★ | #12 | arcade
"ooh, scary."

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ nicole's radio station
is now playing...

i wish • skee-lo
"i wish i was a little bit taller."

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“HEY, Hee, look.” Haewon called out quietly as he turned his head in her direction, brows raised as she gestured to two matching plushies on display. “Cute, right?”

Heeseung laughed quietly as he wandered closer to get a better look at the plushies on the shelves.

“You're joking, right?” The boy raised a brow, fingers grazing over the soft fabric of the plush as Haewon scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

“What? You don't like them?” She narrowed her eyes, lips pressed together in a thin line.

“Haewon, these are hideous. I think I'd get nightmares if I let one of these things in my house.” Heeseung huffed, brows curving inward.

“You're so dramatic! They're literally so cute. You're blind.” Haewon rolled her eyes, shaking her head off to the side.

“Something is severely wrong with you.” Heeseung grimaced, his tone of voice laced with sarcasm as Haewon snickered and mocked him, nudging him softly.

“Whatever. I'll get them as matching gifts for Miyeon and I.” She sighed out, clicking her tongue as she picked out the two plushies off of the shelf.

“Woahh, replacing me already? Next thing I know, you'll be ditching me to hang out with her.” The boy complained dramatically, faking a soft sniffle.

“Oh, shut up. You have no room to talk when you hang out with Jake and the others all the time. Matter of fact, didn't you just ditch me to go hang out with Park Jongseong last week? Don't talk.” Haewon snapped back, as Heeseung grumbled underneath his breath.

Staring at each other for a moment with narrowed eyes, Heeseung sucked in a breath as he snatched one of the plushies from her arms. “Give me that.” He grumbled, as a smile spread across her face.

“I knew you'd come around.” She hummed, patting his shoulder before brushing past him to look at different shelves.

“I really hate you sometimes.” He commented, tucking his bottom lip between his teeth as he bit down on it, following her through the small shop.

“I feel the exact same way. Another reason we're just such a good duo.” Haewon countered happily along with an eye roll.

The boy bit back a smile at her words, scoffing playfully as he arms folded across his chest, eyes focused on the plushie he held in his hands, examining it as she continued to look through all of the stuff for sale.

“Alright, alright, your mother didn't give you that much money to spend. Also, she said to spend it wisely. Don't blow it all on dumb stuff.” Heeseung advised, his hand reaching out to wrap around her forearm, tugging her away from the shelves as she grumbled in complaint.

“This stuff is top notch! What is wrong with you? You have poor taste in items.” Haewon let out a soft groan, rolling her eyes as he ignored her words, continuing to pull her along with him to the check out.

“Give me it.” He said, holding out his hand as he gestured to the plushie she held, identical to his own.

Haewon paused, lips pressed together in a thin line before she handed it over to him, as he paid for it with his own money.

Once finishing the paying process, Heeseung carried around the small plastic bag filled with the two plushies, with the girl following closely behind before catching up with him, walking alongside him.

“Thanks for paying. I forgot you could be nice sometimes.” Haewon smiled, both expressing her gratitude whilst also teasing him, her tone ever so condescending.

Heeseung scoffed, shooting her a knowing glance as before he peered off ahead of him, shaking his head. “Don't make me regret it. I only bought it because I know you're broke. You spend all of your money on those dumb books of yours.”

“It's full house, Heeseung. And it's not dumb.” Haewon mumbled, narrowing her eyes. “And I am not broke.”

“Didn't you just quit your job? Like a couple weeks ago? Soon enough, you will be.” Heeseung said jokingly with a huff, only to receive a jab to the side as he let out a small “ouch.”

“I did, but only because my boss was a total asshole. Goodness, I hate that guy.” Haewon grimaced, shuddering dramatically at the thought.

“Hey, language.” The boy scolded, shaking his head in disapproval as Haewon gave him a puzzled look, furrowing her brows tightly.

“You're one to talk. Remember that one time you were really mad and—” Haewon started, as Heeseung quickly cut her off, not wanting to relive the day he very much remembered.

“Lalalala, okay! I get it!” Heeseung raised his tone, talking over her as she closed her mouth before releasing a breath, a laugh following suit.

“You're so easy to frustrate.” Haewon teased, eyes forming two small crescents as Heeseung scoffed and waved her off.

“No, not really. It's only really you who gets me this annoyed.” Heeseung confessed, as the girl raised her brows.

“What? Are you calling me annoying? I'm telling your parents that you're being mean.” Haewon mumbled playfully, as Heeseung shrugged, an arm swinging lazily around her shoulders.

“Oh, relax. I made up for it by paying for your weird plushie.” He pointed out, adjusting the plastic bag he held in his left hand as the handle slid down his wrist as he used his hands to brush his hair out of his eyes.

“Hm, I guess so.” Haewon gave in, eyes looking around to discover what downtown had to offer.

“But, remember that you willingly bought yourself a matching one.” She added on, turning to meet his gaze briefly as Heeseung shook his head at the claim.

“Okay, not willingly.”

“Yes, willingly. I was going to buy it for someone else but you took it and decided to buy it for yourself. I did not force you in the slightest.” Haewon defended herself, a smile painting her pink lips as he sighed and grumbled underneath his breath.

“Heeseung, Heeseung, look. You can stop sulking already. Either I'm an idiot, or that really is an arcade right there.” The girl tapped repeatedly on the hand that was draped over her right shoulder.

Heeseung perked up, looking down at her momentarily to follow her gaze as it led him across the street, a flashy arcade sign designed to look like a rocket ship.

“I mean, you are an idiot, but yes, that's an arcade.” He confirmed, giving her a small nod.

“I swear, I'm going to tell my mom to not let you into our home every single time you come over.” Haewon threatened, shoving his arm off of her body as he let out an amused laugh, following her across the street.

“Your mom loves me too much to ever deny me entry. She knows I'm a good influence on you.” Heeseung snickered, leaning down slightly to nudge her with his shoulder.

“A good influence how? You literally provided me with alcohol. We're underage. She'd kill you if she found out.” Haewon scoffed.

“It was your idea though.”

“You still followed through with it. If you were a good influence, you would've said no.” The girl reasoned, pausing on the sidewalk just outside of the arcade as she turned to look at him.

“..Fair enough. But still, I'm a good enough influence on you. I mean, I'm helping you get your grades in check.” Heeseung pointed out, nodding along with his own words.

“That's something I could do on my own, though. I'm not dumb. I'm just lazy.”

“Exactly. And without me pushing you into actually studying and doing your work, you'd be retaking the entire grade.” He added on confidently.

Haewon hummed, lips pressed together as she didn't reply for a few silent moments following what he said.

“That's probably true, but I think it's bittersweet. I've always wondered how peaceful high school would be without Kim Miyoung around. I mean, that's assuming that she'll even pass. Maybe her grades are awful.” Haewon rambled, eyes narrowing in thought.

“Nah, she'd pass regardless. That girl is evil, I swear. She'd find a way to mess with the district and graduate.” Haewon sighed, biting down on her lip.

Heeseung rolled his eyes at the mention of his classmate, hands reaching up to place on her shoulders, guiding her inside the arcade building.

“Okay, okay. Let's not ruin the mood but mentioning people we don't like, yeah? Maybe take all of that anger out on that punching machine and win tickets for a prize.” Heeseung suggested half-jokingly, as Haewon huffed out a laugh and nodded.

“Deal.” She agreed, nodding her head frantically in approval as she stepped inside the noisy building.

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“Show off!” Haewon shouted over the noise, earning a widespread smile from her best friend as his eyes focused on the colorful screen in front of him.

Dance Dance Revolution, a relatively new game to play. They'd only ever played once before, as it was very rare due to the fact that the arcade building close to them was severely outdated, having not had any of the newer games in store.

Haewon groaned as the music came to an end, not doing anywhere near as good as Heeseung did. Her reaction time was slow, causing her to miss a handful of steps.

“My god,” Heeseung breathed out a chuckle, looking over at her. “How did you do that bad?”

“I'm sorry my reaction time isn't insanely fast. I need a minute to actually process what the next step is. That was way too fast.” Haewon grumbled in a complaint.

Her hands latched around the metal bar behind her as she supported her body weight, leaning back.

“Ahh, right, I forgot you had the same reaction time as a grandma.” Heeseung teased, taking a deep breath as he threaded his fingers through his hair.

“Shut up, I do not!” The girl scoffed, shooting him a sharp glare as he snickered.

“Ah, right, sorry. That was an exaggeration. I meant something closer to a turtle. Actually, a sloth, maybe?” He corrected himself, tone laced with sarcasm.

Haewon groaned, rolling her eyes at all of his teasing. “You're so lucky I'm tired right now, otherwise I would kick your ass.”

“Ooh, scary.” Heeseung winced, reaching over to pat her shoulder as he stepped off of the dance mat. “Alright, alright, I think that's enough fun for today. It's getting late, and we still have a train to catch.”

Haewon snickered before nodding her head quietly, checking the time on the wristwatch she wore.

“I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow.” The girl sighed out, practically melting at the thought of getting a full night's rest.

“Didn't you just sleep in today, though?” Heeseung chuckled, head cocked off to the side as Haewon breathed out a laugh.

“Well, yeah. But I could've slept for longer had you not come over.” She reasoned, slipping her arm through the handle of her bag before folding her arms over her chest.

“True.. but aren't you glad I did? It was fun.” Heeseung questioned, wandering over to the redemption counter to trade in the tickets they had collected from all of the games for a prize.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, of course. It was nice to actually play with working arcade machines for once.” The girl huffed out jokingly, as Heeseung hummed in agreement.

“Oh, for sure. Whoever runs our local arcade desperately needs to get all of that fixed. Or, just get new games.” Heeseung said.

“At least get dance dance revolution.” Haewon chimed in, a sigh falling from her lips.

“I feel like if they did, you'd be there every day training to be better than I am.” Heeseung smirked, as Haewon scoffed and furrowed her brows.

“Don't get so full of yourself.” Haewon clicked her tongue, skipping ahead of him to trade in all of her tickets for a prize.

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★﹐authors corner ．﹗﹑ 2.0k words.
atlas, the end of their little city outing 😭🙏
this little arc was so many chapters bro omg

it felt too jumbled up to fit into one or two chapters so i split it up a bunch oopsies

might just mass update this entire arc whenever the time comes that i end up publishing this story

guys i have been absolutely hating all of my ongoing stories rn. like cruel summer? cannot write for it. mistletoe?? breaks my heart because i was so excited for it but i have no motivation ugh

hoping and praying that ephemeral takes me out of my massive writers block pls 🙏

anyway

mwah i love you all so much!! thank you for reading <3
april 17th, 2024 — 7:21pm.
not proofread.