“N-Not at all!” I said, panicking. Her teasing was making me embarrassed. “I-It’s not like I’m into that stuff or anything!”
“Let me guess—frilly aprons? Like maid outfits? You’re so obvious!”
“Th-That’s not...!”
“I get it now!” she exclaimed. “So that’s why you didn’t care about gyaru-style clothes!”
Shirakawa-san was totally enjoying herself at my expense.
“It’s not like...!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine; you don’t have to be so shy about it.”
“I-It’s not just me, okay?!” I protested. “That’s what any guy dreams about!”
“Oh? You’re finally coming clean!” she said in an exaggerated manner, giving me a self-satisfied smile. “I see. Heh heh heh.”
Shirakawa-san spoke as though she now knew my weak spot. My face was burning up and I looked away from her, going silent in shame.
It was embarrassing to have her find out my preferences. However, when I got to talk to her about silly things like that, I could feel that we really were boyfriend and girlfriend, which made me happy.
Recently I’d become a lot less nervous in her presence compared to before. In the beginning, I’d thought I couldn’t possibly have anything in common with someone as popular as Shirakawa-san, so being able to talk to her like this now felt strange.
Not that I was satisfied with her totally teasing me like that—which was why I looked for a different topic to divert the conversation.
Suddenly, I remembered how Kurose-san had been that morning.
“By the way...Kurose-san called you?” I asked.
Shirakawa-san’s face went a little stiff. “She did... She apologized. I’m not holding it against her, though. I just hope we can get along again someday...”
“Yeah...”
It would surely take some time for that to happen.
“I hope such a day comes soon,” I added, feeling that way with all my heart.
We got to the train station, boarded the same train, and got off together at the station closest to Shirakawa-san’s house as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Ryuto, do you have some time today?”
I nodded. “Sure.” I was about to add that I’d walk her home, but Shirakawa-san pulled me by the arm. “Huh...?”
While I was startled, she gave me a cute smile. “Let’s take a little detour!”
She’d only touched my arm for a moment, and it had been over my school uniform, but the fact that she’d touched me still made my cheeks burn and left my arm feeling hot.
My heart pounded for a while after that.
Shirakawa-san took me to a shopping mall by the station. It was typical as far as these places went. The first floor had chain restaurants, and the space in the upper ones housed stores selling daily necessities, clothes, accessories, and similar things.
She stopped after leading me to a section of the fifth floor—the top one.
“Here we are!” she said.
Shirakawa-san was pointing at a glass wall that seemed like a showcase. The area inside was divided vertically and horizontally into numerous compartments of equal size, each holding an animal or two.
“A pet shop?” I asked.
“Yep!” Her eyes sparkling, Shirakawa-san ran up to a compartment with a cat inside. “It’s so cute, right?! Man, I feel so much better when I look at cats! I’d get one myself if my grandma wasn’t allergic...”
There were dogs on display too, but Shirakawa-san wasn’t straying from the cats.
“Shirakawa-san, you like cats more than dogs?”
“Yeah! Though I do think dogs are cute too!” After answering my question, she pressed up against the glass again. “Look at this one! Isn’t it cute? It’s going away soon, so I’ve been coming to look at it a lot recently.”
Shirakawa-san was pointing at a gray Munchkin kitten directly in front of her. The price tag had a sign saying “I found a home!” pasted over it.
“You come here often?” I asked.
“Yep, it’s my favorite place! Coming here’s kinda like a routine for me, I guess? So I wanted to come here with you sometime.” Shirakawa-san looked my way, keeping both her hands on the glass. “You said you wanted to come to like something I like, right? I was kinda happy to hear that!”
“Huh...?”
She was talking about what I’d said on our birthday date, when I’d gone the extra mile researching bubble tea cafés. She remembered that.
“So...I kinda figured I should tell you a lot about the stuff I like.” With that, a slightly bashful smile appeared on Shirakawa-san’s face.
I was happy enough to hear she remembered what I’d told her, and to have her say something like that now? It was deeply moving.
“This one’s such a good kitty!” said Shirakawa-san.
Moving her fingers with her showy nails in circles like a cat teaser to play with the animal on the other side of the glass, she looked even cuter than usual. I’d somehow had the preconception that gyaru and animals didn’t have much of an affinity, so this scene was unexpectedly novel.
“Shirakawa-san, could it be that you’re an animal lover?” I figured I’d try asking.
She looked at me and nodded. “Yep. But I love cats! Oh, but now that you mention it, maybe I like all animals...? Aren’t lions a lot like house cats? Or wait, was that tigers?”
“So...” My heart pounded at the fact I’d managed to direct the conversation in a way that’d just occurred to me a short time ago. “How about we go to a zoo sometime soon?”
“Huh?” Shirakawa-san looked surprised for a moment. “Sure!” she replied with enthusiasm. “Man, it’s been so long since I’ve been to a zoo. The last time might’ve been when we went on a field trip back in my first year of middle school. I’m kinda hyped now!”
Seeing her so excited and with her eyes sparkling, I internally pumped my fist. Things were unexpectedly starting to go the way I wanted.
I had an ulterior motive for inviting Shirakawa-san to a zoo.
I was going to hold hands with her on our next date. Doing that much felt appropriate by now. And for that to happen, we would need to get on a boat, just like I’d planned.
While I could invite her for a boat ride directly, it was too plain to be the main focus of a date, so there was a high chance she would go like, “Why a boat?” And simply inviting her to a large park wasn’t sure to work either, since I didn’t know if she’d be interested in a nature walk for a date. I’d been racking my brains on how to go about this and I hadn’t come up with any good ideas, but the flow of our conversation had allowed me to invite her to a zoo.
The first zoo that came to your mind in this area was the Ueno Zoo. It was located inside Ueno Park, which had a large pond—anyone could pay to ride a boat on it. I could naturally invite her to do that after we’d visited the zoo.
It was perfect.
Anyway, once we got to that point, I would just need to gently take Shirakawa-san’s hand when she started getting on the boat. She’d become unsteady on her feet and would try to hold on to me.
As I thought that...
“Hey, Ryuto, what sorta stuff do you like?” asked Shirakawa-san. She appeared satisfied after having her fill of observing the cats and was looking at me with a face more charming than those of the animals.
“Huh?”
As I stared back at her, wondering what she meant, Shirakawa-san averted her eyes from me and started to look a little bashful. “I got curious too, about what you like. Could you tell me?” she asked again, wearing a self-conscious smile. “I want to come to like the stuff you like too.”
What...?
“Shirakawa-san...”
Deeply touched, I felt love for her welling up inside me. But at the same time, I grew extremely ashamed of myself—I didn’t have interests strong enough that I could speak of them with pride.
“What’re you into?” asked Shirakawa-san.
“Huh...? Mmm...”
“You said you don’t really have anything you wanna do when going out, right?” Shirakawa-san pressed, seeming to find my hesitation strange. “So what do you do on your days off?”
“Well... Nothing really worth mentioning...”
How could I just tell her my hobby was watching gameplay videos? It was embarrassingly fitting for an introverted, gloomy guy.
These worries ran through my head, and a frown appeared on Shirakawa-san’s face.
“Do you do something you can’t tell people about? It’s not like you do something bad though, right?”
“Huh? O-Of course not,” I hurriedly replied.
Shirakawa-san probingly peered at my face. “Then why not just tell me?”
“But...”
“I get it! It’s something pervy, right?”
“N-No it’s not!” I said in a fluster. At that point, I resigned myself to my fate and decided to tell her the truth. “I like watching gameplay videos.”
Hearing that, Shirakawa-san stared at me in round-eyed wonder. “‘Gameplay videos’? Not, like, playing games yourself?”
“They’re recordings of other people playing them,” I explained.
“Is that fun?” asked Shirakawa-san with a puzzled look on her face. Rather than making light of me, she seemed to be genuinely confused.
“Y-Yeah. It’s pretty fun to watch people play games if they’re much more skilled than you, or if they’re entertaining to listen to.”
“Ah, I think I sorta get that! It’s like when you watch some amazing players at arcades. It is pretty fun.”
This was just the level of communication skill I should’ve expected from a conversationalist like Shirakawa-san. The current topic was completely out of her wheelhouse, but she’d found a way to relate to me in no time at all. Being the simple guy that I was, even that much made me happy.
“Yeah, it’s like that,” I replied. “And if someone is good at games and also good at talking, it’s really interesting, and I end up watching their videos forever.”
“Huh... Is there anybody you particularly like that makes those kinds of videos?”
“Yeah, there’s a guy named KEN. He’s a former pro gamer, so he’s incredibly good at games.”
“Mhm.”
Since Shirakawa-san was listening earnestly, words started pouring out of my mouth as though somebody had flipped a switch inside me.
“What’s amazing about KEN is that he’s good at all sorts of games,” I began. “He was only a pro in shooters, but he’s also good at games with crafting and building, as well as games like Mafia.”
“‘Mafia’...?” Shirakawa-san asked vacantly.
I promptly began to explain. “Mafia is a game where members of a mafia hide among innocent people. It’s about finding out who’s lying. Originally it was a party game. Each player is handed a random card at the start of the game that says what their role is—such as being part of the mafia, a detective, or an ordinary person. If you’re in the mafia, you have to keep it a secret from other people and act like you’re innocent. If people suspect you, they’ll start a vote to eliminate you. So, what’s amazing about KEN is that he doesn’t rely on theory or tried-and-true ways of playing that game. Of course, he still follows the rules, but outside of that, he has a completely liberal approach. He always uses his head to do what he thinks is best in every situation and convinces other players as the game goes on. It’s pretty hard to pull off. If you try playing Mafia yourself, you’ll quickly find out that your head gets filled with things you have to do and you kinda can’t spare the attention for strategizing. Ah, by ‘things you have to do,’ I mean, if you’re the mafia, for instance, you have to lie to other people, but that makes you feel guilty, so it’s rather—”
Then, I came to my senses with a start—I’d spent too long on a one-sided ramble. This was just like that time with the bubble tea cafés. Recalling how I’d reflected on my actions that time, my only consolation was that this time, I’d managed to stop myself a little earlier.
“Ah, sorry... That didn’t make much sense, right?” I asked.
“Hmm...” An ambiguous smile appeared on Shirakawa-san’s face. “I wanna actually see one of those gameplay videos you like. Maybe I’ll understand then. Could you show me?”
“O-Of course!”
At that point, we left the pet shop, sat on a bench inside the mall, and started watching one of KEN’s videos.
“Wow, this is amazing!” exclaimed Shirakawa-san. “Is the guy talking now also the one shooting?”
“That’s right.”
“He’s really hitting those shots! This game looks pretty fun!”
“Yeah, but when you try playing it yourself, it rarely goes like that,” I explained.
“Really? It looks easy, though.”
“That’s why KEN is so amazing.”
“I see!”
As we talked about it, I went through KEN’s videos in my head, picked out a few that would be interesting to people new to his channel, and then watched them together with Shirakawa-san.
After that, as I walked her home...
“You know a lot, huh, Ryuto,” said Shirakawa-san on the way all of a sudden. “That guy in the video used a lotta fancy terms, right? I take it you know them all.”
“Well, I guess... Still, they’re not that difficult, really. Like ‘hacker’ is another word for ‘cheater.’ And ‘stream sniping’ is watching the stream of someone you’re playing against to learn things you’re not supposed to know.”
“Huh... It was hard for me, though. You’re amazing.”
“Thanks. But I only know these things because it’s what interests me. You know a lot of fashion terms, right? Like what was that fancy word for those shirts with open shoulders that you’re always wearing?”
“Ah, you mean a bardot top?”
“Also, there was that lipstick that was kind of sticky...”
“You mean lip tint?”
“Yeah, that. You explained it to me when you were shopping that day, but I couldn’t memorize it at all. I think that’s because I just can’t take an interest in women’s fashion... Isn’t it okay for both of us to have interests that we don’t share, even if we’re going out?” I asked.
“Ehh?” Shirakawa-san sounded reluctant. “But didn’t you meet me halfway? You looked into bubble tea cafés so much that you knew more about them than I did.”
“That’s because I liked the taste of bubble tea. If I’d hated it, I wouldn’t have been motivated to go that far.”
“Still, though, that’s why I wanna meet you halfway in something too, at least a little. I wanna understand what you like.”
Shirakawa-san said that with her cheeks puffed out. The sight of it made my chest grow tight, nearly swooning like I was some kind of maiden.
“Thanks...” I said.
I was the happiest guy in the world to have Shirakawa-san of all people say such things to me.
“It’s enough for me that you feel that way,” I added. “I was really happy that you watched videos I like with me.”
As our eyes met, a smile appeared on Shirakawa-san’s face as though the one on mine was contagious. However...
“Hmm...”
She looked somehow downcast even after that until we reached her house.
***
Then, the next day...
“Ryuto!”
When I stepped into my class in the morning, Shirakawa-san was already there. She quickly made her way over to me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Hey, have you seen KEN’s ‘cheating games’ videos? They’re really fun! I was so curious about what was next that I ended up watching until it was past 3 a.m.!”
“What...?”
Since KEN was a professional YouTuber who made a living purely on videos, he uploaded different kinds of videos to avoid being a one-trick pony. These “cheating games” videos Shirakawa-san had brought up were Let’s Plays of romance visual novels where your girlfriend acted suspiciously and you had to find proof of her cheating and confront her with it. I’d rather enjoyed watching them myself at one point too.
“Those were uploaded pretty long ago. I’m surprised you found them,” I said.
Shirakawa-san smiled with pride. “I checked the older videos for something with a game that even I could understand. It was hard! KEN has way too many videos!”
“Yeah, he uploads four or five a day.”
“Wow... Sounds like a full-time job at that point!”
“It is,” I replied with a smile.
“I see,” said Shirakawa-san with one too. “I’m jealous! He must be living the high life like that. I wish I could be a YouTuber who just talks about her favorite makeup...”
“I feel like you could actually make it happen.”
“Yeah, like I totally wouldn’t get zero views...”
“Don’t worry, I’d watch you, so you’d get at least a thousand.”
“Huh? You’d watch me that much? I’m so happy!”
The sight of Shirakawa-san speaking with such a smile made me happy too and warmed my heart. I was so moved that I felt like I was about to cry.
Out of KEN’s enormous collection of gameplay videos, Shirakawa-san had found ones that appealed to her and gotten hooked on them. Since KEN no longer uploaded those “cheating games” videos anymore, I was sure Shirakawa-san would stop being crazy about him in just a few days.
However, I was glad that I’d gotten an opportunity to talk to Shirakawa-san about KEN like this. It was like a dream.
Man, what am I gonna do...?
I was falling deeper and deeper in love with Shirakawa-san by the day. But at the same time, the desire to touch her was driving me crazy. It was painful to endure.
I can barely wait for our weekend date, I thought from the bottom of my heart.
***
Thus, the following Sunday, Shirakawa-san and I went to a zoo.
“Whoa, this owl’s neck is freaky! It’s not broken?!”
She was suddenly distressed by the sight of an owl turning its head over a hundred and eighty degrees near the entrance of the zoo.
“Pandas! Let’s look at the pandas! Wow! They seem to be really popular!”
Shirakawa-san made a big fuss upon seeing the line of people wanting to see the pandas, but...
“Those pandas were kinda dirty... Also, weren’t they huge? They weren’t babies...”
Her excitement waned a little after she actually saw them, since they’d proved to be different from her expectations.
She also shared some peculiar thoughts as she was glued to the Bengal tiger’s enclosure.
“Wow, this tiger is cute! Hey, isn’t it a lot like a house cat after all?! And those stripes are seriously great! I think I wanna wear a dress with that kinda design!”
Shirakawa-san then seemed to regret her choice of clothing.
“Man, I really should’ve worn something with an animal print today! Maybe they would’ve thought I was one of them and we’d get along! I could totally wear something like that if it was autumn!”
Just like always, her look today was totally gyaru in style. She wore her usual top that showed off her exposed shoulders, some pretty beaten-up jean shorts, and a faux leather backpack with long straps that hung down from her shoulders. As expected, she was wearing shoes with heels, but the jean shorts and the backpack made her overall look more casual. Perhaps she’d been, in her own way, mindful of the fact we were visiting a zoo today.
As we walked around looking at animals, an hour passed, and I started to get hungry. We’d met up at eleven at Station A, and it was currently past one in the afternoon. Between that and the fact there were a lot of people here on a Sunday, the places where we could eat were still filled with people having lunch.
“What do you want to eat?” I asked Shirakawa-san. “It looks like they sell different foods at different parts of the zoo...”
“Huh?” She averted her gaze.
“Hm?”
She silently looked at me again, then cast her eyes downward.
“What’s wrong? You’re still not hungry?” I asked her.
“No, it’s just...” uttered Shirakawa-san. She awkwardly shrank and started fidgeting without another word.
I didn’t understand what she was getting at, and since she wasn’t acting like her usual self, the question marks kept piling up in my head.
“So, uh... You wanna keep going around looking at the animals?” I offered. “We’ve already seen most in the East Garden, so we can go to the West one...”
“Um... Um, uhh!” Shirakawa-san finally cut in. Her face was a little red.
“Yeah? What is it?”
Shirakawa-san grew even redder. “Um...” she nervously began. “I reeeeeally couldn’t decide if I should show this to you, but since I got up early and did my best, I just thought you could...maybe just a little...”
“Huh?”
“Okay, just look!” With that, Shirakawa-san put down her backpack in apparent desperation and took something out of it. “Here! I made you lunch!”
“What...? Whaaaaat?!”
I couldn’t process what had just happened. A boxed lunch?! That Shirakawa-san made?!
Looking at the object she was holding out, I saw that it was indeed a lunch box. Its cold white plastic exterior was simple in a way I wouldn’t’ve expected from Shirakawa-san. Perhaps she’d borrowed the container from her family.
“You made this?! A boxed lunch?!” I was so shocked I didn’t realize I was shouting.
“Yeah...” replied Shirakawa-san, her voice trailing off. She was hanging her head and blushing. “You talked about me working at a cake shop the other day, so I figured you might be into corny stuff like this... I’ve never cooked before, so I thought maybe I shouldn’t... But then I thought it might make you happy, so I kinda...wanted to make it anyway...”
“Shirakawa-san...”
I gazed at her once again. With her curly, dirty-blonde hair and her long, flashy nails, her image was the complete opposite of that of a family-oriented girl. It did seem like she actually wasn’t good at cooking.
And yet she’d made a boxed lunch for me anyway... It was scary how happy I was.
“Y-You don’t have to eat it, okay?! I’ll have it all myself if you don’t want it!” blurted out Shirakawa-san. It was taking me a while to accept it, so she seemed like she was about to try. Still blushing, she started to look embarrassed and lowered her hands.
“Wait, I want it! Thanks, Shirakawa-san,” I hurriedly replied and accepted the lunch box.
Since there was no longer any need to buy lunch, we decided to eat in a nearby rest area. While it was still outdoors, there was a decent roof overhead, and there were plenty of simple chairs and tables.
“Seriously, don’t get your hopes up, okay...? It was the first time in my entire life that I made lunch by myself,” Shirakawa-san said bashfully.
Her words, however, had the exact opposite effect on me—the more she said, the more my expectations shot through the roof. In fact, I honestly didn’t even care what kind of food was inside. This was the first lunch box she’d ever made... I’d just received the privilege of eating her cooking—something none of her ex-boyfriends had ever gotten to do.
My heart was beating so fast that my hands shook as I removed the lid.
“Well then...” I said, solemnly opening the lid.
Time to see what treasures this box holds.
And once its contents were in full view, what I saw was...
“Wow...”
Omurice. There was no doubt about it—everything was wrapped in thin, fried scrambled eggs.
However, that yellowness was broken in a few places, revealing fried rice with chicken and ketchup underneath. A number of spots were browned from being burned. There were broccoli and cherry tomatoes added as a garnish, painfully smushed into a corner from the pressure of the uneven omurice.
Instead of being an obviously gross boxed lunch, like one with blackened, charred croquettes, this was a true-to-life, yet slightly awkward one—the kind made in a panic by a person not used to cooking but nonetheless putting in their best effort.
It was so praiseworthy that my love for Shirakawa-san was threatening to pierce the heavens.
“What?! No way! It’s so uneven! Man... It looked a bit better right after I made it, okay?!” exclaimed Shirakawa-san. Seeing the state of her cooking inside the box, she was totally flustered.
“It’s okay, I’ll help myself.”
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