5

I only had to work at the café for two more days before my contract would be up. I’d gotten used to the work, and now I was even decent at speaking with customers.

“All right! Let’s get going! I’m so ready for work! You’re ready, right?”

“Would you tone that down?” Kokoro scolded me. “You’re giving me a headache. You’re just pumped up because you’re on the same shift as Gojo, right?”

She knows what’s up.

“You bet I am!”

Kokoro and I were walking from school to the station together, where we’d catch the train to get to work in Akihabara. As usual, we planned to split up at Akihabara station and arrive at the café individually.

As she’d correctly guessed, I was excited because Mashiro was going to be there. Her heavenly presence was the reason the job had become so much fun for me.

“You’re so lucky to work with a girl you like...” Kokoro said.

“Why do you sound so sad all of a sudden?” I asked her.

“I started this job thinking I could meet guys, but my contract is going to be over soon and I didn’t meet anyone...”

“Well, you met, erm, Kusumi,” I corrected her.

“He... Yeah, I guess...” she said, the light leaving her eyes.

After all, she hadn’t met anyone she was really interested in.

“I mean, it’s not like I didn’t have fun. I could wear a super cute outfit and sing on stage... and all of the staff are really nice people. It’s just that, boys-wise, it was a failure. Where am I going to find a boyfriend?! Things are looking good for you and Gojo, so make sure you help me too!”

“I’m not so sure things are looking that good though,” I said. Our relationship hadn’t really progressed. I was still waiting until my last day at the job, the following week, to ask her on another date and for her LINE.

“Once we’re done working, we’ll get our weekends back. I’ll start looking for new places to meet guys, and you should do the same to find girls, okay?”

“Huh? If things do go well with Mashiro, I’m not going to look for girls anymore...” I said. That would be hurtful to Mashiro.

“I know what you mean, but like, do you really have to say it like that?! Jeez! It sounds like as soon as you reach your goal you aren’t going to help me anymore...”

“What?! That’s not what I said at all!”

“Hmph! Fine! I don’t care! I can find an otaku guy on my own, even without your stupid help!” she said, storming ahead to get away from me.

Why is she mad now?! Is it because she’s worried about not finding a boyfriend after what happened with Kusumi? She’s been so on edge lately. But does she really have to get mad at me because of that? I don’t even know if Mashiro will agree to go out with me! This girl, I swear...

Later, in the kitchen, Iroha leaned over an omelet that I’d just prepared.

“Yikes, Ichi. You know that this is supposed to look cute, right?” she said straight to my face.

Like in most maid cafés, our omelets had cute drawings and phrases written on them with ketchup—in our case, it was a cat’s face with the café’s name written under it. The customers could request that they be drawn by a specific maid, or else the kitchen staff would take care of it.

“What?! I just drew what I’m supposed to!” I exclaimed, unable to see anything wrong with my ketchup cat.

“Wow, it’s so bad...” she said, chuckling at me and my artwork, before putting the plate on a tray and taking it to the table that had ordered it.

Although I was still offended by Iroha’s casual insults, I’d gotten somewhat used to them by now. That was just her standard format of communication—or at least, so I hoped.

I took a look at the dining hall while I continued working through the orders. Mashiro looked even cuter and more cheerful than usual, and the customers loved her. Kokoro’s smile, by comparison, looked a bit stiff, but all in all she seemed to be doing a good job.

Without exception, all the girls working here were cute otaku. But even with so many options to choose from, I still thought that Mashiro was the best—my ideal girlfriend. Even if she liked male voice actors, I honestly didn’t care. Luckily, for reasons I didn’t fully understand myself, she seemed to like me back. At least, she acted very friendly toward me.

My plan was ready: on my last day on the job I’d ask her for her LINE contact and if she’d like to go on a date with me. Then, during the date, I’d ask her to be my girlfriend. If I could pull something like that off, anyway.

If she said no, I’d probably die from the disappointment, but since we wouldn’t be working together anymore, at least I wouldn’t have to endure any awkwardness later on.

This is my chance. I’ll ask her to be my otaku girlfriend!

“I’m going on break!” I said before leaving the kitchen.

I was sitting looking at my phone, enjoying a refreshing glass of water, when I heard a voice coming from the changing room.

“Can you believe it? The same customer again! ‘Mashiro, please, give me your LINE!’ What a creep!”

That voice was unmistakably Iroha’s. I thought her shift was over, but she was still in the changing room, talking with someone. Even I was surprised that a customer would ask Mashiro for her private contact information. Mashiro must have it hard. Some customers just couldn’t follow the rules.

“We’ve both told him that that’s against the rules, like, a thousand times,” Iroha continued. “We’d better ask the owner or the manager to do something about it.”

“You’re right. We should ask the owner to ban that customer from entering the café.”

“Whoa, ban him?! You never go easy, huh, Mashiro?”

What? Iroha is speaking with... Mashiro? But that sounds nothing like her...

“It was the same back at the old café. It’s better to just take care of these damn creeps as soon as possible. The worst thing is that they’re always cheapskates! They just have one drink, don’t request pictures or songs or anything, and leave! What do I care if they don’t come anymore?”

Is that really Mashiro? Her voice sounds way lower than usual, and the things she’s saying aren’t like her either... Is this the same Mashiro I know? The cute, innocent girl who’s always smiling and treating everyone kindly?

I felt my perfect mental image of Mashiro slowly crumbling. I hadn’t planned to eavesdrop on her, but since the break room and the changing room were so close to each other, I couldn’t really help it.

“Yeah, I gotta agree with you there,” Iroha said. “They just come here hoping to date the maids or something. Oh, by the way, did you manage to get the tickets for the Next Stage live event? I’ve had no luck at all.”

“I’ve told you not to speak about that here!”

“But you’re the only one on break right now, and the customers can’t hear you from here.”

“I know, but you can’t be too careful...”

The only one on break? Did they forget about me? And Next Stage... I heard about that from Nishina. It’s that anime about boy idols, isn’t it? She wants to go to a live event? I didn’t know she liked anime for girls too...

“Anyway, yeah, I did get the ticket. I had to buy ten rays to get it,” Mashiro said.

Rays? Like, Blu-ray discs? This must be that kind of thing where you enter a lottery by buying the Blu-ray for an anime... But that would mean that she bought the same anime ten times...

“Haha! Spoken like a true Soma Sato fan!”

“I had to use up all my pay for that. I’m thinking that maybe I should take on more shifts to get some more spending money.”

Oh, that’s right! That voice actor she was talking about with her friend during our date... That was Soma Sato! So she’s a true fan of this guy?

The curtain separating the break room from the kitchen opened, and Mikoto walked in.

“Ichigaya! Why are you here?!” she asked me. “You’re supposed to be in the kitchen!”

“Huh? But it’s my break time...”

“Your break is an hour from now!” she said, and I looked at the shift table on the wall.

“Ugh! You’re right! I’m sorry!”

I realized that I’d taken my break one hour early by mistake. At that moment, the changing room’s door opened, and I saw Mashiro inside, dreadfully pale. Our eyes met for a second, but I looked away.

The Mashiro I’d heard speaking moments before was like a completely different girl.

Was that... the real Mashiro? Was the Mashiro I knew just a fake?

I was so shocked that I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. I just walked back to the kitchen and got back to work. I didn’t exchange many words with Mashiro for the rest of the day.

My shift was over, and I went to change my clothes. Kokoro’s shift was supposed to end at the same time, but since she was so mad at me, she was probably going to go home by herself.

I left the changing room and walked up the stairs that led out of the store where, to my surprise, I found Mashiro.

Her shift was supposed to be over a while back...

“I-Is something wrong?” I asked her.

“It’s... well... er...” she said awkwardly, without making eye contact.

The kitchen staff and the maids aren’t supposed to talk to each other outside of the café... If the owner found out we’d be in trouble.

“You heard my conversation with Iroha, didn’t you?” she asked me with a gloomy voice.

“Y-Yes... I didn’t mean to, but I took my break too early by mistake and just happened to be there.”

“Were you shocked by what I said?” she asked, glancing at me and looking mortified.

“Well...”

I was definitely shocked, at least a little bit. I did already suspect that Mashiro was heavily into male voice actors, but I didn’t have any problem with that per se. The problem was that she’d faked everything, including her speech, her voice, and her personality, in front of me.

Why would she even do that?

I wasn’t sure how to respond.

“You were shocked...” she said. She must have taken my silence as a yes. Her expression looked like a bitter, painful smile. I really couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

“I guess it’s too late now, huh...” she murmured to herself. “I’m sorry for lying to you all this time. I’ve lied about my hobbies and about my personality as a whole. I love male voice actors, I love anime for girls, and I have a terrible personality. That’s the real me. So... are you disappointed?” she asked with a small laugh.

I had no clue about what was going through her head. Was she genuinely sorry about lying to me? Was she making fun of me for being deceived? And why would she lie in the first place? For fun? I had a lot of questions, but I didn’t have the energy to ask all of them.

“Can I just ask you one thing?” I said, mustering what little voice I had left.

“Hm?”

“Why did you text with me, invite me on dates, and so on?” I asked.

She looked surprised by my question, and didn’t immediately reply.

“Were you just making fun of me? Laughing at my reactions?” I continued.

“It’s not like that... You know, it’s better to grease as many wheels as you can. If you got to like me, that’d be one more person liking me,” she said, looking down, with a smile that didn’t look the least bit happy.

Hearing that, I felt a pain in my chest.

I’d been a bit suspicious to begin with. Mashiro was kind to everyone, and everyone liked her. Whenever she tweeted, either on her personal account or her maid one, dozens of guys would rush to comment. There were tons of people who wanted to date her... and I’d been scared that I was just another one of them.

Kokoro was right. To Mashiro, I was only one more fan. When she texted me, when she invited me on dates, and when she baked me that cupcake, I thought that maybe I was special to her—that maybe she really liked me. But I’d just heard the truth, straight out of her mouth.

“It’s better to grease as many wheels as you can”? I’m just another wheel that she greased so that she could use me.

“I... I see. Thank you for telling me the truth,” I said, and I turned around to leave.

“I-Ichigaya!” I heard her call my name, but I didn’t have the strength to talk to her anymore.

Then, another familiar voice from behind took me by surprise.

“Are you serious?!”

“Huh?” I exclaimed, surprised, as I turned back to see Kokoro, who’d just come out of the café next to Mashiro.

Did she hear our conversation just now?

“‘Grease the wheels?’ You’ve gotta be kidding me!” she said, staring fiercely at Mashiro. “You played with him just so you could use him! You made him think that you liked him so he’d fall in love with you! That’s disgusting!”

I’d never seen Kokoro look so heated before. Why is she so angry? Wasn’t she mad at me a few hours ago? But now she’s... on my side?

“Th-This doesn’t concern you!” Mashiro replied. “It’s got nothing to do with you—”

“The hell if it does! Do you understand what you’ve done?! You played with his feelings! Is it fun treating people like that?!”

Kokoro continued yelling at Mashiro, whose whole body had gotten tense.

“Th-That’s not what I...” she started whispering.

At that moment, the owner came back from the other café, and saw what was going on.

“Hey! What are you doing there?! What if the customers see you?! Split up and take this somewhere else!” he scolded us.

In silence, we all went our separate ways.

In the ten minutes that it took me to walk from the café to the station, several thoughts kept my mind spinning. In particular, one sentence echoed through my head:

“You know, it’s better to grease as many wheels as you can.”

The sound of those words in Mashiro’s voice amplified the pain in my chest a thousand times over.

She had lied to me, used me, and hid her true, harsh personality. It was a shock, but it wasn’t even the biggest problem. My dream girl didn’t actually care about me. That was the biggest problem.

I’m such an idiot. Why didn’t I realize? A girl as cute as her could never like me. Nishina had even tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen. I was just fooling myself. All that Mashiro did, all that she said... they were all lies meant to use me. I was just one of hundreds of nerdy idiots she wanted to turn into a fan.

I was embarrassed at my own stupidity to the point of despair.

Still... I hadn’t hit rock bottom. Deep inside, I felt that this overwhelming sadness was temporary. And I had one person to thank for the last shred of optimism that I was able to hang on to...

“Hey,” Kokoro said.

She was waiting for me at Akihabara station with a sad smile on her face.

“Hi...” I said, walking closer to her. “Nishina... I’m sorry.”

“Huh?”

We reached the platform and stood there, waiting for the train.

“You’d warned me to stay away from Mashiro... and you were right. She’s the kind of girl you thought she was. I fooled myself into thinking that she liked me, but she just wanted to use me. I should have listened to you.”

“You don’t need to apologize,” she said. “Since we started working together, I was fooled too. It’s obvious that she’s putting on an act, but she didn’t seem like a bad girl or anything. And hey, I totally get it. When you like someone, you want to trust them.”

I was moved by her kindness—despite me ignoring her warning, she was still trying to comfort me.

“And also... I’m sorry too,” she said. “Today, when we were going to work, I kinda let myself have a go at you, and I shouldn’t have. I was scared I’d end up not finding a boyfriend while you dated Gojo, so, like, I guess I was a bit jealous...”

“Don’t worry about that. More importantly...” I said, still unsure that my words were enough. “Thanks for earlier.”

I stared at her, dead serious, trying to express how grateful I felt. When she stood up for me, I was so happy that I could have cried. It was the first time that someone’s words had given me that much strength. She’d been mad, genuinely angry at Mashiro... and it was all to stick up for me.

“I-It’s not worth thanking me for...” she said.

But she was wrong. If it hadn’t been for her, I would have been hit much harder, so hard that I never would have gotten up again.

“You know, what do you say we eat out every once in a while?” Kokoro asked after we’d reached our station.

“Sure, I don’t mind,” I replied, and off we went to look for a place to eat together.

＊　＊　＊

“Now that we’re almost done with our jobs, we should look for somewhere else to find dates!” Kokoro said right after we’d ordered our meals. “I didn’t have any luck at the café, and you need to take your mind off Mashiro!”

“Finding dates, huh...” I said.

I wasn’t really in the mood for romance. Thanks to Kokoro, I didn’t feel like I was out of the dating game forever, but for the time being I wanted to rest and forget about girls.

“I think I’ll take some time off from that.”

“What?! If you say things like that, you’re going to graduate high school without ever finding a girlfriend! Right after a breakup is the best time to find a date, don’t you know? One of my friends broke up with her boyfriend and found a new one immediately after! And she said that love is what mends a broken heart!”

“R-Really?”

The whole process of going out and meeting girls, at present, sounded like a huge hassle. I wondered if I could become interested in anyone else at this point, and, even if I could, things weren’t that likely to go better than with Mashiro.

“Well, we can look into that once we get ho—Hm?” Kokoro was interrupted by the sound of a notification on her phone.

“Oh, I got a message from Iroha,” she said.

“You two message each other?”

“Sure. We have similar interests, and she’s cool and all.”

Working in the kitchen, I could only meet the maids during my breaks. But Kokoro, being a maid herself, spent a lot of time next to Iroha. That would explain how they’d become friends so fast.

“Oh! For real?!” she gasped as she read the message.

“What happened?” I asked.

“She said that there’s a meeting for all part-time workers from the café’s chain! It’s supposed to be to ‘develop team spirit’ or something like that... Anyway, she asked me if I wanted to go! It’s this Saturday, so we’re both free!”

“Oh, I see...”

“Can’t you be a bit more enthusiastic?! This is the perfect chance to meet new people! The chain also owns that store in Ikebukuro with all the handsome male staff! Maybe there’ll be some of those guys there!” she said excitedly. As usual, the thought of handsome men was enough to make her eyes sparkle.

“And think of all the other maid cafés too!” she said. “There’ll be loooads of cute otaku maids for you to meet!”

C-Cute otaku maids?! That does sound enticing...

“But isn’t Mashiro going to be there too?” I asked. Having to see her at work was bad enough, but if I ran into her at a place like that it’d be so awkward that I’d want to go home immediately.

“I’ll try asking Iroha,” Kokoro said, and she sent her a message.

“She said that Gojo can’t come, because she’s working on Saturday!” she said shortly after that.

“I-I see...”

“C’mon, Ichigayaaa! This is the perfect chance!” she said, all pumped up as usual.

She’s going to go even if I don’t, right? If she’s friends with Iroha, they’ll probably go together. But if I stay home by myself, playing video games or watching VTuber videos... I’ll probably get really down thinking about Mashiro. That doesn’t sound like a good time.

“O-Okay! I’ll come too,” I said.

“Perfect! I’ll tell Iroha,” she said, typing on her phone, already thrilled.

In a sense, her enthusiasm was contagious. My expectations, however, weren’t that high. I wasn’t looking forward to finding a girlfriend at this event—all I wanted was to take my mind off Mashiro.