Book 7: Chapter 6:

“That… that was a really tight hug,” Eva said. “I’m not sure that my body is rated to handle that much pressure.”

“I’m surprised myself,” Ryouta said.

Cassandra crossed her arms and asked, “What’s so surprising about that?”

“I’ve never seen you hug somebody that hard before.”

“Well… it’s our first time meeting. And it took longer to meet her than it took to meet you and the others. So, the distance has had more time to build up.”

Eva grabbed onto her chin in thought. “Hmm… I see. Then the intensity of a hug is tied to the time spent apart from each other. If that’s the case, the longer we spend away from each other, the stronger the hug is going to be. Further experimentation will be needed to confirm the legitimacy of this.”

“How about not doing that? Further experimentation means more time apart.”

“I didn’t say it has to include me. Besides, there’s somebody else getting here soon who we’ll be able to perform the experiment on.”

“We’ve got a couple of hours to kill before then,” Ryouta said. “By the way, since we’re out of the game, what uh – do you want us to call you? Just Eva like always?”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s just my nickname. Short for Evalee and all.”

“I’m starting to feel like I’m one of the only people who still wants a name completely different from my real one whenever I’m playing games.”

“Aza is the same,” Cassandra said.

“Yeah, but she basically goes by that in real life since she doesn’t like her real name, so she’s still Aza whether we’re in real life or in the game.”

“I guess.”

“Anyways!” Eva spoke up to offer a change of subject. “Can you imagine that so many people are still wearing masks in airports? I mean, I get it, but it’s still kind of surprising. Even when it’s not flu season or anything, and when there’s nothing spreading around, so many people here are still wearing masks.”

Looking around to confirm her observation, Ryouta and Cassandra saw that she was right. More than half of the people walking around through the airport had white masks on that covered up the bottom half of their faces. There were even plenty of signs spread around reminding people to wash and sanitize their hands in addition to encouraging wearing masks by listing the proven benefits of them.

“Well, I guess everything from the twenties is still having an effect on travel today,” Cassandra today. “We’re probably better for it. It’s all the dumbasses from back then in the first place who were responsible for spreading so much death.”

“Yeah,” Ryouta agreed, “you’re not wrong, but… it’s kind of messed up to think about, but it’s because of so many people refusing to listen and politicizing the issue that change became possible, isn’t it?”

Eva crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. “Exactly. All sorts of horrible things happen that lead to good things that wouldn’t have happened if stuff wasn’t horrible in the first place. Tens of millions of people died from all the back-to-back stuff in the twenties but, if it wasn’t for them dying, people wouldn’t have gotten outraged. If people didn’t get outraged, the status quo would have continued on like always. It was only because the bad kept happening at a rate too fast for people to get desensitized that enough became enough. It even applies to smaller stuff. There are so many experiments I would conduct if I could alter a past version of myself to do something in some tiny way while leaving the present me unaffected. How different would an alternate me’s life be if, five years ago, a leaf fell in front of her face at a random time when previously no such leaf fell there? What if I ate an apple instead of a banana? What if I waited an extra five seconds to get up and go to the bathroom? No matter how tiny of a thing it might be, it could potentially have a massive effect on my life and completely change not just myself, but the course of history as a result.”

“I’m not sure that waiting five extra seconds to go to the bathroom will change history,” Cassandra said with a tilted head and doubtful expression.

“But what if it does? What if, in those five seconds of procrastination, you think of something that takes you down a line of thought that gives you a revelation and even inspires a brand new invention that changes the world? Or what if, by waiting for five seconds by a window, you see somebody who you never thought you would see again walk down the sidewalk outside? And you would have missed them if you got up five seconds earlier to go to the bathroom. Maybe there were your soulmate.”

“I guess I can understand, but what are the chances of anything like that actually happening?”

“Well,” Ryouta said, “what were the chances that me and you, two people in a game in a random forest in the middle of nowhere, came across each other and ended up dating? If either of us would have just gone in a slightly different direction, we wouldn’t have ever met, and then we wouldn’t be here having this conversation.”

“I… alright. I guess that you’re right. If I would have immersed a couple minutes later than I did, I probably never would have met you. But… I don’t like thinking like that. I’d rather continue believing our lives aren’t that susceptible to random little things.”

“Why?”

“Why would you want to? If I believe that instead of pretending that this entire conversation to prove how it’s the case never happened, then I’m going to always worry about every little thing I do. It means that I’m always going to have in my mind that, at any point, every single action, no matter how tiny it might be, could change my life for better or worse. Suddenly everything from getting out of bed to how long it takes me to open the fridge is a life-changing decision.”

Eva nodded with a smile on her face. “That’s what makes it so exciting! There’s infinite possibilities! Every single thing we do matters! Well, unless you believe that everything is predetermined and that the entire course of history could be accurately predicted so long as you have complete, unlimited knowledge and know about every single thing in the entire universe.”

“Wh—what?”

“Remember the leaf falling in front of my face then? Well, if you’re able to calculate everything like the wind, condition of the leaf and where it’s connected to the branch at and any other external factors, then you can figure out exactly when and how the leaf is going to fall every single time. The same applies to people. If you can account for everything that somebody has ever been through in life, knowing every single thing inside of their head at all times, while knowing of all external influences, you could tell exactly what they are going to do, think, where their eyes will look, when and how they’ll breathe – you could basically tell the future. If there was some sort of hyper advanced intelligence capable of knowing everything in the universe, and I mean literally everything down to the exact positions of every atom and quark and all that, then they would be able to accurately predict the rest of history. They would know what random thought will pass through somebody’s head five trillion years in the future from now.”

“Alright,” Ryouta said. “I’m on Cass’s side now. Let’s pretend that neither of us have ever heard this conversation before.”

“Deal,” Cassandra said, shaking hands with Ryouta to confirm their deliberate memory loss. “Eva, I love you, but I don’t want to ever think about either of those possibilities ever again.”

“What possibilities?” Eva asked with a tilted head.

“What we were just—”

Eva’s smile interrupted Cassandra, bringing her in on what Eva was trying to do. “Weren’t we just talking about people wearing masks even though they really don’t need to anymore?”

“Yeah, Cass,” Ryouta said. “What are you talking about with possibilities? Are you alright? Need to go back to take a nap or something?”

Cassandra pinched his cheek for a few seconds. “You don’t have to play along that much. Anyways,” she paused to release his cheek, “I need the bathroom, so I’ll be right back. Don’t run off anywhere without me.”

“Have fun.”

“It’s not something to have fun with.”

“Well, some people have fun with that sort of stuff. Don’t kinkshame them.”

“I’ll kinkshame you for your weird drawings you’re into.”

“Such an abusive girlfriend.”

This time, Cassandra made sure to pinch his other cheek so that both sides of his face should be sore from the pinching before heading off to the nearby bathroom, leaving Ryouta and Eva alone.

“Should we run off without her?” Eva asked. “We could find a good spot to observe her from and watch how she reacts to us being gone.”

“I’m not sure if that makes you sound more like a stalker or just an unethical scientist. Either way, I don’t think she’d appreciate that, so let’s just stay here,” Ryouta answered.

“Good point.”

“By the way, uh – about the thing we were talking about, since I actually am curious. Do you really think that everything is predetermined like that?”

“Definitely. As far as I’m aware, none of us have any true free will and our lives are determined before they ever get a chance to happen in the first place. We’re only fleshy machines reacting to external stimulus in preset ways. All of history could be known from as early as the birth of the universe.”

“Don’t you think that’s kind of depressing?”

“Nope. I don’t think anything like free will really exists or anything, but I do think a good enough illusion of free will exists. The vast majority of people, if you ask them, will tell you that they have free will, so our brains are doing a good job of tricking us into thinking we have it. They’ll argue that they can make a choice to do whatever they want right now while refusing to believe that that’s only because of everything in their lives that led up to their current belief. Them arguing in favor of free will was determined at the beginning of time. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. As long as we have the illusion of free will, that’s good enough. Even now, despite how much I genuinely believe in none of us having free will, it’s like my body and mind refuse to actually accept that as fact. I still feel like I have free will even though I don’t believe I do. Let’s say… for an easy example, let’s say that you lose your nose and can never smell anything ever again. But, even without your nose and the ability not to actually smell, you still feel like you can smell things. You still remember how everything smells and your mind tricks itself into smelling them even though it’s impossible to, basically having the same effect as actually smelling them. Kind of like a placebo effect. It doesn’t matter whether it really exists or not as long as you can feel it, right? If you can’t technically smell anything, but you still ‘smell’ everything just as good as if you could technically smell things, then that’s as good as your sense of smell actually existing. Many would argue that the fact that you tricking yourself into smelling in the first place means that your sense of smell exists in your subjective reality. So, that same logic could be taken to free will. If you feel like you have free will, then by the standards of a subjective universe, you do have free will.”

“You’re way too smart for me.”

“I’m not that smart. I’m only some random person no more important than anybody else who likes to think about stuff that others would probably post to online forums as examples of teenagers trying to be deep. Except not a teen. I’m legal.”

“Don’t worry, I know.”

“Just wanted to make sure. I said something like that once a couple of years ago to this guy who obviously liked me, and he started freaking out and cut all contact between us. He said that just joking or making even the subltest of implication that I could be underage was enough to destroy his trust in my age.”

“Damn. That’s… kind of extreme, not that I can blame him.”

“Yeah. I get it, but I also think it was a ridiculous exaggeration. Like if you tell me to my face that you’re actually a seven-year-old girl, I’m not going to doubt your age and think you might be lying to me even when you’re not obviously joking.”

“But what if I’m a seven-year-old girl on the inside? What if I embrace my inner loli?”

“So… what you’re saying is that you have a loli in you? That’s kind of…”

“You’re making it sound worse than I meant!”

Eva leaned back and laughed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist.”

Ryouta sighed and swiped a hand across his forehead. “You’re going to get me locked up if you make jokes like that in public.”

“It could be worse. I was tempted to imply something way worse than what I said.”

“Please don’t. At least, not in public. I don’t care what kind of jokes you make in private with me, but please don’t say anything in public that’s going to get me arrested.”

“So… I shouldn’t start joking about how you hid a bomb attached to a little girl somewhere?”

Ryouta immediately looked around to make sure that nobody was suddenly glaring at them or calling anybody after hearing that. “Please don’t. If you do, I’m taking you down with me as my accomplice.”

“Heh. So, you’re the kind of guy who can act all confident and stuff in-game, but you’re pretty easy to embarrass in real life?”

“I… don’t know if I’d say that. If I’m being honest, I would probably be embarrassed whether joked about me like that here or in the game.”

“You know I’m going to take advantage of this now that I know about it, right? You can expect me to try all sorts of things to embarrass you both in real life and in-game.”

“That’s kind of screwed up.”

“I’ll stop if you want me to, obviously. I wouldn’t do it if it made you uncomfortable. Do you want me to not?”

“I… want you to be yourself.”

“That’s a roundabout way of saying that you’re a masochist who likes to be publicly embarrassed.”

Ryouta grabbed onto Eva and put one hand over her mouth as he looked around, this time confirming that people were watching after hearing that.

But even if his cheeks were red with embarrassment… he had to force himself not to laugh. He found it as funny as he found it embarrassing, and even that didn’t make him want her to stop, so maybe there was even a bit of truth in her teasing.

Once Ryouta calmed down, he released her mouth from his hand. “You seem… kind of different from how you act in the game.”

Eva agreed with a nod. “Makes sense.”

“You think so, too?”

“Well, yeah. Ever since I realized my feelings, I’ve doubted that they were real. I always had a thought in the back of my mind telling me that no matter how much I like you in the game that there would be zero actual attraction in real life. I read dozens of stories of that happening. People who thought that they were perfect lovers for each other met up for the first time and realized they couldn’t care less about the other person. Sometimes it just… happens. Like there were even stories of people who used avatars that looked exactly like the real deal online and they always hung out using these avatars, but it didn’t matter. There was still nothing there when they met in real life. Friends, romance, family – it can happen to any sort of relationship, too, but most stories were about romantic relationships. Anyways, I was worried it might happen to us.”

“How come you didn’t say anything about it sooner if you were so worried?”

“I didn’t want to make you worried, too.”

“I guess that even somebody as smart as you can be pretty dumb at times. For future reference, if you’re ever worried about anything, don’t bottle it up and keep it to yourself. Let us know.”

“I’m the dumbest person I know, so you might have to be patient with me. But seriously… I’ll try. I don’t really want to bother people with all the negative stuff that pops into my mind. That’s what my pills are for.”

“Your pills?”

“Yeah. I take some for my anxiety.”

“You’re honestly the last person who I would have expected to have anxiety. Given that you constantly put yourself in danger and want to try all sorts of things.”

“I don’t need to be anxious when I’m in a game.”

“That’s… a good point.”

“If anything, being insane in the game is another sort of medication for me. But real life? Real life is terrifying.”

“Says the one who snuck up on me and Cass to scare us.”

“Well, that’s because I was on a happiness high. I was happy that I still liked you as soon as I saw you two standing there.”

“That’s extremely adorable. But, thanks for confiding in me.”

“It’s no big deal. The only reason I never brought it up before is because it was never really relevant. And because nobody asked. Like, here’s something else that was never really important. I was on anti-depressants for years and only stopped taking them a couple of months before meeting you.”

“That’s – I’m sorry, I don’t really know how to react to suddenly hearing something like that.”

“Ah, yeah. I doubt most people would know how. I don’t even know how I’d react. I guess that I’m just in a talkative mood and want to tell you all sorts of stuff about myself now.”

“Well, you can talk as much as you want and I’ll be happy to listen. I kinda felt like we haven’t had enough chances to really get to know each other better, so it seems like now would be a great time.”

“Speaking of time, Cass is really taking a while in there. I’ll go make sure she’s alright.”

Ryouta nodded as Eva took off for the bathroom. Then, once he was in the clear, he let out a sigh. The temptation to feel bad about not knowing about her medication sooner was there, but he forced himself to keep in mind that there was no way he could have known any earlier. Even so, he still felt guilty. It was just a guilt that he knew wasn’t fair to himself.

Though, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. She was as adventurous as she was in the game because she suffered from anxiety in real life. Her in-game body was modified to her ideal of perfection and she didn’t exactly wear much protective clothing on her avatar, but she wore a baggy hoody and sweatpants in real life. That was exactly the kind of clothing that somebody who suffered from anxiety and didn’t want others looking at their body would wear, he figured. Even he was guilty of that when he was a teenager with less confidence in his looks. Heck, that even extended into adulthood!

And if Eva was so worried about not liking them in real life that realizing she still did caused such a massive amount of relief to the point where it could give her a happiness high, what else was she hiding? What if any of his other girlfriends were hiding things like that? Even though he knew it was unfair to set such high expectations for himself, he wanted to be the perfect boyfriend who always knew what was wrong so that he could help those who he loved.

But he knew that was impossible. All he could do was try not to feel too bad about setting impossible standards for himself. As for whether that would work or not, only time would tell.

More importantly, while he might not have been able to be as perfect as he wished he was, he did know something else that he could do.

Did he believe that he could cure Eva’s anxiety? Of course not. However, he did believe that he could at least try to boost her confidence a little. So, when she came out of the bathroom with Cassandra by her side, the first thing that he said to Eva was, “By the way, you’re even more beautiful in real life.”

Of course, he also froze and flustered himself when he realized what he just said.

“That – that was… sudden,” Eva said.

“Are you sick or something?” Cassandra asked him.

“You’re only making me cringe even harder at myself,” Ryouta whined. “I just… wanted to give Eva a compliment, and that was the first thing that came to mind.”

“Is it because I told you about my anxiety?” Eva asked.

“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a part of it.”

“Don’t worry about that. Seriously. And if you’re saying it in hopes of making it better or anything, I’ll be honest and say that it won’t work. I don’t even have any legitimate reasons for feeling the way I do. Same with when I was depressed. It just… is how it is. Probably will be for the rest of my life no matter who says what.”

“That just makes me want to try and help you even more.”

“I know the feeling,” Cassandra chimed in.

“Wait, did you already know?”

“She told me a while ago since we were talking about medications we’ve been on for some reason. Anyways, give up on it. Instead of trying to change her, just be happy and have fun with her. That’s what I’m doing. Unless you plan on opening up her head to dig into her brain and change the way that she is that way, there’s nothing we can do about it. The brain is just stupid like that.”

“Yeah,” Eva agreed. “Just be yourself. If anything, if you worry about me, that’s going to make me feel even worse. So, just treat me like always. Also, treating me like I’m perfectly normal and like my brain isn’t such a sadist to itself will do more for making me feel less anxious than treating me special. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.”

“I’ll do my best to keep that in mind,” Ryouta said. “By the way… what took so long in there?”

Cassandra opened her mouth to say, “It doesn’t mat—”

Eva was happy to interrupt with the same sort of look that she had when publicly calling Ryouta a masochist earlier. “She ran out of toilet paper in her stall. There were other people in there, so she couldn’t reach under the stall to try and steal some from another stall, and she didn’t want to ask a stranger for some, so she was apparently sending me messages asking me to come and help but I didn’t notice since I was distracted talking to you, and then I had to steal some from another stall for her.”

“Wow. What a dramatic story. Cass Cass, how did you ever survive such – wait. Where’d she go?”

“She started walking away as soon as I started talking. See? Over there.” Eva pointed to where Cassandra was. Surely enough, there she was walking away pretending like she had no idea who either of them was.

Ryouta and Eva had some catching up to do.

Afer catching up to Cassandra, the group hung out at a café where they could enjoy some drinks—coffee for Eva and tea for Ryouta and Cassandra—while waiting for Azalabulia’s plane to land. Of course, they also used conversation to help pass the time. Any topic that they thought of was talked about in-depth with Eva leading most of the conversations as she proved just how talkative she could be.

One such conversation included something that Ryouta and Cassandra were supposed to forget about.

“By the way,” Eva said. “I know you don’t really want to think about this, but I wanted to add on to what I talked about earlier.”

“If you really want to, I’m not going to stop you,” Cassandra said. “Just don’t expect me to think about it much afterwards.”

“You know how you were worried about choices and all that?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, look at it this way. Every single ‘choice’ we make is extremely important and can change our entire lives. But, if we don’t really have true free will to make actual choices and instead only think we’re making choices… that basically means destiny is a thing. That means no matter what you could have done, you were always destined to end up with me, Ryouta, Serra, Aza, Alice – there is no choice you could have made that wouldn’t have ended with you being together with us. That’s another reason why I like to think of it that way. It’s… kind of romantic, yeah? I just thought that putting it like that might help you feel a little better about it. Since the start of time, we were meant to fall in love with each other and there’s nothing that could have stopped us.”

“That… yeah. I guess when you put it that way… I do like the sound of it. It also makes me feel bad for the people who are less fortunate than us since it would mean they’re screwed no matter what, but – wait. Thinking of that just completely overwrote how nice the romantic way of looking at it was.”

“It was worth a try.”

“I’m kidding. Half kidding. I do still like looking at it from the romantic part. So, I guess that I’ll just look at it this way: our love was destined. Nothing else is destined. We’re special and nobody else has to deal with destinty.”

“That’s a selfish way of looking at it,” Ryouta said, “but I’ll agree to it. Also, I really don’t think that you had to get an unsweetened tea. It’s alright if you have some calories.”

“Calories are illegal from now on.”

Eva looked at Cassandra and said, “If you’re trying to cut down on calories, I could try to optimize a diet plan for you. There are a whole ton of artificial sweeteners just as good as real sugar nowadays, too. You just have to know which ones to go for. Let me research this for you and I’ll get you the best, most efficient diet plan that you could ever dream of having.”

“I won’t stop you if you’re willing to do that.”

“Sweet. Now I have a new research goal. One that will actually matter and be important to somebody, too. I’m getting excited! Maybe I’ll start working on it after everybody is asleep. Drink some coffee and pull an all-nighter so that it’s ready by the morning.”

“I don’t think it needs to be ready that soon. I’d rather you get some sleep with us.”

“Oh yeah, we’re all going to be sleeping together, aren’t we? I’m going to have to figure out the perfect layout to maximize equal skinship.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if we’re all sleeping together, and we’re all equal members in our relationship, then shouldn’t we try to make sure that we all have equal physical contact with each other?”

“Don’t – don’t overthink it,” Ryouta said. “Cass usually sleeps on one side of me, Alice on the other, and then Serra on top of one or two of us if not between my legs. In a non-sexual way. And I’m not always in the center, either. It’s just… whoever gets into bed in what order.”

“I know it’s not a big deal, but I still want to theorycraft it. What are the most optimal sleeping positions for a group of six people to while trying to get an equal amount of skinship with every combination of person involved? I already have an idea for how it might work…”

And so, the rest of the time while waiting for Azalabulia’s plane was spent theorycrafting sleeping arrangements.

When it finally became time for Azalabulia’s plane to land, the three got up to go and wait for her by the luggage pickup. That was when Ryouta and Eva came up with a plan that Cassandra was brought into whether she approved of it or not.

As for Cassandra, all she had to do was stand there by the conveyor belt with luggage filling it up. Azalabulia sent a message letting them know that she was off the plane and on her way to pick up her luggage, so Cassandra made sure to keep an eye out for her.

It was impossible not to spot Azalabulia once she came into sight.

Azalabulia’s in-game avatar, as they were all used to, had – well, the sort of looks that demanded attention. Particularly due to her chest. It was essentially as big as it possibly could have been in the game. Ryouta and the others knew that it was bigger than her real size, though. They saw pictures that confirmed her chest was smaller than in-game as well, albeit still impressively large.

But those pictures did not do her any justice. While Eva managed to keep a low profile with her baggy and simple clothes, the woman now descending the nearby escalator looked like somebody who wanted to keep a low profile but found it impossible to do so. There was simply no lowering of the profile when it came to somebody who looked like the woman coming down the escalator – Azalabulia.

The eyes of every gender nearby locked onto Azalabulia’s chest. If they didn’t outright stare at her, they took quick looks or tried to be subtle about it. The shirt and jacket that she wore would have been enough to cover her up had she been more traditionally sized when it came to her breasts but, instead, they only served to make her into even more of an impressive sight as they were bulged out from her bust.

Then there was her hair. While she might have had long and flowing, white hair in the game, her hair was just as long in real life except brown in color and braided behind her to keep it under control. Even so, it was longer than most hair that people saw and it only made her stick out even more. If somebody couldn’t see her from the front nor sides to be impressed by her chest, they were impressed by the hair behind her.

And then there was the final thing that really made her stand out.

Not only was Azalabulia far beyond the norm when it came to her bust and hair, but she was tall. Even most of the men who went by her were shorter than her as she stood at just over six feet in height, making her even taller than she was in the game. In-game, her height was one of the only things not exaggerated about her, and now Cassandra knew why.

That made Cassandra realize something.

Azalabulia was even taller in real life than she was in the game, but her breasts only looked slightly smaller. Or so she thought. It wasn’t that Azalabulia’s breasts were any smaller in real life so much as it was that, due to Azalabulia being taller and a bit broader in reality, her absurd chest managed to somehow look a bit more proportionate. In-game, her chest just looked too big for her. In real life, her chest might have been extreme, but it at least looked a bit more fitting for her frame. So Cassandra realized that it was probably inaccurate to say that Azalabulia’s chest was actually smaller in real life. If anything… it was even bigger. It just so happened to look a bit smaller relative to the rest of her body while it looked unproportionately large in game, giving it the illusion of being bigger.

But no matter how imposing Azalabulia might have been, nothing could have possibly stopped Cassandra from rushing over to her and hugging her as soon as she made it off of the escalator.

That gave the people in the airport even more to look at. Two attractive women, one with a chest that was already larger than most and one with a chest that made even Cassandra’s look average, pressing against each other and hugging. And Cassandra got to enjoy the hug the most seeing as how her face ended up against Azalabulia’s chest due to the height difference.

“It’s about time. I was tempted to barge my way into the air control room to tell them to tell your plane to hurry up,” Cassandra said, her voice partially muffled against Azalabulia’s chest. She only moved her face so that she could look up at Azalabulia once the other woman was quiet without any sort of response. Cassandra wasn’t sure why Azalabulia was so quiet… and she definitely didn’t expect to see Azalabulia fighting back tears. Cassandra immediately let go, thinking that she might have done something wrong, and asked, “He-hey, what’s wrong? Why do you look so upset?”

“I – I’m not upset,” Azalabulia answered, sniffling and wiping at her eyes. “I’m just… so happy… my heart feels like it’s going to explode…”

“Don’t – don’t cry about it. I get it, I’m really happy too, but—”

The more that Azalabulia tried to hold the tears back, the more impossible that task became until she lunged forward and wrapped her arms back around Cassandra, tightly hugging the smaller woman against her chest as she cried.

“Well,” Eva said, now standing next to them with Ryouta, “we were going to sneak up behind you together to scare you… but I’d feel bad ruining the moment like that now.”

“Yeah,” Ryouta said.

As soon as Azalabulia heard the voices of her other two lovers coming from her side, she cried even more before pulling them in to the hug.

All three of them looked short compared to Azalabulia as she cried and cried, forcing them into one giant group hug that just so happened to be centered around her chest.

“You’re… actually going to make me cry if you keep crying,” Ryouta said.

“I can’t help it!” Azalabulia cried, her voice loud enough to draw the attention of everybody nearby. “I never thought the day would come! It was like a dream! And now it’s happening!”

“Hmm… I guess it makes sense,” Eva said. “She’s a teacher and is always roleplaying and shouting about dragons in-game, so I guess that should have made it obvious she would have the confidence to cry like this in a busy airport.”

As for Cassandra, seeing as how she was getting squeezed against the bustiest bust that she had ever seen in real life, she was more than happy to let it happen. She was even more of a pervert than Ryouta and Serra would have been in the situation.

If people didn’t already have a reason to stop and stare at the group before, they definitely did now that half the group was crying while a tall woman with massive breasts squeezed three others in a hug.

It wasn’t exactly something that people saw on a regular basis.