Haru-Naru ♪♪♪ Love is a Comedy

The offline meeting continued for around two hours, and ended with what looked to be a gift exchange. Of course, without being able to communicate effectively with anyone at all, Naruko had not managed to make a single friend… what's more, the final blow came when Naruko received her gift from the present exchange, and it turned out to be some shabby toy magic hand.

Wh… what the hell was this? No matter how you looked at it, that was just a bit… it didn't have to be a perfect gift, but seriously, shouldn't you prepare a more serious present? Feeling all alone and looking downwards, Naruko dejectedly opened and closed the magic hand, and I couldn't help but pity her a bit.

I was now outside the café, standing only slightly removed from the gathered girls. And then, the community leader and also the organizer of this offline meeting, Mio, began to make her closing remarks.

"Thank you all for your cooperation in making this first memorable tea gathering pleasant and seeing it through to a safe conclusion! From me, I offer you the most heartfelt thanks."

The crowd raised a delighted cheer. As expected from her, her appearance and manner of speech gave her a commanding air, not unlike a teacher talking to his students.

"With that, this tea meeting has come to a close! We can now go on each of our ways, but because the day is still young, please continue to congregate with friends you have made! Also, as for the next official event, I will post up a topic on the community boards, and be sure to attend that one as well! Alright then… dismissed!"

With that, the crowd came to life. Farewells flew left and right, along with invitations, with a "hey, do you want to head to Toranoana now?" here to a "where do you want to go?" there to a "hey, let's go and talk seriously about those Gundam couplings" somewhere else. But, in that energetic throng, my sister, Naruko, was nowhere to be found. In groups of two or three, the larger group dispersed. Also, Mio, after giving her farewell speech, made a mad dash out of there. Did she have some urgent business to attend to? Like that, the area slowly emptied of people, leaving a lone Naruko standing stock still in the middle. She may have been hopeful that someone would invite her to go with them, and would not allow herself to give up. Now, looking completely exhausted, she dropped her shoulders. Her cute clothes, which she had so carefully picked for today, had been exposed as being completely ineffective… in fact, they may have had the opposite effect to what she intended. It was a scene of a desolate battlefield, with the wasted arrows and broken blades of the losing army strewn about. And in her hand she still grasped that magic hand.

Slowly, I took off my baseball cap and approached my dejected-looking sister. I place my hand on her head in comfort.

"You definitely tried your best, Naruko."

"I… I couldn't talk to them at all."

"Yeah, I saw. Well, this was your first time after all. Don't worry about it."

"It's not that… wh-why? I… was just trying to act normally… why were they avoiding me? Uuh… I'm so annoyed… so annoyed. Annoyed annoyed annoyed… " Looking truly irritated, Naruko ground her teeth while stamping her feet.

It's not like I could blame her. I've also been in situations like this. Sometimes, when I was frustrated or depressed, I couldn't find any way to distract myself other than changing those feelings into anger… so, I had pretty good knowledge of my sister's anger

"Hey! Orange-chan!… phew, I'm glad! You're still here!" An unexpected figure suddenly appeared.

"Ah… you're… manager-san?" Panting from having run all the way here, the community leader Mio stood before us.

"Hey, hey, what's with that ' manager-san'? It's as if Orange-chan doesn't know me or something! I told you already stop being formal with me, you can call me 'Mio-chan.' Ahhh, but I'm glad I caught you. I was just about to try to reach you by cell phone, too." Mio smiled widely.

From her appearances, Naruko was equally stumped, and timidly tried her best to respond, "W-what did you want with me?"

"Ah," Mio nodded and held up one finger and said this, "Truth is, I wanted to invite you to another gathering."

"Huh?" Naruko looked bewildered at the strange invitation. Right after she made this statement, Mio turned her eye to me.

"Orange-chan, by the way, who is this? If I'm not mistaken, earlier he was in the shop watching you… ahhhh, I see… "

"Definitely not!" Naruko and I raised our objection at the same time. Of all things, what in the world are you thinking?!

"So, I was mistaken? I apologize then… it's just that this handsome fellow a little while ago was intently staring at Orange-chan inside the shop, right? I was so certain that it was the gaze of a lover…"

"There's no way! Stop that! Just thinking about that grosses me out!"

Wow, Naruko… isn't there some nicer way you could tell her she's wrong? While I was thinking these things, I added on my own thoughts.

"I'm Namikaza Haruto, and I'm her older brother. Please don't make any bad assumptions."

"Oh hoh, I see I see, you're Orange-chan's… big brother," nodding in understanding, Mio faced me and gave me a light bow. "Alright, my mistake then. I think you already know this then, but my username is Mio Vermilion, you can call me 'Mio-chan' if you want, Haruto-chan."

"Umn… alright, Mio-chan,"

"Hehehe, thank you. Well, Haruto-chan, would Haruto-chan like to come with us?"

"Would I mind… you mean, to the meeting?"

"Of course! How about it?"

Whoa, suddenly her face came really close to mine. I took a step back in surprise, and in my place Naruko began to speak with a slightly uneasy tone of voice. "Um… this meeting… will there be a lot of other people?"

In other words, she doesn't really want to go, does she? And I understand why. If she goes and feels left out again, it would hardly be a good time. And, in Naruko's case, because she was pretty spoiled in general, this was very hard for her. But, with a "oh no no," Mio shook her head back and forth in a hugely exaggerated way. She put up four fingers on one hand and spoke.

"Including Orange-chan and Haruto-chan, there are only four people. It's a meeting for people I had wanted to talk to, to make friends with, but didn't have a chance to. I guess for a 'gathering,' it's a bit small. Let's go chat a bit at a Starbucks, and then go shopping together. How about it?"

"U-uh… " After hearing the details, Naruko seemed a bit interested and began to think about it.

If it's like this, then she wouldn't be left out of the group, so it should be fine, right? That's what Naruko was probably thinking. After realizing this, because I felt I should encourage Naruko a bit, I faced Mio and spoke.

"I don't mind, but it depends on what Naruko says."

"Hm, well how about it? Orange-chan?"

"Mmm… " Showing us her thinking face, after acting like she was thinking hard about it, Naruko blushed. "A-alright. If you put it like that… I'll go then for your sake."

Her words sounded so childish that it was very difficult to restrain my laughter. Naruko had always acted mature for her age, but every once in a while she showed her younger side, and the cuteness made me smile.

"Ahh, then that's good! Well, let's go! The last member of our gathering is already waiting at the Starbucks." Removing one of her posters from her backpack as if unsheathing a lightsaber, Mio pointed straight ahead.

Mio-the beautiful girl who dressed like an otaku. Honestly, I can't think of any way to describe her other than weird… but… maybe… if she weren't really the way she was through and through, then it's unlikely she could be as respected as a leader of the otaku community.