Chapter Fourteen #5
“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m just a guy who has gotten overly attached to his favorite guild girl.”
“Please get even more attached.”
“I can do that.”
The date properly began shortly after we finished flirting in place.
Stella took me out to a bunch of her favorite stores and to show me around in general, not realizing that I had every inch of the city already memorized.
And, predictably enough, most of her favorite places were clothes stores.
She really was a girl who loved fashion.
In fact, she even insisted on treating me “for all the service” by buying me some new clothes.
I felt a little guilty, but I did accept it since I… well, I needed clothes. I had only been switching between my starting armor and bought armor for clothes. I didn’t have any normal, non-system clothes to wear.
The style of clothes that Stella picked out for me was…
Well, I couldn’t deny that it aesthetically fit the way that I designed myself to look, but I felt like it didn’t fit my personality at all.
She got me dark, baggy jeans, a white shirt with what looked like a band logo on it that I couldn’t recognize, and a simple, black necklace.
She actually tried getting me to wear a spiked choker, but I refused.
I didn’t have the confidence to unironically wear something like that.
Still, she dressed me up in such a punk way. Or maybe it wasn’t punk? I kind of looked like I was dressed like one of those Korean boy band guys doing a punk photoshoot.
It wasn’t my style at all.
But it made Stella happy, and the clothes were free, so I wasn’t going to complain.
Besides, when going by how all the other girls checked me out and whispered to themselves, I didn’t have to worry about looking embarrassing. They were apparently all into it, too.
Then again, those girls probably would have been into me even if I weighed five hundred pounds and wore stained wife beaters.
Afterward, we went to one of Stella’s favorite restaurants that had outdoor seating and got a quick meal and drinks. I made sure I’d have leftovers to give Lupa since she was still following us.
Then it was talking time. After dropping my leftovers off with Lupa, Stella and I found an open table to sit at outside of a shop that already closed up for the day and…
talked. About all sorts of things, but I also made good on my word by telling her all about how the dungeons went for the past couple of days. Then we got to talking about music.
“I’ll make sure to send you my favorite songs from them later,” Stella said, referencing the band on my shirt. “I mean, you can’t wear a band’s shirt without ever listening to their music, right?”
“I feel like more people do that than you’d think,” I answered.
“That’s crazy. What’s the point? What if you end up trying them out and hate them?”
I shrugged. “People are weird.”
“I think you’re the last person who gets to say that.”
“On the other hand, aren’t I the most qualified to say that?”
“Hmm. Good point.” Stella then looked into my eyes again, smiled, and sighed. “I’m way too lucky.”
“You better not be putting yourself down again.”
“I’m not! Well, not on the outside. I—I can’t deny that I keep on thinking to myself, ‘There’s no way this perfect guy likes me. This has to be like a prank or dream or something.’”
“Your lack of confidence is what’s unbelievable.”
“Well… I guess you can blame my ex for that.”
“An ex? You had a boyfriend?”
Stella looked away while messing with her hair. “Yeah. A real asshole by comparison to you.”
That wasn’t something ever brought up in the game. Was it always part of her story, or new? Either way, I was curious. “What made him an asshole?”
“I thought guys don’t like it when girls talk about other guys? I mean… when there are thousands of girls you can get… you probably don’t want a girl who’s been around another man already.”
“Hey, as long as you’re shit talking him, feel free. It’ll let me feel superior while also telling me what not to do.”
Stella chuckled and looked me in the eyes to say, “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that.
Anyways… we were childhood friends. He gave me all these hopes and dreams—telling me how he wanted to marry me when we got older and everything.
I was obsessed with him. Clinging to his side constantly.
Never wanting to do anything without him.
Then I started gaining weight and… he lost all interest in me.
” Stella looked down and poked her breast. “These things ruined us. He was embarrassed being around a fat girl like me. I tried suuuper hard to lose weight for him, but he didn’t even care.
He said all he could see was the fat every time he looked at me. ”
“I hate this kid already.”
“Right? But despite that, we did eventually start dating. I think because he actually had such a terrible personality that nobody but me was willing to deal with him.”
“A guy in this world has to have a really shit personality in that case.”
“For real. But even though we dated, we never did anything. He was still grossed out by me.”
“Then why did he even date you?”
“Because nobody else would date him and I think that hurt his ego. I guess he thought, as long as he had me, he wasn’t a total loser.
And I was still stupid and blinded by love, so I put up with it.
I put up with the daily insults, always telling me to lose more weight, telling me to get a better job so I could buy him more gifts…
we were together for seven years like that.
Then I came home early from work one day and heard another girl’s voice inside.
They were both shit talking me and saying how it was sooooo unbelievable how stupid and gullible I was.
Turned out I was being played like a fool for years.
No wonder we never did anything physical together.
No hugging. No kissing. Definitely no sex.
I was never anything other than the fat, gullible idiot only good for my money to him. You want to know the worst part?”
“Please don’t tell me you stayed with him after that.”
“Aha…”
“Girl.”
“Right?” Stella let out a long sigh. “I really was stupid, but I thought there was no way a girl like me would ever find another guy, so… I pretended I didn’t hear anything and dealt with it by crying myself to sleep most nights.
We didn’t even share a bedroom, so it was easy to cover that up.
Also… sorry if this is too much. Tell me if I’m oversharing, alright? ”
“Well, you are oversharing, but I asked for it, plus I want you to keep going, so it’s alright.”
“Heh. Weirdo. Anyways, there isn’t much else to say.
I told some of my friends about it a few months later—the girls you saw at the guild with me—and they talked some sense into me.
They actually got suuuuuper pissed off on my behalf.
It was funny. In one conversation, those girls made me feel more loved than a lifetime with my ex did. ”
“I’ll have to give them my thanks. Wait… if I do that, isn’t there a serious chance they’ll fall for me? I want to thank them, but…”
“Oh, they’re gay, don’t worry.”
“Oh.”
“Their story is totes funny. Like, they decided to go out on a date with each other as a joke since they couldn’t find men and then realized they liked each other way more than the idea of any guy.
Actually… I don’t even know if you can call them gay?
Like, if I was going to call them anything, I’d call Zoey ‘Leahsexual’ and I’d call Leah ‘Zoeysexual.’ They’re all over each other, but don’t care about any other girls. Want to know how I know?”
“How do you know?”
“After they helped me break up with my ex, I asked them to take me into their relationship and got rejected. They told me they only liked each other that way and never felt that way about any other girls. But… maybe that was because they knew how vulnerable I was and didn’t want to take advantage of me, but also didn’t want to kick me while I was down. ”
“They sound like great friends.”
“Yeah, they’re my besties. It’s a little annoying going out with them sometimes since they’re always alllll over each other and flirting even though they try to hold back around me, but yeah… I wouldn’t trade them for anyone.”
“It’s great to have friendships like that.”
“Mhm. I’d probably still be with that asshole if it wasn’t for them. And since I’m not… now I get to flirt with a cute boy who isn’t totally disgusted by me.” Stella winked and smiled at me. “Aren’t I lucky?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m the lucky one if anything. By the way, you ever think of going into the dungeons?”
“Me? Aha, no way.”
I did a double take. “Really?”
“Hmm? Yeah? Why do you look so surprised?”
“I’ll explain that some other time. But for now, let’s just say I thought you were the type of girl who secretly yearned for a life of adventuring in dungeons.”
“Oh, nah. Honestly… it’s a little embarrassing to admit…
but I’ve always kind of dreamed of being a housewife.
I know that’s like, super selfish and totally weird since girls are supposed to be the ones taking care of men by working and paying the bills, but…
I always had this fantasy of wearing cute aprons, cleaning, cooking, taking care of my husband and his wives after they get home for the day…
I guess I like this fantasy of being a source of comfort and warmth everyone comes back to at the end of the day.
But I totes don’t have the housewife vibe.
Even when I asked you to tell me about how the dungeon diving went, that was me being selfish and trying to get my fix of that. ”
“It let you feel like a housewife asking her husband how his day at work was.”
“You don’t have to embarrass me by saying it out loud like that.”