I Am Hated, Or So I Thought Volume 1

Chapter 9 - A Girl's Lament

Miss Furuya and I went around playing various kind of machines. She giggled and laughed every time we played those games. Even though she suffered total loss in them, she never lose the smile on her face. Instead, she became more cheerful. I did not know why, I liked seeing her smiling. I felt my heart become lighter when she laughed. Therefore, even though I usually didn't hang out for long in this arcade, I just accompanied her until she wanted to leave.

She spotted a dancing machine. Her eyes gleamed a bit as another mischievous grin bloomed on her face. As I had understood her behavior a little, I knew that she was going to challenge me with the dancing machine.

"Yozora, let's play that! This time, I'll win for sure!"

"I have heard that more than ten times already but still the same result."

"This time will definitely be different, because it's my specialty!"

"Let's test it then."

I did not know since when, but she managed to make me talk easily. I became more spirited every time she challenged me. Somehow, she managed to make me get fired up when she did that. The feeling of wanting to win against her was blooming inside me.

Since I had been sponsoring the coins all this time, she wanted to use her money this time. Maybe because she thought she was going to win, she gladly inserted a few coins which were enough to play a few rounds.

Then, we went to our respective machine. As the countdown began after she chose the song, she glanced at me and talked.

"This song, it is my favorite song. I remembered the dance like it is yesterday I danced it. There's no way I will be losing."

"You know, this machine only detect the footwork? There's no need to really dance."

"Then, there's no problem. I've had dance practice for almost everyday. This is simply child play to me."

A child play, huh? We'll see about that.

I was not a pro in this kind of game, but that did not mean I was bad at it. As the countdown reached zero, the steps were coming down on the screen. The speed was easy for now. She and I had no problem following them. We had the same score. This song, I felt like I had heard this before.

I was slowly getting used to the rhythm. I had to admit, even though I did not particularly listen to song, this one was good. It was not my cup of tea but it was not bad to listen seldomly. The bright rhythm and cheerful style of singing. If there was one thing I had to point out, there was one voice that did not stand out from this song. Somehow, her voice did not suit well with me even though it was beautiful. It was a girl's group song. The girl's singing was good but it did not sit well in my opinion.

I could hear Miss Furuya singing along with the song as she moved her foot in an orderly manner. It was as she said, she had no problem dancing to the rhythm.

"You seem to hold out well, Yozora."

"This is just the beginning. I can at least handle this much."

"Then, let's see how you will fare now."

The rhythm sped up. For Miss Furuya, this kind of stuff was easy but for me, I was struggling a little to follow it. Furthermore, since this was getting harder by seconds, I was literally focusing on the screen to memorize and predict the next steps. Since I was not going to win if I only focused on the dancing to the beat, I would just focus on the score. Only then, I managed to follow the steps.

At the last moment, Miss Furuya made a misstep. Only once, but that was the deciding factor to our match. I managed to complete all the steps and had the full score. The word 'PERFECT' was shown on my screen while Miss Furuya's were 'OUTSTANDING'.