The silence that followed us out of the record store was different. It wasn't comfortable anymore; it was heavy with the unspoken words from the listening booth. My clumsy deflection had put a wall between us, and I was kicking myself for it.
I was losing the day.
Say something funny, you idiot, my brain commanded. Anything.
But it was Sina who broke the spell. She stopped walking, turning to face me with a playful glint in her amber eyes, a deliberate effort to shatter the tension.
"Okay, Messenger-san," she said, holding up the paper bag with the space cat record. "Your sad song was very... soulful. But the prophecy of Mr. Snugglesworth dictates that this quest must not be boring. And brooding is definitely boring."
She poked me lightly in the chest. "Your turn to pick is over. It's mine."
Relief washed over me so intensely I almost sagged. She was pulling me back. She was saving the day from my own emotional baggage.
"Alright, Quest-Companion," I said, my voice finding its easygoing rhythm again. "I'm at your command. Where to?"
She pointed a finger across the street, towards a building that was vomiting a rainbow of flashing neon lights, even in the middle of the day. A wave of electronic noise washed over us.
BLAM! WHOOSH! BEEP-BEEP-BOOP!
"There," she declared with a grin. "An arcade. I challenge you to a trial by combat."
My heart leaped. An arcade. Noise. Distraction. Perfect.
"You're on," I said, my own competitive smirk returning. "But I should warn you, my thumb-blister-fu is legendary."
"We'll see about that."
The moment we stepped inside, the sensory assault was total. It was a cavern of manufactured joy, a symphony of chaos. The air hummed with the energy of a dozen different games firing at once.
Sina's face lit up with pure, unadulterated excitement. She grabbed my hand again, her earlier hesitation forgotten, and pulled me deeper into the neon-drenched maze.
"What's the game?" I yelled over the din.
She led me to a massive machine with two dance pads and a giant screen. Dance Dance Revolution: Supernova Mix.
Oh no.
"This is the trial," she announced, her eyes gleaming. "No thumbs required. Just soul."
Before I could protest, a familiar, obnoxious voice cut through the noise.
"No way! Is that my boy Kel getting hustled?"
We turned. There, flailing wildly at a boxing game and losing spectacularly to a 10-year-old, was Zeke. He was wearing the same pineapple sunglasses, now slightly askew.
Of course, I thought with a mix of annoyance and gratitude. I'd told him my general plan for the day, and he had a habit of "coincidentally" showing up to provide backup.
"Zeke!" Sina said, her smile widening. "You're just in time."
Zeke abandoned his game, jogging over with a goofy grin. "Sina! Good to see you! Kelin here was just telling me about this... important... cat... business... you guys were on." He shot me a look that said, How am I doing?
I gave him a subtle nod.
"Kelin and I were about to have a dance-off," Sina explained. "You can be the judge."
Zeke's eyes lit up. "Even better! Let's make it a team battle! Me and Kel against the lilac-haired dance master!"
This was a terrible idea. I was a precision machine. Zeke moved like a flamingo in a hurricane.
"I don't know..." I started, but Sina was already nodding enthusiastically.
"It's perfect! The two messengers versus the Quest-Companion. The stakes have never been higher!"
The next few minutes were a blur of glorious, beautiful chaos.
We put in the tokens. A ridiculously upbeat J-pop song started blasting, and arrows began flying up the screen.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP-BOOP!
Sina was a natural. She moved with a fluid, joyful grace, her feet tapping the arrows with impossible precision. She was laughing, her whole body alive with the music.
I was doing perfectly, my movements economical and exact, hitting every arrow. But I wasn't having fun; I was just... executing a task.
And Zeke... Zeke was a disaster.
He was on the pad next to me, arms and legs flying in directions that had nothing to do with the arrows on the screen. He spun when he should have stomped. He jumped when he should have stood still. He nearly took my head off with a stray elbow.
The screen flashed with a constant stream of MISS notifications on his side, accompanied by a deflating BOO-WOMP sound effect.
The sight was so absurd, so utterly ridiculous, that a laugh bubbled up from my chest. Not a smirk or a chuckle. A real, deep, genuine laugh.
I missed an arrow. Then another. I didn't care.
I loosened up, letting the stupidly happy music take over, my movements becoming less precise and more exaggerated. I threw in a ridiculous spin, mimicking Zeke. He saw me and gave me a huge, goofy grin.
We were losing. Badly. The score was laughably lopsided. But looking at Sina, her face flushed and beaming, and Zeke, a whirlwind of uncoordinated joy, I realized we were winning the only thing that mattered.
The song ended with a triumphant zing! and a giant "WINNER" flashing over Sina's side of the screen.
She threw her hands up in victory, panting and laughing. "I am the dance champion!"
Zeke collapsed dramatically against the machine. "I have... dishonored... my master, Mr. Snugglesworth."
We pooled the mountain of tickets Sina had won and went to the prize counter. It was filled with cheap plastic junk and oversized stuffed animals.
"To the victor go the spoils," I said with a dramatic bow. "Choose your prize, O great champion."
She scanned the shelves, her eyes landing on the lowest-value items. She pointed. "That one."
The prize was a tiny, poorly-made plastic keychain of a calico cat with googly eyes that didn't point in the same direction. It was worth about 5 tickets. It was perfect.
The clerk handed it to her. She looked at it, then held it out to me.
"A token for the humble messenger," she said, her smile soft and genuine. "So you don't forget your master."
I took it from her. The cheap plastic felt warm in my palm. My laugh from the dance machine still echoed in my ears. The ghost of the sad song from the record store still lingered in my heart.
This keychain. This moment. It was all of it. Happy and sad. Funny and heartbreaking.
A memory she would lose. A treasure I would keep.
"Thanks," I said, my voice quiet. "I won't forget."