My Favourite, NYT.

6. Video Games

I opened my door to see she had arrive, but she had a slight feeling of fear in her mind, she was nervous. Her lips began to tremble as we made eye contact, "Are you ok?" I asked slightly worried she wasn't comfortable by the invite. It was that moment i felt as though i invited her over too early, and we weren't supposed to do this yet. I must've messed up. I wanted to change plans, but there wasn't anything i could do about it with the sun being out so brightly that day.

"Im fine! It's just a little awkward, its my first in a long time since going over a friend's place. But.. your house looks pretty neat." She said as she took a peak behind me and slightly laughed, "Can i come in then..?". Ai looked back to my face making eye contact, it left me flustered by her sudden move seeing how dazzling her eyes were. "She's beautiful." I thought to myself.

"Oh, yea im so sorry, come in!".

Ai walked in with a huge smile plastered on her face as she looked around the interior, it made me feel proud of myself seeing that she liked it. I was worried she would think it was too messy. "I like the flowers, you like indoor plants?" She asked with a glowing face. I haven't seen anyone this happy to see nothing but plants in a long time.

I nodded, "Hm, a friend of mine used to love flowers, because of them i started to find a liking in it too.".

"used to..?" Her smile slowly faded.

As i was about to say what i wanted to, it was almost as if i lost my memory in a split second. I didn't know where i was going with the conversation. It all felt so sudden, but familiar. "Yuta..?" I came back to my senses as Ai called my name, she looked more worried than ever. "Was i staring out so badly?" I asked. "Yeah..really bad. Is there anything wrong?".

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Yuta shaked his head and reassured her everything was alright, He later walked her to the living room where they sat down and went straight to video games. They played for two to three rounds, it seemed like Ai wasn't one who was very good at it and wasn't quite enjoying it as she kept losing all the time. Seeing that she was frustrated, Yuta then remembered his dream. The way her eyes sparkled and the corners of her lips perked up as she smiled winning the game.

And so like that he lets her win, as expected, her reaction was exactly like in his dream. "Yes—! I told you im good at this! Im just a little rusty~" Ai exclaimed excitedly. He was relieved, the arrival was already awkward as it is. Seeing how happy she was, he continued to do it repeatedly. Only this time with a free pattern to make it not obvious that he was purposely loosing. It seemed to work, she didn't caught on at all he thought.

The two continued to play for hours, but hours felt like minutes and later into seconds. Yuta wondered how a mortal like her kept going on and on, no energy seemed to be drained from her at all while he on the other hand was beginning to feel tired for her.

From the screen he slowly shifted his view to take a look at her, he smiled as he stared lovingly into her mesmerising brown eyes although her mind was stuck on the game. The longer he stared, the more he was tired of her not looking back at him, "Ai, how much longer are we going to do this..?" He sighed putting his controller down. She finally turned to look back at him with a smile, "Ok ok~ its over, i had fun beating you." Ai replied slightly chuckling.

Feeling restless, Ai decided to walk around the apartment. She noticed the curtains were closed and was weirded out by it, they lived on a high floor, the view must've been beautiful she thought. As she was curious, she asked, "Why don't you open your curtains? Is the sunlight too bright here? Or do you just.. not like the view..or..". Yuta nods, "South facing windows you know?, it gets a little too much for me, but needed for the plants." he replied but quickly noticed she was bummed to hear the answer. He took a small peak through the curtains to see how bright the sun was, and thankfully, it was about to set.

Wanting to impress her even more Yuta took a deep breath and pulled the curtains, revealing the view from the balcony. Ai's eyes widened, she gasped seeing such a beautiful view from way up high. She could see the entire city, and even the sea. "Its a shame you close the curtains, this view is amazing..? I would murder for a view like this!" Ai exclaimed.

Yuta slightly laughed seeing her enthusiasm over nothing but a window, "Most apartments here have this view..".

"Oh my place is just my shop really.. so I don't get to see things like this." her smile slowly faded as she sighed. "But its fine though, I don't have to wait on elevators~.."

The atmosphere was once again turning unbearably awkward, but Yuta didn't want Ai to leave just yet. He turned to look around his apartment for atleast something they could do together, and that's when it gave him an idea. He spotted a recipe book left on the kitchen counter. Yuta turned to look into her eyes and ask, "You hungry? Let's cook something." he grinned.

Ai scoffed by the sudden suggestion, she was a little worried by it not trusting his cooking skills. "You seem like a really clumsy person, are you sure you can cook..?",she asked chuckling. He just nodded and showed her the recipe book, and finally her reaction changed. From her laughing at him, she turned intrigued. The book was very worn out and obviously old, a couple pages even seemed to be ripped from it.

"Is that your family's recipe book? It looks pretty old." She said and walked towards him to take a closer look, she nodded as she looked through the pages. They were very classic meals, very unique and wouldn't be commonly made these days. As she flipped through it seriously, she smiled seeing an obviously new piece of paper stuck onto the final page, "Ai's carbonara..?" She smiled and read the recipe seeing how accurately he could guess it. And to her surprise, almost everything was similar.

"You could pick up the ingredients of things by just tasting it?!" Ai asked. Yuta just smiled and nods slowly, "I've got quite an experience with food.. but, i can't say i can cook well. My roommate recreated this for me the other day, it tasted a little like yours." He replied. "But, not much love. He was forced to do it for me."

"Do you have a pen?" Ai gestured a writing motion, signing she would fix what was missing from the recipe. "Oh! Yeah hold on.".