"I'm just saying the truth," Atla said. "I'm letting my feelings out!" She then took a deep breath. "Finally! I finally confessed my feelings!"

"Whoa, whoa," I said, trying to defuse the situation. "Don't you think you're going a bit too fast with this?"

"Oh, of course, you're right!" Atla said. My sigh of relief was short-lived as she added, "We of course need to start dating first! We'll go on a few coffee dates, maybe even to the movies and shopping, following which we'll get engaged soon and then married! But right, we need to take things slow, I can accept that."

Shindo leaned towards me and said, "Bro, if you're seen with this girl outside you'll get arrested for sure."

"Thank you for that incredibly insightful and helpful comment," I said with gritted teeth towards him.

"Hey- I'm just saying what's going to happen."

"Look, I'm sorry for my sister's behavior," Fohl said and bowed his head. "I apologize on her behalf- please do not take anything she says seriously."

He got smacked on the head once again by Atla. "What're you talking about? I know my feelings, and I know that they're true! Rocketboy and I are destined to be together!"

"Look, Atla," I began to say, unsure of how to get through this situation without blowing my lid off. "Who-what's your favorite television show? Or movie?"

"Um... there are a few..." she began to say, while contemplating what to say.

"Look, you must like a lot of shows and the like, right?" I asked her. "That's why it's taking so much time to think of an answer, right? But tell me, do you love any of the actors that you see in those shows?"

"No..."

"I'm glad that my streams meant so much to you, Atla," I told her. "But the thing is, those were my streams. They were something I put out there to entertain people but it wasn't like my streams completely defined me or anything like that, right? What I'm trying to say is that Atla, you don't really know me- do you? The person in front of the camera and the real person are quite different. You might like the streamer Rocket boy, but he's a persona and not the same as Iwatani Naofumi. Not entirely. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Atla considered my words, and I thought that I had finally gotten to her.

"I see! So what you're saying is that we need to get to know each other better!" she said.

"No, Atla, what I'm saying is that you might like my streams, but you don't really love me," I said. "You might think that, you may even have made an image of me in your head that you're in love with, but I'm not even going to come close to that image."

"It doesn't matter," she said. "I'll love you no matter how you are! If it wasn't so, my love wouldn't be real."

I groaned. It was getting to be really hard to deal with her.

"Again, I'm sorry," Fohl said. He reached for Atla's hand. "I'll take her away, and don't worry, she won't bother the two of you again."

"Yeah, I hope so," Shindo said.

Atla, though, did not agree with this at all. "No! What're you doing Fohl? You can't keep two lovers apart!"

Fohl sighed. "Naofumi is right, Atla, you have a schoolgirl crush is all. You don't actually love him- and even if you were together, you would fall out of love quickly. This is just puppy love not real-"

"How can you know that?" Atla asked. "How can you know that when I haven't even spent time with him?"

Again, I groaned. Is this how celebrities felt- real celebrities that is, when they had stalkers? How did they deal with things like this? Oh, that's right, they had security guars. And I had... Shindo. Occasionally at that.

"Atla," I said. "I've tried to be patient with you and understanding as well, don't make me do something like file a restraining order against you."

"But why?" Atla asked, tears almost forming in her eyes. "Why won't you accept me?"

"You might not understand now," I told her. "But you will when you get older. You'll even look back at this and likely cringe at how you were."

"C'mon Atla, let's go home," Fohl said.

"No!" Atla said. "I refuse to believe this! Naofumi-san, is this because of that skank, or that other girl? Are you already in love with someone else? Is that why you won't reciprocate my feelings?"

I started. Who was she talking about?

"That brown-haired girl who comes to visit you," Atla said. "Is she your girlfriend?"

"No," I said. "No-"

"Then what about that woman with pink hair? Or the young girl with blonde hair? Or that girl with violet hair? You can't tell me that all of them were staying with you at your house and that there was nothing going on between them and you," Atla said. "And why do those two young girls get to spend time with you, but I don't? I'm still older than them!"

"Hey, bro, who is she talking about?" Shindo asked.

"Look, those two were only here because one of them, believe it or not, is actually a genius and goes to college with me. The other girl was here on a playdate with her, and that pink-haired woman was the first one's bodyguard. They stayed here for a while, but then they left," I told her.

Shindo once again leaned towards me. "Bro- are you like... turning into a harem anime protagonist with all these girls coming to live over with you?"

"Once again, thank you for that insightful and helpful comment," I said while glaring at him.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger! She's right though, it seems odd," Shindo said.

"It's alright, Naofumi-san," Atla said. "Even if society doesn't understand our love, I don't care! It doesn't matter to me!"

Oh no. We were not getting anywhere with her. "Alright, Atla, if you aren't going to listen to reason, I have no choice. Leave before I get law enforcement involved."

"No need for that," Fohl said. "We're leaving anyway."

"No!" Atla cried out.