I felt like I was in a dream.
“Really? Thank you! Oh... I can reach the station by myself from here. I appreciate you walking me so far,” Elena said, trying to hide her tears behind a smile, then she turned and hurried to the station.
I stood there without a word, staring after her as she got away. All kinds of thoughts were swirling through my mind.
After who knows how long, my phone rang and my head came back down from the clouds. It was Kokoro.
“H-Hello...”
“Ichigaya? You said you’d text us! Did you really go back home?”
“Um... Minami went to the station, but I’m still standing here on the sidewalk...”
“Huh?! What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“It doesn’t matter. What about you two?”
“We just left the diner and are heading home. You haven’t caught the train yet, right? Then can you wait for us at Tokyo Big Sight Station?”
“Uh, sure.”
I hung up and went back to thinking about Elena. She’d basically confessed to me and somehow let me down at the same time.
I feel kind of hurt about this, so... does that mean I wanted to date her? Now that I think about it, I guess she is my ideal girlfriend. She’s beautiful, cute, she likes yuri just like me, and she voices my favorite VTuber. To top it all off, despite her popularity, she’s incredibly kind and caring.
Elena checked all the right boxes—she was perfect. The only reason I hadn’t been considering her as a potential girlfriend was because I thought she only liked girls. I’d been sure that any love I might end up feeling for her would have been unrequited.
Now, however, I knew it had all been a misunderstanding. Elena had told me that she liked me, and I definitely liked her back. To be honest... if it was at all possible, I wanted her to become my girlfriend.
Too bad she said she doesn’t want to date anyone before she’s made it as a voice actress...
As an otaku, I knew how much fans disapproved of voice actors’ romantic endeavors. An established name in the industry would have had some leeway, but a rookie like Elena had only just started gaining popularity since people found out she was the voice of Emily Saionji. I’d been keeping up with any news that involved her work, so I knew she’d recently scored a major role in an anime that would start airing in September. This was a deciding moment for her career, and dating meant exposing herself to the risk of being found out and ruining it all.
Elena’s job was very important to her, and I understood that. If anything, as a fan, I wished for nothing more than her success. However, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Regardless of what I thought, Elena had no plans to become my girlfriend.
“Oh, there he is!”
Kokoro and Kisaki reached me at the station, where I was waiting just like I’d been told to. The two guys from earlier were no longer with them.
“What happened?!” Kokoro demanded to know. “You said you had to go back, but you’re still standing around...”
“Well... It just didn’t feel safe letting that Masahiro guy walk Minami to the station...”
“Oooh, that’s what it was? It got me kinda nervous too when he offered, to be honest.”
“When the hell did you learn to be so chivalrous?” Kisaki asked me, surprised.
“I know, right? I totally never thought Ichigaya would go all ‘knight in shining armor’ like that!”
Do they think I’m some kind of spineless coward?!
“Anyway, where did those two go?” I asked them.
“They needed the Rinkai line,” Kokoro explained. The Rinkai line connected to the Yurikamome one, but you couldn’t access it from this station.
“Ah, I see...”
We kept talking as we passed through the ticket gates and headed toward our platform, but when I looked at Kokoro’s face, I noticed that the corners of her mouth were curled up ever so slightly.
“So, um... How did things go after Minami and I left?”
“Same way they were going before. Masahiro did enough talking for all four of us.”
I was relieved to find out that Kokoro didn’t think much of the guy either.
“But I still got to chat with Yuya quite a bit!”
“He looked pretty eager to talk to you too,” my sister commented, adding more fuel to Kokoro’s burning excitement.
“What?! F-For real?! We were talking about cosplaying together sometime, you know?! The only problem is that ‘we’ also includes Masahiro...”
It was no wonder Yuya looked eager to talk to my Kokoro—the guy was obviously head over heels for her. When we first met, he’d probably been staring at me so hard because he couldn’t figure out what exactly my relationship with her was. He’d been so anxious that he’d straight-out asked me in the diner whether she had a boyfriend. He’d also told me that he didn’t have many chances to make female friends, so it was a safe assumption to think that he was single.
“I think Yuya likes you,” I said.
“What?! A-Are you serious?! Why?!” she squawked at lightning speed.
I considered just telling her what I’d heard from him, but I felt so salty about how well things were going for her that I dodged the question entirely.
“He just... kinda does?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
At this rate, I bet they’re going to end up together. From what I could gather during our short conversation, he seems like a decent guy, and he likes her too. A handsome otaku who likes girls’ stuff like HypMic... He’s her ideal boyfriend. I can’t believe a guy so perfect for her even exists. It’s just a matter of time. We’ve been helping each other along the road for months... and now she’s going to reach her goal first.
When we were finally on the train home, Kisaki hooked her arm with Kokoro’s.
“You know, those friends of yours that visited today were all so cute! I could hardly believe it!”
She was probably referring to Elena, Iroha, and Mikoto. All three of them were definitely attractive, even though the latter two negated that benefit by having such annoying personalities.
“I guess beautiful people attract other beautiful people...” my sister continued, staring intently at Kokoro.
“Hey,” Kokoro said, laughing from the embarrassment. “What’s the flattery for?”
“Well, it wouldn’t have surprised me so much if they were just friends of yours... but my brother was speaking with all those pretty girls like it was nothing! I thought I was dreaming or something!”
“Is that really so surprising?” I asked.
“Of course it is! The Kagetora I remember could barely speak to any female unless it was me or Mom!”
That Kagetora guy must be one sad fellow, huh? She’s right though...
“Ohhh. He’s improved a ton since then,” Kokoro said, sounding just as impressed.
“I bet it’s all thanks to you! It must be!” Kisaki confidently declared. “I’m not sure how it happened, but becoming friends with someone as gorgeous and extroverted as you must have helped him get used to talking to girls! And that’s how he managed to make new friends. Am I right?”
Kokoro was silent, as if unsure how to process what my sister was saying.
“W-Well,” I replied for her, “I guess you are...”
“I knew it! Thank you so much, Kokoro!”
＊ ＊ ＊
Back at home, we poured ourselves some juice to celebrate a successful Comiket.
“To Kisaki selling out at her first event! Congratulations!” Kokoro said, raising her glass. This tiny celebration had been her idea, since we still hadn’t had the time to properly congratulate Kisaki. Doing so at the diner, with those two guys sitting with us, would have been kind of weird.
“Thank you! Now I can go back to India without any regrets!”
“Actually,” I added, remembering I had something to ask her, “are you going to stay here for your whole summer vacation? You never said when your flight back is.”
“Oh, it’s tomorrow.”
“WHAT?!” Kokoro and I exclaimed in unison.
“I have some things I need to take care of back home, and I don’t want Mom and Dad to worry about me. Oh, by the way, they told me to check on you and report back how you’re doing. So I was going to let them know...” Kisaki paused for a second, leaving me terribly anxious. “I’m going to tell them that you’re doing just fine.”
“Oh... P-Please do,” I replied, exhaling with relief.
“Awww, but I don’t wanna say goodbye already,” Kokoro whined. “You’d better message me on LINE after you go back!”
“Yes, of course! And I’d love to meet up with you again when I move back to Japan permanently!”
Huh, so they exchanged LINE contacts...