Chapter Text
“And... post!”
Momo leaned back in her old gamer chair in her dorm room, folding her arms behind her head in satisfaction. The screen for Archive of Our Own loaded, showing that her latest and final chapter was live for the world to see.
It was done. Two hundred thousand words, seventy-three chapters, and she had finally brought her longest-running fanfiction to a close. Her eyes darted down to the time in the bottom-right hand corner of her screen and she smiled. “Oh man, almost time for the new chapter of BanBanan to drop, too!”
She wished Miko and Muko got the appeal of her favorite manga, but they watched one episode of the anime adaptation and immediately said, “peace out.” She supposed she couldn’t blame them. An anime where aliens turned someone's genitals into a banana, and ghosts tried to steal it while the two lead characters (Ringo Tanaka and Ren Nakamura) try to get him back to normal? It was a shaky premise, admittedly, but the author did such a good job writing tragic backstories, romance between the two leads, and action sequences, she couldn’t help but be hooked.
It had been a silly whim when she started writing her fanfiction of it back in high school. First it was some silly oneshots about the main characters, then a few multi-chapter fics.
But then she took a risk on a real passion project.
A retelling of the story, but with the love of her life, Ken Takakura and herself her own original characters as the leads. A sillier premise for a silly fandom. She had called it Banana Rain, in tribute to the Ken Takakura movie Black Rain.
She never expected it to blow up though. Four thousand kudos. Hundreds of comments. The fandom had blown up after the second season of the anime (of course it did, Ringo and Ren held hands), and someone made a TVTropes page for her story, meaning a lot of people trusted the story to be of a certain quality. It had put a lot of pressure on her, honestly, but it made the words practically fly out of her fingertips.
Once she caught up to the manga, she had to get crafty and make her own ending, giving Ken Takakura and her OC, Mika Ayame, a satisfying conclusion to their story. The actor finally reclaimed his genitals, and the two got married. A little sappy, but it was hard for her not to give them a happy ending, especially after all the angst she put them through. Just hope my readers like it.
The doorknob to her dorm room clicked and Momo shut the tabs to her fic and her Tumblr as fast as she could. No one knew she was IL0veKenTakakura, and she would keep it that way until the day she died, if she had her way.
“Hey Aira,” she called, suddenly forgetting how to act casual. “What’s up?”
“Just finished my last midterm,” her roommate sighed. “I could sleep for days.”
“Felt that,” Momo agreed. “I gotta go take my last one here in a little bit. Fucking Calculus, am I right?”
“Blech. I will take that next semester. Let me know how it goes,” Aira asked, flopping down on her bed.
Momo nodded, gathering her stuff. Her phone vibrated, and she saw a notification from one of the BanBanan fanart accounts she posted. Oh cool, 0karun posted a new work!
Making sure Aira wasn’t looking, she opened the app. She nearly screamed.
“Sad to see Banana Rain finish, so I made this to commemorate such a great fic.”
A beautifully rendered picture of Ren and Ringo with Ken Takakura and Mika, all smiling. Her heart hammered in her chest. She wished there was someone she could talk to about this. 0karun was one of the big fan name accounts of BanBanan; their account had hundreds of thousands of followers, and their art was all over the fandom. And he never made fic art! Never!
Oh God, I’m crying I gotta get outta here.
She left the dorm in a hurry, her steps feeling light from the euphoria she was feeling. This is amazing! I hope when I start writing original stuff, I get this much traction.
As she walked towards the building her math midterm was in, she began to get some comments on her final story.
“SpunkyEffinRodent writes:
Aww! I love this ending! I hope Ren and Ringo’s story gets half as cute an ending as Ken and Mika got.
Do you think we could get a spicy bonus chapter? Would love to see what happens after that kiss!”
Momo blushed. It wasn’t the first time someone had asked if she was going to write explicit content, but the closer she got to the end of Banana Rain, the more frequent the requests got. She wasn’t that surprised, she’d written a lot of romantic and sexual tension in her story.
But Momo was... completely inexperienced in the ways of sex. She was saving herself for a Ken Takakura of her very own, and quite frankly, none of the tuna she had dated were worthy of her anyway. The thought of writing smut made her squirm, not necessarily in a bad way, but she was very hesitant to write about what she had no experience in.
“HumanRick writes:
I loved, LOVED this ending! They finally are together after all they went through! But uh, any chance we get a bonus chapter with what happens next?
Thank you for the wonderful story ^_^”
“NoticeMeSenpaiiii writes:
Congrats on finishing this! Sad to see the story end! Any chance of a sequel or continuation. Maybe of the spicy variety?”
“Spoopster writes:
Ahhhhh, I nearly cried! This is so sweet! Any chance of some fluffy smut in the future?”
“MonstrousMedusa writes:
Ugh, they’re so stupid, I love them. The slowest of slow burns achieved. Are we gonna get some bonus smut?”
“BanBananBanBaFan writes:
SMUT WHEN?!”
Similar comments came in from AlyxTheGoofy, HairyMango, and AJoe, both of them asking for spicy content.
Man, people really wanna read about these two rubbing their privates together, she thought, blushing. Maybe I can join one of those Discord’s and find someone to beta read it for me...
... but what if they hate it?
She looked inside of the door for her Calculus final. In her embarrassment around Aira, she left way too early. There were only a few people in the classroom. It struck her that she never really paid attention to anyone in the class; she was too busy dreading math to do so. An obnoxious group of dudebros were in the back, pointing and laughing at only other student in the room. The object of their jeers was a rather unassuming, nerdy looking guy. Probably laughing at the stupid bowl cut, she reasoned. It does look kinda dumb...
Still, she scowled. She used to go for guys like that in high school all the time. Then after a week they would try and get in her pants, she’d freak out, and dump them. She would have been content to ignore this, however, until one of the jackasses got up and snatched the notebook right off the bowl cut boy’s desk.
“G-give that back!” He yelped, immediately, standing up to reach for the notebook. Unfortunately, his tormentor had a good foot on him, holding the notebook aloft out of the shorter boy’s reach.
“Aw, the nerd drawing his weeb shit?” The taller boy (read: asshole) cackled. “Drawing a girlfriend since you can’t get one of your own?”
Righteous fury ignited in Momo’s chest. Ren wouldn’t stand for this in BanBanan, and neither would she, damn it! She stomped over towards the jerk holding up the notebook. He looked over at her and she felt herself get creeped out as he checked her out. “Sup girl?” He asked.
She answered with a fist squarely in his stomach. He doubled over with an, “OOMPH,” clutching his stomach. The notebook tumbled out his hand and hit the ground with a smack, opening face down against the tile floor.
“Asshole,” Momo muttered, walking away from the bully. His jackass friends all laughed as well as he retreated back to his desk in shame.
Bowl-cut boy stared up at her in awe, like she had descended from the heavens to save his notebook. She fought back a snicker; it made her feel like some sort of comic hero for him to look at her like that.
She knelt down to grab his notebook, “This is yours, right?”
The question seemed to snap him out of his stupor. “W-wait!” He cried out, but it was too late.
Momo had grabbed the notebook and flipped it over. At first, she thought nothing of it except, Oh, hey, he’s a BanBanan fan too.
But then she got a better look at the drawings. She recognized this art style, the linework, the way people were portrayed.
She was just looking at a picture just like it after all.
The nerd was looking down at her in horror. “C-can I h-have that back?” He squeaked.
Momo didn’t listen. Comic hero hours were over, she was indulging her own curiosity. She flipped a page of the notebook and gasped.
It was a rough sketch of the 0karun artwork that had been posted for her fic.
She looked up at him with wide eyes. “You’re Okarun?!”
Finding a modicum of courage, he stood up and snatched the notebook from her. “Be quiet!” He hissed. “I don’t want people to know!”
“Know what?!” Momo said excitedly. To his horror, she took a seat next to him. “That you’re like, the number one BanBanan artist online?!”
“Yes!” He whisper-shouted, eyes darting to where people were beginning to pour into the classroom. “Can you stop?! People will hear you!”
Momo went to say something else, but she saw the professor come in, and she realized she probably need to actually get ready for this final. “We’re talking about this after class.”
The boy - the artist 0karun - let out a little groan and put his head in his hands.
“Okarun! Hey, Okarun, where are you going?!”
Ken Takakura let out a groan. He had hoped he would finish the Calculus final before the girl next to him did. That way he could go back to his apartment, and figure out if he needed to leave the country now that he had been outed as a giant weeb artist.
He could see it now. This girl (an incredibly beautiful, attractive one, at that) was about to harass him and say something like, “You’re the loser who makes all that weeb art for that gross anime!” Maybe she’d taken his picture without him looking and was gonna post it to his Twitter or Bluesky and be like, “look how ugly 0karun is!”
“Okarun! Hey, Okarun!”
She was approaching at a higher speed now. He bit his lip. He had two choices: run away, or face the music... and then run away, fleeing the city.
He wasn’t a very fast runner, so he sighed and turned around. “Yes...?”
Despite his best effort to sound annoyed, his voice betrayed him and it came out little more than a timid squeak.
The girl stood in front of him, hands on her hips triumphantly. “Ah ha! So you ARE Okarun.”
“I... yeah, you got me.” He reached across himself with his right hand and clutched his arm nervously.
She dramatically pointed a finger into his chest. “I know what you’re into!”
He paused, his eyes blinking at her rapidly in confusion. What the heck could she possibly mean by that?! “E-excuse me?”
She pulled out her cell phone, opening up one of his art posts. “You’re into BanBanan!”
A few students passing by snickered, making the heat creep up Ken’s cheeks. “O-obviously!” He hissed. “You found my account, of course I’m into that. What do you want?!”
She fist-pumped. “Oh this so cool! I love your art! And I have no one to talk about weeb stuff with!”
He blinked again, and if one looked at Ken hard enough, they could probably hear the dial-up internet tone as his brain struggled to process this. He knew all of those words individually before, but he’d never heard them used in that order, and directed at him.
...she’s a fan?
Red bloomed on his cheeks and he adjusted his glasses nervously. “O-oh, I’m glad you like my work.”
“Well, yeah, it’s so good!” She beamed. “What did you think I was coming to say?”
“Oh my god, you draw weeb shit? What a loser?” Or maybe, “Drawing yourself your waifu, nerd?”
“I’m not sure, I’ve never talked to anyone about what I post,” he settled on.
“Oh, I get that,” the girl nodded. “I’m the same way.”
This piqued his interest, and he tilted his head at her curiously. “Oh, are you an artist too?”
It was the girl’s turn to blush now, and Ken couldn’t help but notice this made her incredibly cute. “A-ah, um... n-not really. I have posted some content. Um... I think the latest BanBanan chapter dropped during our final, you want to read it and talk about it? I usually only get a chance to post about it on Reddit or something.”
This was already turning into the weirdest day of Ken’s life. Girls’ didn’t approach him. Especially ones with pretty red eyes and cute smiles, asking him to read manga with him. Ever. He furrowed his brow slightly and strained his memory. Did I fall and hit my head? Am I having a stroke? Is she an undiagnosed brain tumor? Did I eat anything funny today?
All of these things seemed statistically more likely than what was happening right now. However, if I’m dying, maybe I should just enjoy it?
“Um... yeah, okay, I would like that...” he agreed nervously.
He let out a little yelp as the mystery girl grabbed his hand and began pulling him. “Oh this is so great, I’m so glad to have someone to talk to about BanBanan! And you’re like... the best fanartist for it! I gotta buy you a coffee, this is awesome!”
Between the hand-to-hand contact and the compliment on his art, (two firsts for him), he felt like his face was about to catch fire. “Th-that’s unnecessary, miss...?”
“Oh, duh, I didn’t even introduce myself,” she laughed. “I’m Momo Ayase.”
He replayed the name in his head, over and over again, like it was his new favorite song. The trip to the campus cafe all happened in a blur, his heart thundering in his ribcage. He was pretty sure when Momo asked him what he wanted to drink, he just slammed two random coffee-related words together, but a drink was put in front of him all the same. It even tasted good! This is the luckiest day of my life... unless she really is a brain tumor.
“Alright, let’s see what Matsu sensei cooked for us this week!” She said excitedly as they sat down.
Ken nodded in his daze, pulling out his cell phone. He’d only recently upgraded to a smartphone to better interact with the community online, his only real semblance or facsimile of a social life. But if this (incredibly beautiful, possibly imaginary) girl wanted to discuss the manga, he should probably read it.
It was a good distraction that pulled him from being lost in confusion. It certainly helped that this chapter of BanBanan was amazing; Ren and Ringo defeated the leader of an invading alien army with the help of their ever-growing group of friends, when Tinka created a Monster Truck out of BotBlocks and ran it over. The chapter flew by, and he was finished before he knew it. When he set his phone down, Momo was looking at with sparkling eyes, and all his nerves about the bizarre situation he was in flooded right back.
“Ah, that was so good!” Momo whisper-shouted across the table at him. If she wanted to be subtle about her love for this manga, she wasn’t doing the best job about it.
“I agree! I loved this whole arc, and that conclusion is so satisfying!” He beamed.
She nodded. “It was, but I will say, I liked the last arc with the Cursed Apartment and Malicious Mouth instead. The ghost parts of the story are way better than the alien parts.”
His mouth fell open in shock. “Wh - no they aren’t! The aliens are WAY more interesting adversaries than the ghosts are! They have such cool gadgets and designs.”
Momo rolled her eyes, to his frustration. “Yeah, but the aliens are totally one dimensional. Even the Clur, being different from the Derpos, STILL wanted to just turn everyone’s genitals into bananas. The ghost enemies in the story all have different motivations and backstories. Like Fast Grandpa! Fast Grandpa is a hella-compelling character, Okarun. None of the Derpos have cool backstories. Even the good one that they just introduced. He’s just comic relief.”
“But that’s what makes the aliens so great!” Okarun argued, growing a little heated. “The yokai in the story are all spirits, which is cool, their backstories are really fun and all, but that’s what makes the aliens so jarring! The fact that they’re heartless invaders! Their genocide of Viola’s planet tells you they mean business, because they don’t have the backstory of Fast Grandpa or Smooth Ballerina.”
“I guess, but that doesn’t make them interesting,” Momo argued. “You sound like such a nerd right now.”
“I sound like a nerd?!” He questioned in disbelief. “You’re the one who wanted to talk about manga! You’re just as much of a nerd as I am!”
“Yeah, but you’re the one who makes fan content.” She teased.
“But you said you make fan content too!” He argued. “L-let’s see some of your stuff then!”
The girl blushed again, and Ken could feel his heartbeat quicken how cute this girl (tumor? Stroke?) looked with her cheeks reddened like that. “N-no.” She stuttered out, folding her arms. “I don’t wanna.”
“Well that’s just not fair.” He argued. “You know my work, how come I can’t see yours.”
“Th-that’s private!” Momo responded, clearly embarrassed. “I don’t even know your name! I’ve just been calling you by your username.” She sipped on her frappuccino.
“Oh, well, it’s Ken. Ken Takakura.”
Ken had never seen someone do a spit-take in real life. Up until now. Momo leaned forward, spitting out blended beverage all over the table and onto his hoodie. People didn’t normally ask for his name, but he couldn’t help but feel this was maybe a strong reaction.
Her look turned deadly serious. “How did you know?” She asked, low voice.
“Know... what?” He asked, confused, grabbing some napkins off the table and trying to wipe up the mess she just made.
“You don’t have to be a jerk, Okarun. If you knew I wrote Banana Rain, you should have just said so,” she replied, seething. She got up to storm off.
“W-wait!” He called after her, giving chase. “You wrote Banana Rain?! You’re ‘IL0veKenTakakura?!’”
“Don’t be a smartass, why else would you say that’s what your name is, you asshole!” She spat, not looking back. “I don’t need you making fun of my story just because you’re some hotshot artist online.”
“I - Miss Ayase, look! That really is my name!”
Curiosity got the best of her. With an angry huff, she turned to look at this jerk’s proof. Unfortunately for her... he did, in fact, have proof. He presented her with his student ID. His picture, bowlcut, glasses, and all, stood right over the name, Ken Takakura.
She blinked at it. She leaned down and looked even closer at it.
Realization ran over her just like Tinka’s truck in the BanBanan chapter she had just read. She had just accidentally revealed herself to... Oh my God I can’t even think of his name. She covered her face in humiliation. “Oh my God, Okarun, please forget I said -”
“How could I forget?!” He hissed. “I love Banana Rain! I’ve drawn so much art for it I haven’t gotten around to posting!”
“D-don’t say that!” Momo cried, turning away from him. There is no way 0karun is complimenting my fic right now! No way! “I got so many ideas for it from YOUR artwork!”
If she was able to look at Ken, she’d see him blushing and adjusting his glasses. “Y-you don’t say... that um... makes me really happy to hear...”
They attracted a few confused looks from passersby as they stood there, looking away from each other in their embarrassment.
“What did... you think of my last chapter?” Momo asked, shyly turning around. She couldn’t look up at him though, keeping her eyes to the floor and fiddling with her bangs.
“I really liked it!” He assured her immediately. “I had been working on that pic I posted a few chapters ago, but I finished it last night. When I saw you post the finale I had to put it up.”
She blushed a little. “Thanks K... Okarun.” She winced. “I’m just gonna keep calling you Okarun. I can’t... I can’t use your real name.”
“You really love that actor, huh?” The newly dubbed Okarun rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I mean, I kind of guessed with the whole... him starring in your AU thing.”
“Y-yeah,” she admitted. “Sorry.”
Ken, who had never been given a nickname in his life, didn’t mind in the least. Even if it technically was a nickname he’d come up with himself in high school. “Th-that’s fine! Y-you can call me whatever you want Miss Ayase... I’m an awkward fellow and -”
She squealed, and it made him jump as she covered her ears and shook her head. “You can’t say that!” She hissed when she was done. “That’s a Ken Takakura line! And you’re not - well I mean, you are, but -”
“Sorry!” He grimaced. Man, the username really undersells the Ken Takakura thing... “I wanted to ask, did you have any plans to write anything else? I’ve read your other fics too, I really like your writing style.”
There was something incredibly satisfying about her favorite fanartist complimenting her work. “I don’t have anything planned right now, really. I was gonna take a break until inspiration hits.”
Okarun nodded, giving her a small smile. “Y-you definitely earned it. Two hundred thousand words? That’s a long story.”
“Thanks, Okarun,” she grinned. “All the comments on my story keep asking me for... you know...”
He furrowed his brow. “Asking you for what?”
She went back to playing with her hair. “More... explicit... stuff.”
“Oh- OH!” He looked away too. He had no romantic experience at all, let alone talking to someone about that. “They want you to write lemons.”
Momo snickered. “PFFFFT - lemons?! Did you just say lemons?! How old are you?! No one calls it lemons anymore, grandpa!”
His face burned, and his embarrassment turned into a scowl instead. “Jeez, well excuse me! That’s what some of the older fics I used to read would call raunchy material.”
To his frustration, Momo just laughed harder, again, drawing attention from people walking by. “Oh my God, RAUNCHY?! Okarun, people use the term spicy now! It’s spicy content!”
He adjusted his glasses and huffed. “You don’t have to laugh at a guy when he’s trying to relate to you, Miss Ayase! That’s so mean!”
Momo wiped an errant tear that had slipped down her cheek. “S-sorry Okarun, I just... you talk kind of old-fashioned, you know?”
“Like I said, I’m an awkward - um, I’m awkward. Yeah.” He shuffled a little bit. “I was gonna say... I get asked about drawing...spicy content too.”
Momo’s eyes darted away. She... may have left him some replies online asking for spicy BanBanan content. “You don’t say?”
“Yeah, whenever I open commissions, at least half of them ask for... you know, that, and I have to tell them I can’t.” He explained, sheepishly. “I uh... never done it.”
“Dude, same!” Momo replied, exasperated. “It’s intimidating, right? Like, I would really like to write a good smut chapter for Ken and mys - MIKA! But, I don’t know if I can live up to the rest of the story.”
“It is!” He nodded vehemently. “There’s a lot of pressure to deliver good quality. I could never just blindly draw... that and put it online.”
Momo couldn’t put into words how relieving this feeling was. She’d found a kindred spirit. Another BanBanan content creator! And one who understood her struggle! “Oh! I’m a genius! I just had the best idea, Okarun!”
“What’s that?”
She held her phone out to him. “Give me your number and email. You can beta read my story, and I can look over your smut before you post it.”
Okarun blushed at the proposition. He’d never had so much as a friend before, and his phone contacts section consisted of his parents, his dentist, and his favorite pizza place. “Oh... um... are you sure?”
She smiled so purely, so genuinely, that his stomach tied into knots. She’s too beautiful. Definitely a tumor. I’m probably in a hospital bed somewhere, drooling as my brain shuts down. “Of course, Okarun. I’m so happy I made a friend to talk BanBanan with! None of my friends get it! Yours either?”
“Yeah, no BanBanan friends.” He replied, taking her phone. Or any friends at all.
“M-make your name Okarun!” She added hastily as she saw him start to type, “Ken.”
He nodded. “R-right.”
He entered his phone number and email. She took her phone back and held her hand out expectantly. Oh right she wants my phone.
As she entered her contact information, he thought about making a separate username to link to his accounts for his more adult-oriented content. She handed it back to him and beamed. “Is it cool if I text you about my ideas when I start writing this? Oh! And I guess we can sit by each other in class on Monday when we come back.”
His heart jumped to his throat. She actually wanted to hang out with him?! And talk to him about stuff?! “Y-yeah, I would like that a lot. Tell you what, when you write your first smut chapter, I’ll draw an art for it.”
She bounced on her toes a few times and it was maybe the cutest thing Ken had ever seen in his life. “Awesome! Aahhh, this is great! I can’t wait to send you my first chapter!” She looked down at her phone and her expression dropped. “Ugh! I gotta go to work. Boo. I wanted to hang out and talk about BanBanan some more...”
He couldn’t keep the disappointment off his face either. In eighteen years, he’d never met someone who actually wanted to hang out with him!!! It was part of what really made him relate to Ringo’s character, they’d had similar backgrounds. Occult obsessed nerds with no friends. “M-me too.”
His response brought the smile back to his face and he felt a swarm of butterflies descend on his stomach. No one hardly ever smiled at him - made customer service workers, occasionally, but no one ever smiled at him like that. “Well, then I’ll hit you up later to talk about some of my ideas.” She turned and headed towards the exit, but not before waving back at him with a, “see you later, Okarun!”
“O-okay,” he stammered out with a tiny wave.
Momo groaned as she left the maid cafe. She hated this job with a burning passion of a thousand suns, maybe more than Ren hated the aliens for turning his ramrod into a banana. But it was done! She was free! Normally, she’d hit a campus party on a Friday night, but her feet were killing her, and she had a ton of ideas for that smut chapter after talking to Okarun.
She checked her phone and smiled. Oh, new notification from his Bluesky.
“NSFW content coming soon! Follow my spicy content at Tubr0karun.”
She snickered. Turb0karun wasn’t the worst variation of his username for smut, but it did seem a little silly. Still, she clicked over to it and gave him a follow. She gave a low whistle too; about half his followers must have subscribed to him already. She took a screenshot and sent it to him as a text.
“can’t wait to see ur rough drafts, Turb0karun ;p”
As she got on the train back to campus, he texted her back. It read, “Thank you for the follow, Miss Ayase. I’ve begun sketching a few things. It’s nice to have someone to trust with this stuff. I’m excited to read your works too!”
She smirked. He texts all proper and formal, jeez. Her smirk widened a little more as another text came through.
“How was your job?”
“Teh worst! :( i h8 it. Gonna go rest my feets and chillax. U got any friday nite plans???”
She pocketed her phone and watched the lights go by the train window, exhaustion washing over her like a waterfall. Her phone vibrated again.
“No, I worked a few hours at a convenience store by my apartment and went home. I’m kind of a homebody.”
This made her frown. She might have a good reason to stay at home tonight, but he sure didn’t! If we’re gonna keep being friends, I gotta start getting this guy out of the house Friday nights.
There was something kind of exhilarating about having a friend who seemed to understand him. She had spent the weekend texting him (she even wished him a good morning? Who does that?), picking his brain at ideas for her story, and taking great interest in his ideas for his next piece.
It still took him by surprise when she sat next to him in Calculus on Monday. “Hey there, Okarun!” She said to him cheerfully.
When was the last time he’d smiled as wide as he was right now? Play it cool Ken, she probably can tell what a huge dweeb you are. “Good afternoon, Miss Ayase. How was your weekend?”
“Eh, kinda chill.” She shrugged. “I think I needed to recover from midterms. But! I might have a rough draft for you soon!
He raised an eyebrow. “Already?”
She nodded enthusiastically, her jade earrings jangling around her jawline. “Hell yeah! I think talking to you about,” she leaned in and nudged him with her elbow in a teasing manner, “lemons and raunchy stuff was just the boost I needed.”
He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “You d-don’t gotta tease me!”
“Aw, it's fun, come on!” She laughed. “We got a few minutes before the professor gets here. Tell me more about yourself, Okarun.”
At the prompt, Ken seemed to forget everything about himself. “Uh... like what?”
“Hmm. Well, what was the first anime you started doing art for?”
“Oh! I think I started drawing Pigimon in like third grade,” he chuckled. “They were so bad.”
“Oh, yeah, where you catch all the different pigeon monsters in a digital world? I used to love those games!” Momo grabbed his arm excitedly. “I would love to see some of that!”
“No, you would not,” he shook his head. “It was really bad.”
“I mean, you were what, eight? Don’t be so hard on widdle Okarun,” she pinched his cheek, and he jerked away, blushing.
“F-fine,” he swallowed thickly. She touched my cheek?! Is that normal?! Do friends do that?! “W-when did you start writing stories?”
It was her turn to blush. “Oh... I used to be obsessed with Admiral Luna when I was, like, nine, I think? So I would write all these self-inserts because I wanted to be an admiral agent.”
Okarun smiled. “Well, look at your self-insert for Banana Rain now!”
She blushed harder and looked away. “H-hey! Mika Ayame is an original character! She’s not me!”
He had doubts about that.
The professor came in, saving her from further questioning, but Okarun did not necessarily believe that.
Momo’s texts became more frequent, and, bizarrely enough, she began asking about him, not just his art. The attention was not something he was used to, not at all!
He had just finished making himself dinner Tuesday night when he got another text from her.
“I'm so excited Okarun! Sending over my rough draft now for Ken and Mika :)))) lemme kno if u like it!!!”
As soon as he read it, he got an email notification inviting him to Google Doc. He smiled; this was something she wasn't sharing with anyone but him.
Ken grabbed his laptop and set it on the coffee table in front of him. Hope my parents don't come home while I'm reading smut. That'd be a weird time for them to come back from overseas.
He clicked open the document, eager to see what was in store...