It takes one to know one
-Unknown


Church had just closed. I was pretty excited to try out posting a job once more on Upwork because of all the spiritual blessings the pastor had blasted we congregants from the podium. It was exihilirating I have to say because of the drummer was on point this morning. He literally drummed so hard to a point where he accidently flung one of his drum stick at an innocent choir mistress who was not so pleased at that point with his exuberant enthusiasm. I will have to admit he was a little bit too hyper but that is the way I like it: fast and loud (if you can guess the movie reference

Anyway, my joy was cut short when the sky just seemed to pick the time when I was stepping out of church to unburden itself with it’s tears. And I, like most Nigerians, didn’t bother to check the weather report for the morning because I was too busy watching Higurashi to listen to the radio. What can I say? I’m a Gen Z, lol. But seriously you have to pay more attention to news, man.

So I was faced with the option of running home under the heavy drops of rain or stay in church for another service to listen to the hyper drummer. I chose the former and raced my way with other like-minded folks who were anxious to get some breakfast (as in break fast, geddit?) at home or in some fancy eatery (don’t underestimate some people’s cravings man!)

Half way home I decided that it wasn’t worth catching pneumonia to watch some anime, so trotted to a shop which was vacant to get some shade for the time being until it started drizzling at least. As I stepped in I noticed a girl who was about my age staring into the rain. And men, was she cute! Since it was a Sunday, the girl had adorned herself in her best attire; a blue gown that moderately grabbed the shape of her body. But that was not what caught my attention. She had one of the most elegant face I have seen which kinda reminded me of Anya Taylor Joy my beloved Argentina actress and that’s saying something. Except of course instead of a white skin, she had a standard spotless brown skin which was generic without any make-up whatsoever. She looked kinda impatient for the rain to subside too.

My immediate thought was how to impress this duchess but a look at my clothes got me berating myself for even thinking I got a chance; I was soaked to the skin and my lanky frame was displaying the look of scarecrow rather than a swell guy. I just swallowed up any intentions of starting a conversation with her and mumbled a “Good morning” to which I’m not sure she even heard. Believe me, if you could open up my brain I’m sure you would be wondered about my encyclopedia knowledge of all the conversation know-how but to actually implement it is kinda like a war within myself.

To console myself I had to open up my phone to read One Punch Man manga because the humor and peppered action is always something to count on to relieve pent up stress (yes, I know I’m a wimp sometimes). To my utmost surprise I heard a soft voice asking:

“You read manga?”

I swerved my head towards the girl just to be sure my ears were not deceiving me. And sure enough she was staring at me with those large dark eyes that can drown a man in a trance. I regained myself before she thought I was either a mute or just being a jerk and answered in my most cool and deepest voice.


“Yeah ”, cocking an eyebrow for maximum effect. Before I added “Not too often though, before you consider me an Otaku.You?” I couldn’t believe I had spouted that long a sentence. What?!

She nodded. She seemed interested in a conversation, sorta. Man! I couldn’t believe my stroke of luck! This was probably what pastor preached about today about uncommon favor, lol.
She placed a finger on those delicate lips of hers and said, “I read a lot. Just saw you read that and decided to ask. I don’t see many anime/mange readers, you know?”

“Yeah”, I thought furiously on a witty or at least a funny pun to make this magic last a little longer. “We are one of a kind”, I added lamely.

But she gave a chuckle at least and that gave me some Dutch courage in a sense and we struck up a conversation on anime’s we have watched and the ones we were most anticipating for. She was a Shonen fan and one of her favorite was Jujutsu Kaisen. When I told her I was kinda into Komi Can’t Kommunicate I gauged her reaction but she didn’t judge (or at least that was the vibe I got) and rolled out a combination of the funniest episodes in the anime to her. Was this really happening?

We talked and rambled on anime gist for what seemed like hours to me. We even lost track that the rain had stopped falling and people were beginning to trudge about in the wet road.

It then occurred to me that I didn’t even know her name. So I asked her in the most stylish way possible. She looked at me with those dreamy eyes of hers and was about to tell me when I heard a ringing in my ear that refused to hear what this siren’s name was…

I woke up with sweat soaked clothes, panting.
It was all a dream…

Apologies for the multiple anime reference. I'm kind of a nerd on that So I'm going to be giving some translations

Otaku: An introverted anime/manga fanatic
Manga: a Japanese animated cartoon