[Tbh, I'm not a huge fan of writing date scenes. So I won't make it long.]
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"She….isn't she a bit too early?" After just getting off the bus and arriving at the said location, Kenshin's face twitched several times after seeing Sawako already standing in place with her head down.
'If I knew this was gonna happen, I would've just set the time later and arrived earlier.' Kenshin sighed in defeat.
Walking forward, Kenshin approached her and with her head still kept down, she hadn't noticed him arriving yet.
So, he raised his arm and poked her cheek. Startling her.
"Sawako, you still there?"
"K-Kenshin-kun…." Embarrassed, Sawako looked slightly away to hide her blushing cheeks.
"Sorry. How long have you been waiting for me?" Kenshin curiously asked.
"W-Waiting? Not that much…." Though Sawako muttered the last sentence under her breath.
Obviously, she's lying, that I can tell. But I won't expose her for it.
In return, I'll make sure this date will become the best day for the both of us.
"Let's go? I have a restaurant already booked nearby." Kenshin offered his hand after speaking.
"Okay!" Sawako's face beamed up as she took his hand readily.
And then, they started their date.
The restaurant that Kenshin chose wasn't grande or something special. A simple ramen restaurant is enough.
It's not like he can keep getting away with stealing money from every passerby's pockets, so this is the only thing he can afford for the day aside from the cinema and the zoo.
The ramen restaurant itself from what he gathered on the internet, was the best around here, had good reviews and some foreign vloggers ate there.
When we first got to our seats and ordered, we engaged in a small talk. However, Kenshin was left with one tiny problem.
What topics should they talk about?
Kenshin doesn't want to be too privy and ask something personal out of her. He doesn't also know anything about her like her hobbies, likes, and dislikes, literally nothing to talk about.
For the first few minutes, they both just sat there in awkward silence, neither of them speaking or initiating a conversation.
It's obvious that the two of them don't have any prior experience in dating. It's literally their first time going out with someone aside from their parents.
Their small space was filled with silence, occupied by the noise of the other customers around them.
Some of them even stared at him and gave him an encouraging thumbs-up.
While those who looked at Sawako quickly turned their heads away as if they had just seen a vengeful curse of a spirit.
Finally, Kenshin knew something had to change and he must be the one to do it.
"Say…you don't happen to hate horror movies, do you?" Clearing his throat, he threw the question at her.
"Horror movies?" Sawako, startled by the sudden initiation of conversation, fell into deep thinking.
She suddenly recalled the last horror movie she watched with her parents.
It was night and the only light in the living room was the television, when the jumpscare came, she was the only one who didn't flinch.
Meanwhile, her parents were jumpscared two times in a row.
One from the movie and the other from her after they turned the lights on out of fear from the movie jumpscare.
Since then, her parents have refused to watch horror films with her.
Sawako was of course, sad about it but she couldn't do anything about it. This is what she truly looks like.
"I-I don't know." She lied. She likes horror movies, she was just afraid that if she watched a horror movie with Kenshin, he might get scared of her similar to her parents.
"Well, there's a nearby cinema with a horror movie coming up. I was hoping you'd like to watch it with me." Kenshin smiled and informed her, making her freeze in her place.
"Uhm….Are you okay?" Kenshin gave her a concerned glance and waved her hand in front of her face.
On the other hand, Sawako was already imagining what would happen once they watched a movie.
After getting jumpscared by the movie and then turning his attention to her, only to get another heart attack from her appearance.
"I-I'd like to…." Unfortunately for her, she doesn't have the capacity to deny him. Her personality consists of pleasing people, making it hard for her to say no to her peers.
Unless, obviously, if it's very absurd.
"Great! Let's finish this up and head over there after." Kenshin's face beamed up and quickly buried himself in the bowl of ramen in front of him.
Meanwhile, Sawako was now regretting saying yes. Not wanting to ruin their day because of her.
After finishing their meal, Kenshin was about to take out his money when suddenly, Sawako made her move by grabbing her purse.
"What are you doing?" He quickly stopped her before it was too late.
"Hm? I'm paying for my ramen, why?" Her words mixed with confusion and wonder made Kenshin's lips twitch.
"That….That's my job. I'm going to pay for both of our ramen."
"Eh? Why?" Sawako's face turned into an innocent look.
"Because, in times like this. It's our job, as a man to always pay for everything. It's kind of like our pride or something. It would embarrass us if a lady pays for our meal." Kenshin calmly explained, praising his advance knowledge about dating through midnight online scrolling.
"Really? Such thing actually exists?" Of course, what do you expect from someone who just got on a date for the first time?
***
After paying for their ramen, Kenshin wasted no time and grabbed Sawako's hand, guiding her through the crowds until they arrived at the cinema.
Throughout the journey, they made a few detours, taking interest in various activities and stores.
And since the movie would start after a few hours, they still have some time to have fun.
One time they even encountered a few fans who took a photo with Sawako, thinking she was cosplaying as Sadako from the horror film.
Suffice it to say, her expression is enough to make Kenshin have a good laugh. The innocence and embarrassment on her face show just how cute she is.
Afterward, Kenshin came to her defense and told the group that she wasn't cosplaying anyone.
Their expression turned from excitement to embarrassment and they all apologized to Sawako for what they did.
"Thank you." Albeit low and inaudible to normal humans, Kenshin was able to hear the whisper of gratitude from her mouth.
***
Arriving at the cinema, Kenshin was thankful that he reserved a ticket online, so they didn't have to experience the gruesome hours of waiting in a long line.
Inside the dark room, most of the seats were filled to the brim, except for a few in the middle front, which they gladly took.
As for what the horror movie is?
The Ring: Remake
No, Kenshin didn't do it on purpose. It's the only horror movie being broadcasted during the day and the rest of the films were either senseless comedy or the usual action movie of a retired main character going back to action after experiencing a loved one's death or getting their child kidnapped by a bad person.
Those kinds of movies are hugely over-rated and from the looks of it, Sawako feels the same.
With a bucket of popcorn in their hands, Kenshin and Sawako were engrossed by the film's captivating yet suffocating atmosphere.
At the half of the movie, the viewers are greeted with several jumpscares and scary scenes, drawing yells of horror and fear.
Unbeknownst to everyone inside the room, as more fear gripped their hearts along with the other cinema rooms playing the same movie, negative energy was gathered enough, causing a grostqeue creature to emerge out from the ceiling.
Its eyes were popping out of their sockets, forehead was as large as the hood of a car. A single strand of hair stood out from the top of his head, like a certain character from Upin & Ipin.
The most noticeable about his appearance was that while his head was as large as a car, his body was as small as a baby's body, making his appearance creepy and out of place.
"Nyahh~" Opening his mouth, the cursed spirit let out a baby-like noise, attracting the attention of a few viewers who weren't much engrossed in the film.
"What the?…" They quickly looked around in confusion, wondering where would such noise originate from.
However, after searching for the source for a few minutes, they came to a single conclusion.
'Was it from the movie?'
Unbeknownst to them, the blade of death's scythe was now looming over their heads.
It didn't take long before the cursed spirit did its first job, claiming its first victim.
Opening its mouth, a purple tongue with sharp but small spikes around it bounced out of his mouth, striking the nearest oblivious human it saw.
Before the said human could even react, the elongated tongue didn't wrap itself around him, instead, it ruthlessly pierced through his skull before the spikes on the tongue sharply increased in size, locking the head through the insides in place.
The corpse suddenly jerked and got pulled by the Cursed Spirit, who welcomed its entire body with its mouth.
His friend didn't even notice that he was already gone, he still continued to eat popcorn from his bucket.
On the other hand, this cycle continued without anyone from the room's knowledge.
The Cursed Spirit enjoyed its feast, claiming victims one after another until finally, the entire viewers in the cinema room were halved.
Only then did they finally notice that something was amiss.
"Eh? Sachi? Where are you?"
"Kuro? Kuro?"
"Is this some kind of joke? Where are you, John!" Locals and foreign tourists alike were looking for their missing friends or loved ones.
Soon, panic ensued among them as they realized the gravity of the situation. Especially when they noticed that they weren't alone and everyone was looking for their companions.
As if noticing the sudden rise of negative energy from the humans, the Cursed Spirit grinned gleefully and abandoned its secrecy, taking out the humans.
Puchi!
Soon enough, one of them fell and got their head pierced by its tongue.
But from the human's perspective, the man mysteriously got a hole in his head before it exploded into small holes courtesy of the tongue spikes that enlarged before getting pulled up to the ceiling.
And since it was dark, they weren't able to see anything from the top except for a single sound.
Crunch!
The sound of someone chewing.
No doubt, their minds immediately went into panic mode and the first thing they did was to push others out of the way and rush for thr exit.
Seeing this, the Cursed Spirit made a sound of displeasure and hastened its pace, consuming humans every second.
What's more surprising is how the Cursed Spirit had intelligence, prioritizing the ones who were already near the exit, effectively making the escape routes inescapable.
***
While the other cinema room was having a massacre from a Cursed Spirit, Kenshin and Sawako's room remained in silence and munching on popcorn.
When the cinema screen showed the scene of the main antagonist of the film, Sadako, crawling out of the well, some leaned forward in anticipation while others looked away out of fear.
What seems to be a normal soon-to-be jumpscare turns out to be more than just that.
The moment the screen showed Sadako reaching the television and pushing her hand forward, something else happened.
A hand appeared out of the screen in the exact same spot, which soon turned into an arm and then another arm and finally, half of a woman's body.
It looks like something that came out of a horror movie as Sadako, seemed to truly come out of the cinema's screen.
While the others were oblivious to the woman that just came out of the screen, only Kenshin was the first one to notice that Sadako seemed to have truly come out of the screen, appearing in the real world.
He dropped the bucket of popcorn to the ground and muttered to himself.
'What in the nine layers of hell is going on!?'
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[Next Chapter: Ch. 12 - Date turned disastrous! [3]