A Supporting Character’s Love Story - Chapter 42

Ch 42

POV Akari Nakano

“There you are Akari!” A loud voice called my name out as I hurried to the front desk of the arcade.

I reflexively turned my head and saw Hinata waving at me and Suzuki kun standing beside her. My body froze for a second seeing Hinata’s figure but I quickly composed myself and steadied my nervously beating heart. I felt the same type of nervousness as when I had to tell my bad exam grades to my parents.

“Hey there Hinata.”

I was trying really hard to avoid any sort of unnaturalness in my voice, but I didn’t know if it was working or not. I was constantly being reminded of the things that had taken place a few minutes ago and my face felt hot just from thinking about it.

“You said you were near the desk, what took you so long? We walked all the way from the other side of the store but we were still here before you.”

Fortunately, I was expecting to be asked such questions and had already prepared my answers to them on my way here.

“Oh that. Actually, I knew you would take quite some time to come here so I went to play another chance at one the games.”

“Even when you are lost you are still in the mood to play games? That is kind of amazing you know.”

“Forget about that, do you know where the others are?” I asked trying to shift the topic away.

“Yeah, we did see Shizuo, Nishikawa kun and Shimabukuro san on the way here. They were playing a co-op fps game. You know the shoot the zombies standard ones.”

“Oh. Is that so.” I sighed with relief on hearing her response. Unfortunately, this action of mine was misinterpreted by Hinata.

“Don’t worry Akari, I am sure Makoto kun is also somewhere around.”

My forehead scrunched up at the sudden comforting words that came out of her mouth and upon hearing the second half of the sentence I was this close to running away from this situation. I was feeling both angry and embarrassed right now. Angry from why everything I did was backfiring on me today, and embarrassed obviously because of what happened just before.

“I…” I tried to say something but stopped a moment later when I realized anything I did would only make things worse.

Thankfully, this situation didn’t last for long.

“Forget about this Akari let’s go to that purikura booth.” Hinata said as she suddenly grabbed my and Suzuki kun’s arms and dragged us away.

“Hinata don’t you think you are being too invasive? I mean if someone is doing something inside you shouldn’t poke your nose into their business right?” I really didn’t want to go back to that booth and tried to convince Hinata to forget about the bet.

“What are you saying Akari? Didn’t you bet against me? How can I let go of a prime opportunity to make you owe me something so easily?”

I couldn’t say anything to that. Just as she said, it was a good opportunity to make her follow one of my orders. Also, I knew I was going to win. It was an unfair competition to begin with. In the end I just relented and walked with her to where the purikura was.

.

Soon we reached the place. Hinata walked up to the booth while me and Suzuki kun shared an uncomfortable moment.

“Umm… Sorry about her behaviour.” Suzuki kun finally spoke.

“No, no, it should be me who should be apologizing for her.” I hurriedly replied.

“Has she always been like this?” He asked after a pause.

“That… She actually has been a bit more perverted than the others, but the main thing is that she is overly competitive over small things.” I replied in the best way I could describe her behaviour.”

Just then Hinata came back to us with an excited face.

“Look they are still inside.”

By brain stopped working for second on hearing her words.

“What?” I reflexively exclaimed.

“See. The door is still locked.” Hinata replied in a smug voice.

A thousand thoughts were going through my mind at that moment. There were a few possibilities right now. One, Makoto was still inside for some reason. I crossed this reason as soon as I thought of it. As much as I didn’t like him I knew he always stuck to his plans. Obviously his plans could be different from what we discussed but that was very unlikely. I couldn’t see any advantage he would have by staying in that place alone when Hinata and Suzuki kun had clearly heard a female voice coming from the inside.

The second possibility was if somebody else was inside and was now being implicated by my actions. I quickly tried to counter Hinata’s statement.

“Just because people are inside doesn’t mean that they are doing something. What if it is just a group of friends inside?”

“Aanph”

Unfortunately, just then a female gasp came from inside the booth.

My face turned red and Hinata’s smile only grew wider.

“Hehe. I won.”

“…” I couldn’t say anything and only had a dumbfounded look on my face.

“Now you have to listen to one thing I say, kay?”

“Y-”

*thud*

Just as I was going to accept my loss the door burst open with a loud bang which made all of three of us turned our heads by reflex. What came into view was not a couple with disheveled clothes like we expected, but [redacted].

“Akari, let’s count this as a draw.”

“Alright.” I nodded.

At this moment both of us had expressionless flat faces.

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*Some time before*

POV Kei Shimabukuro

“Ha chan look pacman machines. We used to play them back when we were in elementary school, do you remember?”

“Of course I do. But that was not in the arcade, some candy shops used to have them and we used to play it there.”

That’s good. At least he hasn’t forgotten that.

“Are you good at this game Nishikawa kun?” Hiwari san asked him.

“Ahh, that. I am okay, I guess.”

“Don’t listen to him Hiwari chan, he is definitely way better at it than most people. He just doesn’t want to brag about it.”

“Is that true Nishikawa kun?” She asked him with an inquisitive gaze to which Ha chan could only avert his eyes.

“Ah umm…”

“I know. How about we all take turns and compete. In the end the loser will have to face a punishment.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” Hiwari chan was the first to agree with my suggestion.

“That’s fine by me.” Ha chan obviously had to accept this competition under my and Hiwari chan’s sharp gazes.

“What about you Makoto kun?” Hiwari chan turned to the last member in our group.

“Oh. I wasn’t listening, sorry.”

I had already noticed it, but since the time we came to the arcade his mood had turned more… gloomy? Also, in the last five minutes or so he had been continuously staring at the pacman machine we were talking about.

“Are you alright o- Makoto kun?” I asked him while almost calling him Onii san again.

“Ah, I was just thinking that the last person who played on this machine reached 11th ranking. That’s almost in the top 10 leaderboards.” He said pointing towards the screen.

“Ah you’re right. That’s so cool.” Ha chan spoke excitedly. “Even though I am good, I have never reached the top leaderboards. I definitely want to meet such a person who can reach these rankings in person someday and see him play in front of my eyes.”

“But you have already met such a person Nishikawa kun.” Hiwari chan puffed out her chest and said with a semi-smug grin.

Could it be that she is actually good at playing games? A scene of her and Ha chan playing games on a console at her house formed in my mind.

**The following is Shimabukuro’s delusion**

“Ah I won. You really are good at this Shizuo.”

“Since I won don’t go back on your promise.”

“But-”

“No buts, you already promised. Don’t worry its safe today, my parent are not at home.”

“…”

“Or could it be that you don’t wan-  aanh”

[Redacted R18 scenes]

**End of delusion**

Now this is an Avengers level threat.

I was going to collapse with the amount of blood that had rushed into my head due to my imagination. Luckily, Onii san’s voice came at that moment and tore apart my imaginations like a shredding machine shreds paper.

“Of course you’ve met her. She is talking about Nakano.”

“Ah its Nakano san, I almost thought it was Hiwari san herself for a second there.” Ha chan replied in a relieved tone

“Alright then you guys play I need to go to the toilet.” Onii san left right as he said that.

“Wai-” I wanted to stop him but stopped myself from continuing.

“Is there anything wrong Kei chan?”

“Ah no. its nothing” I replied waving my hands in denial.

The problem was, the direction onii san was heading in was not where the toilet was located. I wanted to tell him that but it hit me just then. Clearly he was going to find Nakano san. Before he became gloomy not because he didn’t like the arcade, but because Nakano san left the group. It all made sense now. Ah, doesn’t this mean that he likes Nakano san? Also, from Tsukumo san’s words previously doesn’t Nakano san also like onii san?

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