57.Send a message to the girl part 2

That evening, in my room at home.

Lying on the futon, I stared at my cell phone in agony.

“Uh-uh-uh-uh…”

I was naive.

How could I have been so naive?

What do you mean, the biggest obstacle has been overcome?

It was like a new employee who got carried away by the fact that he passed the interview and didn’t imagine how hard it would be after joining the company.

“What do I do… what do I do…?”

I’m an idiot.

I had gotten Shijoin’s address, but of course I had neglected the difficult task that was ahead of me.

“What should I write in my first email to a girl…!?”
I’ve been pondering for over an hour now, but I can’t seem to make up my mind.

I didn’t have any private experience in sending emails to the opposite sex.

“Okay… I’m mindless here. Let’s just do it straightforwardly, without thinking about it.”

[Dear Shijouin-san, it’s Nihama. Thank you for all your help and support. Thank you very much for exchanging your address and phone number with me the other day.Therefore I’m writing and sending the first email to you. I know you are very busy, but I would appreciate it if you could take a look at this.]
TLN: This part is the email

“This is a business email! ”

I deleted the unfriendly text and slammed the phone into the pillow.

Damn you…!As soon as I do anything mindlessly, the curse of the corporate bastard comes out!
What should I do? Do I want to talk to Kanako about these things?

No, but… it seems like I should at least think about the text of the email yourself… aside from clothes and such.

But what content should you really send?

Short and simple? Long and gushy?

Should it go lightly or should it be serious?
TL: idk man just send her something

I rolled around on the futon, agonizing over what to do and what not to do.

I had a number of ideas, but none of them seemed to be the best solution.

“But I don’t think it’s a good idea to send it too late, so I’ll just patch together all the suggestions I’ve come up with so far… and send it anyway.”

“Good evening. I’m Nihama and I’ve sent my first email. What do you think? Did you get it? I’m sorry if there’s something wrong.”

I hesitated over and over again, wondering if this was really the right thing to do, and pressed the send button with a nervous heart.

And then — time slowly passed as I stared blankly at my phone.

Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes…

That much time feels incredibly long.

(No… why am I staring at my phone all the time waiting for a reply…? I’m not a heavy boyfriend…)

It’s not surprising that I haven’t received a reply since it’s been less than half an hour.

My rational mind says so, but my heart is not at all at ease.

The longer I waited, the more anxiety filled my heart.

The reason I haven’t received a reply is because my email made Shijouin-san uncomfortable, right?

Was that text too stiff? Or, on the contrary, was it too light?

Was it too late to send it? Was it too ordinary or lacking in taste?

As my head was whirling with thoughts of virginity in texting, and I was feeling like I was wallowing in a quagmire, my phone rang.

“Hey, here it is…!”

I panicked and opened the new mail.

[Thank you for your email! I’m sure you got it! It feels strange to see Nihama’s message at home. (*´∀`*) ]

“…haha…”

It was only a few lines of text, but just looking at it made my face smile.

Words are a wonder.

Similar to message boards and social networking sites, I’m always happy when someone writes to me.

And if it’s from the girl you love the most in the world, that’s even better.

(I want to reply immediately but… a magazine I read a long time ago said, “If you reply immediately in an email between a guy and a girl, you’ll be thought of as a clingy person so never do it!” so… guess I’ll leave some space)

I wasn’t sure how long I should wait, but for the time being I waited about 15 minutes and typed a reply.

It’s strange that I’m able to communicate with you at home, too. I think I’m a little more nervous when I’m writing than when I’m talking.

In less than three minutes, I received a reply.

“I’m glad… I’m so relieved to get a reply.”

“What…?”

I had a hard time deciding on the text of the email, so I wrote and erased it several times before I sent it… but the content was somewhat strange, and I was very worried that they might not send a reply because of it. But I’m happy when I get a reply (^-^) I’m always nervous when I send an email, unlike when I talk to someone (>_<).

「…」

When I saw that sentence, I imagined it.

I saw Shijoin-san at home, looking at her cell phone and wondering what kind of text she should write, just like me.

(I thought the innocent Shijo-in-san wouldn’t be nervous about sending emails, but I guess she’s just like me…)

I felt even closer to her on the other side of the phone when I realized that she was feeling the same tension and difficulty as I was.

And such feelings are also very difficult to summarize in an email.

“Actually, I rewrote the email several times. That’s why I was so relieved to receive a reply from Shijoin-san… I was kind of happy. By the way, do you like emoticons, Shijouin-san (・ω・) ?”

The reply was faster than before.

“I didn’t think so! I’m kind of relieved, because I thought I was the only one who had to rewrite all this stuff over and over again! (^_^) Yes, since Fumihashi-san often uses emoticons, I’ve been trying to use them too, but・-・ these emoticons are really cute! Can I use it?”

The tension is easing more and more, and our texting is accelerating.

“I’m so relieved that I can relate to you. The emoticons aren’t mine, and you can keep using them. But is it because of Fumihashi-san influence? I have no idea what girls text each other about.”

“Thank you! That’s right. That’s what I usually do in my emails with Kazamihara-san and Fumihashi-san.”

My heart skips a beat when I hear a ringing tone telling me that the other person has replied.

I still have to think about what to write, but I’ve gotten used to it and find it enjoyable.

(Now I understand why chat apps were so popular in the future. …I’m so happy to get a reply like this, it makes the exchange of messages go faster, and I feel a little frustrated when I send emails.”

And so — even as the night wore on, we got carried away with the fun of exchanging emails, which we had just learned to do, and wrote electronic messages over and over again.

(I’m so happy that Shijoin replied to my email right away… Oh, I’m glad I’m alive… No, I died once…”

We continued to exchange emails without knowing when to stop, and every time I received a reply from the person I loved, my heart skipped a beat and I just felt happy.

So at that time, I had no way of knowing that behind those innocent email exchanges, a father was gnashing his teeth with tears of blood and holding a grudge against me that originated from parental stupidity.