"So after that, Ryouta got extremely drunk and fainted on his table saying, "Help me…" It was hilarious! Ahahahaha!"
"I can definitely imagine that scene. It must have looked very stupid."
Sae and I were in a video call. I decided to have a video call after messaging each other on the phone. She wanted to know about my experience at the Comiket and also the fun stuff we talked about during the afterparty. I figured that it had been a while since I video called anyone so I thought why not take the chance to do so. After all, the whole event was too long to type anyways.
Sae Taniguchi was my childhood friend. We knew each other since we were in pre-school and despite not sharing the same school since then, we met every week once at a nearby cram school.
During our time at pre-school, I knew her as an emotionless twin-tailed girl. Now, she grew up to be a pretty mature girl with even more 'mature' assets. If it weren't for attending different schools, I definitely would have seen her as a potential girlfriend option. Sadly reality was cruel and I never got to experience that high school relationship.
Even though we attended the same cram school, we weren't exactly that close. If we happened to meet, we would at least greet and have some small conversations about our everyday lives. And eventually came a day when she stopped attending all together and I never got to see her again there.
Though, thanks to the advancement of technology and the power of communication, we quickly found each other again through social media. Even so, our relationship only amounted to liking each other's posts and commenting light jokes on them.
Anyways as we slowly grew up together, I too learned that she was very much into anime and manga just like me. We had a lot of fun conversations about them and since then, we started to grow closer to other similar interests. I was also glad to know she was as much of a pervert as I am as we would share a lot of dirty jokes.
Overall, I was glad to have met her and was able to have that childhood friend character in my life.
"Well, anyway, after making that doujinshi, it kind of got me a lot more interested in writing."
Sae who was surprisingly attentively listening to my speech answered genuinely while also spare no effort in making another sharky comment about it.
"Why not? You seemed like you had a lot of fun doing it. Who knows, you might finally be able to write that erotica novel you talked so much about."
"Why? Are you interested in my erotica novel?"
"Well, it'll be interesting to know what a virgin like you could do."
"In that case, I'll be sure you'll be the first to read it."
"Nobuo, dear, I am honoured to be your first."
"In that case, I'll be a man and go ahead and take all your first times!"
With that, we all laughed at our own jokes as if we were comedians who had just finished with our punchline.
I was glad to know Sae was willing to listen to me talk about my day. She had always been keen to listen to my antics. I just assumed that I had an interesting life so I went ahead and humour her. Besides, it's nice to know I have someone with whom I can genuinely brag about my fun times.
"Well, it's nice to know someone is willing to listen to my day."
"Huh? Didn't you talk about it with your girlfriend? Did she not take it well?"
"Yeah… She was initially very against my idea of doing something as reckless as selling a doujinshi based on an unpopular show. She was saying stuff like how it had more risks than rewards given all the preparation I made. She was even sure that the sales would flop."
"And then what happened?"
"Well, she wasn't pumped when I told her it didn't flop. In fact, I even earned a bit more from the cost. As soon as she heard that she just decided not to talk to me. One thing led to the other and we broke up, I guess."
"Eh… I see… Eh? Wait… What! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"You don't need to scream for that! Ah, my ears."
I said as I removed my earphones and dug my ears. Among all my friends, she had the largest reaction to my break-up news. However, she wasn't done yet.
"Wait. Why would she?"
"She said something along the lines of how she isn't interested in having a partner at that moment and how if she did, she could only see a future with someone else. Though in the end, she did say she had fun and it was a good experience. We broke up on good terms though, so I wasn't particularly sad about it. It was my first real relationship anyway so I guess it was a bit of a bummer."
"That's not really a good reason to break up at all! How did you take it so well? It sounded like she was just using you and threw you away when you were no fun at all!"
"It did sound like a very bad way of breaking up. She even went about something along the lines of "I'm asexual." I guess that's one break-up I'm never going to let go of. Hahaha."
"I'm still surprised you can laugh about it. I would have been devastated!"
"Nah… It's cool. We all still remained friends so regardless of what happened, I want to keep being friends with her. Surprisingly things aren't that awkward between us. Anyways, it's getting late now. So I'm gonna go off."
"Oh. Is that so? Alright then, good night."
"That reminds me. Thanks again for the lunch box. It'll be nice to try your cooking again…"
"Y-You can maybe come over one day! I'll cook you something again!"
"Really? That'll be awesome. Let me know when you are free. Bye-bye!"
"Mm-hmm~"
With that, I ended the call with an exchange of virtual waves.
I was surprised that I got the chance to talk about my break-up with Sae. In fact, I was even more surprised that I was willing to talk about it in more detail. Though, I guess it was because she was someone I didn't have to hide my feelings for, given that she was my childhood friend.
"Oh yeah… I better let my mom know about Sae. Mom remembered her after all. Maybe I can even tell her that Sae's a better cook than her. Ehehe~"