Ai can't believe it!

Ai and Rudi were walking toward their destination when Rudi suddenly stopped and looked at Ai.

"Ai, you must be nervous," Rudi said calmly.

"What makes you say that?" Ai asked, surprised.

"Well, as you can see here," Rudi said, lifting his hand that Ai was holding, "you’ve crushed my hand like an empty soda can."

"Oh! I didn’t realize, Rudi. I’m so sorry." She quickly let go of Rudi’s hand and immediately tried to pull it back into shape. Ai continued softly, "You’re right. I am nervous. I haven’t really spoken to another human face-to-face before, so I’m not sure how I’m supposed to act or what to say. You were the one who registered us at the Earth Welcome Center and handled the paperwork for my armband. I just stood behind you. I’m just a weirdo."

Ai began to crush Rudi’s hand again, but this time he was quick to pull it away and grab her shoulders to avoid further damage.

While squatting slightly, Rudi looked into Ai’s eyes and kindly said, "Yes, you are a weirdo."

Ai burst into laughter. She barely managed to say, "Rudi, you’re such a weirdo," before laughing harder and harder. Rudi grabbed her hand again, and they continued walking to the café.

After regaining her composure, Ai looked around. As she wiped tears of laughter from her face, she asked, "Hey, Rudi, are we lost? Or is my armband broken? It says the café is only fifty feet away, but there’s no building in sight. Just a cliff and a signpost. We haven’t seen any buildings since leaving the welcome center’s park plaza. Can you double-check our location?"

Rudi responded, "You didn’t see the city when we were landing?"

Ai’s head tilted upward in a flash, and she squinted against the sun. All she saw were sparse clouds scattered across the sky. She looked down in disappointment.

Rudi nudged Ai and gestured ahead. As they drew closer to the signpost, Ai gazed upon an enormous city embedded and sprawled across the inside of a massive crater-like cliffside, with a vast ocean visible in the distance.

"Wow," Ai said in awe. "I can’t believe it! This is so dangerous. They should at least put some guardrails on the edge here."

Rudi nodded in agreement. "Wait till you see how we get into the café."

Ai turned to Rudi in surprise, but before she could question him, they reached the signpost, and the floor beneath them opened into a large metal tube. The two fell straight down.

Horrific screams of fear and distress tore from Ai as she clung to Rudi like a baby koala.

Rudi was unbothered.

Suddenly, the large tube curved gently, transforming into a slide. Ai’s grip on Rudi relaxed as confusion replaced her fear.

Rudi, however, was extremely bothered and now latched onto Ai like a baby koala, screaming, "It’s touching me now, and it feels like my skin!" as he referred to the metal slide.

At the end of the slide, they burst into a room filled with soft, fluffy pillows. Ai quickly popped out of the sea of pillows and exclaimed, "What kind of sick joke was that?! Rudi, are you okay?"

No response.

As Ai scanned the surface of the pillow pit, something cold brushed past her briefly. "Rudi?!" she shouted.

No response.

Ai noticed a door labeled ‘Entrance.’ She began moving toward it, staying wary of her surroundings.

"Rudi, there’s a door over here. Let’s get out of here," Ai called, but there was still no response.

As she made her way to the door, a bright blue dorsal fin rose from under the pillows and charged toward her. Ai braced herself, trying to punch it, but the fin evaded and looped behind her.

Before she could fully turn, the figure sprang out, roaring to scare her. Ai yelled and managed to land a punch, sending Rudi flying toward the door, laughing so hard his voice box struggled to keep up.

Finally reaching the door, Ai helped Rudi up and laughed with him.

The door opened suddenly, revealing a café worker. "Welcome to the Pillow Den Café. My name’s Tim, and I’ll be taking care of you. Table for two?"

Ai, nervous again, managed to agree loudly, "Yes, that would be nice!"

Rudi helped Ai through the door, and they followed Tim to their booth seats.

"Ai, you did great! Your first face-to-face human interaction was loud but great. Now you just have to make Daisuke Shima fall in love with you during your next interaction," Rudi said confidently.

"Rudi, your trust in me is stressing me out. I need to practice before he gets here. I’m glad we arrived early," Ai said, determined.

"Practice? Oh, yeah, I should have told you earlier. You have nothing to worry about. As long as you’re yourself, he’ll definitely fall in love with you," Rudi said with such confidence he practically glowed.

"Rudi, that’s such lame encouragement. ‘Just be yourself, and everything will be fine,’" Ai mocked.

Rudi insisted, "No, really! You’re his typ—"

The café door swung open, cutting him off.

Both Ai and Rudi turned to see Tim greeting a new customer. Ai froze. It’s Daisuke Shima! she thought. He was young and handsome, the café filling with the scent of his cologne. Confidence radiated from him.

Rudi noticed Daisuke had an older-model Ro-Buddy with him. Daisuke glanced at Ai and Rudi’s booth and started walking toward them.

"Don't worry, Ai. I will still help you," Rudi whispered as he waved at Daisuke.

Ai snapped out of her shock and waved too. "At least you’ll be sitting with me," Ai whispered back.

"Well, hello there! You must be Ai," Daisuke said, looking at Rudi.

"Huh?" Rudi responded.

Quickly, Rudi turned to Ai, who looked away, snickering. She had registered under her name but used a picture of Rudi as the profile image.

"There’s been a misunderstanding. I’m Rudi, and that there is Ai."

"Ah, no worries. I thought it was funny to have received a request from a Ro-Buddy. I assumed you were actually looking to request my own Ro-Buddy, Jules," Daisuke says as he presents Jules to Rudi.

With a soft, kind voice, Jules introduces herself. "Hi, Rudi, I'm Jules. Nice to meet you." Rudi shakes her hand, but she holds onto his and gestures for him to get up. "Let's take a seat at the table next to the booth," Jules insists.

Rudi, seemingly mesmerized, gets up without saying a word or breaking his gaze from Jules.

"Hey, Rudi, don't forget about what you said," Ai calls.

Rudi breaks out of his momentary trance and looks back at Ai. She is furiously nervous! Rudi can almost read her mind: I'm so mad! I'm so nervous! I don't know what to say! Oh, I'm hungry. I should at least order some food!

"Stop trying to read my mind, Rudi!" Ai snaps as she waves down Tim to place an order.

"What are you thinking of getting, Ai?" asks Daisuke, who has already taken Rudi's seat.

Ai rigidly answers with only, "Food."

Daisuke laughs. "Wow, either you’re a person of few words, or you must seriously be nervous," Daisuke says with a smug expression.

Ai accepts the challenge. "Ha! As if the cool, confident guy persona would work on me. I'll be honest here, Daisuke boy, you'll be the one falling in love with me by the end of this date."

Tim brings Ai's order to the table, but he can’t help feeling the intense aura exuding from the booth. I thought they were on a date. This feels more like an intense showdown, Tim thinks to himself. Clearing his throat to announce his arrival, the two look toward Tim, and the menacing aura dissipates.

"Your order," Tim says as he places the array of dishes on the table.

"Thank you so much, Tim," Ai says happily.

"We appreciate your hard work!" both Daisuke and Ai chime in together.

As Tim turns to leave his guests, a cold chill suddenly runs down his spine. Looking back at the booth, Daisuke and Ai seem to have happy looks on their faces, but a haunting atmosphere engulfs their space.

"Wow, you actually thought to order me something?" Daisuke says passive-aggressively as he takes a bite of the strawberry shortcake.

"I can’t have a little boy be famished now, can I?" Ai retorts as she eats some of the French toast in front of her.

Rudi and Jules’s booth radiates a pleasant warmth as they chat away about seemingly trivial things and enjoy each other's company. Though Rudi is having a lovely time, he busies himself with passing along a note to Ai using his retractable arm to reach her hand under the table.

Ai looks down to read what the note says and chokes on her French toast. Drinking from her iced coffee to wash it down, Ai reads the note again and spits the coffee out—directly onto Daisuke.

You are his type. Just be yourself.

Ai looks up from the note at Daisuke, who is in the middle of wiping himself off. He’s trying hard not to blush. Ai’s heart skips a beat.

There’s no way, Ai thinks to herself.