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“Peak temperatures have been reported across the area today, maintaining in the low thirties and climbing into the high thirties throughout the rest of the afternoon. It is highly recommended to remain indoors. In the event that you go outdoors, please use sun protection and maintain healthy hydration levels. That is all for our emergency weather report. Onto our news segment…”
The newscaster on the television continues to drone on about local news that Ryuki doesn’t particularly care to listen to. A small, oscillating fan rumbles next to him, pushing itself to the maximum, but it still doesn’t feel like it’s enough to cool him down.
“Ugh, this is so unfair ,” Mizuki groans, flopping backwards dramatically. “Of all the times for a heat wave to just happen, why’d it have to be on the one week we get off?!”
“Well, the forecast says it’s just for today,” Pewter attempts to reassure. “The temperatures will come back down tomorrow, and we’ll continue as planned.”
The six of them were all sitting in the room designated for the men on the trip, combining the power of fans and damp towels in an attempt to beat the scorching heat that’s been thrust upon them. The inn has air conditioning- Ryuki fears their situation would have been truly dire if it didn’t- but it isn’t built for such extreme temperatures.
By the way they were all melting, Ryuki figures that ABIS isn’t either.
“Maybe we should try doing something,” Date suggests. He’s waving an uchiwa fan in front of his face, a prize received from one of the festival games the day before. “Might take our mind off the heat.”
“Okay, but what exactly?” Bibi pipes up. “It’s way too miserable to leave the inn. Just running to the convenience store to get these cooling towels nearly did me in.”
No one seems to have an answer to that.
“Now that I think about it…” Boss adjusts the towel on her head, seemingly in thought. “...Ryuki, didn’t you win a deck of cards?”
“Huh?” For a brief moment, Ryuki wants to ask how Boss knows that, but decides remaining oblivious would be the easier course of action. “Oh, yeah. One of the games at the festival was giving out hanafuda decks for prizes. Mr. Date and I both won a deck.” Date nods half-heartedly, holding a portable fan closer to his face.
Mizuki sits up. “What can we play with this many people?”
Pewter hums. “Well, we have two decks. So we can play a game with all of us or in two groups of three,” he reasons. “That gives us plenty of options to keep us entertained for a few hours at least.”
Figuring their decision settled, Ryuki maneuvers to his luggage and digs around for a moment before locating both decks- Date had handed the one he won over for safekeeping- and holds them up with a smile.
“Ready to play?”
The cards last them a couple of hours at most.
“Ugh, dammit!” Mizuki angrily slams her cards to the floor, having lost yet another Seotda game. “This game sucks! Ryuki, are you using Tama to cheat?!”
“He isn’t,” Tama informs her through their shared communication line. “But you can’t exactly expect to win when you refuse to understand what the cards mean…”
Mizuki rolls her eyes and crosses her arms indignantly. “Whatever. This is getting boring, anyway.”
While everyone else is not as sore of a loser as Mizuki, there’s a collective agreement that the card games are becoming stale. Ryuki pulls all of the loose cards towards him and begins organizing them back into their respective decks as they begin to discuss their next plan of action.
“You know, I could go for a drink right now,” Boss says. “How about we all head down to the bar?”
“What, was the hangover you woke up with this morning not enough?” Bibi teases with a shit-eating grin. “I saw Pewter hauling you back like a potato sack.”
Boss narrows her eyes at her daughter. “Hush, you. I don’t want to hear that from someone who overdosed on candy apples to the point of throwing up.”
The grin on Bibi’s face is quickly replaced with a scowl while Mizuki, Date, and Pewter laugh at the mother-daughter exchange. Ryuki feels grateful that he had been with Date for the entire night and away from the stereotypical ABIS antics.
Speaking of Date…
Ryuki looks over to the man in his thoughts, praying he’s subtle enough to not catch his attention. Playing cards seems to have perked him up, at least, but he still looks as overheated as Ryuki feels, with the way his face is dusted pink and a drop of sweat runs down his neck-
“Ryuki, you’re staring.”
Tama’s voice makes him jump, and he quickly looks away, suddenly very interested in the tatami mat floor. ‘Shit, Tama. You scared me.’
“Something tells me you would’ve taken it even worse if he had noticed.”
As usual, she’s correct, but she doesn’t have to say it in such a way.
“Hey, wait a sec,” Mizuki looks as if she’s gotten over her card game losses. “I think I saw a ping-pong table in the game room downstairs.”
“Ping-pong, huh?” Date echoes. “That could be interesting.”
“Yeah, but it’s movement . Wouldn’t that just make it feel even hotter?” Bibi brings up. “Though if we really don’t have anything else to do…”
“I think the movement would feel good,” Ryuki chips in. “Breaking a sweat from exercise is different from just sitting here and sweating, I think.”
Pewter nods in agreement. “That’s fairly sound logic to me.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Boss rises from her seat and stretches. “And wouldn’t you know it, the bar is right across from the game room.”
Is Boss really thinking of getting drunk while we play ping-pong…?
The answer, Ryuki finds, is an immediate ‘yes’.
Boss isn’t the only one with the idea. Everyone grabbed a drink from the bar- Ryuki included- ranging from sake to whiskey to soju. To an outsider, it looks like they’re having a party instead of just playing some ping-pong. The game room felt cooler than their rooms, too, serving as a blissful reprieve from the suffocating heat that hung over the inn.
“Come on, let’s do this!” Mizuki cheers, a little too hyped for Ryuki’s comfort. “Who’s up first?”
Ryuki does not want to go against Mizuki. Every time he’s gone against her in anything physical, he’s lost miserably, and it’s nothing short of embarrassing. Hell, even Pewter has beaten him in things like arm wrestling. He doesn’t want to humiliate himself on this vacation, especially not in front of Date.
“Let’s do it tournament-bracket style,” Date offers. “That way everyone gets a good chance.”
This ping-pong idea is making Ryuki more regretful by the second.
Boss takes the reins and sets up the initial matchups: Mizuki vs Pewter, Boss vs Date, and Ryuki vs Bibi. Ryuki couldn’t say he was too thrilled about going against Bibi, either, but tells himself that it’s just some friendly ping-pong- it isn’t that serious of a game.
Mizuki and Pewter are up first, and, predictably, Pewter doesn’t stand a chance against Mizuki’s agility. He does manage to rack up a few points, bringing them to an end score of 10-5, but only because Mizuki’s strength causes her to hit the ball out multiple times during the match. If I have to go against her, I should use that…
Boss and Date are next. Mizuki and Bibi cheer Boss on while Ryuki quietly supports Date. It’s a lot more even of a match than the last, with the two of them maintaining rallies that last a couple of minutes each. Ryuki never thought a ping-pong match could be so entertaining, though he supposes Date being one of the participants may have something to do with it.
Eventually, Date edges Boss out for the win, ending with a count of 10-9. Boss doesn’t seem bothered by her loss, already three drinks in and not a care in the world. On the other hand, Date is clearly smug about his win as he hands his paddle over to Ryuki. Ryuki decides to not mention that Boss probably would have easily wiped him had she not been tipsy.
“Alright, Ryuki,” Tama says as he walks up to the table, facing Bibi. “Let’s win this.”
‘You’re going to help?’
“Why not? I bet you Marco’s helping Bibi.”
Ryuki can’t help but feel like that’s cheating, but Tama seems too excited for him to turn her down.
‘Okay, Tama. Let’s do this!’
Bibi tosses a plastic ball in the air and catches it. “Ready?”
“Whenever you are,”
She nods, bounces the ball against the table, and serves.
The match is eerily quiet, the both of them focused like their lives depended on winning this ping-pong game. Even the spectators stay silent, entranced by the intensity of the match occurring in front of them. Ryuki feels the same lazer-focus settle in that he had the night before, at the shooting booth in the festival.
“Ryuki, she’s open!”
Ryuki spikes the ball towards Bibi and she misses. Good start. He can’t help but look over at Date, who he finds watching him with a smile on his face. Date nods his approval, and Ryuki grins back at him.
“Trying to impress Date, are we?”
‘...Maybe a little bit?’
Tama makes a noise of surprise, like she can’t believe that Ryuki would actually admit it. He can’t blame her- he’s been resistant to admit any of his feelings about Date or how he may or may not be trying to get Date interested in him as a possible partner and not just a coworker. Maybe it’s the bottle of soju he had finished before starting this match that makes him feel like he can freely say things of this nature, at least to Tama.
As he serves the next ball, Ryuki thinks about it a little more. The alcohol isn’t entirely the cause, he knows. Something about this vacation- the scenery, the sights, the activities, all with Date at his side- has filled him with a strange sense of confidence he didn’t have before. Tama, Mizuki, and Bibi may have truly been onto something when they told him there was something between him and Date.
The match with Bibi ends faster than he can blink, with Ryuki pulling way ahead at a tally of 10-2. Bibi shrugs it off, her heart obviously not into the game, and passes her paddle off to Mizuki.
With an odd number of contestants left, Mizuki is allowed to choose her challenger, and, naturally, chooses Date. Ryuki hands his paddle to Date and takes a seat on the couch, lost wandering in his own thoughts. The idea of saying anything to Date about his feelings still gives him an absolute gut-wrenching sense of anxiety, but now it doesn’t make him panic. It would be nerve-wracking even if he was somehow one-hundred-percent sure everything would go well and Date would reciprocate his feelings.
A yell from Mizuki snaps him out of his thoughts- a quick observation tells him that she’s losing very badly, and Date being a smug bastard about it is only making it worse. It makes him chuckle. Only here would he see Date and Mizuki acting so much like the father-daughter pair they are.
Maybe he could be a part of a family like that too.
“Ryuki!” Date calls, waving him over with his paddle as Mizuki chucks her paddle to the table and stomps off. “It’s just me and you now!”
It’s just you and me.
Ryuki rises from his seat with a smile and makes his way back to the table, standing opposite of Date. As he picks up his paddle and prepares for Date’s serve, he makes his decision:
He’s going to tell Date during this vacation, and he’s going to be prepared for whatever answer he’s given.