Before he could pull her too far, Yui pulled her fingers away from his tight grasp. As was par for the course, she was blushing.
“W-Wait! Why did you grab my hand like it was nothing?!”
“Oops, sorry. Old habit.”
“Hmm. Well, I am pretending to be your girlfriend. I guess I’ll allow it if you want,” she said, some apprehension still present in her voice.
“No reason to, since Mina’s not around anyway. Oh! Wait, are you the type that easily gets lost unless somebody holds your hand?”
“No,” she replied coldly.
Ultimately, the pair kept their distance from each other as they made their way to the bus stop.
A short 20-minute bus trip later, the pair arrived at the largest park in the region. It was separated into two parts: one with sports grounds and a gym, and the other that had a playground and fresh grass covering the whole area. Additionally, there was a long boardwalk that extended along the circumference of the park, which is where Yuuki and Yui were now.
They walked away from the bustling crowds and to somewhere more peaceful. The buildings around them gradually become few and far inbetween, replaced by serene and refreshing greenery.
“Whoa, I didn’t know this was a nice date spot. It’s pretty peaceful,” Yui marveled as she looked around at their surroundings.
“Not really,” Yuui responded monotonously, “I just like to come here alone sometimes.”
“Alone? But why?” she asked.
“It’s pretty quiet. Helps me think straight when something is on my mind.”
“Wow, I’m sorry I bother you that much.”
“We didn’t come here today because of that, don’t worry. There’s this other cool thing I like about this place,” he assured her. Hope she isn’t too pissed off that I brought her here without explaining anything.
Yuuki took a glance at Yui and quickly realized that his worries were unwarranted. Yui looked excited, and she suddenly exclaimed joyfully, “Wow! Look, a pond! I never knew there was one here!”
She was pointing at a large, oval-shaped pond at the far end of the boardwalk. The pond had a few small streams running off it and was populated by ducks.
“Look at that bird with the red beak!” Yui exclaimed, then she put on a mock serious expression and yelled, “It’s approaching us at three times the normal speed, Captain!” She walked around the pond, excitedly observing all of the ducks floating on the water. There were very few people around them, and the only noise reaching their ears was that of the birds doing bird things.
“Let’s have lunch over there,” Yuuki suggested, pointing at a row of benches near the pond. It was Yuuki’s favourite spot; it was nice and cool with a lot of overgrown trees whose boughs provided ample natural shade.
“This place is so cool,” Yui said, still admiring her surroundings.
Yuuki sat on the bench next to Yui, then shrugged off the sling bag he’d been wearing. He rooted around inside and pulled out a plastic bag that contained some rice balls and bread. He’d picked these things up from a convenience store located near the bus stop. Yui retrieved something similar from her bag.
Yuuki was just about to bite into a rice ball, but stopped when he noticed Yui holding a one-hundred yen coin in her hand.
“Where did you get that?” he asked.
“It was on the bench,” she answered.
“You’re pretty lucky with money, huh?”
“Yup,” she replied.
Yuuki considered making a smart remark about how it was all thanks to the stone he’d given her, but since Yui didn’t look particularly happy, he ultimately refrained from doing so.
Nevertheless, they both started eating their rather late lunches. Yui’s meal was on the lighter side, consisting only of a single rice ball and a sandwich. Yuuki stayed quiet the whole time he was eating, and so did Yui. Eventually, she was the first to break the irksome silence.
“To be honest with you, this is my, er, my first time going on a date with someone,” she confessed.
“Hmm?”
“I’m relieved it wasn’t as complicated as my sister made it out to be. She kept telling me about the do’s and don’ts of dates, and the places I should avoid going to for lunch, and this and that... This almost makes me feel stupid for overthinking it so much yesterday.”
“Huh. Well, this isn’t a real date, so...”
“Yeah! Obviously I knew that!” she stressed loudly. She looked a bit dejected, for some reason. She looked away from Yuuki, her gaze instead resting on the half-eaten rice ball he’d been holding. “I didn’t think we’d be having corner-store rice balls in the park when you first asked me on this date.”
“Ah, my bad. Should we have gone somewhere else?”
“Oh, no! That’s not what I meant! I don't hate it, really. It’s surprisingly nice!” she clarified.
She looks kinda pissed for someone who’s supposedly having a good time, Yuuki thought. The discrepancy between what she said and what her facial expression showed puzzled Yuuki. Alas, he would chalk it up to Yui putting up a tough facade. Instead, he focused on the more pressing matters at hand: finishing off his food.
“I would’ve made you a lunch box if you told me this is where we were going. Missed opportunity!” Yui said.
“You’d do that? I do want to try your handmade cooking again.”
“R-Really?” she tried to play it cool as she nibbled on her sandwich. Something was definitely off; Yuuki could feel it. He took a closer look at her and, sure enough, she was smiling.
“You’re pretty easy to please.”
“S-So wait then! Were you lying just now?!”
“Haha. Nah, I wasn’t,” he chuckled, his lips morphing into a grin. It was an innocent smile, though it didn’t make Yui any less suspicious of him.
“You’re in an awfully happy mood today. It’s good to see you haven’t forgotten how to laugh,” she said sarcastically.
“What’s there to be unhappy about? The weather is great, not too hot, not too cold. And the breeze is refreshing...”
“And you have a beautiful girl sitting right next to you,” Yui added.
“Wonder if Mina’s eaten lunch yet,” Yuuki said, ignoring her.
“The good ol’ silent treatment, huh?”
Yuuki considered sending Mina a message asking how she was, but he figured that’d probably just annoy her more than anything, so he scrapped the idea altogether.
“What about you? You having fun, Yui?” he suddenly asked.
“Wh-Who, me? I mean... yeah, I guess.”
“Glad to hear it,” Yuuki responded with a smile. Yui averted her eyes and focused on eating her food. Guess that was really embarrassing for her to say, he wondered.
They finished their lunch before long. Afterwards, they sat on the bench for a while, enjoying the view of the pond. The weather was still warm, and Yuuki’s stomach was full, so perhaps it was only a matter before drowsiness took over. His eyelids were half opened and were becoming heavier by the second.
“You look pretty sleepy, Yuuki. Hehe, how about you rest your head... on my lap~?” Yui smirked.
“Oh, can I? Thanks,” he promptly accepted her offer.
“Timeout, timeout! I was joking!” she panicked, her face already a beet red. She desperately tried to push Yuuki’s rapidly lowering head away from her lap. “Stop this right now! I only said that so I could see you all embarrassed and everything! God, you were just waiting for an excuse, weren’t you?!”
“What the? That’s a pretty awful joke, even by your standards.”
“Wh-Why do you sound so angry?”
There was a good time and a bad time for a joke, and for Yuuki, who was currently at the verge of passing out, it was clearly the latter. He stared at Yui, struggling to keep his eyes open any longer.
“Hmm? I had no idea you wanted to sleep on my lap this badly,” she teased with an elated grin.
“I just want a pillow to sleep on.”
“I don’t like that tone. If you want it to happen, then you better repeat after me: ‘Please, oh wonderful and cute Yui, let me sleep on your lap,’” she dragged out her vowels as she spoke.
“Please, oh wonderful and cute Yui, let me sleep on your lap,” he parroted, elongated vowels and all.
“You really do scare me sometimes,” she said. While she did seem slightly creeped out, it appeared that Yuuki’s brazenness had worked in his favor this time around. She sat upright on the bench, grabbed the hem of her skirt, and straightened it out. “Y-You can come over now,” she said quietly while turning her face away.
Those were the magic words Yuuki needed to hear as he rotated himself 90 degrees to the side and slumped his face into her lap.
“Smells great in here.”
“Hey, keep those disgusting comments to yourself! You’re facing the wrong way too! That's not how this works!” Yui objected. She slapped her hands to his ears and forcefully turned his head away from her stomach and to the opposite direction. Her thighs were much softer than Yuuki’d expected, and they made for an extremely comfortable pillow.
“Haah, now you’ve done it. Just checking, but you do know that I’m only pretending to be your girlfriend, right?” she sighed.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Oh, so nooooow it doesn’t matter? How convenient,” she said, flashing an ominous smile at him. Yuuki was too sleepy to give up his brand new pillow, however, so he just relaxed and shut his eyes.
“Goodnight,” he mumbled.
“Wai—wha—?! A-Are you for real right now?” she complained. Still, she ensured her legs remained balanced at the perfect height, which made it all the more comfortable and snug for Yuuki. Within moments, he’d dozed off entirely.