His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 241: Secret Gift Ideas

** Eli **

Eli could barely remember the last time that someone had crushed him so hard in a game. Maybe he was getting out of practice indeed ... though he didn’t mind it the slightest bit.

In fact, seeing Harper in such a badass spirit was the best thing he could ask for, and he loved this date idea more and more with every minute. The two of them hadn’t exactly played pinball together before, but her competitiveness and hardcore skills were the same way they had always been, taking him straight back to those days when they used to lounge on the couch together, sharing an intense game full of excited shouts and cheers just like this.

He couldn’t have enough of it, and he could only wish that this arcade was sufficiently large for them to be lost inside for the whole day.

As it turned out, his wish was granted. When they arrived at the second floor, the space opened up to a much bigger room than downstairs, darker yet flashing with all sorts of hotblooded game scenes, some moving fast across screens and some projected directly onto the floor. At the center of the room was a large theater-style display, showing a live stream of a Starcraft tournament that had already attracted a busy crowd.

"The person downstairs wasn’t joking about the league," Harper chuckled when she saw his intrigued glances. "The Den has registered teams in a handful of E-sports. Actually, Starcraft was what originally got me introduced to this place back in the day. But don’t ask me for a game — I’m so rusty now, didn’t even keep up with all the new game features over the years."

That revelation elicited an impressed gasp from him. "You almost went pro in college?" Eli asked incredulously. The two of them used to dabble in that game as kids, though mostly in the much simpler campaign mode. Despite the watered-down challenge, it was still one of their favorites, and he remembered spotting the inspirations immediately in her Go Deep project. Maybe he should’ve expected how much their shared interest had influenced her even after she grew up.

"Well ... Turned out that school was too busy to leave any time for serious gaming, so not really." She darted one last nostalgic look toward the big display. "Anyway, I prefer less brain-intensive games now, and there are a lot of them on this floor. Wanna give it a go? I’ll let you pick the machine this time."

Hmm, less brain-intensive ... Eli took a careful scan of the room. "How about a co-op for a change? We’ve had enough competition today." He nodded to the next aisle over. "Teenage mutant ninja turtles?"

Harper lifted a pretty eyebrow. "What, are you so scared of losing that you don’t dare play against me anymore?"

Eli laughed without trying to deny it.

"Alright, then we’ll do half and half." Harper padded over to the machine, reaching for the two joysticks on the left. "I’ll take these two—"

She didn’t get to finish the words before Eli picked her up from the floor, shifting her a few inches to the right as she yelped from surprise. "You’ll take these two," he said, placing her at the center of the console and putting her hands over the two middle joysticks. Then he cradled her between his arms, reaching around her for the two controllers on the outside. "I’ll take these."

Harper looked back from within his embrace. He liked the smile that slowly raised the corners of her lips.

"Okay," she chirped. "Let’s go!"

~ ~

It felt nice to beat up little soldiers with Harper tucked into his arms. They spent a good half an hour on it, then moved on to a light gun game and had a blast, literally. At some point in the late afternoon though, Harper’s belly started making growling noises, and Eli had to drag her off of the machine despite her unhappy protest.

They got a box of generic bar pizza, ate it while they watched the Starcraft tournament, and merrily continued to the third floor.

"Oh yes." Eli cracked his knuckles readily at the skeeball and basketball games coming into sight.

"Nope." Harper, being allergic to real sports that weren’t electronic, groaned and pulled him away toward a different section of the floor. "Nope, especially not after we just ate! I’m gonna go for these."

Eli probably shouldn’t be surprised at all that where they ended up was a whole room full of ... shiny grabbers and glittery gachapons.

But oh he was surprised. Because by a whole room, he meant a basketball court sized room filled with dozens upon dozens of those machines, so many that he couldn’t even count. Some were small booths filled with cute little crafts like hairpins, whereas the largest was almost twice as tall as him, stuffed with huggable sized plushies stacked to his eye level.

"... I’m starting to see the cultural shock you were talking about," he muttered.

Harper, on the other hand, beamed like she had just found her perfect heaven. "Consider this my secret hint for a future gift choice for me," she winked. "If you ever want to get me— say, a Christmas present, but not sure what to pick, just take me here and let me grab a cute plushie. Or better yet, grab one for me!"

Actually, Eli already had a long list of things that he wanted to get her for Christmas, but he duly noted the suggestion.

"I suppose it’s time to hone up my grabber skills then." He followed his girl as she strolled past rows and rows of machines, eyes gleaming like a kid in a candy shop. "Oh! Here, I found just the right one for you."

Harper halted immediately in her tracks, backing to where he was standing. Inside the grabber box next to him was a pile of mini plushie keychains, with bubbly chibi angels that also had cute red horns on their heads.

So damn perfect.

"... Hmm?" Harper stared at it, obviously not getting the reference.

Eli smirked, popped a coin in, and went for the grab.