Chapter 3 - Matching Apps Have Users With Purposes Other Than Love

We entered the classroom, which was a little crowded before class started.

It\'s winter and quite cold outside. I put my black jacket on the back of my chair, which felt a little too hot to wear.

There\'s still time before the lecturer comes, so I open Connect somehow.

I opened Connect and found myself talking to Akari, who had befriended me without knowing that it was Hikari. When I read it again, I felt embarrassed. Because Akari\'s real identity is Hikari.

I thought, "Akari-san looks even more beautiful when I talk to her." but, why did I send this? I remembered that it was a stupid thing I did to myself when the conversation was getting dark.

But Hikari\'s response to my embarrassing confession-like sentence was, "Me too. I\'m interested in Kakeru-san even though we haven\'t met yet." it must have been even more embarrassing for her.

While I was smirking to myself, I noticed that the girl sitting next to me was looking at me.

I\'m weird, aren\'t I? I looked at my cell phone and got embarrassed myself.

I closed the chat with Akari and somehow opened the top page.

On the top page, app recommendations for the opposite sex were displayed. Enji told me that the more popular girls would be displayed at the top of the top page, so they would be easier to see.

If that were the case, then the girls at the top of the page must be very popular.

She was certainly pretty enough to be called a celebrity. If I describe her as an Asuka Saito type, she looks like Asuka Saito, an idol famous for her petite face. Her name is Kokoro-san.

Strangely, when I saw Kokoro\'s picture, I felt a strange sense of deja vu.

I think it\'s natural to feel deja vu because she looks like an idol.

But I soon became convinced that this was not the case. I sent a "like" to test it out. Enji had told me to send a lot of likes.

Then, the girl who had been looking at me uneasily picked up her phone.

I thought it was too good timing, but then I saw the girl\'s face.

"Huh......?"

I couldn\'t help but scream.

The one sitting next to me was a beautiful girl who resembled Asuka Saito, to whom I had just sent a "like".

"Are you Kokoro-san, by any chance?"

I didn\'t put my picture on my Connect page. It was omurice. And of course, that doesn\'t mean my face is omurice.

In other words, from Kokoro-san\'s point of view, she was suddenly approached by a man she didn\'t know.

She\'s cute and I\'m sure she gets teased a lot on the street.

I was so moved that I unconsciously called out to her because I happened to be standing next to someone I saw on Connect, but she must have thought that I was trying to flirt with her. I wasn\'t happy about it.

I made such a judgment less than a second after I called out to her, and I deeply regret it.

No matter how moved I was, I shouldn\'t have approached her suddenly.

Kokoro-san was frightened, and she remained frozen and motionless.

"I apologize for calling you suddenly. I saw you in Connect and became a little moved by seeing the same person next to me."

I made excuses with an unusual smile.

"No, no. It\'s just i-that\'s all. ......Sorry......"

I turned to face the front of the room, thinking that I had scared her and I should leave her alone.

After a while, Kokoro-san, who had frozen, began to touch her cell phone shakily.

I wondered if I had scared her enough to make her tremble like that, and I felt very sorry for what I had done.

Then, my cell phone rang.

The notification came from Connect.

I was surprised to see the message, [You have been matched with Kokoro-san], and looked up at her.

Our eyes met instantly. Her long black hair was flowing delicately, and a soft, sweet childish scent reached my nose from about... 10 meters away.

She pointed her cell phone at me and looked at me with a questioning gaze.

On the screen was a photo of omurice. Maybe she wanted to know if it was me.

I nodded my head about five times in a row with an agility that is usually unimaginable and answered him firmly.

[Hello, Kakeru-san. What a coincidence (lol).]

The message had an unexpected atmosphere as if she didn\'t hate me even though I had scared her.

I don\'t know why she sent me a message even though I was right next to her, but since Kokoro-san did it, I decided to send her a message on connecting as well.

[I apologize for calling you out of the blue. I didn\'t realize that we were at the same university and sitting next to each other. I was so surprised that I unconsciously called you (lol). I guess I scared you...]



[laughs] No! On the contrary, I\'m quite happy that you\'re talking to me. Please keep talking to me...]

I kind of laughed when I heard the strange words "please keep talking to me."

Kokoro-san is a bit different from what I imagined.

It seems that she doesn\'t hate me, but I wonder why she took the trouble to send me a message through Connect instead of talking to me directly.

"Um, why did you bother sending me a message?"

As I asked her directly with a smile, her shoulders lifted, and Kokoro-san\'s expression, which had been smiling happily, suddenly clouded over.

"S-Sorry......"

"Ah, no, no. I\'m not angry."

I tried to be as bright as possible, lifting the corners of my mouth to show that I had no hostile intentions.

"S-Sorry......"

But she apologized anyway.

I was annoyed at the fact that she had spelled "su" into "shyu" just now.

TL/N: She said "Sh-Shyumimasen!

Why does he speak to me normally in messages, but when speaking in person, he apologizes instead?

While I was thinking about this, the lecturer came and class started.

During class, all I could think about was Kokoro-san, and I couldn\'t concentrate on the class. She was so depressed that I wondered if she was in love with me?

At the end of class, I got the answer.

While the other students left the class one after another, I called out to Kokoro-san, who remained frozen until the end of class.

"Kokoro-san, are you shy?"

There\'s no way such a beautiful girl doesn\'t have a boyfriend.

She\'s popular even on dating apps, and I\'m sure she must have met someone of the opposite sex.

But I still don\'t understand why she uses dating apps.

I couldn\'t focus on the class at all, and after much thought, I concluded that she was just shy when meeting someone for the first time.

If you meet someone at university or a part-time job, you might not be able to communicate well because of your shyness. However, even if you have a shyness complex on a dating app, you won\'t know it until you meet her.

That\'s probably the reason why Kokoro-san decided to use dating apps to find a match.

"Y-Yes, that\'s right ...... I\'m shy and weird......."

What do you mean by "shy and cute"?

There were only the two of us, Kokoro-san and I, in the classroom, which was so quiet that even the smallest sound could be heard.

What echoes here is the sound of a loud rumbling.

The first to react to the sound was Kokoro-san, who was clutching her stomach in front of me.

Her ears and face were stained red, and it was obvious whose stomach had just rumbled.

"Um, shouldn\'t you be eating lunch?"

"Ugh... yes..."

Kokoro, whose face was flushed, pushed her hand into her bag to get something out of there, but she tilted her head as she didn\'t seem to find what she was looking for.

Although we met by chance, it might be considered a nuisance if I stay any longer, and I\'m also starting to get hungry.

I was about to leave Kokoro-san and head for the cafeteria. But I couldn\'t leave Kokoro-san, who was looking at me as if she was asking for my help.... ........

"Did you forget to bring the lunch you usually bring?"

She didn\'t say anything, or rather, she couldn\'t say it, and could only move her head.

"Didn\'t you go to the cafeteria or something?"

"I only brought electronic money...."

The sound that couldn\'t be contained was still coming from Kokoro-san\'s stomach. I\'m sure I\'ll feel guilty if I leave it like this.

"If you don\'t mind, I can treat you. You have classes in the afternoon, so you can\'t afford to eat, right?"

"Sor ....... S-Sorry......."

"I can\'t ignore it when you make such a loud noise."

"Awawa.....! How embarrassing...."

I\'m totally fine if anyone hears the sound of my stomach rumbling, so I don\'t care about it. But I know, girls must be embarrassed by that kind of thing.

I received a message from Kokoro-san, who was curled up and typing something on her cell phone.

[Thank you very much. But I\'m sorry for making you treat me, so I promise I\'ll pay you back tomorrow...]

I smiled at Kokoro-san, who bowed deeply to me after sending the message, and I also replied through Connect.

[Alright. Let\'s go...]

I headed towards the cafeteria with Kokoro-san, who was walking about a meter behind me.

While on my way to the cafeteria, my cell phone rang and I received a message from Enji saying, "Sho-chan, let\'s have lunch together!" to which I replied, "Sorry, I can\'t today." and arrived at the crowded cafeteria, where there was a battle for seats.

"Kokoro-san, I\'m going to buy the food, so please secure a seat for me."

"Y-Yes! I\'ll do my best!"

Kokoro-san clenched her hands together.

No one takes a seat with that much enthusiasm, and I\'m sure she can secure a seat for me.

Trusting Kokoro-san, I queued up at the ticket machine to buy a food ticket.

I ordered the katsu curry because Kokoro-san said, "I want the same food as Kakeru-san------!"

Not knowing where she was sitting, I looked around.

Although it was crowded, there was a space where no one was sitting. But if you look closely, you can see a female student sitting in the center.

"Why isn\'t anyone sitting in that area?"

Not knowing where Kokoro-san was, I walked through the space.

As I got closer, I could gradually see the girl more clearly and finally recognized her. That girl is Kokoro-san.

"Kokoro-san, are you here? This place is empty, isn\'t it? Oh, this is your katsu curry."

"Oh, thank you Kakeru-san......! Ah, thank you very much.......!"

Kokoro-san stared at her katsu with shining eyes as if she had found a treasure. What\'s so great about that? It\'s just the famous katsu curry at the cafeteria. I\'m sure all the students in this university know about it, and no one hasn\'t had it before.

I\'m more interested in why there\'s no one around Kokoro-san?

[Did something happen before I came?]

I sent her a message through Connect, thinking that it might be difficult for her to say something because of the people around her, and also because I was worried about Kokoro-san, who was very shy.

[I\'ve been like this for a long time. I probably scared everyone away because I was so shy and unfriendly. That\'s why I rarely come to the cafeteria...].

I can\'t agree with that statement.

I understand that the way she looks at katsu curry is abnormal. But I also understand that Kokoro-san is shy.

But she was not the type of person to be afraid of. She doesn\'t have a bad look in her eyes, nor does she have a severe appearance in her clothes or accessories.

She looks like the personification of neatness and cleanliness, with beautiful long black hair that doesn\'t seem to get tangled. She wears a clean and pretty white blouse and a black skirt. The slim silhouette of this dress fits perfectly and shows off Kokoro-san\'s style. No matter how you look at it, there is nothing rugged about it.

"Of course, it\'s not like that. Kokoro-san, I think you should be more confident."

"Hitsu......"

Kokoro-san reacted with a strange voice to my continued words.

"Did you start to Connect partly to overcome your shyness?"

"Yeah, right ....... I\'ve always wanted to fix it, but ..... it\'s hard ........ you....... how, Kakeru-san....?"

The first thing that came to my mind was Hikari\'s face.

But if I suddenly said that I was trying to get over my ex-girlfriend, which was my true intention, people would think that I was a sissy who was still hung up on her ex.

I don\'t want to be thought of that way.

"My friend recommended it to me....."

I\'m not lying. If Enji hadn\'t recommended me to join, I would never have joined.

"Oh, I see. Have you met the right person yet?"

"Well, I met my ex-boyfriend, hmm?"

I told her that I met my ex-boyfriend again as a story.

The chemistry was so good that I met her without knowing what she looked like, and when I met her, she turned out to be my ex-girlfriend.

So, it\'s not about regrets. I hope Kokoro-san will understand that.

"What a coincidence......."

"Really? I was surprised too."

"You have no regrets?"

Hearing that question, the smile I had made froze for a moment.

It\'s been a year since we broke up, but I still vividly remember the days I spent with Hikari.

It\'s not that I still love her, but if it weren\'t for that, we would never have started our relationship....

"No, I don\'t regret it."

The pause made me lose all credibility, but Kokoro-san didn\'t ask again.

I might have made her feel uncomfortable.

It would be better to make a new love through Connect to get over it faster. For example, dating ....... Kokoro-san who is in front of me.

After that, we talked a bit and parted ways that day.

Kokoro-san\'s real name is Hatsune Shin.

I feel that it\'s a good name that matches her aura.

I told her my real name as well, and we called each other by our Connect usernames, "Kakeru" and "Kokoro" in subsequent conversations.

After Kokoro-san and I parted ways, I went to my part-time job.

I didn\'t have any classes in the afternoon.

When I arrived at the cafe where I was working, Enji, who started working at the same time as me, was changing.

"Oh, Sho-chan, good morning. Who are you having lunch with? I invited you to lunch because we both have the same part-time job!"

"Sorry, it just happened."

"Come on, tell me?"

Recently, I had two miraculous encounters, and although I\'m not the type to talk about my personal life, I still felt like sharing them with her.

"A girl who was matched with me on Connect sat next to me in class. ......We decided to have lunch together that way."

"What?! What a coincidence!"

"Right, right? It scared me."

"What\'s her name? I should know him if he\'s from the same college, right?"

Kokoro-san is very shy and not the type to hang out with others. I don\'t mean to be rude, but she probably doesn\'t have many friends.

I don\'t even know her name, let alone her whereabouts, but Enji, who interacts with all kinds of people and has good communication skills, probably knows her.

"It was a girl named Hatsune Shin. He seems to be in the same department as me."

"Ehhhh!!!"

Enji\'s shout echoed in the cramped dressing room. If it reached the inside of the store, the customers would be shocked.

"Be quiet. What\'s wrong? Do you know her?"

"Sho-chan, you\'re not going to tell me that you don\'t know that girl, are you?"

"No, I don\'t know her."

"Sho-chan, you should be a little more interested in other people...."

"Is she famous?"

"Of course she\'s famous! No one in our university doesn\'t know who she is! She\'s the madonna!"

"No, I don\'t know that."

"She\'s so holy that no one can enter the three-meter radius of where Hatsune-san is!"

The setting is like a manga. Is that why no one wants to sit near Kokoro-san in the cafeteria?

But if that\'s true, it\'s sad that she misunderstood her and thought that she was feared.

"Aren\'t you friends with her? Since you\'re Enji, you should be friends with everyone, right?"

"Stop it, you\'re making it sound like I\'m a person with no principles."

"Isn\'t that the case?"

"It\'s horrible ....... actually, I got close to her once."

"You know, you\'re an unprincipled pick-up artist."

"Gosh, Sho-chan!"

"Sorry, please continue."

Enji stepped on my foot with a sullen face. Please stop acting like a heroine.

"Y-Yes, it can\'t be helped. I usually know what other people are thinking, but I don\'t know what Hatsune-san is thinking."

"Are you a mentalist?"

"I\'ve never seen anything like that besides Sho-chan...."

"I\'m like that too. ......?"

Indeed, Enji is sometimes able to penetrate the heart of the matter. It was as if he could see into me.

"Hatsune-san, no matter what I say to her, she ignores me, her body trembles, and I don\'t know how to catch her...."

It seems that even for Enji, who can interact with people as if he were playing a game, Kokoro-san\'s shyness cannot be tamed.

"I see. It seems like it\'s because she\'s shy."

"Ah, really?"

As we talked, I finished changing before Enji, who had arrived earlier but was still half-naked.

"Come to think of it, why did you tell me about your relationship with Hatsune-san so normally, but you didn\'t tell me about the omurice girl you dated before?"

I gave up, thinking that it was okay to tell her now.

If I kept quiet, it would probably look as if I was still harboring some regrets, and since we\'re talking about Enji here, I\'m sure he\'ll find out the truth on his own someday, even if I hide it from him.

"What I met was my ex-boyfriend."

"Eeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh!!!!"

"Keep your voice down!"

Enji yelled louder than before.

"Shut up, you two! I can hear you down the hall!"

""Yes--------""

The manager immediately jumped into the dressing room and reprimanded us.

For some reason, I didn\'t like the fact that I got reprimanded by him.

"By the way, Sho-chan, you\'re great. You met two people, one from the same university, who happened to be the madonna sitting next to you. While the other is your ex-girlfriend. What a strange omen isn\'t it?! You must have regrets, right? Have you made plans to meet her again?"

"No! I have no regrets!!!"

"You\'re being told to shut up even more!!!"

""Sorry!!!""

This time my voice was louder. I\'m so sorry.

"Well, we still have a little time before the part-time job starts, so tell me, what kind of date are you going on?"

"Well, what about, well...."

As I told him everything that happened that day, Enji nodded in understanding and listened to me repeatedly.

When Enji finished listening to everything, he said to me, "Don\'t be too stubborn or you\'ll regret it later." and walked out into the hall.

I felt as if he was looking into me.