Ch. 20 - Senpai and Kouhai.

After 22 attempts at Monster drop. I told myself not to do more than 10, but after taking a good look at my tickets that's filed up on the floor. I realize it wasn't enough at all, I would rarely go against my owns rules but I think this its a necessity. I just have to make sure I can get a grip of myself, I run out of coins, so instead of exchanging my bills for coins. I pick up all my ticket and head to the redemption booth for counting and for some anime prizes.

"You got a total of 3400 tickets, sir!"

Said by the staff, I haven't exactly check the amounts of tickets needed for some of these. But I will be contended with what I will get. The small anime figurines are 1000 tickets each, its the same as the one I got from the crane game earlier. I should've just played Monster drop at first, it would've save me alot of time and money.

"I want to exchange 3000 of my tickets for 3 figurines please."

I told the staff, he gave me 3 random figurines, I ask him if I could choose which one's I'll take. But he just replied.

"Sorry sir, but thats all the figurines we have. There's nothing for you to choose from."

I just said "Oh okay." Took my figurines and walk out of the booth. Looking at what I got, im not familiar with the characters but they all look great and cute, im happy with what I got. I look for Chinatsu and see what's she doing.

"I took a turn and I saw Chinatsu kneeling down."

I got curious why is she kneeling down, so I get closer and I try to see if everything is alright. When I got closer I saw her kneeling down to a little kid.

"You want this? You wanna have this?"

She says as she entertains the little kid with the plushies she won, the kid seems to be happy and his trying to reach it with his tiny hands. I just watch as how wholesale and innocent the sight was. She gave the little boy the plushie and after saying thank you, he left to go back to his mother.

"Giving away stuff again?"

I ask as I approach her.

"Oh! you're back senpai!"

Her voice sound in high tone, she's smiling widely and she looks very happy. I look around and there was nothing left, she gave away all of her plushies and she didn't seem reluctant about it.

"Did you gave away all your plushies?"

I ask her in a squeaky voice and I slightly smile in order not to discouraged or antagonize her. And its none of my business so its wise not to sound so serious.

"Yes, I already have so many, I dont need those anymore~"

"That's cute and very kind of you."

She just smiled and giggled after I reply. I then showed her what I got and it was clearly a pity compared to what she got.

"Ohh~ collecting those again, senpai?"

"Yeah, I like it, I like them alot."

I replied to her, I hold my figurines lovingly as I felt a slight feeling of joy and warmth inside my chest. I imagined placing them in my shelf in my room. Being independent is nice, but its very tiring yet worth it.

"You know, you could just bought those online."

She told me, to be honest I know that I could but for some reason I didn't just order online. I pause and felt nervous, I dont wanna look stupid in front of my junior. So I try to talk my way out of it and I eventually convinced her that I would rather grind for it rather than just straight up purchase it. We walk out of the arcade and try to figure out where we're going next. I dont have any bags or anything to put in my figurines so I was just holding them out in the open, it was cumbersome to be honest.

Walking around like that it was inevitable to caught some attention from passing shoppers. But I didn't care, and whenever I saw someone within my peripheral vision, who just gaze at me untill they past by. I tend to lock eyes with them and give them a harsh stare, there's nothing wrong with what im doing. We walk around for about a few minutes before we stop at a bookstore, Chinatsu wants to check some new novels and I accompanied her cause I have nothing else to do and im a bit worried about her. She was browsing as I just stands right next to her.

To some people we might look like a couple on a date, but in reality she's like a niece to me. A few kids walk pass us. A kid stopped at where we are and looks at Chinatsu, she seems aware that a kid was there and she smiled at him . I wasn't directly looking at the kid but I can see at the side of my vision the kid is also starring at me and the figurines I hold. I remain silent and slowly turns my head towards him. Informing him that I am aware of his presence.

We both locked eyes and shorty after the kid left. Chinatsu looked at me and said..

"Senpai, why did you scare him?"

I don't remember that I try to scare him off, I just look at him and for some reason, Chinatsu thinks I scared him off.

"What do you mean by that? I didn't do anything."

I slowly rotated my head to avert eye contacts with her, I kinda I bit spiteful cause I wasn't expecting her to say that.

*sighs* "Senpai, I know you didn't scare him on purpose, but the fact that your eyes are passively sharp and menacing all the time is kinda scary."

Well I think that explains alot, I do always tend to look serious and stoic all the time whenever I go somewhere. Kazuo even joke about it several times, saying I always look angry as if I just had the worst day ever or im about to beat someone. Well its in my genes, I can't do anything about it but I think she has a point.

"Well I didn't know my eyes are being scary again. I'll try not to."

I just simply replied to her like that. I try to widen my eyes a little bit in order not to look sharp and scary. It kinda feels weird, I feel like my eyes are about to fall out.

"There you go! That's better you look better now~ I know I can't make you smile, so I dont thats okay."

She went back into browsing some books, and I actually keep it for some time untill I feel its kinda stupid and my eyes went back to its normal form again. It adds in more weight to how my eyelids usually behave, cause just as I said that's just how my eyes are.

I look at Chinatsu's face with a grimace, observing how different she usually look compare to mine. Her eyes are sparkling and full of life, her lips are always on the verge of smiling. So, I pull out my phone and open the front camera. What I saw was a face of a person who's just starring blankly into me, whose eyes are sharp and grim, yet his gaze are dull and listless, his whole expression are frowny and seems to be empty in the core. I then realized that that's the way I look, this is me. I suddenly gets flashback of olden memories of my childhood, my whole expression looks a whole lot different from what I can see right now. Such nostalgic feelings I felt for the time being, I shook off my head and try to browse some books as well to distract me from my thoughts. And also so I could get a bag where I can put my figurines, im starting to feel tired carrying them like this.

After some time, we exited the bookstore holding paper bags of art materials. I suddenly get the feeling of wanting to draw again to pass some time and keep my self preoccupied now that I broke up with Airi and I now have no one to talk to at night or when im home. We check the time and there's only an hour left before we head back to the game store. So we decided to stop somewhere to eat.

"So what are you craving for?"

suddenly out of the blue, Chinatsu jokingly ask me if I was craving for a specific sustenance to consume.

"I'll just pick what I want, you do the same ."

I might have sound a bit too serious with my reply, so I try to follow it up with another sentence.

"I dont know, what's on your mind?"

It isn't any better. But I feel like it lightens up and gives more color to the atmosphere.

"Wanna have pizza, senpai?"

She asked.

"Yes!"

I hastily and merrily responded without realizing. She looks at me grinny ear to ear, I can tell she's holding in her laughter. I think my voice and expression was a bit overjoyed when I answered her question. Hence, I sound like I was craving it and she guessed correctly.

"What?"

I said, she just giggles and we just went on. We found a pizza parlor, we sat down and before we place our order, I think of the others and wonder if they'd be hungry.

"Oh, we should message them of where we are so whenever they're hungry they could just come and eat with us."

I told her, she nods and replied.

"Okay senpai. But what would you order first? "

"Leave it to me."

She nods as she calls a waitress to come to our table to take our orders.

Waitress : "Welcome sir, ma'am. May I take your order?"

Chinatsu : "I would like a small order chicken wings and a slice of your regular pizza."

Waitress : "Okay, and your drink would be?"

Chinatsu : "Just iced tea, please~"

Waitress : "Okay! How about you, sir?"

Akagi : "Two medium size italian pizza, 2 orders potato wedges and one large order of chicken nuggets."

Chinatsu looks at me with shock and confusion.

Waitress : "And your drink, sir?"

Akagi : "Iced tea as well."

Waitress : "Okay! Please wait for 20 minutes before we serve your order."

Akagi : "Okay, thank you."

The waitress then left, she was calm and enthusiastic about her job. I can tell she's a diligent and charming worker, as I also work in the food industry and have work with waitresses.

"Senpai, did you also order for them?"

Chinatsu asked.

"Yes, I ordered all of those for us to share."

I replied, her face then brightens up.

"Oh, good to know~".

In the meantime we had a little conversation about Italian cuisines and she ask me about what I know about western culture.