Chapter 15
“And because of that… I wanted to have her stay a day in the house, is that possible…?”
“It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s just…”
“Uh…?”
“...”
Currently, I’m in the middle of explaining things to my family and why I suddenly want an acquaintance from my elementary days to stay in our home, and well… I don’t think it’s going great…
“Jia Lin, this is the first time you asked for something like this, right? This friend of yours, she came all the way here just to find you, yes? I think it’s okay if we provide her with a place to stay?”
“There’s no problem if she stays, just make sure to take care of her yourself.”
“Well, I’m fine with it, sister. Though, she might have to use your room. There’s no other rooms in the house.”
Or not…? They surprisingly accepted it contrary to my thoughts. Well, it’s a good thing so I’m not complaining…!
“That’s fine with me, I planned that to begin with.”
“Make sure to clean your room, okay? You don’t want your friend to stay the night in a dusty room, do you? Also make sure to—”
“Yeah, I'll do that, mom, don’t worry.”
Phew, avoided a disaster…
“Hmm, okay…”
“If that’s all, I’ll go now…?”
“Well, you did ask just for that, so I guess?”
“Thanks, Xia.”
“Are you going out now?”
“Yeah, got to tell her the news. Can’t leave her out for too long.”
“That’s good, but make sure you are safe, okay?”
“No worries, mom.”
…
Well, now that’s out of the way… I suppose the only thing left to do is to tell Hui Xin the good news.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{Jia Lin}
-Good news, my family allowed it, so you can stay at my place for the night.
{Hui Xin}
-REALLY?! You’re the best, thankies senpai!!
{Jia Lin}
-Yeah… Should I come to you like we promised?
{Hui Xin}
-Yes!! You promised to show me around town!
{Jia Lin}
-Alright, coming now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow, it didn’t even take her 2 minutes to reply, I guess she must’ve been that excited. If she is looking forward to it that much, I guess I’ll comply? Though she is very hyperactive, I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. There’s a certain charm behind it.
Probably should look good for today, right? I’ll just pick out some aesthetically pleasing clothes then, and uh…
Oh yeah… probably should clean up my room first…
“This will take a while…”
Sorry, Hui Xin, it seems that I’ll be slightly late…
◈
Fortunately, I wasn’t too late and arrived somewhat on time. Cleaning up my room took a lot more time than expected but at least it wasn’t horrible enough to make me late…
As for what happened with Hui Xin, well, it’s a simple story. After meeting with her, I told her that I’d go back to my house and ask for the approval, which then we’ll meet up somewhere in the city for a hangout? At least that’s what I remember… Because of that, we exchanged contacts and all, so… that’s how it led to this, I suppose…
Now to find her somewhere around here… Ah, there she is. Pink hair really is easy to spot after all.
“Sorry, did you wait too long?”
“Ah, Jia Lin! You arrived on time, don’t worry!”
I have no clue if she said that just to be polite or if she really thinks that, but I guess it’s fine…?
“I see, thanks… What do you want to do? There isn’t really much to show around these areas, I think?”
“Hmm, I don’t know! I’ll just follow wherever you go, yeah!”
“I-I see…”
I also don’t know where to go though… It’s been a while since I came out myself, you know…
It can’t be helped, I’m technically the local here, so let’s just suck it up and try to guide her.
“W-Well, let’s go? I’ll bring you to some decent places, I think?”
“Why do you sound so unsure? Let’s go~!”
“Ah, wait, wait! Don’t drag—Uwah?!”
I’m sorry, did I mean guide? I misspoke, I meant being dragged around like a ragdoll doing whatever she found interesting… Well, this is a better role for someone like me, so I’m not complaining.
Though, it’s a bit dizzy…
…
“Hey, hey! What’s that? Let’s go see it…!”
“Y-Yeah!”
…
“This looks interesting, let’s go check it out?”
“Yeah, let’s…”
…
“Ohh!! That looks—”
“Yeah.”
….
“This—”
“Yeah.”
…
“That—”
“Yeah.”
…I think you get the point… I got dragged around a lot.
A lot.
Anyhow, in typical idiot fashion, I’ll not be talking about anything that happened, because I can. Or maybe I will, because there’s actually nothing else to talk about… Damn it…
Well, we didn’t really do much aside from just going to a bunch of places, like accessory shops, incense shops (why?), visited a funeral parlour (double why??), visited a pet shop, took a photo at a small bridge, ran away from a temple (triple why???), and… I think that’s all?
Stuff that would take forever to explain, so please bear with my barebones explanation of it, okay? Hehe, that rhymes.
Oh yeah, we wasted 2 hours of our time doing this… Hanging out with others is this draining, I never knew that too. How depressing…
Well, it would be stupid to just end it on that, and if we kept going, we might dangerously miss lunch, so…
“It’s getting slightly late, do you want to grab lunch?”
“Yeah! That’s a great idea, I was just starting to feel hungry too!! Let’s go, ikuyo~!”
What’s with the sudden Japanese… Really, I don’t understand it at all, but I guess it makes her happy? That’s fine…
“Yeah, want to grab some ramen?”
“Ermm…”
“...?”
“Senpai… I already ate a lot of ramen back in Japan… and my family even made me eat a lot of Chinese style ramen that I feel sick about eating it again…”
“Ah, my bad, didn’t think about that…”
“N-No, it’s okay! Got any other suggestions?”
“Hmm…”
I haven’t really gone out to eat anything other than ramen now that I think about it… Wow, maybe I am part of the problem, huh? Ah, there is that one other place…
Ugh, I really don’t want to go again, and this time without my sister…
Sigh, it can’t be helped, the food there is delicious, yes. That’s the only reason. I can tolerate the suffering…
“Hui Xin, want to go to a Maid Café?”
“A what?”
“Maid Café, the food there is actually surprisingly delicious.”
“They have those here too? Crazy…”
“Yeah, but the food is really good, you can trust me on that one… though you might have to endure the umm… Yeah…”
“Well that’s fine, I went to lots of Maid Cafés during my stay in Japan, so I’m used to it!”
“You did? That’s impressive…”
“Yeah, studying abroad is a really fun experience! Of course, coming back this vacation after so long is another form of fun in itself, haha! Say, which school do you study in now, Jia Lin?”
“Ah, that… I dropped out…”
“Oh…”
“Y-Yeah, sorry…”
“N-No… I should be the one saying that, I made you say something you didn’t want to…”
“...”
“Umm…”
Hah… the mood is now wrong all thanks to me… Really, someone like me dropping out is already horrible now, but having to tell this to someone I haven't met in a long time is just…
“L-Let’s go to the Maid Café, y-yeah? You know the way, yes?”
“Y-Yeah, let’s do that, come I’ll show you…”
.
.
.
In the end, we had to walk there in silence, a complete opposite of what happened during our little tour.
How annoying.
Well, I shouldn’t get too sidelined on that, the important thing is that we arrived at the Maid Café as planned and well…
Gulp…
I couldn’t help but shiver, thinking about all the suffering that I’ll have to once again endure, this time on max difficulty…
That little outburst back then could fly because it was Xia, but if I accidentally did that again with Hui Xin next to me… I feel like I might just kill myself on the spot…
Ugh… just imagining it already makes me want to die… Take deep breaths, Jia Lin… Deep breaths… it won’t happen again, yes.
“Let’s go in…”
“Ikuyo~ Ikuyo~!
Meanwhile the furball next to me is walking in without any signs of fear… Really, is this what they meant by difference in experience…? Suddenly I feel really dead inside…
…
Ding
“Hello ☆ Hello~nyan ☆! Welcome masters ☆! Ohh!! I remember-nyan ☆! It’s the really beautiful and cute master-nya ☆! Welcome, welcome ☆! Did master bring a new friend-nyan ☆? Welcome to Café Moe ☆ Kira Kyun~ Where all dreams and desires reside, nya~☆! It’s my pleasure to serve you, nya ☆!”
“Woah! Hello maid-chan!”
“Y-Yeah… Hello… Uh… Sherly?”
“Correct-nya ☆~ Master remembered my name-nya ☆! How cute ☆! Table for two nyes~☆?”
“Y-Yeah… Please…”
“Coming right up, nya~☆!”
“So cute…! Uwaa!!”
“Y-Yeah…”
Wow, the difference in responses is outstanding… Hui Xin really is a pro at this… or maybe I’m just that hopeless… Ugh…
Well, after greeting Sherly the cat (I wonder what kind of concept is that), we got seated at our table, and ordered stuff.
This time, I did NOT order the Omurice… not again…
Ah, but Hui Xin did it, despite my warnings… and well…
“Repeat after me, okay~☆?”
“Yeah!!”
“Moe moe ♡~”
“Moe moe ♡~!”
“...”
“Lovely shining ☆ shining ☆~”
“Lovely shining ☆! shining ☆~!”
“...?”
“Please be delicious~☆! Chuu~♡”
“Please be delicious~☆! Chuu~♡~!”
“...!”
Wow, just wow…
“Woah, master is really good at this~☆! How amazing, kya ☆! The delish spell is working a lot better than usual because of master’s heartfelt effort~!”
“No, it’s thanks to your amazing chant! Thank you so much!!”
“Hui Xin… you’re really good at this, wow…”
“Hehe, it’s a crime to go to a Maid Café and not do the chant at least once!”
“R-Really?”
So I was the one in the wrong here…? Umm… ouch…
“Yeah! But you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, so it’s fine!”
Ouch… I already did it once, Hui Xin. Ended up in black history thanks to that…
“I-I see…”
Fortunately, the maid didn’t comment on that, I don’t think I’ve seen her before, so maybe she hasn't seen what happened, which is a really fortunate thing.
“Well, aside from that, you should taste the food, the taste is guaranteed.”
“Ohh!! You’re right, this is superb! Much better than what I’ve eaten in the other ones in Japan, woah!!”
“I was like that too, hehe. That aside, how long are you planning to stay?”
“Ah, that? I only just came here recently, and my holiday lasts about 2 months, yeah. Let’s see, I spent about a week at my family’s place as well as contacting the others for the reunion party, and well… just that?”
“That’s quite a long vacation, wow.”
“Yeah, it’s after our finals, after all!”
“I see, that makes sense.”
Never really knew that college vacations can get that long, Japan really is a different place after all…
“Then about this reunion party…”
“Ah, that? Since you’re coming too, it’s on next week! Don’t worry, you can just follow me there when I come to pick you up!”
“Is that okay? You live quite far away from me, after all.”
“Mhm, it’s fine! The reunion party is held quite close to your province actually, so coming here isn’t too much of a detour.”
“I see, thank you.”
“No probs, hehe!”
We continued to talk while eating, sharing a bunch of useless things and laughed about it. Catching up on things and just in general, talking like friends I suppose…
Friends…
Come to think of it, she would be my first friend…
“Hui Xin…”
“Yeah?”
“We’re all friends…?”
“Pfft! What kind of dumb question is that, Jia Lin?”
“...”
“Of course we are! Although everyone else hasn't met you yet, I can 100% say with certainty that they would consider you a friend too!”
“Is that so?”
“Yeppers! So don’t look so down!”
“Thank you.”
I guess I was overthinking it again, but it was refreshing to be wrong. It’s nice.
With that in mind, we enjoyed our meal. Strangely, I feel that she was even happier after that, maybe because I was genuinely smiling? I wouldn’t know.
But If I could guess, I’d hope that’s the case. It’s prettier that way.
◈
“Hello, I’m Huang Hui Xin, thank you for having me!!”
“No problems! Thank you for being Jia Lin’s friend! You’ll stay with Jia Lin in her room tonight, is that okay?”
“With Jia Lin…? No problems! That sounds really fun!!”
“My my, how energetic~ Auntie will make some tea, okay?”
“Thank you!!”
We came back in the afternoon and I guess this was the scene… Never really imagined it unfolding like this, but what can I do? At least it’s within reasonable bounds? Mom didn’t go out and spew any unnecessary things so it’s technically a good thing, yes.
“Uwaah!! Is this your room? Jia Lin? It looks so…”
“...”
“So…”
“...”
“So… clean, wow…!”
Hui Xin, I know my room is a bit bland, but saying it like that hurts even more, you know?
“T-Thanks…”
“Woah, you even got plushies! You’ve really become a girl even in mind now!”
“Well, those were there even before I became a girl, it’s just what my little sister gave.”
“Oh, I see! Still, they look cute and suits you!”
“R-Really?”
“Yep! The room is really nice, and I’ll take the…”
“Ah, the bed is fine, it’s big enough for two people, but if you don’t want it, I can sleep on the floor.”
“Ohh!!!”
“Eh?”
Suddenly Hui Xin grabbed my hands, I could only yelp in surprise as I wondered what she was about to say.
“Let’s do it, Jia Lin!”
“It…?”
“Sleep together!!”
“...?”
Would she really want that? Even if I’m a girl now, I used to be a guy, you know? Isn’t it off putting to sleep with someone like me?
“Do you really want that, Hui Xin? I used to be a man, you know? It won’t b—”
“No!! It’s fine!! If anything, you’re more like a woman than a man now!”
“Pffft…! I’m a what…?”
“Woman!! The last memory I had of you is during elementary, right? And meeting you after so long, you’re practically a woman in my eyes now, so it doesn’t matter!!”
“...”
Why does that somehow make sense?
“I’ve always wanted to sleep in the same bed as a friend! It looked really fun in manga, so I wanted to try it too, but none of my friends wanted to do it due to the culture there, haha…”
“Well, if that’s what you want… I can grant that for you?”
“Wahh!!! Thank you Jia Lin!!”
“Wait, wait!! Please don’t spin me her—AHHHH!!”
I got spun around again…
Ugh…
…
I’ll skip what happened during dinner, mostly because I forgot, so sorry about that… Though Hui Xin was there, you can probably imagine what happened there?
Anyhow, as for sleeping…
“Sister, can I sleep with you tonight too?”
“Woah!! Jia Lin, it’s a triple decker!! Let’s do it ya!!!”
“...”
In the end, it went from sleeping with a friend to sleeping with both my sister and my friend.
For some reason, it felt like Xia was also being more clingy than usual…
I’m really tired, you know? Sorry for the lack of detail in these, but I just want to die in peace now… Being sandwiched by my sister and my friend during what should be a peaceful hour of sleep is a bit…
Hah... I can only lament my fate...
And because of that, I didn’t get much sleep that night, how depressing.
