"Sure. Great." Akihiko smiles himself out of the situation. "Let me give it one more effort, just to see."

The result wasbetter, though not spectacularly so.

She leaned in to watch him play, trying not to get too far into his space. "Honestly, I appreciate how much of a go you're giving it. Mostly it's been one try and finished."

As this run in the game ends, he turns to thank Shizuku, and discovers her nose closer to his than he'd expected. He has to smile, seeing her fine features so clearly, but whatever words were supposed to materialize got lost. Way lost.

"Um," he says, breathlessly. "You're really pretty."

She blinked, feeling red crawl up her neck and a soft smile cross her face. "You're um... very handsome, too."

Akihiko sees the start of the adorable blush, then remembers himself again and quickly reaches for the computer. He rambles out something about the game, that "you know, having played this a couple of times now, I really feel like, on the second level -- you know, right here, with this thing," as he makes large, unnecessary gestures with his hand to take attention off of her/them.

Stealthy it isn't, but effective cover for a possible embarrassment? I totally pulled that off.

She babbled some overly technical answer to his statement - she's sure she processed what he said on some level - to get both of them back to making attempts at normalcy. "I guess the most important question is whether it's fun, though."

Akihiko chuckles. "Yes, right. And I think it is fun. I could spend hours on this... I mean, I think I'd have to get quite a bit more skilled to get super far, so this would give a lot of gameplay time, I think." He smiles. "Good work."

She grinned and closed her eyes, pumping both fists. "I'm really glad... That's what I want with this."