まさかのゲーマーデート！？ (Masaka no Gēmā Dēto!? – Wait, This Is a Gamer Date!?)

Sunday, 4:12 PM – Ren's Room, Lights Off… Monitors On

"W-Wait, Rika, are we really doing this here?" Ren asked, standing in his own bedroom, completely overtaken by her gear.

Three monitors. RGB keyboard. Headset hanging on the wall. Energy drinks stacked like trophies.

"Yup," Rika grinned, sitting cross-legged on his bed in a hoodie two sizes too big. "You got your café date, your shopping trip, your flirty pancake crap. Now it's time for the real date."

Ren blinked. "…Which is?"

She tossed him a controller.

"1v1 me in Smash Bros. loser picks up the pizza."

Scene: Controller Combat

The screen lit up. The music swelled.

Ren chose Link. Rika picked Samus.

"Don't hold back, Takahashi," she said with a devilish smile. "Or I'll destroy your ego pixel by pixel."

She wasn't kidding.

Ten minutes later, Ren had been three-stocked twice and rage quit once.

"I didn't know you were this serious about games," he muttered.

She leaned back, arms behind her head. "I'm serious about everything. Just don't always show it."

Scene: The Pizza Penalty

Ren ended up ordering pizza as punishment. When he returned from the door, Rika had changed the lights to a calm violet hue and was casually scrolling through her digital manga library.

"Make yourself useful," she said, pulling a blanket over both of them as they sat on the floor.

"W-We're sitting like this!?"

"You lost. This is the loser's corner. No escape."

As they munched on pizza, the mood turned oddly comfortable.

No flirting. No teasing. Just silence, games, food, and warmth.

Scene: Honest Rika

Between bites, Rika suddenly said, "Yui and Haruka are good at saying how they feel."

Ren glanced at her. "And you're not?"

"I like you, okay? But I don't want to say it and ruin everything. So I'll just... keep being like this. Until maybe one day, you get it."

Ren didn't answer right away.

Instead, he handed her the last slice of pizza.

Rika blinked.

"…Wow. You really do like me."

"Did I say that?" Ren asked with a smirk.

"No. But your pizza sacrifice speaks volumes."

Scene: Exit the Dungeon

When they walked back into the living room, the girls stared.

"You were gone for two hours," Emi said flatly.

"You smell like cheese and betrayal," Yui added.

Rika shrugged. "What can I say? Gamers rise up."

Haruka looked at Ren. "Did she make you play her weird mecha games again?"

"Yes," he replied solemnly. "And I'm not the same man anymore."