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“Chiaki?”
Headshot. The opponent on screen fell down in a slump. A pool of animated blood came from their head. Chiaki reloaded her ammo.
“Chiaki? Hey… Chiaki?”
The timer counted down. The display in the corner indicated that Chiaki had the most kills. By far. Another enemy approached, shooting at her rapidly.
“It’s the middle of the night, and we have school in the morning. We should go to sleep.”
“They’re spamming,” Chiaki muttered to herself. She managed to dodge all the gunfire, moving the joystick in just the right way.
The opponent stopped shooting, presumably out of ammo. Chiaki took her chance. She aimed, and then bang. Another headshot. Her kill count went up one more.
“Chiaki.” Something poked her arm and she finally became aware of the voice trying to catch her attention.
“Hm?” She looked away from her game and over at the boy sitting beside her. “What is it, Hajime?” Thanks to the glow of the screen, she could just make out Hajime’s features. Mainly the dark circles underneath his eyes.
“We—” Hajime yawned and rubbed an eye. “It’s pretty late. We should go to sleep. I, um…” his cheeks grew pink, “can sleep on the ground.”
“I’m sorry. I must’ve been a little too focused on my game. I didn’t realize how much time has passed. You don’t have to sleep on the floor, though.”
Hajime’s cheeks somehow got pinker. “N-no. I can’t— It’s okay!”
Chiaki felt her own face grow warm as she realized what she was insinuating. A boy… in her bed… For some reason that thought didn’t sound so bad if that boy was Hajime.
The sound of more gunshots came from her game, and Chiaki quickly brought her attention back to it. “We’ll go to sleep once this round is over. And figure out our… sleeping arrangements. If that’s okay.”
“Sounds good,” Hajime responded.
She took down the enemy shooting, along with one that tried to sneak up behind her. The clock ticked down.
10
9
8
Three more enemies approached. She pulled out a grenade, made her character take a few steps back, and then tossed it. With a boom, they were all taken out.
“bruh ur literally hacking,” a message in chat read.
3
2
1
A weight landed on Chiaki’s shoulder, and she immediately stiffened. As the round ended, she glimpsed over at… Hajime. Hajime, who had fallen asleep with his head slumped on her shoulder. Now her face was really, really, really warm.
His expression was peaceful, which was a nice change from the usual. The “usual” being annoyed or anxious or stressed or sometimes angry. None of those emotions were ever directed at her, but they were still there nonetheless.
Though she wasn’t good at them, Chiaki had played enough dating simulators to spot the tsundere archetype when she saw it. If Hajime wasn’t a tsundere, then grass wasn’t green.
It wasn’t just that. Hajime pushed himself so hard, but he never seemed satisfied. He was never happy with his accomplishments or with himself. Chiaki didn’t understand that.
Chiaki thought Hajime was perfect.
He really wasn’t supposed to be in her room to begin with. He just stopped over so they could work on some homework together. Then they played some Mario Kart (Chiaki got 1st place every time), and when it got late, she didn’t want him to leave. So she asked him to stay the night. He stuttered over his words at first but eventually agreed. Maybe she overstepped a little bit, but she enjoyed Hajime’s company.
And she couldn’t deny the butterflies in her stomach whenever she was near him. Especially at that present moment—the butterflies were going crazy. Hajime mumbled something incomprehensible and cuddled closer to her. His spiky ahoge tickled her neck.
Well, if he was sleeping, one more round couldn’t hurt. She looked back at her game and started up a new round.
As she played, she made sure to press the buttons carefully, not wanting to move too much and wake up the boy sleeping soundly on her shoulder.
—
“How long did you stay up for? You look exhausted.”
Chiaki yawned. “I’m always sleepy.”
“Because you always stay up late playing video games!” Hajime huffed.
“I only played one or two or ten more rounds.”
“Chiaki…” he sighed. She began nodding off and… Hajime couldn’t really be upset at her. Worried and concerned, yes, but never upset. “How about you take a short nap? You have some time before you have to head back to class.”
“Oh.” She blinked, as if slowly processing his words. “Okay.”
Chiaki was about to place her head on the back of the bench but apparently realized that she’d have to crane her neck in an awkward position to do that. She tucked her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them, but then shook her head. She planted her feet back on the ground.
“Yeah, a bench isn’t the most comfortable spot to sleep on, is it? If you want, I can sit on the ground, and you can lie down. I’ll watch out for you,” Hajime told her.
“No. No need for that. It’s okay.”
“You can…” Was he really going to offer that? Well, he already opened his stupid mouth. No backing down now. “You can put your head on my shoulder. It’s my repayment for falling asleep on your shoulder last night. Sorry about that again.” His face burned hot.
“Really… is that okay?” Chiaki asked softly as she peered up at him. Dammit. It should be illegal for someone to be this cute.
“Y-yeah.” If Hajime’s voice cracked a little bit when he said that, he’d never admit it.
Chiaki took a moment to respond, but eventually nodded her head. “Okay. Thank you.”
She placed her head on his shoulder. Hajime’s heart somehow started beating faster than it already was, but he tried to stay still as to not disturb the girl leaning on him.
A strand of pink hair fell into Chiaki’s face. Hajime couldn’t really help himself as he brought a hand up and gently tucked it behind her ear. He smiled.
He’d take this over an ultimate title any day.