“But now that I think about it... Momota-kun, you’re not very athletic, are you?”
“Agh...”
“At the batting cages you couldn’t touch a single ball. What’s more, you kept missing when we played badminton and ping pong. And your dribble when you play basketball made you look like a senile old man—Oh. S-Sorry! I wasn’t trying to make fun of you.”
Perhaps Orihara-san picked up on how I was starting to get depressed, because she became flustered and added, “I mean, um, you looked c-cute!”
“...That doesn’t cheer me up.”
“I didn’t mean to speak b-badly of you. I’m just surprised... Momota-kun, you’re so tall and muscular that I thought you must play sports.”
“...I’ve been bad at sports pretty much for forever.”
For the longest time, because I’m so tall, I’ve had a lot of experience with people arbitrarily expecting me to be good at sports and then getting disappointed in me. Seriously, a lot of experience. When I entered high school, I had invitations to join the basketball club and the volleyball club. When they wouldn’t give up, I reluctantly participated in trial practices... After that, neither ever invited me again.
“I have muscles because sometimes I help out with my dad’s work... but anyway, you’re not very athletic either, Orihara-san.”
“Ah...”
“After my turn at the cages you stepped up all smug-like and said, ‘Let a lady show you how it’s done,’ and then, just like me, you didn’t hit a single ball.”
“W-Wrong! I was able to touch one ball! I heard it go ‘tick’!”
“That’s the same thing!”
“No, it means I’m a little bit better!”
“...Pfft.”
“Hahaha.”
We both burst out laughing at how silly it all sounded. The elevator arrived, and we descended to the first floor. This really is fun. I wonder if you’d call moments like this “happiness”?
It seems like we have a good mood going. If I ask now, it seems like I can totally set up another date. I’ve let her completely take the lead up until now. Today is the day I’m going to personally take things to the next stage. Today I’m going to graduate from being passive.
We got off the elevator, and as we headed across the Arcade Corner to the exit, in my head I was desperately going over the invitation to our next date that I thought up yesterday. And just as I was about to say it—
“—?! H-Hide!”
Just as I noticed Orihara-san’s body flinch, she grabbed my hand.
“Wait, what?”
“The chair... a person I know from school is here! Please! Hide with me!”
Orihara-san grabbed my hand in a panic and pulled me over into the shadows between the purikura machines. The space between both machines was quite narrow, so our bodies firmly pressed against each other.
“!!!”
“Sorry, Momota-kun. Are you okay?”
“Y-Yes.”
Truth was, I was far from okay. This was bad... for various reasons. We were both pressed facing towards one another, so Orihara-san’s abundant chest was totally touching me. Her two mounds were being squashed flat. They were soft, yet rich in bounciness. Even through her blazer, their destructive power was outstanding.
“...What’ll I do if they see us?!”
Perhaps because she was so flustered, Orihara-san was completely focused on the movements of her acquaintance and didn’t notice how close we were to one another. Carelessly and without reserve, her ample breasts were being pushed up against me, and I could feel her warm breath against my neck. Oh no, this isn’t good...
“Ugh... Momota-kun, go deeper... ahn... you’re so b-big...”
Lewd! Orihara-san, that’s way too lewd!
My brain knows she means that because I’m so tall she wants me to go deeper into the shadows, but that’s not how it sounds!
“Phew... Good. It looks like they headed over to the karaoke booths.”
Orihara-san let out a sigh of relief as she looked out into the aisle.
“What a relief... that was a close ca—oh no!”
After the danger had passed, Orihara-san calmed down and finally realized the situation we were in. She jumped out from between the purikura machines in a panic.
“I’m sorry, Momota-kun... I mean, I didn’t mean to push them against you.”
It’s absolutely no problem. In fact, I wish you’d push them against me more—is something that I definitely can’t say. It took all I had to avert my eyes and just tell her “...N-No problem.”
I was prepared for her to yell “Kya~! Pervert!” and slap me in the face but, surprisingly, she apologized to me. I wonder, could she be an angel? Or maybe even a goddess?
“Though when you stop and think about it, there wasn’t really a reason for both of us to hide. You could have just hidden inside the purikura booth all by yourself, Orihara-san.”
“Oh yeah... I got so flustered that I didn’t think of that...”
Orihara-san gave me an embarrassed grin and then gazed at the purikura machine with a kind of nostalgic look in her eyes.
“Hey, Momota-kun. If it’s alright, can you take a purikura with me?”
“A purikura?”
“I’ve... never actually taken one. Have you, Momota-kun?”
“Only, like, a long time ago, when I was forced to take one with my big sister.”
It was when I was in elementary school. I had heard that purikura was really popular about ten years before that, especially among middle and high school girls at the time. However, thanks to smartphones becoming so commonplace, that wasn’t so much the case now.
“Let’s take one, as a memory of today.”
Urged on by Orihara-san, we passed through the purikura’s white curtain.
“Wow... H-How do we do this?”
“I’m pretty sure that you put the money in here.”
“Wh-Wh-What?! What are all these different frame designs? Which one do we choose?!”
“It’s probably okay if we just choose whatever, right?”
“Oh no, Momota-kun! The timer is running out!”
“It’s okay if the timer runs out. It’ll just move on to the next screen... I think.”
While not really knowing what to do, we stumbled our way through the photo session. The voice of the purikura machine was overly hyper as it gave us instructions one after another, like “Next, let’s give each other a big hug!”, “Smoosh your faces together and get close!”, and so on, all of which totally didn’t fit the mood. Trying our best, we gave each other some space and stood next to one another while awkwardly doing peace signs.