In the city, with you (pt 2)

With the new book in Haru’s backpack, the couple continued their exploration of the big city. The next place on Mia’s bucketlist was an arcade, for which they had to travel a bit to the city’s Entertainment district.

“We can take the bus”, Haru said, pointing at a bus stop, “It leaves every 10 minutes.”

Mia agreed, and patiently the couple waited for the bus to arrive. Inside, it only took a few minutes to get to their destination. After leaving the bus, Mia and Haru were met with bright flashing neon-signs advertising a variety of arcades. Compared to the quiet university area, they now found themselves immersed in the hustle and bustle of the big city.

The girl looked around and pointed at a ten story tall glass building, “Gamers Zone, that must be it, I remember that from a video.”

Haru followed the determined Mia through a glass sliding door. He looked up through the atrium, admiring the arcades' immense size, the upper floors looking small in the distance.

Mia turned around, “Come Haru, let’s find that crane game!”

Not knowing what to look for, Haru chased after the excited Mia, through rows of arcade machines. Their loud chimes echoed through the place, the sound blending with the excited yells of the customers. Blinking lights danced before Haru’s eyes, when he saw Mia suddenly stop. She turned around, eyes sparkling with excitement, “This is it!”

She was standing in front of a claw machine filled with cute pinkish animal plushies. A giant red joystick protruded at the front of the machine, two pink buttons beside it. Underneath it, there was a door, where the collected plushies would be dropped. Haru inspected the arm, trying to figure out the best way to beat the game.

Mia sighed, “Don’t just stare at it, this is the part where the boyfriends gets the girl a plushie.”

She hands Haru a couple of coins, the boy nervously gripped the joystick. “I’ll try my best… but you know I don’t get much practice with machines like these, living in Hanabusa.”

Haru inserted a coin, and started playing with the joystick. I pressed the button to grab one of the plushies, the arm lowered, grabbed a plushy… and it dropped.

“Ahhh….” Mia exclaimed with a disappointed tone.

Haru smiled at her, “You know these machines are rigged, right?”

He put another coin in the slot… and failed again.

“The third time's the charm,” he responded in perfect English. He put in the coin, moved the joystick, lowered the crane and grabbed a small pink unicorn plush. With satisfaction, she dropped it in the hole. Mia cheered and gave Haru a brief hug. She opened the door and retrieved her plush.

She satisfyingly petted her prize, nonetheless, she couldn’t help but tease Haru a bit further.

“I was secretly hoping for you to get me the giant one,” she whispered in his ear.

Haru stared at her, confused, “That would be highly impractical, right? If you really want one, I can get you…”

She put her finger before his mouth, a big grin on her face, “Forget about it, let’s continue.”

X

Searching for a karaoke place, Mia shoved the screen of her phone into Haru’s face.

“I found one,” she exclaimed. “If we travel through the alleyway to the right, we’ll be there in no time.” She pointed forward in the distance. “We need to enter the building with the red sign.”

Haru followed Mia to the entrance of the alleyway, where he froze. The alley looked narrow, damp and dark. Not what one would call “inviting”. She turned to Mia, who was glimpsing. “This looks kinda spooky… So let's enter!”

A bit nervous, Haru followed the girl into the dark alley. They passed by a couple of bins and piles of discarded boxes. Then, Mia suddenly stood still, looking up. It was a tall concrete structure, neatly tucked away in the alley. The windows were boarded up, paint withered.

Mia’s eyes sparkled, “Look at this beautifully haunted building, Haru. What a treasure!” She grabbed her phone and started taking pictures.

She put her back all the way against the other side of the back wall, “Sad I can’t get a better angle because of how narrow this alley is.”

Mia walked over to the door and felt the door handle. To her surprise, the door flung open with the lightest touch. With the flashlight of her phone, she illuminated the hallway. The floor was made of old wooden boards, spider webs dangling from the ceiling.

A massive grin appeared on Mia’s face as she took a step forward.

Is she really going to enter that building?

“Mia?” Haru said, his voice wavering, “I am not sure about this.”

But Mia already stepped inside, the wooden planks creaking under her feet. She turned around to look at Haru, her eyes tingling with excitement. “Don’t worry, there is no one here… aside from some ghosts maybe…”

With his legs twitching, Haru set a step inside the building himself. It smelt kinda musky. Mia was probably right, no one was living here, but he didn’t feel comfortable entering someone's property without permission.

He looked at Mia, who seemed totally excited. I don’t want to be a buzzkill and disappoint her.

The hesitant Haru followed his girlfriend through the narrow hallway. Mia whispered to her camera as they got deeper into the building. “Hi spooky squad, we just found this unbelievable gem of a building right in the middle of the big city! They left the door unlocked so we could get right in! I’ll keep you updated on the ghost we might find. Laters!”

The couple arrived at the end of the hallway, there were two crooked doors, one on each side. Mia turned to Haru, “Which one do you pick?” she asked.

Haru swallowed, his body language closed, “Maybe this is the point where we turn back…”

Mia looked at the boy with puppy eyes, “Please Haru, you're not afraid of a little ghost right? I can’t disappoint the spooky squad, you know…”

He sighed, giving in to her request. “One more room, I’m getting the creeps of this place.”

The girl grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, it led through a big, dark room. Aside from some boxes, the room seemed completely empty. They entered the room, and Mia filmed around.

Then, she pointed at the ground, “Haru, that stain… do you think someone might have died here?” Haru inspected the stain, it was about the size of a person. Carefully he took a step back.

“It might be, but it can also be because of a leak,” he looked up at the ceiling and saw a drop of water dangling from it.

For a second, I thought we might see a real ghost here…

Mia nodded, “I like that explanation better,” she walked to the other side of the room and called Haru over, “Look what I found!”

Haru walked up to her and saw the girl looking up at a stairwell.

She grinned, “Technically, this isn’t another room,” she put her feet on the first step. Carefully, she walked up the first flight of stairs.

Mia turned around and signed to Haru, “these go all the way to the roof, come let’s check it out!”

After letting out another puffing, Haru followed the girl up the creaky stairs, all the way to the highest floor. Exhausted, the couple stopped to take a breath, after which they took a look around. In one corner, they found a door that led to what looked like a roof patio. Carefully, Mia felt the rusty handle, and tried to pull it open, but it was stuck. Haru crouched down to inspect.

“Mmm, I think it’s not locked… just a little rusty,” he pulled the handle himself and with a lot of force, he managed to open the door.

The daylight blinded them, Haru covering his eyes. One step at the time, they entered the somewhat deteriorated roof. Mia felt Haru’s hand as they looked around them. This building was a bit taller than most of the neighbouring, more modern buildings, so they were able to see a fair part of the district from up here. Hand in hand, they watched people go by on the busy street from their quiet, private place in the heart of the busy city. A place that wasn’t in the tourist guides… completely off the books.

Haru turned to Mia and whispered, “I think I get why you like urban exploring so much…”

His heart skipped a beat as he watched his beautiful date smile back at him, “It’s awesome, isn’t it?”

She took out her phone and filmed the bustling city from above for her viewers to admire.

“No ghost today, but with a view like this, can you blame me?” she said, after which she stopped the recording.

“Let’s head back, and find that karaoke place!” Mia enthusiastically exclaimed.

Ah, that’s right. I forgot our original goal.