Game Gyaru

Expectations 5

Hakuta recalled that fateful day. The day where he first met the masked gamer, which ironically was also the first time he actually met Ino. This was back during his junior high days before they would eventually become classmates.

The boy had decided to enter a local gaming tournament. It was nothing serious, but still good fun regardless. Because of the more casual nature of the event. Hakuta was easily able to defeat everyone he matched against. Moving to the finals, he believed himself to have gotten an easy victory to stroke his ego for a bit.

This was where he sat besides the masked gamer for the first time. While playing, he had heard murmurings of people behind him talking about this person and how good they were. He believed it only to be a bunch of noobs speaking way too highly of someone they played against to protect their self esteem.

He would soon find out how wrong he when Hakuta finally began to play against her. They caught him by surprise early on, taking a quick first round. This was where he found himself taking the game much more seriously than he had before, struggling to win the second round by a narrow margin.

However, despite his best efforts, it seemed his opponent was just too good and finished him off in the deciding round. The boy couldn't believe it, but someone actually managed to best him at a video game.

"Who are you?" Were the first words coming from his mouth. He only thought of it as asking a simple question. As not only was he curious, but Hakuta wanted to be their friend. Looking back, due to the adrenaline rush of having such an exciting experience, he might've sounded angry at them. Which would explain why she was so afraid of him when they met the second time during that big gaming tournament.

"Wow..." He said in the present. "So that's why you were so interested in me when we saw each other again in high school."

"Huh, I always thought it was because he was a massive nerd." Said Ninka with a much less delicate response to such a revelation.

"I just couldn't believe that boy I beat became my classmate." Said Ino. "My mother said she wanted me to make friends who shared the same hobbies as myself. But even though I wanted to, it was hard to want to approach him about it."

"Probably didn't help that I had no clue." Hakuta had always viewed them as two separate people. Even now that he knew the truth, he still couldn't believe she was the same person as the one before. "And I guess it hurts a little bit knowing we couldn't talk about your issues whenever they came up."

When she had stopped spending time with him due to the boy choosing to recant his disdain for gyarus. That also meant she no longer wanted to play video games with him as well. Which made sense as she didn't want to be friends, but was unfortunate fro him when he got confused as to why the masked gamer stopped responding to his messages at the same time she did.

"I truly am sorry for that." She replied. "It was the most petty thing I've ever done in my life."

"Okay, I think we've caught up enough." Ninka finished off her food, which was easy as they were small portions which always confused Hakuta on how they filled anyone's stomachs. "I hate to cut things off, but we should get back to the others." She only suggested this as she saw he had become a bit too interested in Ino. At this rate, her being here would only turn her into a third wheel, and Ninka was no third wheel.

"You're not wrong." He had no argument for her. "But Ino, if you don't mind. It doesn't hurt to be with people a bit closer to your age." Hakuta looked over at her father, where it seemed there were less reporters surrounding the family. They must've been content with most of his answers to move on to enjoying the event.