If you consider that Megumi was a countryside girl you can understand that the way she acted was pretty normal, someone who is not used to have a boyfriend tend to do this type of things. Megumi was not like Ayase who at this point was on her fourth relationship, but this was a different relationship than the ones that she had before, this one was the type of relation that we all have experienced at least once.

One sided relationships tend to hurt more than regular relationships of boyfriends and girlfriends, even when Ayase moved with Josh to Fukuoka, their relationship remained the same, they lived together but Josh was not the type of person who would get advantage of this situation, besides he got used to have Ayase play the Ero game every day, it was pretty normal for Ayase to come naked out the bath meanwhile Josh kept working.

“You are going to get a cold if you don’t dress” said Josh while looking at the computer

Ayase noted that she may have made a mistake when she thought that she would get Josh attention doing the same crap over and over, she was not bad looking and had pretty nice figure, pretty decent measures compared to Megumi but then again, her attempts to get Josh attention kept being futile so after a couple of months she just decided to play the sister role with Josh.

This change of attitude made Josh pay more attention to her which made her happy, it was not like he didn’t want sexual contact with her, his goal was still on his sight, get the residence and get his dream done which was write a novel and become a recognized writer. He was planning to get a girlfriend once those goal were complete so his current goal towards that secondary goal was to examine Japanese girl’s behavior silent and Ayase was his research material.

So, to accomplish two goals in one, Josh decided to take Ayase on a date, she got really excited for the idea of going out as in a date, they usually go out during the nights but they were not considered dates as they use to have dinner outside, they didn’t like to cook after work

“Thank you for sharing you time with me today”

Josh was looking at Ayase while she was saying those words

“I also want to apologize for being so boring, I know you used to go out for drinks with Greg at Sendai very often”

“That’s ok, I needed a change of pace”

They were walking during the sunset and Ayase wanted to grab his hand but she could not get the courage to grab his hand and then she saw a guy who participated on the Hadaka Matsuri festival, he was almost naked and then she stumbled and Josh grabbed her hand

“Are you ok? Don’t let go my hand ok?”

Ayase felt how her heart started racing when Josh grabbed her hand, she didn’t grab Josh hand alone, she decided to grab his arm and Josh didn’t stopped her

“You know? Even if I’m just research material….”

Wait, Josh haven’t told Ayase that she was research material at all, it was supposed to be a secret

“You will need to research about this sooner or later”

Ayase pulled Josh to a wall, her back was against the wall and Josh was really close to her, Josh was able to stop by putting his hands on the wall but then

““Uhnn, uhnn…”

Ayase tongue was inside Josh mouth who didn’t stop her, unfortunately for Ayase, Josh didn’t feel that the moment was special, the kiss was not long enough to make Josh go wild on her, it had the opposite effect.

She stopped kissing him and lowered her head

“Let’s go back”

Josh felt a bit of guilt after what happened because it looked like Ayase was expecting something else to happen. It was true that Josh was using her as research material but he didn’t want to use her any further after that, he didn’t want to hurt her anymore after realizing that she wanted more from him.

Josh was able to finish the book he was writing and sent it to an editorial in Tokyo, he didn’t get a positive feedback about it and he got depressed, Ayase noticed that he was struggling, he had to realize that getting good feedback as writer is not that simple, he was not a genius, he was not meant to success on the first attempt.

After a couple of days, he wrote another story, this time the story was a sci fi story, he showed Ayase his work and she told him that it was a bit boring, this was not something Japanese people would like. He started to get frustrated after his second attempt.

“I don’t want to be rude Josh, but you are a bit arrogant if you think your job will get good reviews on just two attempts”

Josh knew that what Ayase was saying was correct

“Do you think that all the writers in Japan have it easy? They are so competitive and never give up, it may take several years for them to be recognized”

Josh lowered his head as if he didn’t want to listen what Ayase was saying

“You don’t have to give up but you don’t have to expect too much if you are an amateur writer”

And then the words that reached the deepest ego of Josh were spoken

“Japanese will never accept the work of a foreigner to be published as Light Novel”

Josh grabbed his coat and went outside, what Ayase said was just reality, Josh was not used to hear the truth from another person than him.

He went for a walk, he tried to rearrange his thoughts and overcome this situation, he was so frustrated at this point and needed some fresh air. He went back home after a couple of hours walking around and when he came back Ayase was already sleep. He knew that Ayase was not trying to hurt him and he knew she was right, he then placed his hand on her forehead and then kissed her forehead.

“Thank you….”

“…. You are back”

“Yea”

She sat on the bed

“I’m sorry for….”

“You don’t have to apology”

“look, I’m Sagitarius and that…….”

Josh placed his finger on Ayase lips trying to make her stop talking

“You are right, I was just being arrogant”

She then stopped trying to speak

“You opened my eyes, I won’t give up writing until my dream become true, even if I accomplish it in the afterlife”

Josh looked at Ayase and then

“Sorry I woke you up”

“That’s ok, you can buy me an ice cream tomorrow as apology”