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“All this time, I’ve always looked up to strong, cool girls. I thought that if I ever fell in love with someone, it could only be with that kind of girl. Until now, that is. I’ve finally realized something. Ichigaya... you’re the person that I want to be with.”

It was my first time at Wonder Festival, yet all I could think about was Elena. She’d shocked me so much that I hadn’t been able to follow her after she’d hurried away.

The person she wants to be with... How am I supposed to forget about that?! She basically confessed her love to me!

Elena was a beautiful, kind, popular girl who worked as a voice actress and VTuber. She was on a totally different level to me in every single respect. How could she like me? I was equally surprised, doubtful, and... happy. If it were true, it was the best thing I could have ever asked for.

The girl was so far out of my league that the thought had never occurred to me, but she would have been an ideal girlfriend for any otaku... including me. The fact that she voiced VTuber Emily Saionji, who I loved, was part of it, but she was also beautiful, talented, and had a great personality. Even our tastes weren’t that different, since she liked yuri—which, for a girl, is somewhat rare. She checked every single box.

But then again, maybe she didn’t mean in a romantic sense.

Right before her first live performance, the news that Elena was the actress voicing Emily Saionji had leaked online, which had made her panic. Luckily, I was there to cheer her up, so maybe she’d said that without thinking because she was so grateful. She hadn’t told me that she loved me or anything—at least, not outright. That being said, it’d be weird not to think that she liked me after hearing something like that.

So, um... What am I supposed to do now?

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Ichigaya!”

Maybe if I tried to follow her...

“Hey! What are you spacing out for?”

“Your face got stuck, Icchi?”

“Huh? O-Oh, sorry,” I said, finally noticing that Kokoro, Iroha, and Mikoto had returned.

“We were just saying we should go get something to eat. You coming or what?” Kokoro asked.

“Y-Yeah...”

We went to one of the cafés inside the festival venue for lunch. The three girls were chatting, but I was so busy thinking about what Elena had said that the whole conversation went in one ear and out the other. Of course, they made fun of me every now and then for having my head in the clouds, but I couldn’t quite manage to pay attention.

“Has the heat been too much for you, Ichigaya? You’ve seemed rather absentminded all day,” Mikoto asked with concern. We were on a platform in the station, waiting for our trains.

“Oh, not at all! I’m sorry for making you worry. I’ve just got stuff on my mind, is all...”

“That’s good to hear, but make sure to get some rest, okay?”

“Of course, thank you.”

“A’ight, this is our train. It was cool to see you again!” Iroha said.

“See you two around!” Kokoro told her, waving her hand as Iroha and Mikoto boarded their train.

After splitting up with our former colleagues, Kokoro and I caught the train that would take us home.

“Hmmm, should I send him a message? An ‘it was nice meeting you’ kind of thing? Or would that look too desperate?” Kokoro asked. She was still excited about having exchanged contacts with a handsome cosplayer at the festival.

I, however, still had something else on my mind.

“What’s the matter with you?! You’ve been out of it all afternoon!”

“O-Oh, sorry...” I replied.

I thought about telling her what had happened with Elena. That would certainly get Kokoro off my back, but... I couldn’t. If I told her, that meant I would have to explain that Elena had been there to thank me after I’d helped calm her down; which meant I’d have to explain that she’d been panicking about people finding out that she was a popular VTuber; which meant that I’d have to explain that Elena was popular VTuber Emily Saionji. Even though some people online had discovered her identity, it was still supposed to be a secret. I couldn’t tell Kokoro about it.

“What’s the matter? Did something happen back there?”

“No, not really...”

“Sheesh, fine. Keep your secrets. But tell me what you think! Do you think it’s fine to message him?”

“W-Well... if it’s just a greeting of sorts, then sure. I don’t see the problem.”

“Cool! Then I’ll do that now! Let’s see... It was really nice meeting you today... Okay! Sent! So, how did things go for you? Did you get to take pictures of any cute cosplayers? Did you get to speak to them?”

One of my reasons for attending the festival in the first place had been to meet cute cosplayers, but I’d forgotten all about that.

“Th-There was one that was cosplaying as a character I liked. I took a picture of her Twitter handle.”

To be honest, I no longer cared about that cosplayer. Elena was way more important to me.

“That’s awesome! You should follow her on Twitter and reply to one of her tweets or something. That’s, like, the reason you went through all this trouble, right?”

“Y-Yeah. I guess you’re right...”

Considering the day’s events, I suspected that I wouldn’t even bother to follow the girl.

Once we got home, I checked my phone again, but there was no message from Elena. I still didn’t know how to take what she’d said to me, but I didn’t have the gall to contact her myself. All I could do was give up for the day and go to bed.

＊　＊　＊

　The next day, I woke up to a LINE notification. I immediately slid my finger up the screen, hoping to see a message from Elena. To my surprise, the message had actually come from Kisaki, my little sister.

Kisaki had previously told me that she would be coming back home for summer vacation, and that she still hadn’t decided whether it was going to be a temporary thing or she was moving back to Japan permanently. If she settled on the latter, Kokoro wouldn’t be able to live here anymore, so I’d urged my sister to decide as soon as possible.

“I’ll be back home for around a week, starting on the 7th.”

“So you’re only staying here for summer vacation? And then you’ll go back?”

“That’s what I said.”

“I told you to tell me when you decided!”

“That’s what I’m doing!”

I sighed in relief. So it was just a temporary thing! I wouldn’t have to kick Kokoro out. That would have felt terrible after I’d been the one who’d offered her a place to stay.

Thinking about it, the idea of sharing the house with Kisaki was anything but thrilling. We’d gotten along with each other pretty well back when we were both kids, but when she entered middle school, we’d started growing apart and she’d started actively avoiding me.

Kisaki’s middle school debut had been nothing like mine: she’d started taking care of her appearance, became extroverted and sociable, and, at least from what I’d heard, she’d also become popular with boys. Before that, we used to enjoy anime and games together, but she’d probably grown out of those hobbies altogether.

That’s most likely why she didn’t want anything to do with her unpopular otaku brother anymore. Of course, living with someone that acts so coldly toward you is stressful. I had a much better time with Kokoro as my roommate than with my own sister.

“...so she said she’ll only be here for a week or so.”

“Phew! That’s a huuuge relief!”

Kokoro seemed even more relieved than I was. It made sense, considering that she had the most to lose: if Kisaki were to move back in, Kokoro would have to move away from Japan and go live with her parents overseas.

“It’ll be from the seventh, so... do you think you can stay somewhere else for that time? Maybe at a friend’s house...”

“I can’t impose on my friends like that. I think I’ll use my allowance and the money I saved from working to rent a cheap room. I’m sure I still don’t have enough money though, so I’ll probably have to, like, get another part-time job—one that pays daily or something.”

“Sorry about that. Look, you don’t have to pay your share of the house’s expenses for this month...”

“For real? Thanks! Then I might be able to do it without working.”

It turned out that Kisaki’s visit wouldn’t be that huge of a deal after all.

After dinner, Kokoro began searching for part-time jobs. She was disappointed to find that most of the ones that paid daily were warehouse or factory jobs that involved intensive manual labor.

“It’s not looking good. Maybe I could sell some of the otaku merchandise and cosplay stuff I don’t need anymore. I’d get some money out of it, even if not much. I have to take all of my things out of your sister’s room before she gets here anyway.”

“You can shove it in my room, as long as it fits. Kisaki wouldn’t go inside if her life depended on it, so there’s no risk of her finding any of it.”

“That makes it loads easier! But... you two are on really bad terms, huh?”

“Yeah, let’s not talk about that.”

Later in the morning, Kokoro left the house to meet up with some friends. Since I had no plans for the day, I decided I’d stay inside and enjoy some anime and games in the air-conditioned comfort of my home—the perfect way to spend summer vacation.

I was lying on the couch when I got a notification from Twitter. When I saw who the DM was from, I jumped up from the couch in surprise.

Mashiro@Meow’dMaidCafé

M-Mashiro?! And this handle... It’s her work account!

I’d previously told Mashiro that I wanted to talk things out, but she and I had never managed to exchange LINE contacts, and she’d deleted her private Twitter account—our only means of communication. I thought that she’d done that because she didn’t want to talk to me, so I’d given up hope of reconciliation. Then, when I ran into her at the café where Yume worked, she was inexplicably mad at me, and I couldn’t even find out why she hadn’t replied to my DMs.

At first, I’d thought she was mad at me because she was jealous of Yume, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized she was probably angry because I was getting close to another girl while still letting on that I was interested in her.

That seemed like the last nail in the coffin of our potential relationship, so why was she using her work account to message me?! The café strictly forbade maids from sending DMs to anyone with their work accounts.

What reason could she have to go against that rule? I asked myself as I opened the DM.

“Hello Ichigaya, it’s Gojo Mashiro. Do you remember me?”

Remember her? What’s she talking about? Does she really think I’d forget who she was in the span of a few days, or is she just being passive-aggressive?

“Of course I remember! I didn’t expect a DM from your work account! What’s the matter?”

There must be something she really needs to tell me...

“It’s not that important, but... The other day, in the café, you asked me why I didn’t reply to your DMs. I didn’t manage to tell you then, so I’ll give it another go. I wanted to. I wanted to reply, but I’d already deleted my Twitter... Once you delete it, the account stays up for a few days, and then it just disappears all of a sudden. By the time I’d come up with my reply, my account was gone.”

So she’d actually wanted to reply! Now I finally knew... and she’d broken the café’s rules just to tell me that...

“I see. That makes me feel better about it.”

“I just didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding. That’s all.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

I laid down my phone, expecting that to be the end of it. All the confusion that had been running through my brain for such a long time was finally gone. After a few moments, however, Mashiro sent another message.

“That’s all you have to say...?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

My confused reply was followed by an even longer wait. After about five minutes, I got another DM from Mashiro.

“Mashiro555”

It was her name, followed by some random numbers.

Wait... could this be...?

“That’s my LINE ID. I’m not allowed to send DMs from this account, and I don’t plan on making another private account for a while, so if you ever have anything to tell me, please use that.”

It really was a LINE ID! Mashiro’s LINE ID!

“Thanks! I’ll add you as a friend!”

“Okay. Once you do, I’ll delete all these DMs so that people at the café don’t find out.”

“Gotcha!”

I immediately opened up LINE and added Mashiro. I sent her a simple “It’s me, Ichigaya!” and she replied with a sticker.

Staring at our brief exchange felt incredibly weird. I’d meant to ask for her LINE for so long, but never managed to. And now she’d given it to me, unprompted, at a time like this... I didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on in her head.

I was happy to once again have a way to contact Mashiro, but I didn’t really feel like having a conversation with her at that moment. That was probably because I’d been waiting for an answer from her for so long, and more importantly... because I still couldn’t think about anything other than Elena.