“I think... I’ll be moving out next month.”
“WHAT?! What’s that supposed to mean?”
Kokoro’s unexpected news had thrown me for a loop. One minute I was telling her that I’d found my perfect otaku girlfriend, and the next my roommate was leaving me. I thought she’d be happy about me finally succeeding, not get so upset that she’d go as far as to...
“That call just now was from my dad,” she told me. “He said his company’s gonna let him come back to Japan. My mom’s moving back next month, and he’ll follow the month after...”
Her parents?! If her parents are coming back, then she really has no choice but to move out... but that’s not even our main concern.
“What are we going to tell them? They still think, you know... that we’re dating each other, right?” I asked.
Kokoro’s plan, originally, had been to find a boyfriend by the time they got back and convince her dad that she’d fallen in love with the new guy rather than me. She did have a crush on Yuya, and I also had... a girlfriend? Sort of? Whatever our relationship was, I had Elena. However, to Kokoro’s parents, our breakup could look way too sudden—they were still under that crazy impression that we were not only dating, but that we would marry each other when they returned to Japan.
I’m dead. Her dad is going to kill me, isn’t he?
“Yeah... We can only tell them I’ve changed my mind and convince them it’s for the better, y’know? They’ll probably be mad at me, but you should be safe,” she replied with a sigh.
Convince them? Yeah... she makes it sound easy...
“Anyway, about what you said earlier...”
“Earlier? What?” I asked, confused.
“You said you and Elena became boyfriend and girlfriend. How did that happen?”
Kokoro looked deadly serious as she asked me the question. Her dad’s call had interrupted our conversation right after I’d given her the news. After all our efforts, I’d finally found a date... and my roommate seemed to be anything but happy about it. I was honestly shocked by her reaction.
“Didn’t she say she just wanted to go on the one date...?” Kokoro asked me.
“Well, yeah... But then she asked to become my girlfriend anyway.”
“I... I see. She must have changed her mind then. And you said yes, didn’t you...?”
“Yeah...”
“Why though? I don’t remember you ever mentioning wanting Elena to be your girlfriend.”
“I, uh...”
Kokoro sounded so concerned that I knew I had to answer, but that was another question I hadn’t been expecting.
“After spending time with her, I may have realized that I like her...” I said.
For a second, Kokoro’s eyes seemed to lose all light, but she dropped her gaze so quickly that I couldn’t tell for sure.
“Oh... I see. Huh...” she said, sounding way more stumped than I thought the situation warranted. After that, she stared at the floor for a while.
What’s wrong with her? Why doesn’t she congratulate me? Is she that mad at me for finding a date before she did?
Finally, she looked up at me, slapped my shoulder, and smiled.
“Well, I guess I should congratulate you! I... I was just a bit surprised, you know? This all came out of nowhere. I never thought you’d do it before I could! Well done, really! You got a girlfriend, and what a girlfriend she is too! Elena Minami-Williams! Unbelievable!”
“Th-Thanks...”
I’m glad she seems happy for me, since we were in this battle together, but her initial reaction was really weird.
“She got to like you so much that she changed her mind about dating. And if you... you know... If you also like her, and now you’re together, well, that’s great, right? I’ve gotta hurry up too, huh?” she said.
“Y-Yeah...” I replied, but Kokoro continued to act strangely. She silently left the living room and headed upstairs to her room.
Okay, this isn’t normal at all. Is she really just shocked that I reached my goal first? She’s got a crush too, and he likes her back, so she’s also pretty close to getting her perfect boyfriend. So... what’s the problem?
Now alone, I checked my phone and noticed that Elena had sent me a message.
“Thank you so much for today. I had more fun than I thought possible! I’m looking forward to writing this new chapter of my life together with you.”
Right... It’s just as unbelievable as Nishina said, but Minami really is my girlfriend now.
I began to tap nervously on my phone, trying to come up with a decent reply, but I noticed a new notification from...
Yume?
“You haven’t been replying to me lately. Have you been busy? I’d really like to meet up again...♡”
Yume messaged me regularly, but I knew that replying to one of her texts would just lead her to sending me three more, which is why I’d stopped replying altogether. This was the first time I’d heard from her in a few days, and I realized that I needed to tell her I was no longer single. That being said, I had to reply to my girlfriend first. I had no idea why, but I figured it was what a real boyfriend would do.
“I had fun too! I was completely flattered by everything you said. I’m looking forward to it as well.”
After typing out my reply, I peppered it with emoji, which I normally never used, and then hit send, leaving me with another, even more difficult reply to write.
In all honesty, I was scared of Yume, but I didn’t want to ignore her entirely and hurt her feelings. She liked me—a lot, apparently—but I didn’t feel the same way she did. By neither accepting her feelings nor clearly stating that I had no intention to, I’d kept her hanging, maybe unfairly, for all this time.
The fact that she constantly texted me didn’t really bother me, and I was flattered that she liked me at all. The thing was, I just wasn’t sure how strong her feelings were. Maybe she just wanted me as a friend, maybe as a boyfriend... so I’d always ignored the issue. Now, however, I couldn’t do that anymore. I had a girlfriend who was most definitely too good for me, and muddying the waters even further would be a disservice to both her and Yume.
“I’m sorry I didn’t reply. Actually...”
My fingers felt heavy as I went to type the rest of the sentence, but I had to do it. I had to tell her.
“Actually, I got a girlfriend. So, we probably shouldn’t meet up anymore. And we can’t text each other either. I’m sorry.”
I’d already been pretty slow at replying to her, but now I had to stop entirely. As harsh as it was, I knew I needed to do it.
I’m sorry, Yume... You’ve been so nice to me, and you’ve always been so excited to talk to me... but I can’t return your feelings.
Yume had never confessed her love to me or anything, but I knew that whatever she felt for me was too much to take. I felt kind of bad for letting her down.
After a while, I got another notification. I immediately checked it, expecting it to be Elena... but it was Yume.
“That’s so cruel...”
The first line of her text was so shocking I almost dropped my phone. Fearing my time had come, I kept reading.
“Does this mean what I think it means? You were having fun with another girl while texting me? I thought of you all day, waiting for your replies... You’re the worst. I was all wrong about you.”
Seeing how upset I’d made her was terrifying. My hands started shaking and my heart began to pound in my chest.
I didn’t think she’d be this mad about it... I guess she really liked me a lot. What’s going to happen now? I doubt she’d come stab me in my sleep like a real-life yandere anime girl, but she sure isn’t going to let it all slide, is she? Is there something I can do to make her forgive me? What did I do that was so bad in the first place?
As these questions spun around my head, I received another message from her.
“I’m going to be working on the 22nd and 23rd between 1 and 7 p.m. Could you come see me? That’s the least you could do. I need to speak to you face-to-face one last time.”
What’s she planning on doing?! Judging from the tone of her messages, even if she doesn’t kill me, she’ll at least scream a bunch of insults at me... Or what if she just starts crying instead? I don’t wanna go... but I feel like I have to.
We’d been talking to each other for some time now, and I wanted to give her the closure that she deserved. I mustered up my courage and replied to her.
“Okay. I’ll visit on the 22nd then. I’ll wait for you near the café around 7.”