Date Preparations.

As planned, 6 members of the men’s swimming club met at the center mall on Saturday at noon. Between us you could find myself, Tsuji, the captain of the club and three other guys with whom I have rarely spoken, so their names are unknown to me.

“Well, we have approximately three hours to do our research, then we shall meet with the other two groups to compare our results and come up with a plan for your actual date tomorrow.” Said the club's captain.

Indeed, 20 members of the club were keen to help with this request, including our teacher; 8 of them went to another mall that is north from the one we are in, and the other 6 visited a neighborhood well know in our city for its ‘romantic attractions’ which is a way to say that there are a lot of cafes and date spots.

"So, without further ado, let's start this."

"Yes!" Replied the other 4 guys energetically.

Me? I was still thinking this wasn't a good idea. So I wasn't feeling the same energy they were.

We walked towards the cinema looking for any couple we could find to analyze how they behave during their dates. We found some who were about to go eating at a restaurant.

"I wonder if they got special menus for couples." Said the girl, letting out a little laugh as she finished.

"I'm sure they will, but nothing in that menu will be as sweet as you are." Answer her boyfriend.

In my opinion that was rather pathetic, but hey, who am I to judge?

However, one of the guys I was with started taking notes about what he just said.

"I got it, don't worry." He told me once he noticed I was wondering what he was doing.

Actually, there is plenty for me to worry about what he was doing, not only it's a violation of someone's privacy, but also I'm sure Agatta would never even wonder if any restaurant had a 'menu for couples' . We have eaten out several times and we have never asked for anything like that. But then it clicked again, this was not going to be anything like that. It was going to be a date with her, so it needed to be different.

So I lifted my thumb and thanked him for what he did. Surely there was something I can learn from it.

Then we stumbled across another pair eating ice cream on the food stands. They apparently believed the other was stupid and unable to eat by themselves, so each one was feeding the other from their cones. What was more weird about it was that it was different flavors, chocolate and vanilla, which made me plant two scenarios in my head: one, they buy them that way knowing they were going to feed them to each other; or two, whoever started this idea is trying to be a pain by giving the other person the flavor they specifically didn't order, which is superb evil if that is the case.

But, to my surprise, the guys I came with were all taking notes of it as if everything that I just thought was pointless. Then they lifted their thumbs when they were done, I also lifted mine, but with a lot less intensity than theirs.

Finally, we got to the movie theater, the place was nice, actually nicer than I expected it to be. All kinds of couples were in line deciding what movie they were going to watch as if the decision wasn’t obvious. The movies showing were 5: The curse of the broken, Over the Sun for You, Gandum: Aerial, Slow and Steady and Hitori the Pop, so it was obvious that the second one was going to be the one with more couples on it. It was all set then, we were going to buy 6 tickets for that movie and then take more notes on how they behave inside the theater. Or so I thought.

“Oh my god!” Said one of the guys I came with. “I completely forgot that Gandum was already in cinemas! Guys, we have to see this one, it’s amazing!”

"Yeah, I've been wanting to see it but I didn't have any chance." Replied another one. "Let's watch that!"

Suddenly, they were all wanting to see an Action Anime movie instead of a Romantic one, and I get it, I like Gandum as much as the next person, but that wasn't the plan for today, we are supposed to learn how couples behave during dates, so it is more likely that we found couples watching romantic films rather than any other ones.

"Wait…" Said the club's captain, who previously showed interest in watching Gandum as well. "That's not why we are here. We need to pick another movie or it won't make sense."

The mood suddenly made a full 180, it was clear that what he was saying was true, and it didn't matter how much all of us wanted to see Gandum, that wasn't what we were supposed to do today.

"Well…" I intervened. "We can wait for a while and… if we see a couple getting tickets for the Gandum movie we can also get some tickets for it. After all, every couple is different, there is a chance some of them would like to see that movie as well."

"But we are supposed to…" Tried to replicate Tsuji. However, I didn't let him finish his sentence.

"It's ok, we will also check how they behave, we'll get it done."

"You are right!" Replied the guy who first suggested to watch that movie. "It's also good to analyze all kinds of people, not just regular couples that just watch regular movies!"

"Okay then, we'll wait for ten minutes and if a couple does get tickets for Gandum then we also will."

"Understood." We all replied.

Not even five minutes passed when a mid-20's couple entered the cinema and the guy asked:

"What movie would you like to watch dear?"

"Let's watch Gandum!" Replied the girl.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you got me into that anime, so I know you probably want to see it too. Let's check it out!"

Those words came like a glass of water on a hot sunny day to our group, so we went in line for the tickets right behind them, thanking God for allowing us to watch the movie we all wanted to see.

So, did we pay attention to the couple I just told you about to see how they behave during the movie? Absolutely not. There is only one way to enjoy a movie and that is paying full attention to it, and trust me when I say that I enjoyed this one a lot. Not only I did so, my companions were all on the same page as I, so much so that when it finished we all came out of the cinema speaking about how great it was and praising the Gandum series for going on for so long and still being great.

"Is anybody else hungry?" Asked the captain suddenly.

"Well, I was trying not to think much about it, but now that you mentioned it, yeah, I'm indeed hungry." Replied Tsuji.

"Let's go grab something." I told them. "I'm starving here."

"Ditto." Replied another guy.

And so we did. By this point none of us were doing research on the couples we saw, it just became a hang out with friends, we were talking about everything and at the same time about absolutely nothing, just having a good time with some friends. However, when we were eating in the stands, one of the guys looked kind of worried, he wasn't exactly nervous, but it seemed as if something was bothering him.

"Are you okay?" I asked him when I noticed this.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, thanks. Everything is fine." He replied just yo make me feel better. But it was clear that not everything was fine for him.

He was looking around trying to find out something, or perhaps someone, but he was being very cautious to not make it look obvious.

"What should we do now?" Asked the captain once we all finished eating.

"You guys want to check out the new manga?" Replied one of the other guys. "I want to buy myself a new copy of 'She Reads me Like a Book.' "

"Sure, let's go check it." I replied.

We left the food stands and headed over to a book store we went by earlier. We were once more just speaking about nonsensical stuff, but every now and then I was looking back to check on the guy that seemed bothered by something at the food stands to see if everything was okay with him. But things didn't improve in the least for him, he was still relentlessly looking for something, he was walking with our group but he was behind us by a step or two, looking in every direction plenty of times. But before I could point it out and ask him again about what was bothering him he seemed to reach a conclusion and told us about it.

"Guys…" He spoke to us quietly to ensure only us heard what he was saying. "We need to be careful. They are preying on him."

What he said catched all of us by surprise, so all of us stopped walking, we couldn’t help but fear what he was saying. We had thousands of questions we wanted to make, but none of them came out of our mouths, finally, someone asked:

“Who is preying on who?”

“They.” He simply said and then he looked to his right.

There was a group of women in the entrance of a store, about 4 of them. They were looking in our direction, their eyes indeed gave away the fact that they were hungry but not hungry for food, those were the same eyes that Sume had the first time I met her and her friends. So it was clear to me what they wanted.

“And they are everywhere…” Continued the guy who alerted us.

Indeed. We looked into different directions and in all of them were women with the same gaze. A cold feeling went down my spine making me shiver. It was clear that we weren’t going to get out this one so easy.

“They don't want all of us. They are just looking for you, master.” Said Tsuji.

“Indeed.” Confirmed the captain.

Dear Mother of God. What am I going to do now? Why just me? What do I have that they all seem so desperate to get from me?

Then I remembered it. That stream. Those merely 5 seconds were the cause of all of this. Of course that many people saw it live, but after it there must have been many people who also saw it, even more people than the ones who watched it live. And that is causing all this trouble now for me, how on earth am I going to get out of this one?

“Worry not, Okichi-kun.” Said the guy who alerted us of the upcoming storm. “We’ll keep you safe, I guarantee you that or my name is not Bo Gyo!”

“He’s right, master.” Replied Tsuji. “Is because of us that you are in this predicament, so it’s our responsibility to get you out of it safe and sound!”

I felt better, but at the same time I knew it was impossible to achieve such a feat, so I asked them:

“How? How are you going to do that? It’s impossible for you to take on all those women and prevent them from achieving their goal!”

“Is not.” Replied Gyo. “We just need to create a Virginity Shield around you.”

“What is that?” I asked.

“Simple. We just need to talk about nerdy stuff and things that would turn every woman down, so that way, when they get close they will surely be repealed by it.”

“Do you think that will work?”

“Do we have any other options?”

It was true, it wasn’t time for me to ask about the effectiveness of this plan, it was do or die time. So with what little courage I manage to find in myself I replied:

“Okay. Let’s do it then!”

They all formed up on me, we continued our walk, this time heading outside the mall. I was walking in the middle and all the other guys were around me forming a pentagon shape. That was plenty of a shield, now it was time to add the virginity to it to make it work.

“Isn’t Venus-chan the best girl in all Gandum series?” Gyo asked. He knew that was a question that women hate. Or some of them at least.

“She surely is! I want to buy her body pillow.” I replied confidently, since I knew that is a statement that most women won’t like to hear. It was my best try to activate the Virginity Shield.

And it worked. The four women we saw at the entrance of the store were approaching us, but after I said that they stopped and didn’t follow us any longer. We all were aware of this occurrence, so we kept the conversation on those rails.

We talked about some other waifus, from all series; we named the most ecchi anime we could remember and each of us admitted proudly to have watched it. The crowd of women we saw was gradually disappearing, and suddenly our odyssey to the exit door was almost complete without any inconvenience.

Almost.

We were so focused in our conversation that we didn’t notice a group of girls walking towards us in a corner, so we got a little tangled with our formation and I managed to bump into one of them and make her fall to the ground.

“I’m sorry.” I said as I approached her to help her get up. “Are you ok-”

But I didn’t finish my sentence because what I saw startled me. I knew exactly who this girl was, and I never expected to see her there.

“Agatta?” I asked her to confirm her identity.

Writers Note: Hey, so glad to be back again. I’m sorry that the new chapter took too long to come out. My internet has been nonexistent all this week and I couldn’t get too much work done on my phone as I’m not used to working on it. That and last week I had tests, so I couldn’t help but dedicate myself to study during it. Sorry once again and I will publish updates more regularly now, so thank you for your patience.

Yours truly:

DAVH NMX