“What should I do on a group date?”
“Huh?”
A group date? Did Amī just say “group date”?
The word “group date” made me fluster for a moment.
When I say I flustered, it’s because I’ve never been on a group date, even at my age.
If you were to ask me if I, a university student no less, could easily tell someone younger than myself—a close kouhai, no less—that I’ve never been on one, I would have to say it’s difficult.
After all, before I joined this company, Tō was always by my side.
It might be strange for me, his childhood friend, to say this, but the fact that Tō, with his good looks and social skills, was my boyfriend served as a rather effective deterrent for other men.
A sensible friend wouldn’t ask me to a group date if they knew Tō was my boyfriend.
Occasionally, I was asked to participate as a filler number, but even then, I continued to refuse because Tō was there.
There were times when we ended up in mixed-gender seating at casual club drinking parties and had a good time, but that felt more like drinking with friends.
After breaking up with Tō, I occasionally saw Nanase and Tō together at university. My friends, sensing the situation, invited me to group dates to support my new love. However, I couldn’t move on immediately and kept refusing, using my part-time job as an excuse. Recently, they stopped inviting me altogether.
So, what have I been saying for so long?
In short, I can say that I am a complete beginner when it comes to group dates.
All I can offer is common knowledge; I have zero practical experience.
“What’s wrong, Karen-chan?”
“No, it’s nothing. A group date, a group date, huh? How did that topic come up?”
I know my personality isn’t straightforward, but I dislike it when my straightforwardness gets in the way, even with my close friend Amī. Still, I dislike refusing Amī, who came to me for help, solely because I lack experience more.
If only I could have honestly said, “I have no experience, but let’s figure it out together.”
Before I knew it, the poker face I developed in the dungeon kicked in, and I found myself sitting naturally next to Amī.
My pride as an elder and my genuine desire to be helpful.
This meeting was the result of a compromise between the two.
“Yeah, since the summoning incident, I’ve been doing a lot of things with people from school.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
I thought it was a good way to understand the flow of how the group date conversation started, so I decided to listen first.
I remembered that Jiro-san had asked me to look out for Amī a little, as a fellow girl, because she had a difficult time with her classmates at school.
Being half-American and having lived in a country other than Japan, her difficulty with Japanese was understandable. It wasn’t hard to imagine that some might create distance and draw a line based on her being Japanese.
Hearing that she hadn’t made friends because of this, I was genuinely happy to hear that she was now spending more time with people.
What made me a little uneasy was that Amī, like me, was earning a considerable amount of money.
I worried if people were approaching her just for her money, but according to Jiro-san, Amī’s mother managed her finances, so there was no problem.
The money she could spend was a generous allowance for a high school student, but it stayed within reasonable limits for a student who worked part-time.
Jiro-san also said that Amī’s mother was a sensible person who diligently saved the money her daughter earned.
Maybe her sense of money was a little skewed, but it’s fine for now.
“Yeah, and then. We were talking about hanging out with the friends I’ve made, and someone suggested going to karaoke.”
This is Amī’s story about a group date.
From what I’m hearing, there’s nothing strange about it.
They’re just making ordinary plans to hang out.
“From there, the conversation turned to how it’s lonely to go out with just girls.”
“Uh-huh, so?”
But, the conversation quickly diverged. Still, the flow of Amī’s conversation was familiar, so it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.
It was the same kind of conversation I’d had when I was in high school. At the time, Tō was by my side, so I didn’t pay it much mind, and Tō’s specs were higher than other guys’, making it hard to empathize with, but I understood.
There’s even a saying about falling in love with love, so it’s only natural for the conversation to drift towards romance.
After listening this far, I realized there was nothing for Amī to be worried about. It was a simple romance talk.
“And then… I’ll be graduating high school next year, so I want to have a boyfriend.”
“And that’s why a group date?”
“It’s not just that. The boys in my class have been distant since the summoning incident, so we thought, why not meet some guys outside of school?”
“Ah, so that’s the situation.”
I also only know about it secondhand from Jiro-san and Evia-san, but Amī had been summoned to another world as a hero in the past and lived there for a while. Jiro-san mentioned over drinks that various problems occurred during that time, causing a rift between classmates.
I heard that this company had stepped in and handled the cleanup, but even so, they couldn’t address deep-seated personal resentments.
I heard that Amī was the only one who remembered those days in the otherworld, so it was understandable that things turned out this way.
“So, I mentioned I was working part-time, and they asked if I could introduce someone from my workplace.”
“Ah, I see.”
And then I understood why Amī was troubled. My company is quite unusual.
It’s so unusual that I doubt there’s an even more peculiar workplace.
“Even if I introduce someone, I can’t carelessly introduce anyone, you know?”
If the company has strict rules about personal matters like group dates, it might be the only one of its kind.
“Let’s exclude people from the company for now.”
Even if they have connections to another world, or are visually appealing and easily accepted, inviting people from other species like Dark Elves or demons, not to mention other non-human employees, to a group date would be unsuitable, and even taking them outside the company would be a hassle.
That leaves us with the Dungeon Testers.
Generally, the youngest person working here is Katsu-kun, and the next youngest are mostly university students. If you’re looking for people Amī is friendly with, it would be people from the same department.
“First off, Katsu-kun is out.”
“OK, I know that.”
I’m excluding him first because he’s close in age to Amī and is self-conscious about his height, his unrequited love. It’s not because I dislike him; rather, it’s because I don’t want him to be taken, meaning I want to keep him.
Also, another reason is that I don’t want to upset Minami by having Katsu-kun participate in a group date.
I absolutely must avoid disrupting the current cooperative relationship by the fact that Katsu-kun attended a group date.
Amī, who understands this, nods.
“Jiro-san is also out. Honestly, I don’t think he’d be interested in a normal high school girl.”
“And he’s scary afterward.”
Also, Jiro-san, who is married and in a de facto marital relationship, is out of the question.
The age gap is significant, and there’s my own wish that Jiro-san, who is of an age that would be problematic if he were interested in high school girls, wouldn’t be.
I highly doubt that person, who is surrounded by four women led by Suella, followed by Memoria, Himik, and Evia, would do such a thing.
As Amī said, there’s also the fear of what might happen if something did occur.
Even if I think it’s unlikely based on his personality, the act of us inviting him itself is dangerous for certain types of people. He’s not someone we can even invite to make up the numbers.
“Well, Kaido-san is also no good, right?”
“That’s right. I’m more worried about him.”
In contrast, with Kaido-san, there’s the anxiety that if we invite him, he might take it seriously, making it even more problematic.
Although I can trust him as a person, I have some concerns about his relationships with women.
“Amili-san, Shiik-san, Miik-san. It would be bad if we angered them.”
“I think it’s a no.”
She’s good at drawing lines with people, but I can’t shake the impression that she’s a bit frivolous.
Upon hearing “group date,” I get the impression she’d participate normally. It would be too problematic if something happened afterward, so it’s better not to even let her hear about it.
“That leaves people from the same department in a different party…”
With the men I’m closest to being out, the next connection would be with other Dungeon Testers in the same department whom I occasionally train with.
“What about Benny-san? He’s cheerful and amiable. He’s a bit older, but he wouldn’t be bad, would he?”
The first person that comes to mind is a party member I’m close with.
He’s Italian, good-looking, and his way of speaking has the characteristic brightness of an Italian.
He should have had some interactions with Amī, is fluent in Japanese, and I think he’d be perfect for livening up the atmosphere. However.
“He refused.”
Amī tried asking him but ended up empty-handed.
“He said something like a samurai from a historical drama, that he has no time for romance because he’s pursuing the path of the sword.”
Has the Italian man’s inherent kindness toward women been corrupted by Japanese culture?
Jiro-san said he lacked talent as a frontliner, but is he still not giving up? No, if he wanted to make him fail, Jiro-san wouldn’t have brought in a master from a sword dojo for external guidance.
I was about to clasp my hands to my head, but I still have acquaintances.
“What about the Kato-san group? I believe they weren’t dating back then, were they?”
Next, they are known as the group that likes tokusatsu heroes and are saving money to build Kaido-san’s special suit.
They have two female testers, Sato-san and Ito-san, but they were just friends, not lovers.
It should be fine with Kato-san, Goto-san, and Endo-san.
“No, they refused.”
However, Amelia creates a cross with both hands, unfeelingly.
“They said they’re too busy with material collection because they want Kaido-san’s suit as soon as possible.”
“Well, everyone has their own hobbies.”
What is it? I feel like I shouldn’t say this about other people, but I feel like people’s personalities become quite intense once they join this company.
Benny-san, the Italian who’s starting to act like a samurai.
The Kato-san group aiming to be real sentai heroes.
“Who else…”
Then, I started listing the remaining Dungeon Testers who are friendly enough to be invited to a group date.
“What do you mean, they all have girlfriends?”
Every single one of them had a girlfriend.
Some were inspired by Jiro-san and approached female employees at the company to start dating.
Others, having financial stability from working at this company, found girlfriends outside.
In short, they were all taken.
It was impossible to invite people like that to a group date.
The result was total annihilation.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m troubled.”
At this point, I feel like telling her to just hang out with her schoolmates, but that would render her coming to me for advice meaningless.
“Hmm, if that’s the case, then… I don’t really want to use this, but…”
“Is there a way!?”
If direct connections are impossible, we have no choice but to resort to indirect means.
“Well, it depends on whether Minami agrees.”
There’s a glimmer of hope, and as an individual, I don’t really want to take this path.
However, I don’t feel good about leaving Amī in trouble.
“Why not ask Katsu-kun to introduce you to some boys from his school?”
“Ah.”
Amī was so focused on introducing acquaintances that she had forgotten about this method.
With this method, even if the person themselves isn’t suitable, introductions can be made through them. It’s a common trick, but effective.
“Well, the biggest hurdle will be persuading Minami, who’s by Katsu-kun’s side. If that doesn’t work, I’ll introduce you to some guy friends.”
“OK! Let’s do that!!”
Moreover, I reconsidered, thinking that in the worst-case scenario, I could act as the organizer and introduce some university acquaintances.
I’ve never organized a group date before, but for Amī, I’m sure I can manage.
Today’s Word
Effort is necessary to maintain appearances.
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