Gamers

TL: qbomb
Editor: Deus Ex Machina

Note: Aguri refers to herself in the third person.

A certain day of a certain month. Today, Aguri finished the daily love report (it"s painful every time) at the family restaurant with Amano-chi and played around with the phone to kill some time before Aguri finished her drink.

"(As usual, Tasu rarely contacts me…)"

Feeling somewhat hurt by the truth today once again, Aguri turned off her phone.

Looking up, Aguri saw Amano-chi trying really hard to do something on his smartphone that he was holding in landscape mode.

Aguri leaned against the table, rested her cheek on her hand, and gazed at him with a slightly amazed look.

"…Amano-chi, you really like your, uh, "beep boops", huh."

""Beep boop"? Not even old ladies say that anymore to refer to games, you know."

Amano-chi didn"t look away from the screen at all while shooting back a tsukkomi. …Is being able to respond to Aguri without looking up from his game evolution or de-evolution…?

The ice cubes in the cup clinked against one another as Aguri stirred her soda with her straw.

"No, compared to other people playing around on apps, Amano-chi gives off more of a "gamer" feeling… I guess you could say that it no longer looks like a smartphone."

"Are you saying it looks like I"m playing on a Game & Watch?"

"Huh? What? Watch? Are you talking about that thing that makes youkai appear?"[1]

"No, it"s different. It"s an old portable gaming console. Do you not know about it? It"s about the size of a smartphone with a monochrome display."

Amano-chi finally looked up from his phone and explained it thoroughly to Aguri. …But no matter how much you tell Aguri, you don"t know what you don"t know.

"Rather, Amano-chi, you"re the same age as Aguri, so I doubt that you know about old games."

"Huh? Why… it"s the same as simple addition and subtraction. Isn"t it just common knowledge?"

"Definitely not!"

Aguri"s doesn"t know anything about games at all, but Aguri definitely thinks that Game & Watch isn"t common knowledge as Amano-chi thinks it is!

At this point, Aguri would usually s.h.i.+ft the topic toward Amano-chi"s interest in games, but this time, he unexpectedly launched a counterattack.

"But, Uehara-kun always follows along whenever I talk about games."

"Ugu!?"

Aguri faltered from the jab.

…Certainly, it might not be common knowledge, but since Tasu has an interest in these kind of things, is Aguri unable to understand him at all? Because of that, that girl… Hos.h.i.+nomori Chiaki is now a threat in various ways.

Suddenly feeling attacked by a wave of anxiety, Aguri"s gaze wandered around the family restaurant… Trying to look composed, I s.h.i.+fted the conversation towards games once again.

"What… what kind of games does Tasu play these days, I wonder…"

It was clear that Aguri"s question was of a lower priority as Amano-chi looked back down at his game and responded.

"It looks like he"s starting to play FPS games lately."

"F… F… P… S?"

W-what language is this? Is this related to kaki pii in some way? No? No, right?[2]

Not noticing that Aguri was utterly confused, this game otaku boy continued to talk.

"An exhilarating, skill-dependent game where you shoot your opponents like an FPS certainly suits Uehara-kun~."

"Huh? Y-yea, that"s right. I-it fits Tasu perfectly. Ef… oh! FPS!"

Noticing that "F P S" meant the acronym "FPS", Aguri pointlessly exclaimed in realization.

Suddenly, Amano-chi looked up at Aguri in excitement, but didn"t try to ask anything and looked back down at his game.

"(Guh… what the h.e.l.l, Aguri doesn"t want to learn what kind of game an FPS is and what it stands for from an otaku boy who keeps saying "FPS" over and over again!)"

Whenever Aguri talks about fas.h.i.+on, Amano-chi would always go "Décoll… eté?" with a blank face, but it feels like this power relations.h.i.+p was just flipped.

Moving past that topic, Aguri started thinking to wonder what this "FPS" that her boyfriend like was.

"(He said that it was an exhilarating, skill-dependent game where you shoot your opponents… right? Shoot… in other words… the "S" stands for shooting, right!? And then, "FPS" would mean…)"

While trying to reason out the answer, Aguri asked Amano-chi indirectly to check her answers.

"A-amano-chi, do you also like it? That game…"

"What? What game are you talking about?"

Not expecting to be continuing the conversation from before, Amano-chi looked up and tilted his head.

Believing that "This is it!", Aguri tried to check her answer.

"A "Friend"s Parents Shooting" game."

"A game where you shoot your friend"s parents!? I-I don"t like that kind of game!"

"Is that so? Then you don"t have the same tastes Tasu does then, Amano-chi."

"Uehara-kun likes that kind of game!? Honestly, that"s just scary!"

H-huh, that"s strange. Somehow, it doesn"t look like "FPS" is a game where you shoot your friend"s parents.

But now it"s hard to ask for the correct answer. First of all, Aguri will stick with her interpretation for the time being, but Amano-chi was grumbling to himself for some reason.

"But, to think that Uehara-kun likes those kind of hardcore games… Before, he said that "Lately, I"ve lost interest in MO games (a multiplayer co-op game like Monster ○○nter)", but…"

At those words, Aguri jumped up in surprise.

"Eh, he has… has an interest in M-type boys?!?"

"Huh? Ah, yea, well, Uehara-kun has many friends and gets invited a lot too."

"Really!? I-is that, w-why, Tasu gets along with Amano-chi so well these days?"

To Aguri, who was asking in a panicked voice… Amano-chi shyly smiled for some reason, said "No way," and waved his hand in denial.

"Uehara-kun and I, haven"t done it yet, you know?"

"What do you mean by yet, yet! Why are you making such an outrageous statement so easily, Amano-chi!?"

Aguri reflexively hit the table and stood up.

"Huh? What are you so excited about? Aguri-san."

"A… Aguri"s not excited! Aguri doesn"t have those kind of hobbies!"

"H-hah, that is true. Aguri-san doesn"t really play…"

"P-pla— Hey, Amano-chi! Don"t think of Aguri as a easy woman! Aguri means, Aguri is really shocked! Aguri never thought that Amano-chi was that much of a player!"

"What? Oh, my house is a pretty easy-going environment, so I play with strangers, going "bang, bang". On the internet!"

"You play around with people you just randomly meet online!? That"s extreme! You"ve reached a new low, Amano-chi!"[3]

"Ehehe, well, honestly, it"s at a level where it can"t be helped that I"m so bad…"

"Why are you proud of that!? D-don"t pull in my Tasu like that!"

"I can"t agree to that no matter how much Aguri-san asks. After all, the person himself wants to, so…"

"Don"t say that, m-my boyfriend, wants to do it!"

At last, Aguri shouted as her faced flushed red.

The surrounding customers, startled at the outburst, faced in our direction… Eventually, Amano-chi looked like he realized something, and panicked.

"Ah, u-uh, umm, I don"t know when, but didn"t we just have a horrible misunderstanding!?"

"Huh? A misunderstanding…"

Aguri finally calmed down, and deliberately talked it over with Amano-chi.

And then—several minutes later.

"Oh my."

There were the figures of two people having a friendly conversation while putting their hands on their chests, sighing in relief.

Thinking about the absurd misunderstanding we had, both of us laughed

"Seriously, we"re idiots for not noticing that misunderstanding earlier."

"Really, really! Ahaha, ah, that"s funny! That"s really funny!"

"Yea, it is! It"s practically miraculous how much we misunderstand each other! But even then…"

"Yea, I don"t know if it was a fairy or G.o.d, but it was a bit excessive of a prank. But…"

The two of us, while smiling, then said the same words at the same time.

"Aguri (we) aren"t that thickheaded to not have noticed our misunderstanding!"

We both praised each other"s perceptiveness while smiling.

And so, today once again, the meeting… without having really helped either of us, ended on a calm and positive note.