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 3: The Match Succeeded, But a Shocking Truth Was Waiting

I started using a matching app because I wanted to make friends who share the same hobbies, but almost no one who likes light novels was around, and I was already feeling pretty hopeless about it.

Then, the notification that arrived on my phone was the completely unexpected “OK”.

What’s more, the person who pressed OK for me was a user who uses “watashi” as their first-person pronoun.

“‘Watashi’… that means… a girl!?”

The moment I thought that, my cheeks suddenly felt burning hot.

N-no, wait wait wait wait! Calm down!

This is just a matching app after all.

Of course working adults use it too.

And among working adults, even men commonly use “watashi” as their first-person pronoun, so maybe it’s just a habit left over from that.

But… the username is “amayuuu♡” with a heart symbol attached… what’s up with that?

“More importantly, I can just check the profile of that account and be done with it!”

I had been so shocked that my brain basically shut down, but once I calmed down a little, I opened the app first thing.

“The username is amayuuu♡, age 20, account created on… wait, yesterday!?”

Just like me, it’s a brand-new account.

Maybe, just like me, someone got pressured by a friend because of a campaign or something?

“Then… what about gender?”

The instant I looked at the gender field——my heart felt like it leaped out of my chest.

“Female…”

This matching app does strict identity verification, so unless someone went through some seriously shady method, it should be impossible to fake gender.

For someone like me who has never once been shown interest by a girl, the day would actually come when a girl shows interest in me because of my light novel hobby…

“No, don’t get full of yourself. She only pressed OK because it’s FRIEND mode! Don’t start thinking weird things, me…”

Right. Even though it’s called a matching app, the purpose of this one is strictly to find friends who share the same hobbies—it’s FRIEND mode.

I need to throw away, at least for now, that lonely gloomy guy habit of thinking “maybe there’s a chance” the moment someone of the opposite sex talks to me.

“Even with a half-hearted profile like mine, I still got an OK… does that mean there are seriously almost no people who like light novels?”

Thinking that made me feel a bit depressed… but anyway, for now I should just try connecting with this person.

It’s just to become friends, okay? Don’t get any strange ideas, me.

I quickly returned the OK, and right away the screen showed “Matched” and took me straight into the chat room with her.

“This feels kinda nerve-wracking… it’s my first time chatting with a total stranger.”

When I typed “Nice to meet you”, it was marked as read almost instantly, and the reply came back: “Good evening! Nice to meet you〜”

“Can I call you Kayama-san?”

“Yes, that’s fine. What should I call you, amayuuu-san?”

“Ama ne is fine!”

Amane-san, huh.

It sounds like a first name… is it her real name maybe?

“I actually just started this app today, Amane-san, you started around yesterday too, right? It was written in your profile.”

“Yes! A friend said she wanted the campaign money lol. And I just happened to be looking for friends to talk about light novels with, so I started too!”

“Actually I’m in exactly the same situation.”

“Really?! What a coincidence!”

I see. So just like me, she was also a user who got pushed into it because of the campaign.

“You like light novels, right Kayama-san? I saw ‘light novels’ in the hobbies section and got so happy that I sent an OK with a comment.”

“I really love light novels. Do you like them too, Amane-san?”

“I’m super super into them! I’ve loved them since high school. The writing isn’t stiff so it’s easy to read, and there are so many works I like.”

Favorite works… huh.

Even when people like the same thing—light novels—the specific tastes can actually be a pretty big hurdle.

Light novels have such a wide range of freedom in genre that they go from fantasy to school rom-coms and everything in between, so even among fellow fans, differences in preferred genres can create huge gaps in values.

Since Amane-san seems to be a girl, she probably likes the female-targeted ones—engagement annulment stories, villainess stories, that sort of thing, right?

If that’s the case, we’re already facing a massive wall.

Even though I love light novels, the truth is I’ve barely read any female-oriented ones.

I did once read a super viral engagement annulment web novel that got turned into a light novel, but after that I never really got into them.

“By the way, Amane-san, which works do you like in light novels?”

I asked her, steeling myself.

If I don’t ask this, we might not even find common topics, so I figured I should get it clear right away.

“The works I like are—”

If she only likes female-targeted stories, then it’s basically confirmed we won’t match.

It’d be a shame, but in that case I’ll just honestly tell her so and we can unmatch—

“The story about how after I got reincarnated in another world as a girl, my breast milk turned out to be the highest-grade potion ‘Elixir’!”

…………Huh???

An absolutely insane title flew out at me, and I just froze in front of my phone, speechless.