Ch 78 – 28 May, Eriri and Tomoya 03

Eriri perspective

It had been more than two weeks, Eriri had a relationship with Kouta, and by interacting with him pretty much every day, she slowly and steadily, without realizing it. She started thinking less and less about her childhood friend.

It was already the last thing that came to her mind.

But at the lunch break, Eriri read a message from Tomoya.  He said that he wanted to apologize for what he did weeks ago and also he wanted to show a new proposal to make dating sims to fulfill their promosi in the past.

And to be honest, when Eriri read that she felt conflicted or might have mixed feelings… There was some part of her feeling happy, he finally tried to fulfill his promise, but at the same time she felt like, ‘Well, it’s already too late.’

But the worst was that Eriri felt that an apology while at the same time talking about other stuff, felt a bit insincere. It worsened her mood, but thanks to Kouta's messaged her and showing his concern for her, that made her mood improve.

Also, Eriri was grateful to Kouta and Utaha for letting her show the paper about their story to Tomoya. It was a bit confidential that it was not leaked, or someone might have plagiarized it.

To Eriri, surprised when Tomoya apologized, she didn’t feel anything, she was neither particularly happy nor mad about him. It was an indifferent feeling, she was just a bit sad since this might be and can be worsening their relationship.

Eriri read Tomoya's new proposal, and even though it was much better than the first one, she might have agreed to it if Tomoya had given it before she got entangled with Kouta. Yeah, it was just too late.

And it wasn’t Tomoya's fault… It was just that she had already changed…

As Eriri experienced a new thing and made her mind change too… Especially, the thought of those promises not really weighing on her mind like before. Even though those promises shaped her in childhood, and made her eagerly learn to draw manga and stuff.

At this moment, Eriri already has something more important for her at least. She had a new relationship, she had experience making dating sims and manga series. And that was something she hoped to experience with Tomoya, but… he was too late. She already has experience with other people, and right now she likes to spend her time with Kouta.

Yeah, Eriri already had something more important occupying her mind rather than this promise with Tomoya.

‘Why do you do this now…? When I've already let those emotions go…’ Eriri couldn’t help but think that, and that actually increased her irritation with Tomoya. Even though she might have said it wasn't Tomoya's fault, she still blamed most of this mess on Tomoya in her heart.

‘Why didn't you do this a long time ago… Even if it is just a simple dating sims… or might be talking to her more about what they want to do in the future… but Tomoya didn’t even do something that just barely about this…’

When Eriri gave Tomoya the proposal made by Kouta, she saw how bad his expression was… Eriri felt bad and told her reason to not be part of his project as she was busy with her own project and also Kouta’s project too.

Eriri felt really bad and this felt like a good bye to her childhood memories…  that still left a bitter taste in her mouth when she left him on the rooftop. To be honest, it made her want to meet Kouta quickly and let him make her forget this feeling.

Eriri went back to the audiovisual room. Utaha and Kouta were still in there

"Oh, you’re back? I didn't expect it to be this fast." Kouta asked those questions when he saw Eriri come inside the room and move toward him.

It felt mysterious. It was true that Kouta sounded like he didn’t worry, but Eriri knew… that there was a sense of relief in his tone and expression.

"Yes, it's not that big of a deal, but thank you for your concern." Eriri replied with a smile on her face. Part of her was still in the mess, but she didn't say anything. Kouta just patted her head and told her.

"Is that so… You’re doing a good job."

It gave Eriri a strange intimacy with Kouta, as if he knew what was on her mind.

"Hehehe, Un… I did a good job."

To be honest, Eriri wanted to jump at Kouta, sit in his lap, and make him spoil her. But she couldn’t do it in Utaha's presence.

‘Gugugu… It would be better if she had fallen like me.. So we can do this or that in this room…’

Eriri couldn’t help thinking like that. In her mind, if Utaha’s became like her, then Kouta’s woman. They can just take turns flirting with him. Eriri stared at Utaha, confused as to why she had been stared at by Eriri, before she changed her attention to Kouta.

She stared at him very hard as if she was messaged something in her mind to him.

‘When this guy makes a move at Utaha…’

But, well, just like Utaha, Kouta couldn’t understand what was in Eriri's mind  So she only pouted before she sat in the seat and drew to her heart’s content. Well, of course, she wasn’t drawing about F/SN, but these days when she was in a bad mood or felt like wanted to release her stress.

Yeah, Eriri started drawing those stupid, but surprisingly popular NTR hentai stories. She didn’t need to draw full content, she just posted 4 pages of short stories that Kouta told her about.

When Kouta saw Eriri draw those NTR contents, It made Kouta remember that in the previous world, there were many Ero-artists drawing just 4–8 pages of short stories.

Either way, Eriri had changed more than Tomoya ever thought of. She experiences something that is beyond Tomoya’s imagination. Which understandable for Eriri to have a different kind of experience since different from Tomoya that more closed his interaction with other people.

Eriri actually had more interaction with other people, with her family acquaintances, with her art club, and with her classmates too. Of course, she was hiding her otaku-ish hobby, which made those relationships a bit shallow.

But this was different from Anime that was scripted as Eriri held to this promise and her liking to Tomoya, that might have limited her. And this might have happened in this world too, if Kouta hadn’t done anything.

Yeah, Kouta interfered and made Eriri’s life change differently from what had been scripted. Or what Kouta did to Eriri actually made her think less about something that was actually a bit fragile to begin with. And that fragile connection between Eriri and Tomoya was actually tightly held by Eriri.

Since Tomoya actually had some grudge with her and of course, he actually helped Eriri with her secret hobby, like telling her anything new and even gave the book to her too. But, just that it…

Tomoya had such powerful weapons living in his environment that it made him spend time together with Eriri from childhood until high school. But he didn’t do anything beyond talk about otaku, and that might be enough for some people to move their relationship forward.

But… Well, that wasn’t enough, since in the end, Kouta successfully snatched Eriri's heart away.

In the end, it wasn’t someone's fault, neither Eriri nor Tomoya. But the relationship only changed if someone took their chance… a first step. And Tomoya was too late to do that.

And without Eriri’s drawing skill in his hand… The company Tomoya had that happened in the anime wouldn't happen… since he might not have any circles like in the anime. His future in this world might be turned different.