Sun Upon Dark Clouds

29: How to Play

There are plenty ways to cool a person’s head and bring them back to their usual jolly self: eat delicious snacks, watch a sitcom, exercise, listen to music, play a sandbox game, and a lot more. For Coley, she used to release the anger and stress that she had been holding in by throwing knives on targets. She was not a teenager yet when her father trained her in knife fighting. It was as if knives were Coley’s soulmate. No one could ever win a knife fight against her, not even her father. Seeing how her knives would always hit the butt of the knife that was stuck on the bullseye whenever she would throw them, it felt satisfying for her. To remember that she was the best in using knives, it made her less angry.

None of the ways that were mentioned above was the current situation though. The winner for the best way to cool someone’s head was going to an arcade. After taking a walk on the streets, Coley and Ghrae ended up finding an arcade that had a sign above the door of the name of the arcade, which was CoolCade. A big sticker of Pinky, one of the ghosts in Pac-Man, was stuck on the center of the glass door. Through the glass door, they could see colorful lights illuminating the dark room with different kinds of arcade machines.

Ghrae would be a certified loser if she did not think of pulling Coley inside. Knowing that the brunette was still exasperated at the captious middle-aged woman from earlier even though she already calmed down, the raven-haired woman decided to help her take the stress off her mind by killing time in an entertainment venue. According to the films and books that she read, people usually were able to relieve stress by playing arcade games, which was why Ghrae was thankful that she watched and read a lot of films and books.

“Let me pay for the tokens. I feel bad that you lost 500 dollars to that old hag,” Coley said as they entered the arcade.

The sounds of different games filled the room with people sticking their eyes on the screens of their games. The arcade was exactly described from the books that Ghrae read and she was amazed at how pretty the arcade really was in real life. She had seen arcades in films though she thought that they were only aesthetically pleasing looking on TV but she was wrong. Since the room was dark with only the colorful lights making it less dark, the arcade was definitely the place where one could spend time without worrying about what time it was.

“No, it’s fine. I want to spend my money,” Ghrae replied as she pulled out her wallet.

“You’re making it look like you’re my sugar mommy,” The brunette sighed and chuckled right after when the shorter woman looked at her with expressionless eyes. “I’m kidding.”

“I want to spend my money,” the raven-haired woman repeated as she looked directly to her eyes.

Coley could only pout as she gave up in trying to argue with the latter. The both of them went to the token booth as Ghrae bought 200 tokens for the both of them. Coley knew that she wanted to steal the rich woman’s money at first but now that she was getting closer with the latter, she could not help but feel guilty about it; well, Ghrae was literally treating Coley to everything.

“What do you wanna play first?” Ghrae asked as they turned to see the different machines around the place. There were too many that they did not know which one to try first.

“I’m not sure,” Coley massaged her bottom lip as she looked around as well when she saw two Tekken 7 arcade machines. “Hey, let’s play that!”

Seeing how Coley’s face lit up after seeing the arcade machine, Ghrae agreed as she let the brunette pull her toward the arcade machines before anyone could sit first. Coley felt like crying in nostalgia when she saw the screen up close. Tekken became her favorite fighting video game after playing it once in the arcade when she was in middle school; she even got her father to buy her a Tekken 7 arcade machine and put it in her bedroom.

“You’ve played this game, right?” the brunette asked as she sat down and tested the controllers.

“Nope,” Coley was faster than Flash to turn her head to look at her with utter surprise.

“What?!”

Coley stood up from her seat as she placed her hands on Ghrae’s shoulders and looked at her eyes with a serious look. The shorter woman raised her eyebrow as she looked at her with questioning eyes. The brunette already had her long narration about the history and story of Tekken 7 in her head. She was about to speak when she realized that it would not be necessary as she let out a sigh.

“Have you ever been to an arcade?” Coley asked in a much softer voice.

“This is my first time,” Ghrae simply answered.

The brunette felt sorry for the latter as she thought that Ghrae probably did not have a lot of fun experiences but just work experiences. It felt like she was standing in front of an innocent lost kid that made her want to show her the beautiful things found in life, such as Tekken. With that Coley sat on the edge of the chair and patted the space beside her for the latter to sit, which she did.

“Now that we’re here, we’ll play every game in here,” Coley said with determination as she faced the screen. “We will start with Tekken, which is a fighting game. First, you choose a character.”

Coley pushed one token into the slot of the machine as the both of them watched the screen turn to show the characters. She took the hands of Ghrae and gently placed her left hand over the buttons and her right hand over the joystick.

“Which character is the best?” Ghrae asked as she moved the joystick to check every character.

“That doesn’t really matter. As long as you know how to play, you can win,” Coley answered. “My favorite character is Julia because she’s hot.”

Since there was a time limit in selecting a character, Ghrae decided to pick Kuma because bears were cute. She felt a bit of regret when she realized that there was a panda character as well though it was already too late to reselect her character. The loading screen appeared as it showed her character, Kuma, versus Bob.

“Okay so, use the joystick to move your character and push the buttons to attack,” Coley said as they waited for the battle to begin.

Coley got up from her seat and stood behind her to watch while Ghrae sat up straight and held onto the joystick tightly when the battle began as Bob started to move toward Kuma and did a combo move already. The brunette started to chatter about how she must keep pushing the buttons to attack the opponent as the raven-haired woman internally panicked while she kept pulling the joystick to make her character move away from the opponent. Frustration was building up in Coley as she watched Ghrae play that her arms seemed to move by their own. Ghrae slightly widened her eyes when she felt Coley wrap her arms around her shoulders while Coley rested her hands over hers and began to control her hands in pushing the buttons and moving the joystick still in a gentle manner to not hurt the latter’s hands.

“In arcades, you just have to keep smashing the buttons until you win,” Coley whispered to her ear since their cheeks were almost touching as she focused in smashing the buttons using the latter’s fingers.

For some reason, Ghrae relaxed under Coley’s touch as she let her push the buttons for her while she could hear her soft breathing. The raven-haired woman suddenly thought that she seemed to be taking advantage of the situation when she felt comfort under her touch. She had never felt this way before. Though it was probably not a big deal as she remembered that the human touch could always be comforting unless it was in an inappropriate situation.

“There,” Ghrae could feel Coley smile as she slowly stood up straight when she defeated the opponent in the game. “Do you get it now?”

“Yeah,” Ghrae replied, almost in a whisper, as she waited for the next round to begin.

The raven-haired woman won the last round thanks to the advice from Coley to just rapidly smash the buttons in order to win a fighting arcade game. Coley decided to play against her after as she let Ghrae win. The brunette could not help but smile as she watched the raven-haired woman’s lips curve into a smile while staring at her screen that said, “YOU WIN”. As much as Coley disliked losing in fighting games, it felt strangely nice to lose when it was for the sake of Ghrae’s satisfaction.

“Let’s try that,” Ghrae suggested as she pointed at the target shooting game.

The smile on Coley’s face was definitely not a happy one as she saw what Ghrae was pointing at. Lightning strikes could be heard in the background as she knew that the moment when she would be seen as a loser was finally coming. The brunette slowly turned to the shorter woman only to see her smiling while waiting for her to go together. How could she refuse?

“Get that unicorn for me,” Ghrae said as she pointed at the stuff toy that was displayed on the wall.

“W-Well, if you say so,” Coley let out a forced chuckle as the man behind booth reloaded the toy gun for her.

The brunette began to regret deeply for running away whenever her father would call her to train in using guns because she forgot how to hold the gun properly. Basically, if she was the best at using knives then she was the worst in using guns. Coley heaved a heavy sigh as she decided to just get it over with by aiming at the target.

I am an embarrassment. I am a loser. I am a disgrace.

Coley forced a smile on her face as she missed all five targets like a loser. She did not even want to face Ghrae in embarrassment as she just stared at the targets that she failed to hit. Fortunately, the man hated his life as he did not care whether she missed all targets or not.

Since the brunette did not want to budge from her spot, the raven-haired woman told the man for another round as she suddenly felt arms encircling around her and felt Ghrae rest her chin on her shoulder from behind. Coley widened her eyes as she felt the latter’s front pressing her back while Ghrae held Coley’s hands and placed them to the correct parts of the gun.

“Here’s how you do it,” Ghrae whispered to her ear that sent the latter shivers on her back.

The raven-haired woman lifted the gun and positioned the butt of the gun on her shoulder as she pointed the gun directly toward the target. Coley swallowed a lump in her throat as she started to have thoughts that she was supposed to not at that situation while she let the latter control her.

After five shots, all targets were down. Ghrae got her unicorn stuff toy while Coley was still frozen on her spot with only the situation from earlier occupying her mind.