His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 242: Say Cheers

** Eli **

"You sure that’s far enough to the right? The claw looks a bit off to the side still ..."

"Yep, I’m sure. These machines like to be deceptive."

"Ohhh you grabbed it! ... Argh but why is it letting go so quickly!!"

"Patience, love. We just need to get it a little closer with every try—"

"Oh oh oh it’s almost there, almost there ... Aaaargh darn it! That was so close!! Try again!"

"..."

At the beginning, Harper didn’t look all that tempted by the random keychain. But as the grabs kept counting, the game spirit was quickly getting to her, and she was soon clutching Eli’s arm in anticipation, all but crossing her fingers for the catch.

Eli liked the way she clung to him so tightly, and he may have even moved the claw intentionally to less-than-optimal spots a couple of times, just to see her dig her fingernails into him anxiously and pout those pretty lips in frustration when he failed. She looked so silly that way ... and immensely lovely.

Though in the end, he did want to get that keychain for her, so when he suspected that her patience must be starting to wear thin, he took some more time to plot out the accurate path to achieve their success. It was only three more tries then before he got the keyring locked into the claw, and their trophy dropped into the hole with a satisfying thud.

"My God, you actually got it!" Harper snatched the demon-angel out of the machine, wide-eyed. "I’ve never been able to grab anything within like, fifty tries. You’re amazing! That was so impressive!"

The impressed girl was so excited that she gave him a giant bear hug, smacking a loud kiss onto his cheek.

Oh. He shouldn’t have intentionally delayed that winning process then, if he knew this was the reward waiting for him ahead.

"Only one kiss for all that work?" Eli got greedy, pointing at his other cheek. "This side is jealous. It participated in the effort too, you know."

With her arms still looped around him, Harper giggled. "Nah, one kiss per trophy." Lowering her chin, she brushed the tip of her nose against his face teasingly. "Grab me another if you want a fair treatment on the other side."

She took out her keys, chained the demon-angel to the ring, and scurried off to the next machine with a devilish smile that matched the ornament way too well.

Eli rubbed the jealous side of his cheeks with a sad sigh, then quickly followed.

They went through almost one of each type of grabbers. Soon enough, Harper added to her collections a pair of fuzzy winter earmuffs, a stack of socks with kitty paw prints, and a heart-shaped coin purse. In return, Eli gained plenty more kisses, as well as a secret harvest for himself — he pretended to go for a jewelry blind box in the gachapons, an idea that was immediately shot down by Harper with an unimpressed purse of her lips, though he did use the opportunity to stealthily figure out her favorite gemstone and ring size.

"So ... I thought the goal today was pictures." When they left the room with a full bag of trophies, he finally paused enough from all the random excitement to remember the original reason that brought them here in the first place. "You didn’t even bring a camera with you, or take out your phone at all the whole afternoon. How and where are you planning to take the picture anyway?"

Harper gave him a smile that was somehow simultaneously mysterious and smug. "Good timing for a great question. I’m going to do it right here on this last floor—" she announced as they turned around the top of the stairs, entering the top level of the building.

With his curiosity worked up to the max, Eli looked around them, expecting to see a ridiculous backdrop like candyland or some kind of merch shop filled with game character figurines. But what he saw in front of them was ... telephone booths? Or some sort of nap pods?

"Ta-da! Welcome to your most authentic photo booth experience!" Harper pulled him to the center of the room, which was currently empty, probably because most people were still getting dinner. "Which one should we try first?" she mused, scanning the booths lined up all around them.

From this angle, Eli could now see the front of those booths with pictures and ads printed on them, and—

Uh oh. He finally understood why Harper had been wearing such a smug smile the whole way up those stairs. Was she really going to get a picture of him with ... a renaissance dress complete with a slender bodice and a frilly bonnet? Or a high school uniform with a mini skirt and knee-high stockings? Or a hot anime fighter armor with ridiculously low-cut breast plates? Or ...

Behind him, he could hear Harper laughing like she had just seen the most satisfying comedy of the year.

"Oh dear, I should just take a picture of your face right now and hang it on the wall. That’s already good enough to entertain me for the rest of my life." She gave him a pat on the shoulder, full of sympathetic camaraderie that he was sure she didn’t actually have. "Hmm ... to save you the trouble of choosing, how about I pick a booth for you? Let’s start with—"

"W-Wait!" Eli blurted. For the first time in his life, he felt like chickening out. "I ... Um, I think these booths are too short for me," he pulled out the first excuse he could think of. A lame one. "I might not even fit into the camera’s field of view—"

"Come on, you don’t think they have benches inside?" Harper smiled amicably. "Don’t worry, they have an ultra complete set of amenities, from makeup stations to all sorts of props. You’ll see."

... He didn’t want to see! "I-I’m claustrophobic," he blurted again. "Those booths look too small and dark."

"... You’re claustrophobic? Is that why you pressed me to the wall in the elevator last time and kissed the air out of my lungs?" The smile on Harper’s face only grew wider, and he could swear that he saw those horns coming out of the top of her head again. "Come on, chicken. If I can ride a rollercoaster with my eyes open, so can you get inside a harmless photo booth and say cheers."

She gave him no more chance to argue as she dragged him into the closest stand, snatching the curtains closed behind them.