The Chikamori Selfacy (A Reboot)
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Forum Discussion
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Generation One
Chapter Four - "Close Neighbours Make for Tense Relations"
Part Three
The Chikamori Third of the Triplex
Yet another walk from the school. The weather was starting to warm up as Haruo and River noted that their high school years were drawing to a close. The walks to and from school now took on a more introspective tone; conversations about how they planned to use the very first days of academic freedom. They both agreed on the fact that heading to university immediately was not in their plans at the very least. Some life experience would be nice to have before proceeding to the next academic stage of their lives. Besides; being seasoned travelers was a good thing -except when encountering cannibals; OK, maybe that was the wrong type of seasoned. But the option with immediately going to university was to live on campus, which meant that they would actually be away from Haruo’s mother.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yAA5CQnOo2U/X9l3LkutVRI/AAAAAAAAlXk/E-vX7FyTRnoy2yscvzJ3IDkPUdRhRpRugCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-9.jpg
Studying was never fun...for Haruo nor for River especially not over on Haruo's side of the triplex. Especially with Mayumi hovering nearby like a malevolent Gorgon seizing on the slightest opportunity to be a harpy. "I hope you two are studying more than you are chattering. If you're not getting your school-work done..." prompting Haruo to snap irritably that they were going over the problem and trying to solve it together to which Mayumi's response was "...less chatter more work!"
God, how River hated that witch. Mayumi was a stickler for homework and as a teacher for the primary school that was conjoined with the secondary school, she was able to be charming enough to glean whatever results on her son's academics that she could and used that information to make his life a living hell.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CUdJtyR0D98/X9l371X98yI/AAAAAAAAlXs/zCKJoH3gEd4qOrITVtkt_cLUOEIu8PaVQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-12.jpg
Poor Haruo just didn't find that it was all that interesting. In fact, neither did River but at least she was hovering around an A average in school. Haruo was struggling and he knew it. With only two months left of school to go, He was going to be hard pressed to pull his grades up to an A average and that in itself gave Mayumi more than enough to grind Haruo's gears to the breaking point.
Homework was a dreary prospect looming over their last eight weeks of school. None of them enjoyed the prospect of homework or the tests that followed shortly thereafter. Most of the classroom study and work were for the prime objective of shoving your grade-point average up as high as possible to qualify for post-secondary education scholarship contention. In that vein, it was a good thing to be a keener as that would help rain money down on your head ostensibly to ensure your continued success in post-secondary school in order to achieve the highest university/college marks available to a 4.0 grade point average thus reaching the highest, exalted pinnacle of academic prowess *cough* Rhodes Scholar *cough* possible while the rest of one's pedestrian friends had to work for a living in order to support their academic endeavors. What a way to win an appointment to study at Oxford.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xWEG2aNh17k/X9l5Q-2hDKI/AAAAAAAAlX4/dgq07duT4FM9H0XVVH1n6E1As_cwS-LggCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-5.jpg
Haruo knew for a fact that the only way that he would ever qualify for any scholarship was if some awarding institution took pity on him for his lack of scholastic ability.
Maybe the Pacific Association for Advanced Mathematical Studies for the Dyscalculaic (PAAMSD) - that would be a feat. Haruo chuckled to himself. Doctoral thesis in the Mathematical Sciences would be Trigonometric Permutations of the Square Root of Pi to the Tenth Power and Its Use in Calculus. That would take the better part of twenty years to complete for somebody having to deal with dyscalculia. The errors themselves would appear as logical permutations and would make proof-reading a nightmare.
Or perhaps the Fraternal Order of the Franciscan Friars Charity's Piety (or was that Pity) Grant for those who are Academically Ungifted.
It was a royal pain in the ass to feel motivated enough to do homework all the time. Especially when distractions were plentiful including Grad Committee, focusing on a humungous bash to send graduates off into young adulthood and post-secondary life; one final salute to the happy-go-lucky years of youth; a soiree to end all soirees to celebrate the culmination of secondary education and their new lives as functioning members of society...
...hopefully...
Who knew what the future would portend for the two, but they knew that in order to get a great start in life, that they would have to crack the whip on their schooling and try to achieve as high a mark as they could in what short amount of time that they had left in their high-school academic careers.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ErF7bUp7pS8/X9l6C7rUi_I/AAAAAAAAlYA/vut0aZHvnUwCUMUkWvfOyTLKGJizVDl9ACLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-10.jpg
But that still didn't stop Haruo from making faces about it. He'd hated school-work for as long as he could remember; it took time away from more enjoyable things like playing basic arcade games like Super Contra and Assault. They were games that had a major line up at the arcade with people hovering around the arcade machine eager to get a look at the action just waiting for the player to mess up so that they could have a turn.
Since school was in session, the Spring Festival was an “after-school” event, Yasunobu told Haruo to go with River after they’d done their homework and get some relaxation time while Mayumi's back was turned. They didn't need to be told twice. Both River and Haruo looked at each other and amscrayed out the door to make sure that they enjoyed the rest of what was left of their evening..
The Spring Festival was still in town and Haruo looked forward to the thought of going to Central Park to go do something interesting at the Spring Festival. Evidently much was there for the enjoyment of the townsfolk. Lovers could test their compatibility with the Love Tester and singles could go up to the Kissing booths to receive a kiss for a fiver. Ah, love was in bloom.
"Where the hell is that rotten kid?" Mayumi snarled as she saw the wide open door and no teenager present, "Of course he'd sneak out of the house when he's supposed to be studying." It didn't matter to Mayumi that her son had stayed up for three hours doing homework with his friend the previous night. Mayumi expected perfection and by God, she was going to get it from that undisciplined blight if she had to flog him with a ruler.
She turned to her husband and said "he must have gone to the park. Yasubo! Do something!" The shrill hag put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
Yasunobu took that as an opportunity to go to the park himself, alone so that he would not have to listen to the bleating harpy that he'd had the misfortune to marry, when, he presumed, he'd lost his mind so many years ago.
Maybe he needed to go talk to a lawyer to see what his options were because he wasn't sure if he could remain tied to a screeching termagant that was making him and his son's life an absolute misery. Perhaps life would get much better if he was free of her.
So Yasunobu also took his leave of the house and headed down to Central Park. If he saw Haruo and River, he wouldn't say anything. After all the studying Haruo and River did, they deserved some time to themselves.
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Yasunobu always had been a hard worker; he always put out his best efforts in any job but he also was understanding of his child's need to relax and he felt that Mayumi was going overboard on the "study" aspect of things. She was not going to get the results she wanted by grinding Haruo to the point of mental collapse.
His walk allowed him time to think and he pondered why he married that woman in the first place. After all, she had certainly made his own life a living hell. Was it any wonder that he felt 'baited and switched'. There was no resemblance at all to the woman he married - it was as though he had married a completely different person, a behavioral shapeshifter, malevolently keeping the same face, but shifting her attitude to persecute the one she had turned into a scapegoat. And it made Yasunobu squirm in revulsion. In fact the worse Mayumi treated their child, the more Yasunobu reviled her and drew away from her. "If Mayumi thought Yasunobu was going to tell Haruo to come home so that she could continue to psychologically batter him, she had another thing coming.
He reached the park, noted quietly that his son was with River and went to quietly get a hot-dog at the stand. He waited for the music to stop and for his son and his friend to come off the roller-skating rink with River and smiled as his son warily approached noting with some anger towards Mayumi that his son was wary of him; that he thought that Yasunobu was spying on what the two of them were doing on Mayumi's behalf.
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To reassure him, he said to Haruo, "Koko dewa tanoshinde ne." He winked at Haruo who heard clearly that he was to enjoy his time at the park. "Anata futari jubun taberunoni okane mo-teru ka?" Haruo looked at River who shrugged her shoulders, he had only about ten simoleons. Yasunobu slipped his hand into his own pocket withdrawing his wallet. Handing both River and Haruo twenty simoleons each he said, "jubun, tabe-yo, nanika nomimon kainasai. Kyo wa sugoku astukatta." Haruo looked over at his father who grinned at him and at River. And it certainly was going to be necessary to eat and drink tonight, as it was still warm even in the middle of May, he was already feeling the heat and it was after seven at night. "Devisa ni iku, hon ga aru ka o shiraberu." Haruo reacted to his father's words with some relief as his father finished his last bite of hot dog and stood up.
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River hugged him, all throughout her childhood, Yasunobu had always treated her like the daughter he'd never had, and every time Yasunobu saw her with his son, his facial countenance had a softness losing that hen-pecked pinched look.
Yasunobu hugged her back and said, "Anata to Haruo issho ni niau ne..." he winked at Haruo and Haruo turned red with embarrassment. River looked at Haruo in confusion. Yasunobu patted her on the shoulder, nodded to the both of them and headed off, his footsteps marking a path towards Devisadero Books.
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"What did he say?" River asked raising an eyebrow.
"Do you really want to know?" Haruo said flushing red again.
River raised one eyebrow in response; crossed her arms, tapping the toe of her right shoe and sarcastically said, "no.,,duh." Obviously.
"Um...he said...uh...we make... a good pair."
River's eyebrow lifted higher at that if it were possible and a glint of her eye made Haruo think she was coming up with something mischievous as a slow smile crept over her lips. She said with a 'come hither' over the shoulder glance, crooking her finger at him. "Well, why don't we see, huh..." and coaxed him to come with her to the Love Tester machine. It was located right next to the kissing booths this time around.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j-hv4D-xjrI/X9mQL-I8oKI/AAAAAAAAlZA/wws0Ocd9H404cUBuvRvjKJTz7Impzgo9wCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-54.jpg
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They both did the test. River grinned at Haruo when the outcome came out as Passionate. "Oh, really?" She said smirking at Haruo. "I don't know, we've been friends for 15 years now..." River made it appear as though she was thinking for a long moment, "but I can't seem to recall you being passionate." Another wicked smile. " Do you think the machine could be wrong?" She asked innocently knowing full well that she was baiting Haruo.
Haruo wasn't sure how to respond to that. He'd always thought of River as a really good friend but lately it seemed as though she was a bit more playful with him and stiffened up a bit when she saw him talking to other girls in the school and the brush past in the pool that had given him such a charge that he'd been afraid to get out of the pool or every one would have noticed just how interested he was in River. Of course he was a red blooded male and programmed to respond to flirtation. He settled for a shrug, "I don't know, maybe the machines are calibrated to come up with a variable answer. You want to try it again and see if we get a different answer?"
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River smirked,"yeah, lets" pausing for a moment to give Haruo an inspecting look up and down."if we get the same answer, well...". She paused then said.."How about we just skip the kissing booths?"
Haruo didn't know why a sense of relief came over him as River suggested that. Why was it that he felt uncontrollable jealousy at the thought of River being kissed by someone else. It wasn't as though she was his sole possession. She was her own person.
Then she turned to the machine and they watched the lights light up. "What does it say?" Haruo asked not knowing why he was so nervous at the result.
River held her gaze on the test result before whispering. "The same thing." And then looked at Haruo.
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They both walked away from the machine together, each lost in their own thoughts. It was just a fun machine, wasn't it? And why was it causing an upheaval in both of them.
"You mentioned something about skipping the kissing booth?" Haruo ventured.
"Yeah." River was quiet. "I always found the idea of kissing a complete stranger grody". She looked at him, her thoughts reflecting on what the machine had read out as their love-reading. "I'd much rather kiss someone who I know."
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They walked over to the food kiosks and each bought a Pepsi and sat down to enjoy it. They enjoyed the rest of the day but he could tell something was on River's mind.
After they were done at the festival and were set to head back home. Haruo walked her to her suite in the triplex, hugged her and stayed put until he could hear the deadbolts on the door. Then he turned his footsteps towards the side of the triplex where his family lived.
(End Part Three)
Generation One
Chapter Four - "Close Neighbours Make for Tense Relations"
Part Three
The Chikamori Third of the Triplex
Yet another walk from the school. The weather was starting to warm up as Haruo and River noted that their high school years were drawing to a close. The walks to and from school now took on a more introspective tone; conversations about how they planned to use the very first days of academic freedom. They both agreed on the fact that heading to university immediately was not in their plans at the very least. Some life experience would be nice to have before proceeding to the next academic stage of their lives. Besides; being seasoned travelers was a good thing -except when encountering cannibals; OK, maybe that was the wrong type of seasoned. But the option with immediately going to university was to live on campus, which meant that they would actually be away from Haruo’s mother.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yAA5CQnOo2U/X9l3LkutVRI/AAAAAAAAlXk/E-vX7FyTRnoy2yscvzJ3IDkPUdRhRpRugCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-9.jpg
Studying was never fun...for Haruo nor for River especially not over on Haruo's side of the triplex. Especially with Mayumi hovering nearby like a malevolent Gorgon seizing on the slightest opportunity to be a harpy. "I hope you two are studying more than you are chattering. If you're not getting your school-work done..." prompting Haruo to snap irritably that they were going over the problem and trying to solve it together to which Mayumi's response was "...less chatter more work!"
God, how River hated that witch. Mayumi was a stickler for homework and as a teacher for the primary school that was conjoined with the secondary school, she was able to be charming enough to glean whatever results on her son's academics that she could and used that information to make his life a living hell.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CUdJtyR0D98/X9l371X98yI/AAAAAAAAlXs/zCKJoH3gEd4qOrITVtkt_cLUOEIu8PaVQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-12.jpg
Poor Haruo just didn't find that it was all that interesting. In fact, neither did River but at least she was hovering around an A average in school. Haruo was struggling and he knew it. With only two months left of school to go, He was going to be hard pressed to pull his grades up to an A average and that in itself gave Mayumi more than enough to grind Haruo's gears to the breaking point.
Homework was a dreary prospect looming over their last eight weeks of school. None of them enjoyed the prospect of homework or the tests that followed shortly thereafter. Most of the classroom study and work were for the prime objective of shoving your grade-point average up as high as possible to qualify for post-secondary education scholarship contention. In that vein, it was a good thing to be a keener as that would help rain money down on your head ostensibly to ensure your continued success in post-secondary school in order to achieve the highest university/college marks available to a 4.0 grade point average thus reaching the highest, exalted pinnacle of academic prowess *cough* Rhodes Scholar *cough* possible while the rest of one's pedestrian friends had to work for a living in order to support their academic endeavors. What a way to win an appointment to study at Oxford.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xWEG2aNh17k/X9l5Q-2hDKI/AAAAAAAAlX4/dgq07duT4FM9H0XVVH1n6E1As_cwS-LggCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-5.jpg
Haruo knew for a fact that the only way that he would ever qualify for any scholarship was if some awarding institution took pity on him for his lack of scholastic ability.
Maybe the Pacific Association for Advanced Mathematical Studies for the Dyscalculaic (PAAMSD) - that would be a feat. Haruo chuckled to himself. Doctoral thesis in the Mathematical Sciences would be Trigonometric Permutations of the Square Root of Pi to the Tenth Power and Its Use in Calculus. That would take the better part of twenty years to complete for somebody having to deal with dyscalculia. The errors themselves would appear as logical permutations and would make proof-reading a nightmare.
Or perhaps the Fraternal Order of the Franciscan Friars Charity's Piety (or was that Pity) Grant for those who are Academically Ungifted.
It was a royal pain in the ass to feel motivated enough to do homework all the time. Especially when distractions were plentiful including Grad Committee, focusing on a humungous bash to send graduates off into young adulthood and post-secondary life; one final salute to the happy-go-lucky years of youth; a soiree to end all soirees to celebrate the culmination of secondary education and their new lives as functioning members of society...
...hopefully...
Who knew what the future would portend for the two, but they knew that in order to get a great start in life, that they would have to crack the whip on their schooling and try to achieve as high a mark as they could in what short amount of time that they had left in their high-school academic careers.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ErF7bUp7pS8/X9l6C7rUi_I/AAAAAAAAlYA/vut0aZHvnUwCUMUkWvfOyTLKGJizVDl9ACLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-10.jpg
But that still didn't stop Haruo from making faces about it. He'd hated school-work for as long as he could remember; it took time away from more enjoyable things like playing basic arcade games like Super Contra and Assault. They were games that had a major line up at the arcade with people hovering around the arcade machine eager to get a look at the action just waiting for the player to mess up so that they could have a turn.
Since school was in session, the Spring Festival was an “after-school” event, Yasunobu told Haruo to go with River after they’d done their homework and get some relaxation time while Mayumi's back was turned. They didn't need to be told twice. Both River and Haruo looked at each other and amscrayed out the door to make sure that they enjoyed the rest of what was left of their evening..
The Spring Festival was still in town and Haruo looked forward to the thought of going to Central Park to go do something interesting at the Spring Festival. Evidently much was there for the enjoyment of the townsfolk. Lovers could test their compatibility with the Love Tester and singles could go up to the Kissing booths to receive a kiss for a fiver. Ah, love was in bloom.
"Where the hell is that rotten kid?" Mayumi snarled as she saw the wide open door and no teenager present, "Of course he'd sneak out of the house when he's supposed to be studying." It didn't matter to Mayumi that her son had stayed up for three hours doing homework with his friend the previous night. Mayumi expected perfection and by God, she was going to get it from that undisciplined blight if she had to flog him with a ruler.
She turned to her husband and said "he must have gone to the park. Yasubo! Do something!" The shrill hag put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
Yasunobu took that as an opportunity to go to the park himself, alone so that he would not have to listen to the bleating harpy that he'd had the misfortune to marry, when, he presumed, he'd lost his mind so many years ago.
Maybe he needed to go talk to a lawyer to see what his options were because he wasn't sure if he could remain tied to a screeching termagant that was making him and his son's life an absolute misery. Perhaps life would get much better if he was free of her.
So Yasunobu also took his leave of the house and headed down to Central Park. If he saw Haruo and River, he wouldn't say anything. After all the studying Haruo and River did, they deserved some time to themselves.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y73HCAwE_Kg/X9mKHqV8ZsI/AAAAAAAAlYM/bBxvEW6fJ1Y5ypDnxSSUnhrqrY0-53S1QCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-17.jpg
Yasunobu always had been a hard worker; he always put out his best efforts in any job but he also was understanding of his child's need to relax and he felt that Mayumi was going overboard on the "study" aspect of things. She was not going to get the results she wanted by grinding Haruo to the point of mental collapse.
His walk allowed him time to think and he pondered why he married that woman in the first place. After all, she had certainly made his own life a living hell. Was it any wonder that he felt 'baited and switched'. There was no resemblance at all to the woman he married - it was as though he had married a completely different person, a behavioral shapeshifter, malevolently keeping the same face, but shifting her attitude to persecute the one she had turned into a scapegoat. And it made Yasunobu squirm in revulsion. In fact the worse Mayumi treated their child, the more Yasunobu reviled her and drew away from her. "If Mayumi thought Yasunobu was going to tell Haruo to come home so that she could continue to psychologically batter him, she had another thing coming.
He reached the park, noted quietly that his son was with River and went to quietly get a hot-dog at the stand. He waited for the music to stop and for his son and his friend to come off the roller-skating rink with River and smiled as his son warily approached noting with some anger towards Mayumi that his son was wary of him; that he thought that Yasunobu was spying on what the two of them were doing on Mayumi's behalf.
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To reassure him, he said to Haruo, "Koko dewa tanoshinde ne." He winked at Haruo who heard clearly that he was to enjoy his time at the park. "Anata futari jubun taberunoni okane mo-teru ka?" Haruo looked at River who shrugged her shoulders, he had only about ten simoleons. Yasunobu slipped his hand into his own pocket withdrawing his wallet. Handing both River and Haruo twenty simoleons each he said, "jubun, tabe-yo, nanika nomimon kainasai. Kyo wa sugoku astukatta." Haruo looked over at his father who grinned at him and at River. And it certainly was going to be necessary to eat and drink tonight, as it was still warm even in the middle of May, he was already feeling the heat and it was after seven at night. "Devisa ni iku, hon ga aru ka o shiraberu." Haruo reacted to his father's words with some relief as his father finished his last bite of hot dog and stood up.
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River hugged him, all throughout her childhood, Yasunobu had always treated her like the daughter he'd never had, and every time Yasunobu saw her with his son, his facial countenance had a softness losing that hen-pecked pinched look.
Yasunobu hugged her back and said, "Anata to Haruo issho ni niau ne..." he winked at Haruo and Haruo turned red with embarrassment. River looked at Haruo in confusion. Yasunobu patted her on the shoulder, nodded to the both of them and headed off, his footsteps marking a path towards Devisadero Books.
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"What did he say?" River asked raising an eyebrow.
"Do you really want to know?" Haruo said flushing red again.
River raised one eyebrow in response; crossed her arms, tapping the toe of her right shoe and sarcastically said, "no.,,duh." Obviously.
"Um...he said...uh...we make... a good pair."
River's eyebrow lifted higher at that if it were possible and a glint of her eye made Haruo think she was coming up with something mischievous as a slow smile crept over her lips. She said with a 'come hither' over the shoulder glance, crooking her finger at him. "Well, why don't we see, huh..." and coaxed him to come with her to the Love Tester machine. It was located right next to the kissing booths this time around.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j-hv4D-xjrI/X9mQL-I8oKI/AAAAAAAAlZA/wws0Ocd9H404cUBuvRvjKJTz7Impzgo9wCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-54.jpg
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They both did the test. River grinned at Haruo when the outcome came out as Passionate. "Oh, really?" She said smirking at Haruo. "I don't know, we've been friends for 15 years now..." River made it appear as though she was thinking for a long moment, "but I can't seem to recall you being passionate." Another wicked smile. " Do you think the machine could be wrong?" She asked innocently knowing full well that she was baiting Haruo.
Haruo wasn't sure how to respond to that. He'd always thought of River as a really good friend but lately it seemed as though she was a bit more playful with him and stiffened up a bit when she saw him talking to other girls in the school and the brush past in the pool that had given him such a charge that he'd been afraid to get out of the pool or every one would have noticed just how interested he was in River. Of course he was a red blooded male and programmed to respond to flirtation. He settled for a shrug, "I don't know, maybe the machines are calibrated to come up with a variable answer. You want to try it again and see if we get a different answer?"
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River smirked,"yeah, lets" pausing for a moment to give Haruo an inspecting look up and down."if we get the same answer, well...". She paused then said.."How about we just skip the kissing booths?"
Haruo didn't know why a sense of relief came over him as River suggested that. Why was it that he felt uncontrollable jealousy at the thought of River being kissed by someone else. It wasn't as though she was his sole possession. She was her own person.
Then she turned to the machine and they watched the lights light up. "What does it say?" Haruo asked not knowing why he was so nervous at the result.
River held her gaze on the test result before whispering. "The same thing." And then looked at Haruo.
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They both walked away from the machine together, each lost in their own thoughts. It was just a fun machine, wasn't it? And why was it causing an upheaval in both of them.
"You mentioned something about skipping the kissing booth?" Haruo ventured.
"Yeah." River was quiet. "I always found the idea of kissing a complete stranger grody". She looked at him, her thoughts reflecting on what the machine had read out as their love-reading. "I'd much rather kiss someone who I know."
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They walked over to the food kiosks and each bought a Pepsi and sat down to enjoy it. They enjoyed the rest of the day but he could tell something was on River's mind.
After they were done at the festival and were set to head back home. Haruo walked her to her suite in the triplex, hugged her and stayed put until he could hear the deadbolts on the door. Then he turned his footsteps towards the side of the triplex where his family lived.
(End Part Three)
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