A very cold, rainy evening. Perfect weather for dramatic anime confessions , or in my case, soggy regrets.
I stepped outside my dormitory, umbrella in one hand, a frown planted firmly on my face. Ughh, why would rain even fall now? And why, in the name of hell, would they set the tutorial at this time? Honestly.
Muttering my complaints into the drizzle, I navigated the puddles with the solemn dignity of a war veteran. Until I saw her.
She was walking fast under the rain, black hair sticking to her face, no umbrella in sight. My Otaku brain went ping, classic setup: boy meets girl, boy shields girl, girl blushes,both fall in love, credits roll, insert catchy J-pop ending.
My heart did that stupid thing where it forgot we were supposed to be socially awkward. I checked my breath (tomtom, thank you very much), fixed my posture, and started walking toward her with what I imagined were confident, shounen-protagonist strides.
Okay, Kairo, just do it. Hold the umbrella over her head, she looks up, slow-motion raindrops, shared warmth, maybe she says "Arigatou"...
Just as I raised my umbrella to do the move, she suddenly snapped open her own umbrella. And it clanged right into mine.
Startled, she turned to look at me with big, confused eyes.
My brain? Gone. My mouth? Traitor.
"U-uh... t-this must be... fate's collision route...?" I stammered, quoting some half-remembered anime line.
She blinked. Twice.
Abort mission, Kairo. Abort!!!!. I hurriedly apologized.
Trying to look nonchalant, I turned to walk away. Only to realise I was heading straight back to my dorm. Smooth. Real smooth, I said to myself.
Out of desperate embarrassment, I pulled out my phone, pretended to check something very important, then spun around like oh right, tutorial class, of course.
But when I looked back, she'd already walked off into the rain, her umbrella bobbing away like nothing happened.
As I started walking toward my faculty for the tutorial, I tried to remember her face...
That's when it hit me.
I didn't even see her face properly.
Why? Because I didn't have my glasses on.
I stopped dead in the rain, eyes wide.. then let out a frustrated yell that startled three passersby.
"Goddess Esdeath, why have you forsaken thee!!!"
They all turned, staring at me like I'd lost my last functioning neuron.
Feeling the heat of embarrassment creep up my neck, I quickly scolded myself. Kairos, keep the personality in check when you're in public, for the love of all waifus...
But tonight really was the perfect storm of unfortunate.
First, I lost my 50/50 in Genshin. Didn't get Skirk or Furina ... my goddesses.
Then I spun for Grim Ending in cod mobile, wasted 1120 CP, and still didn't get it.
And now this.
I looked up at the sky, rain mixing with what might've been tears and mumbled a half-sincere prayer to the goddess of luck to look my way again.
Just then, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
Unknown number. One message.
"You dropped this, weird umbrella boy."
I froze, thumb hovering over the screen, heart doing the stupid thing again.
Who... was she?..
And how'd she get my number?