1:11 PM

It's fair weather today in Merumeru. Again, the Venetian-like architecture here with buildings made out of brick in muted colors of gray, yellow, and red. Well, at least the buildings near the station that is.

I'm admiring the ambience here, because it's dreadful here at the restaurant that Tomo requested to meet up at. No, not that the restaurant's dreadful.

Miko and I are sitting our butts on a table outside of Bo's Italian Cravings. Her laptop's already set up and running, while we're like tarsiers staring at a fixed point.

"U-uh..." I can feel Miko's voice trembling. "W-why a pleasant afternoon Tomochii~!" She exclaimed with recovery, waving back and forth.

I simply nodded towards her and waved quite cutely yet effortlessly.

Tomo continued to growl silence, as she stumbled on a seat, hanging her bag behind it.

"The Most Mysterious Person I Met" is still the appropriate title for her, at least for me.

It's not everyday that you can easily tell what people feel by their faces. If you have the theory of mind to do so everyday, then good. I wish everyone's like that; easy to tell if you're happy, sad, or angry, or easily be readable by other people of how you feel. Or most importantly, not leaving dying and miserable souls aside as if you haven't noticed them.

Contrast to what I'm talking about is another paradox of time travel. If you want to go back to your home timeline without disrupting it into chaos or accidentally dumping your girlfriend, not conversing with people you encounter is not enough to avoid that catastrophe, but rather you needn't be encountered. Basically, avoiding people that see you. The eyes of the people are enough to tilt time-traveling.

"S-so uhm, Tomo... How's classes today?" Miko tried to stir the silence, her trembling voice seemed to adapt to the atmosphere we're currently in right now.

"O-oh!" Tomo sprang with bliss. "It's a fine day. Always great and dandy with the Business Management and Accounting classes! Ahehehe..."

"...I forgot to ask when your last period ends, so it's around one in the afternoon then?" I asked towards Tomo.

"Yup! That's my sched' for Wednesday." She replied with a clap.

Okay, I think the dread's been stabilized.

"So what will both of 'ya order, Akko? Mikochii?" asked Tomo, as she and Miko grabbed a menu from the table's container.

"Italian cravings huh?" I mumbled whilst glancing at the menu.

Miko stood up and raised her hand. "Oooh, I'll have their Risotto signature dish!"

"Er, I'll have their pesto pasta." That was a mouthful.

"Gnocchi for me." Tomo monotonously said out loud.

I grabbed the thin sheet of paper and tiny pen that was on the container as well. The texture and size is akin to a receipt you'd receive in a grocery, but it's actually a checklist for you on what to order.

"Guys, I'll just fill up your order here."

"Thanks a bunch, Akko!" Miko put her hands together with a glance at my direction, then shifted her direction back to her laptop.

Huh, so that's how they order things around here, just tick the boxes of what you want to order and specify the quantity on the right-hand side if you need to order more than one, then just give it to the waiter when they walk towards you. Clever doing things here I must say.

Heck, it would be fun if you solely used this as your menu, not the one us three are using with pictures to tell what the heck you're ordering. That would be an additional tip for blind dates out there, heh, get it?

After a few moments, a waiter approached our table, "Hello Ma'am, Sir, how may I take your order?" he said as he looked at each and one of us.

Without anything to say, I presented the little paper that I filled up as our order.

"Oh, thank you for your added service and conveniently ordering with us." He gladly took the paper from me, and proceeded inside of the restaurant.

Wait, almost everyone who comes here didn't know this handy paper exists? On the other hand, it kind of sucks that you'll never get to converse with the waiter that way.

I felt a tap on my right shoulder.

"Hm?" I looked at Tomo.

"Wait Akko, so you're saying that your last period ends today at around 12PM?"

I nodded.

"Seriously? Shucks, 'explains why you arrived early. Apologies, I forgot to ask earlier in the campus when our dismissal times are." she gestured a fist then poked it on to her head, letting out her tongue with a Woops!

"It's fine, what matters is you nearly forgot where to eat, the place's enough at least."

"Akkooo, over here, over here!" Miko waved her hand inwards. I then dragged my seat just beside her.

"Photoshop you say? Forgive me later if I'll be a whack at it." One huge downside to me is that if the thing mentioned isn't one, if it's not in front of me, and two if it's not mine, it'll be like a terrible short-term memory loss where it feels like the knowledge doesn't exist in my head.

Miko then navigated around the interface, the opened document seemed to look like a corporate logo in progress, but I guess she needs to do some fine-tweaking that she doesn't know that I know.

To be frank, I know how to use every piece of software that I've come across just by navigating and experiencing things around. I'm not a fan of watching tutorials or getting to know tips and tricks online-I mean, that's an adventure of its own, isn't it? But at the end of day, I can assure you that I'm still a klutz in around 99% of the software I use, including Photoshop.

Miko then pointed around the rim of the logo in the document, "So I kind of don't know how to simply change the color of the rim here. The problem is that I exported it in my sketch application, so this is just an image file I'm editing. Simply put, I don't want to sketch this part of the logo because it's too perfect to be redrawn again."

"Hmm, does your sketch application have any layers like in the canvas or something?" I asked.

"I sort of remember, but I only used Layer 1, woopsies!"

Woopsies indeed.

Not to rant, but that's what I observed around people the majority of the time. They didn't know this convenient feature exists, or that they have a calendar, to-do list, clock, and many more features on their so-called "smartphone" (that's why they still have a physical calendar and to-do list). Or it just happens to be a preference for people to do things the old fashion way?

"Hmm..." I leaned more towards Miko's side to better see the screen, "Have you tried to add a new layer then use the Color layer type?"

"Ah, let's give it a try shall we?"

Step-by-step, I guided Miko on creating the layer, setting the blending of the layer to Color, then asked her to choose a color she wanted to replace with and brush tool the whole rim.

"Huh, this is darker than the brush..."

"Try masking it with a brightness/contrast adjustment" In layman's terms, applying a 'filter' to the Color layer to make the color brighter.

Miko's face flinched into shock as she slowly fine-tuned the brightness of the edit, like she just got vaccinated with joy, "WOW! Okay, this remedy is real enough!" she bumped my shoulder with her fist, "Thankiess Akko, wow you should teach me more Photohshop some other time, hehe..."

"No problem, though I pretty much don't know where to start when it comes to me teaching anything..." Hence, I'm the worst candidate for being a teacher.

"Or-let's put it this way, I'll chat with you anytime if I'm stumbling across things like this, don't you mind?"

"I don't mind."

"Yippie!" Miko raised her hands up like a congratulatory cheer of some sorts, "Okay okay, save... then that's it for today!" she hit the save button then closed down her laptop, putting it back in her leather bag.

While my eyes were fixed between Miko and her laptop, I can see to some extent that Tomo's been silent the whole time, even to the point where her eyes were only visible; seeing that her phone is in the way, but I can tell she's somewhat darting her eyes between us then back at her phone.

"Hey Tomochii, are you alright there?" Miko asked.

"Ah-yeah!" she replied, her face no longer obscured by her phone.

Even though she says she's fine, I somewhat doubt it since her face looks like she's facing problems between us, specifically me.

I was afraid that the atmosphere might revert back to its dreadfulness, but it's just in time that the waiter came back to us with our order.

"Here's your order; one Risotto, Pesto Pasta, and Gnocchi." He placed all three dishes in the center of our table, with each of us having a glass of water in front of us (probably because we didn't specify any orders for our drinks...). He bowed with the tray held parallel to his torso in front of him. After he left, I handed over their orders in front of them. Thank you, both of them said.

"Alriiight, time to eat~!" Miko graciously exclaimed with a poise clap, as she munched on to her Risotto.

Tomo and I stared at her for a moment, she's probably having the same hunch in my mind around the lines of 'Ah, eating with someone makes the food even more appetizing'. After a moment, we also munched on our pasta and gnocchi that she ordered.

I grabbed my fork to grab the pasta, and popped it in my mouth, slurping the really long heft of the pasta I got.

Slurppp~

Come to think of it, I've been eating with friends lately. Holy cow, is this how delicious food is when you're eating with people, not just by yourself? Well darn, I gotta thank Ala-chan for that tip she gave to me, especially the waffle galore we have been doing for dozens of times now.

⁂

Eating and slurping our food for the past 20 minutes or so, all three of us are almost done with our dishes. We're like pregnant women caressing our stomachs, but in reality we're just feeling how full our stomachs are.

"Ahh~" Miko exclaimed of her great fullness of her food, "I knew its signature dishes were really delicious!"

While I'm here struggling to leave no leftover of my pesto pasta, as I ate very slowly. Honestly, I get pressured when I eat slowly, while the rest are already done.

Glancing to my left, it seems like Tomo isn't done with her food as well, her face somehow looks like she's gonna puke as she hopelessly tries to finish her Gnocchi.

"Eughh.." she faintly groaned from her full stomach, "A-Akko, don't you mind finishing my food?"

I shook my head.

"Hmm..." Tomo's wondering if it's a good idea to give my food despite asking me already, "Okay, here you go." She slid her Gnocchi dish in front of me.

Even though my stomach feels like it's going to explode, it felt like a great idea to eat in alternating patterns between my pasta and her Gnocchi. You know, training taste buds to change up things a bit.

In the end, it was a delicious yet great stomachache for me. Like frick—even I can see that my stomach is bulging from how full I am.

At least I ain't leaving any leftover behind, you know some restaurants charge you for leaving leftovers. Augh. But thinking about it, why leave some food over you just luxuriously paid for, right?

After emptying two dishes, I flipped open my phone and checked the time.

"Huh, it's already 1:35 in the afternoon?" I muttered.

"Eh?" Miko's eyes puffed like pufferfish, "Oh wait, I still have a class to attend to at around two!"

"Err, is your uni that far from here?"

"N-no, it's walking distance from here, so nothing to worry about-speaking of which, let's take a groufie with your phone, Akko!"

Up to this point, I don't know what's a groufie, but what I do know is the term selfie.

So a groufie is a selfie with multiple peop—Oooh...

"Oh Tomo, drag your chair closer to me so you can fit in." I said.

I oddly extended my arm outward while holding my flip phone landscape. I say oddly because I barely ever take a selfie of myself, let alone a groufie. I look like one of those weird uncles trying to do a selfie for the first time.

But wait, this is a flip phone, the camera on the front is certainly worse than the rear right, so what do I do?

I flipped the screen part of the flip phone so that the rear camera becomes the front, and the front becomes the rear. As I did that, both Tomo and Miko were amazed at me flipping the screen, like I can hear both of them saying "Ooooo..." in their faintly voices.

"Alrighttyy, say cheesee~!" Miko exclaimed, as I pressed the "Ok" button to take a picture. After that, I flipped back the camera so the screen is now in front, and holding the phone portrait and near towards us three, I showed to them the picture.

"Mhm! Looks good and--my gosh Akko, you just did what you did yesterday with a blank face and a peace sign, haha!" Miko pointed to me in the photo, making me a laughingstock.

"Ehe..." Tomo giggled a bit at that compliment of hers.

"Tch..."

Miko patted-or rather smacked her palm-on to my head, "Oh come on Akko, it's you! Don't hate yourself for that, ahahaha..."

After we converted ourselves from being livestock to a herd of laughingstock, we cleared the table of our stuff. As originally planned, Tomo will be paying for the lunch for us both, but Miko is here. However, I negotiated with them that I'll be contributing the bill for Miko's part, but two-thirds of the total payment still goes to Tomo. Good thing I have an exact amount for Miko, otherwise there'll be change in the bill, and splitting that is a whole nother story.

Miko then formed a triangle out of her arms on the table, then bowed to me, "My gosh, thank you Akko!" said gracefully like I was Buddha.

"Oh it's nothing."

"Oi, let's get going." Tomo stood up from her seat, walking towards the huge brick pathway

"Heyy, don't be in such a rush, Tomochii!" Miko uttered, as we both followed.

Just a few moments after we were separated, we're once again assembled dead center at the pavements, with people passing by here and there.

We had a little talk while we're at it. Then as time goes tick-and-tock, Miko had to part ways with us as she'll need to attend afternoon classes back at her university.

"...Yeah guys, I'll be taking my leave from here-by the way Akko, send that picture earlier to our group convo, let's make Alachii drool in envy, hehe..." Miko rubbed her hands, as if she's scheming some heist with friends or something.

"Alright Miko, you take care..." Tomo instead replied, with an ever-so abysmal and monotonous tone.

She then began walking away; the direction opposite to the way of the train station, "Bye Akko, Tomochii, have a great day you two~" as she waved with a huge arc, just like how Ala-chan does it. Surprisingly, Tomo and I waved back with tiny arcs, and a wave that's somewhat cute and requires little pumping energy to do, opposite to that of Miko's.

From facing Miko, my direction shifted to my left, also facing down, to Tomo. "So uhm, what do we do now? It's going to be 2 o'clock."

"Hmm, want to visit my house? I'll introduce you to my parents if you like."

"Sure, 'have no things to do the entire day anyway." Or rather—this is a bad idea—I'm nervous about meeting up with her parents, this is sudden for me!

We walked in the direction back to the train station, side-by-side.

While we took a walk, I flipped back open my cellphone from my pockets, navigating back-and-forth between the picture we took and the group conversation screen, because I have no idea how to upload this picture to the conversation. No choice, I had to at least ask Tomo if she knew how. I mean-assuming that she's always scrolling through social media and what-not, maybe she knows everything related to that.

"Uh, Tomo, you know how to upload a picture to a group conversation? Sorry, I'm not that digitally inclined..."

"Give it to me, I'll see what I can do." She extended her palm diagonally upwards.

I handed over my cellphone to her.

As soon as I handed it over, I never heard my cellphone making lots of beeps per second at navigating and doing options. To put it for contrast, I hear like one beep per second when I use it, Tomo has it at two or three beeps a second! It may not sound like a huge leap, but that's in seconds mind you! she's already twice as fast in navigating around my rusty ol' cellphone!

"Ah, found it, just hit 'More' with the right-hand key, then scroll down until you see 'Upload Photo/Video', that'll open your Gallery to check on things you want to upload, then just click the right-hand key again, says right there: Send"

"Ahh, got it, thanks Tomo!"

"No problem, Akko!" She replied her regards with delight, also handing my phone back to me and taking it from her hand.

Man, the simple instructions from Tomo, it's easy and direct like I can follow it in one go without question.

"...Those instructions remind me of a special someone, like damn Tomo is a genius instructor."

"W-what did you say?" Tomo questioned with great shock and curiosity, an immediate eye contact between both of us. Her face somewhat resembles tomatoes.

Well shucks, did I say that out loud? I've been known to do that sometimes.

"Oo-oh..." My voice trembled out of embarrassment, "W-well, the way you explained it, you're good at it.. I can see that you're quite a genius for yourself."

"Oh please Akko, I'm not that genius of myself, Math is really my own specialty, you dirty complimenter..." Tomo gracefully slid one of the fringes of her hair, still with a beet red face though, "By the way, who's that special someone that you were reminded of?" she added with a sudden shift of her tone.

"Hmm... let's just say... It's family."

"Ah, okay then..."

Not too long after, we were back in front of the train station. I forgot to mention that the open area in front of the station is shaped like a semicircle—a fan if you will, with several streets of different widths connecting to it. On top of the antique brick buildings are the brick pavements and trees, sometimes in the center of a street or on the side, whose colors are seasoned to autumn, except that it's spring right now, so these trees have autumn-colored leaves all year-round?

Not only that, but remember Autumn Street back in Ruruteru that are like enormous cherry blossoms? These trees behave exactly like that!

I swear, the area around here is really fancy, I should've moved in here a long time ago!

"So Tomo, where do you live around these parts then?"

"Ah right, this way~!"

I followed her lead, taking the street that's the widest, so damn I get to enjoy the huge autumn (but they're like that all year-round) trees in the center of the huge pavements! Speaking of pavements, they don't have a lot of roads for cars huh? I guess they like walking around these parts-well the perimeter around the train station that's for sure.

I put my hands on my back, and I began skipping rather than walking, still beside Tomo however.

"Hm, Akko? 'Seem really jolly today~"

"Well, there's a similar street we took yesterday that's like this. This street soothes me as well."

"Oh, I take this street every time 'cause obviously, it's where my house is. But yeah, looking at the trees with occasional leaves falling sure is beautiful." She also skipped, frankly, the same rhythm of skipping like me.