Short Story 2 : Satou Maya – A Bad Girl, But Just a Little Bit

The treasure hunt game with Ayanokouji was about to end.

What was it called again? The climax? Well, anyway, it means the end was near.

"Could you open the camera app?"

I followed his directions and turned on his smartphone.

Looking at the photo gallery, I saw pictures of the QR codes we'd found today along with some other ones as small icons, 15 in total.

My heart started beating faster thinking of how I could take a sneak peek at his everyday life.

But, he only had pictures of food and landscapes.

He didn't have a single photo of Kei-chan in there, which made me happy.

I'm such a bad girl…

"Which should we scan first?" I asked.

I put a lid on my feelings and just showed him some random QR code.

"Just follow your instincts and choose one you think is good."

"E-eh? You mean I can choose? W-what should I do? What if I choose a bad one?"

The thought of receiving a hefty reward was blown away this very instant.

What if it became my fault we only ended up getting 5000 points?…

Not even covering the participation fee is bad, isn't it?

What shall I do? What shall I do? This pressure is way too heavy!

"The bad ones should have been removed already. And there is a chance every code has been scanned already as well so there is a chance we just have to try them all."

Hearing that made me so relieved.

"O-okay!"

I prepared myself, took out my own smartphone and opened the app.

Next is to choose which code to scan.

I slided across them all in order to find one as quickly as possible.

Hmm, this one should be the most difficult to find, perhaps?…

The one Ayanokouji-kun found behind that sofa?

I was perhaps exaggerating a bit, but my hands started shivering as I pointed the phone camera towards the code.

After scanning it, the screen suddenly turns black and—.

"Ah, this one is no good. It says it has been claimed already."

Which means someone had found this code and scanned it already.

And I thought nobody would find it!

"Don't worry, just scan the next."

Holding back the frustration, I hurriedly chose another one.

But this one had been claimed as well.

"And after all we did to find it too! This is irritating!"

Now I just want one of them to work.

My thought patterns did a 180-degree turn, forfeiting the jackpot.

This is the 3rd try. And once again, the screen turned black. As I started to get worried again, smoke started to appear on the screen unlike previous attempts.

"It worked! Look! It looks like a treasure chest!"

A screen that begged you to tap on it.

I thought it felt a bit like a game, but this treasure hunt was certainly a game.

"I wonder how many points it contains?…"

I was so excited and was about to tap on it.

But… What if this one only had 5000 points?

My fingers started becoming heavier as my imagination constructed the worst ending result.

"Y-you do it, A-Ayanokouji-kun!"

I gave him both the smartphones at the same time.

I received them without showing any kind of displeasure on his face while he put his own in his pocket and looked at the screen of mine.

Then he tapped on the treasure chest without hesitation.

"Wah, You're so daring, Ayanokouji-kun!"

The screen started to flash blue and change.

What appeared on the screen was letters saying 100000 points.

"Ah!! …Ah~"

I thought maybe we'd won 1 million points, but that was wrong.

There were 5 zeros so 100 000 points. They looked alike, but that was it.

"It seems we didn't find that rare of a code after all."

Hmm, but this is no time to get depressed, right?

Since we went into the positives for sure.

"I see~… That's too bad. But you know, even with the participation fee, we did win 90 000 so that's more than enough!"

I was so happy that when I looked at his face, I noticed how close we were to one another.

I somehow wanted to avert my eyes, but still thought of it as a little bonus.

"Thanks a lot, Ayanokouji-kun."

And I'm so sorry Kei-chan. But this is a game so it can't be helped, right?

"I'm the one who needs to thank you. The one who found this QR code was none other than you, Satou."

"…Hehe."

I had such a good time that I ended up thinking I maybe was a bad girl after all, only slightly though.