As per their request, we ride up the escators and up to the 4th floor where the arcade was located.

  “Woah…” Madoka says in awe.

  “Games!” Takashi speaks in a slightly higher yet still monotonous tone.

  “Here. Now you guys go crazy,” I tell them.

  Saying that line makes me feel like a father babysitting his 4 children.

  “Woohoo!” they all cheers and enter the kingdom of games.

  I heave a sigh.

  “Let’s go have fun too.”

  …

  ..

  .

  The girls exit the clothing store. All of them held paper bags of varying pastel colors.

  “That was great!” Ran excims.

  “It could’ve been much better if you hadn’t kept pestering me,” Mari tells her.

  “Why don’t you just go ahead and tell us who the lucky guy is?” Rin insists.

  “For the st time… I never said it was a guy!”

  “You wouldn’t be as reluctant to share if it was a girl. C’mon just tell us, what’s there to be shy about? Unless…”

  Ran gasps, “IT’S A BOYFRIEND! IT HAS TO BE!”

  Mari turns red out of embarrassment, “WHA?! STOP ASSUMING THINGS!”

  Yuka raised her arm, “Um…”

  They hear her and eagerly listen.

  “Wh-What do we do next?”

  “Good question,” Rin answers.

  “My energy is drained. How ‘bout we go py some games?” Ran suggests.

  “Oh, so the arcade! Great, why not? It can serve as practice for when we beat the boys’ butts in the next challenge,” Mari decres, “There’s also a good chance they choose arcade games in the future.”

  “Great that we are on the same page! Onwards to the next pce!” Ran points.

  They march towards the escators. They escators take them up to their destination; with a little bit of walking, there they were in front of the arcade.

  Yuka’s eyes sparkle like a little child’s would. The rest of the group was gd to see her so happy.

  Mari hugs her, “You really such a muffin! Don’t ever change!”

  Yuka blushes and she burns out from what she decred an embarrassing act.

  “Enough dilly-dallying! Onwards to paradise!” Ran shouts.

  …

  ..

  .

  Step. Step. Step.

  Wheeze. Wheeze.

  I arrive in front of the mall.

  “G-Geez,” he inhales, “you four,” exhales, “surely bring me a lot of trouble.”

  He sprints to the entrance.

  “I’m coming boys! I won’t let our precious rooftop be conquered!”

  The things I say really are absurd when I’m with them.

  …

  ..

  .

  Vroom. Vroom.

  There were two screens that illuminated a race track with blue and red, respectively in order from left to right. Blue crossed the finish line first and the screen announces the rightful champion, “Pyer 1 is the winner!”

  “WOOOHOOH!!!” Katsuro jumps in glee from his chair.

  “I lost again…” Madoka says.

  “Maybe you should be thankful that you got to py at all, Madoka, you’re undering off Takashi’s expenses,” I tease.

  “Quite ironic coming from someone who is doing the exact same thing.”

  “Hey… I don’t compin.”

  “You win your games.”

  “Pshh. Skill issue.”

  “What was that?!”

  “Go to the next game, will ya?” Katsuro responds.

  “You heard the guy, we set off!” I tell him.

  Madoka groans.

  We leave the driving section and arrive at the air hockey section. I and Takashi stare at each other intently. I beckon a rge grin and he reciprocates the feelings in his own way with glimmering eyes, although not apparent to the untrained eye.

  Having communicated with no words at all, we shake hands, sharing great respect with one another.

  “No, NO! WE ARE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN!” Madoka yells.

  “Spare us, game masters. A single round would take a whole hour and a whole game would take a third of the day,” Katsuro pleads.

  “Skill issue,” we tell them.

  “You cocky bastards!” both of them retort.

  While we argue, I catch the sound of chuckling, particurly a girl’s voice that rather familiar.

  “What was that?” Katsuro asks.

  I raise my index finger to tell them to shut up and hide in a corner. Sticking out my left ear, I try to comprehend the sounds clearly.

  “I wonder what game we should try…” Ran speaks.

  “How about the crane game?” Rin suggests.

  “A perfect opportunity to get Yuka a present!” Mari decres.

  “Y-You don’t need to-” Yuka replies.

  “I see the crane!” Ran cheers.

  They dash off to the upper right corner.

  “What are they doing here?” Katsuro whispers to me, suddenly now beside my body.

  “Danger,” Takashi announces.

  “Kibe, we can’t let them see you! If they do, they’re gonna know you lied! Which makes them liable to enact a penalty upon us,” Madoka worries.

  “Quick! We need to sneak our way past them,” I tell them.

  We slowly make our way out, occasionally looking back if they were on to us. Luckily, there was nothing of the kind.

  “Hurry! Let’s leave this pce,” Madoka excims.

  “Aw…” Takashi compins

  “It’s too early,” Katsuro replied.

  “We have no choice,” Madoka says, “Come on, tell them Kibe. This is all for the rooftop, isn’t it?”

  Maybe, we should. If I get caught, who knows what will happen to our roles?

  Wait.

  No. What am I saying? Have I begun to fear the girls?

  No, that can’t be. I refuse that notion.

  “No,” I reply.

  “Buddy, the market is not as big as you think,” Madoka expins to me, “We are gonna get caught if we linger here.”

  “But why should we care?”

  “For the st time, you are supposed to be sick. They see you now and…”

  “But then why do we have to fear them as much as we do? We are allowing our roles to be taken over! This is why we are losing. Why don’t we have our way this time? Though, be that as it may, we evade them.”

  I stare up at the heavens, blocked by the ceiling.

  This is a challenge by the Author. Will I chicken out? Of course not. I worked hard for the role of Slice-of-Life Protagonist and I’m not gonna let some petty girls get in the way.

  “We proceed as pnned.”

  “Rad,” Takashi replies.

  “I’m gd you are starting to see things through,” Katsuro responds.

  “Seriously? Fine. Let’s watch the guy who managed to get on our good side. But if you get caught, don’t let me say I told you so,” Madoka excims.

  “You got that right, we won’t let ourselves be dominated!” I scream.

  We hear soft chuckles coming from the arcade.

  “They’re coming!” Katsuro warns.

  “Come, let’s go down the escators. We’ve had our fun over here,” I tell them.

  They did as I instructed and managed to avoid the sight of the girls. Looking closely, the girls held more than paper bags now. They also had stuffed toys.

  “We won!” Ran shouts.

  “Only after 7 attempts,” Rin crifies.

  “Let’s not do that again,” Mari suggests, “At least, Yuka is happy.”

  Yuka snuggles the peach-colored teddy bear in her arms.

  “We still got more to explore girls!” Ran yells, “Down we go!”

  “Your energy drains me,” Mari replies.

  ...

  ..

  .

  “Where do we go from here?” Katsuro asks.

  “Hmm, how about we go to a coffee shop?” I suggest.

  “No more money,” Takashi worriedly expins.

  “We don’t have to buy anything really. Just there to stand idly by and… discuss. You people haven’t forgotten about that have you?” I reassure.

  “Aw, I guess we got no choice,” Katsuro replied.

  “Onwards! Besides, the coffee shop has a great feel to it. I never experienced it myself but…” I expin.

  “Sounds good, let’s head there,” Madoka responds, “I’ve always wondered why people go there to rest sometimes.”

  …

  ..

  .

  We go to the coffee shop with the name being ‘Starmoney’.

  I’m confident the viewers aren’t so dumb as to not realize what the brand actually is.

  We sit down around at a rectangur table and settle.

  Sniff. Sniff.

  “That does smell beautiful,” Madoka compliments, “I can smell the roasting coffee beans.”

  “Relieving,” Takashi praises.

  Katsuro joins in and said, “Yeah, it feels like-”

  “ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! WE GET IT! CAN WE STOP THE TROPE WHERE EVERY CHARACTER HAS THE NEED TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE A PRAISE REGARDING AN EVENT?!” I scream.

  The people look at me and the boys shut themselves up like good dogs.

  Damn it, Author. You know how to waste people’s time. Luckily, I’m here to force progress. I will not allow you to capitalize on fillers.

  “Okay, so about the sleeping competition. So lookie here, I devised a pn on how to win it,” I decre, “In order to sleep the longest, we need to tire ourselves as much as we can. That would result in our bodies becoming weary and force a long deep sleep to catch on REM.”

  “REM?” Takashi questions, “Who’s REM?”

  Haha very funny.

  “Don’t ask about it. It is a very complicated term about dreams or whatnot.”

  I heard the term while stumbling on science channels te at night one particur time. I just used it because I thought it would make me look smart.

  “What do you all think?” I query.

  Takashi raises his hand.

  “Yes?” I ask.

  “How about the girls? What if they possibly do the same?”

  “Good idea, but the better question is, what if they possibly outdo us? Or possibly be more tired? We have numerous options really. One, we sabotage their drinks and put coffee or any caffeinated substance in them. Two, make the girls fall asleep before the competition even begins via sleeping pills. Third, we ourselves, drink up drugs that can lead us to…”

  “Hold on,” Madoka interrupts.

  “Problem?”

  “Is this a drug propaganda?”

  “No, why do you ask?”

  “You kept mentioning drugs. Can’t we resolve this in a way that doesn’t involve such?”

  I groan.

  “Okay, fine… As I was saying, we drink up… supplements! That can help us sleep for longer periods of time.”

  “Sounds like a good pn actually,” Madoka agrees.

  “Any objections?”

  No one raises their hands.

  “Good. Moving on, any idea on how to win the eating competition challenge?”

  “Hm, ooh!” Katsuro raises his hand.

  “Speak.”

  “Uhh, I forgot sorry.”

  He sits back down.

  “Any ideas?”

  They remain silent.

  How do we rig the eating challenge? Thinking on it now, there isn’t much to manipute here.

  Takashi simply stares outside the gss windows. There, he saw the girls heading towards the coffee shop. He raises his hand.

  “Yes?” I ask.

  “Girls.”

  “Girls?”

  We peer outside the gss windows and spot them getting closer by the second.

  “Evacuate!” I yell.

  We rush outside and the girls enter the coffee shop repcing us shortly after.

  “That was close,” I say.

  They went out immediately.

  “Already?! Run!”

  We dash to a department store and surprisingly, the girls were heading our way again. We go down the escators and got inside a cinema… in which the girls followed again. This process repeated various times until we were cornered on the second floor.

  “It’s a dead end!” Madoka decres.

  The girls were slowly making their way towards us.

  “What do we do?!” Katsuro panics, “D-Do they know we’re here?”

  All of a sudden, Masaru appears from behind the girls.

  Our light and savior! The messiah!

  He spots us from the distance and waves back.

  I whisper, “Help!”

  He was able to read my lips and nods.

  Masaru yells, “Hey, girls!”

  The girls turn around and see him.

  “Oh, fancy seeing you here,” Mari says.

  “Yeah.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were out to the market as well?”

  “Um, well, a st-minute change of mind.”

  Ran and Rin were squealing.

  “So, he’s the one you’ve been talking to…” Ran teases.

  “My, I never knew you were into people like him,” Rin responds.

  Mari quickly turned red because of the realization.

  She faces the girls.

  “WH-WHA?! DON’T YOU TWO GET THE WRONG IDEA! WE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER!!!”

  She faces back at Masaru, “YOU! DON’T YOU GET THE WRONG IMPRESSION EITHER!”

  “I-I’m not,” he answers.

  The girls and Masaru were chattering and arguing.

  “Masaru came for us!” Katsuro cheers.

  “He bought us time,” I decre.

  I have to think of something quick.

  I look all over.

  My options are limited.

  My eyes stumble upon the gsses store just to our right.

  “Bingo!”

  I run to the store.

  “Over here!” I gesture for them to follow after me.

  The rest of them enter the store like I did.

  “Pick any type of gsses! Any kind!” I order.

  “How is this supposed to help our case?” Madoka asks.

  In most media, if you wear gsses, you become unrecognizable. It is a common staple that people around you become idiots when you wear them.

  “Just trust me!”

  We all grabb gsses without any regard for their design. I take round gsses, Madoka takes aviator sungsses, Katsuro takes lensless gsses, and Takashi takes brown contact lenses.

  Goddamnit, Takashi.

  “You know I kinda dig these gsses,” Madoka says.

  “You look like a show-off, Madoka,” I say, “Katsuro, can you pay this time? I kinda feel bad letting Takashi take all the expenses.”

  “Sure, but what do you think of my gsses?” he asks.

  He looks like a total buffoon.

  “Good, good, now go!” I bluff to cut it short.

  He takes money from his wallet and pces it on the register. Meanwhile, the girls and Masaru stop their banter.

  “Why don’t you come join us? We’ve got plenty of room here,” Ran offers.

  “No, no, I’m sure he came here because he had things to do,” Mari expins.

  “Yeah, I need to buy some things, nice seeing all of you ‘round here.”

  “What things could those possibly be? Maybe we could accompany you.”

  “It’s boy’s stuff, I’m not sure if you’d want to see those…”

  “Ah… I understand.”

  “Anyways, it was nice seeing you people, here. I’m off now.”

  “See ya!” Ran waves goodbye.

  “See ya,” Rin says.

  “B-Bye bye,” Yuka speaks.

  Mari simply waved her right hand.

  “You’re interested in him, aren’t you?” Ran mocks with a nudge.

  “Oh, shut up!” Mari yells.

  While they argue, I and the gang sneakily pass by, but somehow their attention stuck on us.

  “Hm? Uh, those boys… they look familiar,” Ran decres.

  “Good point,” Rin responds.

  “Hey! You boys!” Mari calls out.

  We feel intense and freeze in our steps. Acting like we weren’t who they called in a rge public mall, we continue our escape.

  “Hey, don’t go on ignoring us! We are definitely sure it is you people!” Mari insists, “Turn around and face us!”

  I gulp.

  Crap.

  We slowly turn to face them.

  Their eyebrows rise.

  Are they on to us? Did we get caught?

  “These aren’t them, they wear gsses, plus they look different, apart from that st one, he’s wearing contact lenses. They just have the same physique,” Ran expins.

  Mari tilts her head and explores our bodies in different angles.

  “You’re right, these people are nothing like them.”

  She bows and apologizes, “S-Sorry, we thought you were our cssmates.”

  “N-No problem at all,” I chuckle nervously.

  We turn around and went on with our way.

  WE WON! WE GOT THROUGH!

  Note: Curse those gsses.

  END OF EPISODE 30