Chapter 11

A month had passed since Yuu arrived.

It had been about two weeks since I started teaching her how to use the computer.

At first, she looked uneasy every time she clicked an icon, but now she had gotten quite comfortable using the computer. Her questions had also become fewer and fewer.

At this point, it’s fair to say she can already use it just fine.

The backup plan—a link to an online computer course I had kept just in case she struggled—was looking like it wouldn’t be necessary after all.

This was my first time teaching someone anything, but it seemed to have gone well. I was relieved.

Still, I hadn’t known this before, but teaching someone was more enjoyable than I’d imagined.

Sure, it had its challenges, but once we’d gone through everything, there was a real sense of accomplishment.

I think this whole experience turned out to be a good one for me as well.

Well, that said, I don’t have any intention of becoming a teacher or anything.

Besides, this experience also brought a positive change in my relationship with Yuu.

“Um, Shin? There’s something I’d like you to take a look at. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, of course.”

I smiled as I responded to her slightly worried, almost apologetic expression.

That look—I'd never seen it on her face back when she first arrived.

Ever since I started teaching her how to use the computer, I’ve been seeing all kinds of new expressions from her.

When she first got here, I think Yuu didn’t show much emotion at all.

Looking back, all I can picture now is her smiling face.

Thinking about it now, she must have been nervous too.

Of course she was. Even if we’re “best friends,” we hadn’t seen each other once during her entire time in the other world.

After being apart for so long, there’s no way we could just go back to how things were the moment we reunited.

It wouldn’t be strange at all if she felt tense.

Besides, I was no different—I was nervous at first too. She’d changed so much, become so unbelievably cute, that I couldn’t help but feel a little flustered.

Even now, she’s changed so much that I can barely remember what she used to look like.

I think that long time apart had created a pretty big gap between us.

We were both trying to figure out how to bridge that distance.

And I believe that teaching her how to use the computer helped us close that gap.

“U-Um, it’s this thing here…”

She led me over to the computer, where a pop-up window was displayed on the screen.

It looked like it was requesting administrator permission to run something.

“Um, I—I don’t think I clicked anything weird, but this just popped up all of a sudden…”

Yuu looked up at me with teary eyes, clearly on the verge of panic. It was adorable.

“It’s not broken… right?”

Of course, a computer doesn’t break that easily, but Yuu’s still new to this, so she wouldn’t know that.

Now that I think about it, I used to be afraid of that same pop-up too, back when I was first learning.

“It’s okay. It’s not broken. Just press OK and you’ll be fine.”

“R-Really? Oh, thank goodness…”

Yuu gave a soft, relieved smile and let out a deep breath.

She must have been really worried.

…Maybe it’s a little early, but I should teach her more about using the internet.

I had already shown her the basics once, but at the time, all I went over was how to use a search engine—because she wasn’t quite ready to handle anything more than that.

But over these past two weeks, Yuu had become a lot more confident with the computer.

Now might be the right time to teach her how to properly use the internet. That way, she’d be able to look up answers on her own.

What makes something scary is not being able to understand it.

If she can learn how to resolve her own doubts, she probably won’t feel this anxious again.

“Hey, Yuu?”

“Hm? What is it?”

When I called her name, Yuu looked over with a beaming smile.

That smile was so lovely, so charming, it made me fall silent for a moment.

“What’s wrong?”

“...N-No, it’s nothing.”

“Really?”

…Come to think of it, once she learns how to use the internet, there won’t be much left for me to teach her…

And that would mean fewer chances to see expressions like the one she just showed me.

To be honest, that felt like a real shame.

…Maybe it’s still too early to dive into the internet stuff. Yeah.

I’ll save that lesson for after I’ve taught her about viruses and spam mail.

For now, that’s the reasoning I settled on.