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He paused his scrolling as he saw a news article link that had been shared by a friend, “Florida Man accidentally robs store. Huh,” he blinked, then continued his scrolling.
He then watched as a notification popped up, letting him know that MC sent a message to the RFA chat, but he ignored it, quickly swiping it away, still upset about the whole scenario. He absentmindedly wondered if he should get up and go home, toying with his options, when a familiar voice brought him out of his thoughts.
“Well, look who it is!”
When he looked up, he saw none other than Seven with a lopsided grin sitting at the other side of the small, metal cafe table. In return, Yoosung narrowed his eyebrows, an unamused look on his face.
“Aww, Yoosie~ Why the long face?”
He sighed, “MC flaked on our date. She went with someone else instead.”
“Oh. Ouch. That’s… rough.”
“Yeah. I know.”
Neither of them said a word for a few moments, silence stretching out as only background conversations from passersby were audible. Seven was the one who broke the silence.
“Say, wanna hang out with me instead? I’m super cool and fun to be around!” Seven leaned over the table, a wide grin on his face, “Oh, oh, I could even dress as a girl if that’d make you feel better!”
Yoosung groaned, backing his chair up to avoid getting too close to the redhead, “Yeah, I’m gonna pass on that last part. But… I guess I could go out with you for a little while. No pranks though!”
Seven dramatically gasped, “I would never! But anyway, let’s go then! I’ll make this the best date you’ve ever had.”
“This is not a date."
Seven swiftly stood up, making his way around the small table before grabbing Yoosung by the arm and pulling him up, “Hush, hush, let’s go!”
Yoosung quickly shoved his phone into his pocket as he was dragged out of the shaded area of the umbrella on the table, and into the harsh sunlit area of the sidewalk. He squinted, temporarily blinded by the bright day.
Seven seemed unphased, arm locked around Yoosung’s own as he was pulled along. Yoosung slipped his arm out of the loop, and steadied himself before matching his stride with Seven’s.
“Aw, come on, don’t wanna loop our arms together as we skip around like a lovestruck couple?”
Yoosung gave a deadpan stare, “No.”
Seven put his hand to his heart, feigning betrayal, “You wound me, Yoosie.”
Yoosung rolled his eyes, and looked forward as they continued along.
"Where are we going anyway?"
"Hm," Seven tapped his chin thoughtfully, "we could go to a fancy restaurant and sit in shame due to how underdressed we are. But I'm not that mean, so we can go to an arcade I know nearby! Happens to be, hm, about a minute walked from here. Convenient spot you were at!"
Yoosung nodded, "Okay. That sounds like something that could be fun, even with you."
"Yoosie, you're so cruel today," Seven whined, his bottom lip jutting out, "you're lucky I'm so forgiving."
Yoosung, once again, rolled his eyes, though a small smile graced his lips.
Seven's expression replaced itself as a grin again, as he tossed an arm around Yoosung, effectively turning him to the side to look at where they'd arrived.
"Voila! My go to when I'm feeling down and have gotten bored of reflecting back on all the mistakes that I've made!"
"Um-"
"Let's go in!"
Yoosung then found himself being dragged into the arcade, eyes being assaulted by the plethora of colorful lights and game machines.
He hardly heard the door shut behind them; too focused on the new environment in front of them.
"Pretty old school right? LOLOL is great and all, but this place is really where it's at." Seven, arm still draped around Yoosung's shoulders, turned and flashed him a smile, "God Seven's already played all the games in this place, so I’d say I’m pretty experienced!"
“Don’t be so confident, I’m sure I can beat you in something.”
“Well, you haven’t in LOLOL so-”
Yoosung lightly poked Seven in the side, “Don’t be mean!”
Seven let out a laugh, “I’m not, just being honest!”
Yoosung huffed, turning his head to the side, another smile finding it’s way back to his features.
“Well, you’re the regular here. Where should we start?”
“Well, Yoosung, I’m glad you asked,” he cleared his throat loudly before continuing, “over to the right, we have various pinball machines lit up and ready, and to our left, we can find all the shooters we could dream of! Straight ahead, we have the classics. Pac-man, space invaders, the like. Way in the back are some racing games, if that suits your fancy. But, since you so graciously asked for my choice, I propose we start with pinball.”
Yoosung blinked, nodding slowly, “Uhm, okay. Pinball it is then.”
“Fantastic! Let’s go then.” And so Yoosung was dragged toward the pinball machines, the enticing lights and designs only feeding his excitement.
He’d been to arcades before, albeit smaller and less grand than this one, but he understood how to use the games, and he was quite familiar with pinball. He chose one at random, the illustrations around the score indicator depicting various beach themes. Palm trees, a beach ball, and a cartoon woman lying down to suntan. Pretty cool, in his opinion
Seven bumped his shoulder with his own, and Yoosung turned to look at him as he felt his hand be lifted and a pile of coins be dropped into it.
“Can’t exactly play without coins, can you?”
“Ah! Yeah, you’re right, thanks. I can pay you back afterward then.”
Seven closed his eyes and shook his head, “Nope! This is my gift to you.”
Yoosung tried to protest, “But-”
“Uh uh, I said no! You’re not changing my mind.”
He grumbled under his breath but conceded, and put all the coins but one in his pocket, and turned back toward the machine. He inserted a coin into the slot, and watched as the machine lit up, and short tunes played as the game started. He pulled on the knob on the side, letting go and tracking the ball as it bounced around the obstacles and made its way down to the levers. Timing it just right, Yoosung pressed on the button for the right lever, sending the ball back up and bouncing left and right.
After a few more tries doing just that, the ball finally slipped out of reach, falling in between the two levers, effectively ending the game.
He hummed to himself as he looked at his score, slightly proud of himself. He turned and looked at the machine in use by Seven, scrunching up his nose seeing the score he was at. It was rather high, higher than Yoosung’s anyway, which was a little disheartening.
Not long after though, Seven also lost the game, so the score didn’t increase by much.
“Oooh, Yoosung, did I beat you? Maybe you should try a little harder to catch up with the one and only God Seven!”
Yoosung huffed, invigorated by the challenge, “You are such a jerk, but fine, I’ll try to beat you. While I’m at it, let’s see who does better at all the kinds of games in the arcade!”
“Oh, Yoosung, how ambitious, I’m excited! Alright then, we’ll see who wins!”
Yoosung nodded, licking his lips in anticipation as he turned back to his own machine.
After playing quite a few rounds, they both decided to switch over to the other games. Yoosung, admittedly, did mope, as he hadn’t managed to beat Seven’s pinball score. Nor had he managed to get anywhere near the score. The bright red light from the score indicator had kept taunting him as he had tried again and again, yet he still couldn’t beat Seven. So, in his opinion, he reserved the right to mope if he so pleased to.
Next up, though, came the shooters, which Yoosung had much less previous experience with. So, he was going in with a disadvantage, which game him a bit of an excuse to his performance being less satisfactory then Seven’s.
Seven bumped his shoulder as they walked toward one, “Don’t be nervous, I’m not even that good at these ones.”
“If I see your name on the leaderboard, I’m never speaking to you again.”
“Aha! Well, maybe I’m alright at the game! And no worries, I can always hack into your phone and talk to you anyway!”
“Please do not.”
Seven winked, “As long as you don’t block me on anything.”
The shooting game went as expected, with Yoosung losing by an embarrassing margin, and being greeted by the name ‘God Seven’ on the leaderboard displayed at the end. He turned, glaring at Seven, bottom lip jutting out in a pout.
Seven only shrugged, a dumb smile on his face, as his screen flashed, informing him of a new high score.
“Okay! We’re moving on!”
Yoosung grabbed hold of Seven’s sweater sleeve, and tugged him along to another section of the arcade.
“Aw, Yoosie, change your mind on linking arms? Or perhaps you’d like to hold hands.”
Yoosung’s face immediately flushed, and he shook his head firmly, “No thanks.”
He let go of the sleeve as soon as they made it to a Space Invaders game, and stood with his hands on his hips.
“How about we take turns on this a few times? I’ll beat you this time, just you watch.”
“We’ll see!,” Seven grinned, “But okay. You can start.”
And so, the game began, Yoosung scoring something he deemed acceptable, but again he was greeted by a high score screen with the name ‘God Seven’ placed at the top. He puffed out his cheeks, and turned to Seven.
“Have you topped the leaderboards in this entire place?”
Seven shrugged, “Maybe.”
Yoosung pouted, backing up from the machine, “I’m clearly at a disadvantage then, I have an excuse to be bad at these. Anyway, it’s your turn.”
Seven nodded, a mischievous smile playing at his lips, “I guess it is!”
Yoosung watched carefully, eyes following as Seven successfully took out rows of enemies, getting closer to the level he had made it to during his play. He chewed at his lip, tapping his foot as the screen changed, portraying the level Yoosung had failed on. Time crawled on at a snail’s pace, and Yoosung watched with disappointment as the level was cleared seemingly with minimal issues.
A few levels later, and Seven finally was too slow to succeed, and the game ended. Before Seven could say anything else, Yoosung took hold of his sleeve once again, and started leading him toward another section.
He thought there was no need for more rounds with that game, seeing as there was no way he’d get farther than Seven had. So, he’d take his chance at the last game of the day instead.
A racing game was next and last, and Yoosung was rather sure he’d lose this too, seeing as he had a streak of losing throughout all the games they’d already played. That wouldn’t stop him from doing his best though, he did still have the tiniest chance of breaking the streak.
He sat down in one of two seats provided, as this was a game made for two players; convenient for them.
He grabbed hold of the plastic steering wheel, glancing over at Seven in the seat beside him.
“You ready?”
“God Seven is always ready! Start it up, Shooting Star!”
Yoosung rolled his eyes, but did as he was told, putting in a coin and loading up a track. He glanced at Seven again, who enthusiastically nodded, before pressing start and readying himself. His hands gripped the wheel tightly, and his foot pressed on the pedal as soon as a green light was shown on screen. He steered when needed, carefully avoiding obstacles and going on ramps when possible in order to stay. Seven and him were neck and neck, and he noticed Seven trying to ram his car into his own. He laughed, nudging Seven in real life, while moving his car aas far from the other’s as possible.
His eyes darted back and forth between his car and the map of the track shown in the bottom left corner, watching as he got closer and closer to the end. Seven’s car was dangerously close, but he just about managed to get his car over the finish line, ending in first place.
He let go of the wheel, hands sweaty from gripping the wheel, and pumped his fist into the air.
“Yes! I beat you!” Ecstatic, Yoosung turned to look at Seven, who threw his hands in the air in defeat.
“Ah, that’s it! God Seven’s been beaten, whatever shall I do now? My life’s purpose, ruined!”
Yoosung laughed, lightly hitting Seven’s shoulder, “Aw, come on! Don’t be so dramatic.”
Seven looked back at him and winked, “I was just kidding of course, I still beat you in all the other games.”
“Don’t gotta rub it in.” Yoosung rolled his eyes, but a smile still remained on his face, “Hey. Thanks for today, Seven. It… was fun. I really appreciate it.”
“But of course! Sometimes I must be the knight in shining armor who swoops in, saving the damsel in distress just when needed. Glad you enjoyed the date, Yoosie~”
He snorted, “Yeah, whatever. I guess you could call it a date, if you insist.”
“Oho! Have I grown on you? Wonderful, my plan worked perfectly!” He laughed, standing up from the chair.
Yoosung did the same, glad to stretch out his legs.
“We should do this again sometime. I’m sure I could beat you in other stuff if I get more practice!”
“Mhm, yeah, I’m sure you could. You busy next week, same time?”
Yoosung looked to the side, trying to recall his schedule, “Mmm, I don’t think so.”
“Alright,” Seven offered a wink, “It’s a date then.”
“Yeah okay,” Yoosung spoke, MC forgotten about, “It’s a date.”