Sinful Passion

twenty-two

Because of the whole misunderstanding, Mina never got to celebrate Chaeyoung's inter-high victory with her.  She felt terrible and wanted to make up for it somehow, and an opportunity finally came along.

It was the weekend, and Mina had planned a wonderful day for her and Chaeyoung to spend together.

"Where are we going?"  Chaeyoung asked excitedly, almost bouncing up and down in the car seat.  Mina was driving somewhere but she wouldn't say where. The suspense was driving her crazy.

Mina had a mysterious smile on her face.  "Be patient, Chaengie."

Mina took Chaeyoung to a games arcade.  This one in particular was huge, relatively empty, and vintage.  It had all the machines that Chaeyoung used to play on when she was younger, that had gone out of production in recent years and weren't in any of the newer arcades.

Chaeyoung's biological mom used to bring her to arcades like these when she was a little kid.  Those were some of her fondest childhood memories. But then her mom got sick and eventually passed away, and Changmin was always too busy. 

Chaeyoung hadn't been to an arcade in a decade.  The novelty of it all and the spaciousness made her eyes light up.  Mina smiled at the sight of a happy and excited Chaeyoung. Before she could register it, Chaeyoung was hugging her tightly.

"Thank you, Minari.  I didn't expect this," Chaeyoung mumbled into Mina's shirt.

Mina felt her heart leap a little at the sudden contact.  It was intimidating, how distant she suddenly felt from Chaeyoung after one little misunderstanding.  She didn't feel deserving of Chaeyoung's thanks yet, not did she feel worthy of accepting it.

Mina gently stroked the top of Chaeyoung's head, feeling her cool, silky soft hair against her hand.  Mina then produced a bag of coins; she'd come prepared for this trip. "Shall we play?"

In the couple of hours Mina and Chaeyoung spent at the arcade, they burned through the whole bag of coins like savages, moving from game to game.  There were so many it was hard to keep track. They raced each other on virtual racetracks, had a basketball shooting contest (which Chaeyoung obviously won), played a co-op shooter game which Mina was surprisingly good at, and many more.  Mina had a lot more fun than she expected, but this wasn't about her. The best part was seeing Chaeyoung enjoy herself. Seeing Chaeyoung have a genuine smile, genuine laughter on her face as she played the games, made Mina content and happy.  If she could make Chaeyoung this happy all the time, she'd gladly give up everything else to do it.

"Remind me not to make you angry, Minari... gosh," Chaeyoung laughed, glancing over at Mina's screen as the latter delivered a final blow to the boss enemy with her fake machine gun.  That was it; the game was over and they'd used up the last of their currency, save for one last coin.

Mina blew on the tip of her gun for dramatic effect and put it back in the holster, eliciting another giggle from the younger.  She handed the last coin to Chaeyoung. "Your choice. What do you want to spend it on?"

Chaeyoung chose a claw machine that was filled with stuffed animals, and slipped the final coin into the coin slot.  In hindsight, it probably wasn't the smartest choice since Chaeyoung only had one shot, but it made it more interesting.  Mina watched from behind as Chaeyoung maneuvered the joystick. Mina thought she looked so cute when she was concentrating; she was so focused on staring at Chaeyoung that she didn't realise when the game had ended.  Chaeyoung had successfully caught a cute, fluffy polar bear.