Chapter 2:

Living Arrangement

Game Gyaru


He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. This had to be a dream, it just had to be. Hakuta pinched himself in the arm, then the cheek, and pretty much everywhere on his body just to be told this was merely just a nightmare. However, the pain he felt across his entire body told him that this was indeed reality.

“Is this some kind of sick joke?” Shiuka was also in the same boat as him in sharing his disbelief over the situation. She took displeasure in the sight that the girl wanted to ensure this was not some kind of illusion standing before her. So of course, she wanted to make for certain he was real by taking a hold of the boy’s face and shaking it back and forth. As if hoping he would go out in a trail of smoke and she could get back to living her usual life.

“Okay, okay, I’m real!” He responded irritated from her forceful shaking. Somehow both their methods to determin if a situation was occurring in front of them were to cause only him bodily harm.

“Hmm, do you two know each other?” Their dads were not as displeased with the circumstances. In fact, upon learning that their children were classmates filled them with joy.

“That’s great!” Said Toukou. “Now you don’t have to worry about getting to know her. It’s nice to see you’re already friends.” The kids were unsure of how this man took what he saw from them and assumed they were close. That couldn’t possibly be further from the truth. If anything, it would be more accurate to say they were enemies. Though that would be an exaggeration.

“Yeah, that’ll save a lot of time by skipping the ‘getting to know each other’ phase.” Her dad was also pleased with the situation.

“As if.” Hakuta responded. “I’m not going to live under the same roof as her.” He was majorly disappointed that things turned out this way. The hope of the girl being prim and proper was something that got him a bit excited on the prospect of living with a person like that. Now he was stuck with something far worse than the boy could ever have imagined. A gyaru was the single worst kind of person he could be sharing a home with.

“But, we already brought in your stuff.” Not everything was sold from his families home. Given the circumstances, Toukou did have the mind to save the boy’s clothes so that he’d have something to live with while here.

“Don’t worry about him.” Speaking of his father, the man also seemed to be quite at peace over his son’s defiance. “How about we all go inside?”

“Well, I’m not.” Hakuta crossed his arms and sat down on the bench situated in front of the house. “I’ll just come up with something else to live while you’re gone.” In fact, they hadn’t even discussed when his dad was going to be leaving.

“Well, you can sit out here all by yourself like the loser you are.” Shiuka stuck out a tongue at him, mocking the boy as she was the first one walking inside. Presumably, she was going to immediately head inside her room to lock herself in their as she was quite upset with her father on this matter.

“Are you sure you want to stay out here?” Kankichi, who was Shiuka’s father, was more concerned for the boy than his own actual father. “I hear it’s going to-”

“Don’t worry about him.” Again, Toukou continued to show zero concern for his child. “Things have a way of working out.” For whatever reason, he was confident his boy would change his mind. With that, he convinced the other man to go inside and leave Hakuta to sit outside to stew on his mind.

The nerve of this man, he thought to himself. Of all the people that could’ve been his friend, it just had to be the father to that ape of a girl. His life really just had to take him in this direction, and only just after a month since starting high school.

As he sat alone, the boy felt something strange land onto his arm. It was a drop of water. This prompted him to look straight up into the air, where he saw dark clouds had formed right above him. Then, as if right on cue, a torrent of water dropped right onto him. In a flash of lightning, Hakuta went from bone-dry to soaking wet. This was turning out to be quite possibly the worst day of his life…

“Ahh, I see you’ve decided to see the light.” His dad greeted him as the boy knocked on the door.

“Sure.” He replied, unamused with the grin on his father’s face. And even more irritated with all the water covering him now.

“How about you get yourself into your new room and get changed?” With that suggestion, Hakuta went into where he was going to be sleeping for the foreseeable future. According to her dad, there were four bedrooms in this house. A lot more than what two people would need, and even his inclusion wouldn’t make things cramped.

The took one of the towels from the travel bag where all of his things were held in. It seemed the man was able to save his entire wardrobe, which only served to sadden the boy in thinking that his Toystation had been sold. He would’ve gladly worn the same outfit everyday if it meant keeping that item. Especially if he was going to be living here for a while, that console had gotten him through some tough times.

He shook his head to whip out the water trapped in his hair. That rain was surely inconvenient for him, but admittedly he was going to relent to his father’s wishes eventually. This was a place already lined up for him to live in, so where else was there to go for the young boy. At this age, it wasn’t like he could just support himself on his own and handle school duties at the same time.

Resigning himself to this fate, Hakuta put on some dry clothes. A shower was going to be in order later tonight, but right now there was dinner to be had. Shiuka’s dad seemed to be quite proud of his cooking given the way he called for the two to come down and eat. So he opened up his door and began to make his way towards the stairs. Of course, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see that she had done the same thing.

“Can’t say I’m pleased to be seeing your mug.” He had a mean greeting for her, but her response was a shock to him. “The next months of my life are going to be terrible.”

“Well, I think it’ll be fun with you living here.” She said. That was not what he was expecting out of her at all.

“Eh?” He audible sounded his feelings to her. “Just a while ago, you seemed upset about this.”

“Well, that was because I had to cancel my plans. So I was upset about that.” One of the worst things a gyaru could do in her mind was to flake on her friends. “And it came off as a shock to me, but like, it kind of gets boring living here all by myself. So maybe you could a nice change of pace.” The girl playfully stuck her tongue out at him. Given she had done so before in a mocking manner earlier, the difference was clear to him. Then she was the first one walking down the steps.

“Hey, I’m not supposed to be some kind of toy or new pet for you!” He spoke out his displeasure at her apparently being so accepting of this situation.

“Geez, if you’re going to act like this the whole time. I’m not going to be happy.” She responded as they descended the stairs.

“I don’t exist for your happiness.” He argued with her the whole way to the dining room. There, they were greeted with the full dinner laid about thank to the hard work of their parents.

“It’s nice to see the two of you already hitting it off.” Her dad said as he placed down the plates. To the kids, they had no idea what their fathers were seeing when they heard them arguing. Under what circumstances could this be viewed as ‘hitting this off’? That said, it was nice to see all the food strewn about the table. It seemed like a feast, and given that it had been forever since the young boy had a meal like this, he began salivating.

She also did the same thing. After all, despite living in such luxury, the girl’s skills in cooking were nowhere near her father’s. And given that he was not usually home, a meal like this was considered a treat. It all smelled so nicely with the servings of fine steak, steamed broccoli, and fried rice.

So quickly, the pair sat themselves down right at the table, which also was right next to each other. Even though they were arguing just moments before, good food like this made them care little for their differences.

“So tomorrow is when the two of us are going to leave.” Kankichi said as they ate their meal. “Who knows when we’ll be back.” The latter statement didn’t instill any confidence for Hakuta. He didn’t like the idea of not knowing when he’d be able to leave this place.

“Who knows if we’re coming back at all.” His dad laughed. The tone of his voice compared to the statement was quite different. It was as if death didn’t scare this man at all.

“So hopefully you two will be fine while we’re gone.” He continued on.

“Of course we will, papa.” She spoke in a manner of a girl who was clearly spoiled by her single parent. “I promise I’ll be a good girl while you’re gone. I swear it on it.” With that, the pair exchanged a pinky swear across the dinner table. Hakuta rolled his eyes upon being given such a sight. If there was another reason why he disliked gyarus, it was how immature they acted.

“Just try not to do anything stupid, dad.” That didn’t mean he didn’t care for the well being of his own father. Though he did little to show how much concern he had over this trip.

“When have I ever done that?” With a question like that, Hakuta was pretty certain this man was going to do some real dumb things. Their dinner continued on as normal. Soon enough, they had finished and the boy believed they be going back into their rooms to prepare to sleep for the night. As they cleaned up their plates, he took note that Shiuka didn’t even touch any of the broccoli her dad had made them. Apparently veggies were not her strong point.

“Well, I’m going to bed.” He announced to everyone as they got the plates into the dishwasher.

“You don’t want to hang out with us in the living room?” His father asked.

“Why would I?”

“Well, I heard you liked games, and I did just get my daughter a game console.” Her dad answered. She laughed about it and said that while it was nice. She never used them anyway, since video games didn’t interest her.

“Lucky you.” While the thought of video games being wasted on a creature like her put a damper on his mood. Hakuta was allured by the idea of being able to play such games while here. “Fine, let’s go see it.” So the group relocated themselves into the living room. This was where he was greeted with an amazing television setup with 7.1 surround sound. The TV hung up on the wall had to be at least 75 inches.

“I got this on such a nice deal.” Kankichi revealed what he had got. A Toystation that was the same model as the one the young boy had lost earlier today.

“Yeah, you really are lucky.” Against, this caused Hakuta to want to just leave and turn in for the night. The man turned it on and the boy was welcomed to a familiar sight.

“Hmm, it looks like the old account is still on here.” He said. “Guess we’ll just delete it and-”

“Wait!” Hakuta yelled out, which frightened everyone in the room. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The background, that username. This was his Toystation. The teen boy was so excited with the reunion that he pushed Kankichi aside to bend over and hug his old console.

“Wow, I can’t believe you’re the one who bought this thing.” Said Toukou. When he sold most of the items, it was a fire sale that involved other people. So he was unaware of who actually bought their things.

“You really are a weirdo, aren’t you?” Meanwhile, Shiuka was given the unfortunate sight of someone who loved their game console a bit too much.

“Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.” He responded, not moving from the spot. Reunited with his prized gaming console, Hakuta could now be happy… Content with his new living arrangement.