As the arcade employees make their rounds, Taiyo gets ready to make his move. He sees one of them come out the back door with keys in his hand.

“Keys?…crap, if he locks the door then I definitely have no way in.” Taiyo thinks to himself while quickly forming a plan.

As the jangling keys get closer to the door lock, a sudden *klak* sound distracts the employee. 

“Huh?!” says the employee as he turns his head, trying to pinpoint what it was. Slowly he walks from the door, bending down to pickup…

“Sunglasses, how did these get here?”

Disregarding why a pair of sunglasses would randomly fall into an alleyway, the employee shrugs and goes back to locking the door. Upon hearing the lock click, a relieved Taiyo sits upright against the door inside the arcade.

“Mission accomplished.” 

The arcade is dark and quiet, quite the contrast from it’s daily cacophony of loud and bright. Taiyo makes his way to the DanceStar machine and finds the plug to turn it back on. The loudness and brightness being even heightened amongst the darkness, it almost seems magical. After putting in credits, Hoshi appears as programmed.

“Welcome to DanceStar! Pick your skill level.”

“Hoshi…the arcade is closed” says Taiyo in a sly whisper

After processing what he had just said, Hoshi breaks character.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I snuck in after hours and turned the machine back on.”

“You went through all of that trouble just to see me?” says Hoshi while blushing.

“I had to, I don’t care if nobody else believes me.”

“That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me…well it’s literally the only thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

“Must be hard being an arcade game mascot all day.” says Taiyo with a laugh

“It’s what I’m programmed to do, I don’t really see it as burdensome.”

“Maybe we could switch jobs then, because I’d rather be dancing all day than typing my life away at a computer.”

“Who’s to say you couldn’t dance all day?”

“What?”

Suddenly, Hoshi reaches her hand through the screen.

“Grab my hand Taiyo-kun.”

Without hesitation, Taiyo grabs her hand and gets pulled into the screen.