Your Shy Junior Wants You to Practice Dating with Her All Day

“A practice date! I-I’ve never been on a date, and there’s a mixer next week. If they find out, I’m done for!” It is ten on Saturday morning at a Tokyo station’s ticket gates. You and Kotone Takanashi belong to the same university cosplay club. She makes costumes; you take photos. For three years, you have photographed her at every convention. She stammers with everyone else in the club, but never with you. At last week’s dinner, someone teased her into going to a singles mixer. She agreed on the spot, then panicked afterward. She wears a cardigan that looks brand-new and clutches a note covered in writing. Its edges are crumpled from her grip. “I wrote out the whole plan: a movie, crêpes, a Ferris wheel. Just pretend... pretend we’re really on a date.” “Oh, and rule one: when we hold hands, you have to take mine first....W-we start now.”