“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.