A Path To Freedom [Oumasai]

Picture Booth

I see the purple haired boy staring at a little booth in the distance. It was shaped like a box, and it had little black curtains on each side of it. I have no idea what it's used for. Maybe Kokichi knows what it's for? But then again, he might make fun of me for not knowing the use of that box structure. I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask him about it.

"Hey Ouma?" I ask him. "Hm?" He answers me, somewhat distracted. "What is that small box that you're looking at?" I question him. "Oh, that's a picture booth!" He says, seemingly happy that I noticed he was staring at it.

"Mhm..." I answer him, still not knowing what he mean by "a picture booth." To my joy, Kokichi continues to explain to me what a picture booth is. "Basically, it's a booth that you walk into, and after a certain amount of time, it takes your picture. Then, when you've taken a certain amount of pictures, the machine will print them out for you."

I end up wondering why there would be something like that in The Town, but I decide not to question it. I've heard that princess Miu sometimes makes inventions and gives them to The Town. I believe that she is very talented at inventing. Her family is very strict, and dislikes it when she invents things. They believe that inventing should be left to men. So, normally when she makes an invention, she ends up giving it away. It's a shame really, that her family doesn't think fondly of her habit of inventing.

I notice Kokichi still looking at the photo booth, so I decide to ask him if he wants to visit it. "Hey Ouma, you seem to be interested in that photo booth," I begin. "Are you suggesting that we should go there?" Ouma happily asks me. "Sure." I say back to him.

We walk over to the photo booth, from the bench we were sitting on before. I'm glad that Kokichi wanted to come visit this picture booth, because my legs were starting to get numb from sitting.

I wait for Kokichi to go into the camera booth, but he just looks at me. "Ah, does it cost money?" I ask him confused.

He nods his head. I hand him ten dollars, but he's still staring at me. To be honest, it's making me really uncomfortable. I have no idea what he wants from me.

I open my mouth to ask Kokichi another question, but he cuts me off ,"So, are you coming?" He asks me. "Me?" I ask confused. "Who else?" He questions me.

"Did you think that I was gonna go in there alone? Besides, I wanna brag to all of my friends that I got the chance to meet someone famous!" He exclaims. "Oh." I murmur, feeling disappointed at the fact that he only sees me as someone famous. I'm not sure why I felt this disappointed though. It's not like him and I are friends, right?

Though I somewhat do wish we were friends. I blame this on the fact that I've never been friends with someone like him before.

He lifts open the black curtains for me, and I step into the small box.

Wow, this thing looks cool.

There is a screen in front of us when we walk in, and a few pink buttons on a counter, all different sizes. I decide not to touch anything, since Kokichi probably knows more about this machine than I do.

I watch Kokichi carefully slide my ten dollars into the machine. I see a timer start to count down on the screen shown above me. I silently start to panic, because I have no idea what to do now. I look over at Kokichi, who is smiling into the camera.

I copy what he is doing and start smiling as the timer counts down.

3...2...1...

There is a huge flash from right above the screen. I hope I didn't blink when we took that picture. If I did then that would completely ruin the ten dollars I spent. But it's not like I needed that ten dollars anyway.

To my surprise, the screen starts counting down from ten again.

Is it going to take another picture?

I look back over at Kokichi to see what he is doing. I see the purple haired boy posing with his hands forming two peace signs. I decide to copy him again, and hold up one peace sign, with a slight smile on my face. The camera flashes again, but this time I'm prepared for it. I silently praise myself for not blinking while the picture was taken.

I look back at the screen that is counting down again. I wonder how many times this thing is going to count down? I have no idea.

Kokichi and I continue to take pictures with each other posing in various ways, me mostly copying him the whole time. I look up at the screen to see "Last picture!" In big bold words. I look over at Kokichi to see what he was going to do for the last picture, but he doesn't move. Huh? Is he just going to stare blankly at the screen for our last picture? I manage to put on an awkward smile as the timer hits zero.

3..2...

All of the sudden, I feel a pair of soft lips touch my cheek, immediately causing me to freak out. What the hell was that?

Was that... Kokichi?

And what freaked me out even more about the situation, is that I didn't mind the feeling of this boys lips on my cheek! I'm so utterly confused. Why would he do that? I look back at Kokichi, my face burning up. He just simply smiles back at me. "W-Why'd you do that?" I ask him, freaking out. He shrugs. "I just wanted to see how you'd react."

I look away from him, my face looking as red as a tomato. Of course, people have kissed me on the cheek before, but this time it felt different. I'm not sure why though. It's not even my first time being kissed on the cheek by a commoner.

Phew, I'm glad that was the last picture. I was staring to get tired of smiling and posing. I'm pretty used to having to do that though, when I'm out in public.

I watch Kokichi press a pink button on the machine, causing tons of pictures to fly out of it. He grabs all of the pictures. Kokichi walks out of the picture booth, pictures in hand, me following him.

I can't help but still feeling flustered by what he did. People don't just kiss you out of nowhere around here. Do they? That would be awkward if they did. But again, I'm already way too awkward.

Oh well, all I can do for now is follow Kokichi and continue to be weird...

Authors Note:

bitch it's 2 am and I'm fuckin nYeh