The next few days came and went with me cursing myself for getting wrapped around Ayumi’s thumb once again.

For better or for worse, the owners of the bookstore were quite receptive to me working overtime. “Do it for as long as you want, Hidaka. My wife and I are grateful, in fact,” he said with a pleasant smile. I hope he doesn’t get too used to this.

We used the first few days to iron out the kinks in Ayumi’s plan. It was rather simple—she’d wander around the city looking for Shiina, and I would stay in the bookstore waiting for her to show up. If she did, I would try and find out where she lived. After that, we would follow her around until we could catch her red-handed in some angelic activities. Not the most sophisticated plan, but there wasn’t a better alternative.

It was a Tuesday afternoon, much like all the others, when the bell by the door chimed. As usual, I greeted the customer before I took a glance at them.

When I did, my heart skipped a beat.

There was no mistaking those intense, ruby-red eyes.

Shiina. She finally showed up.

“Good afternoon,” she said after staring at me in silence for a moment.

I had a mini panic attack. After all, the last time I saw her, she’d been a ball of light coming down from the sky. A supernatural being. For the lack of a better term, an angel.

Shiina probably noticed how tense I was. Her gaze focused on me for a fraction of a second longer than usual, but she soon disappeared into the bookstore.

Ayumi was quite far away, so informing her was pointless. She would never be able to get here in time to stalk Shiina or whatever it was she wanted to do.

There aren’t any other good options left at this point. Am I really going to have to flirt with her?

A few uneasy minutes passed as my mind desperately tried to find a way out of this mess. Shiina returned to the counter, another romance novel in hand. As I processed her transaction, I braced myself for the worst scenario that could play out. Considering her appearance and hyper-reserved nature, I couldn’t discard the possibility that she’d have a physical response.

Still, this act was far from how I usually acted. To work up the courage, I drew on the experience I had gained from countless hours I spent playing dating sims. Not that it would be particularly helpful.

Okay. Here goes nothing.

Just before she turned towards the exit, I uttered, “So, you live around here?”

There. I said it.

Hearing my words, Shiina’s unapproachable expression turned even icier. She was caught by surprise. In fact, it was taking her so long to answer,even by her standards, that I instinctively dove headfirst into the classic pitfall—masking the awkward silence with another comment.

“It’s just that there aren't many young people coming to this store. I was wondering if you had any particular reason for visiting us.”

Was that lame or what? Yep, I really am lame.

She seemed to realize that there was no way out of this other than answering me.

“Yes, I live nearby. This bookstore is the closest to my place, so it’s convenient to walk here,” Shiina replied after an agonizing amount of time.

Good. At least she’s answering my questions and not staying silent.

“Ah, perhaps you moved into those new apartments down south?” Seeing her sharp eyes narrowing further, I once again added extra detail to the question. “You seem to have moved into the city recently.”

A good three seconds of waiting passed.

“No, I live in an old apartment. The rent was cheaper there.”

With that frugal answer, I got the feeling that I wouldn’t be able to extract anything else from her. The only thing left to do was to soil my already minuscule reputation and end the conversation then and there.

“Well, I also live nearby. If you’d like, we could go for coffee someday. I could even show you around town.”

Even before I finished my sentence, I could sense her mood shifting. Not so much souring, but getting more… panicky? An advantage of her constant poker face is that any slight change in her mood was reflected on her expression. Either that or I was particularly attuned to her reactions by now.

She stared at me, unresponsive. I waved my hands in front of me as a gesture of goodwill.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Ah, no pressure. You can tell me if you’re interested next time you come by.”

Ugh. I feel dirty.

She mused for a few seconds, her eyes darting around, never focusing on me. “Thank you. I’ll consider that offer,” she said with a perfect, yet somehow rushed bow.

“Thanks. Come again!” I said as she exited the store with quicker strides than usual.

Yeah, no. That was terrible. She’s never coming back, is she?

* * *

It took me a good while for the adrenaline rush to wear off and for me to process what had just happened. All the while, my heart raced faster than Sonic himself, and chills spread all over my body.

Yes, I am that pathetic. Don’t judge me.

My mind kept replaying the encounter, trying to find some sort of silver lining in the midst of all the embarrassment. Much to my surprise, my thoughts gained a more positive tone after I had calmed down a bit.

Despite the extremely poor attempt at wooing a woman, I gained some valuable information. A wicked smile crossed my face as I grabbed my phone and texted Ayumi with the news. Needless to say, she arrived at the bookstore less than ten minutes later.

“So… huff, huff … how… how did… it go?” she asked with agonizingly ragged breathing.

“I’m ninety-nine percent sure she doesn’t want to see my dumb face ever again.”

“Oh? That bad?” she said as she got to her usual spot on the stool and monopolized the heater. Considering she had just weathered the biting cold, and had been running on top of it, I decided to not bother her about it.

“What do we do now?”

“Nuh-uh. Not so fast,” I said while puffing out my chest. “My reputation may be in the gutter, but it wasn’t in vain. With the information I got out of her, we might be able to deduce where she lives.”

Ayumi’s ears perked up. “Really? How so? She didn’t straight up say where she lived, did she?”

“Of course not, but she left a couple of useful clues.” I paused to think about how I would best exemplify my point. “Say, do you have that map from the other day with you?”

“Uh-huh.”

Out of her bag, Ayumi produced that huge, military-grade map covering both this city and the nearby areas.

“She said two interesting things. First was that this is the nearest bookstore to her place on foot.”

“Ah, so that’s why she comes here. She could go to a mall and buy books for cheap there, but she does look like someone who hates crowds.”

“Right. On its own this wouldn’t be enough, but she mentioned that she lives in an old apartment.”

“Oh, I see what you’re planning. So if we cross these two pieces of information—”

“Exactly, my dear Watson.”

I grabbed a black pen from the desk and marked a spot on the map. “This is where we are now, and these are the nearest bookstores to us,” I said as I marked the other three stores on the map.

The other stores kind of surrounded this one from the west, with the woods surrounding the city from the east. With a pencil and some guesswork, I marked the limits of what seemed like the appropriate area for Shiina’s apartment to be located. Despite it still being a daunting task, finding her place didn’t seem that impossible to do now.

“So we only need to look for her apartment in this area? It’s not too big, so I’m sure the two of us can cover it quickly,” Ayumi said with a dashing smile and shining eyes.

“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to help you for the rest of the week.”

“Eh? Why?!” she shouted as she slapped the counter.

“I’ve already got the afternoons booked. After all, didn’t you tell me to be generous about it?”

The dejected glint in Ayumi’s eyes was a sight to behold.

* * *

What followed that embarrassing incident at the bookstore was a string of uneventful days.

Armed with the knowledge of where Shiina might live, Ayumi spent the rest of the week trying to nail down the exact place. Eventually, on Saturday, she encountered Shiina in front of a store and stalk—I mean, followed her back to her place. According to the stalker, it was an ordinary, run-of-the-mill apartment complex.

After that breakthrough, I knew there was no way I was going to have a relaxed Sunday. I found myself in Ayumi’s bedroom in the early morning hours, once again wondering how my life decisions had led to this situation.

Is it just me or does that sound rather dodgy out of context?

“Homework, check. Notepad, check. Phone, check. Angel Observation Apparatus Mark I, check. Anything else we might be forgetting, Takkun?” Ayumi asked as she stuffed her backpack and gym bag with the random items we had prepared in advance.

My brain was working at least at half-speed, so I didn’t respond right away.

It’s too damn early!

“Yawn. Not that I can think of. We might be a bit too prepared. Are we going camping or something?” Her nose scrunched in frustration while she adjusted her hairpin.

“Listen well, Takkun. We’ve moved into the endgame now. We need to catch Shiina red-handed and confront her. And the only way to do that is to observe her closely.”

Observe closely… As in stalking her, you mean.

Yes, the plan was to camp outside of Shiina’s apartment and hope to witness her doing anything supernatural.

Ayumi’s plans this time around aren’t particularly imaginative, that’s for sure.

“I mean, I get your point. But we don’t even know if she’s going to leave her apartment at all.”

“What if she does and we miss her?”

My face soured. This is pointless...

“Come on, don’t make that stupid face. We’ll take turns watching her, so you can play a game or something while it’s my turn.”

Somehow, I feel like that’s not going to happen.

I muttered something which Ayumi seemed to accept as confirmation of her plan.

“Well then, if everything’s ready, it’s time to depart. Field Mission Omega, start!”