Chapter 17 Part 2

The incident with the stalker was quickly resolved after that. Con security showed up and brought him out—I mean, escorted him out of the premises. Everyone who was watching agreed that he had been harassing Sunhi, Mana, and me, and that my sister acted in self-defense. Whether they themselves thought that, or if they were afraid of getting zapped if they didn’t agree with the narrative, shall never be known.

But, although the immediate danger was resolved, the outcome of the situation still hung in the air. It was obvious that we were seen as a bit of a nuisance ourselves, and judging from the bits of conversation I overheard, people were now fully convinced that the stalker had been right and that Mana wasn’t Nitro.

“Do you want to go home?” I asked Mana, who had a blanket over her shoulders someone from the organization brought over. She had since stopped crying.

“N-No… I’m fine. I gotta stay here… until the end.”

“No, you don’t,” Sunhi said. “Juwon, don’t you think that’s enough?”

“What do you mean?”

“This… charade. Using Mana as a showgirl… don’t you think this has gone too far? You can’t be treating a lady like that.”

There she goes again.

“So it is true. This girl is not Nitro.”

A new voice joined the fray.

“Aru-chan…?”

“I heard what happened,” she said, her voice noticeably level. “And the rumors are spreading fast. There’s no point in trying to trick people any longer.” Then she turned to me—and for the first time, she really looked at me. “You’re Nitro, aren’t you?”

“No, Ju…! Don’t say it!”

“There’s no point in keeping it a secret now, Mana,” I said. “I am, yes.”

“Sigh. What a mess,” Aru-chan said. “I thought you were just some grifter, but turns out you were a duo, after all. The idea never even popped up in my head. You better come clean about this, you know?”

“Yes, of course. I… I should never have let this go this far.”

“Hmm. Very well. Now,” she said, turning to Mana. “What is your relationship, exactly? Who are you?”

“She’s—”

“Can it,” Aru-chan said. “I’m talking with her here, not you.”

That’s when I realized it.

I was doing it. The same thing everyone else had been doing so far.

The stalker thought she was a hired booth girl.

My sister thought she had to be a lady.

The internet thought she was Nitro.

And I was about to say what I thought of her, too.

But after Aru-chan interrupted me, I just couldn’t find the right words.

And… what about me? What did I think about Mana?

Was she all of those things? Or… something else entirely?

Was it even my place to say?

How did I feel about her?

“I…” Mana began. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? How’s that possible? You’re Nitro’s girlfriend, at least, right?”

Mana bit her lip.

“Oh, wow, okay, that complicated, huh? Sheesh. What have I gotten myself into?” Aru-chan said, scratching the back of her head.

Then, Mana suddenly rose from her chair.

“Mana—Woah!”

Clunk.

The chair she was sitting on fell to the floor as Mana rushed out onto the convention floor.

“Did… did I hit a nerve?” Aru-chan asked.

Everyone was looking at me, expecting an answer. What was going through Mana’s head? I had a pretty good hunch.

“I’m going after her.”

“Well, you better!” Sunhi added. “She was crying, you know!”

“Yeah, I know. But before I go,” I said as I rummaged through my bag. “I thought I’d give my own answer.”

“Your answer?” Aru-chan asked.

“Yeah. On who she is.”

I handed her my sketchbook, which I had brought with me to the con. I was planning on sneaking off and sketching her from afar, but I never got the chance. But it turned out to be useful anyway.

“This is…” Aru-chan began saying as she flipped over the pages.

A sketch of her gulping ramen directly from the cup.

A sketch of her going out to buy clothes without underwear.

A sketch of her failing to learn how to cook.

But no matter what, she was always smiling.

“That’s who Mana is. The girl who ruined my life in all the best ways.”

⬡⬢⬡⬢⬡

“I finally found you, Mana.”

“Ju…” Mana said weakly, looking up at me.

She was sitting outside the convention venue, under the shade of a tree. After being stuck inside that stuffy, hot hall, the fresh air and slight breeze felt incredible.

“How the heck did you even find this place?”

“Eh-eh. I just wandered around until I stumbled outside, I guess.”

You guess?

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” I said, sitting next to her. “Look… I’m sorry.”

“Huh? Why?!”

“I’m no better than that guy who harassed you.”

“Huh?!!” She said, looking at me completely astonished. “No way!”

“I realized that all this time, we had just been imposing our own views on you. That guy, Aru-chan, my sister… even I… all we saw was just a pretty girl. We never bothered to ask what you really wanted.”

“Eh-eh.”

That’s not what I expected to hear from her.

“Huh? What’s that reaction for?”

“You called me pretty.”

“I mean, it’s true…”

“No, that’s not what I mean. This was the first time,” she said.

“Surely not…?”

“No, it is,” she said. “You called me sexy, and you said clothes looked good on me… but you never said I’m pretty.”

“Look, does that even matter? In fact, doesn’t that just reinforce my point?! I’ve also just been—”

“No, Ju. You’re wrong,” she said, staring right at me. “Neither your sister nor Aru-chan nor that stalker… none of them ever asked what I wanted.”

“Huh?”

“Your sister said I must be a lady. Aru-chan said I should be a model. That stalker wanted me to not be Nitro. No one ever asked me what I wanted. No one except you. That’s… that’s why I ran away.”

“Wait, so you mean…?”

“I still want to be Nitro. Or at least, I want to still support you as much as I can. I don’t mind if people think you’re just using my body for views. I know you better than that. If I told you I wanted to stop, then you wouldn’t force me to keep going.”

“Of course I wouldn’t! Because you’re you.”

“Right. I am me,” she said. “You’re the only person who ever saw me. And that’s why—”

Suddenly, Mana leaned in close. Really, really close.

It’s not as if I hadn’t had her this close before—many times, in fact.

But this time I knew it was different. It was just like that time she rested her head on my shoulder.

My heart could tell that difference, too.

“Ah, whatever! If I don’t do this now, I’ll regret it!”

Without giving me any time to process what was happening, she closed the distance between us.

And kissed me.

Or well, at least she wanted to.

Because, right at the crucial moment, she had to fumble.

Just as I felt her lips, I also felt something else.

“Argh, your glasses! They poked my eye!”

Darn it! It hurts! It really hurts!

“Wait, Ju?! Are you okay?!”

“Of course I’m not! Geez, that stings. You gotta warn me first before going in for a kiss!”

I couldn’t see a thing; my eyes were starting to fill with tears.

But I knew, even through the watery, fuzzy image, that Mana was smiling.

“What?! But that would totally ruin the moment, wouldn’t it?”

“What if I didn’t want to?”

“…Oh, good point. Oh no, what have I done?!”

“Relax, Mana. I… huh… I also feel that way about you. I guess?”

“You guess?! Be a man and say it!”

“But… it’s weird, isn’t it? Like, I made you and everything, right?”

“Wait, that’s what you’re worried about? Silly Ju,” she said. Then she grabbed my head and pulled me into her chest. “I told you before, what’s mine is yours. But I didn’t fall for you because of some stupid thing like ‘destiny’ or whatever. If you were a piece of shit like that stalker guy, I’d have run away a long time ago.”

“Aww... Thanks,” I said, my voice muffled by her body.

“Now, enough of the good stuff!” She said, pushing me away. “You’ll… huh… have all the time later to enjoy what’s yours! Yeah, that’s it!”

What the hell does she mean by that?!

“I wanna hear you say it,” Mana said with the most maidenly look I’d ever seen on her.

Darn it. She truly is beautiful.

A beautiful, ethereal beauty who was a complete girl failure.

That was exactly why I—

“Okay then.” I took a deep breath, and spoke the words that had been stirring my heart for a while. “I love you, Mana.”

“There you go. Eh-eh-eh.”

She shot me the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen in my life.

“I love you too, Ju.”