For the first few minutes, Nitta still managed to keep a straight face. She said that she wants to let out her pent up stress by singing, so we brought her to a karaoke box.

   When we got inside a room, she immediately chose one of her songs. It’s titled “We can never be together”. It’s a sad and emotional song that’s all too fitting for her situation. She started singing for ten seconds, and she begins to choke on the lyrics as she cries and sobs.

   ‘Um, should we stop her?’ I ask Nagano softly.

   ‘Better not. Like she said, this is to let her stress out. Besides, she’s an idol. She has to keep singing no matter what, right?’

   ‘I guess.’

   The song is around three minutes long. The moment Nitta’s done, she falls to her knees and cries loudly for a good while. We could do nothing but watch over her. She eventually calms down and gets up slowly. She turns to look at me.

   ‘Can I get some ice cream?’ she asks me.

   ‘Uh, sure. What flavor do you want?’ I ask while picking up the menu.

   ‘Anything’s fine. But it would be the best if they got matcha flavor. I want three scoops.’

   ‘Got it.’

   Turns out they do have matcha-flavored ice cream. I pick up the phone and ask for three scoops as per Nitta’s request. As for the person in question herself, she sits down next to Suzu and wait patiently for the ice cream to arrive.

   The waiter who got her the ice cream find himself to be in a awkward position as he comes in with the bowl, since no one is singing. He just puts down the bowl on the table in front of us and left quietly. The moment he leaves, Nitta picks up the bowl and the spoon on top of it and eats the ice cream vigorously. It took her less than a minute to finish three scoops of ice cream without getting brain freeze.

   ‘Feel better yet?’ I ask her as she’s wiping her mouth with a tissue paper.

   ‘Not yet.’

   She then decides to start a mini concert in the room by singing every single songs of hers available inside the machine. I just hope the room is sound-proof or we’ll have her fans who happen to pass by swarming here in the matter of seconds. By the time she’s done, it’s already evening. We had both our lunch and dinner here, so our hunger wasn’t an issue.

   ‘Phew, that felt good.’ Nitta finally puts down her mic after singing for at least six hours.

   ‘Do you feel like leaving yet?’ I ask her.

   It’s not that I’m rushing to go home. It’s just that due to the fall season, the sky’s already dark even though it’s around five o’clock right now. It’s dangerous for girls to wander around when it’s dark out there.

   ‘Sure. Let’s go.’

   Nitta paid for most of the bills. It’s only fair since she’s the only one who sang. The rest of us only paid for the food we ate. After the bill is paid, we wait outside for Serizawa-san to come and pick up Suzu before going our separate ways.

   ‘Thank you for today guys, even though my love didn’t work out in the end.’ Nitta tells us.

   ‘You’re welcome. Just remember to come to us if you have another love problem.’ Nagano tells her.

   Nitta laughs awkwardly. ‘I honestly doubt that would happen. Thanks for the offer though.’

   Suzu soon got picked up by Serizawa-san and leaves us. The rest of us then walk to the train station so that we could go back to our respective home/apartment.

   On the next day, Nitta drops by our club room so that she could hand in her application form to join in the Love Consultation Club, surprising us all.

   ‘I just want to show you my gratitude, you see.’ Nitta replies when Nagano asks her the reason for joining. ‘I’m mostly busy with my work as idol and the manager of General Affairs, so I won’t be able to help most of the time, but I could at least make up the number, right?’

   ‘Oh, thank you so much!’ Nagano tells her gratefully. ‘Now we only need one more member!’

   ‘I can’t help you with that, but good luck!’

   Great. One more member and this pointless club will be acknowledged as an official club. How nice. I can’t wait.

   A few days have passed after Nitta has become our phantom members. I don’t have to go to Yamamoto Canteen to work today, but I told Nagano that I’m not accepting any appointment since I have to stock up on my grocery. If I don’t, I won’t have any food to eat for my three meals for the next few days.

   After school ended today, I go to the usual supermarket for shopping. I always has the habit of making one round at the food section since I’m looking for cheap bargains rather than specific types of food. This is how a near-broke student budget his meal expenses.

   When I pass by the vegetable section, I see a young woman who’s probably in her twenties holding a cabbage on her left hand and a lettuce on her right. She has long wavy black hair that reaches to her waist, ans she’s wearing light blue blouse and long dress of the same color that almost reaches her ankles. On her legs are a pair of whit flat shoes. For some reason, she looks kind of familiar.

   ‘I wonder which one is the cabbage?’ she’s mumbling to herself.

   …What?

   She looks at the lettuce. ‘Well, since I can’t decide, I guess this one is.’

   ‘Um, miss? If it’s cabbage that you want, it’s the one you’re holding on your left hand.’

   I was so freaked out I spoke without thinking. She then slowly looks at me.

   ‘Why, thank you mister student. I have one more question, though.’

   ‘Yes?’

   ‘Which one is my left hand again?’

   Is she for real? I wait quietly for a few seconds just in case she isn’t, but she shows no signs that she was joking.

   I point at her left hand. ‘This one.’

   ‘I see. Thank you so much for telling me.’

   She puts the cabbage inside the basket she was carrying on her shoulder and puts the lettuce back where she took it.

   ‘Now to look for some shrimps.’ she says to no one in particular.

   ‘I’m sorry for not minding my own business, but do you need my help?’ I offer.

   ‘Oh my, will I not be bothering you?’

   ‘Not at all. Please allow me to help you.’

   ‘In that case, I will be in your care.’

   I have zero intention on hitting on her. Rather, I can’t leave her alone like this or she might be searching for the things she need to buy until this place closes for the day. The woman brings out her shopping list. She needs to buy a cabbage, lots of shrimps, tomatoes and a bag of panko.

   ‘Are you perhaps making breaded shrimps?’ I ask her.

   ‘That’s right. The two girls who live together with me just love them, so I make it for them every once in a while.’ she answers.

   So she doesn’t live alone huh. I wonder why she’s in charge of shopping when she’s clearly not suitable for the job. Speaking of not suitable, I wonder if she’s the type who confuses salt with sugar. I’m seriously worried for her roommates.

   It didn’t take us long to get all the stuff she needs. Aside from the fact that she mistaken round eggplants as tomatoes and flour as panko, nothing really happened. We paid for our groceries at the counter and go outside the supermarket.

   ‘Once again, thank you for your help, mister student. My home is that way, so I’ll get going.’ the woman tells me while pointing to a direction.

   ‘I’m not trying to be rude or anything, but are you sure about that?’

   ‘Why yes. That’s the direction where Koikana Shrine is.’

   Ah. So that’s why she looks so familiar. She’s one of the shrine maidens I saw when I went there. The only reason I couldn’t recognize her immediately is because she’s wearing the glasses that have the swirly design on its lenses right now. There’s only one problem, though. I point at the opposite direction.

   ‘Actually, Koikana Shrine is over there.’

   ‘Oh my. Is that true?’

   ‘I’m absolutely positive.’

   ‘My, I’m so glad I met you today. Otherwise, I would have gotten lost again.’

   ‘Does it happen fairly often?’

   ‘Quite. If I had to include the time just now, I would have gotten lost 32 times this month. Thankfully, I don’t have to, so it’s only 31 times.’

   ‘Um, this is only the first week of the month.’ I point out.

   ‘I am painfully aware of that. And it costs others so much problems too…’

   ‘You mentioned that you’re living there with two others. Why aren’t any of them helping you out?’

   ‘Well, both of them are busy with their school clubs, since they’re both high school girls. That leaves only me, who’s not in any club at the university I go to.’

   ‘I see. That’s unfortunate.’

   ‘Well, even if they aren’t, I can’t keep on relying on them forever. That’s why I’m keep trying to do things without getting any help. Alas, I just can’t do it.’

   ‘There’s no need to feel so dejected. You can just take your time. Just don’t give up.’

   ‘Thank you for your encouragement, mister student. And now that I look closely, you wear the same uniform as one of the girls that live with me.’

   ‘Really? What’s her name?’

   ‘Nagano Ai. Do you know her?’

   Yup. I knew it.

   ‘I’m in the same club as she is.’

   ‘Oh, my. Does it mean that you’re Bandou Takuya-kun who made the wish in the hope that all couples around the world break up?’

   ‘Yup. That’s me.’

   I was expecting her to get mad at me or something, but she just brushes through the subject like it’s no big deal.

   ‘And how forgetful of me. I actually forgot to introduce myself. I am Aki Noriko, a second year student at the Tamiya University.’ she introduces herself.

   I was so impressed I whistled. ‘You mean the university where pretty much all the smart people go? Your grades must be very good, Aki-san.’

   ‘Not to brag, but I guess they’re good.’

   ‘Is Nagano the only idiot in your group?’

   ‘Now now, Bandou-kun. Idiot is a bit too mean. Please call her slow. As for your question, the last one, Takeda Kimi-chan is a bit slow too.’

   ‘So two geniuses and two slowpokes. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.’

   ‘I don’t get the last part.’

   ‘Please don’t mind it. I was just talking to myself.’

   Man, it’s been months since I set foot at Koikana Shrine. How nostalgic. We pass by the donation box and the bells and head to he entrance of the shrine.

   I’ve come here to pray every single year, but this is the first time I’ve seen the interior of the shrine. As expected just by looking from the outside, the inside is pretty run-down as well. It’s not so bad until there’s holes everywhere you go, but a lot of the furnitures certainly have seen better days.

   ‘I’m sorry for the shabby place.’ Aki-san apologizes to me. ‘We don’t get a lot of donations, so we never got any chance to renovate it.’

   ‘That’s totally fine. I have a question, though. Are the three of you the only ones who live here? What about the one in charge of things?’

   ‘Oh, him? He went on a trip to Las Vegas.’

   ‘He went where? Please don’t tell me he’s planning to…’

   ‘Yes. He planned to gamble his life savings he can so that this temple can get a renovation. He hasn’t been back for weeks now, so I reckon he lost all the money and can’t come home.’

   ‘I hope he at least didn’t take the deed of this land with him.’

   ‘He planned to, but we managed to stop him by having Kimi-chan threaten to beat him up and send him to a hospital. Right now, we’re doing everything we can to keep this shrine, with or without him.’

   ‘What if he never comes back?’

   ‘Hmm, I guess we’ll have to find a new head. I’m pretty sure someone from the group of Shinto priests around Japan is wiling to take over this place.’

   ‘Please wait, what about your old head?’

   ‘Oh, him? After all the non-existing contribution he made when he was around, I guess the least he could do is feed himself to the fishes. Oh wait, that would cause the fishes to have indigestion. I know, he can burn himself so that he could become a human charcoal! That way, even he could contribute to the society.’

   ‘...I, I see.’

   This is really unexpected. I was expecting Aki-san to be a clumsy, fluffy onee-san. She’s actually quite a scary person. I totally don’t want to get on her bad side.

   ‘Well, I’ll be leaving now.’ I tell her.

   ‘Oh my, leaving so soon? I’m sure Ai-chan will be back soon. Not sure about Kimi-chan though, since she’s busy with her practice.’

   ‘It’s fine, Aki-san. It’s not like Nagano and I are very close to begin with.’

   As I’m leaving the place, I see someone unexpected standing in front of the donation box. It’s Shimada-sensei. She’s so busy at putting her hands together and pray she didn’t notice me at all.

   ‘To any of the deities listening, please grant me a man.’ sensei is mumbling fervently. ‘I’m not someone greedy who ask for the top 10% or something, but please, at least give me someone who’s more decent than my last one. Please please please please please…’

   ‘Good evening, sensei.’ I call out to her.

   She immediately flinches when she heard my voice.

   ‘B-B-B-B-B-B-Bandou-kun? What are you doing here?’ she demands.

   ‘I was just escorting one of the shrine maidens who work here so that she could come back here safely.’

   ‘I, I see. Well, just pretend that you didn’t see me here, alright? Not one word!’

   ‘Oh, I don’t know. I suddenly have a craving for some yakiniku. Do you know of any good place, sensei?’

   She gasps in horror. ‘Wait, are you actually trying to blackmail your homeroom teacher?’

   ‘I wouldn’t dare. It’s just that I might accidentally let my mouth slip when I see my classmates tomorrow.’

   She groans loudly. ‘Why oh why do I have to meet you, of all people? Fine. I give up.’

   We agreed to come back here at seven o’clock. This is so that I could keep my groceries at my apartment and change into my casual clothes. Shimada-sensei just can’t have her being seen with a high school student.

   To her credit, she’s actually here, and right on time too. She also changed her work outfit to a more casual one.

   ‘Wow, sensei. I was half-expecting you to ditch me.’ I tell her.

   ‘And let you spread that embarrassing scene you saw just now to the whole class? Not a chance. Now come on, let’s go.’

   She brings me to a yakiniku restaurant that’s walking distance from the shrine. I’ve never been there before, so I don’t know a thing about it.

   ‘Until we go our own ways, you’ll call me senpai instead of sensei. Got it?’ Shimada-sensei warns me before we got there.

   ‘Why?’

   ‘A teacher having a yakiniku with her student? It’s going to cause a major uproar.’

   ‘ I guess. Whatever you say, senpai.’

   The restaurant is called Takumi Flame Grill. The smell of grill meat reach my nose before I got there, and the smell made my stomach growl. Since the place is only half-full, we got ourselves a seat easily enough. The waiter who brought us to our table took our drink order while we look through the menu. I ordered an iced green tea. Shimada-sensei got herself a large mug of draft beer.

   ‘Are you really going to drink alcohol in front of a minor, senpai?’ I ask her.

   ‘It’s fine as long as you’re not touching any.’

   ‘For someone of your occupation, you sure aren’t being a good role model right now.’

   ‘When you’re almost an adult, you should be able to differentiate between which actions to look up to and which not to. More importantly, get to the ordering. And don’t you dare go nuts.’

   ‘I would never.’

   I ordered the usual stuff you eat at yakiniku: one plates of tongues, ribs and sirloins. Shimada-sensei has already ordered and downed three mugs of beer even before the meat has arrived.

   ‘Senpai, aren’t you drinking a little too much?’ I ask her.

   ‘Nonsense! You ain’t living if you don’t drink beers while eating yakiniku!’

   ‘We haven’t even start eating.’ I point out.

   ‘It doesn’t have to be in the proper order, okay? And cut me some slack! I’ve been under a lot of stress lately!’

   A few seconds of silence. Our meat arrived while we’re just staring at each other. I proceed to start grilling.

   ‘Well, aren’t you going to ask me about it?’ she demands.

   ‘Nope, since it sounds like a huge pain in the behind to listen to.’ I reply while putting some tongues on the hot grill.

   She just ignores me and starts going off with her monologue.

   ‘When we met at a Christmas Party hosted by one of our mutual friend, I thought that he was the one for me. He’s caring, funny, humble, handsome. He was the ideal man any girl would want.’

   I look up from my grilling duty. ‘Girl?’

   ‘Shush and do your grilling quietly.’

   ‘Yes, ma’am.’

   ‘We hung out a few times after the party. We went to some fancy restaurants to have meals, we went to the movies, and we had lots of fun. It didn’t take us long to become lovers and eventually got engaged.’

   ‘And all this took place in the span of how long?’

   ‘Eight months.’

   I shake my head in disbelief. I can already see where this story is going.

   ‘Turns out he was a conman!’ she almost spits out the words. ‘He was always going near vulnerable young women and try to cheat them out of their savings!’

   Some of the tongues are cooked, so I took some out with a pair of tongs and put them on sensei’s plate before putting the rest on mine. ‘Uh-huh.’

   ‘...Bandou-kun, is it me, or did you twitched slightly when I mentioned the term young women?’

   ‘Nope, it’s definitely your imagination, senpai. More importantly, was he arrested?’

   ‘You bet he was! He got forty years in prison for all the swindling he did!’

   Well, I guess this is one of the times where my wish actually helped people out. Imagine if the wedding ceremony was carried out. Shimada-sensei would have been robbed of her hard-earned money, and there was nothing she could do about it.

   She sighs in a depressed way and picks up a beef tongue with her chopsticks.

   ‘I wonder whether I’ll ever find a guy.’ she mumbles while putting the tongue into her mouth and starts chewing it.

   ‘I guess it’ll be difficult for someone who’s already past her prime-’

   ‘Hey, you’re being rude Bandou-kun! I’m only 22 this year, you know!’

   She then gasps loudly and covers her mouth with both her hands, as if she said something she shouldn’t.

   ‘Well now, looks like I have additional things to blackmail you.’ I say drily.

   ‘...Will another plate of beef tongues settles it?’

   Wordlessly, I held out two fingers. Shimada-sensei rolls her eyes and got the attention of a waitress who happened to look her way.

   ‘Excuse me! I need two beef tongues here.’ she says to the waitress.

   ‘Right away.’

   ‘Say, Bandou-kun! Can’t you do something? You’re part of the Love Consultation Club, right?’ she asks me desperately.

   We’ve eaten all the tongues, so I begin grilling some ribs.

   ‘Sensei, you seem to have a misunderstanding about that club. It exists to mend a broken relationship, or help someone with their crush. We’re not matchmakers.’

   ‘Come on, don’t say that~. Help your poor sensei out, won’t you?’ she whines.

   ‘At the very least, find yourself a crush, then we can get somewhere.’

   ‘I’m begging you because I don’t have anyone on my mind right now.’

   ‘Again, I can’t help you with that.’

   I stop talking since the waitress just now got us our tongues. After making sure she’s out of listening range, I continue with what I was saying.

   ‘Besides, I’m sure you’ll be fine.’ I assure her. ‘Even though you tend to be clumsy-’

   ‘Hey!’

   ‘And forgetful despite your supposedly young age-’

   ‘Supposedly? Like I said-’

   ‘But you’re still a good person. You were always patient with those slow students who have trouble with their studies. You’re also willing to listen to the students’ problems and give adequate advise without butting in too much. You’re never too ashamed to admit that you don’t know something, and will remember to get back to us.’

   Shimada-sensei widens her eyes in surprise. ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting you to observe me so much.’

   ‘It kind became my habit to observe everyone around me since I have some trouble in trusting others due to some…circumstances in the past.’ I decide to leave it at that.

   ‘I see. Well, you’re not so bad yourself.’

   I grab some of the cooked ribs and put them on sensei’s plate before doing the same to mine. ‘I’m not?’

   ‘Sure. I mean, you’re a huge bully, you’re sarcastic, you can look very threatening, and you hate getting involved in troublesome things. Even so, you have good grades, you don’t run away from your responsibilities given to you, you can lead if necessary, and you’re considerate too.’

   I raises my eyebrow at the last part. ‘Considerate?’

   ‘Of course. I mean, you had been cooking the meat for me and served me first before taking some for yourself, right? That’s what a gentleman would do.’

   ‘Actually, I was just respecting the elderly-please don’t hold your chopsticks like you’re holding a dagger, senpai. It’s dangerous.’

   She hold her chopsticks the right way again. ‘My point still stands. You’re a good person too.’

   ‘Well, they sure didn’t help me in getting a girlfriend.’ I sulk.

   ‘Come on, don’t be sad! Let’s just eat to our heart contents! And I’ll drink some more!’

   She downs another mug of beer and orders another one immediately.

   ‘Please control yourself, senpai. I don’t fancy carrying you to wherever that you’re staying.’

   ‘Don’t worry, I won’t get drunk that easily!’ she assures me. ‘Now get those meat cooking!’

   ‘Yes yes.’

   Thankfully, sensei is still sober by the time we’re done with our meal. She paid for it, and we left the restaurant. Even if she’s not drunk, I made sure to walk her to the apartment she’s staying before going home myself.