Today’s the day that the Otaku agreed to meet with Otomore. It’s only been one week since the last time they hung out together alone. Yesterday doesn’t count since they were with everyone else and honestly he didn’t get much of an opportunity to talk with her then. What with the movie and him spending some time with Himekawa.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” He asks as they sit on the swings of a small local park. She had mentioned wanting to ask him about something, which did get him a bit nervous since the boy can never tell with anyone what they’re going to ask. At first, he hastily thought he was being confessed to, but obviously none of them are interested in him like that. The boy’s still just a hapless otaku.

Besides, literally all these girls could get with some popular guy. They don’t need him or anything.

“When you were younger, did you have many friends?” She asks. It’s a bit of an odd question. Though not as strange as the way he feels with her not wearing her headphones. Something about that look with her just feels like her default to him. Not that the boy’s complaining, he can at least protect his hearing.

“Hmmm…” He thinks about it deeply. “I don’t remembering having many friends.” While he wasn’t an otaku back then, the boy was always a bit… No, very shy. So he didn’t hang out with a lot of the other kids his age. “Why do you ask?”

“I was just wondering.” She replies, putting her head down a bit. It sounds like she’s nervous to be talking to him about this. Like she’s holding back from what’s on her mind, for fear of how he might feel. “It’s nothing special if you can’t remember.”

“Actually…” That dream of his some time ago. The day when he saw her in the convenience store. Something about this conversation reminds him of that. “I did have this dream, where I saw a girl with long white hair on a swing. Kind of like this one.” He points to the one she’s sitting in.

“Really?” That gets her interested as she leans in closer to him. “What was she like?”

“Well, she was really cute.” He means that in a completely romantic way, seeing as that was a little girl who would’ve been under 10. Though in his dream, it did feel like whoever he was during that sequence felt something for her. “Maybe, even though I’ve forgotten it, she might’ve been an old friend.”

“I see…” She responds, feeling mixed about this revelation. “I just wanted to know because… When I was younger, I knew a boy who was also named, ‘Saki’. It’s the reason why she stuck to calling him the Otaku after learning the truth. She really liked that boy in the past, and wanted to keep the two separate. However, perhaps they weren’t so separate after all.

“Wow, what a coincidence.” He doesn’t think much of it himself.

“In fact, I actually do have a picture of the two of us.” She reaches into her jacket’s pocket, producing a photo of what should be her as a little girl and her friend from back then.

“Really, that’s cool…” He says, looking at it. Then he realizes something important upon closer inspection. That girl in the photo, it’s the same one from his dream. “Ahhh!” From the sheer shock alone, the Otaku passes out upon realizing that the boy from her past, was him all along.