SATURDAY ROLLED BY soon enough, yet Y/N still hadn't received a phone call from Ranpo to confirm that he was coming. Maybe she'd gotten her hopes up and he hadn't really wanted to accompany her after all.

I guess I can't force him, she thought silently, a sigh slipping past her lips. Still, she had to admit, the fact that in the end, he had ditched her too stung a little.

Unable to go to yet another year of the fair, Y/N was in a grouchy mood. She made her way to the kitchen, half-heartedly preparing her morning tea for herself (her sweet tooth didn't favour coffee too much). Reaching for the jar of jam-filled cookies she'd baked the day before, she placed some onto a small plate.

It wasn't, by any means, a healthy breakfast, but it would do for the day.

The tea kettle began to whistle, signalling that her warm drink was done. Y/N groaned as she made her way to the stove, wondering why she'd gotten out of bed in the first place. Perhaps she'd go back to bed after she ate.

Yes, she concluded, after giving it a little more thought. That sounds like a nice plan.

The girl sat down on the stool that rested at the edge of the kitchen counter, sipping her tea and munching on her cookies in silence, the only other sound being the rhythmic ticking of the clock.

She was halfway through munching on the last cookie when just then, her phone began to ring. Without looking at the caller ID (she thought it'd be her sister), she picked it up.

"Hello—"

"Y/N, where are you?" She could recognise that voice anywhere—Ranpo. "I'm waiting outside the bakery like you told me to. Not to mention, I'm starving!"

Her eyes widened mid-bite. He hadn't actually left her hanging?

"What? Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" she said hastily. She was wide awake now. "I'll be right there."

Ranpo humphed. "You better give me lots of sweets when you come!"

And with that, he hung up.

Y/N finished the last of her tea in one, big gulp, stuffing the final cookie in her mouth as she rushed to her room, flinging the door of the wardrobe open.

What to wear, what to wear...

Y/N's gaze landed on the outfit she'd hung up on the clothes hanger beforehand, and she mentally thanked her past self for being so organised, because her current self sure wasn't.

She dressed herself quickly before attempting to brush the horrible knots out of her hair in hopes of making it look a little less messy. It barely did the trick though. She briefly glanced down at the time on her phone, concluding that there was only enough time to tie her hair back with a claw clip.

It would have to do.

Swiping on a layer of her favourite lipgloss, she slipped her feet into her sneakers and finally grabbed her phone and keys, slipping them into her crossbody purse.

Then, with a second thought, she made her way to the kitchen and emptied the rest of the cookies in the jar into a brown paper bag. Ranpo had said he was hungry, and nothing in the bakery was fresh seeing as Y/N typically spent Sunday preparing everything for the week.

Right as the girl was about to close the door, she remembered one important thing.

The tickets!

Y/N cursed and rushed back inside, snatching them from her bedside table and shoving them into her purse before she could forget them—or lose them—anywhere else.

The walk from her apartment to the bakery took about fifteen minutes, but Y/N was in such a hurry that she got there in five, breathless by the time she arrived.

These legs are not cut out for running.

It was one of many reasons why she'd absolutely despised PE in school. It was a nightmare to be grouped with classmates who cared too much about winning. She shuddered at the thought. It was a miracle she was still alive, even after all the times she'd dropped the ball during an intense game.

"Oh, hey Y/N," Ranpo said from beside her.

Her train of thought was halted at the sound of his voice as she turned around, finding herself face to face with the detective she'd grown somewhat fond of.

Y/N managed to choke out a greeting as she focused on regaining her breath.

She lifted her hand and held the paper bag out to him, and she could've sworn stars appeared in Ranpo's eyes at the slight glimpse he'd gotten of what was inside.

He snatched it from her without hesitation and reached his hand inside, pulling out not one, but two cookies at once.

"Shall we go?" Y/N asked once she'd regained her breath. "The site of the fair is only a short walk from here."

Ranpo didn't like walking, but Y/N had gone through the trouble of bringing him so many cookies, so, as unwilling as he was, he agreed.

The two began to walk side by side, with Ranpo happily munching on the cookies and Y/N focusing intensely on following the map she'd burned into her memory, praying they wouldn't get lost. If her memory served her correct, the fair was being held at a ten minute walk from where they were now.

They thankfully made it to the fair without too much trouble, and the first thing Y/N did was hand over the tickets to the man at the gate in exchange for a bag of tokens that could be used to go on rides. Then, they made their way to the main entrance, but Ranpo suddenly stopped as he looked around at the giant crowd of people.

"Y/N, can you hold my hand?" he asked out of nowhere, catching the girl off guard. "There's so many people here. I might get lost."

She felt her cheeks heat up at the thought of their entwined hands, but couldn't—or rather, didn't—want to deny his request. "I—um... uh, yeah—no, sure."

Way to go, Y/N, she thought sarcastically.

Instead of trying (and miserably failing) to give him a coherent answer, the girl hesitantly reached for his hand. Ranpo didn't hesitate to intertwine their fingers together, the warmth of his palm spreading through her own.

"Your hand is freezing," he mused, but made no move to let go of it. In fact, perhaps she was just being delusional, but he clutched her hand a little bit tighter. Though it seemed that out of the two of them, she was the only one fazed by the simple gesture of hand-holding.

Get a grip, Y/N told herself.

Letting out a deep breath to compose herself, she turned to the detective beside her. "Where should we go first?" she asked, already having a vague idea of what his answer would be.

"The food stalls!" he replied without hesitation, marching forward and half-dragging her with him.

"Ranpo..." Y/N began. "That's the way we came in from..."

He stopped in his tracks, turning around to face her. "Well then, what are you waiting for? I'm hungry!"

"Yes, your majesty," she muttered under her breath, sarcasm lacing her voice.

Upon Ranpo's request, she scanned her surroundings for a sign to guide them to the food stalls, yet she was unable to find any signs, let alone the one she was searching for.

"I'm sure if we keep walking around, we'll find them eventually," she thought aloud.

Ranpo whined at that. "More walking? I don't want to."

At that, a smile lifted the corner of Y/N's lips. From inside her purse, she pulled out the bag of tokens they'd exchanged earlier.

"Good thing there's other things to do along the way then."

—

They'd ridden on the giant roller coaster about five times now, all because Ranpo kept wanting another turn. Honestly, Y/N was convinced that he was a child stuck in an adult's body.

"Let's go again!" Ranpo proclaimed, beginning to pull the girl in the direction of the line like he'd done a billion times now.

She groaned. They'd be lucky to leave the fair before the end of the day if it continued this way. They had been here for a total of two hours now, and at least half the time had been spent waiting in line for this one ride.

"Ranpo, don't you want to do something else?"

"Everything else is boring," he said with a huff.

Y/N looked around, gaze landing on a table not so far away. It seemed to be a guessing game of some sort. "How about that?"

Curiosity piqued her interest and she made her way towards the booth, Ranpo following closely behind her. As the two drew closer, Y/N could see that there were over a hundred or so balloons lined up in rows against the wall.

The man in front of the balloons gave them a toothy grin—with one tooth missing—as they stopped in front of the booth. "You wanna give it a try, eh?" he asked. "All you have to do is guess which balloon the slip of paper is in."

Y/N was intrigued. "How many turns do we get?"

"Three, in exchange for five token," the man replied, the snarky grin widening a little. "Let's see if you can guess correctly."

It was a gamble, no doubt, but she slowly took out the tokens, counting them before handing them to the man who took them happily. Then, Y/N's gaze moved across all the balloons. Perhaps if she looked at them from a different angle... no, it was useless. The rubber was as opaque as it could be. There was no way she could see through.

She took a wild guess and pointed at a red balloon somewhere in the second row. "That one?"

The man popped the balloon with the pin he'd been holding, and to the girl's dismay, nothing fell out from inside.

Okay... that was bound to happen. Perhaps she'd have more luck on the other side.

She pointed to another one at the other end—yellow this time. "That one."

Another balloon was popped, and once again, it turned out to be empty.

"Two down, one to go~" the man sung. He seemed to be having a little too much fun with this.

Y/N's brows pulled together as she thought hard about it. Had this been a waste of tokens from the start? Her chance of guessing correctly had been three in a hundred, and now it was down to one in ninety-eight.

She looked closely at each and every balloon. There had to be some way of differentiating them. Perhaps their size? No, they're all roughly the same. She could try a different colour, but there was no guarantee that it'd hold the slip of paper she was searching for.

Y/N realised very soon that this was based on pure luck. There was no point thinking about it any longer. She'd lose either way. Her shoulders dropped in defeat as she lifted her hand to point at a random balloon in the middle.

"That o—"

Ranpo lifted his arm and stretched it out in front of her, silently signalling for her to not finish her sentence. She cut herself off and watched curiously as the detective looked not at the balloons, but at the man.

"The answer is simple," he stated, lowering his arm. "It's in none of them. The slip of paper is in your pocket."

Y/N's jaw dropped as she looked between Ranpo and the man, who looked equally as shocked. This whole thing had been rigged from the very beginning?

The shock on the man's face soon enough morphed into outrage. "You—! You cheater!"

"Oh?" Ranpo asked innocently. "So you admit it?"

"Bullshit," the man spat. "I would never do that." He looked enraged. "You're a liar! I'll... I'll have you detained by the fair's security for harassing employees!"

By now, a small crowd had collected around the booth as they witnessed the ongoing scene in front of them.

"I'm the liar?" Ranpo cocked his head to the side. "Left inner-pocket of your jacket, then. Go."

The man was at a loss for words as hushed whispers began to spread through the crowd.

"I knew this booth was a scam!" Y/N heard someone say.

"This guy robbed me of all my tokens!" someone else replied.

"I thought my luck was just bad!" another added. "I even paid him extra money when there were just seven balloons left!"

With the pressure the crowd, and more specifically, Ranpo, was placing on the man's shoulders, he had no choice but to slip his hand into the pocket Ranpo has specifically pointed out, and slowly, pulled out the slip.

"You win," he spat bitterly, a grimace on his features. "Pick your prize."

Ranpo turned to Y/N, and her eyes widened when she realised he was awaiting her answer.

"O—oh. I pick the prize?" she asked. "But you're the one who guessed correct—"

"Y/N." The emerald shade of Ranpo's eyes was almost glowing. "Go on."

She hesitantly turned to the shelf lined with prizes, eyes moving from one row to the next. There were prizes of all sorts—stuffed toys, a huge pack of balloons, and even a giant witch's hat—but her gaze landed on a large teddy bear that held a cupcake, croissant and a donut, all in its small, stubby paws.

It reminded her oddly of the boy beside her...

She stepped forward and pulled it out from the shelf, its size almost so big that she could barely hold onto it.

"I'll take this one."

Though the man behind the booth stared at the two with venom in his eyes (it was particularly directed towards Ranpo, who seemed to be staring back with equal hostility), he allowed Y/N to rightfully take her prize. And the moment she did, Ranpo grabbed her hand back—she nearly dropped the bear in the process and just barely managed to wound her arm around it—and marched off with his head held high.

From behind her, Y/N could just manage to hear the enraged crowd they were leaving behind, with some demanding refunds, others demanding a prize, and a few even looking around for security to deal with the scammer.

She looked back at Ranpo who seemed to be walking without actually knowing where he was going, as long as it was away from that booth.

"How did you know the slip was in his pocket?" she asked curiously.

"Easy peasy!" he replied, stopping in his tracks. "He was shuffling around so much and even patted that area at one point to make sure the paper was still there. It was so painfully obvious."

"You knew from the start?" she asked in disbelief. "So you made me use up two of my guesses for your own personal amusement?"

"I wanted to see if you'd catch on," Ranpo replied innocently.

"I hate you," she grumbled under her breath, though the fluttering in her chest at just the fact that their hands were linked while they walked said otherwise.

Ranpo suddenly stopped, and when Y/N realised why, she couldn't help but sigh. He had known where he was going after all.

"Ranpo, this roller coaster again?" She looked at the line which had only gotten longer. Noon seemed to be the peak rush time, and at this rate, if they stepped into the line, they'd perhaps get a turn within the next two hours.

"What about the haunted house up ahead?" Y/N suggested. She'd been wanting to check it out for a while now, ever since she'd overheard a group of teenagers praising it a while ago from somewhere ahead in the line.

But Ranpo only shook his head. "Boring."

He looked at Y/N, about to request to go on the roller coaster again, when he saw how sad she looked. Had she wanted to go to the haunted house that badly? They had been on the roller coaster quite a few times now, and he didn't like seeing her so down...

The detective's shoulders dropped in defeat. "Ugh, fine."

Y/N perked up at his response, unable to believe that he'd actually agreed.

"But," Ranpo quickly interjected, "after that, we're going to the food stalls."

That was fine. She was starting to feel a little hungry anyway. And luckily, there was a board up ahead right beside the haunted house with what seemed to be a giant map of the fair.

"Alright," Y/N agreed with a nod. "Then let's go!"

—

Now that the ride was about to start, Y/N remembered one important detail that may have slipped from her mind earlier: she hated all types of horror.

She couldn't make it through horror movies without throwing up at least once, Halloween was her least favourite holiday, and the scary stories Yuriko would often tell her gave her nightmares for days.

She cursed under her breath and resisted the urge to leap out of the carriage and run away like some sort of crazed lunatic.

At least she wasn't on the ride alone—that gave her some peace of mind. On her right was the teddy bear she'd won, and on her left... she turned to Ranpo, freezing when she saw him with a lollipop in his mouth. Just beside him, there was a sign that read No food and drinks.

"Ranpo! Are you insane?"

He turned to her with the stick of his lollipop sticking out of his mouth, staring at her in confusion. "What?"

Just then, a countdown from ten began, eerie ghost noises sounding in the distance. Forgetting about the lollipop, Y/N focused on calming her breath.

"Three..." the voice of the countdown said. "Two..."

This would be fine. She would be fine. Everything would be just fine.

"One..."

Y/N braced herself.

"Zero!"

The ride began as the carriage descended almost immediately into complete darkness. The sounds of cackles and screams echoed around them, and out of nowhere, a witch fell forward, her face landing right in front of poor Y/N, who let out a shriek.

Ranpo, from beside her, finished his lollipop and ripped open a packet of chips.

Y/N looked at him, a mix of both terror and utter confusion on her face. "Where in the world did you get that from?" She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "And more importantly, how are you not scre—"

Her words were cut short by a shrill cry as the carriage took a sharp turn and she came face to face with a corpse, followed by a ghost that came from the other side. From beside her, she could hear the crunching of Ranpo's chips, but that noise was overpowered by the sound of demonic laughter behind her, followed by the whirring of a chainsaw.

"Sounds like Yosano," Ranpo observed, pushing a handful of chips into his mouth a moment later.

"What?!" Y/N didn't know whether to be amazed by how calm he was, or worried by what he had just said. She didn't have time for either though, because after a flash of black, another corpse fell from the ceiling.

At this point, Y/N wasn't even screaming—she'd sunk as far down into her seat as the handle that also acted as a belt allowed her to, while holding back tears.

Why had she thought this was a good idea? That stupid roller coaster Ranpo couldn't get enough of was a gazillion times better.

"This is so boring, Y/N!" Ranpo complained from beside her. This time when she looked over at him, he was biting a piece out of a giant chocolate bar.

Where the hell is he getting all this food from?!

When a green flash enveloped them and was followed by a zombie popping out, Y/N lost it.

"Ranpo." Her voice was close to a whimper. "Can you hold my hand?"

Ranpo blinked a few times, then shrugged, reaching forward and grasping her hand with his own without even questioning her request. The gesture made Y/N feel fuzzy inside. She didn't even care if his fingers were covered in chip dust—something as simple as his warmth calmed her down more than she thought