That night.

I was staring alone at a piece of paper that Saegusa had given me during the lunch break today.

When I got home to my room, I slowly opened the piece of paper, which looked like a jewel box that I was told not to open it until I got home, muttering, “I’m embarrassed right now”

“Shion-s.1012.”

What the hell is this?

It looks familiar. .... Yes, it’s the same word that was written on my Japanese quiz the other day.

I was wondering what Saegusa-san was trying to do by handing me this code again, but on the bottom right corner of the piece of paper was a small note that read “Lime”.

Oh, I see.

So this was Saegusa-san’s Lime ID.

After finally solving this mysterious code, I thought it would have been better if he had just told me without saying anything about it after he got home, but I searched for the ID and found an account called “Shion” with a cute cat as its icon.

I was just about to add a friend when my finger stopped.

–What am I doing now?

I was instantly overwhelmed by a strange feeling that suddenly came to me.

—No, no, no, no! Why is Saegusa-san giving me her Lime ID!?

As I panicked, I finally realized the destructive power of that jewel box.

Then I stared at the screen of my phone for almost half an hour.

Finally, I came to the conclusion that I should add her as a friend first.

I thought it would be disrespectful to Saegusa-san not to add her as a friend, since she had told me about Lime.

With trembling fingers, I tapped the add button.

And sure enough, an account with a cat icon that looked like Saegusa-san was added to my friends.

Wow, I’ve done it, ...., I thought, realizing that there was nothing I could do about it.

Once I had added her as a friend, I had to send her a message as soon as possible, but now I had a new problem.

—I don’t know what to send.

“This is Ichijo! I’ve added you as a friend! Thank you!”

“I’m Takuya Ichijo! Your cat icon is cute! Nice to meet you!”

“You’re Saegusa, right? I’m Ichijo! Nice to meet you!”

And so on. I kept writing and deleting similar messages.

I don’t know the distance between me and Saegusa-san, even if I want to message her.

But even as I’m doing this, I’m sure the person I’m talking to has been notified that I’ve added them as a friend, and if I don’t send them a message soon, they won’t know who my account is, so they might get suspicious.

My Lime account has an icon of my dog at home and my account name is TAKU.

I know what you’re thinking, but there’s no way you can just show up out of nowhere and say that’s me.

If anyone thought I was suspicious, they might block me right away.

I was in a hurry, so I typed out something to send.

“Did I get your account right, Saegusa-san? I’m Ichijo, the guy sitting next to you.”

Okay, okay! This is the safest message to send it.

I decided to do so, and just as I was about to tap the send button, a new message popped up on the screen.

“It’s Ichijo-kun, right?”

It was a message from Saegusa, who had sent it to me first.

It was a message from Saegusa, who had sent it to me first. I had the screen open, so it must have been read immediately, and I hurriedly erased the words I was typing and typed a reply.

“Yes! How did you know?”

“I recognized you by your name!”

My reply was immediately read by Saegusa-san, but after a short pause, she replied.

I wondered if she could tell by my Lime name but the fact that she had sent me a message at first made me feel relieved.

“Why did you tell me Lime’s ID?”

As I regained my composure, I asked the pure question I had been thinking about.

Why did Saegusa-san give me her Lime ID?

It must have been because she wanted to ask me for a favor as a classmate or some other reasonable reason.

Otherwise, there’s no way Saegusa-san would have lime with me.

Thinking that, I nervously waited for Saegusa’s reply, wondering if she was going to make some kind of important request.

After a short pause, I heard a beep from my phone.

I tapped the screen, and sure enough, it was a reply from Saegusa.

“I can’t?”

That was the only thing that came back to me.

I was puzzled by the meaning of that single word.

What do you mean, “I can’t?”.

It’s as if Saegusa-san wanted to have a normal chat with me! I immediately denied my loose thoughts, thinking, How can that be?

But as if to push me over the edge, another notification sounded.

“I wanted to have a chat with Ichijo-kun.”

With that sentence, I felt something recede inside me.

It was all I could think about when it was put into words.

So I tapped my phone with a calm head and typed a reply.

“No problem, thanks for giving me your contact information. I’m happy to be able to chat with you, too, Saegusa-san.”

I replied, but there was no reply from Saegusa-san that day.

I wondered what was going to happen tomorrow, but strangely enough, I was more excited than worried.