Arcade

'What?' Khai was dumbfounded.

Miserable?

He did pack heavy loads of eye bags but his face didn't look too bad, did it?

"Hey-" Khai's mouth twitched. "Aren't you worried about them?"

They looked like they wanted to eat each other up just to shit the other back out.

"Worried? The worst they can do is to die in each other's hands." Anna mumbled.

"Isn't that a bad thing?"

Anna chuckled, "Don't worry, they won't go too far."

Khai looked at her and relented, "Okay, but what do we do now?"

Without saying a word, Anna pulled him over.

"H-hey!" Khai almost tripped over his leg, catching himself with the other. "What are you doing?!"

"Having fun!" Anna giggled and started to run away, pulling him along with her.

Khai sighed, 'What a lively girl.'

He allowed her to take him wherever she wanted to go, obediently following like a dog on a leash.

"Have you ever played an arcade game?" Anna stopped, facing Khai to ask.

Khai thought for a while and shook his head, "Not that I know of."

He got the general gist of an arcade; it seemed that it was just place full of games that were heavily powered by machines.

"Then how about facing me 1 versus 1!" Nudging him to sit on a game, Anna sat beside him, looking excited.

"H-hey, I'd rather just watch you play." Khai said, wanting to stand up and leave the machine.

Anna looked discontented with his reply, "You have questions, don't you?" She suddenly asked.

"Questions?" Khai looked at her doubtingly.

"I'll answer one each time you beat me." Anna smiled.

"Well.." Khai found it hard to reject her proposal.

He is indeed curious about her. It was hard not to after what they just went through.

"C'mon, it'll be fun!" Anna pushed, eagerly inserting a token in both of their machine.

'Alright, I'll just play along I guess,..' Khai sighed as he sat back down.

With her energy at an all time high, it seemed that she needed someone to deplete it with.

'For a girl that just had an emotional breakdown, she sure has a unique way to cope..'

"Hey! Stop spacing out!" Anna smacked him at the back of his head.

'Motherfu-' Shocked, he almost hit her back out of instinct.

However, Anna didn't notice and continued speaking. "I was explaining the rules! Anyway, all you need to know is that your left joystick is your movements and your right buttons are your attack buttons, got it?"

"The what?" Khai blinked blankly, genuinely at a loss.

"Ah," Anna looked at him with a gaping mouth. "You really have no childhood, do you.."

"I had a few laughs here and there.." Khai weakly protested.

"Sure, sure.." Anna sighed. "Just learn as we play."

As she was done speaking, Khai saw two people on his screen, one was on the left and the other on the right.

["FIGHT"] The screen flashed a word and the one on the right, Anna, started to move.

'Left is my movement?'

Khai touched the joystick on his left and dragged it to the right.

Like mirroring his movements, the character on the left also moved to the right.

"I see.." Khai nodded.

"Slow learner!" Anna shouted and her character started to attack him mercilessly.

Khai was caught off guard, "What the hell! Stop it!"

"No way!" Anna laughed maniacally.

'This won't do!'

Khai pressed a button on his right and his character threw a punch.

"Oh!"

He then pressed the other and it kicked.

"I see.." He nodded in realization.

"You better start learning faster!" Anna continued her assault, not going easy on him at all.

'You have awakened a beast!'

Khai's eyes were continually twitching. "You need to be taught a lesson!"

"Really? Watch your health!" Anna sneered.

'Eh?'

Khai looked at the green bar above his character and saw that it was depleting rapidly.

"Hey, pause! Pause!" Khai desperately tried to escape but to no avail.

"No pausing!" She was like a parasite leeching off its host.

Although Khai was counter attacking, he took severe hits from Anna when he was still learning about the game.

The results were obvious.

["You Lose!"]

A notice popped up on his screen, signaling the end of the battle.

"How cruel." Khai muttered.

"Wow, you got absolutely decimated." Anna sighed.

'You-' Khai's competitiveness was awakening.

"Again!" He said as he placed his hands on the controls.

"Haha! That's the spirit!" Anna got excited, laughing as she inserted tokens into their respective machines.

This time, Khai took his time to learn while fighting, getting more familiar with the controls and concept of the game.

But to the experienced Anna, she pummeled him like marshmallow.

["Defeat!"]

"…"

"You have no talent in this whatsoever.." Anna mumbled, acting impressed.

Khai also looked surprised at the results, to think that he'd do worse!

Anna's character had more health than before!

"Again!" Khai demanded.

"Pft, sure!"

He poured all of his focus on the game. Although he only knew the basics, he believed that he could catch Anna off guard and eliminate her!

'I got it!' A confident smirk appeared on his face.

Of course, his confidence didn't come out of nowhere, on the screen, Khai was pushing Anna back. For the first time, he was actually on the offensive!

"Hey! how'd you get this good?" Anna spat through gritted teeth.

Khai didn't respond, only smirking in response, 'This is your end!'

"No! I won't allow it!" Anna shouted, trying to snatch the chance to counter attack.

"Even if you won't allow it, you'll still lose!" Khai finally felt that victory was in his grasp, confidently declaring his win.

'That's it! Almost there!' He watched as Anna's character had their health drained.

'Ah, finally..'

"Victor.. -eh?"

As soon as Anna was one hit away, her character suddenly did a roundhouse kick and counterattacked, completely overpowering him with sheer force.

["Defeat!"]

"Ha?"