Kichi was glad their project got a great grade. However, despite his original plan of forgetting about the girl after their time together. He simply could not get his mind off of her. Admittedly it was hard to forget a person who not only was a classmate, but also whose twin sister sat right besides him.

“Ahh, our project didn’t go that well.” Meanwhile, his friend Chuuya was disappointed in his own results with Airi. “I hate to break it to you, but she’s kind of a dunce.” He whispered to Kichi.

“It’s probably partially your fault too.” He whispered back. Judging from his short time with Aoi, he assumed that she was the smarter twin. At least, she was the one less willing to go along with odd things like not sitting next to each other for no apparent reason. Airi seemed fine to accept it, but she did have some concerns of her own.

“Did you have fun on your project with Aoi?” She asked during their break. “I tried asking her, but she wouldn’t tell me anything. Nothing bad happened, right?”

“No, it went pretty well.” He answered. While he left some details sparse, the boy was clear in making it sound like he enjoyed himself. That much was the truth, but he wasn’t certain on how the other girl felt. Her coldness towards others seemed to even permeate to her sister as well. “Actually, I’m happy that I was able to be her partner.”

“Looking back at it, I kind of wish I didn’t win that coin flip.” Chuuya quipped about his misfortunes with Airi. While she wasn’t a bad person to be around, it was clear there was nothing much between them as he would’ve liked. “Wait a second…” That gave the boy an idea. “Hang on a bit.” Quickly, he stood up and grabbed Kichi. “The two of us need to use the restroom.”

“Huh, but I don’t-” Before Kichi could protest, he was whisked away from the classroom and out into the hallway. “What is up with you?” After being bragged along towards the school stairways, he was able to finally ask what had gotten into his friend all of a sudden.

“We should switch.” He said, which had no context so it had little meaning to him.

“What?”

“I mean with Airi and Aoi.” He clarified. It would provide an opportunity for him to get to know Aoi. Especially maybe even have a shot of finding a girlfriend.

“I don’t think we agreed on doing anything yet.” Kichi responded. As much as he couldn’t deny that the girls were cute and that Airi seemed like fun to be around. The boy didn’t want to rush into things. That was a serious commitment in his eyes. Not a decision to be made lightly.

Knowing who he was, it would also not be a decision he’d make by himself. At this point, literally everyone knew what he’d rely on during a tough time. “But I suppose it’s fine. It’s not like I said anything before, so it’s no big deal.”

“Cool, that was easy.” Somehow he was expecting this to come down to another game of chance. However, Kichi was feeling generous and didn’t want to take another loss on a coin flip. One was already bad enough for the week. “So can you give me a chance after school today?”

“Not sure what you need me to do.” He replied. Though it didn’t take much effort to explain the plan. “Well, I can’t complain about getting to hang out with Airi.” Kichi didn’t have that opportunity before. So at this point, despite his opinion on the twins. He actually knew more about Aoi.

Though actually going through the with plan, he did have his concerns. Was this really fair to the girls? It seemed like they were taking advantage of them being new. Then again, the more cheerful of the twins was always willing to have some fun...

“You want to hang out after school?” That was her response when he finally asked the question when classes were finished. “Oh I see, you want to make up for lost time because of the project.”

“It does just make sense after I got to know your sister.” He said.

“I should ask her if she want to join.” Airi turned to head in that direction. However, this was when she saw Chuuya talking to her twin which caused her to change her mind. “I… Guess she’ll be busy.” She sounded disappointed to be unable to spend time with her sister on an outing with a classmate. It only served to add more guilt to Kichi where he strongly considered if he should’ve made a different decision.

Not that there was anything he could change now. The only problem now was figuring out what to do as they left the school. He hadn’t intended on doing much, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.

“So since you’re still new. Is there anywhere you were interested in going to?” He asked, hoping to not have to come up with anything like last time.

“Ooh, I know!” She snapped her fingers in realization. Then without warning, she sprinted away from him.

“Hey, wait!” He yelled, forced to give chase. Since she hadn’t mentioned where she was going. Kichi was left with little choice but to run after her. If he lost her, then the boy would have no clue where she’d end up at. “At least say where you’re going!” His attempts to grab her attention were futile as she didn’t slow her pace in the slightest. If this girl was feeling downtrodden about being unable to be with her twin sister, then she certainly did an 180 on those emotions now.

Finally after a good half mile of running, they arrived at their location with her stopping on a dime. He nearly tripped over himself trying not to hit as from how sudden it was. This girl would be a track star if she joined the school’s team. “At least I… Made it…” He was out-of-breath upon them reaching their destination. She had brought them in front of a store. “You wanted to go shopping?”

“I just wanted to check it out.” She answered. “I heard about this when we were looking up the city online. They got some cool games here, right?”

“It’s an otaku shop.” While he was certain she wasn’t wrong in that assessment. Kichi wasn’t certain if those were the games she had in mind. “I guess if you’re into otome games, then sure.”

“Ooh, me and Aoi love playing those!” She got excited at the thought. So much so that she apparently forgot something important and realized that far too late. “Oh wait, she said don’t tell anyone that.” Airi put a hand over her mouth as she knew she had messed up.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell on you.” He replied. This girl truly was stranger than he could’ve imagined. Chuuya wasn’t exaggerating when he seemed to take issue with hanging out with her. Still, it wasn’t as if he was upset with this arrangement either.

“But that’s not all they have, right?” He didn’t know what to make of that question. What else could she possible want out of a store like this.

“It’s an otaku shop, I’m sure it has all the usual stuff too.” Since this wasn’t not a place he frequented in his free time. Kichi couldn’t provide that tour guide experience he had in mind when meeting these girls for the first time.

“That’s good enough for me.” She grabbed his arm and dragged the boy into the store. It made it seem like he didn’t want to come in if one were an onlooker to this situation. This move wasn’t necessary, given that he was going to follow her regardless. All this rushing did was make them run into a patron who was exiting the store.

“Sorry about that.” Kichi said as they gave the other guy space. He seemed younger than them, given that he was on the short side. But considering that he was all alone and the nature of some things in this store. There was no way he wasn’t at least around their age.

“It’s my fault, really…” The boy responded, turning his head away so that they couldn’t see his face. He didn’t even have to turn that far thanks to his hair which covered a portion of his right eye. Considering that he wanted to keep whatever in his bag private, it likely contained some saucy things.

“Weird.” That was the only word Airi had to describe their encounter as the boy quietly slipped away from them. “Anyway, let’s go inside now.”