“No peeking! Got it!?” Sana screams.

I had no idea where she was taking me. She had me blindfolded even in the car, and now we were walking somewhere I had no clue.

“Tzuyu! Are you peeking!?” She yells out.

“No, Sana I’m not! This blindfold is impenetrable I assure you.”

“Ok good!” She says happily.

I don’t have to see to know that she has a stupidly huge smile on her face right now.

“We’re almost there, I’ll take the blindfold off in a second.”

“Ugh yes finally.” I sigh in relief.

“Ok, here we are!”

As Sana raises the blindfold off my eyes a bright light hits my face. Once my eyes get to adjust to the light, after being temporarily blind for a while, I take a look at the surroundings. I’m in a park, but it seems familiar.

“Happy anniversary!” Sana says with her hands in the air.

“Haha happy anniversary Sana. Where are we? Is this a park?”

“Yupp, but it’s not just any park, look around, you’ll figure it out.”

My eyes scan the area and I see a bench where Sana sits down.

“Oh my gosh.” I say shocked.

“Do you remember now?” Sana smiles.

“This is where we first met, the exact spot.”

~

My mind goes back to that time, I remember I was walking my dog Gucci, as I passed by Sana as she was sitting on the very same bench.

“Excuse me, can I pet your dog? It’s so cute!”

“Yeah of course! The name’s Gucci by the way.”

“Your name is Gucci?” Sana says puzzled.

“No no that’s my dog’s name. My name is Tzuyu.”

“Ahhh that makes more sense! I’m Sana! Nice to meet you!”

~

“Yupp! You’re right!”

“You were totally judging me, when I told you my dog’s name was Gucci.”

“And you were totally judging me when I thought it was your name at first!”

“Yes of course! Why would you even think that!?”

“Well you said it like you were referring to yourself ok!”

“You know what made me judge you even more?”

“Ok, what’s that?” She asks.

“How you could ask for my number literally right after.”

“Alright, well I could make the argument that I could judge you more for actually giving it to me.”

“I…umm…so where are we going now!?”

“That’s right Tzuyu change the subject!” Sana laughs, then she grabs my hand and runs, “We go this way!”

“Wait what about the car!?” I ask frantically.

“Don’t worry about it! C’mon!”

Sana whisks me away and we run across the park laughing. We make it to the other side of the park and we stop running to catch our breath.

“Ok Sana, spit it out, where are you taking me?” I say slowly.

“Right over there.” Sana points to a building across the street and I can’t believe my eyes.

“Isn’t that where we had our first date?” I say shocked, “I had no idea it was this close from the park where we first met!”

“Right!? Me neither!” Sana exclaims, “C’mon let’s go!”

Sana grabs my hand again and we run across the street and into the building. Bright lights and various sounds fill the atmosphere.

“Wow nothing about this arcade has changed at all, everything is right where it was just like the last time we were here.” I say astonished.

“I’ll challenge you to another round of air hockey if you want! Maybe I’ll even let you win this time!” Sana quickly runs away and heads to the air hockey tables.

“Ok look! You only won last time because you cheated!”

~

“Ok, are you ready?”I ask.

“Ready to win? ALWAYS.” Sana smiles confidently.

“Wow cocky much?” I scoff.

“Just go Chou.” Sana smirks.

I serve and the game starts. It was probably the most intense game of air hockey anyone has ever seen. We must have went 3 minutes without scoring at all. It felt like whoever scored first was definitely going to own the game. I hit the puck and Sana misses completely and I land the first point.

“HA!” I say confidently, “This just might be my day, not so cocky now huh Sana?”

“It’s just one point Tzuyu, don’t get too cocky now yourself!”

Sana grabs the puck and quickly hits it, without me realizing, she landed a point. I look at Sana in awe and see that the score was tied almost immediately. Sana gives me a wink and I knew this game was going to be fun. We went back and forth for 5 more points and we were tied 6 to 6, game point.

“Your serve Chou, do you think you have what it takes?” Sana says trying to intimidate me.

“To beat you? This is nothing, you don’t scare me Minatozaki.”

I hit the puck as hard as I could but Sana catches it like it was nothing.

“Hey! You got to hit the puck not catch it! What are you doing!?”

“I just wanted to say that you look beautiful tonight and this is the best date I’ve ever been on.”

Taken aback by the sudden statement I didn’t know how to reply, after all this was our first date. Before I knew it, Sana had hit the puck into my goal and won the game.

“Wait! Did you say that just to distract me!? Cheater!”

~

“Ok look, for the record, I did mean every word I said that time. So it’s not like I lied or anything.” Sana smiles.

“Whatever, it’s not happening again. Let’s go Minatozaki.”

We start the game just like last time and we go back and forth, going minutes without scoring, although, this game felt much harder than the last.

“Have you been practicing Sana?” I ask trying to stay focused.

“Maybe? Or maybe you got worse? Which I don’t understand how that could be possible because you were already pretty bad to begin with.” Sana laughs.

“Oh! So it’s going to be like that huh!?” I scoff, “Well if I’m so bad…” I hit the puck off the side and it lands into Sana’s goal, “…how do you explain that?”

Sana smiles and grabs the puck and quickly hit it into my own goal before I can react, déjà vu much?

“This is looking a lot like last time.” I laugh.

“Yupp, it’s going to end up like last time too, with my victory.”

“Oh yeah? We’ll see!” I grab the puck and we keep playing.

And just like last time we were going head to head and the game was extremely close.

“Gotcha!” Sana yells, “All tied up!”

I grab the puck and set it on the table.

“Game point.” I take a deep breath.

“Hey Tzuyu.”

I look up and Sana has a serious look on her face.

“What is it Sana?”

“I just wanted to say that-“

Before she can get another word in I look towards the goal and hit the puck straight in.

“Hey! I wasn’t done talking!” Sana says shocked.

“No no, you were not about to distract me with your words again Sana.”

“I want a rematch!”

“Nope! I won fair and square, besides you didn’t give me a rematch last time!”

Sana looks at me with a sad face.

“Nope, that pout won’t work on me.” I say and walk away.

“Ugh fiiiine, anyway, I ‘m starving how about you?” Sana says as she catches up to me and latches onto my arm.

“Yeah winning really made me work up an appetite.”

“Haha you’re so funny.” Sana leers.

“Hey, we left the car all the way on the other side of the park, are we really going to go all the way back over there?”

“I told you I not to worry it right?” Sana says as she opens up the door.

I look outside and I see our car right in front of the arcade doors.

“Wait…how did our car get here?”

“I have my ways.” Sana winks.

“You know you’re being really secretive today.”

“Am I? I haven’t noticed.” She smiles.

“Anyway I’m hungry, where do you want to eat?”

“Oh I already have reservations.”

“What? Really? To where?”

“You’ll see, maybe it’s just another one of my secrets for today.”

I get in the passenger seat and watch as Sana drives, trying to figure out where she’s taking me. As Sana turns the corner I see a restaurant that I know we’ve been to before, but I just can’t remember when.

“We’ve been here before right?” I ask.

“Yupp! I bet you don’t remember when huh?” Sana snickers.

“What’s so funny? What are you up to Sana?”

Sana parks in front of the restaurant and smiles at me.

“Ohhh nothing. You’ll see.” She smiles.

Worried, I get out of the car and follow her inside.

“Ahh Ms. Minatozaki and Ms. Chou I presume?”

“That’s us!” Sana exclaims.

“Good to see you again ladies, I trust this time we will certainly suit your tastes.”

“I sure hope you do, it’s our anniversary today.” Sana proclaims.

“Ahh! Well congratulations to you both, we shall provide you some celebratory champagne on the house!”

“Oh you don’t have to do that!” I didn’t really think we’d be getting any special treatment.

“Oh no, I insist!”

“Yeah Tzuyu, he insists!”

“Well, alright. Sana you just want free stuff.”

“Of course, what’s wrong with free champagne?”

I can’t find an argument to that so I just go along. We get to our seats, and again it seems oddly familiar.

“Is this where we sat down last time?” I ask.

“Indeed it is, Ms. Minatozaki was quite adamant in having this area specifically.”

“And why is that Sana?”

“I’m sure you’ll remember by desert time.” Sana says mysteriously.