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“You don’t have to do this, Honggyu. You’re better than this,” whispered Miae. She peered up at the expressionless face looming above her. She took a step back, and then another. She reached into her pockets, digging for anything that could save her.
“There’s no mercy in this world, Miae. I’m not sorry,” he spoke, words lingering in the stale air as he moved closer. Her eyes widened in horror and her hands began to shake. She stammered a reply, trying to convince him otherwise. He drew his sword, stained with the blood of those who came before her.
Those he betrayed in favour of his pride.
“Neither am I,” she muttered, pulling a rusty knife out and driving it into his gut. Not a drop of blood gushed out. She stood paralysed.
Above them, a singular negative health point appeared. The silence broke when she heard a snort. “Are you fucking serious?” Miae screeched, burying her head in her hands.
His hand slammed down on a button and, on the opposing side, her screen flashed with, “GAME OVER!”
“God, damn it! This is so rigged!” Miae screamed, slamming a fist down. Honggyu chuckled, waltzing over to where she stood.
“Go ahead, break the machine while you’re at it and be in debt for life!” He snickered, ignoring the daggers she shot with her eyes.
The arcade was at its emptiest that day, that or it was these two who kept drowning out the sound with their combined noise. Either way, it felt like a special day for her. Like, she could beat him at one of these games even as a stroke of luck!
He leaned against the machine with a hand on his hip and a ridiculous expression.
“Don’t think you look cool with those huge ears of yours, shithead,” she spoke under her breath, loud enough for him to make it out.
“What the hell? Okay, I get it, sucks to be so chronically bad at videogames — but don’t take it out on me!” He argued, scowling.
“I’m not taking anything out! Do you wanna see me take it out? Because I can definitely take it out!” Miae deflected his point, gritting her teeth. He clenched his fists, meeting her eyes with a ferocious grin.
“There isn’t one game in here you haven’t tried, and not one you’ve won! Don’t you think that means something? Honestly, I’d say we should go off to an internet café but you don’t even play games there. So lame,” he mused, staring off at the ceiling as if he was unbothered.
If Hwang Miae were honest, she was fighting very violent urges. Pull his ears, tug at his hair, punch him in the gut, all being unreliable choices in a public setting.
“Second time’s the charm, right? Gimme, uh,” she pursed her lips in thought. “Let’s buy twenty more tokens, that’s like ten rounds or something!” Miae grinned. She glanced down at his machine, side-stepping toward it. “So, how about it?”
“Yeah, why not. I’ll go buy some more,” he agreed. Miae leaned down, grasping awkwardly at the machine slot behind her until she tugged at the tickets he’d won.
A measly five, and he still felt the need to show off? She folded them in her hand, fidgeting with it.
“Dude, what are you looking at?” Honggyu asked, and Miae felt her heart stop.
“Nothing!”
She shoved the tickets into her pocket and ignored his suspicious expression. He shrugged it off.
“Um, okay. Y’wanna do that racing game?” He suggested.
Miae had imagined she wouldn’t be the best at this game, but to this horrific extent?
Sweet Jesus, please save her.
Honggyu, on the other hand, was first in place as if that wasn’t expected.
“How do you keep ramming into the exact same place on the track? Seriously, Peanut!” Honggyu cackled, and Miae’s grip on the wheel tightened to the point of breaking through the cheap rubber. They were near the end of the race by now.
“Well, how are you gonna avoid me ramming into you right now?” Miae threatened, but before he could respond she elbowed him in his side with all her pent up rage. He steered into a wall and she sped ahead past him.
“That’s not even fair!” He pounced toward her side and pulled her steering wheel in the opposite direction. She slapped his hand away and pushed it in his face to keep him away.
“Jeez, Honggyu, didn’t know you were such a sore loser,” she taunted. A jolt of pain ran through her hand and immediately withdrew it with a yelp. Her grip on the wheel loosened and he regained his spot in front. “Did you just bite me?”
“Yeah, serves you right!”
“Ew, gross! What if I get rabies from that?” Miae gagged. He turned his head to her slowly, blinking a couple times.
“How the hell would I have rabies?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“I dunno, those monkey ears might mean more than you’d th—”
Right then, he flung himself to her side and threw a punch at her face. Miae, barely dodging it, kicked him off only for him to climb back up. She grabbed his ears, he grabbed her hair, both screamed in pain yet refused to give up. Until there was a loud applause sound effect from the game speakers.
“GAME OVER!”
Miae’s head whipped around to the front at the same time as his. He was first place by a landslide!?
“Aw, shit! How did you even win that?” She gave up and he slumped back in his seat, panting with a sly grin.
“It’s the deceptive strategy of distraction, Miae,” he explained. He checked his nails absentmindedly; as if the driving gamer scratched his manicure.
It was moreso an experienced advantage. But he’d never admit to that, so she had to prove it herself.
“Fine! Then let me pick a game!”
“Two player crossy road? That’s the lamest shit I’ve ever heard,” he remarked, staring down at the machine. Its controls consisted of a singular button. “Not even a joystick? Yeesh, stingy.”
“Simplicity is a test of competence. I don’t need fancy buttons to kick your ass,” she explained, locking into a duck form.
“Dude, the classic chicken is clearly the best,” he spoke as he pressed his button to start the game.
Both pixels melded into their respective shapes and spawned into the large map. Miae immediately started hitting her button, rushing ahead of him. He started off as well, at a slower pace.
“Haha, idiot! See you at the finish line! If you even make it,” she blew raspberries in his face and he swatted it away. She picked up on him muttering something under his breath about how it’s an endless game or whatever.
“Gross.”
“You’re gross,” she murmured, continuing along her way and widening the gap between the two. As she got to the river, Honggyu snickered. “What’s so funny?” She asked.
“Nothing, it’s just that your duck doesn’t need to go on a log. It can swim. Tactical advantage,” he pointed out. She rolled her eyes, twirling a finger around her head mockingly.
“Yeah, right. Sure I don’t,” she joked.
“No, really! My chicken can move two squares at a time on roads because of tactical advantage. It depends on what you pick at the start,” he explained.
Well, it did seem plausible. She clicked a button and watched her duck land in the water without a care in the world. It didn’t drown!
“Yo, I thought you were kidding! This is awesome!” She cheered, raising her hand for a high-five. He nodded and returned the gesture, as if he were waiting for something.
Something to happen.
Suddenly, a flash of green pixels appeared in the water. Miae clicked her button several times to swim away, only for it to get closer. Beneath the water unveiled a crocodile- wait,
An alligator.
Uh, a crocilgator?
And it devoured hers in one whole, leaving her screen with “GAME OVER!”
Honggyu burst into a fit of laughter, slamming his hand on the table. She stared at the screen in shock, then at the boy next to her.
“You asshole. I’m gonna- I’m gonna…” her voice trailed off in contemplation of a suitable threat.
“What, tell my parents?” He offered.
“No, I won’t do anything! I’m actually fine,” she smiled, pocketing another chunk of stolen tickets. “Let’s go play some more!”
Well, then.
Miae didn’t want to describe the following hour of pure shame and broken pride. She just wanted to go home and scream into her pillow, for forever.
“You need to like, never touch a game again. If I were a doctor that’s what I’d prescribe you,” he mused, only to earn death glares.
“Oh, yeah?” Miae responded. He squinted at her like she’d lost her mind.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Well, I have another trick up my sleeve!” She announced, slamming her hand on the arcade workers’ front desk. She cleared her throat, reaching into her pockets. “I may have lost every game, embarrassingly, but I won every single ticket! And I bet it’s enough to buy myself a prize!”
She raised her hand in the air with a giant stack of tickets. It was simply courtesy of one tryhard boy who she dealt with long enough to get to this point. He gasped.
“That’s… sleazy!” He accused.
“Don’t even say that word, man.”
The guy at the front desk counted her tickets up, until he paused and stared down in silence.
“Hey, you won the ultra-rare super legendary conveniently plot placed golden ticket,” he told them. He plucked out a singular yellow ticket and placed it on the counter.
“What now?” They said in unison.
“So, like, the arcade’s building a claw machine area. You guys get to do that before it opens because you won this ticket,” he explained.
They glanced at each other curiously, then back to the guy.
“Take us to the goods,” she spoke, taking off her imaginary shades.
“I don’t know her, by the way. I would never say something like that,” he mentioned, following the guy into a pink door.
The claw machine room was bright. If Miae had to guess, probably suited for romantic dates or something. Could do better with less bright pink hearts everywhere.
“I bet you’d love to go here with a certain someone,” mumbled Honggyu, earning a sharp elbow. “Ouch!” He shrieked, rubbing his side. She didn’t linger on the thought of going on a date here with Cheol, because he would never let her live that down.
If she said they could almost read each other’s minds at this point just with a look, most people would find it hard to believe. For Miae, it was second nature. All they had to do was think of the most embarrassing thing to say in that moment. Observe,
“You’re clearly just jealous because you could never take Johan here,” said Miae. His entire face turned bright red along with his ears.
“Of course I could! But that doesn’t mean I will. I don’t even- why would I-” he stammered in pursuit of finding the right words, but she ignored him and walked right past him.
“Dude! This claw machine has fruits and nuts, haha!” She pointed at a deformed banana plushie with awkward eyes, giggling hysterically.
“Okay, we have this room all to ourselves and you’d rather skip the game console claw machine for this?” Honggyu asked, his tone dripping with annoyance.
“Well, yeah. Jungwook already has a console, what would we do with another?” Miae said, tilting her head.
“That’s not the point!” He yelled. It was a lot louder when there wasn’t extra noise to drown it out. He seemed to realise that as well.
“Well, I just think you’re too scared to humiliate yourself on this one. The console one is too hard to win anyway, but this one’s easy so you wouldn’t have an excuse when you fail,” she theorised, watching his face contort several times.
“Oh, for hell’s sake. Move aside, I was the one who got that golden ticket anyway!” He leaned up close to the glass in front of the plushies, squinting.
Was it even that serious? To him, yes.
His hand took hold of the controller, moving the claw around for what felt like ages until it settled on a spot. Then, he hit the button.
She watched in anticipation as it went down, slowly…
It latched onto a small green apple with a face more furious than hers and lifted it up, only to drop it when it reached the top of the display as it swayed back and forth. To be honest, it didn’t look like it wanted to get picked out.
“This is so rigged!” He screamed.
“Woah, chill out. Guess I was right.” Miae whistled, amused at the scene she was witnessing.
There were few times where Miae could see Honggyu seething at a game, in front of her eyes. Honestly, she wondered why she didn’t rile him up more often. Is this the satisfaction she felt whenever she lost the arcade games?
“Hey, it’s fine. Second time’s the charm, isn’t it?” Miae encouraged, waiting for him to try, and fail, again. He shook his head.
“You think this is funny, huh? Like you could do any better!” He pointed at her accusingly.
“I so could! These aren’t actual videogames,” she replied.
“Fine! Five minutes. We both go on a claw machine, whoever wins the most prizes gets to gloat for the next six months,” he declared. Miae gasped.
“Six months? You can’t mean that,” she whispered. She doubted it. These things lasted like, two days before they both moved on and forgot. He nodded.
“Six entire months.”
“And humiliation in front of your crush,” she added, upping the stakes.
“Okay, but I don’t have one so that doesn’t even—“ She pressed a hand to his mouth, shutting him up before he opened that can of worms again.
“Okay, five minutes on three,” she called out, echoing around the empty room’s walls.
He stationed himself, hunching over the control pad. “One.”
Miae ran off to an animal-themed machine she passed by earlier, playing around with the controls to make sure she gets how it works. “Two.”
They locked eyes with determination set in their veins.
“Three!”
Miae got straight to work on hers, digging into the pile and pulling out a toucan by the beak. It barely lasted in the air before it fell back down. She wasn’t disheartened.
Over and over, she tried again with different animals. On the other side, she could tell Honggyu focused like there was no tomorrow.
Still, she’d never let him win.
But don’t hold her to that word, just in case he did.
At around the final thirty seconds, she finally threw a plushie in the rewarding pit. She didn’t bother digging it out. After the final seconds passed, the two took their hands off and met each other face to face at the centre.
He was so, gonna make fun of her for only getting one.
“What’d you get?” Miae asked first.
He pursed his lips, shifting side to side.
“This,” he answered, sticking his hands out. In his palms lay a fair-sized peanut plush.
“That’s it?”
“Um, yes. Yes, it is,” he admitted. She stood silent, then cracked up into snickers. Her hands presented her prize as well, being a monkey plushie close to the same height.
“We both won one, in five entire minutes!” She hollered, and glanced up to see the corners of his mouth twitching up too.
“A peanut and a monkey? This has to be a joke,” he snorted, shaking his head. Their laughs subsided within a minute or so. Miae offered her plushie out to him, smiling.
“C’mon, you can’t not have this,” she told him, and he simply rolled his eyes in response. They walked out of the room and into a normally lit, well-decorated arcade. From there, he pushed the exit door open with his back and let it go as soon as she got to it. She kicked it open and frowned.
“Fine, but only if you take this. I don’t need a peanut in my room,” he declared, so she took his plushie in exchange for the one in her hands. The cool breeze of the autumn evening air brushed past her hair. An idea came to her.
“Hey, shithead, you going home from here?” Miae asked, facing the direction of his place.
“Yeah, why?”
“Lemme ask my mom to sleep over. It’s Saturday tomorrow, right?” She had already invited herself by beginning to walk, so he didn’t comment on that.
“My mom’s probably fine with it. Just don’t touch my setup again,” he warned, knowing she’d ignore it either way.
“Yeah, yeah. Setup, schmetup,” she replied, with both her hands holding the peanut up in the air. Its thick eyebrows felt criminal, but even the monkey’s ugly haircut resembled Honggyu in a way. Funny how that worked out. She leaned against him, not a word or tease exchanged. His arm rested atop her head;
The two fell into a casual, rhythmic stroll, heading towards home.