Chapter Text
“Sigh… isn’t a bit earlier than we agreed on...” Yuno scratched her head, opening the door for Nonoka.
“Yuno-san-chan!” “Yuno-san.”
The bespectacled girl’s eyes perked open as she realised that Arale and Ritsu were at her doorstep too, flanking Nonoka.
“Yuno-chaaaan!” greeted Nonoka.
Yuno could only be surprised as Nonoka lunged towards her, as she usually does.
“Thank you for having us, Yuno-san.” Ritsu bowed before offering a huge tray filled with karaage and chicken bars and bagels and other stuff you could find in a Family Mart.
“Why did you..?” Yuno squeaked out as she struggled in vain against Nonoka, who seemed to miss her a lot.
“Nono-chan-san invited us!” Arale answered as the two girls made their way inside. Ritsu placed her tray somewhere near Yuno's bed.
“Get off, already.” Yuno pushed Nonoka as she finally loosened her grip.
Ugh… what the heck was Nonoka’s problem… why’d she bring them here? Sure, they were all friends and they were bandmates and all but… really?
“I really like your home, Yuno-san-chan! It suits you a lot! It's cool and practical, not like mine with all my junk and messiness and stuff…” Arale started rambling.
“Uh, mmhm. Thanks.” Yuno reached for the back of her neck.
Seemingly out of hammerspace, Nonoka pulled out a pile of board games. “Nono-chan brought board games!”
“Ah~!” Arale's eyes lit up.
Yuno squinted. No Mario Kart today? That's fine, totally fine. Definitely. No worries, it's not like she already set it up or anything.
She shuffled over reluctantly towards the 3 other girls, who looked like they were already gladly making themselves at home, sprawling over the floor. Nonoka patted the space to her left, signalling Yuno to take a seat there. Ritsu was on her left, stuffing her face with a giant meat bun.
“Let's start with… Monopoly!” Nonoka pulled out a big box with gusto.
“Monopoly!!!” Arale and Ritsu exclaimed in unison.
Yuno noted something different about it, “It's a Magilulu edition?”
“Yes! Yuno-san-chan, you know of it too?!” Arale started, “Turns out Nono-chan-san actually had this special edition all this time! Could you believe it? I was talking to Ricchan that we just had to play this together!”
“Ehehe… Nana-chan likes it!” Nonoka simply replied.
Yuno simply let her body rest itself as everyone started choosing their tokens. Ritsu diligently dealt everyone their own money while Arale set the cards in place.
Very briefly, Yuno felt a warm hand brush over her own. She snapped her head to her right, towards the only person who could've done it.
Nonoka looked at her, “Hmm? Yes?”
She squinted, “It's nothing.”
—
“Noooo! Ricchan you meanie! I wanted to buy Yumeoi Town!” cried Arale.
“You're out of luck this time, Arale-chan.” Ritsu replied confidently as she dealt herself Yumeoi Town’s property card.
It's been a few turns since they started playing. The only difference between regular Monopoly and Magilulu Monopoly were the aesthetics (not shocking at all to Yuno).
She glanced at Nonoka, who was happily bobbing her head and making nonsense commentary whenever someone else made a move.
How does one win in Monopoly? Do you have to wait until everyone gets bankrupt? Is there a way to speedrun it and win super fast? Mario Party would’ve probably taken much less time than this.
She felt Nonoka's fingers idly playing with hers. Yuno glanced down, then back at the board. She decided it wasn't worth mentioning.
Maybe if they finished earlier they could get to doing something else already.
“Yuno-chan, Nono-chan needs your help.”
“Huh?”
Nonoka's face suddenly got remarkably close to her own. She could feel Nonoka's breath against her own lips, immediately sending a rush of heat across her face.
“H-hey! What’re you doing?!”
“If Nono-chan builds another house here, will Nono-chan get more rent on top of the house Nono-chan already has?” Nonoka's chest was pressed against Yuno's arm.
“W-well…”
“Yes, of course. You can build a Cururu base too but that'll add to your mortgage.” Ritsu chimed in.
Nonoka finally moved away from Yuno, “Ah, so that's it! Nono-chan will build another house then next turn.”
“But you’ve never managed to collect any rental from anyone yet over there.” Arale pointed out.
“Eheheh!” Nonoka giggled as she rested her head against Yuno’s.
She froze.
“Alright! Time for Nono-chan's big dice throw!” She sprang forward, completely oblivious to what she just caused.
Yuno could only narrow her eyes, annoyed and flustered.
—
“Hehehehehehe! Pay up, Ricchan!” Arale giggled smugly.
“Gladly. It's just a drop in the bucket compared to how much you’ve paid me, anyway.”
“Grrr…”
Ritsu had been a more formidable player than Yuno thought. She was gobbling up rentals from the others as much as she was gobbling up her popcorn chicken. Doesn't really matter though, it's not like she wanted to win or anything.
Nonoka's knee had been pressed against Yuno's for the better part of the game. Neither of them had bothered moving away.
All of a sudden she felt her skin turn cold.
Nonoka's face had drifted dangerously close to her neck. Yuno felt her breath against her skin, and for a moment, everything seemed to slow down.
To her own surprise, she managed to stop Nonoka just in time by holding onto the sides of her head with both hands.
She yelled in a whisper, “What. Are. You. Doing?!”
“Hmm? We always do this~!”
“No! I mean, yes! I- no! T-there are people now!” she started tripping over her own words as her face flushed bright red.
“Is Yuno-chan angry?”
Was she angry?! No, not really but, but… was all of this not just common sense to Nonoka? It is Nonoka after all…
“Um… Yuno-san-chan?”
Yuno frantically covered Nonoka's mouth with both of her hands.
“It's your turn…” said Arale.
“Are you guys alright?” asked Ritsu, her head shifting to look at both of them.
“It's nothing.” said Yuno, regaining her composure. Her face was still a noticeable shade of red, though.
Yuno shook her dice, rolled a 7, and moved her piece seven paces. Passed by ‘Go’, and Ritsu gave her her 200 Yume-Dollars.
“I’m not buying anything.” Yuno spoke up, prompting Arale to move next on her turn.
She couldn't shake off the weird feeling that there were eyes watching her the entire time she was taking her turn.
The pink-haired girl tilted her head to the side.
Sure enough, Nonoka really was watching her.
She had a look on her face that wasn't quite the usual expression she carried. Her lips were curved slightly to the side. Her eyelids were half-shut.
Yuno’s heart skipped a beat.
Nonoka f*cking knew exactly what she was doing.
—
It's been nearly 2 hours and who knows how many turns of Monopoly. Ritsu was looking increasingly queasy everytime her food tray started showing its bottom. Arale eventually made peace with how she was never going to win this game.
And the hardest part was resisting Nonoka. That girl was sneakier than Yuno had first assumed. Pecks on the cheek whenever nobody was looking, fingers slipping between hers behind her back, her head resting on Yuno's lap whenever she could find an excuse to do so, and a bunch more that Yuno didn't have the strength to think about yet.
And truthfully, it wasn't just about resisting Nonoka's advances either. It was resisting herself.
“Ricchan, can you just hurry up and bankrupt everyone already~ I’m never gonna win anyway…” Arale whined.
“That's not how the game goes.”
Nonoka was moving her piece while humming a different note at every pace… until she landed on ‘Go to Jail’. “Hwaaah!” she shrieked playfully.
“That's your fourth time going to jail, huh? What luck!” said Arale.
She really deserves it, Yuno thought.
Nonoka shook her head playfully, “Again, Nono-chan's innocent!”
Definitely not.
“You can bribe me if you want to avoid jailtime.” Ritsu extended her hand.
“Mm-mm!” Nonoka stood up. “This time, Nono-chan’s gonna do it differently!”
She pointed towards the door to Yuno's room, “Nono-chan's gonna banish herself in there!”
“Gah!!!” Arale gasped.
Yuno felt her shoulders suddenly get playfully squeezed, followed by a pair of hands gently running up the sides of her face. She looked up to see Nonoka smiling at her, a knowing look plastered all over her face before she moved away.
Yuno swallowed an imaginary lump that was in her throat.
“Bye bye~!!!”
The door closed shut.
An awkward silence filled the air between the three remaining players.
Yuno could feel the blood flowing to her head.
“Yuno-san-chan, you wanna roll the dice?”
Yuno stared blankly at the dice as she picked it up. She shifted her head to look at both Arale and Ritsu, all while her mouth was hanging open.
“Um…” Yuno cleared her throat. “How do I willingly go to jail?”
“What?!” Arale exclaimed.
Ritsu raised her hand, “Steal someone’s cards.”
“Uh…” Yuno awkwardly hovered her hands over the board and eventually landed on Ritsu’s stock of cards. “I’ll be stealing this one.”
Ritsu nodded at the very polite theft.
“Oh no…" Yuno's tone and expression remained completely flat. "I’m going to jail too...”
She got up, gave a nod and shuffled over to her room, shutting the door behind her.
Ritsu and Arale heard a muffled “Yuno-chan!” from behind the door.
“Eheheh…” Arale giggled.
“...”
The two childhood friends exchanged glances.
“About time they got themselves a room.”