Airon: The Murderous Party

Ch 5. Elizanté

The day before, after they reached the arcade machines...

"Wait, wait, Ai, look."

"What? You are out of breath and you want me to lose like you? Na-uh forget it?!"

"I am not fooling around. Look to my right!! At the corner."

"Huh? Oh... Art supplies shop??"

"He is a painter too, Ai. Read, he designs colours himself from roses and natural elements."

"I can't read without my glasses, dear, from this distance, but I got what ya mean! I saw the paint pot design on the banner. Curse being short-sighted!" Airon blinked and narrowed her eyes to read. "Seems like we need to postpone the arcade games for a couple more minutes."

"They can wait, but this can't"

"You are still thinking about that too, huh?"

"You also are thinking about that! This is why you understand my reason for pointing at the shop."

Airon smirked. "This is why we are friends."

"I know!" Hibana confidently grinned.

"You do the talking."

"What? Why me?!"

"I hate talking and I ordered the strawberry juice for us at the café which you drank on the way here and stopped our running to drink!"

"Okay, you annoying friend! All that for ordering me juice?"

Airon smiled triumphantly, showing her teeth. "You are less introverted than me."

"They call that ambivert, you idiot!"

"Idiot is better than giving me a headache to socialize. No go, go." Airon sneered victoriously to mock Hibana.

"I will punch you!!"

"Go ahead!" Airon challenged her with a smirk.

Hibana punched Airon's shoulder hard. "I hate you!" Said Hibana pouting before marching with her arms arched.

"Bani, that did hurt! Small hands but ohhh boy, they are like iron maybe?"

"Say that to the mirror, AIRON! Did you forget your name means 'iron' in Japanese, shortie?"

Airon objected before showing the meaning of her name on her phone to Hibana. "Hey, I am not a shortie! My name spells like iron アイロン in Japanese if written in the katakana alphabet for non Japanese words."

Airon selected the Japanese keyboard. "But, my name is coined from the Japanese symbol of 愛 (ai) which means「love」and 乱 (ron) which means「Riot、 war」so..."

Airon put the mobile in the pocket of her jeans trousers. "It is true that my parents intended to have that double entendre to my name."

"Yeah, you told me. They wanted you to be both soft yet strong and switch between the two in the right situations. This is similar to the meaning of my name."

"Exactly! Just how many times do I have to explain this to you, you who have a Japanese name as well?"

"Do you need to remind me of how ugly my name is?"

"Your name is beautiful, you are just ungrateful."

"Ugh, let's get into the shop."

"Haha, I win!"

Hibana glared at Airon, then headed straight into the shop.

"Hello, sir." Hibana greeted.

"Hello. How can I help you?" A man in his late thirties smiled brightly like he was happy to finally receive customers.