Susumu is sitting on the floor next to the bed, fiddling with his phone, while Ayano's eyes are transfixed to the screen, altering his voice samples.
Susumu then stands up and extends his back, then comes up to the window and notices that grey clouds have fully covered the orange sky, predicting that it would rain soon,
And, to his astonishment, it begins to rain; the rainwater rolls down the window; I've cast my vote for the raindrop near the bottom; that droplet is clearly going to win.
Oh no, why are you moving more slowly!? …The one in front of it took the lead and won... Oh dear, I seem to have forgotten that I have to pay attention to the other two people in the room.
Susumu moves away from the glass and observes Ayano's screen, where she appears to be creating some digital art for a background. She appears to be really absorbed in it as well.
She also has headphones on, she must be listening to music. If you ask me, she might be listening to some lo-fi hip hop.
He takes a step back and pulls out his phone before opening the door and exiting the room. He contacts his mother, and she answers almost immediately, "Susumu-kun!? Where are you?" she asks, sounding concerned.
"Don't worry, I'm at a friend's house, and before you ask, I'm not drenched in rainwater," Susumu replies, holding the phone to his ear.
"That's fine... I suppose the rain will stop by tomorrow morning, so it's best if you stay overnight with your friend," his mother says, sighing.
Susumu blinks twice before mumbling into the phone, "Staying overnight with a friend?"
"Yes! You do know the last time you went and stayed over at somebody's house was... never, oh sorry, you did stay over at Takashi-kun's house once, but you left suddenly, so that doesn't count... Just make sure to ask for a change of clothes so you can get out of that stuffy school uniform," his mother responds cheerfully.
Susumu clicks his tongue, "The problem is, I'm at a girl's house right now, so their clothes won't fit m—"
"YOU SAID WHAT?!?" his mother yells into the phone, and he covers his ear, saying, "P—please don't shout, you heard what I said clearly, mum."
"A girl's house? I can't believe it—" His mother responds faintly as she pulls herself away from the phone, "—Honey, Susumu-kun finally has a girlfriend!"
"Susumu-chan have a girlfriend? Make sure he takes excellent care of her," his father says in the distance. Susumu hides his ashamed face with his palm, "She's not my girlfriend, I already introduced her to you two; she's Shinsato Ayano, remember?"
His mother then returns to the phone, sounding discouraged, she says, "Oh right, I must have overreacted again, my fault!" She then pauses for a time, perhaps muttering something to his father?
She then returns and says through the phone, "W—well, just be sure to get home tomorrow, bye!"
"W—wait!" he said in an attempt to prevent his mother from ending the phone call, but the call had already ended, and he sighed as he returned to the room.
As he reaches for the doorknob, the door unexpectedly opens; he didn't even touch the door, yet it opened nonetheless; is he a magician? Oh, it was simply Ayano, who was perplexed as to why he had left the room so abruptly.
"What were you doing, Ishibashi-san?" Ayano inquired, keeping her hands behind her back, to which he replied nonchalantly, "My mother said I'll be sleeping here overnight."
Susumu enters the room and closes the door behind him. Ayano then turns around and walks toward the window, "I guess it makes sense." She peers out the window to watch the rain.
Ayano then walks over to her computer and opens a file, saying, "Well, I think now is the perfect moment to continue with those voice samples, what do you think?" She takes a step back and motions to the microphone.
Susumu nods complacently as he walks over to the microphone, Ayano walks over to her bed and sits herself comfortably, as he grabs the microphone, he begins to read the lines visible on the screen, it isn't as provocative as before. But it's a lot gentler than the line he did a while back.
(+ TIME ADVANCE +)
The sky has darkened and the rain is still falling after what appears to be hours of voice acting. "That was extremely fantastic, Ishibashi-san," she says as he sits on the carpet in her room and Ayano begins processing his voice samples.
Susumu then puts his head on his hand and murmurs, "Thanks..." He then glances at Ayano with a 'Wow! I have a million questions for her! '
He then questions her, not two, three, or four times! But one time, "Sorry if I sound intrusive, but did you also voice some of the characters here?"
"I voice the female lead, Horie Yoshie, who is also the main love interest of the main character," Ayano responds.
she says as she pauses her typing and twists the chair to face Susumu, "If you were wondering, the character you are voicing is the main character's best friend, Konno Hisashi."
"How many characters are you going to make? There are only two of us, after all; wouldn't it be weird if the two of us voiced all the characters?" he asks, tilting his head.
Ayano then crosses her legs and rests her arms on the armrest, saying, "I do intend to invite additional individuals into this project, but the issue is—"
"—You don't want anyone in our class to find out you're an otaku, do you?" Susumu finishes the sentence for her; she shifts her gaze away from him before slowly nodding.
"Maybe I could invite one of my cousins... but most of them are younger than me; even worse, none of them have any voice acting experience..." he begins scratching his chin as he puts on his imaginary thinking cap with his imaginary hand.
He then looks at Ayano, who has returned to typing on her keyboard, and asks, "You have other acquaintances, right?" Ayano responds, "Yes, why do you ask?"
Susumu inquires, "Do they know you're an otaku?" Ayano replies, "No."
"Why don't you tell them about it?"
As she hears those words exit his mouth, Ayano's eyes widen, and she stops typing; she had never considered informing her other friends that she was, in fact, an otaku.
"I'm not planning on telling them for a bit, not until I'm done with this visual novel, at least," she chuckles. Susumu sees behind her statement, she genuinely wants to tell them, but she can't bring herself to tell them because she's frightened of being mocked as an otaku.
Susumu lifts himself off the floor and wanders up to the window to observe the darkened clouds that is still covering the entire town in which he lives in.
There is an uneasy stillness in the room; if those two could hear me, I would try to start a conversation because I can hear the clock ticking constantly! I'm dying from the silence.
Suddenly, a stomach growls—wait, numerous stomachs growl—the two suspects being Ayano and Susumu.
To say the least, it was humiliating.
The two of them glance down at their stomachs, and Ayano stands up and walks to the door, "I—I just have instant noodles, if that's okay with you."
Susumu turns his head just enough to see her, but not enough to display his apparent blush. "Sure," he says.
Ayano exits the room, Susumu begins scanning the room. He spots a little table in the corner of the room and takes it up before setting it on top of the carpet. He then gets a couple of cushions and places them near the table.
As he sits on the pillow, waiting for his instant cup noodles, he pulls out his phone and begins fiddling with it.
Ayano knocks on the door after what appears to be an hour of waiting, but is actually just 10 minutes; he crawls over to the door and stands up before opening it; once the door is wide open, he sees that she is carrying two bowls of noodles.
"Thank you," she remarks with a smile, then looks over his shoulder and sees the table is set up, before returning her gaze to Susumu and asking, "You prepared all of this?"
"Well, we have nowhere else to sit, you know," Susumu says as he walks back to the table and sits on the pillow. Ayano walks up to the table before placing down the two cups; she sits and says, "We could have eaten in the dining room."
"You knocked on the door with the two cup noodles in your hands," he scratches his black shaggy hair. "I knocked because I was about to call you the dining room," she puffs her cheeks.
"Whatever you say, mom," he responds sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
Ayano laughs after hearing him uttering his 'mom' remark, and the two of them take up their chopsticks off the table before stating in unison, "Time to dig in."
They begin to eat; I've never enjoyed narrating people eating, so I'll simply do what I do best and skip this portion altogether!
*Acceleration of a tape, followed by pausing*
Susumu throws the empty cup of noodles into the rubbish can, he has taken off his suit jacket and watches the rain pour down the window.
He then returns to the room and sees Ayano sitting back in her chair, having just completed brushing her teeth and hammering away on the keyboard as if her life depended on it, he sighs and says, "You should take a break, Shinsato-san."
He walks over to her desk and places his hand on it. She removes her headphones and looks at him, saying, "I can still work on the game, I'm not sleepy or anything." He squints his eyes and sees beneath her purple eyes, which have evident eyebags.
"I can see your eyebags, it's better if you went to sleep now," he shakes his head. Ayano's eyes widen as she begins to touch her eyebags, "Wh— I thought I hid those with cosmetics!"
Susumu then grabs Ayano by the arms and drags her over to her bed, Ayano squirms in his grip as she says "P—put me down! I can still work on the visual novel!" He then scolds her, "It's in your best interest to get a good amount of rest!"
"Fine—" Something clicks in her thoughts, "Where are you going to sleep, by the way?" He glances away as he sharply exhales, "I can just sleep on the floor near the bedside, there's nothing wrong with that, right?"
Ayano's angry expression shifts to a worrisome one, "Are you sure?" Susumu gives her the thumbs up, "I am really sure." I'm sure he'll wake up with a sore back.
"Good night, Shinsato-san," he says as he walks up to the light switch, shuts it off, and walks over to the bedside before sitting down.
"Good night, Ishibashi-san," Ayano whispers as she wraps her blanket around him. The two of them close their eyes.