Great Minds think alike [Jun]

[Scarlet Diaden]

Scarlet had had an incredibly dull day. Work had been slow, with only a few walk ins and even less purchases, to the point where she’d spent almost her entire shift reading. That’s it. Just reading. And now, shift over, she felt like a kid getting out of school. Sweet freedom!

She needed to get rid of all this pent up energy now. After spending the whole day doing absolutely nothing, she felt like she might go crazy if she didn’t do something! Sadly, there was still at least three hours of daylight, so she was a little… limited on possible activities. What should she do then?

For a while, she just wandered the streets of New York, following the crowd from place to place. Eventually they lead her to…. The mall. Instantly she knew what she was going to do. Grinning like a fool, she first stopped at the food court for an early dinner. After that, while munching on the rest of her fries, she window shopped. Nothing appealing. At all. Well, at least nothing she could afford. Since she practically lived day to day, she was limited when it came to her choices. But, there was still one place she could go….

Scarlet stopped in front of the Arcade, and stared at it for several moments, suddenly grinning once again. You’d think she’d outgrow the place by now, but at the same time… When you knew the young woman, you’d realize that it fit her personality perfectly. So, without any hesitation she headed in, wandering at first to get a feel for the games. Some she was incredibly familiar with, others , not so much. And as for the people, it was totally and completely packed. So she was forced to wait for her turn, watching some of the more competitive gamers try to outscore each other.

[/justify]

[Jun Lee]

Friday evening, end of the school week, beginning of 'The Rush'. 'The Rush' was what Jun's boss called the weekend because of the heavy flow of customers that the end of the week always brought. It was practically a gold rush for the restaraunt that occurred every five days. Not only was it a source of a lot of money for Jun's boss, Mr.Lin, but it also meant a lot of money for Jun too. After all, more customers coming in meant they stayed open later hours, staying open later hours meant they had to fill more shifts, filling more shifts meant over time, and over time meant money! Really it was the weekend rush that paid for Jun's apartment.

Unfortunately, someone already had the night shift for Friday, meaning Jun would be off work in approximately three minutes and wouldn't be back in until tomorrow night. What did that mean? Most likely another night of Mountain Dew induced Xbox Live rage! Jun had discovered 'Xbox Live' about three weeks ago, and after already being an avid game lover, finding out that he could play his favorite games AGAINST people around the world was like a dream come true. In reality, all it meant was that between his strict work out regime, school, and work; the few hours he had left in the day just to goof off were now completely filled up by the infernal machine. In other words: Good bye, any sad excuse of a social life he had before, hello Team Deathmatch!!

The kitchen of the restaraunt was filled with the sound of running water and clanking. Standing in front of the giant soap filled sink was the one and only Jun Lee, wearing a pair of loose fitting dark blue jeans, a black shirt with the restaraunts logo of a golden dragon on it, a clean white apron tied around him, and a pair of bright yellow rubber gloves. As the hot water slowly ran into the soap filled sink, steam rising all around him, Jun wiped a bit of sweat off his... hand... Causing even more water to run down his face. Pausing for a moment as the water ran down his face, he glanced around to make sure no one saw his moment of stupidity, before continuing his scrubbing.

A slight ding resounding in the kitchen from the shift clock marked the end of the shift, to which Jun quickly began to disrobe from his work attire. Ripping of the yellow rubber gloves with a loud squelching sound, he quickly jerked his apron off, and (after grabbing a towel to quickly dry his face off) began heading for the door... Only to be met with a yell from his boss in the back office.

"<Jun! Just to let you know now, the electricity will be off in the apartments until about three in the morning tomorrow! The city is doing some maintenance work.>" The Mandarin resounded through the kitchen, sending chills down Jun's back.

Jun had just been reaching for his back-pack by the door when he froze at those words... His Entire. Night's. Plans. Gone... Jun let out a soft sigh. Well, this was going to be a day off from training for him, so with absolutely nothing planned, he quickly decided to just go walk until it got too late. Not wanting to carry his backpack with him all night, he just grabbed his iPod and headphones out instead (a gift from his boss on Jun's birthday a few months ago) and headed out the door.

Slipping the large, toxic green, skull candy head phones around his neck (he hated covering up his ears, made him feel... vulnerable to attack in a way) he started the music player and made his way down the street; with no where in particular set as his destination. The soft sounds and notes eminated from the phones as he kept beat with his feet following the crowds of people who were headed to their homes from work (their electricity powered homes mind you...).

After several minutes of walking, Jun was forced to stop at a cross walk to wait for the light to turn red. As he waited, he noticed a sign on the other side of the cross walk that said something about a mall nearby... Eh... Why not? With a new destination set, and a red light allowing him to walk, he began making his way toward the mall he heard the kids at school ramble on about all the time. While he would never want to hang out with most of those kids, he was curious what they were always raving about.

As he approached the massive complex, the large crowds slowly moving in and out of the huge building reminded him quite a bit of the streets back home; nice and crowded. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea. Once inside he saw that it donned on him what a 'mall' was, he had been inside several of these things back in Hong Kong. Slowly Jun made his way from store to store, mostly letting his feet decide where they wanted to go.

Jun was staring inside a store filled with thousands of CD's of a music when a sudden burst of noise and screaming from behind him caught his attention. Turning to the source of the commotion behind him, he saw what could be described as a sprawling dark cavern filled with machines of flashing lights. Outside of the 'store' it had a massively colorful sign hanging above the entrance that said in bold neon letters 'ARCADE'. Staring for a moment at the sign, then letting his eyes fall down into the thousands of flashing machines inside, the slights hint of a smile tugged at Jun's lips.... Oh Yeah....

Making his way into the cavern, he approached a token machine and pulled out his wallet. Hey, no point in checking out the merchandise if he wasn't going to use it right? Opening his wallet it he saw a single five doller bill, that would give him... about fourty tokens to play games with: Jackpot! As he slid the money into the machine and the tokens fell, he scooped them up and turned to face the hours of entertainment that were about to greet him.

Over the next hour and a half or so, he made his way from machine to machine. Losing horribly on some, and actually setting a record or two on a couple others! Wasn't quite as fun as playing people worldwide, but it would do. As he made his way deeper and deeper into the cavern of joy he heard some very familiar sounds. A heavy beat, loud music, and a small crowd cheering... 'DANCE! DANCE! REVOLUTION!'. Impossible. Jun slowly walked closer to it, watching the two people on the machine dancing their hearts out, apparently trying to beat one another.

As the music ended, one took off his crooked ball cap and tossed it in anger, while another man who looked about a year or two younger than Jun lifted his arms high to the cheers of the fifteen or twenty people watching.

"OH YEAH!... Come on, who wants to try me next." There were a few chuckles to this challenge but no one stepped up. After a few moments, a bold voice declared his challenge.

"I will take challenge." Jun said, stepping up to his opponent on the machine of dance and putting in a token.

The teenager looked Jun up and down and with a smug expression folded his arms and said, "Just so you know... I hold the high score..."

As Jun hit the start button he turned to his oppenent and with a little emotion spoke, "Just so you know... I do not care." With that, the battle began.

His opponent was good, throwing at move after move, some of which Jun himself had not seen. Jun matched him defensively, bobbing, weaving, dodging, and keeping his feet in the fight. Suddenly, his opponent began to build up a death blow against Jun, building up a combo on him! Sweat began to pour, and both the combatants muscles began to strain trying to beat one another into the ground. Suddenly, Jun could see the fear in his opponents eyes as he made a misstep. Jun saw the mistake and moved in for the kill... Little did the man know that where Jun came from, this particular form of battle had a near cult following to it. In moments the fight was over and Jun's opponent was tossed from his winning pedestal, ashamed and defeated as the crowd cheered on their new victor... This was Jun's cavern now.

Opponent after opponent dared to challenge the young man, but none could keep up with him and as the night wore on, the crowd grew bigger. Everyone began wondering if there was anyone agile enough to keep up with the speed, agility, and skill of this new champion.

[Scarlet Diaden]

The arcade was a hotspot on the weekends, but it wasn’t until the little kids went home for the night that the real gamers came out. Now, Scarlet wasn’t exceptionally good at most of the arcade games, but she wasn’t bad either. She was so good natured though, she didn’t mind losing. In fact, all she cared about was having fun.

Scarlet probably spent two hours, moving from game to game. Sometimes she’d win, sometimes she’d lose. All the while, just enjoying herself. It took a while, but she finally reached Dance Dance Revolution, where quite the crowd had gathered, pushing through said crowd just in time to see the latest challenger, an Asian teenager taking on the reigning champion. She didn’t recognize either, but it was pretty obvious who was winning. By a landslide. The Asian boy was making the champ look like a beginner, to the point where it really was sad to watch. At least, sad for the champ, awesome for the challenger.

The Asian moved like a master of the game, as if he’d been doing it his entire life and it was the easiest thing in the world. It was actually fun to watch him! And, of course, it made her incredibly curious as to how he managed to get that good in the first place. It didn’t even look like the challenger was… well challenged by the reigning back! So, it wasn’t too surprising when the newcomer won.

It wasn’t just the champ that was squashed by the teenager. Everyone that stepped forward to face him ultimately lost. And, the longer Scarlet watched, the more interested she became in competing against the new champ. Sure, she wasn’t sure if she could beat him, not in a long shot, she was just more interested in having fun. And since it’d been such a long time since she’d actually played Dance Dance Revolution….

The teenager had just taken out his latest opponent. Quickly, she stepped forward before anyone else could beat her to it. ”I’ll give it a try!” Her accent was faint, but obviously British, and few people in the crowd chuckled, muttering something along the lines of ‘the kid isn’t even going to challenge him’. Yeah, it really did suck being one of the smallest people in the Arcade, and had a baby face. Made her look much younger then she actually was. Instead of glaring at these snickers, she just grinned and shrugged, before looking at her competition. ”It’s been a while since I played, so I’m not sure how much of a challenge I’ll be.” She grinned once again, before inserting her own token into the machine and stepping up. ”Ready?” She waited only a few seconds before pressing the start button.

She tried not to pay too much attention to her competition, instead focusing on familiarizing herself with the game. At first, it was obvious that she hadn’t played in a while. After mere seconds though, it was almost like she was a different person, picking it up incredibly fast…. Not to mention, she was good. Very good. Well, he did ask for someone with the speed and agility to keep up with him… Maybe she was that person.

[/justify]

[Jun Lee]

For the first could quite possible be the first time a month or more, Jun was actually enjoying himself. In fact, if one had been looking very closely, it even looked as though he had smiled... Twice! Perhaps the electricity going out in his apartments wasn't such a bad thing after all. Sure, it meant no Xbox all night long, but it also is the sole reason that he was standing here enjoying himself right now. Maybe those kids in his school that talked about the mall so much weren't wrong, this place was actually pretty fun. Well, at least this cavern of joy was.

As combatant after combatant stepped up to challenge the young man, each one would fall before him in one way or another. The longer Jun stayed on the machine as the champion, the bigger the crowd grew to see if anyone could actually beat this random Chinese man. After finishing his last match and crushing his opponent by nearly a thousand points, Jun turned to see who would be next to challenge him, only to be met with what looked like fourty people or so watching him. Immediately the boy gulped ever so slightly.

It looked as if the game was just as popular over here in America as it was back home. Sure, back home this game would bring in crowds of thousands and they held actual competitions with it, but this was still a very big group... Too big almost, Jun had to quickly turn back and face the game, pretending that the large crowd wasn't there. While he had no problem being the center of attention to a few people, being the center of attention to a LOT of people was a little unnerving for him. Even when he competed in martial arts competitions back home, he would always get nervous, always.

Calmly Jun slid in another token and began choosing a song as he waited for another challenger. How did he know another would come? There were fourty or more people standing behind him, all of whom were eagerly wanting to see someone beat the Asian... There would be another challenger. Just as he was about to choose a song, he heard a cool, cheerful voice calling him out. The accent was strange, it wasn't one he'd ever heard before, and as he turned his head slowly what met his eyes surprised him a little.

She was shorter than him, a thin build with bloody red hair and was absolutely beauti... er... Fit, she was very fit... Yeah. Jun froze for a moment, his hand frozen on the down button, causing the cursor on the video game screen to scroll through the songs at high speed as he blankly stared at his new challenger. Quickly he shook his head as he realized the prett... er.... fit girl was talking to him.

"It ok, I take it easy on you." As Jun said this, he turned back to the game and scrolled through the songs. Passing through the "easy" songs... and the "medium" songs... and the "hard" songs... and scrolled all the way to the bottom of the "extreme" section, choosing the bottom most song in the section, one that was nearly ten minutes long and had a rapid techno-esque beat... Jun take it easy on someone? HA! Yeah right... Didn't matter how gorgeou.... fit... she was, he would still crush her.

As Jun hit start, he nodded to the red head, "Ready."

Immediately the song began with an incredibly rapid beat and as soon as the first notes started, the commands came just as fast. As the crowd cheered behind him, Jun didn't miss a single beat, racking up a combo in seconds, and only a few seconds in, he was already almost a thousand points ahead. This wasn't even going to be a challenge. As the music poured out of the game, Jun moved with fluid ease, match the commands beat for beat. What most didn't notice however was that Jun was still wearing his large, toxic green, headphones around his neck... and that were still playing music. Yes, he was listening to music while he was listening to music while he was dancing... How's that for multi-tasking?

After a few more moments, he decided to glance over at his competitor to see that she had... Maxed out her combo meter as well?! What?! She was keeping beat with the song almost perfectly and while she was still quite a ways behind him, she was catching up! As Jun glanced over at her, he also caught her dancing... Which made him realize that this girl was very attractiv... Fit, very fit.

Then it happened... Jun misstepped and lost his combo and his points multiplier, causing the red head to shoot by him in points. The crowd gasped slightly, it was the first time that Jun had lost the lead. So she wanted to play like that huh? Jun could play hardball alright, and with style. Almost immediately it was as if Jun hit another gear and began to burn through the game, throwing moves in there that HE didn't even know he had. At one point he did a flip on the machine, landing on his hands, and still hitting the commands perfectly, before flipping back to his feet, causing the crowd to go crazy. If that didn't tell this red head who she was dealing with nothing would. Hopefully it would intimidate her or distract her, making her miss a command and lose her combo... Hopefully. Jun definitely needed some sort of help to be able to catch up to this girl that was beating him. This very gorgeou... fit, very fit girl.

[Scarlet Diaden]

For some reason, Scarlet felt a little bad for ‘tricking’ the poor guy. Sure, she honestly hadn’t played the game in ages, but she forgot to mention that she picked things up very quickly. Insanely so. So, for some reason it felt like cheating a little that she hadn’t pointed this out. But, seeing as how he chose the hardest song in the entire game, she suddenly didn’t feel to back. ”You don’t have to.” was all she said in response to his comment, a sweet smile on her lips as she stepped up beside him. Oh, she knew he wouldn’t go easy on her. And, at the same time, she wouldn’t go easy on him when she got in the groove of things. You know, if she did win. She still wasn’t sure if she was good enough to.

Well, it looked like it was time to find out just which one of them was better.

The start of the song wasn’t rocky for the girl, but she did struggle slightly to keep up as she adjusted to the game. With each passing second though, it got easier, and easier. She knew she was behind without having to look at his score, all because she’d watched him play for so many songs. One of the reasons he had dominated all his competition before now was because he got the biggest lead possible at the very start, and then keep that lead the entire game. It was a good solid strategy. Scarlet’s, obviously, wasn’t the same. Instead, she’d rely on the fact that she tended to get better at things the longer she played, or did them. Basically, spend the entire song catching up point wise.

Because she already knew the game, she was picking it back up faster than usual, probably to a point where he really should be worried about this tiny red head beating him. Actually, he was. Because, as she focused completely on her footwork, she caught him glancing at her out of the corner of her eye, checking her score probably. If only because he had, she looked as well. Okay, so she wasn’t doing to bad, so far, but she was still behind by quite a bit. Okay, time to step it up a bit. She wasn’t going to win at this pace.

Scarlet was completely ignoring the scores, both hers and her competitors. No, all that existed right now was her, the game, and that annoying music that didn’t match the footw- What the heck was that music anyway? It was difficult to hear over the music of the game, so she couldn’t tell you the name of the song, but the beat was… Well, let’s just say she wasn’t as multi-tasking talented as her competitor. She managed to keep in sync, and (even though she didn’t know it) take the lead because of his misstep.

She was pulled back to reality when the Asian switched gears. It was almost like he hadn’t even been trying his hardest up until that point! Scarlet couldn’t help but glance at him quite a few times, watching as he pulled a handstand in the middle of the game. Oh, it was ON! Sure, it was a little intimidating to have to compete against someone like that, but the feeling only lasted a few seconds because she WAS that type of person. If she really tried, she’d be the one in his shoes, showing off, and awing the crowd. Wait, so why wasn’t she?

In the few seconds this internal debate happened, Scarlet had made a mistake. And by mistake, specifically she slipped. Like, literally slipped. There was a collective gasp as the redhead hit the ground, and, obviously, lost the lead she’d barely managed to keep up until that point.

Okay, that sucked, but she didn’t seem all that concerned. Scarlet was back on her feet quickly, trying to regain what ground she’d lost, before, finally deciding to just have fun. No, she didn’t care if she won. Sure, she wouldn’t make his job easy, of course, but winning wasn’t her goal. It never had been actually.

Dance Dance Revolution was, mostly, a footwork game, so, when you had people competing against each other, you didn’t get a whole lot of… Well, exactly what he’d done. More than footwork. And seeing as she wasn’t too concerned about winning… Why not give the crowd a good show? She didn’t want to copy him though (not to mention, flipping wasn’t that smart of an idea, seeing as she was wearing a skirt.), so, instead… She just danced. She kept the foot work up, of course, quickly building back up a combo, but she honestly looked like she was dancing. All the while she was grinning as she twisted , hopped, spun, basically looking like she was having the time of her life…. And showing off some mad skills when it came to the game.

Would it be enough to catch up to him? Probably not, but at least she was having fun.

[/justify]

[Jun Lee]

The noise from the arcade had gone from a thousand flashing, whirring, and beeping video game machines to the sound of music and cheering overwhelming everything. After Jun had busted out his latest move of a flip (causing the crowd to go wild) more people had come to watch the two of them battle it out, while others were there just to be impressed by the skillful moves the two combatants were throwing out. By now, pretty much the entire arcade was gathered around the two warriors of dance as they duked it out on the machine. Cheers and whoops of joy and awe were beginning to grow almost louder than the music itself, as well as separate cheers and jeers calling for each of the two to win.

Unfortunately, it looked as though Jun's display of acrobatic prowess wasn't enough as his score began to slowly fall behind his opponents. Many in the crowd were beginning to murmur that this was going to be the match that brought down the Chinese kid. What happened next surprised many in the crowd, as well as Jun himself, as a resounding thud broke the rhythmic pulse of the music. With the slightest glance over to his opponent Jun saw that the incredibly attrac... Fit girl... Had fallen! How impossibly lucky could he get? Turning his attention to the score he saw her multiplier immediately disappear and his score skyrocketed, quickly beginning to catch up to hers.

Behind him he could her a few "Aww"'s from the people who had apparently been rooting for the red head, as well as a few outbursts of laughter at the girls mistake. The laughter and rude whispering about the red head immediately made Jun want to turn and yell at the jeering crowd members. Quickly he had to stifle that emotion and focus on the game as he felt some far more darker emotions begin to tug at him. After a few moments of dancing, and as the laughter stopped, the urges subsided as well. Though they had reminded Jun that as fun as this was, he needed to keep his emotions far more in check than he was doing.

Suddenly, the crowd began cheering even louder before. Glancing at the score Jun saw that he was still several hundred points behind (catching up quickly though) so they couldn't be cheering for him. Letting his eyes flash toward his opponents corner for the briefest of moments, he saw that the gorgeou-... fit... Red head was doing less competing and more showing off, causing the crowd to cheer wildly for her as she not only danced skillfully, but was nailing all the commands as well. She was matching Jun's show of skill with her own... So she wanted a challenge huh? Well, Jun could definitely give her a challenge.

The song suddenly began to pick up speed as it neared the end of what was a brutal competition. Jun suddenly forgot he was trying to win, and instead wanted to match this girls show of skill by showing a little bit more of what HE could do on the machine. In other words; let the real game begin.

Jun began to move faster, making his movements more fluid as well before suddenly doing another flip in the air, followed by a series of twists, spins, and flips. After landing from one of the flips, Jun immediately reached backward to grab a hold of the safety rail behind him that was supposed to keep him from following off, then kicked off and swung almost out into the crowd, before swinging on the rail and sliding underneath it and back onto the machine, hitting the command on the pad perfectly as he did so. As the two combatants performance got more intense, the crowd began literally scream and cheer for them, apparently never having seen a display such as the one the two of them were giving.

As the last few seconds of the song began to play, Jun had to throw in one more move before it ended. Pushing off the pad and launching himself forward toward the massive tower and tv that the game was displayed on, Jun threw his legs in front of him, pushing them lightly against the machine. Then putting one foot in front of the other, looked as if he was walking straight up the tower of the machine, before kicking off of it and flipping backwards, back onto the command pad. He landed in a slight kneeling position, a knee on one command, a foot on another, and his fist on a third with his head hanging down and with that... The song ended.

Surprisingly, that had actually gotten Jun to sweat ever so slightly and he was actually breathing a little heavy as he held his head down. What was strange though, was that there was absolute silence from the crowd. Slowly Jun stood up and glanced behind him, no one was cheering, they were all just staring at Jun and the attracti... Fit... Red head, some even had their mouths hanging slightly open. Still breathing heavily, he glanced over at the red head beside him, then turned to the machine to see three massive letters on both of their screens: "TIE". The crowd suddenly exploded in cheers, yelling and clapping for the amazing performance that Jun and his opponent had put forth.

Not only were the scores of Jun and the red head completely the same, but they had both broken the high score on the machine by nearly ten THOUSAND points! "Impossible." Jun said quietly to himself, not so much because of the amazing feat that the two had done, but more because the woman had tied with him. Turning to the very attracti... Fit girl, Jun bowed deeply in respect to her, as was customary for him. As he did so, the crowd rushed forward to the two, completely surrounding the red head, and completely surrounding Jun as well, so that when Jun stood up, he could no longer see the red head through all the people.

"THAT WAS AMAZING!!", "Where did you learn how to do that!?", and "Are you related to Jackie Chan?!" were some of the questions and comments Jun heard from people as he pushed his way through the mob, making his way off the machine and toward the exit. Finally he seemed to break through the massive crowd, bobbing and weaving his way through the hundreds of arcade games as he headed away from the mob. Pulling out his iPod, he saw that it was ten-thirty, the mall would close in another half hour, by his reasoning he might as well head home. So he did, getting closer and closer toward the exit, away from the darkness of the cavern behind him where he could still here the droll of the many people talking excitedly about what they had just seen.

Just as he was about to reach the exit of the arcade, he heard a little boy talking to his mother, "Please mom, can I just have one more token?" The boy begged, though his voice sounded very kind, not whiny like most.

"I'm sorry, Tom, but that was our last token. This was a good birthday present though, wasn't it?" The mother said calmly.

Glancing over, Jun could see the dejected look of the little boy, "Yes! Thank you!" The boy obviously wanted to stay longer but was far too polite to his mom to say otherwise. Politeness in a child? That seemed to be a rare trait over here in America, from what Jun could tell.

Glancing behind him to make sure the crowd wasn't going to catch up to him, he walked over to the little boy and stood behind him, "Kid." Jun said bluntly, to which the little boy turned and looked up at him, "Hold out yo hans." Jun's accent was hard to understand, but the boy understood, staring at Jun a little apprehensively before slowly holding out his hands. Immediately Jun reached into his pocket and pulled out all the tokens he had left, almost twenty, and filled the boys hands with them. There were enough that the child couldn't hold them all and several fell onto the floor.

THe boy stared wide-eyed at the gift before looking up at Jun (looking up at Jun was a rare event by the way) with one of the most beaming smiles Jun had ever seen. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!" The boy said before running off to another game.

"Thank you very much." The mother said politely, to which Jun bowed slightly. As he did so, the earphones on his neck slid forward a little, revealing what looked like an extensive series of tattoos going up his neck. When he looked back at the woman, she looked a little disgusted, and with a forced smile, quickly walked away after her child. Jun watched her for a moment before shaking his head and adjusting the headphones on his neck to cover up his neck again, before cranking up the music a little louder and heading for the exit.

The look she had given him was one he had seen many times, seems no matter how good of a night you had there was always someone that could ruin it. Oh well, at least he got to have fun, and he got to see a really beauti... Fit, girl... a fit girl that actually spoke to him!... another rare occurrence. Most fit girls had nothing to do with him for some reason... Maybe because he never actually worked up enough courage to talk to them. Heck, the few words he said to that extremely fit red head were probably the most he had ever said to a fit girl! Perhaps he WAS getting more outgoing, maybe tonight wasn't such a bad night after all.

[Scarlet Diaden]

The match was intense to say the least. Every mistake one of them made, was matched with a mistake from the other. Every combo was matched with a combo. Sure, Scarlet’s mistake had been much worse, and she still wasn’t sure how she’d managed to slip in the first place, but that didn’t mean she gave up. Oh, she knew she wouldn’t win after a mistake like that, but the young woman was stubborn enough to get back on her feet like it was nothing and keep trying. Only, now she wasn’t focused on just winning. She was going to give those watching a show.

Scarlet was unfazed by the crowd’s reaction to her slip up, in fact she was completely ignoring them. She seemed to be completely focused in the game, with a rather giddy smile on her lips as her whole body moved in sync with the music, every motion exaggerated for the audience’s sake. So, you could imagine how pleased she was when she realized her efforts weren’t in vain. The crowd absolutely loved it, and that alone made her try even harder. More movement, more exaggeration, more flourishes, to the point where you honestly would have thought she was performing a well rehearsed dance routine. All the while, she managed to avoid her competitor’s side of the game.

It seemed the true purpose of this competition was forgotten, as both were now more focused on showing off then actual points. Sure, they were both keeping up with the song, hitting every command that came their way, but that wasn’t their intent. It seemed they cared more about outdoing the other, and both were putting up a good show. If she hadn’t been worried about him outshowing her, Scarlet actually might have stopped dancing completely just to watch as he moved. From what she could see out of the corner of her eyes, was he was talented. He moved like an acrobat, flipping and twisting like it was the easiest thing in the world. Okay, Scarlet would actually agree that it was, but she was still amazed.

Okay, she had to stop focusing on his attempts to outshine her, the song was almost over after all! Actually, it technically was over, only a few seconds left, which her opponent took full advantage of. The commands were winding down, so Scarlet managed to watch the Asian’s last show of skill, using the game to flip backwards and land in a rather flashy pose for the final note of the song. Well, that was amazing timing on his part, and she was tempted to break into applause. Instead, she leaned against the safety rail behind her, breathing heavily as she tried to catch her breath. Being as athletic as she was, the young woman was surprised the teenager had managed to push her to the point of exhaustion. Okay, the guy was much better then she’d first thought, but at the same time it was worth it.

Scarlet had been expecting applause of some sort. Silence though? Pure, dead silence? After a few moments of waiting and catching her breath, she finally looked around, both confused and curious as to why everyone was so quiet. Her first thought was her tail had popped out, and stunned the entire human population. That couldn’t be possible though, as she could still feel her tail wrapped rightly around her waist. Instead of looks of horror, she was met by stares of…. Pure astonishment. Okay, what was their problem?

After a few seconds, she looked at the machine, if only because that seemed like the logical place to look. And it finally hit her why everyone had been stunned to silence. SHE was stunned herself! A tie?! A tie at THAT score?! Scarlet had never gotten a score anywhere NEAR that high! Better yet, the Asian’s top scores up until that point were amateur compared to this one.

Quickly she looked at the Asian, grinning brightly. She hadn’t thought she’d win, but the idea of tying had been so far off her radar it had completely floored her. BUT! She was incredibly happy. She’d had fun, that was all that mattered. She opened her mouth to congratulate the young man, or to just plain introduce herself, but before she could, a wall of people separated them.

Everyone was talking at once, some asking questions, some congratulating, and a few just fan girling in general. Basically, for several minutes, Scarlet just grinned and took it in stride, trying to answer any questions, thanking everyone that congratulated her, but her heart wasn’t in it. She wanted to talk to the young man, after a game like that, she had to at least get his name. But, because of her petite size, she couldn’t see him over the crowd. Finally though, she managed to sneak past them… and noticed he was gone.

Where’d he run off to? A quick search of the Arcade answered that question, Scarlet finally spotting him giving the rest of his tokens to a little boy. She couldn’t help but smile at the gesture, before hurrying over to catch up to him before he vanished in the mall crowd. ”Wait up!” She didn’t yell, raising her voice just enough that he’d be able to hear her as he stepped out of the Arcade. ”I didn’t get a chance to congratulate you. You’re really good!” Smiling warmly she held a hand out to shake his, if he was willing. ”I’m Scarlet, by the way.”

[/justify]

[Jun Lee]

The battle on the machine of dance had been fun, Jun had gotten to meet (or at least said five or six words to) and incredibly... fit girl, and by the time he got home it would be late enough that he could just go straight to bed (going straight to bed meant that he could wake up early tomorrow, after the power was on, and get a few horus of Xbox in before work). Tonight definitely hadn't been a bad night at all. Though, the crowd rushing him and trying to talk to him was pretty uncomfortable, and the lady freaking out at his... condition, were both annoying, it was still a good night over all. Not to mention his boss would be happy, after all, going to the mall meant he was socializing, and his boss told him to do more of that. So it was a total win-win situation.

Though one thing bothered him, the fact that he tied that girl instead of winning. How was that even possible? Carefully he replayed the entire competition through his mind, going over every step he made, trying to see where he had gone so wrong. The most obvious one was when he got described by how gorgeou... fit she was and made a misstep. That was a problem he was going to have to fix. Sure, it was only a game, but what if that had been an actual match or fight to the death? Distraction was one of the biggest killers out there, and tonight made it obvious he needed to work on that.

Knee deep in thoughts about fighting and martial arts, Jun made a quick mental note to train on being more focused. Already he was beginning to think of ways he could train his focus to make sure he wouldn't get distracted like that again, when a soft, almost sing-song voice, overpowered the music flooding out from his headphones. Jun continued walking, but gave a slight glance behind him, only to see that red head who challenged him running behind him saying something about waiting. She must've been talking to someone else, so Jun continued walking.

At least, he tried to continue walking, that was sort of interrupted by the gor... fit red head suddenly standing beside him... Talking DIRECTLY to him. Jun stopped his walking and glanced side to side; no one else was standing beside him, meaning she was definitely talking to him... Crazy. She had caught up to him to congratulate him on... what? Jun raised a slight brow before speaking.

"Congratulate on what?... Tying? That is nothing to congratulate on." Jun said bluntly, it was a wonder why more fit girls didn't talk to him... "But thank you, you aw skilled too." When she held her hand out, Jun began to bow before her but paused as he was halfway down. He had forgotten, over here people didn't bow, they shook hands... Slowly and awkwardly he stood back up and grabbed her hand to shake. It was incredibly soft... That was weird to think about, whether someone had soft skin or not. Quickly Jun let go.

"Yes, you aw scarlet..." Jun said bluntly, looking at her hair and wondering why in the world she would randomly comment on how she was a red head... That was a really weird thing to just throw out there. Congratulating him on tying and then randomly saying she was a red head? Very weird... Jun stood there awkwardly for a moment, not knowing what to say next before slowly taking a step away and moving toward the mall hallway again. Two whole conversations with a fit girl?! Yeah, Jun was officially a ladies man...

[Scarlet Diaden]

Had he not heard her? Scarlet was obviously a little confused, if only because he looked over his shoulder towards her, before continuing on his way. It didn’t stop her from quickly catching up to him though, still smiling brightly.

His reaction to the first thing she said made her stop and blink, as if making sure he’d really just said that. ”Well, you’re better than me, that’s for sure! I only got lucky.” If he hadn’t made a mistake, she never would have caught up, he would have completely and totally creamed her, even if she had been playing an almost perfect game! ”Where did you learn to play like that?” Scarlet didn’t know why he was so…. Well bashful and awkward! He couldn’t even shake her hand for more than a few seconds! Well, he wasn’t the first person she’d met like this, so she wasn’t to concerned. Just meant he was probably on the shy side.

Scarlet was suddenly struck speechless as she mulled over what he said. Wait…. What? She slowly blinked, before it finally dawned on her. Unable to stop herself, she started to laugh. It wasn’t a full blown, hysterical laughter, merely lighthearted and soft. ”No, no! I mean my name is Scarlet!” She paused, still chuckling softly. ”What’s your name?”Right as she’d spoken, he just turned and started to leave! Okay, either he was extremely shy, didn’t like her at all, or had just completely forgotten she was there in the first place…. She wasn’t sure which it might be.

This put the young woman in quite the predicament, because she didn’t want to seem pushy, but at the same time the guy was actually interesting enough she wanted to talk a little more with him! Hesitating for a moment, she refrained from following him, instead just raising her voice just enough that he’d be able to hear her as he walked away. ”It was nice to meet you!”

[/justify]

[Jun Lee]

Perhaps tonight wasn't as great of a night as Jun had been thinking. Sure, the games had been fun and everything but the conversation with the red head was taking a turn from strange to completely awkward. The girl gave him a slightly strange look, subconsciously he adjusted his headphones to cover his neck a little better, but that didn't seem to be the reason for the look. Perhaps it was something he said... or maybe didn't say? Who really knew, maybe what everyone said about women being confusing was right, "Uh... At my home." Home meaning China of course, and of course eighteen years of martial arts training sure didn't hurt.

Then once again came the strange look and what felt like a good ten minutes of absolute silence. This time it was more awkward than the last and became far more awkward when the girl began to laugh loudly at what he said. Wow, that was confidence booster, so much for being a ladies main... It was just as she began to finish laughing that Jun had turned to leave, though by the time she actually finished speaking he was already several steps away and the sound pouring out from the headphones quickly drowned out any sound of her speaking.

As he got farther and farther from the awkward red headed girl, Jun heard the soft sing-song voice call after him again. Giving a slight glance over his shoulder, he gave a short but obvious nod and continued on his way. Ok, so that had to be one of the most awkward conversations he had had in a while but he definitely had conversations that were far more... wait, no... that was about the most awkward conversation he'd ever had with a girl. It explained so much as well, that was probably the reason why he had so much trouble making friends at school as well, because he had so much trouble talking one on one with someone. Then again, another possibility was that everyone in America was just really weird and hard to talk to... Yeah, Jun liked the last one better.

Perhaps if he focused a little less on completely perfecting every physical task he was giving, like analyzing his performance at the video game so critically, and instead tried to perfect his communication skills this wouldn't be such a problem. Then again, communication skills were worth about as much as a grain of rice in a gun fight when it came to self defense. Jun would rather be able to hone his athletic abilites. Then again, speaking of rice, that reminded him of a lesson that his master had taught him, saying that 'a single grain of rice can completely tip a set of scales off balance, but a single grain of rice can also bring balance'... Perhaps friends were important... Or perhaps he should've just said that communication skills are about as useful as a bean in a gunfight... Yeah, he never had any lessons on beans before...

These were the thoughts that filled Jun's mind as he made his way home from the mall. By the time he actually got home to his apartment, it was nearly midnight. Finally climbing up the familiar stairs that lead to his room on the third floor, he was really ready to go to bed, it had definitely been a long and mentally exhausting night. Just as he was about to grab his door handle though, a door opened at the end of the walkway on the third floor and out stepped his boss, picking up a newspaper that was in front of his door. Noticing Jun, his boss tucked the newspaper under his arm and took a sip from a coffee cup that was in his hand before he called out to his employee/renter.

"<Jun, how was your night? Meet any ladies?>" The old man spoke in Mandarin, laughing a little as what he said had quite a bit of sarcasm in it.

Jun let go of his door handle and turned to his boss who was about fifty feet away and immediately had to look down, trying not to look at him, "<As a matter of fact I did!>" Jun spoke defiantly, the old man had heard about what happened between him and Lainey at the circus a couple weeks ago and hadn't let him live that shame down since, saying he was cursed when it came to woman. "<She was incredibly beaut... beautiful, like a rare flower, with fiery hair, and we danced together all night and... she was shorter than me and... and... and she even tried to kiss me!>" Ok, so twisting the truth was one thing and completely lying was another but hey, alls fair in love and war right? And right now he was at war with his boss.

The old man was silent for a moment before bursting out in riotous laughter, "<You are a funny kid Jun, you know that? Ok, then if she was so amazing, what was her name?" The man asked smugly.

Finally, Jun could answer without stretching the truth. Keeping his eyes on the ground he spoke up, "<Scarlet, her name was Scarlet.>"

The man chuckled again, "<A red head named Scarlet huh? Very original Jun... Why won't you look me in the eye and say that, huh? Because you're lying, hmm?"

Jun was quiet for a moment before glancing up at his boss and quickly looking away, unlocking his door, "<No, it's because you're only wearing your underwear and it's really disturbing me.>" Jun said bluntly as he stepped inside his apartment, which was completely dark due to lack of electricity still.

The old man glanced down, he was completely naked except for a pair of white, silk, boxers with hearts all over them. The white hair on his chest and legs completely exposed as well as a fairly rotund stomach region, the old man shrugged and took another sip of his tea, "<Can't argue with that.>" He said calmly before stepping back into his own apartment.