I Was a Loner Who Tried Finding an Otaku Friend on a Matching App and Ended Up Matching with the Number-One Beauty Who Won the University Miss Contest

Chapter 29: Miss Con Queen and the Flirty Misunderstanding Skit

Over the weekend, Yui and I decided to go check out the illustrator Umino Umino Uminokaiya-sensei’s exhibition happening in Harajuku.

Even during my shift on the day we made those plans, my head was completely full of it.

I love that illustrator so much, and there wasn’t a single reason to say no, so I just said okay right there on the spot. But when I actually thought about it… going out just the two of us, a guy and a girl, this is literally the first time in my whole life.

I mean, this is the first time I’ve even had proper otaku friends, and I’ve never gone to one of those kinds of events with anyone before.

Yui and I have gotten pretty comfortable talking with each other by now, so maybe I’m the weird one for overthinking it… but somehow, it just doesn’t feel like our usual vibe.

It’s kinda… like a date or something.

A date with Yui… a date…

“Heyyy, Akito-kun? Your hands stopped moving, y’know.”

“Eh—ah, sorry!”

I was spacing out while putting returned DVDs back on the shelf, and Yui ended up calling me out on it.

Getting scolded by my own junior at work… what the hell am I even doing!

“Hehe, totally zoning out. Were you maybe thinking about me, Akito-kun~?”

“Of course I was!”

“Eh……!”

Oh crap!

I got all irritated and accidentally shouted it super loud!

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to raise my voice like that—”

“No no no no no, that’s not the part we’re focusing on right now, is it!?”

“Huh?”

Not the part? What does that even…

“Akito-kun, you were thinking about me!!?? And you said ‘of course’!?? Eh, why!? Is it lust!?”

“W-Wait, don’t yell ‘lust’ and stuff so loud like that!”

“You’re the one who yelled first!”

Yui looked way too hyped up. Her cheeks puffed out all round and pouty, and even through her apron you could clearly see her huge chest bouncing up and down like crazy as she got mad at me.

This is bad, this is really bad—her boobs have never bounced this wildly before.

“No, um, actually I’ve just been thinking about a bunch of stuff for our weekend date—”

“DATEEE!?”

Yui looked like she was about to topple backward from shock.

“Listen, Akito-kun. Saying stuff like ‘I was thinking about you’ and ‘of course’ and throwing around the word ‘date’… no matter how you look at it, you’re talking about me—”

“S-Sorry, Yui. I know I shouldn’t be thinking about other stuff during work!”

“No, that’s not what I mean!! I mean yeah that’s part of it too, but right now that’s not the point!!”

Yui’s face turned bright red as she panicked.

She’s been acting super flustered and weird this whole time…

“I was finally gonna tease you about it… and then you just… ugh. So you were really looking forward to it, huh…”

“Huh? Looking forward to what?”

“Nothing! Just focus on work already!”

Yui said it kinda angrily, then suddenly headbutted my shoulder.

What… what is up with her today?

She seemed really thrown off and had zero chill, but then she suddenly switched like that?

I spent the rest of the week feeling all confused and moody, but somehow managed to get through uni and my shifts without any major screw-ups, and finally the weekend arrived.

—

Chapter 30: The Miss Contest Queen Has a Praise Addiction

The day of my date with Amane-san finally arrived, so I headed over to the meeting spot in front of Harajuku Station.

I got so nervous that I showed up thirty minutes early…

I looked up outfits online and put together something decent, I’ve got the tickets, everything should be fine.

Come on, it’s just our first time going out together—why am I this nervous? The other person is *that* Amane-san, y’know.

I tried telling myself that to calm down, but it didn’t really help much.

Even if Amane-san’s personality is kinda this teasing big-sister monster on the inside, on the outside she’s an overwhelmingly beautiful girl even by university standards—seriously at the level where entertainment agencies send her offers.

If I’m gonna walk next to her without looking weird, I’ve gotta stand tall with my back straight and act confident.

So yeah, I spent the next thirty minutes waiting while super tense.

Even when the meeting time came, there was still no sign of Amane-san at the station entrance, so I just kept waiting.

At school she always pops up outta nowhere like *pyoi*, but today she’s actually late…

“…No way… what if something happened to Amane-san?”

A different kind of sweat—cold sweat—started seeping out compared to the nervous sweat from earlier.

Right when I started genuinely worrying, though—

“Ah— sorry sorry, Akito-kun!”

The second I was making a serious face, Amane-san came jogging out from the ticket gates.

Her chest bounced so dramatically up and down that my eyes were doing nonstop vertical tracking—I’m definitely never admitting that out loud.

Today Amane-san had a small beret on her head, a white blouse with a light-blue cardigan over it, a navy flared skirt, and pure-white sneakers that gave off this super clean yet casual vibe.

“Sorry. Some entertainment scouts at the station suddenly handed me their business cards.”

She fanned out the cards in one hand like she was showing off a hand of trading cards.

Whoa, actual entertainment scout business cards!?

Those things really exist…

“Well, the kind that suddenly shove cards at you—unless it’s a really famous agency, nine times out of ten they’re just trying to lure you in so they can charge you for lessons later. So they’re usually not a big deal.”

“That is *so* the line of someone who’s used to this! You’re super cool, Amane-san!”

“E-ehehe… you think so〜?”

Amane-san started wiggling around happily.

Okay yeah, maybe I take back the “cool” part.

“More importantly, you look really cute today. Your outfit, I mean.”

“Eh… r-really? C-come on, saying it so straight like that doesn’t sound like you at all, Akito-kun〜”

This time she gave a shy little embarrassed smile, but then kinda muttered under her breath like she was trying to hold the smile back.

Huh, this is kinda fun. Maybe I’ll praise her a bit more.

“You look cool too, Akito-kun?”

“N-no need for flattery, seriously. I’m nothing special.”

“Okay! My turn to get praised is over, so now it’s Akito-kun’s turn to praise me again, right?”

Wait… did she just compliment me right now… just so I’d compliment her back!?