2.24. Super Shy, Super Shy...

Nagi Seishiro was hunched over an arcade fighting machine, tapping away at the controls with hands so fast they blurred. Both grey eyes were wide, staring at the figures on the screen. Every ounce of his being was focused onto the game.

My online ranking's going up... sixteen wins in a row!

Nagi's shoulders rounded forwards. The huge oversized hoodie he wore sort of swallowed his neck, only his face visible as he stared at the monitor. "Hm..."

Should I play another game? I mean, I can't end the winstreak here, right? Isagi and the others can wait for a little...

"Hey, there's the game addict!" The voice came loud and clear across the arcade. Nagi sighed, lowering his head guiltily. I guess I don't have time for another game.

He was instantly surrounded by people. Y/N immediately pushed his way onto the same chair as Nagi, beginning a new game. Nagi was about to protest, watching his winstreak disappear, but Y/N was actually pretty good.

Bachira was laughing with a terrified-looking kid. "Let's go play, Tokimitsuuu!"

Isagi and Chigiri were laughing. Nagi's brow furrowed with confusion. Chigiri just pointed behind him. Huh-

Laughing in his ear, Karasu's arm circled around Nagi's neck, pulling him into a headlock. "You're gonna lose your friends, cheeky bastard! Playing games by yourself... be more social!"

"Who cares?!" Bachira laughed. "We're all here now. Let's get some games going!"

"Nagi, get up." Otoya grinned. "I wanna stick you in front of a dartboard and try to not hit you."

"Y/N, you should come with." Nagi was dragged off to the darts by a group of laughing strikers. Yukimiya stayed by Y/N, eyes fixed on the small boy.

"Shh." Y/N's eyes were laser focused on the fighting game in front of him. "Nagi's winstreak is on the line here. And my pride."

A single small motion on the screen propelled Y/N into action. He flicked the joystick up, mashed as many buttons as he could in the shortest time, and on the screen, his character lunged forwards with a flurry of attacks.

Yukimiya patiently waited, standing behind Y/N's chair. Y/N bit his own bottom lip hard, face scrunched with concentration. "How lon-"

"Shit!" Y/N threw himself back in the chair, nearly toppling it over if not for Yukimiya grabbing onto the back. He slouched back into the plastic, tilting his head all the way up so he could see Yukimiya.

"What happened?"

Y/N slapped his own leg, returning his gaze to the screen. Yukimiya's eyes tracked the movement of his hand, now resting on his thigh. "This kid is so cringe! He just spammed the same attack over and over again!" Probably for the better, there was no chat function on the game. Y/N looked livid.

Yukimiya just laughed lowly. "Sure..." He looked down at Y/N. "You done? We can try other games."

"No, wait." Y/N's gaze stayed on the fighting machine. "Do you have any tokens?"

"No..." Yukimiya fished into his pockets, coming up with nothing but his phone.

"Fuck..." Y/N swore again. He huffed out a frustrated breath, hands running through his hair. Quiet for a second, he seemed to think. Then he turned back to Yukimiya, a sickly sweet smile on his lips.

"What?"

"We're friends, right?" Y/N widened his eyes as big as possible, pursing his lips.

"Yeah...?"

"Friends do each other favours, right?"

"Yeah..." Yukimiya began to catch on. He shook his head. "Y/N, no."

"Y/N, yes." He drew his knees to his chest, resting his chin on them as he blinked innocently up at Yukimiya. "Sooo... you know how you're a model... and you have this thing called disposable income..."

"I'm not buying you tokens." Yukimiya hesitated for a second. Y/N pounced on it.

"Aw... please?" His eyes blinked again. He pouted, staring up at Yukimiya with such a hopeful, innocent gaze it was impossible for the model to refuse.

"I..."

"Cmon, Yuki! Please!" Y/N's voice went soft, quietly begging. "For me? I really need to beat the shit out of this motherfuck-"

"Okay, fine!" Yukimiya rubbed the back of his neck, cheeks pink at the nickname. And the tone Y/N had used. "Stop swearing, jeez."

"You aren't my fucking maths tutor." Cheerfully, Y/N turned back to the game. Yukimiya sighed, but dutifully turned away, and headed to the counter to get Y/N his tokens.

At the same time, on the other side of the arcade, the rest of the strikers were clustered around a few games.

Bachira and Tokimitsu had both faces pressed to a pane of glass, trying their best to will the claw grabber machine to not drop a Kenji plushie. Otoya's fingers were poised over the controls, even as he got semi-distracted by a group of girls passing behind him.

"Give it here, go ogle all you want!" Karasu elbowed him aside, moving the claw slowly with the plushie firmly in the grip. "This is my flow state...!"

Laughter erupted as the claw opened just a bit, and the plushie fell right back into the depths. Bachira immediately shoved another token in. "My turn!"

Nagi was very much not laughing. He was face first against the magnetic dart board, Chigiri, Isagi and Reo taking turns to throw darts around his head. Even though Reo was subconsciously being extra careful to not hit him, Nagi sighed as a dart bounced off his hair.

"Ow. You have bad aim."

Isagi flushed with indigence. "Excuse me?"

He threw another dart. This time, it bounced off Nagi's neck, falling into the white-haired boy's hood. "Ow. Worse aim."

"I don't even play darts!"

A dart whistled past Isagi's ear. The boy jerked to the side, surprised as the magnetic dart flew right over Nagi's hair. It hit directly in the middle of a triple twenty.

Chigiri just shrugged, unbothered that he'd hit a perfect shot, and on a magnetic board! "Neither do I?" Isagi rolled his eyes in response.

"Show off."

🥕🥕🥕

"How about some karaoke?"

They'd done practically everything inside the arcade. After Y/N had spent a dozen tokens to finally win a single game, they all had tried playing pool (emphasis on tried).

Right after, they'd played Shiritori ping-pong. Y/N was downright terrible at it, his brain completely unused to having to think so hard. Aryu was by far the best, alongside Reo as the two bounced the ball and words back and forth.

They'd spotted the karaoke rooms a while ago, and Reo had very generously as usual offered to pay for the whole group. He led them down a corridor of rooms, nodding at the attendant on the front desk and making her cheeks flush with pink.

As they walked, Y/N caught the furious voice of two women, arguing outside one of the karaoke rooms. Reo glanced back at the rest of the strikers. "Don't stare, guys!"

"You're the absolute worst!" One of the girls said. Y/N held back a snicker at the unfortunate guy they were both talking to. He was probably just inside the room, out of Y/N's sight as they walked down the corridor.

"Who even is this girl?" The other one said. "How dare you call this a date!"

"Hey, now..." Y/N's ears pricked up, hearing a sort of familiar voice. "Can't we have fun with all three of us? You know what they say... the more the merrier."

"Oh my god." One of them slapped whoever it was inside the room. A harsh noise echoed down the hallway, and a few of the boys winced. "I can't believe this cheating bastard."

"What an idiot." They were both storming away from the room's entrance. The group of boys moved to one side to let them pass, and as soon as they had, Y/N was hurrying forwards.

"Y/N, our room is here...!"

"Don't tell me you're gonna see who it is?!"

Y/N ignored them. He poked his head out from the corridor into the room. His suspicions were confirmed.

Aiku sprawled out over a sofa, one of his cheeks bright red with the imprint of a hand. He had a cup of beer in his hand, midway to his lips when he spotted Y/N. Eyes widening, he smiled, raising a hand in greeting.

"Y/N!" He grinned. "Don't tell me you saw that..."

"I very much did." Laughing, Y/N headed into the room. "The captain of the U-20 team, and you can't even organise your date timings?"

"I was busy!" Aiku protested. "What with all the training, I must've just forgotten who I'd invited today. They didn't even wanna stay!"

"You expected them to?"

"I mean-"

"Don't answer that." Y/N glanced around the room. Loud music was playing from speakers on one side. A huge TV displayed lyrics. The tables had all manner of snacks and drinks on them. And the entire U-20 team was there, singing their hearts out.

"Y/N?!" Reo's voice came from the doorway, and a second later, he appeared in it, already muttering apologies. "Sorry sir, he's sort of-"

"Hi." Y/N and Aiku both spoke at the exact same time. Reo's face turned red, and he frowned.

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, we're on break for a few days, same as you. 'Cause the U-20 team is technically owned by Ego Jinpachi, we have to wait till we're called back to the Bluelock facility before we can do anything." Aiku smiled.

"Right..."

Y/N looked back at Reo, waving at him with one hand. "You guys go ahead and set up the room. I'll join in a few!"

"Um. Okay."

Y/N waited till Reo was out of sight, then returned his gaze to Aiku. "Do you know what's going to happen next?"

"Not one bit." Aiku replied. "It's something involving all of us, though. Both the original U-20 team and the Bluelock players."

"How many people? There's 35- wait, 36 Bluelock players including Tokimitsu."

"There's eleven of us on the starting roster, and we have three subs." Aiku blinked. "Fifty players total. A nice round number. But why does it matter?"

"I'm just thinking..." Y/N murmured. "How are they going to figure out who's on the final squad? There's about four, five months until the U-20 world cup."

"You, thinking?" Aiku scoffed playfully. "That's a first."

"Uncalled for."

"Very much called for." From the table in front of him, Aiku scooped up a bottle. Y/N didn't see what it was before it was flung through the air at him.

One hand snatching it out of the air, Y/N glanced at the logo. "Lychee Ramune?"

"It's good." Aiku promised. "I'm just saying, you don't need to think about the future for now. Enjoy your break!"

Y/N hesitated. Then he broke the seal, and raised the bottle to his lips.

"There we go." Aiku smiled. "You're probably gonna head back to your friends now, right?"

"You're a friend too." Y/N replied. "And it depends on what you're singing in here."

The two of them looked towards the screen. Most of the U-20 players were clustered in a group, still screaming their lungs out. None of them had even noticed Y/N in the room yet.

"I'm super shy, super shy...!" Niou sang, staring at the screen. "But wait a minute while I make you mine."

"Make you mine..." Darai echoed.

"Tteollineun jigeumdo, you're on my mind, all the time." Neru joined in.

"I wanna tell you but I'm super shy, super shy..." Sendou finished off with a grin.

Y/N winced at the sound. "Neru's Korean sucks."

"You speak it?" Aiku blinked with surprise.

"Duh, babo." Duh, dummy.

"Maljosimhaseyo, kiyomi." Careful what you say to me, cutie. Aiku smirked as Y/N's face turned into a tomato. The small boy coughed with surprise, gasping for a breath.

He spluttered, making Aiku's smile grow even wider. "W-what the fuck? You know Korean?"

"Only a few words." Aiku admitted coyly. "You see, girls love Korean in the bedroom-"

"I don't want to know." Y/N spun on his heel, completely ignoring Aiku with a bright red face. He ran forwards, leaping over the central couch and stealing a microphone from one of the Japanese U-20 players.

Shouts of surprise sounded through the room.

"Your Korean is terrible!"

"Why are you here?!"

"I'm super shy, super shy!"

"My turn!"

"Aiku, come join!"

The captain chuckled quietly. He stood up, and headed over to take his own microphone.