" the guy tried to touch her shoulders, but suddenly, a huge sound came out of the basketball machine. It wiggled a little from the direction of the guy. When I took a closer look, it was her, who's fist had hit the side of the arcade machine. An obvious dent appeared as she removed her knuckles to it.

The noise attracted a lot of attention including the arcade staff. At the same time, the group of guys was too scared and did not bother to play through the basketball machine. Luckily, we're only asked to leave the building. The smile on her face faded only to appear a blank one. Currently, we're sitting on the bench available at the mall.

Suddenly, I realized something. Because of this, I took out something from my bag. It was a band-aid and alcohol from my first aid kit.

"Hey, give me your hands."

"Eh, huh?" She rested her hands on mine. I started cleaning the wounds from the punch earlier. Afterwards, I took out the band-aid and slowly applied it to it.

"Thank you," I said while lightly pressing on the band-aid. "For being brave earlier. And also risking this for what happened."

I finished the procedure and looked at her. She does the same. Our eyes met and yet, I avoided it.

"And sorry." I looked down. "For doing nothing out there."

"What are you talking about? You couldn't have done something out there."

"But still-"

"Haven't we agreed to this already? We both accept each other, right? Whatever it might be, positive or negative. We fill each other's imperfections."

She raised her hand with the band-aid and said, "And thank you too." Afterwards, she rested her wounded right hand on my lap. Her palms are open.

"You'll be the wall, I'll be the roof." We both said to each other. I moved my left hand and reached for her right. I held her hands and she did the same. We looked at each other.

"Thank you," I said in a low voice. "And I love you."

"I love you too."