(Un) Fortunately the Yandere is Not After Me

Shared Tastes

"Honestly, I don't really know the mall all that well." He admitted. "So maybe we can just walk around until they expect us?" Arata offered the idea, but she had other plans.

"There's a pretty popular otaku shop here." She said. "We can check it out, since you've never been there before." That was true, he had never been there before. Mostly because he wanted to avoid going to any place where other high school students frequented.

"Are you sure?" He responded. "I don't want to bore you with my hobbies." It might've seemed like a good idea for him, but Arata didn't want things to only be fun for just one of them. Surely there would be something that they both could enjoy.

"I wouldn't be very bored if we went there." She started off bashfully, before turning much more flustered. "B-but, I'm not an oktau or anything." He turned his eyes down in response, it almost felt like an insult with how embarrassed with that idea. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." She could see how it hurt him a little.

"It's okay, I'd rather you be honest about it."

"No, it's not that." It was hard to explain, but it just that she never had anyone also interested in reading manga. "I like reading a lot in my free time, but... I just never had anyone to talk about it with. So I'm just a little nervous."

Arata felt this revelation was a bit late. It's not like his now revealed secret was new to them. It's been at least two months since then. Why the hesitation, especially given the response from others. It's not like anyone was going to make fun of them, even Yogi's cousin was into this stuff.

"I don't know why you'd be so nervous now." Funny, coming from someone that was so desperate to hide his own secret. "Everyone likes you, I bet if you told the entire school about it. I bet people who used to not be interested might decide to give it a shot."

"..." She thought about it for a little while. Then choose not to say anything in response to his statement. Instead, she took his hand. "If you're ready, we should head over to that store."

"Okay?" He replied, a bit confused with her demeanor here. But he wasn't going to pursue the issue. Arata got up from his seat, and followed her. As he had no idea where this store was.

When they arrived, Arata couldn't help but be amazed at the size of the place. It truly was a sight to behold compared to the store he usually frequented. The glass windows displayed everything from large standees to posters promoting the latest releases.

"Wow..." He exclaimed to himself. "This looks so cool."

"It does look really nice."

"So have you ever been here before?" He asked her, since he was surprisingly the novice here.

"No." She shook her head in response. Despite seeing it multiple times when shopping here. She never had the desire to go in alone, nor did she want to ask anyone If they wanted to come along. "This is new for me too."

"All right then, let's see what they have to offer." The two entered the store. If it looked impressive on the outside, then it was absolutely mystical on the inside. Arata couldn't believe that so many different products could fit in a unit of this size. Yet here he was, in the middle of it all. However, there was one thing that caught his eye most of all.

It was a copy of the first volume of the popular shojo manga, 'Girl Under Blossoms'. A story about a less fortunate girl that enrolls in a school for the wealthy. The physical copy that he was looking before his very eyes happened to be a limited re-release for the holidays.

"I didn't realize that you were into that type of manga." She approached behind him. His excitement was hardly contained, so it wasn't hard to know how he was feeling.