"Stupid maid café garbage," I muttered to myself as I ended my work shift at Aya's job. Aya is such a great friend of mine, one of the few mortals I trust in this realm, and I just cannot understand why she continues to drag me into these absurd, mundane activities. Is this what mortals do for fun? Work at these fetishistic food chains? I have lost faith in this realm. I finished changing back into the clothes that I felt comfortable in, and started to exit this miserable holding of stale cake and cold tea.

Outside of the café, I found another mortal that I trust waiting there for me. It was none other than Hitomi Shiga, one of the more reasonable, although violent mortal beings. However, I did not ask her to come and retrieve me, so why would she be here? It must have been some sort of important matter.

"Yo, Sachiko," she greeted me in a very informal manner. Her face immediately brightened up at the sight of me. She must feel so privileged to be in the presence of such a powerful wizard as I.

"Greetings, Ms. Shiga," I greeted back.

"Hey, I told you to quit it with the formal crap," she laughed, possibly mocking my manner of speech. "Just call me Hitomi."

I rolled my eyes. "If you insist, Hitomi."

We began our walk back to my home, and it remained very silent. We weren't really much to converse in public areas, but there were no questions of how my work went, or nothing about how Hitomi's day had gone. I turned to look at Hitomi, and saw her face was getting very red. "Hitomi, are you feeling well?" I asked in concern.

I must have caught her off guard as she barely managed to stammer out a response. She went from saying things were going fine for her, but quickly shifted to talking about how there was a lot on her mind. She went back and forth with this until she finally gained control of herself.

"Sachiko, I need to tell you something," she said in a very serious tone.

Many scenarios went through my head regarding what she was going to tell me. Was she going to tell me that she was one of opposing wizards that sent me to the mortal realm, or that she was a worker for the king of demons? Perhaps it had to do with my mortal family, or mortal friends. What could she be trying to tell me?

"Ever since we started hanging out, I've started to really uh…" She stopped, thinking about what she should say, muttering to herself. "How do I say it…"

This started to worry me. What dark secret could she have been hiding from me this whole time? Has she been plotting against me from the very beginning, trying to trap me in some kind of magic circle?

"Well, I suppose I should just say it," she sighed. "I love you, and not like a friend. Like a girlfriend. Or something, I don't know." She looked away from me, blushing furiously.

I was confused. More confused than ever, honestly. "Why were you so hesitant in telling me that you love me?" I asked her.

"Well, I don't know," she spat. "I thought you wouldn't like me back, or that there's something about wizards not being able to love or some bull like that."

"Of course there isn't," I assured her. "In fact, I love you as well."

"Really? You're not just pullin' my chain here, right?"

"Why would I? I'm one hundred percent serious."

Hitomi then started to hug me, pulling me in very tightly. I embraced her as well, smiling at the thought of our future relationship.