Hold Me Close to You

Part 4

Ryujin's POV

There was something wrong. I could tell. She wasn't the same lively person who smiled at everyone. Seeing this side of her, It bothered me for some reason.

The walk there was just silent. too silent. And that's coming from me who likes silence.

'Maybe I should say something' I thought, but I couldn't. It was so hard.

As we entered the new arcade, which was huge, I headed to the counter to buy us some tokens.

I handed her half of them. "What do you want to try first?" Trying her to at least get her to participate.

She scanned the room, and her eyes locked on the claw machine.

"Do you want to try the Claw Machine?" I ask.

"Yes."

Once there, I put my tokens in, and I let her go first. She starts with five tries, and with each attempt she fails. With every failure the more frustrated she becomes.

"Oh, come on!" She finally stops in defeat. How adorable.

"Here let me try."

I carefully angle the claw on this small, stuffed sloth. as the claw falls onto the top of the stuffed animal, it successfully grabs hold of it.

I grab it and turn to Lia, who has a shocked expression. I extend it and hand it to her.

"Here, you have it. It reminded me of you."

She starts to smile with a quiet giggle leaving her mouth. "Of course you're good at this," she accepts it, "Thank you."

"There it is." she looks at me in confusion. "Your smile, dummy. keep it like that."

"I guess I have been a little out of it, Huh?"

"Yeah. So go back to normal because you're being a total bum today." I flick her head with my fingers. I then got the reaction I wanted.

"Owww! That hurt!" She gave me a slight shove to the side. I then ran away before she could get me back as she chased after me.

"Hahaha! Catch me if you can!"

"Ryujin! Get back here!"

I turn my head and hear her laughing. She's so pretty.

though once I looked ahead of me, I accidentally bumped into someone spilling his drink on his clothes. Whoops.

"Damn it! Who in the world?!"

I just keep running so I don't get caught. Just my luck.

"Hey come back here! SECURITY!"

Wait. What did he just say? Just then Lia attacks me from the side, and to be quite frank, she scared me.

"AHA! I got you! Hahaha! Next time please don't run off- WAah!"

Before she could say anything else, I grabbed a hold of her hand and booked it. I hear security on our tails telling us to stop, while Lia is trying to grab hold of the situation.

"WHY ARE THEY CHASING US?!"

"Um... don't know... where's the exit?" I had no time to answer her properly right now as I was trying to find a way out of the mall. Luckily for us there was a backdoor entrance to the mall, and we hurriedly made our way out. We got as far away as we could trying to lose them in the parking lot. We hid behind a black minivan with our back against it as we are desperately gasping for air.