Chapter 57: Accidental Study Date
It was almost time for Arata's study session with Yogi and Yuki. Or more accurately, about 15 minutes beforehand. However, he wasn't home at the moment. Instead, he just had to make sure he was able to grab the new limited edition posters of 'Mad Love'. Thanks to the shop owner, he was also able to get a new figurine of their leading couple.
On his way back home, Arata messaged his online friend, showing off his new finds. It certainly made them jealous from the sound of their response.
"I'm sorry, but I'll be busy so I can't chat that much." Was the next message that he received from them.
"No big deal, so am I." He replied to them. There was still some time before the two should be at his house, so he could take care of some stuff. Or so he thought.
"Hey mom, I'm home." He walked in the front door. While he was getting his shoes off, his mom had something to tell him.
"Oh, actually, your study buddy just came in." She told him. "I told them you'd be back soon and just to wait in the other room." His mother didn't think that he should keep his otaku hobby to himself. Mostly so he'd make more friends, but she respected that he wanted it to stay secret.
"Buddy?" He noticed the word choice. "Aren't both Yogi and his cousin here?"
"Oh right, well you see that boy couldn't make it. I believe his cousin said that something came up." If Yogi wasn't here, then that meant… "But that girl though, she's really cute."
"Mom, she's my friend's cousin." He had no time for teasing at the moment.
"Uh? You don't know?"
"Know what?" He asked, confused as to why his mom was bewildered.
"Never mind… If you don't figure it out yourself, then there's no point in me saying it." Arata was getting pretty irritated with these vague statements from the adults in his life. He couldn't tell if it was because of them trying to teach him something, or just because they were pulling a joke on him.
"Whatever, I should make sure I don't keep them waiting." He headed up the stairs. It was odd thinking that it was just Yuki here. This would be the first time he had been in a room with just a girl other than Erina. One that he hardly knew for that matter, so this was going to be an interesting experience.
First, he needed to stop by his room. So that he could drop off the treasures he had collected. When Arata opened his door, what he saw made him drop everything he was holding."
"Ah!" Yuki was standing in the middle of the room. She was holding onto his prized figurine, his appearance frightened her causing her to drop it to the floor.
"O-oh no. I'm so sorry." She apologized profusely, immediately picking it up from the ground. "I didn't mean to do that."
"W-what are you doing in here?" He was certain that his mom sent her to the right room. "This isn't the study room."
"I wasn't sure. I mean, I went there, but it looked like a girl's room." She told him. "So I thought I went to the wrong one, then I came in here and saw all this." She was mesmerized by the things in his room.
"I, uh, just didn't want people in my room." He was flustered. All this time of trying to keep his secret, down the drain. "Please, don't tell anyone about this. Okay?" He begged her.
"I-I wasn't planning to." She responded in fear. "I just never thought you were the type to like this stuff." Arata wanted to cry, this random girl just figured out his secret. And all because she thought she was in the wrong room. The feeling of being judged harshly was falling onto him.
"Come on, let's just get to studying." Arata wanted out of this awkward moment as fast as possible. He had never wanted to not be living more at any other point in his life.
She got out her homework at his command. Looking at the way she was acting, she clearly felt bad about stumbling in here. So he was confident that his secret was still safe.
With how much papers she took out, he could tell that she was drowning in her coursework. When Yogi said she needed help, he wasn't kidding. Though he might've been underselling it, if anything.
"We should start with math." He told her, it was his best subject. So they should've been able to get that out of the way quickly. However, he was wrong. Since he believed that the best way of teaching it was to make sure they did their own calculations. She was considerably slow at doing so, even at the adding and subtracting parts.
"I'm sorry." She apologized to him again. "I know that I'm making you wait a lot."
"It's no big deal." He told her. Arata understood that it was better to grasp the material than to rush through it. "Just take your time." While he may have preferred reading some manga over watching over her, he made a promise. So he was going to follow through with it.
Eventually, she was finished with all her math. With all the time they spent, a break was in order.
"Do you have any tea?" She asked him, feeling the thirst in her throat.
"Yeah, I can brew some." He answered. "Just wait here." He left her alone in his room. Exiting out of the door, he ran into his mom.
"Arata? Isn't this your room?" She asked him, not understanding he was coming from there.
"Mom… She found out." He told her, feeling down about that fact.
"What? But I'm sure that I sent her to the right room."
"Well she got confused, you should've done a better job." He lashed out for a moment, before realizing his error. "I-I'm sorry mom. I didn't mean it like that."
"I'm not mad, but please. Don't you think that you should be more honest about your hobby? I think it's a shame to hide what you like."
"Mom, trust me. The way people like me get treated at school. It's some of the saddest stuff I've ever seen." For someone that might be more popular, it would be quite a fall from grace. For him, someone that's wanted to be left alone for such a long time. That would certainly drive a wrench through that plan, even if he wasn't like that anymore.
Arata headed down to the kitchen, and got to work getting some tea ready for the two of them. Unlike Erina, he was glad that she wasn't being mean to him about his things. While waiting, he got a message on his phone. It was his online friend again.
"I'm in this boy's room right now. And I think I really messed up…" Was what he got. It made him sad to hear that from them.
"That sucks. What happened?" He asked.
"You see, I didn't mean to go to his room… He wanted to keep it a secret, but he's a huge otaku too!" They answered him. "Now I think he's mad at me." They added an emoticon that showed a squinting face feeling bad about something.
"Then why don't you tell him you're one too?" He understood how that boy felt at the moment. At least he'd feel a little better if Yuki was into this stuff too.
"You know that I don't want people finding out I'm an otaku. Please help me!" He sighed, even though he understood the reason. This seemed like a good time to reveal the truth.
"Then just act like you're interested. And pretend you don't know any of the stuff." The tea was done brewing, so he had to return to his responsibility. "Sorry, I gotta go. Good luck with that" He hoped that what he said was good enough, but there was no time to make sure that things worked out for them.
Arata returned back to Yuki, with the tea set in hand. She seemed uncomfortable, as if she was preparing to do something. He tried not to think too much with it, as he placed down the cups for them.
"K-Kashimura." She stuttered. "What's in those bags?" She pointed over to the stuff he had just brought. Her hand shaking while doing so.
"That? Oh well, it's just some posters." He didn't really want to talk about his hobby with some stranger, so he was getting nervous. "And another figurine."
"Could… Could I see it?" She slowly asked.
"Um… Okay." He allowed it, since she was already aware. Though that didn't make him feel that much better. There was also the fact that some of these were on the risque side.
He handed her one of them, unrolling it so that she could see what the contents were. He avoided the more fan service type ones, settling on the most modest he had.
"Who's this?" The image was of a girl with beautiful light blue hair, enjoying some ice cream.
"This? Oh, well she's a character from a manga I'm reading." He explained to her that this girl was a shy girl that mainly stayed in the background. However, her life changed when she ran into the main character during the school's sports day. "It's one of those harem stories, so I'm sure you probably think I'm one of those losers that watch trashy anime." He insulted himself.
"Right…" She meekly said. "I mean, I don't think you're a loser." She immediately retracted her statement. "And I'm sure those stories are still entertaining." Those words were empty to him. He was sure that she was just trying to be nice to him because he was helping her with homework.
"It's fine, you don't have to like it." He responded to her. "It's not really for everyone anyway." Thinking about what his mom said, he knew that she was right that it was a shame to hide his hobby. It would've been nice to have more people to enjoy this stuff with him.
"I'm sorry." He was getting used to hearing her say those words now. "Um, like I said before. I won't tell anyone about this, so you don't have to worry." Before she could continue, her phone rang. It was time for her to go back home. "Oh, I didn't realize how long it's been." She hastily gathered her things. "I'm sorry, but I need to get going."
"Huh… Too bad we couldn't get to any other subjects." He commented. Noting that only math was done, which apparently took all their time. "I'll probably talk with Yogi, so that we can set another study session."
"Right." She gave a bow to him. "I would be happy if you could keep tutoring me."
"I'm fine with that." He replied. "But, maybe we can do it at your house?"
"N-no! Um, we can go to Yogi's instead." He was surprised at her sudden refusal. Though he chalked it up to not wanting him, a boy, in her room. Even if her cousin was also going to be there.
Arata walked Yuki down to the door, so that they could bid farewell. This had been a pretty unfortunate day for him, and he just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
"I'll see you tomorrow." He told her.
"Right… Have a good night." She left and he watched her disappear around the corner. Right at the moment she left his view, his phone sounded a notification.
"I'm so sad… I really screwed things up pretty badly." He was surprised to hear that.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Arata returned back to his room to continue this conversation. "Did you take my advice?"
"I did… But when he tried showing me some things. I accidentally insulted his taste in manga." That did sound like a pretty bad mistake to him. Hopefully that boy was of the forgiving type. "It's too bad, because he's reading 'Mad Love' too."
"Really?" Whoever this person was, they had good taste. Arata was jealous of his friend for meeting this person. Even if they were bungling up their interactions.
"Yeah, and he's got those limited edition posters too! Plus he's got the figurine with the couple. I'm so jealous." This message was tail marked with the table flip emoticon.
"That's so cool! You already know I just got that stuff too." Arata started to smile. Even if his study session with Yuki went poorly. At least talking with his otaku friend made him feel better about the day. "I hope I can meet someone like that..."
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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