My peaceful, romantic moment beneath the shared jacket was suddenly interrupted by the buzzing of my phone.
Seriously? Who dared disturb me at a sacred moment like this?
I reluctantly pulled out my phone and glanced at the screen.
[Joseph: I saw you're having an amazing time, so I decided to give you more time with Kazuha.]
I tapped it open and immediately froze.
It was Kazuha and me, photographed from a distance, sitting side by side on the bench beneath my leather jacket. Our shoulders were pressed together, and from that angle, we looked surprisingly close.
"WHAT?!"
Kazuha startled beside me. "What happened?"
"N-Nothing!" I immediately turned my phone against my chest.
Wait... Did we actually look that romantic from the outside?
I stared at the picture again. Damn. We actually looked kind of... Cute.
My lips slowly curled upward. Josh... You're the best bro a man could ask for. I immediately sent him a thumbs-up sticker.
Kazuha glanced toward the crowd. "They're taking a long time."
"W-Well, yeah." I scratched my cheek, suddenly feeling guilty that Joseph was deliberately giving us privacy. "Actually, I need to use the bathroom." I carefully stood up.
"Okay."
I took my side of the jacket off and left it around her shoulders. "Just keep the jacket."
"Kaoru, wait—"
I escaped before she could protest. The Jacket Mission had already exceeded all expectations. There was no reason to push my luck.
After finishing my bathroom business, I was washing my hands when my phone buzzed again.
[Joseph: By the way, that bear pop-up store is insanely crowded. Apparently there's some kind of grand prize.]
He attached a photo.
I opened it.
There were shelves filled with merchandise of that little bear Kazuha loved. Plushies, keychains, mugs, acrylic stands, cushions, and countless other things whose purpose I couldn't understand. Then I saw the grand prize.
My eyes narrowed.
A thought entered my head. A very dangerous thought. Kazuha really loves this bear... If I won that grand prize...
My imagination immediately activated.
["Kaoru! You won this for me?!"
"Naturally."
"You're incredible!"
"It was nothing."
"Marry me! My little bear!"]
I grinned. It was perfect.
[Me: Where's the pop-up store?]
Joseph sent me the location.
Instead of returning to the bench like a responsible injured person, I began limping toward the store. My ankle still hurt, but thankfully it wasn't far.
The pop-up store was packed. People lined up around the displays, many of them clutching merchandise while staff enthusiastically advertised a lottery.
I stared at the grand prize displayed behind the counter. That was my target.
When I finally reached the front, a cheerful employee greeted me. "Welcome! One draw is one thousand yen. How many would you like?"
I blinked. One thousand yen? Expensive. But this was for Kazuha. "Um... if I don't get what I want, can I buy more?"
"Of course! You'll just need to queue again."
I looked at the line behind me, then at the lottery. "Three chances, please."
Three should be enough. My protagonist luck would handle the rest.
I confidently drew my first ticket.
The employee opened it. "Prize J! Congratulations!"
I blinked. "J...?" A tiny acrylic bear keychain was handed to me. Cute. But definitely not the grand prize. No problem. Two chances remained.
I drew again.
"Prize J! Congratulations!"
My smile twitched.
Third ticket.
"Prize J! Congratulations!"
I stared at the three identical keychains in my hands, then at the employee, then back at the keychains. What kind of scam was this?
Still... A warrior didn't surrender after one defeat so I queued again. By the time I returned to the counter, my competitive spirit had completely awakened.
"Welcome back! How many this time?"
I pointed dramatically. "Ten."
The employee blinked. "Ten?"
"TEN!"
People nearby looked at me. I didn't care. This wasn't gambling anymore. This was war!
I rapidly drew ten tickets.
The employee began announcing them one by one. "Four Prize J, two Prize F, two Prize E, one Prize D, and one Prize C! Congratulations!"
My arms were soon filled with bear merchandise.
Keychains, towels, a mug and some strange decorative thing I didn't understand.
Still... No grand prize. I stared at the grand prize displayed behind the counter.
It stared back. Mocking me.
"Excuse me."
"Yes?"
"What's the chance of winning the grand prize?"
"Approximately one percent."
"One percent?!"
"Yes. There were three hundred tickets originally."
Three hundred?! I stared at the lottery bowl. What kind of demonic economic system was this?!
"Thank you." I quietly returned to the line.
By my third trip through the queue, several staff members recognized me on sight. "Welcome back!"
"Don't welcome me!" I was fighting for my life here!
Thankfully, the line had become significantly shorter. More importantly, the bowl looked almost empty.
I stared at it. My brain suddenly produced something resembling intelligence. "Excuse me."
"Yes?"
"Could you check how many tickets are left?" The employee looked surprised. "One moment." He spoke with another staff member, who counted the remaining tickets.
A few moments later, he returned. "Twenty seven."
Twenty seven...
I slowly pulled out my phone. Opened my banking app and looked at my remaining balance, then looked at the bowl, then back at my bank account.
My hands began trembling.
This was stupid. Extremely stupid. Possibly the stupidest financial decision I'd made in my eighteen years of life.
I thought about Kazuha's tiny smile beneath my jacket. "I'll buy all of them."
The employee stared at me. "All twenty seven?"
I swallowed. "All of them."
And thus...
Kaoru's Bank Account: 627 yen.
Rest in peace. You served me well.
The final twenty seven tickets were opened. "GRAND PRIZE!" The staff erupted into applause. "Congratulations! This lady won the grand prize!"
"YES!" I threw both fists into the air. "I WON!"
People around me clapped. The staff congratulated me. Someone even asked to take a promotional photo while I stood there surrounded by an absurd mountain of bear merchandise.
I smiled proudly.
"Thank you for coming!"
I left the store carrying two enormous bags stuffed with merchandise and the grand prize.
My ankle hurt, my bank account was dead, my arms were exhausted. But my spirit? Fired up to the sky.
I looked down at the grand prize in my hands, and a stupid grin slowly spread across my face.
Kazuha was going to love this.
Probably.
No. Definitely!