===== Chapter 29   [ Part 4 ] =====

"Thank you."

You politely smile while you begin to take the song book from his hands. Your voice is barely heard from the noise being emitted around the place. Since you are in the arcade zone, it's understandable for the place to be chaotic like that of a supermarket.

Actually..

Scratch that. It's even more worse.

Kids are running around everywhere. Different kinds of game music blare out from all places. And then— on an open space karaoke— is a dude singing Despacito in his most passionate voice.

He's really amazing with how he always manages to hit not a single note correctly.

Actually nah, his Spanish is even more outstanding.

You don't know if it's intentions to ruin the eardrums of everyone around here; but well, obviously he's enjoying the moment right now, despite being surrounded by lots of curious strangers.

Okay, gotta stop being distracted, (Y/N).

Dad's waiting for you!

You turn your gaze away from the platform as you return your attention to the song book before you. Strangely, as you did that, you happen to realize that the employee has not yet dropped his hold on the book.

He was just staring at you.

Almost like, he seemed concerned?

Confused, you look at him and ask him "what?"

"Oh, your eyes... are you alright?"

You realize that the employee is pertaining to your still puffy eyes.

Since you cried earlier, your eyes is still suffering from the effects. So the past few minutes, you are just hiding your face from others or shielding it with your hair. If only you can buy sunglasses, then maybe it will make things easier for you.

Sighs.

Well sure you can just go buy it now, but is that even an enough reason for you to waste money on an accessory you will surely never use after today?

"Miss?"

You blink your eyes, snapping out of your thoughts.

"It's nothing. I'm fine. Thanks for the concern." You smile at him, firmly pulling the song book away from his hands, before the concerned employee can even make you stay longer by the counter.

"Hi, Dad! I'm back!"

Entering one of the soundproof karaoke booths, you are instantly welcomed by your father with a microphone in hand. He seems to be singing earlier but stops as soon as you arrive. Giving your father the book, you then take a seat beside him.

"You wanna sing first?"

Daniel gently asks as he begins to flip through the pages, searching for those 90s songs that he always repetitively sings whenever he go karaoke with you.

"Nah."

You shrug off, also looking at the songbook.

"Okay, I'll go first then." Your father smiles as he finally finds the song he has been looking for. He then stands up and walk towards the machine to input the song code. A familiar feminine voice echoes, repeating all the number your father pressed.

The instrumental eventually tunes in.

Your father begins to sing... and it's definitely better than the guy outside. Well, there are flats here and there, but overall he's okay.

You grin, hollering for him sometimes, to boost the confidence your father is already sporting.

Daniel laughs and sings even louder. Sometimes, he will even offer the microphone to you; and you will comply.. singing while also laughing.

The song ends, and you guys get a score of 12.

"What the?! Is this broken?!"

Daniel gapes at the screen, not understanding the excessively low score he's able to attain from singing. He lightly kicks the machine before facing you with an expression of dismayal, and you just casually shrug with a smile.

"Who knows?" you tell him though there's some hinted meaning behind those two words.

Your father narrows his eyes at you then sighs, taking a seat beside you, while he once again begins to flip the songbook for another song choice.

"Obviously it's your score. I would always get 80+ when I'm alone," he says under his breath.

"Um, Dad?" You raise a brow at him.

Your father simply smiles at you, pretending that he did not say anything just now.

Tsk. It's just a karaoke score. It's not like his life career is over if he gets that. And duh who wouldn't get a 12 when you guys are both laughing while singing...

Anyways...

The singing continues, and your poor dad would always get scores below 50. Even when you're not joining him. At first, he's loudly complaining; but when this goes on and on without failure, his whining fade; and he would just glare at the screen.

"Hey, is this broken?" your father asks a staff.

The staff immediately tries out the karaoke machine to inspect for any damages. And man,— when his mouth opened, you and your father cannot help but be stunned when the beautiful singing came out.

The song ends.

He got a score of 100, compared to your father.

"It's not broken," the staff casually says as he gives the mic back to my still surprised father.

You, who already snap out of your daze, praise him. "You're so good. You should become a singer."

"Thanks," he tiredly says then walks out the booth as if that's not the first time he experienced it. You then turn towards your father, who is now looking at the monitor with the score 100.

"Now you know it's not broken," you tell him.

"This must be set to extreme difficulty. That must be...," Daniel quietly mutters to himself, as he takes a seat once again, trying to regain his composure.

When Dad's fine already, he starts to sing again.

I think, that's his seventh song? You don't really recall anymore. Your father really loves singing to the point he can stay at the karaoke booth for an hour and more.

As a supportive daughter, you would assist him; but of course not always. Your dad would also allow you to go out and try some of the arcade games.

So there you go— exiting the booth while he's in the middle of the singing, you have your arcade smart card with you.

Your first destination is the rhythm games, but you find them all occupied with competitve gamers. You're a tad disappointed, but you also can't help but get captivated with their gameplay.

Their eyes are heavily concentrated on the screen. Their hands with protective gloves are so fast and skillful in swiping, clearing all the beats and rhythm with almost no mistakes made.

Wow... I can never.

As you are so concentrated on watching the pro players, you fail to realize something coming towards your way.
Something slams on your butt, causing you to let out a terrified shriek. So caught off guard from what random force that hit you, you slightly stumble forward.

It was only supposed to be a stumble..

It was only supposed to be...

But there lies a few bags before your position. Your left feet, in the middle of stumbling, hits it, causing you and your whole body to lose your balance and fall.

Oh shit.. no..

You shut your eyes, preparing yourself for the impact.

But nothing smacks your face as you expected.

Instead, you feel something grab your waist— stopping you before you experience a tragedy with you being all bloody in the head.

You flutter your eyes open.

Holding your breath as you immediately perceive the deadly floor just before your eyes.

Hah... hah... what the freaking hell is that?!! You still stare at the floor, failing to realize that your weight right now is being supported by someone else.

"Are you done?"

A voice so icy cold whispers to your red-tipped ears.

And just like that you tilt your head to the side, and you spot those dead turquoise eyes staring back at your (E/C) colored ones.