Going to the Arcade

(Akane's PoV)

—

And then, after that 'beautiful' lunch, I walked back to class with my hands in my pockets and the same flat expression I've been wearing like a uniform since the first day of school.

Nobody passing me in the corridor would have guessed what I was thinking.

The letter was still in my hoodie pocket, brushing against my hip with every step.

Ridiculous how hard it was to ignore such a small piece of paper that could be destroyed in an instant.

'I can't leave Shin.'

His whole body had gone rigid the second the words left my mouth, and he'd said the right words afterward: 'You should accept; it's a great opportunity,' but his voice had cracked on 'opportunity.' Nobody else seemed to catch it.

But I did. I always catch every single detail about him, the love of my life.

'I can't do that to him. Not now, with his family about to come back. I can't be the one who leaves.'

But the letter offered me a way out, too. A chance to get away from my family for good, move to a new city, and use a name that actually belonged to me.

Far from this town, in a place where maybe I could build something from scratch with him.

I wanted that life. I just couldn't work out how to want it without leaving him behind, and that's what was bothering me.

'Ah damn... I need to have a serious talk with him once we get home so that he won't think that I've made my decision without confronting him.'

As I stepped into my class, I immediately slid at my desk.

Around me, chairs scraped, and bags dropped, and the last conversations dragged on until the teacher walked in.

I opened my notebook to a blank page and left it that way. The next lesson was useless anyway, and Matsuro-sensei was boring.

The afternoon went on without much help from me. History, then literature, then a study period I spent pretending to read while counting the minutes on the clock above the board.

During literature, I started noticing the whispers again.

Between classes, a girl two rows back muttered to her friend about "the Ishikawa thing on the field." A boy near the window kept glancing over, apparently trying to decide whether I matched whatever story he'd heard.

'Arguing with them would only be a waste of time and energy. They're gonna be complete strangers in a month and a half.'

I let them look. I've been looked at my whole life. If staring burned, I'd have been ash by middle school.

Matsuro-sensei was harder to ignore. During the study period, he kept glancing at me or asking me some questions. I answered every question he asked until he stopped bothering me.

"Ah, perfect as always, Takanashi," Matsuro-sensei said.

I just gave a polite smile to him and then turned my gaze out of the window until my phone buzzed.

When I felt its vibration, I pulled it out under the desk, even though I already knew who the sender was.

KURONE: 'Hey, Akane!!! What do you think about going out around the city when I feel better? It's been so long since we had a moment just the two of us!!!! I really need to get out of this house. It's becoming a cage, I swear!! Help meeeeeeee!!'

I looked at the message for a moment. She put all those exclamation marks, as if she could make herself sound fine by adding enough.

I could picture her in that room with every light on, trying to sound like the girl she used to be, the school queen. The shiny girl who was admired by many guys at school.

AKANE: 'Focus on resting for now. We'll go out when you're better.'

I put the phone away and went back to watching the clock, almost impatiently.

When the final bell rang, I was out of my seat before it had finished. 

'Finally...'

The corridors were packed with students heading for the exits, but I made my way through without touching anyone. 

I moved fast, hurried, and before I realized, I was already at the same waiting spot.

At the gates, I leaned against a post, crossed my arms, and waited, very 'patiently'.

I was about to light a cigarette when something particular caught my attention.

I saw the famous mangaka, Izumi Yamashiro, and a strange asshole-looking guy coming through together a little later, walking so fast they were almost jogging. Neither of them spoke.

Izumi clutched her sketchbook tightly against her chest while that guy kept scanning the street ahead of them. They both looked nervous, and in that moment, my mind realized what was going on. 

Sakurai's words came back in my mind almost instantly.

'Where are you two rushing off to? Tch— Okay, so that's what's happening. That is surely not a misunderstanding. Sakurai probably doesn't even know about that guy.'

I watched them go, thinking about the door she'd closed in Sakurai's face. If she had nothing to hide, she would've surely told Sakurai that she was walking out of school with someone else. Ignoring him for what? Tch—.

'That girl is probably a premium bitch. Heh. I'll have a lot of fun if she's really a cheater.'

Ten minutes later, Shin came through the gates with Sakurai at his side and Sora a step behind, her arms full of the eternal paperwork.

Sakurai looked better than he had at lunch. He had some color back in his face and was walking with something close to his usual ultra stupid energy.

I pushed off the post to meet them. "There you are. I was starting to think the school had eaten you."

"Oh, sorry, Akane. We had some extra stuff to do for the festival. Sooorry!!" Shin scratched the back of his head, smiling.

"Sorry!" Sora bowed slightly over her folders. "I-I need to head home right away. I have documents to fill out for tomorrow, and I still have to write the full schedule for the remaining tasks. I'll make it up to you all tomorrow, I promise!"

I smiled at her. "That's fine. But at least let us walk with you. We'll drop you off."

Her eyes widened a little.

"O-Oh, that's kind of you, but you don't have to, really. My place is..." She said, clutching her paperwork tighter.

"We're on the way," Shin said. "Don't worry about it."

Sora looked from us to Sakurai, who shrugged and gave us his first grin since lunch.

"I'm ready for anything," Sakurai said. "As long as nobody makes me talk to any more student council presidents today. No offense, President Fujimoto."

"Okay, deal," Sora said, smiling.

I then looped my arm through Shin's and smiled 'warmly' at her. "Let's go?" I said.

"Y-Yeah... let's go," Sora said.

Shin also nodded, and we headed for the quieter residential streets south of the school. The late-afternoon sun caught the buildings as we walked, with Sora on my left and Sakurai on Shin's right.

"So," Sakurai said after about three minutes of silence. "Is anyone going to tell me why the class 2-B meeting lasted all that time? I'm really curious about the details, I swear. I've heard so many things about that class. Is it so 'chaotic' as voices say?"

"Well..." Shin giggled. "There was a boy who wanted to build a ramen cart out of cardboard," Shin said.

"A full-size one," Sora added. "And he insisted for a while. Way too long!"

"He even had blueprints," Shin said.

Sakurai turned to her. "He had blueprints?"

"Detailed ones. With measurements. And a small drawing of himself standing inside it, wearing a headband." Sora was trying to maintain her presidential composure and failing badly. "I had to explain to him, very politely, that the fire code does not permit human-occupied cardboard structures within fifteen meters of a food preparation area."

"What did he say?" Sakurai asked.

"He asked if he could move it to sixteen meters," Shin said. 

Sakurai burst out laughing, sounding so much like himself that even Shin's shoulders relaxed.

"Hahahaha! That's so fucked up, man! I swear!" He laughed. "That was really unexpected."

"Yeah... That class really is something else." Shin sighed.

And as we kept walking, Sora went through the plans for the rest of the week, and Sakurai mixed actual questions with ones meant to make her laugh.

Sora's building stood at the end of a tree-lined street, a clean mid-rise with a glass entrance and a small garden out front. At the door, she turned to us, still clutching her folders.

"Thank you. All of you. For walking me home, and for today, and for..." She looked away for an instant.

"Go do your paperwork, sweet idol," I said gently. "We'll see you tomorrow. Don't be late, you beautiful idol."

"T-tomorrow," she said, smiling. She waved at Sakurai and gave Shin a small nod, her gaze lingering on him a little too long before she went inside.

I watched her through the glass, and something flickered inside me.

I knew that look. That was the look of someone trying very hard not to want something she can't have.

'Tomorrow I'm having a proper talk with that angel.'

"Alright," Sakurai said behind me, cracking his knuckles. "Arcade. Now. I've got a twelve-year-old's high score to destroy and a reputation to rebuild."

"Lead the way, Sakurai," I replied, clinging even more to Shin. My body wanted to feel him.

And then, we walked for another twenty minutes, leaving the main commercial strip for the older part of the city.

The streets narrowed between faded shopfronts with hand-painted kanji and concrete apartment blocks with rusted railings.

Most of these places had probably been here long before the neon districts were built.

At the end of a narrow side street, the arcade occupied a corner building: two stories of brick painted industrial black and deep purple, with a fire escape up one side. Old posters covered the walls in layers so thick they were practically part of the building.

Above the entrance, a neon dragon curled into a tight spiral, its jaws open at the top. Purple light reflected on the wet pavement, and I could hear the hum of the old tubes beneath it spelling out:

NEON DRAGON ARCADE

Shin and Ren's safe place.

Sakurai straightened, chin up and eyes fixed on the sign. He looked like a man who'd found his church.

"There it is," he whispered. "The most beautiful building in this city."

Shin and I looked at each other.

"After you," he said.

"No." I tightened my arm around his. "Together."