Sure, he gave them flowers, but this is only the very beginning of the date. What are the girls supposed to do with the flowers now? They can't just walk around with the flowers for the entire day, nor do they have anywhere to store them unless they want to pause the date and take the flowers home.

"I didn't think this through," Ryouta says.

Each of the girls looks concerned about the flowers. They both want to keep the flowers, but they know they're only going to get in the way.

"How about we just throw them out, and then I'll buy more at the end?" he asks.

Neither of them looks like they're willing to give up the first flowers he's given them, though they give different reasons.

Serra holds up her phone to show him what she's typed.

These flowers are special to me! I don't want to throw them out. They're the first flowers you've given me, so I want to keep them >///Ryouta looks at the blus.h.i.+ng emoji and then up at her face. "Hey, you're not blus.h.i.+ng at all," he says.

She quickly types something on her phone.

I'm blus.h.i.+ng on the inside!

"You're a dork, Serra Berra."

She wasn't blus.h.i.+ng before, but hearing that cute nickname for her does make her blush.

"It'd be a pain for you to have to buy more flowers, and I doubt they were cheap, so don't worry about it," Ca.s.sandra says.

Whereas Serra wasn't blus.h.i.+ng from rejecting his offer, Ca.s.sandra is.

Ca.s.sandra's near-constant blus.h.i.+ng really makes Ryouta want to bully her so that she blushes even more.

Alright, he's got another idea, but it's taking a lot of courage to say it.

"My uhh, my place is nearby if you want to just… drop the flowers off there. I can put them in some cups with water, and then we can go out," Ryouta says.

The girls look at one another with reddened cheeks.

Yeah, they're thinking exactly what he was worried they were going to think.

"Don't get me wrong! I – I don't intend on doing anything, just dropping the flowers off. You don't even have to come inside or anything like that. You can just wait downstairs if you want," he tries correcting whatever thoughts they may have.

Serra pouts as if she's disappointed, and Ca.s.sandra can't make eye contact with him.

Ryouta doesn't know what's going through their heads now, but he leads them back to his apartment building.

Serra shows more of her bold nature during the walk by grabbing onto his right hand with her left, holding it as they walk.

They have already held hands in-game quite a few times before, and it feels the exact same as it does in-game thanks to just how incredibly realistic the game is, yet he can't help but feel that this is different – that this is special. Whereas before, it was just holding hands with an avatar, now he's holding hands with the real Serra.

What surprises him is when his other hand is grabbed.

He looks to his left and sees Ca.s.sandra holding her bouquet in her left hand with her right hand shakily holding onto his left. She's looking away so that he can't see her face, but he can see the red tips of her ears.

Walking down the street with girls – no, not just any girls, but two incredibly cute girls holding onto his hands, he can feel the jealous stares of other men and disgusted looks of those against polygamy as they walk by.

Ca.s.sandra finds this all far too embarra.s.sing, and Ryouta can feel her hand constantly in a state of deciding between squeezing harder and letting go, but she refuses to let go for as long as Serra is still holding onto his hand.

As for Serra, she doesn't seem to have the slightest care that some people are judging them. If anything, she's been smiling the entire time and doesn't even think about letting go of Ryouta's hand.

Ryouta is between them both figuratively and literally. He feels the same embarra.s.sment that Ca.s.sandra feels, but doesn't even think about letting go of their hands.

Sure, some people may be judging him, but he can't let them get to him. What kind of man would he be if he cared about what others thought?

He doesn't want to be the kind of man who is afraid of expressing his affection for Serra and Ca.s.sandra. He won't be some wimp who caves in to pressure. He wants to be the kind of man that they can proudly call their boyfriend.

Ryouta embraces his inner Fenrir and Divine Brigade leader by tightly, but not too tightly, squeezing their hands and pulling them closer to his sides than they were before.

He doesn't know if he has the confidence to do anything more than this with them, but he can at least man up enough to proudly hold them close to him.

Serra happily leans her head against his arm. As for Ca.s.sandra, tired of being the least forward one here, she continues holding his hand but uses her other arm to grab onto his and hug it against her. The bouquet of flowers hides her hugging his arm from everybody, but it doesn't stop what Ryouta is feeling.

Sweater.

b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

His arm.

He has a feeling that this is intended, yet he also has a feeling that he is going to be killed both in-game and in real life if he says anything.

Fortunately for Ca.s.sandra, he would not dare to ruin this moment by saying anything about it.

Everything that he has always believed but never experienced about the combination of a sweater and a woman's b.r.e.a.s.t.s is true.

This is what heaven is like.

Ryouta is in such a stupid state of bliss that he doesn't realize when he walks right past his apartment building. He only realizes his mistake when he sees the McFonalds that always has an annoying amount of people in line at it.

"... we pa.s.sed it," Ryouta says.

Serra just smiles at him when he tells them that, but Ca.s.sandra glares at him.

She believes that he pa.s.sed it on purpose so that she would be stuck holding onto his arm in such an embarra.s.sing way for a longer time.

He wants to say that she doesn't have to keep holding onto his arm if she doesn't want to, but he doubts that would go over well.

They finally make it to his apartment building. He offers that they can wait in the lobby if they want to instead of heading upstairs with him, but they refuse.

His hands are only finally let go of when he has to operate the elevator.

And then they are grabbed right back onto until he reaches the door of his apartment.

Now, they are not doing this to be clingy. Instead, it is because Serra is teasing Ca.s.sandra as much as she wants to be lovey-dovey with Ryouta.

Serra knows that Ca.s.sandra hates losing or being in second place, so she keeps on holding Ryouta's hand and getting more intimate with it and his arm because she knows that Ca.s.sandra is going to try and match her.

Ryouta isn't wise to this.

Finally, they reach his apartment's door.

He unlocks it, opens it, and then immediately shuts it.

The girls look at him in confusion.

Serra holds up her phone to ask what's wrong.

Ca.s.sandra looks suspicious.

"I uhh – I wasn't, exactly, you know, planning on you two coming over. So could I just – would you mind waiting out here while I go clean things up real quick? Or just wait here and let me go put the flowers in some water, and then we'll go. It won't take me more than five minutes. Promise," Ryouta explains.

The girls look at each other and agree to let him head in first.

"Alright, I'll be right back out."

Ryouta is very careful to open the door just barely enough to give him the s.p.a.ce required to slip inside without letting the girls see past him.

He doesn't notice Serra use part of her sleeve to stick it between the door and the frame to prevent it from fully closing.

Serra looks back at Ca.s.sandra and gives her a thumbs-up.

"You're more mischievous than you look," Ca.s.sandra says, making sure to look at Serra straight on as she talks so that reading her lips will be easier.

Serra's eyes s.h.i.+ne, considering that a compliment.

The door slowly opens to give the girls a chance to peek in. Serra is crouching a bit so that Ca.s.sandra can peek over her.

Ryouta has his pants rolled up which reveals the two metallic braces supporting his legs. They extend from his ankles up to his thighs and are connected to metal ports sticking out from the skin of his legs. They are less of braces and more like exoskeletons.

The girls have heard of this before. When amputation isn't required, those who suffer injuries to their limbs can get plates and screws implanted into their limbs which can work in tandem with thin exoskeletons to give them full functionality rather than partial.

They can also see just how covered in scars his legs are. Whether they are injury or medical scars, they can't tell, but it's clear that something happened to his legs.

Ryouta rubs the skin that the exoskeletons aren't covering. "Hate these d.a.m.n things, but can't go looking like a loser around them," he says to himself, not noticing that the door is open and the girls are watching.

Ca.s.sandra is careful to close the door without it making any noise.

She and Serra look at one another and come to an understanding without words to not bring up what they saw. They both look like they regret ever opening the door and looking inside.

They were so fixated on his legs that they didn't even notice how messy his apartment is.

The door opens up a couple of minutes later. "Alright, I got everything cleaned," Ryouta says.

By "cleaned," he really means that he shoved everything either behind or underneath his couch, or in his closet.

"Is something wrong?" he asks them when he notices how worried they look.

They realize they're giving themselves away and try to perk up. "You made us wait too long," Ca.s.sandra says.

Ryouta smiles and rubs the back of his head. "Sorry, it was really messy. You can come in now and rest for a little bit if you want to."

The girls step inside and look around.

One of the first things that they see is two bouquets of flowers sitting on the kitchen counter. Rather than be in vases like they're supposed to be, they're in bottles of hard cider.

Ryouta realizes how it looks and waves his arms to reject their concerns. "Don't worry! They were empty, and I washed them out before filling them with water, so it's fine."

They still look unimpressed, but Serra can't keep up the façade for long before she starts giggling.

Hearing her laugh in real life is different from how she laughs in-game. It sounds less natural – like she doesn't know how to laugh. Yet, at the same time, it's incredibly endearing and sounds really cute in its own way.

He would have thought that being able to talk and laugh in-game would help her do so more naturally in real life, but he guesses not.

"This is a nice place. How the heck are you affording it?" Ca.s.sandra asks. "I wish I lived in a place half as nice as this. It's s.p.a.cious, is this high up – you're living the dream up here, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Ca.s.sandra realizes she brought up a sensitive subject when she sees a flash of his gloomy expression.

He forces himself to smile. "Ah, I'm the son of some super-rich parents who work with energy production. I poisoned them so that I could inherit all of their money, obviously," he jokes. "Just kidding. Well, about the super-rich and poisoning parts. I just inherited it. Probably going to have to get a real job here sometime soon though since I'm starting to run out," he explains.

"If you inherited it, does that mean—" Ca.s.sandra cuts herself off when she realizes she might be getting too personal, but it's too late.

"Yeah. Autocar accident a few years ago."

"I'm sorry, I—"

"Don't worry about it, Ca.s.s Ca.s.s. It's the past. You would have figured it out one way or another eventually, and I'm at peace with it, so don't worry about it."

Serra has been standing off to the side watching their faces as they converse. She didn't pick up on everything that they were saying, but she read their lips to understand enough.

"I'm still sorry," Ca.s.sandra apologizes.

"So stubborn. Anyways, what can I say? Cars are pretty much the rivals to my life. They've been s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with me ever since I was a kid," he explains, trying to talk in a lighthearted tone and making self-depreciative jokes to take away from the seriousness of the situation.

It just makes the girls look even sadder for him.

He realizes that he's s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up and making things awkward, so he proposes that they get on with the rest of their date. He doesn't want today to get ruined by anything stupid like being sad over things that happened years ago. "Come on, I tried planning a fun day for us," he says, grabbing their hands and leading them out of his apartment.