Chapter Text
You're standing off to the side of the road as people rush past you. That new book smell coming from the store on your right acting as the only pleasant thing to focus on besides your growing headache. Everything else in the area—the loud noise, endless chatter, and bright lights only serve to disorient you further.
You're so fucking lost.
There's so much storefronts and restaurants you don't know where to start, and the crowd isn't making it any easier. It feels like if you left your position you'd get swept away, making you lose track of the direction you came from.
A sigh escapes past your lips as you debate going home—getting your supplies during a rush doesn't seem worth the risk of getting lost—when a voice suddenly calls out close to your left. Your head swivels towards it on instinct, and even though you're expecting whoever it was to be yelling for someone else, there's a boy around your age looking directly at you. His spiky yellow hair catches your attention first.
You point to yourself in confusion, hoping you're not making a fool of yourself by assuming he is talking to you, and he thankfully confirms he was with a smile.
"Yeah you! Just saw you standn' around here alone. You new here or somethin'?"
It takes a moment for your brain to catch up, not expecting some random guy to come over and start talking to you, but when it does you find yourself brightening nonetheless.
"Oh, yes! I recently moved here. I'm just trying to familiarize myself with the area. Kinda hard with all the people though…"
"Yeah I get. Can't imagine it's that easy with the crowd in the way." The boy scratches the back of his head, turning awkward all of a sudden, "Hey uh, if you're looking for somethin' interesting to do while waiting for things to die down, there's an arcade further down the street."
You don't think he could have said anything better, "There's an arcade?"
Your enthusiasm seemed to spark his own, as his smile comes back at full force, "Yeah there is! C'mon I can show you!"
He grabs your wrist so you don't get lost and carefully pulls you through the mass of bodies. It doesn't take long before you're standing in front of the creatively named arcade "GAME". You would've laughed at it had you not been pulled inside soon after you noticed it.
Unfortunately, when you take your first steps inside, you can't help the scrunch of your nose taking in the smell of the place. It's not bad, but you still weren't expecting it to smell like a fast food joint when it seemed like there was a burger place across the street.
“It smells like grease in here.”
The boy drops your wrist and stares at you, his confusion at your statement made evident with the expression on his face, “Huh? What does grease even smell like?”
You look around, barely paying attention as your eyes flit from one arcade machine to the next, but enough to give him a response you hope makes him move on.
“Something like McDonalds I guess.”
“You mean like… a farm???”
That has you break out of your half trance and stare at him bizarrely, “What? No! Where’d you get that from?”
He scratches the top of his head, his own bewilderment deepening as he tries to figure out what you're referencing, “Y’know, like the nursery rhyme they have us look at in english. What was it again? Old McDonald had a farm or something like that.”
“How on earth did you make that connection?”
“You’re the one sayin’ grease smells like McDonalds!”
You open your mouth to explain to him what you're talking about has absolutely nothing to do with the nursery rhyme, but freeze when you find yourself drawing a blank.
You look down as you try to remember anything concrete about McDonalds other than what Ryuji's already said, but every thought is quickly snuffed out. If anything, trying to remember something you can't find proof of even existing is making your head hurt even more. Hell, you can't even remember why you thought of the name McDonald's in the first place!
You decide to brush it off and move on, ignoring the nagging in the back of your mind that something isn't right.
“Nevermind all that, please tell me what the good games are here."
He still looks uncertain, but drops it for your sake and scans the room. Soon, his eyes light up and he grabs your wrist again to drag you to whatever he's looking at, "Oh there's one over there that's perfect for multiple people, you're gonna love it!"