Chapter 32: Sakura Airi's Massive Dilemma
"Eh? EH!"
Sakura Airi looked at Katsuragi Keima in disbelief, even turning her head fully to face him. In that instant, their eyes met. Airi hurriedly and self-consciously shifted her gaze elsewhere, her cheeks turning completely crimson.
'Katsuragi-kun... found out it was me?!
That shouldn't be possible!'
She had tried her absolute best to hide herself as usual... and there was a massive difference between her online photos and her real-world self. Yet, Keima had still recognized her?
Should she... deny it?
Airi quickly dismissed that thought. If it were anyone else, she would have denied it flatly without hesitation. But since it was Katsuragi Keima, she decided to be honest.
"Um... but Katsuragi-kun... how were you able to recognize me...?" Airi asked in a tiny voice.
"It's quite obvious. This person looks exactly like you, Airi," Keima stated.
"Huh?"
Airi froze. He just saw it directly? No, that can't be... But if that weren't the reason, Keima truly wouldn't have been able to recognize her.
"We look... the same?"
"Yeah. You're naturally very pretty, Sakura-san. Plus, you have that unique hair color and bright eyes, so I recognized you at a glance. Also, the ones you usually wear are plain-lens glasses, right?"
"Mm..."
Hearing Keima's words, Airi's face turned as red as a ripe apple. This was the first time she had been praised for being pretty as "Sakura Airi" rather than as "Shizuku."
'So Katsuragi-kun has actually paid attention to me before... and I don't hate the way he looks at me at all... It's completely different from how others look at me...'
Airi felt her body go weak, almost as if she were about to slide right out of her chair.
[Affection: 45%] [Affection: 48%] [Affection: 55%]
"Did I cause you some trouble, Sakura-san?"
"No, no, no, not at all!"
Airi raised her voice by a fraction of a decibel, frantically waving her hands.
"You probably don't want others to know your true identity, Sakura-san. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
"Thank you very much..."
Airi nodded slightly, and Keima shifted his gaze back to his screen. Airi bit her lip, watching him out of the corner of her eye. She opened her mouth slightly, then closed it, seemingly locked in a fierce internal struggle.
After about a minute, Airi gathered her meager courage and said, in a voice so quiet it was almost lost to the air:
"Katsuragi-kun... I read the walkthrough you wrote. It was... very well written..."
Her voice barely carried. Keima was currently focused intently on his game and didn't seem to hear her. Did he miss it?
"Thank you, Sakura-san."
"Eh?"
"Sakura-san, could it be that you're starting to get interested in AVG games too?"
Keima's head snapped back toward her with zero-frame startup.
"Eh? I... I don't really know much about that kind of thing..."
"AVG stands for Adventure Game. Text adventures are a genre of interactive narrative games where text is the primary medium, combined with multimedia elements like images and music. Players influence the plot and ending through command inputs or choices. The genre originated in 1977, and one branch combined with 'Bishoujo' elements to become..."
Keima's eyes seemed full of drive as he bombarded Airi with information. Airi listened with a dazed expression, but seeing how serious he was, she tried her best to understand his words.
"If you're going to get into them, Sakura-san, I suggest a beginner start with Tokimeki Memorial. The system is friendly and the difficulty is moderate."
"Mm, okay."
"The biggest advantage of these games is that you can play them alone. Unlike other social activities, you won't be bothered by random, inexplicable people."
Airi nodded with a bit of force. Although she had never played games, this didn't seem to contradict her personality. After all, there was no need to interact with others... If she had the chance later, she could indeed try it.
While Airi was thinking, Keima placed his handheld in front of her—not to let her play, but to explain the meaning of the various icons and text on the screen. Airi's gaze was drawn to the character art inside.
So... so pretty!
Airi loved taking selfies, and before doing so, she would always try to dress up beautifully, especially in lovely clothes. However, she had never tried a "2D character" style of dressing before. She remembered a few "visual" bloggers in the same niche as her who would dress up as anime characters.
Is it called Cosplay? Those photo sets were incredibly beautiful! Airi had wanted to take similar photos before, but she didn't know much about it, and she lacked the courage to take that step.
Perhaps... this was a chance for her to learn a little bit about it.
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Ten minutes remained before the end of the morning session. As classes concluded, students looked forward to their short lunch break. Generally, students would head to the cafeteria for lunch, rest in their dorms for a bit, and then continue with afternoon classes.
Airi watched Keima out of the corner of her eye, her mind occupied by a very important matter.
—Whether or not to invite Katsuragi Keima to lunch.
Keima had helped her quite a bit yesterday. To others, it might have been a small thing, but for Airi, the nature of it was completely different. Combined with some reasons she couldn't quite put into words, she felt it was absolutely necessary to repay him. However, having zero social experience, she had no idea how to go about it.
Throughout the lesson, Airi had been engaged in an intense mental brainstorm. During the breaks, she had used her phone to search for a mountain of related questions. Among the results, she saw that idols sometimes repay fans by sending signed photo sets...
As a gravure idol, Airi had seriously considered this. A signed photo of herself... surely, that would be considered valuable?
But Airi simply couldn't bring herself to do such a thing! Not only would going to the school print shop expose her identity, but she couldn't even imagine the act of giving her photos to someone else.
She... she would die...
Give him another gift? But school had only started a week ago; what kind of gift would be appropriate?
In the end, after a long period of searching and hesitating, Airi finally found a simple and reliable plan.
Invite him to lunch!
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