“Aisha, let’s go.”

  “Hmm…”

  “What are you doing?”

  Today we needed some books, so we went to the library from our school. While I was looking for the books I needed, Aisha was supposed to search for something in one of the computers from there.

  The paper I left to her had everything we needed, so she had already finished her task. Still, she was doing something else with the computer.

  “I bought a game yesterday, so I want to know if I can play it here.”

  “You? Buying a game?”

  ““I was trying to find something new to do with you and my dad said that playing video games might be an option.””

  “Have you ever played videogames before?”

  “Some arcades.”

  “That is totally different to this…”

  “What are you both doing?”

  Camila who was also there approached a little intrigued. I thought she would scold us for using a school computer for this, but she didn’t sound angry.

  “Aisha bought a game.”

  “What kind of game?”

  “I want to know too.”

  “All right, I downloaded it...”

  “The storage is not a problem?”

  “It was a cheap and light game.”

  “You just picked the first game you saw, right?”

  “I’m gonna start it.”

  Obviously, it was slow, but after a minute, a bench surrounded by a precious high school appeared… Somehow, Aisha bought a dating simulator.

  “How much does this cost?”

  “Forty cents.”

  “I hope those forty cents were a good investment.”

  The game started, and Aisha had no trouble typing her name and with the tutorial, which simply consisted of a chair with two options explaining how to select one. After that, the game began.

  “Five guys…?”

  “I guess you must talk to them.”

  “And then I must punch them?”

  “... Maybe?"

  Aisha literally bought a random game, so I preferred to not assume anything.

  “... Who can I choose?”

  “I don’t know, the most attractive one.”

  “Everyone looks the same…”

  The map showed four faces with the same structure but with different hair colors and clothes. Aisha and I weren’t actually interested in any of them, so Camila pointed to a guy with red hair.

  “That one.”

  “Why?”

  “His expression is the stereotype of a guy with a big ego and very active. Those kinds of guys are easy to please.”

  “I see…”

  “You know a lot about this.”

  “... Some of our classmates like this type of game, so I tried to learn about it so I could talk to them and make them feel comfortable.”

  “I see.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Aisha followed Camila’s advice and started a conversation with the guy with red hair.

  “It’s great to see you. It would be a shame to deprive someone of my presence.”

  “...”

  “...”

  “Yeah, I get why you both don’t like it.”

  “What am I supposed to say…?”

  The options Aisha had were to praise him, scold him for being so far away, or simply ask him what to do. Aisha was clearly troubled with this.

  “I can’t just type the thing I want to say…?”

  “That would require a complex AI.”

  “Hmm…”

  “What would you say? Maybe one of the options is close enough.”

  It would be too easy to simply tell her what to answer, so I tried to help her think for herself. Unfortunately, that didn't work.

  “In this situation, the correct option is to apologize for being late…”

  I can understand Aisha’s logic, but even when we’re talking with a fictional character, I didn’t like the idea of making her apologize, so I gave my opinion.

  “That would be true if you were the one who invited him.”

  “The game just dropped me here, so I thought I was the one with the initiative.”

  “Just say that if he really wants to give you his presence, he should go to the classroom.”

  “That sounds rude…”

  We were completely stuck, so Camila intervened again.

  “Just praise him, that’s what he wants to hear.”

  Her proposal was the only one that could get us somewhere, so Aisha chose that.

  “Haha, I guess that’s better than any greeting.”

  Some hearts appeared after she selected the option, so it was a good one.

  “I think I got this…”

  “Great. Now, how long are you gonna keep playing?”

  “Until we must go…”

  “We still have a while before that…”

  If we just do that, we might be here for an unnecessarily long time. We don’t live far away from here, but I didn’t want to cause problems or even be scolded by a teacher.

  “What about until you get a CG?”

  Camila gave us a simple solution. Well, except for the obvious.

  “What is that...?”

  Aisha's knowledge of gamer terminology wasn't the best. It's a miracle she even knew how to buy a game.

  “You know, the image you get in an event. Like the images you can see in a book with illustrations.”

  “I see, I can try that…”

  With that idea in mind, the gameplay continued.

  We were able to make great progress, especially thanks to Camila's advice. She always knew what the character wanted to hear. I'd even venture to say that her adaptability was better than Aisha's, simply because she was proactive.

  “I guess we can spend more time together.”

  “I think we’re getting what we want…”

  “Great!”

  “Can you check the affection meter?”

  “I have that…?”

  “It’s a dating simulator, it would be weird if you don’t have one.”

  “Let me check…”

  Aisha tried pressing all the buttons, but the game froze. It returned to normal after a minute, but the guy's face distorted for a few seconds. It was impressive that a human face could do that, but it was also frightening.

  “What I just did…?”

  “You got this game with only forty cents, it must be very unstable.”

  Besides technical difficulties like that one, we were doing a good job and having fun.

  At some point, we managed to make the male character talk about his life, so we must be close to get a CG.

  “You know? Even when everyone is always looking at me… I feel like no one is there…”

  Ignoring the fact that the story was moving too fast, Aisha stared at the dialogue options.

  “Four options…”

  One of the options was obviously wrong, so the ones we had to consider were:

  -Well, I’m looking at you too.

  -Do you always feel like this?

  -You should try to appreciate your public.

  In this one I had my own opinion about what would be the best option, but Camila was the first one to talk.

  “Choose the first one. It’s the most romantic one.”

  “What? In this situation you should tell him that the rest of the people are here for him.”

  “It’s a dating simulator, the romantic one is the correct one.”

  “Yeah, but maybe he needs someone else.”

  “He wants the person in front of him to be the one who comforts him.”

  Her way of thinking wasn’t wrong, but her answer was totally far from a good one if we think about this in a more deep way. Still, she insisted.

  “If he tells you this, then you should respond with what he expects you to say.”

  “Being the only one to support him wouldn’t be the best.”

  “Why?”

  “Some people want to hear that all of their friends are there for them.”

  “If you don’t get his immediate attention, he will go away.”

  “That's not-.”

  “Here…”

  Ignoring our discussion, Aisha selected the second option.

  “It’s not something new… But I feel like this feeling is getting stronger every day…”

  “I see…”

  “You choose that by yourself?”

  “Sometimes my dad asks in dissimulated ways about the life of his clients so he can talk better with them. Otherwise you would be talking on a very superficial level.”

  “Ah…”

  “Still, this only worked because he was already willing to talk to me…”

  Sometimes I forget how much Aisha knows about talking with people thanks to her father. Camila was also shocked, but for some reason, I feel like it wasn’t for Aisha’s decision.

  “Oh, I got one.”

  The screen showed us the male character holding Aisha’s character hands while he was looking at her with a sad smile. Maybe this is not my type of game, but I have to admit that the illustration was very well made.

  “All right, now let me save…”

  “How heartless!”

  “We’re supposed to play until I get one of these. Anyways, I can continue with this another day.”

  “Right… But, do you have a computer?”

  “... I could buy one…”

  “Why did you buy a computer game without having one…?”

  “I didn’t think too much about it…”

  "... That's a good summary of your life..."

  Her logic was above any kind of comprehension, so I grabbed our things while she uninstalled the game and left everything how it was supposed to be.

  Camila was being slower than us, so we were the first ones to go out.

  “This was very fun, I hope we can do it again sometime.”

  “I think the same…”

  She seemed focused on gathering her things, so we decided to let her continue without interruption.

  “See you tomorrow Camila.”

  “... See you…”

  When we left, I could swear I saw Camila's hands tremble a little, but it must’ve been my imagination.