Yixing drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, remembering why he disliked driving to the inner city so much. He’d just finished dropping Mei off at her school, but because of an accident further down the street, he’d been stuck in traffic for the past ten minutes. He watched the light turn from red to green, and still none of the cars could move. The boy let out a frustrated sigh.

Beside him, Jinyu sat in the passenger seat with her knees propped up against the dashboard. She was playing with the tips of her hair; Mei had arranged it into a “mermaid-style braid” earlier that morning, thinking it was the most appropriate hairstyle for her. Yixing supposed that if one looked at it from a certain perspective, the way the hair was plaited did resemble the scales of a fish.

Luhan had left for university almost four weeks ago, and with the object of her affection out of her reach, Jinyu didn’t really have much to do. Yixing smirked a little, thinking of how bored she got sitting at his house. To avoid this, he’d started taking her around town while he ran errands and jobs for his parents. But now, instead of being bored at home, she’d end up being bored in his car.

Yixing looked at the traffic and eventually accepted that it wasn’t going to get better any soon. He looked to the right and saw a public parking structure, and thought that it would be a good place to wait out the traffic. But what could they do until then? He looked around the streets for a while, and across the avenue he spotted a movie theater near the department store. An idea popped into his head. 

He his right turn signal, and looked at Jinyu in his peripheral vision. 

“Hey,” he said, and she turned to him. “You wanna watch a movie?”

Jinyu raised one brow at him began to look around the car as though searching for some way they could watch a movie right now. Yixing chuckled and then pointed across the street.

“Over there,” he said, “There’s cinema over there, it’s where you can watch movies. So… you wanna?”

Jinyu looked at the building he pointed at and then at Yixing. “Okay,” she answered. Yixing smiled and started a slow turn into the parking structure. This was definitely a new addition to their usual morning routine of dropping Mei off at school and then going to the local fish market to buy squid and fish to feed the rehabilitating animals. 

Yixing on the other hand was feeling giddy about the arrangement. It’d been a long time since he shirked his chores and did something fun; the idea of it was thrilling to him. And having Jinyu with him somehow made it even better. When he parked the car, stepped out, and then went around to get the door for her, he was in the middle of making sure he understood that this wasn’t supposed to be a date. But the more he thought about the circumstances, a boy and a girl going to a movie theater together, it was getting harder not to think of it like one. And he’d be lying if he tried to convince himself that he didn’t think of Jinyu in that way. His thoughts told him that, really, if it weren’t for Luhan, he’d gladly take her out on a date. 

“What are we going to watch?” Jinyu asked when they reached the box office. Yixing paid for the tickets and handed one to her. He pointed at one of the posters on display.

“That one,” he said, pointing to the poster for “Insidious 2.”

Jinyu followed Yixing’s finger and found herself looking at a black movie poster with a human baby on it. Human babies were supposed to be cute and gentle, so she wasn’t quite sure as to why there would be such a heavy, dark color in the forefront of the poster.

“It’s about babies?” she asked. 

Yixing stared a while and then let out a nervous laugh. “Uh, yeah, sort of. Just watch, you’ll see what it’s about.”

Jinyu knit her brows together. “Why do you look so nervous?” she asked and then let out a nervous laugh of her own. 

“No reason,” he said. He chewed the inside of his cheek and decided that he better add another comment. 

“Just, uh,” he said, “Promise me that you won’t try to sleep in my room again later tonight.”

“Why would I do that?” Jinyu asked, but Yixing used his palm to gently push her into the theater doorway.

“No reason,” he said, trying to contain his smirk. 

Just as he expected, Jinyu was terrified out of her wits of the movie, and Yixing couldn’t even concentrate on what was so scary because she was squeezing his wrist and cutting off the circulation to his hand. He blushed at the contact at first, but with every passing scene, Jinyu’s hold on his hand grew tighter and tighter. To solve the problem, Yixing pried her fingers off his hand.

“That hurts,” he had whispered to her in the middle of the movie. Jinyu whispered an apology, took her hand off of his, and went back to watching the film. 

Yixing took her distraction to his advantage, and used this as an opportunity to study her face. Her brows were knit, but her eyes were wide and terrifyingly attentive. He smirked seeing her reaction. Then he reached out his hand and this time placed it over hers. This way he could comfort her without cutting off the circulation to his fingers. 

He felt the tension relieve a little when their skin touched.

“You should have warned me!” Jinyu protested when the movie was over and they walked back out into the light. Yixing laughed.

“You never would have come with me if I told you what it was,” he said. 

“Yes, I would,” Jinyu replied.

“Really?”

“Well,” Jinyu said in qualification, and Yixing began to laugh. 

“You wouldn’t have,” he said. “You were scared of that one zombie movie, you wouldn’t have voluntarily walked into the theater knowing we were watching this.”

“Then, why did you insist?” Jinyu asked as they walked on. She scoffed and crossed her arms. “You enjoy seeing me afraid, don’t you? Dragging me into frightening situations like some sort of game. You’re sick.” 

Yixing raised his left hand and showed it to her. “You nearly stopped my heartbeat with your iron grip,” he said. “I think it was a pretty scary situation for me, too.”

Jinyu laughed. A rush of bright lights suddenly made her stopped in her tracks and look to the side, however. It was another large room filled with people, machines, and a plethora of bright lights and colors and sounds. I t was mesmerizing.

Yixing followed her gaze and found himself looking at the neighboring arcade. He smiled and turned to Jinyu.

“You wanna go in?” he asked. Jinyu turned to him.

“I… what’s inside?”

Yixing smiled. “It’s an arcade,” he said. “You can play games, go on rides, and win prizes. Chanyeol used to come here a lot, but he’s gotten busier.”

“What kind of games?” Jinyu asked, genuinely fascinated. Yixing swallowed, and a burst of courage made him extend his hand to her. 

“Come on,” he said. “I’ll show you.”

Jinyu looked down at the hand first and then at the face of its owner. Yixing smile was a little unsure, but she could detect a small hint of hope in his eyes. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. Jinyu looked back at the arcade and then slowly lifted her hand and placed it into his waiting palm. Yixing felt a wave of relief rushing over him, and he led her inside the arcade building.

Jinyu watched as Yixing turned his paper money into coins at a short, red machine. He took the coins in a handful and split the pile in half, placing one half of the coins into her palm and the other half into his pocket. Jinyu smiled excitedly; she couldn’t wait to try these human games. 

“Alright,” Yixing said. “Let’s go!”

The pair tried something simple first, to let Jinyu get a sense of what the nature of these games was. She extremely amused by Whack-a-Mole, though she’d yelp in surprise every time one of the moles popped up. Yixing laughed hysterically to himself when he watched her trying one of the Nascar Racing games, in which she crashed her virtual car into nearly every virtual surface. Jinyu especially liked the shooting games, especially the one where she was supposed to shoot at zombies. It was a good kind of closure after watching a scary movie.

‘”Which one is that?” Jinyu said, pointing to a screen somewhere behind Yixing. He turned to see what she was looking at.

“That’s a Guitar Hero game,” he said. Smirked and then led her over to it. He took the guitar controls and then pointed at the demo playing on the screen.

“See the little colored circles on the screen?” he said. “They correspond to the colored buttons here. You hold it like a regular guitar, and to hit the circles, you have to push down on the button and strum down at the same time.”

Jinyu inspected the various complex controls. This one looked like a very hard game. Yixing began to adjust the shoulder strap and then handed the guitar to her with a smirk.

“Here, try this one,” he said. 

“I don’t think I can do it,” Jinyu answered. 

“Yes, you can,” Yixing said. He walked toward her and pulled the shoulder strap around her. “Just try it once.”

Jinyu smiled anxiously. “I do not think I will do well on this one,” she said, and Yixing chuckled. He put in the right amount of coins and picked out the easiest song for her to try. Then, he stood back a bit and decided to see how the show would go. Jinyu waited patiently, nervous vibrations running through her bones. Suddenly, the game started, and she began to push buttons and strum furiously.

“Ah!” she yelped when she saw that she was failing at the game miserably. 

“Blue! Red! Blue! Ack – I mean, red! No, you have to strum down when – ” Yixing said, barking instructions at her.

“What? Oh no, wait – Blue!” Jinyu said, messing up the level. Yixing ran a hand through his hair, and he wasn’t sure whether to feel frustrated that she was losing such an easy level or to laugh because she was losing such an easy level. Making up his mind, he walked up behind her.

“Move your hand,” he said, patting her wrist a bit. Jinyu dropped the hand that was on the guitar neck, and Yixing took over the controls.

“I’ll push the color buttons, you strum,” he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. 

Jinyu was caught off-guard by the sudden closeness; her back was against his chest. But not wanting to disappoint him, Jinyu focused all her attention back on the screen, strumming down whenever she was supposed to. This time, not a single note was missed. They chose a higher level and decided to play it together, Yixing on the colors and Jinyu strumming. What started out as a messy, chaotic game, turned into real music and coordinated harmony.

Jinyu smiled at the way this rhythm was helping them through the game, and Yixing smiled when he saw their score climb up. When they finished the level, Jinyu let out a happy laugh and Yixing smirked.

“New high score!” the screen called out, and then asked for them to put their name into the record. Yixing asked Jinyu for the controls for a minute and began inputting their names:

“J-I-N-Y-U-space-A-N-D – ” he spelled out, but there was suddenly an error in the game. The name was too long, it said. Yixing tilted his head, and then looking at Jinyu.

“We can just put your name in,” Yixing said to her, but Jinyu chewed the inside of her cheek.

“But we both finished the game together,” she said. “We should put your name.”

As tempting as it sounded, Yixing shook his head. Jinyu laughed a little. 

“What if we combined our names?” she suggested, and Yixing pursed his lips. Combine their names? That was something only boyfriends and girlfriends did together. But he wasn’t sure how to explain that to her. Yixing sighed and began inputting the name into the system:

“XingYu,” he wrote, and then selected the “enter” option. Their name appeared at the top of the screen, in the #1 slot, and Yixing looked at it proudly. Jinyu laughed happily as well. 

The arcade date continued, and the pair tried more games: the basketball free throw game in which Yixing embarrassed himself, a ring toss, skee ball, there was even an old-fashioned goldfish scoop game that Jinyu excelled at for obvious reasons. They tried the claw machine, and DDR which they both tried to play together only for Yixing to trip all over Jinyu’s legs and land on the floor. He pushed himself up and dusted off his pants before turning to Jinyu, who wasn’t sure whether to be concerned or amused.

“Okay,” he said, trying to maintain a smile. “I think that’s enough games for one day.”

“You cannot mean that it’s over,” Jinyu said. Yixing laughed nervously.

“It’s almost 3 o’clock anyway,” Yixing said, checking his watch. Jinyu pouted a bit and Yixing forced himself to be firm with her. Jinyu sighed and eventually gave in. Yixing laughed a little as he led her through the arcade in search of the exit. Jinyu tried to make herself remember the way the arcade looked, and sounded, and smelled like. It would be nice to keep a memory like this was as long as she lived. 

Yixing walked at a brisk pace and she tried to keep up. Jinyu was staring at the back of his head, wondering if he was planning on looking back at her. She was in the middle of these thoughts when another sight stole her attention, and she called out to him.

“Yixing!” she said, and he turned around. Jinyu pointed excited at a very large ball pit in the middle of the arcade. Several children were running in and out and around it. 

“It’s a ball pit,” Yixing explained. Then he turned and tried to continue walking, but before he could even take another step, he felt Jinyu tugging on the back of his shirt. 

“I want to try it,” Jinyu asked. Yixing looked between the ball pit and her face.

“I don’t think you’re allowed in it,” he said. “Sorry. Let’s get going.”

“But!” Jinyu protested, grabbing a fistful of his shirt again. Jinyu looked longingly back at the ball pit; it looked like a tub of rainbow-colored bubbles. Sometimes, after a storm jumbled up the ocean waters, the surface would collect with similar bubbles. Jinyu really wanted to try it.

Yixing pointed at a sign. “The sign says the ball pit is for children between 5 and 12 only,” he explained. “I’m not sure how old you are, but you’re definitely not between 5 and 12.”

“If you don’t know,” Jinyu said. “How can anyone else know?”

“There’s a huge difference between you and a 10-year-old girl, Jinyu,” Yixing said. “We have to get going anyway.”

“But – ”

“You can try it again another time. Follow me, we’re going now.”

Jinyu chewed on her bottom lip, looking between Yixing and the colorful ocean of rainbow bubbles. With her mind met up and her conviction settling in, she crossed her arms and smirked.

“No,” she said. Yixing stopped in his tracks and looked quizzically at her.

“No?” he said. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

Jinyu smirked, kicking off her shoes and setting her new pet goldfish’s bag down on top of the shoe rack. “I mean ‘no’,” and with that, she let out a yelp and jumped into the ball pit. Yixing ran over to the entrance and shook his head as he watched.

“You’re going to get in trouble!” he said. “Watch, someone is going to come over and tell you to get out.”

Some of the little kids, seeing Jinyu jump into the ball pit with them, decided to include her in their little game of tag. From far away, the pit didn’t look so deep, but when she was in it, the pile of air-filled plastic balls reached up to her knee. She laughed along with the other children seeing how eager they were to play with her. Yixing leaned against the frame of the entrance and continued to shake his head.

“Jinyu, come on,” he kept saying. “Get out of there; this is for the little kids only.”

“You nag too much,” Jinyu said to him and lightly threw a little red ball at his head. Yixing tried to dodge the ball, but instead of avoiding it, it hit him square on the nose. The little kids laughed and Yixing closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them again, he locked his sights on Jinyu.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he said, kicking off his own shoes. Yixing jumped into the ball pit and the little kids screamed and scrambled to hide behind Jinyu. She took an armful of the colorful balls and tried to launch them at him all at once. A semi-serious ball fight ensued. Yixing felt like a stupid little boy in the ball pt, tripping over his legs and the colorful balls and playing games with little 8-year-olds. But Jinyu was smiling wide and laughing merrily, and he supposed that it was okay so long as she was enjoying herself.

A whole fifteen minutes must have passed that the two play-fought and chased each other around the little kids’ silly playground. A boy in a uniform approached them finally and reiterated to them what it said on the sign about the age restriction.

“Alright, alright, we’re getting out!” Yixing said to the boy. He waded through the ball pit and toward the exit first, and when Jinyu caught up, he helped her climb out as well. 

\Yixing had a bit of trouble finding his shoes at first, but thankfully no one had touched Jinyu’s shoes or the goldfish she won at the game booth. Her cheeks were flushed and warm by the time her shoes were back on. She looked around for Yixing and found him gesturing her over to the exit. She followed him happily. It was afternoon by the time they made it back to the car in the parking structure. 

“You need a bowl for him?” Yixing asked, gesturing to the goldfish in Jinyu’s plastic bag.

“Her,” Jinyu said. “It’s a girl.”

“Well, do you want a bowl to put her in, then?” Yixing asked. He pulled his key from the door and closed it behind them. The house was empty for now, but Mei would be home in an hour or two. He was quite happy with the way the day turned out.

“Yes, please,” Jinyu said. She held the goldfish bag in both hands and kept the little fish close to her chest. 

“Coming right up,” Yixing said. He led Jinyu over to a part of the house that was close to the lab, but a little further down the hall. There was a tall cupboard there, and when Yixing opened it, there were several glass vases, small tanks, and fish bowls. The way the light hit the transparent glasses made it look like magic. 

“Let’s see now,” Yixing said, more to himself than Jinyu.

She stood a pace behind him, watching Yixing look for the perfect-sized bowl for her new pet. It was at this time that a certain sentiment settle into Jinyu’s heart, and she felt a profound sense of appreciation for Yixing, and for everything he’d done for her. And aside from that, she just felt so appreciative of him as a whole. 

She thought back to their first meeting and felt, once more on her skin, the pressure of his arms around her and the light in his eyes when he promised her that she was safe now. Jinyu smiled quietly at the memory. She recalled the way his hand felt on hers in the movie theater, the way their names looked when put together. Jinyu thought about the warmth that radiated from him that night she slept in his room. There was giddiness in her chest, now, when she looked at him and remembered those things. 

These 148 days that Jinyu spent on land were characterized by feelings of anxiety and restraint. But there were also times of happiness, and the more she thought of happiness, the clearer Yixing’s face became in her mind and in her heart. Freedom, to her, used to mean the ocean. But freedom, now, was taking on a new form. 

“This works,” Yixing said, grabbing a small bowl from the middle shelf. He closed the cupboards and smiled in satisfaction as he walked back to her.

Jinyu blushed. She wasn’t sure why she suddenly did; after all, it was only a fish bowl. But the closer he came, the more electrified she felt. Yixing took the goldfish bag from her hand and emptied the water and the fish into the small bowl, and then handed it back to her.

“Perfect,” he said. “Where are you going to put her?”

Jinyu lifted the bowl to eye level in order to look at her new fish. But through the glass and the water, she found herself looking at Yixing instead. Jinyu smiled. She hoped her new little fish would be happy in its small, new world. Just as Jinyu had found a way to be happy on this strange, new land.