CH ss - 11

SS 11: The Couple Thinking About Date Plans

Translated by: chocolalaEdited by: Seiryuu

Inside the cathode-ray tube television, a pair of a girl and a boy were viewing the city covered in snow. The snow falling during the night was beautiful, and utterly surreal. The CG clip from a game from quite long ago was rough, but it was an absorbing scene.

“Really, what a nice scene.” Yuzu also voiced her admiration for this prominent scene in the game.

“This was said to be an event where the MC of the game goes on a date with the character that has the highest favorability.” I also played this game for the first time, but this scene was popular so I just happened to know that.

“I see. Then, there are also other varieties of dates with other characters.”

“Seems so.”

If playing alone, I would love to explore all the others, but for Yuzu who was a beginner in RPG, that would be daunting. I’d just be content with this one round.

“Say, talking about dates, I’d like to discuss what to do on our next date.” As the scene ended, Yuzu paused her hand from playing, and changed the topic.

“Our? Why so sudden?”

“Well, we’re dating, so I’d like to do that regularly.”

""

Anyway, although we were a fake couple, I guessed there was a need to appeal to others by having dates as well.

“No problem. Is there anywhere you wanna go?” I asked her, then Yuzu answered while slightly touching her chin.

“Hmm…. How about movies?”

“Oh, that’s nice. A popular horror movie has just been released at the theatres too.”

“Denied! Other places are better after all!”

I only meant it as a light joke, but Yuzu completely rejected it with a very serious face.

“So, it’ll be somewhere like a planetarium then. If I’m not mistaken, there’s one near here. My friends told me they went there for dates.” Yuzu gave out the second suggestion, and I obediently nodded.

“I agree. I heard that the darkness in there and the narration have a good sleeping effect, I’m also looking forward to it.”

“Don’t sleep! In a dim environment, you’d be alone with your girlfriend, alright? You should have ulterior motives like taking advantage of the situation to hold hands or something! That’s the manner!”

“I would’ve never thought there would be an era where it’s the manner to have ulterior motives…”

The evolution of the era had gone beyond my imagination.

“Geez… It was my mistake to expect Yamato-kun to be romantic like a sky of stars. This time, you think of something, Yamato-kun!” Yuzu’s mood was completely ruined, she threw all the work of thinking of the date plan to me.

No choice, so I seriously got my brain moving, “Hmm… As I thought, I prefer places where we could be alone without other people disturbing us.”

“Yeah. If we happen to bump into friends midway, it’ll be a pain in the ass.”

“And also, I think it’s better if it’s somewhere we can do things we both like. So one won’t be left bored.”

“Oh! I didn’t exactly expect that much from you, but it seems you’re getting near to some good ideas!”

As I narrowed down the options with several conditions, Yuzu was excited about it; her eyes sparkled.

“Moreover, won’t it be perfect if it’s something we can work on together? Yes, it’ll feel like we’re deepening our bonds.”

“Yeah, yeah! Then, what is that plan actually in detail?”

Yuzu bent forward in anticipation, so I put on airs for a while before declaring it to Yuzu.

""

“Fitting all these criteria is… playing RPG in the room!”

“Why is that! Isn’t that just returning to our routine?!”

“No, it just naturally resulted with that after narrowing it down to our preferred criteria.”

In short, our best solution was to idly spend time here playing games.

“Rejected! Come up with something out of our routine!”

“Even if you say that, there’s no date plan I could think of that fits all the criteria. Our interests are starkly different too.”

In other words, Yuzu, who sat on top of the caste, and I, who was usually a loner, had no common point whatsoever. Until we had this relationship that was born out of our circumstances, we barely even talked to each other.

“That’s true, but… despite that, I think you’re just too uncooperative, Yamato-kun. At least, you should put more effort in pondering on our date plan.” Yuzu pouted as she criticized me, so she took out her own smartphone, “Nothing will come out if we think by ourselves, so let’s search for any feasible plan on the internet.”

“Well, maybe that’s faster.” I agreed, and I peeked at her smartphone display.

However, her smartphone didn’t turn on even after a while.

“Ah… it’s out of battery. Lend me your smartphone, Yamato-kun.”

“Alright.”

Yuzu, who had many friends, probably used her phone a lot, so this situation occurred sometimes. I took out my phone. When I launched the internet browser, the game homepage that I looked at during recess opened.

“Yamato-kun, you really only play games. I’d love it if you’ll at least impart some of that passion for me.” Yuzu said with a sulking tone.

“I’ll do better… Hm?”

I happened to see an ad below the game homepage—‘8 Recommended Dating Spots for Couples!’.

“Say, isn’t this just perfect?” I showed the ad to Yuzu and her interest was hooked.

“Indeed, just perfect. What a coincidence… No, wait a moment. Yamato-kun, give me that.”

It was unknown what went through her head but she snatched my phone. And then, she keyed in some words in the search box. I glimpsed at the display from next to her, and saw she had typed ‘Shoujo manga latest volume’. I just couldn’t fathom the reason why she would search that at this time.

“Oi! You just had to find faults with me, yet what are you searching for there?”

“Hmm, there’s just something I was curious about.”

My reproach was just like a blowing breeze to her as she was looking at the site with info on the latest volume of various mangas.

“As I thought,” At that moment, she broke into a wide smile as if she had just confirmed something.

…I was washed with a sense of foreboding.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Yamato-kun, look at this. This ad.”

I looked at where her finger was pointing at: it was an ad that had no relation whatsoever with shoujo manga—‘Recommended Men’s Fashion for Dates!’.

“Anything wrong with that?”

Yuzu wore a smug face as she informed me, who was still puzzled, like she was a detective cornering a criminal.

“Yamato-kun, do you know about targeted ads? It’s a system where it uses data from the user’s browsing and search history to display ads that might be of interest.”

“…”

While in silence, I sweated profusely. Alas, even when she saw me like that, she went on with her explanation.

“In short, if someone always looks at game sites, there’ll be many ads on games, while if they always looks at shoujo manga sites, the ads will be on shoujo manga. And here, in Yamato-kun’s smartphone, there’s a lot of ads related to dates. Do you know what that implies?”

“…Who knows? To me, it looked like normal ads.”

Listening to my words in desperation, Yuzu’s mood reached her peak.

“There’s only one answer! Yamato-kun, you—who pretended to have zero interest in dates, while in the dark had searched so much info on dates—are indeed a tsundere!”

“Nghk….!” I was completely at a loss for words when she declared it straight to my face.

“Oh my, Yamato-kun, you’re really not honest. Usually, you’re like that, but this time, you’re being particularly not honest.”

Teeming with an air of a victor, Yuzu had a fully satisfied expression as she patted my head. So irritating!

“Sorry, Yamato-kun. Even though you put so much effort in the dark for this date with me, I accused you of being uncooperative. In truth, you’re overflowed with desires to go on this date much, much more than me, aren’t you?”

“You got it wrong! No, it’s nothing like you said, okay!? I only searched for a bit…”

Oh, damn! I knew I already blushed at this point.

“Well, well, let’s just assume it as you said! So I guess we don’t need to discuss our date plan anymore, do we? Yamato-kun has worked so hard on it, so as a girlfriend, I should follow the manners and leave it all to you! Yamato-kun, I’m very looking forward to it~” Yuzu said to me in a cheerful tone as if I could see a music note at the end of her sentence.

“…I’ll do my best to meet your expectations.” I virtually surrendered as there was nothing more I could do.

chocolala: Yay, Yamato-kun blushed again~ I really love this couple