Chapter 35: ~Chapter 11~ Part 4

It was around four in the afternoon when the cabin of the Ferris wheel carried us to the top of its never-ending circular journey for a truly scenic view of the area. On my left I could see the long white ribbon of the sandy shoreline of the island, its outline made even sharper by the dark waters of the ocean beyond it. On my right, there was a city that should've been bustling with the after-work rush of an army of workers... except I wasn't sure there were any placeholder workers out there in the first place. A good excuse for another research trip down the line, I supposed.

Anyways, neither of those were important, nor did I pay much attention to them, as I was still hard-pressed to hold back my chuckles.

"I still can't believe she did that," Judy responded to my snickers. She sat in front of me, as it wasn't comfortable to sit side-by-side in the small cabin, and while she looked as deadpan as ever, I liked to imagine she was just as amused as I was.

"Yeah, it was insane," I agreed heartily. "I didn't even know those things' heads come off."

"I don't think they are supposed to," she mused thoughtfully. "Do you think they can be repaired?"

"I'm sure they have a few spares lying around in case people want to punch Dracula," I answered, which reminded me of the scene once again and I nearly burst out laughing.

"I can't understand why she reacted like that," Judy shook me out of my reminiscence with these words and I raised an eyebrow to urge her to continue. "That vampire wasn't particularly scary."

"Wasn't it?" I grinned playfully while leaning forward. "I can distinctly remember a certain person jumping behind me when it popped up as we passed by it."

"I wasn't scared, just startled," she retorted.

"Suuure, let's go with that."

As I said that my assistant began swinging her legs. For the next few seconds I watched her with an expression I could only hope wasn't too dopey before she exhaled sharply and looked me in the eye again.

"Come over here. You are too far. I can't kick you."

I won't lie, her saying that with a dead serious face while framed by the distant horizon in the window behind her was pretty dang cute. Of course, I would have never said that to her face—

"Aw, you are so gosh darn cute."

... Except my mouth was once again working ahead of my brain. I should fix that one of these days. Nevertheless, she continued kicking at the air without stumbling for even a moment.

"Don't try to sweet-talk me. I still hate you a little, remember?"

"You do?"

She tried to give me a nod, but she was also swinging her leg at the same time, so she almost fell forwards. I decided that allowing her to keep doing this was dangerous, so I raised a hand to stop her.

"Okay, I can go over, but it will be cramped."

She only stared at me, so after a few silent moments I awkwardly shuffled over next to her. As I predicted, it was cramped. For some ungodly reason, the designers of this particular Ferris wheel decided that the closed gondolas should be too wide for one person but too narrow for two, and our efforts to take a seat on a single bench resulted in a lot of fidgeting, squeezing, and ultimately Judy sitting on my lap sideways. Yeah, I didn't know how it happened either.

For the next minute or so there was complete silence. At last, after some awkward 'ums' and 'ahs' I finally remembered the reason why I came over to this bench in the first place.

"Weren't you supposed to kick me?" I asked innocently. She just glanced back over her shoulder and shrugged.

"I don't feel like it anymore."

"Really? Don't you hate me a little?" In lieu of an answer, she actually kicked my leg this time. "Ow. You see, I knew it you had it in you."

"That was different. It was for failing to read the mood."

I laughed awkwardly and automatically scratched my cheek.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm not good with these kinds of situations."

What followed was another bout of slightly awkward silence only punctuated by the creaking of the Ferris wheel. All things considered, it wasn't a particularly unpleasant experience.

"What's next?"

"Hm?" It took me a long second to get out of my stupor and actually process the question. I looked out the window and said, "We should get back to ground-level in about ten minutes. I guess we should have dinner and then head to the cinema right after that."

"I see." After such a non-committal answer I was ready for another walk down awkward silence lane, but instead Judy steered the conversation right into non-sequitur avenue by uttering a soft, "Thank you."

"You are welcome? ... Wait, why are you thanking me again? I am a little confused here."

"For the entire day. You didn't actually have to take me out on a date like this to get my mind off certain things, but I really appreciate it."

"Nuh-uh." I wagged an insistent finger in front of her. "Not a date, research trip."

"We didn't do much research though."

"True, but we did some. Also, that doesn't automatically make it a date either."

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"We spent the entire day fooling around in an amusement park while followed by our very own comedic date-stalkers, ate in suggestive contexts, got a couple's discount, and capped it all with a scenic ride on a Ferris wheel."

"That's... I mean..." I tried to protest, but after ineffectually opening and closing my mouth for a while I just buried my face in my hand with a groan. "Dear spaghetti monster in the sky! That is a date!"

"I thought you realized that a while ago."

"I should've. I'm smarter than this!" I paused while looking for a plausible-sounding excuse and actually found one really quickly. "I was just too preoccupied with my newfound ability to see and hear people through walls. That must be it."

"Your alleged ability," she corrected me with a poke.

Speaking of which, I was curious what the others were doing during all this. I didn't even know if I could listen in on them when I had no idea where they were, but I tried it anyway, and to my surprise, it worked as well as before. My elation over the fact that I apparently had a potent peeking ability swiftly turned to disbelief as the image solidified in my head.

"Wow... That's a bit too much."

"What are you talking about?" Judy inquired while looking over her shoulder.

"Josh and company are currently spying on us with one of those coin-operated telescopes they put near sights."

"That goes beyond dedicated."

"Yeah, it's a bit creepy, isn't it?"

Judy nodded. There was a brief pause, then she asked, "What are they talking about this time."

I tried to listen closer and I could only shake my head.

"You don't want to know."

"It's not nice to tease people. Now I only want to hear it even more."

"Oh fine," I relented in record time with a sigh. "They are betting on whether there's going to be a kiss before the ride ends."

"I see. How much?"

I didn't see how that mattered, but I answered anyway. "Ten Jens."

"I see. And who's betting on what?" she continued her interrogation while taking out her phone.

I gave the girl sitting on my lap a sideways look, but I figured it was probably another of the questions she would use to see if my ability was for real, so I answered, "Josh and Angie for yay, the princess is for nay, the class rep doesn't play."

"I see. Give me a minute." With that, she began poking her phone, and while at first I thought she was typing, she subsequently raised it to her ear. I could hear a phone ring on the other end, which was weird, and I could see the class rep pick up her mobile. "Vote for yes." That was all Judy spoke into her phone before she put it down, pocketed it again, and then faced me. I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but before I could say anything, she gave me a single peck on the cheek.

For a second or two I could only blink at the sudden development, but then I finally figured out what this was all about and sighed.

"You know, I don't think it counts as a kiss unless it's on the mouth."

The look Judy gave me looked somewhat troubled, but in the end she shrugged and turned her head around.

"I'm not doing that for ten Jens. I have standards."

I stared at the back of her head for a while, trying to figure out what made her tick, but in the end, I just rolled my eyes and leaned back on the bench. Judy soon followed my example, which in her case meant that she laid her back against my chest. When we sat like that the top of her head was roughly in line with my chin and her hair was actually tickling my lips. We stayed like that for a while, during which I was trying my best to stay calm and gentlemanly, but at some point I couldn't bear it any longer and gently blew at her hair. She turned her face to me in response, and for a couple of seconds we were just staring at each other from a few centimeters away.

Things were just about to get awkward, but before I could think of something snappy to ease the mood, Judy softly cleared her throat and asked, "What kind of movie are we watching after this?"

It was a transparent ploy for changing the topic, but I immediately grasped it all the same.

"It's a sci-fi action-comedy. It's about a group of misfit space-adventurers trying to find the space-holy-grail before the evil space-pirate with the space-galleons could catch up to them. It looks hilarious."

"I see." She nodded again, though didn't seem particularly enthusiastic about it. I tried to think of something else to say, and there was one other thing that came to mind.

"Do you think they would follow us to the cinema too?"

"Probably."

"In that case, do you want to watch a horror movie instead?" Her eyes narrowed momentarily, but a second later they returned to their usual shape except with a mischievous spark in them. I liked that, so I added, "It has vampire mimes."

"Then it is not a question. It's an imperative."

With that, we both nodded, which once again threatened to end with both of us receiving cranial trauma due to the way we were seated. For the time being though, I decided to lean back again and enjoy the ride while it lasted.

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