Misunderstandings happen if a couple holds hands too soon

—Watch out, we don’t want any other accident —joked Mirena when they saw a ladder next to the “Astrology” bookshelf.

—Very funny, making fun of an accident at work.

—So? This is what you wanted to show me?

—Not actu… —At that moment, that clerk appeared together with a costumer. He was describing her a book while she went through the titles one by one—. Yep, it’s here. Astrology.

Ken was able to know, thanks to a sing in her chest (don’t ask why he was seeing that), that her name was Zoe. It wasn’t an important detail, but he liked to know the name of his enemies.

Zoe was helping the costumer to find a specific book in the philosophy section, which was next to the astrology one. Due to that Ken, who usually tries to speak as low as possible so nobody hears his conversations, said out loud:

—Yes, I told you I really like astrology, didn’t I?

—Hmmm no, I don’t remember that.

—Oh, looks like you don’t pay too much attention to me…

—What? No, it’s not that… —Again, Mirena was confused with the sudden and strange behavior of Ken.

—I’m joking, maybe I didn’t tell you yet. It’s not funny? We spent so much time together and still there are a lot of things we don’t know about each other!

—Y-yeah, I guess that’s true…

—Look.

Another sudden action that made Mirena blush.

Ken stood behind her and took her from the shoulders. Then he put his face right next to hers and looked up, pointing at one specific book.

—That’s my special favorite —he said—. He’s such a great astrology author. People tends to think that astrology is bullshit, but this author manages to write about it in a very logical way. ­—Maybe at this point is a bit redundant to say it, but he was inventing everything.

However, Mirena wasn’t looking at the books at all. She was just seeing Ken’s face, so close to her, and feeling an odd dichotomy in her heart:

On one side, it was a warm feeling. An unknown but very beautiful feeling that made her hearth pump faster.

But also, there was a colder one. The sorrow of being sure that he was lying. Mirena had no idea why she knew it, but she was certain. The Ken talking about anime and videogames was totally different to that one, talking about astrology. That way, she confirmed something pretty obvious to be honest: Ken also lies to her. Not always, that’s for sure. But she had no idea about how much of the real Ken she knew, and that was kind of unnerving. She was living with a complete stranger.

Once Zoe found the book the costumer was looking for, they both left the area, presumably going to the box in order to pay. Ken took his hands out of Mirena and said:

—Well, there is something more you want to see?

—The mangas —she said.

—Oh, right. That’s why we are here, isn’t it?

Ken interpreted the answer as her wanting to leave already. Because of that, he couldn’t help but wonder if he had made something to bother her, or if there were another reason for her to want to leave.

However, that was a wrong assumption. Actually, Mirena said the mangas not because she wanted to leave, but because she wanted to see the real Ken and confirm her suspicions. But due to that ambiguous answer, Ken overthought every single actions since the first step into the bookstore and that moment. And then, just then, he realized all the embarrassing thing he had done.

After the hug and the meditations under the hot shower, Ken reached the conclusion that maybe acting more confident towards Mirena was a good idea. Of course, the handholding and the shoulder-grabbing weren’t things he would do if it weren’t for the fact that he was distracted, even after that meditation. However, they were a consequence. He was feeling more confident, and that was dangerous.

“I knew it. I knew I wouldn’t be able to act cold and distant for too long, but I never thought I would do something so embarrassing! And of course, this is the reaction. She has no idea how to tell me: ‘don’t touch me, weirdo’. Of course she couldn’t, she’s tied to me. She’s with me because I’m the only one she knows, just because of that. And she’s probably thinking that I’m going to take advantage to that fact and force her to do horrible things! Don’t worry, I’m not going to fall in the same mistake twice.”

That was his unmoving certainty, the biggest misunderstanding that will lead to some major problems in the future.

The otaku corner was decorated with a life-size cardboard figure of Mask. The 14th volume of Sekaunmei was still the most important trend. Mirena stepped in front of it, looking at Mask with a thoughtful gaze.

—In this bookshelf there are light novels, and in these two the mangas —indicated Ken—. The good thing about this bookstore is that they don’t wrap in plastic the books, so you can read them before buying. Chose the ones you like the most.

—Which ones do you like?

—The most famous are… —he started to list the best-selling mangas available in that store, using his knowledge about the medium.

“I asked for your favorites…” thought Mirena, but didn’t say. Rather, she just let him be and chose a few mangas he mentioned. After make sure that he had enough budget to buy them, they went to the box.

There, they were attended by Zoe. However, Ken didn’t care anymore. He ruined his reputation in front of Mirena just to impress a girl that probably had no idea who he was. The gamble was already lost since the beginning.

Lesson 5.

“Where is lesson 4?” you may ask.

First of all, 4 is a bad luck number. Secondly, as expected, lesson 4 was to read the mangas they bought in lesson 3. But since nothing funny occurred during that (mainly because of the tense aura between both, but also because it was just a girl reading and lying on a bed), let’s jump to the next lesson.

Tuesday was rainy, so they stayed in home watching anime and doing more reading. Mirena tried to play games again, but became frustrated fast. Thanks to that, the ambient between them lightered a bit. Not because they went over the insecurities, just because they learned how to ignore them for a while.

However, another day was unmanageable, and Ken knew it. He was scared that, due to Mirena’s fearless personality, she would confront him eventually. That woulnd’t happen though, because Mirena hates being in bad mood with someone so she easily swept under the carpet all the problems until they were impossible to ignore. But he didn’t remember that fact about her (he was a great Sekaunmei fan but, of course, unable to remember everything about it), so he made changes in the schedule to make Wednesday different. He sat Mirena in front of the laptop and reproduced something.

—What is this? —She was very confused. She was seeing an anime character with long and light blue hair, decorated with a golden tiara. She had green eyes and elf ears, and was wearing a beautiful dress in pale tones of green and light blue. It had a window in the chest zone and the sleeves were separated from the rest, and they were made with a thinner silk, making them more transparent.

She was seeing an anime character, but it wasn’t an anime at all. The background, a peaceful and lively forest, was completely static. The only thing happening on screen was that girl talking and next to a rectangle where a lot of different comments were appearing.

—With the internet, a new way of entertainment came: youtubers. Unlike the previous ways, doing videos for YouTube didn’t require too much budget. With a camera, charisma, good ideas and a good connection, it was enough. Some people showed their faces, other hided it. Between this last group, there were two kinds of youtubers: the ones not showing anything, and the ones who used an avatar. In those times, the avatar was just a PNG, a static image with predetermined facial expressions like happy, angry or tired. However, those avatars only worked to make videos, and slowly the main medium of entertainment has shifted to streaming, live broadcast of people playing videogames, reacting to videos, talking, etc.

»In 2017, appeared a new technology that was the evolution of all this. This new technology allowed to do streams showing a virtual avatar that can detect their real life movements and replicate them in that avatar. That was called Vtubing. This is what I’m showing to you. A Vtuber.

»I told you all this because I’m going to buy the tickets for the anime convention. It’s a bit early, but since Yoriyuki Yamahito is a guest you never know. Meanwhile, you can watch this. It’s one of the most niche community in an already niche community like anime, so it is a niche of a niche. If you have knowledge about Vtubers, you pretty much can’t be called a normie by nobody, even for the most hardcore and elitist otaku.

—I barely understood anything, but ok!

—I’ll come back in a few hours, ‘cause I have to do some other things. Good bye.

And he left. That last one thing he said was a lie. He didn’t had anything to do, but he was planning to lose some time walking over there or maybe visiting his mother. Anything was okay.

The only thing he feared was to sound too enthusiastic about all that Vtubers thing. He only talked so much so Mirena would take it serious and not escape out from the window and follow him. But by doing that, again exposed himself to the danger of letting his real feelings come out.

And the worst part? All that was useless.

Mirena found out that Vtuber very cute and funny, but she was not going to accept the fact that Ken was going out while she was locked there. However, she felt like it was rude to leave while someone was talking to her. Because of that, she stayed watching the stream a bit more, just until the Vtuber ended the topic she was talking about.

But right after that she started another one, and Mirena lost a lot of time. She was losing the patience.

—If I write a comment apologizing it should be fine.

“I’m sorry, I have to leave :’( but I had fun! I can’t wait to see you again” she wrote. Of course, the Vtuber couldn’t read that between the massive flood of comments, but Mirena felt her conscience clear. Then she opened the window and left the apartment.

It was too late to follow Ken, but that wasn’t necessary. He said he was going to buy the tickets, and Mirena knew where the convention was going to be held at. It took her some seconds to remember her steps of that day, the first day, and once she visualized the location of that big building, she set out on her way.