6

Following Kokoro’s advice, I’d been watching Yume’s Twitter account every day, waiting for an opportunity to send her a reply. Of course, I still hadn’t found the courage to actually do so, and only liked her tweets every so often.

Reading through them had taught me quite a bit about the things she liked: a cute bunny character, IMS, a group of voice actresses, otome games, and other similar otaku stuff.

Every once in a while she also uploaded selfies, and she looked incredibly cute in all of them. I wanted to like every single one, but since that would come off as creepy, I limited myself to one like every few pictures. The fact that she looked so adorable and that she liked IMS was enough to make her a perfect girlfriend candidate.

Unfortunately, the timing and topics of her tweets were never quite right for me to reply to any, at least until that day.

I saw a tweet that simply said “I’m off to my part-time job...” dated one minute ago. I usually only caught her tweets long after she’d posted them, but this time my timing was perfect.

“Do your best!” I replied. It wasn’t much of a reply, but even so, it had taken me quite a lot of writing, rewriting, and worrying until I was satisfied enough to send it.

Seconds later, she replied back.

“Thank you! If you’d like, come see me at work! ♪”

That made me incredibly happy, of course, but I had to wonder whether that was a standard reply she always used when talking about work. But then again, this wasn’t a work account. I also already knew from working in a maid café myself that maids didn’t receive any incentive just from asking people to come to their café.

Unless that customer asked for pictures with the maid, of course, but that’s another story...

In other words, I had enough reason to believe that she didn’t have anything to gain work-wise from inviting me to come. That gave me enough confidence to reply to her once again.

“Of course! I’d love to come sometime!”

Even if she had invited me just because that’s something that maids are supposed to do, or if she’d just done so to be polite, I still thought that telling her I’d love to go was the best thing to do. What I said was true—I wanted to see her again, even if just as a customer, and I also wanted to see her working as a maid.

Seconds later, she liked my reply.

Ugh, I know this kind of like! This is when you like someone’s tweet so you can end the conversation without replying further... I thought, already sad, when another notification surprised me. It was a LINE message from Yume.

“Thanks for replying to my tweet. I’d be really happy if you came to the café when you have the time as I still haven’t had the opportunity to thank you properly. Of course, anything you order would be on me! ♡”

She really wanted me to go see her at work... and she wanted to pay for me?! The reply she’d sent me on Twitter wasn’t sales talk at all. I was suddenly glad that I’d found the courage to reply, even though I’d only been able to come up with something short.

“I’ll definitely visit sometime soon, but you don’t need to pay for me!”

After all, I hadn’t done that much for her. It wouldn’t feel right.

“I insist. I owe you, since you saved Yumeko’s life! ★”

Yumeko seemed to be the lost keychain bunny that I’d helped her find. How could a girl even be so girly? Her messages were sprinkled with emoji, and she’d even named her keychain.

We kept talking and decided on a weekday when she’d be working so I could go to her café after school.

Kokoro’s advice to reply to Yume’s tweet had borne fruit faster than I had expected. Thanks again, Nishina.

Going by what I could gauge from our short conversations, Yume was a very sweet girl, and most importantly, she seemed to be my type, but my priority right now was to get to know her better and grow closer as friends.

“For real?!”

Kokoro seemed surprised when I told her over dinner about the reply I’d received. Surprisingly so, even.

“That’s great! Am I an awesome advisor or what? But, like... how did you go from that to a promise to meet? Are you two gonna hang out somewhere?” she asked.

“Well, she tweeted that she was off to work, so I wished her luck, and then she told me to come visit her at work sometime.”

“You can’t be serious. That sounds like the sleaziest sales talk ev—”

“Hey! She isn’t sleazy at all! She even said it’d be on her! She just wants to thank me for that time.”

“What time?”

“Remember when I first met her, how I told you I helped her find something she’d lost? Turns out she’s really grateful.”

“Hmm... A girl that cute being so eager to show you how grateful she is? That’s a bit fishy, if you ask me. Kinda like she wants to recruit you into some weird cult or pyramid scheme or something. Or maybe she just wants you to get hooked on her café...”

“Why are you so rude?! Yume isn’t the—”

Yume isn’t the type to do something like that—that’s what I’d wanted to say. But on second thought, Kokoro had a point. What if she’s right? I don’t know that much about Yume yet...

“Just be careful, okay? If she says anything shady, you’d better up and leave.”

“Y-Yeah. I guess so...”

All in all, despite the terribly rude way she put things, I could tell that she was worried about me. A hint of appreciation for Kokoro and a pinch of wariness of Yume had made their way into my head, but for the most part, it was still full of anticipation.

Against my expectations, Yume and I continued chatting on LINE with some frequency after that.

“After we spoke for the first time here, I really didn’t know what to say. I kept writing and deleting, writing and deleting, over and over without sending anything. I was sooo happy when you replied to me on Twitter! ★”

Wait, slow down. Why does she like me so much already? Maybe it really is like Nishina said...

Despite my worry, I replied to her message.

“I wasn’t sure how to start a conversation either, so I was really happy when you invited me to visit you!”

“I noticed on your Twitter that you also play IMS! Who’s your girl?”

“Fumiko! What about you, Yume? I can call you Yume, right?”

“Oh, you’re playing Fumifumi! I’m playing Yumama and Arimu ♪♫~”

We started by talking about IMS, then moved on to talking about work, school, our other otaku hobbies... Before I knew it, we were exchanging a dozen messages a day. She eventually started sharing some of her more personal thoughts and feelings with me. I was happy that she’d started to trust me enough to do so.

“Actually, I don’t like school very much. Summer vacation can’t come soon enough...”

“Oh, yeah, me neither! But it isn’t so far away. Let’s both hang in there just a bit longer!”

“It’s nice to speak with someone who also dislikes school. I basically have no friends there...”

Why would such a sweet, cute girl have no friends? Maybe she was just too shy.

“Same here, lol. That’s a bit surprising though, since you’re such a nice girl. But I think having one friend is enough!”

I hoped I wasn’t overstepping any boundaries. After all, we’d still only met once so far. Maybe I was being too forward. Thankfully, her reply seemed positive.

“I’m so happy that you’d say that ♪~ I wish we went to the same school ★★”

Even keeping in mind the possibility that she was saying that just to be polite, I couldn’t help but feel flattered. Since she’d been so open with me, I decided to be frank as well.

“The same school as you? That’d be so fun. Even though we go to different schools, I hope we can still be good friends!”

For my standards, that was a pretty daring line.

“Yes! I hope the same too! So... I’m sorry I’m asking this out of nowhere, but do you have a girlfriend?”

Excuse me?! Does this question mean what I think it means?! Or is it just a random topic to keep the conversation going?

“As if! I don’t have a gf. What about you?”

“I’m happy to hear that ♡ I don’t have a boyfriend either, of course.”

An I’m-happy-to-hear-that heart emoji... It’d be weird not to get my hopes up, right?

With time, our conversations became more and more casual.

“I’m going to work now! ♪♫~”

“Okay! Have fun!”

“I’ll be having fun thinking of the day when I’ll be able to see you again. I’m looking forward to it so much! ★★”

“Oh?! I’m looking forward to it too!”

Even though we’d only met in person once, I felt that our messages had brought us pretty close together. I’d never texted with a girl on such a regular basis about such personal things... Scratch that, I’d never texted with anyone in that way.

I wondered whether this was what it felt like to have a girlfriend. If so, it felt pretty good. Good enough to be scary. But scared or not, I would have had to be blind not to see the affection she put into her messages.

Does she like me that much? Does she just need that one last little push to become my girlfriend? But then again, why would she? We’ve only met once...

I remembered what Kokoro had told me.

“That’s a bit fishy, if you ask me. Kinda like she wants to recruit you into some weird cult or pyramid scheme or something.”

Since she’d spoken them, her words had taken up residence in a tiny corner of my head and had never left.

Yume was a truly sweet girl. I couldn’t believe she’d be doing something like that, and I didn’t want to doubt her, but you never knew for sure. I decided that when I visited Yume at her café, I’d better bring some caution along with my excitement.

A few days later.

It was finally time for me to visit Yume. I’d started my morning in front of the mirror, armed with wax and a hair dryer, styling my hair for the first time in a while.

“Good morning...” Kokoro yawned as she walked in on my hair-styling efforts. “Hm? You’re up earlier than usual. What are you doing?”

“Morning. I’m gonna go meet with Yume today... That girl I told you about.”

“Oh, I see. Be careful, okay? If things get weird, get out of there rather than being dragged along,” she warned with a serious look in her eyes.

“Y-Yeah... I will.”

Does the fact that Yume is so nice to me warrant this much suspicion? Is she that much out of my league?

As much as I was grateful to Kokoro for worrying about me, the implications made me a bit sad. Despite all the warnings, I was still pretty hyped. Maybe, just maybe, I’d finally found my perfect otaku girlfriend.

Worry and excitement fought themselves inside me as I continued to prepare myself.

Once classes were over, I quickly fixed my hair in the school restroom, then fired up the maps app on my phone to find Maid-Tale Café. It was in Akihabara, just like Meow’d Maid, but this place was a little further—a good ten-minute walk from the station.

The closer I got to the café, the more nervous I became.

Maybe Nishina was right and it’s all an elaborate sales tactic. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to keep up a decent conversation after all this time, not to mention that it’s my first time going to a maid café by myself...

I eventually found the sign for the café.

Here it is... Yume’s going to be in here, right? How should I even greet her?

With my head still full of questions, I opened the door and walked inside.

“Welcome to the world of fairy ta—!”

“Huh?!”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was so shocked that my voice became shaky and high-pitched, matching that of the maid in front of me.

“M-Mashiro...?”

There she was, the girl who had made me struggle with my feelings for so long, greeting customers dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood.

“I-Ichigaya?”

“What are you doing here?!”

“I-I should be asking that!” she squeaked, looking just as confused as I was. “I-I’m just here to help because they’re short on people...”

I hadn’t thought about it, but since Meow’d Maid and Maid-Tale were owned by the same company, it made sense that they could shuffle their maids around like that when the need arose.

I was surprised, of course, but I was also a little happy. After her Twitter account had disappeared, I’d feared that I’d never see Mashiro again unless I went to Meow’d Maid as a customer. Finding her here was a lucky coincidence.

Seeing her after all this time, I thought she still looked as angelic as ever. The cosplay was a perfect fit for a girl like her, with her fair skin and child-like face.

“W-Well, anyway, I’ll show you to a seat,” she said, still sounding a little shaken. She led me over to a table and pointed me to a free seat in perfect maid fashion.“Would this do?”

“Y-Yeah...”

I sat down, and Mashiro started talking...

“You know, Ichigaya, I-I—”

...only to be interrupted by another girl calling my name.

“Oh, Ichigaya!”

It was Yume, who’d just appeared from the back room.

“Y-Yume!”

She came all the way to my table and greeted me with a deep bow.

“Thank you for coming all the way here!” she said, looking nervous but excited to see me.

“Not at all!” I replied, still shocked that such a cute girl could be nervous, excited, or any combination thereof because of me. Her outfit looked straight out of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and she was just as cute and doll-like as I remembered.

“I’m so happy! I’ve really been looking forward to seeing you again after all this time,” she said, her eyes swelling up with emotion. She definitely didn’t look or sound like someone trying to talk me into a pyramid scheme.

“Yu—” I began, but suddenly remembered that Mashiro was there too.

Snap! She saw how friendly Yume and I are with each other! I’m happy to see Mashiro again, but did it have to be now of all times?!

It’s not like I was cheating on anyone, and there’s no way either of these girls liked me in that way, but meeting both of the girls I liked at the same time was really unfortunate. I slowly turned to look at Mashiro.

“You and Yume-chan... know each other?” she asked with a bewildered expression, her voice reduced to a whisper.

“W-Well, we...”

“Hm? Yes, we know each other,” Yume replied. “We met at an event held by the head company, and then I asked him to come visit here.”

“Event? Oh, that one with employees from all the cafés, right... I didn’t go. And you two met there, huh...?”

Little by little, I could see the light disappearing from Mashiro’s eyes.

“But, Mashiro, yo—” I tried explaining, but she quickly interrupted me.

“Looks like you’ve been keeping yourself busy,” she said with a cold smile. The smile only made her look scary.

“So you two also already knew each other?” Yume asked, anxiously looking at me. “Were you two... I mean, how do you know each other?”

Is it me or did Yume’s smile right now also have a certain... chilling quality to it? I have to explain things to her too!

“We were, um, colleagues when I worked at Meow’d Maid,” I replied, suddenly coming to the realization of how disgusting I was for thinking that I should try to appease both girls. I knew I didn’t have any more chances with Mashiro. Dating Yume, on the other hand, was still within the realm of possibility. Having the two meet me at the same time was the worst possible thing.

“Oh, really? So you’re just ex-colleagues?”

“I, er, we—”

“Exactly. Just ex-colleagues,” Mashiro replied before I could. She still had that—also chilling—smile on her face.

“Ohhh, that’s such a relief! I was a little scared for a moment. I almost thought that Ichigaya was friends with another girl even though we text each other so much every day...” Yume replied, grabbing my arm with both hands.

I am... confused.

“O-Oh, you text each other every day?” Mashiro commented, her smile twitching ever more creepily. “Where do you find the time, Ichigaya, considering all those days you spent a little while ago sending me DMs?!”

What’s this about?!

“D... Ms? You were sending each other DMs?”

“Y-Yes, we were, but that was way before you and I even met each other!”

“Well, well, well,” Mashiro addressed me. “Seems like your aims are set on Yume-chan now. And to think that you even took me on a date.”

“Wha—”

“Date...? You took Mashiro-chan on a... date?”

“Oh, sorry, I misspoke. I meant dates. Two of them. What about you, Yume-chan? Has he taken you on a date yet?” Mashiro mockingly asked her fellow maid.

Why are you doing this?! You stopped replying to my DMs because you don’t care about me anymore! Why do you sound jealous all of a sudden?!

“No,” Yume replied. “B-But that all happened before we started texting, didn’t it? So now you couldn’t care less about Mashiro-chan. Isn’t that right, Ichigaya?”

Yume was staring at me, piercing me with her emotionless eyes as she waited for an answer.

“I, well... um, er, uh...”

I am very, very confused right now, I thought as I felt cold sweat trickle down my forehead. What’s Mashiro’s deal? As I understood it, she used to like me a little bit, but then stopped liking me. But now she sounds like she still likes me. And Yume is being just as confusing! We’ve only met once and she’s acting all jealous! Am I going to see two girls fight over me? That’d be amazing, but also terrible.

“Is that... not the case?” Yume urged me to answer. Seeing her like that, on the verge of tears, made answering even more difficult.

“I’ll be going back to work!” Mashiro announced, her chilling smile still in place as she turned on her heels and stormed away.

“W-Wait, Mashiro!” I called after her, and her feet stopped. “Why... didn’t you reply to my DMs?”

I knew how stupid asking that was. Right now I wasn’t thinking about appeasing this or that girl. I just knew that, if I ever had the chance, I needed to ask that question.

Still facing away from us, Mashiro stood silent for a while before mumbling something.

“...anted to, bu...when I tri...ccount was...eleted.”

“Huh?” I hadn’t been able to make out even half of what she’d said.

“Have fun then, Yume-chan, Ichigaya,” she then said, spinning around to flash us that terrifying smile one last time before heading over to another table.

What was she even saying?

“Ichigaya...”

I looked back at Yume. Her face was the scariest thing I’d ever seen. It was completely expressionless, her eyes glassy.

“Do you... like Mashiro-chan?”

“What?”

“What do you think of me? What am I to you?” she asked.

Her eyes still looked dead, and I was genuinely scared. I had no idea what had gotten into her. As for her question, I honestly didn’t know myself. I wasn’t sure I liked Mashiro, but I couldn’t say that I didn’t like her at all either, and I didn’t want to lie about it.

What am I supposed to tell her?

“I thought we were basically dating, but it seems that I was the only one to think that,” she said.

“Huh?!”

Her face finally started showing emotion, but unfortunately that emotion was utter misery. She looked like she could start crying any second.

“Basically dating”? She liked me that much? Even though we only met once?

“You were so kind to me when we first met, and you texted me and replied to me even though nobody ever wants to talk with me. And the things you said were so nice, and I was so happy, and... and I was looking forward to today so much...” she continued talking, staring right through me while on the verge of tears.

“Wh-What...?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’d even doubted that Yume liked me at all and thought she was just trying to lure me into joining a cult or whatever, but I’d had it all backwards.

“T-Talking to you was a lot of fun for me too. I was looking forward to today just as much, I swear!”

“Please leave. Seeing you makes me hurt...” she said, in a tone that left no space for rebuttals. Then, she turned away.

“Y-Yume... Okay. I’m sorry...”

I took my things and left the café, still confused. Mashiro watched from afar.

So many things had happened in so little time that I could barely process it all.

How did it come to this? It’s my fault, I’m sure, but I never even became anyone’s boyfriend...

All I knew was that, in one fell swoop, I’d killed off my chances with both Mashiro and Yume.

I was still dumbfounded when I got back to the house. Kokoro wasn’t there. If she had been, I could have told her about what had happened. Although I didn’t know what her opinion would have been, I knew that hearing it would have made me feel better.

I went to my room to lie down.

What did I do wrong? Do I deserve this, or was it just bad timing? Is there any way I can make things right with the two of them?

I felt that, at least as far as Yume was concerned, the situation was beyond fixing. I thought that she was a nice, sweet girl, but seeing her overreact like that... I was happy that she liked me, of course, but I was also scared. I’d never been so terrified by a girl’s expression.

As for Mashiro, even if I wanted to explain the situation to her, I had no way of contacting her. Why had she acted like that in the first place? For someone who wasn’t supposed to like me at all anymore, she sounded kind of... jealous. Maybe she did still like me. Just a little tiny bit. But then again, why hadn’t she replied to my DMs? I wasn’t even able to hear her answer...

Suddenly, a notification on my phone snapped me out of my thoughts. It was a LINE message, so I immediately checked it.

“Huh?!”

It was a message from Yume. I mentally prepared myself for a good beating and began to read:

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have chased you out of the café after you came all the way there to meet me. I was just shocked to know that you were friends with another girl, but I overreacted. I really am sorry. It hit me so hard because I was looking forward to seeing you so much. Please let me make it up to you in some way. Also, and I know I’m in no position to say something like this, but if you’re not dating Mashiro-chan, I hope we can keep things going between us the way they were... But only if you want that too, of course.”

Out of all the things that had surprised me lately, this message surprised me the most.

What the... What’s going on in that girl’s head?

Back at the café, Yume looked like she was so mad at me that she didn’t want to see my face ever again. How could she change her mind so drastically in so little time?

My phone buzzed again.

“Also, if you and Mashiro-chan aren’t dating and if you don’t like her, I wanted to ask you to stop talking to her altogether.”

Huh?

I was growing more and more confused by the minute. I didn’t understand Yume. Between her outburst at the café and the messages right now, I could only conclude that she wasn’t normal. Even though her messages were kind and apologetic, what if the next time we actually met she’d get angry at me again?

Although I knew that possibility was real, I couldn’t help but feel happy that she liked me so much after having met me so few times. Having a girl that cute get so attached to me was undeniably pleasant, and jealousy is just another way to prove that someone likes you. Right?

I wanted to reply to Yume, but I didn’t know what to say. If I were to accept her apology and agree to never speak to Mashiro again, I had a good chance of things working out well with her. But... was that what I really wanted? Was I ready to give up Mashiro?

Mashiro’s show of jealousy at the café had to mean that she still liked me, despite what I’d thought. Maybe, if I could get in touch with her and talk it over, I could make things work out with her instead. The problem, of course, was that I couldn’t get in touch with her.

I didn’t want Yume to get the wrong idea while I still hadn’t made up my mind. It was clear from her words that she was serious about me, and I didn’t want to commit unless I was serious about her too. After all, even though she hadn’t exactly confessed her love to me, what she’d said came just short of that.

While I was still lying in bed, thinking about whether to reply to those messages, and how I would even do that, I heard Kokoro coming through the front door. I rushed to meet her in the living room, anxious to get some support.

“Hi, I’m back.”

“Hi...”

“Is something up?” she asked, probably noticing that something was off about me.

“Well, I went to the café where Yume works today...”

“Oh, right, you said you’d do that. How’d things go?”

I sat heavily on the couch and recounted my café plight. Kokoro looked at me in shock, as if she could hardly believe what I was telling her.

“Whoa...”

“It was the worst timing ever! I’ve got the worst luck.”

“No way! You’ve got girls all over you!”

“Huh?”

“If I’m being honest with you, that girl—Yume, right? I thought she was definitely up to something shady, but she basically asked you out!”

“D-Did she?!”

Are girls... actually attracted to me? I couldn’t even tell. I’d never experienced anything like that before, and I’d assumed that I never would.

“I just don’t quite understand why anyone would grow to like you so much after only meeting you once...” she said. She seemed genuinely puzzled, and had I not felt the same, I would have probably been deeply offended.

“So what are you going to do? If you just went along with it, you could probably start dating Yume pretty easily.”

“Hmm... I have to be honest, I’m still a bit scared. She’s cute though, and I can’t hide how happy it makes me to know that she likes me that much.”

“And what about Gojo?”

“Judging from how she acted today, it looks like I’ve still got a chance with her. If I do, I don’t want to lose it...”

“How indecisive can you be?!” Kokoro exclaimed, but I didn’t know how to respond. “Doesn’t that mean that you don’t have romantic feelings for either girl?”

“I had feelings for Mashiro before everything went down, but now I’m not so sure. I like her in some way. The same goes for Yume, but—”

“I can’t believe you’d find yourself in such a lucky spot after so little time...” she said, letting out a loud sigh.

“Huh? But I don’t even know whether either of them likes me or not!”

“Ugh. Anyway, if you’re not going to date a girl, don’t give her any false hope. Since you still don’t know what your feelings are, can’t you just be friends with Yume? Then you really ought to think about which girl you like and want to date.”

“Y-Yeah...”

Kokoro’s advice was on point, as usual. I decided to take all she said at face value for the time being.

Later, lying on my bed, I made up my mind about one thing: I couldn’t leave Yume hanging without replying to her.

“I’m glad to hear from you. I thought you were done with me, so I’m happy you reached out. Since we still know so little about each other, I was thinking that maybe it’d be best to keep things as they are and stay as friends.”

I was slightly worried that suggesting we continue on as friends when she hadn’t even asked to be my girlfriend was being too full of myself, but I thought that I should make things clear. That way, like Kokoro had told me, Yume wouldn’t get her hopes up for nothing.

My message was marked as read as soon as I sent it, and Yume’s reply came back shortly after. Except for when she was at school or at work, she always replied pretty much instantly.

“That will work. When will we be able to see each other next? Hopefully next time it will be just the two of us...?”

“Just the two of us”? She probably means“without Mashiro”...

There was something unsettling about the tone of her message, and I couldn’t find it in me to immediately propose another time and date to meet her. Instead, I ended up somewhat dodging the issue.

“When I know when I’m free, I’ll let you know!”

Again, her response was immediate.

“Okay. I’ll be waiting.”

Usually, we would keep messaging each other, chatting about anything and everything throughout the day, but I feared that doing so right now would send the wrong signals. Heeding Kokoro’s advice, I decided that our LINE conversation would end with that for the day, or else I knew we’d keep chatting until it was time to sleep. Eventually though, I wanted to have a proper conversation with Yume in person, since our first meeting was so short and the second was... that.

As for Mashiro, my only option was to continue checking her shifts at the café and finding her there, but after seeing how she had reacted today, I doubted that she’d be up for talking it out with me.

The cosplay event was only a few short days away, and looking for other potential dates had sunk to the bottom of my list of priorities. After all my preparation though, I figured I should still try my best.