Sojiro raises an eyebrow as the girls return with their shopping. The elderly couple is still there, each finishing up a plate of curry. A pompous-looking man sits in another booth, doing a crossword.

Akira waves and smiles. He... probably didn't hear them. Right? 

Best not to dwell on that. Upstairs she goes with Shiho.

Shiho waves and smiles as well, and follows Akira upstairs, setting her bag on the table closest the stairs. "Okay, what do you want to set up first?"

"I'd say the DVD player, but I've got nothing to play on it... so let's set up the lights first."

Shiho fishes them out of one of the bags, then looks around. "At a glance, the first obvious idea is around the window. Could put them along the railing by the stairs, too."

"Around the window sounds great, actually."

Shiho nods and looks around for some tape or nails, then finds nails in a cubby of the workbench, and a hammer hanging off the side. "Okay, let's do this."

"I'm not so sure we should start putting in nails in Boss's attic when we haven't even asked him..." 

Akira rubs her lips. "Let's hold off on that for a second and do the DVD player, then."

Shiho nods and carries it over to the TV.

Akira gets its cables out of the bag and starts hooking it up. Hopefully it's compatible... 

Shiho helps with the cables as well. Turns out it's compatible, and soon enough they're looking at a "No Disc" graphic bouncing sedately around the screen.

"Well, that's promising." 

Akira gets out the cat figurine and puts it on the work desk along with the books, then gets out the cards and shogi set. 

"Want to play something until Boss is free?"

"Sure," Shiho replies with a smile. "I don't know shogi, so what card games do you know?"

"I don't really know any card games either. My mother played koi koi sometimes but I've forgotten the rules..."

She looks over at the decks she's bought, one western, one hanafuda. 

"Easy solution for that," Shiho suggests, pulling out her phone. A few taps later, she speaks up. "I've found rules for daifugo (which wants three players so not today), hanafuda, menko (which is more about throwing than really a normal card game), oicho-kabu, koi koi, and poker. You pick which?"

"Let's try koi koi."

And they play until the evening, eventually switching to learning shogi after they get tired of the cards.

Early into the evening, the girls get a text from Ryuji in the groupchat.

hey girls

had fun gaming with Ann

Is that all you recall, Ryuji? Think carefully now...

>///<

we also kissed

Good boy. 

... though I admit I was just as shy as him. We only just kissed before we texted you.

Awwwwww. That still counts! ♡

Glad you two had fun.

>///<

Ann!

Awww, I'm happy for you two!

Oh, Ryuji, btw — your idea to check a second-hand shop for a DVD player was spot-on. We got one! Along with some misc stuff for the attic.