After almost finishing my lunch now getting ready to eat my prized karaage, which I always eat last.
Suddenly, I heard something drip.
Weird. It's not the rainy season, and there are no leaky pipes nearby for something to drip.
I turn around only to find her staring at me, her eyes locked on my karaage, and a thin string of drool trickles from the corner of her mouth like a hungry cat.
I pick my karaage and slowly move it towards my mouth, and show her gets sadder and sadder the closer it comes to my mouth.
I stopped just before taking a bite, sighing. After a moment of internal debate, I broke off a piece and held it out to her like I was feeding a cat.
She hesitates for only a second — then leans forward and quickly takes a bite, her eyes lighting up just a little.
She looks quite cute when happy like that.
After finishing our lunch, we went to class together.
I still don't know her name, but whatever, it's not like I won't get the opportunity to learn her name, right?
The rest of the day was just nothing special at all.
I guess I made a silent friend today.... I think?
Once classes ended, I bolted out the door.
No way I was staying a second longer than needed in that hellhole.
Back home, I returned to my real job—investing in companies that hadn't hit big yet and grabbing as many shares as possible.
Currently, I hold stock in small-time companies like Reddit, Netflix, Amazon, and Discord.
Nothing had gone global yet, but I could already see the storm coming.
So I am sure I will see big returns from next year, so no need to be impatient.
My current project was the Pokémon game launch, as no Pokémon franchise exists in this version of Earth.
Currently, I have finished my first Pokémon game.
It was just a normal Pokémon FireRed, but I am sure of its success, as this world doesn't have Pokémon, everyone will soon be addicted to it.
I also made some games as well like Clash of Clans, Subway Surfers, Temple Run, Fortnite, Minecraft, and a few more.
They will soon go viral as they are already popular enough at the country level.
I then got to publish Pokémon FireRed on my website, and it was done.
…
Few Days Later
…
Well, nothing special happened all this time.
If I have to tell major things that happened, Pokémon FireRed was really becoming very popular easily.
I already have more than 10,000 purchases.
If you want to know what happened in school all this time, then again, nothing exciting happened.
I was probably socially rejected here as well, as no one talks to me or ignores me.
Well, it's a win-win for me.
Now I don't have to be awkward with conversations that I don't want and maintain fake friendships here and there.
As for the drooling cat-girl from before? Turns out her name was Koneko Toujou.
She has become our class's mascot.
Everyone is fawning over her like she is an idol.
From the looks of it, she loves snacks.
She had a chill vibe, always replied in short, blunt answers, and seemed like the type who lived at her own pace.
We always eat together at lunch, but I am pretty sure it's just more of she likes that place to eat, and I am the one who just happened to sit next to that place, and nothing more.
Honestly, I don't care, but if I go no care when I will get customization of the whole multiverse, having it filled with girls who adore me and love me the most plan will crash cause I have the don't care ideology.
So I decided to brave it out, as one day at lunch, I asked her if she wanna hang out on the weekend.
"Hey, Koneko, wanna hang out this weekend? There's a new event going on. They're giving discounts to couples at this restaurant."
I clarified before she could misunderstand.
"Don't get the wrong idea—we'll just pretend to be a couple. Huge discount on food. That's all."
"So do you wanna join me or not?"
Well, my plan is simple: play pretend couples by bribing her with food.
Her personality looks chill enough as long as it's not a real couple thing, and she can get good food; she doesn't have a reason to deny it.
Sure enough, she replied.
"Fine. But you will be paying."
I fired back without missing a beat.
"Nope. Otherwise, it'll seem like we're real couples. This is just pretend play, remember? We each pay for our own."
I said, believing myself to be in the completely correct position.
After all, why pay when you are not my girl?
I'm already giving you access to discounted food.
Be grateful, girl, don't be so arrogant.
She looked visibly stunned at my refusal, as she never thought that any boy would refuse her cause we would look like real couples, so for any boy it would be a dream come true.
Honestly, she didn't even know what to feel. Probably the first time someone flipped the pretend-couple script on her.
Be angry? For it looks like he doesn't want her to be a real couple partner?
Wasn't she supposed to be the one who complained that "this feels too much like a real date"? Had I just… flipped the script?
She sighed, then replied with a deadpan expression.
"Fine. But if you're late, I'm putting the bill in your name as late fees."
I also replied to her.
"Sure, if you're late, I will also put the bill in your name."
Well, that was the end of the day, as nothing else happened, we just decided on time and place and never talked about it again.
Soon the day for the date... I mean pretend date came.
I left two hours early.
No way I was risking being late and paying her bill.
For the occasion, I wore a white crew-neck t-shirt layered with a black overshirt, dark-wash jeans, white leather sneakers, and a small golden crescent moon pendant on a subtle chain around my neck over the tee.
The pendant was real gold—one of my little indulgences.
I hope I look good for the date.
I wasn't exactly handsome like other guys in this world, so all I could do was work on the finer details.
Still, I kept it casual so I wouldn't inconvenience her.
Even if this was just pretend play, I wanted to look like I was trying.
It would be a good habit for the future, so no problem there.
Eventually, I reached the meeting spot—with a whole hour and a half to waste.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Patreon link: patreon.com/zevionasgorath