Chapter 15: Chapter 13: Illusive Date II

“Two scoops of cookie dough ice cream, for two,” Alisa said to the store clerk, ordering our ice cream. 

 

“Two scoops of cookie dough ice cream for two, yes? Please wait a moment,” The female store clerk then started to move around behind the counter, fulfilling our order. 

 

“How’d you know? That I wanted cookie dough?” I asked Alisa as I raised a brow, slightly stunned that she already knew what I wanted to order. 

 

“I heard from my mom, apparently Tita kept sending her pictures every time that you got ice cream.” 

 

“Is that so…” 

 

After having a delicious lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant, we paid for what we ordered. We decided to have dessert at the ice cream shop across from the restaurant. 

 

“Here you go,” The store clerk handed Alisa our two cones of cookie dough ice cream. “Will you be paying by cash or card?” 

 

Alisa glanced at me and was about to hand me both ice cream so she could pay, but before she opened her mouth, I spoke, “I’ll pay by card.” 

 

The store clerk nodded then she proceeded to put up the machine. Noticing this, I quickly pull out my debit card from my wallet and tap it on the device. 

 

I held it up for a few seconds until the store clerk eventually put the machine down, indicating that the payment had gone through, so I placed my card back into my wallet. “Thank you very much.” 

 

“Uhm,” I nodded. 

 

“Thanks for that but… you didn’t have to pay you know?” 

 

“I know I didn’t have to, but I did it anyways, let’s just enjoy our ice cream, yeah?” 

 

“Alright… if you say so.” After that exchange, we decided to sit down in the corner of the ice cream shop. 

 

“Delicious…!” With a big grin on her face and her eyes sparkling, Alisa quietly shouted out her joy. 

 

Even after you said all that about not being a fan of sweets, I guess a girl’s sweet tooth is hard-wired into their DNA. I thought as I started snacking on my cone of ice cream. 

“You also like cookie dough as well?” I asked to continue the conversation.

 

“I loooove it! The flavor of chocolate chip cookies into the texture of cold ice cream is just heaven! There’s no way any other flavor could beat it,” Alisa gushed about it in response. 

 

“I understand…! Cookies are delicious, ice cream is also delicious, combine both of those and you get something this good!” 

 

Keeping the flow of conversation smooth, I tried mimicking how she gushed about the deliciousness of cookie dough ice cream. 

 

Don’t get me wrong, though; I do share her opinion; it’s just that I usually wouldn’t gush about it like this. If I responded the usual way I would, it’d instantly destroy the flow of the conversation. 

 

To keep it going, I need to match her level of energy. 

 

***

Once we were both finished with our desserts, i.e., ice cream, we headed to the arcade to have fun. 

 

“I haven’t been here in a while…!” Alisa uttered a blinding bright smile as she looked at each game machine with an intense gaze. 

 

So, this is the arcade they have here… I thought as I looked around. As expected, it’s noisy and crowded, but I won’t mind just for today. 

 

I’m here to have fun with her, after all. 

 

“Hurry, Iven!” Alisa spoke. 

 

“Woah-“I uttered as she excitedly dragged me off to the counter. 

 

Once we arrived at the arcade counter, Alisa let go of my hand and then proceeded to pull out a red card and a fifty-dollar bill and place it on the counter. 

 

“Please load it,” she said; then, the male clerk nodded and proceeded to take the fifty and the card. 

 

After a couple of minutes, it eventually returned to her. “Thanks,” Alisa mentioned as she turned to me. “Now then, what do you want to do first?” 

 

“Uh… uhm… I’m honestly fine with whatever you pick.” 

 

“Are you sure?” 

 

“Yeah…” 

 

 

“If that’s the case… let’s go here...!” Alisa pointed towards a machine very commonly found in almost every arcade in the entire. 

 

“Ah, okay…” It was a crane game machine filled to the brim with stuffed toys and some other random items within the glass. 

 

“Fufu… watch me, Iven, I’ll win something….” With a cheeky, confident smile, Alisa approached the crane machine and tapped the red card to start the game. 

 

The next moment, Alisa moves the crane directly above a stuffed bear and hits a button to drop it down. 

 

“Hoooh!” Alisa uttered in pure excitement as her smile became more prominent; the crane started to lose its grip on the stuffed bear as it brought it up.

 

“Aww…” Dejectedly, Alisa watched the stuffed bear fall from the crane, ending the game. “One more time...!” 

 

This is going to be a long day… isn’t it? But… this is cute. A slight grin appeared on my face as I watched Alisa struggle to try and win a prize from the machine. 

 

I’d be grinning a lot bigger than this, but since there are people around, I need to stop myself, but I just can’t help it.

 

This situation’s just too cute…! 

 

***

 

Admittedly, after a good ten minutes of Alisa trying to win something from the machine, my grin was starting to lose energy as more time passed. 

 

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“Come on….! It was right there...!” Alisa grumbled as the crane dropped the stuffed bear after the umpteenth time. 

 

“…” I sighed. 

 

I just want to keep watching, but… if I let her go on like this, the fifty in the card will all be gone to the crane machine. I thought as I walked up behind her. “Hey, why don’t you let me have a try?” I asked. 

 

“Huh?” Alisa turned around. “Sure, I almost forgot you were here….” 

 

“Okay…” Not letting that last remark get under my skin, I politely swiped the red card from Alisa’s hands and tapped it on the machine to start the game. 

 

It’s been so long… wait, why did I act like that? I’m not even sure I can even win this game when she can’t. I thought as I slowly started to get nervous. 

 

The moment I swiped the card, the LCDs around the machine started to glow up in random patterns. 

 

“Well... here it goes,” I uttered as I started to move the crane. 

 

Aiming it directly above the stuffed bear prize Alisa had been trying to go for and making sure of the angle by looking through the glass from different directions of the machine, I pressed the button.

 

Alisa and I watched nervously as the crane picked up the stuffed bear, along with another prize covered in plastic. 

 

“Hooh!” Alisa uttered in excitement as the crane made its way towards the goal. 

 

The next moment, the crane successfully made it to the goal and dropped our prizes.

 

“Yay!!! You did it, Iven!” Alisa screamed in joy and excitement as she jumped. 

 

“Yeah…” I replied as I crouched down and grabbed both prizes from the machine. 

 

It was the stuffed bear Alisa had been aiming for, along with something else. “A hair clip….” I muttered under my breath. 

 

The other prize was a golden hair clip wrapped in plastic, just like the one Alisa had been wearing in school. 

 

“Nice…! You got two prizes…!” 

 

“Well, I guess I got lucky….” I responded. “Here, you can have them,” I handed the stuffed bear and the golden hair clip to her. 

 

“Are you sure…?” Alisa asked. 

 

“Yeah, I’ve got no use for them anyways….” 

 

“Thank you…!” Alisa then ran up to me and hugged me tightly with both arms. “I love you…!”  

 

“Ah, uh…” I was stunned, frozen. 

 

I couldn’t speak as if there was something stuck in my throat. 

 

The warmth of another person… this feeling I haven’t felt in a long while… 

 

Alisa’s warmth permeates throughout my entire body. This warm, soft feeling, a feeling that I imagined being happy, surpassed my expectations. 

 

I’m happy. 

 

I’m so happy…! 

 

However, a dark empty feeling starts to well up. I don’t deserve these feelings; I don’t deserve them one bit. 

 

I’m s̴̡͕͚͕͙̭̱͇͈̝̙̯͛̍͌̃̔͐̓̽͋̉̒̎́͝ȇ̷̜̝̻̟̩̠̿̊̀̍̌l̸̠̻͔̿͋͝f̵̧̪̳̮͍͖̻̬̠͉̬̄̈́̓̊͌̃i̸̢̧̪̦̬̖͖̼̹̬̝̖̊͐̔̈́͆͌̂͂̏͗͂͑͘̕͝s̵̹̖̫̗̈́ẖ̴̮̱̪̟̟̬͚͇̠̲͙͓͚͂̇͂͐͂̐̅͆̆͛ just by standing here and accepting all of it. 

 

But, what’s so wrong about that…! 

 

I’ve been lonely. 

 

I’ve been so lonely. 

 

I want this feeling to last forever if it could.

 

“Ah, sorry…!” Alisa then unwrapped her arms and took a few steps back. “Sorry for startling you like that.” 

 

“Ah, no… it’s fine,” as soon as I stopped feeling Alisa’s warmth, I was able to act normal again. “Here…” I handed the prizes to her again. 

 

“Thank you,” Alisa calmly accepted the stuffed bear and the golden hair clip out of my hand. “I’ll take care of them.” 

 

“Yeah…” 

 

“Anyways, let’s continue, there’s still other games here that we haven’t tried yet….” 

“Yeah, let’s….” 

 

Alisa then ran off to the other machines while I followed suit. 

 

Being s̴̡͕͚͕͙̭̱͇͈̝̙̯͛̍͌̃̔͐̓̽͋̉̒̎́͝ȇ̷̜̝̻̟̩̠̿̊̀̍̌l̸̠̻͔̿͋͝f̵̧̪̳̮͍͖̻̬̠͉̬̄̈́̓̊͌̃i̸̢̧̪̦̬̖͖̼̹̬̝̖̊͐̔̈́͆͌̂͂̏͗͂͑͘̕͝s̵̹̖̫̗̈́ẖ̴̮̱̪̟̟̬͚͇̠̲͙͓͚͂̇͂͐͂̐̅͆̆͛ or not. 

 

I don’t know anymore…

 

Being s̴̡͕͚͕͙̭̱͇͈̝̙̯͛̍͌̃̔͐̓̽͋̉̒̎́͝ȇ̷̜̝̻̟̩̠̿̊̀̍̌l̸̠̻͔̿͋͝f̵̧̪̳̮͍͖̻̬̠͉̬̄̈́̓̊͌̃i̸̢̧̪̦̬̖͖̼̹̬̝̖̊͐̔̈́͆͌̂͂̏͗͂͑͘̕͝s̵̹̖̫̗̈́ẖ̴̮̱̪̟̟̬͚͇̠̲͙͓͚͂̇͂͐͂̐̅͆̆͛ is terrible, it’ll hurt people. 

 

But… by being s̴̡͕͚͕͙̭̱͇͈̝̙̯͛̍͌̃̔͐̓̽͋̉̒̎́͝ȇ̷̜̝̻̟̩̠̿̊̀̍̌l̸̠̻͔̿͋͝f̵̧̪̳̮͍͖̻̬̠͉̬̄̈́̓̊͌̃i̸̢̧̪̦̬̖͖̼̹̬̝̖̊͐̔̈́͆͌̂͂̏͗͂͑͘̕͝s̵̹̖̫̗̈́ẖ̴̮̱̪̟̟̬͚͇̠̲͙͓͚͂̇͂͐͂̐̅͆̆͛ like this makes me happy. 

 

Everyone’s happiness or my happiness… 

 

I can’t choose which one to live by… 

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