I'm in Love with the Gorilla Sitting Next to Me - Volume 1 Chapter 5.6

Events are the best way to deepen friendships 6

“…It was the last thing I expected. I thought it was a youth love story…”

“…The second half, the working adult part, turned out to be a complete mystery…”

At the hamburger shop on a different floor of the building housing the movie theater, Tora-senpai and I sat facing each other, each harboring indescribable feelings.

Well, I’m just guessing about Tora-senpai’s feelings, but I’m probably right. After all, from the end of the movie to here, we’ve only had minimal conversation without sharing a single impression.

“…I can’t believe that person turned out to be the one who killed Kumi… hmm…”

“Yeah, it was unexpected, like I couldn’t read it at all. But it was amazing that there were proper hints.”

As I munch on fries and share my thoughts, Tora-senpai nods heavily and sips her yogurt shake, agreeing, ‘That’s true…’

Yes, what’s awkward is that despite the movie betraying the audience’s expectations with a mystery twist, when you think about it as a whole, the content wasn’t bad. I don’t feel like watching it again in the theater, but if it’s broadcast for free on TV or the internet, I’ll almost certainly watch it.

But, you know, it’s like… it felt like a French course meal where everything was as expected up until the main and dessert, and then suddenly you’re served Chinese food with a bang.

Yeah sure. I mean, it’s tasty. But it’s not the kind of deliciousness I was looking for, you know?

“Maybe they didn’t want to make a straightforward romance… or they really wanted to do a mystery.”

“I don’t know about that, but that was a mystery that didn’t focus on puzzle-solving but rather placed emphasis on human drama. The two-part structure might have been to give hints about human relationships through the unknown gaps of time…”

“…I just checked the word of mouth online, and there seem to be almost no spoiler reviews. And the reviews are all kind of hazy, neither full of praise nor harsh criticism.”

“It can’t be helped. You can’t talk about the ending, and even though it was different from what was expected, it was interesting, so it’s hard to judge.”

“Yeah…”

At the very least, the main audience who wanted to taste the bittersweetness of a trendy love story with handsome boys and beautiful girls probably didn’t get the ending they wanted. It was unsatisfactory for me too. Instead of a kiss, I forgot about holding hands halfway through and watched the story unfold with my arms crossed.

Personally, I found it more interesting than a mere love story. But considering my goal, it was a completely different result.

Tora-senpai seemed to have a similar impression, sighing as she held her untouched cheese avocado burger.

“We didn’t research enough… It was a mistake to go for a newly released film based on the anticipation of preliminary information…?”

“I don’t know about that. That one, definitely no one’s giving it a perfect score, but I think there will be few low ratings and spoilers. The first half had a good dose of youth and tender romance in the dialogue.”

“Hmm… Even if the opposite sex looks like animals, was the romance main part boring?”

“Well, to be honest, it was a bit. I occasionally closed my eyes and supplemented it in my mind.”

“I’m sorry about that… then the movie date was a failure…”

Tora-senpai droops her ears and looks down, and I decide to be frank with her.

“No, it wasn’t a failure. At least, I was quite thrilled when we were holding hands.”

“What…!? You shouldn’t speak so openly about such things. It makes me feel embarrassed.”

“Hmm. Is that so?”

I don’t understand the subtleties of romance at all, so it’s a learning experience. Whether I’ll use it or not is another matter though.

“But if you don’t say it, how will it be understood? It’s a fact, and I need to make an appeal.”

“Hmm… You have a point, but… still, it’s embarrassing. It’s difficult for many people to say it without any hesitation.”

“Hmm… maybe so. In my case, if someone doesn’t say it clearly, I often can’t pick up on it, so I think I should at least say it myself. Depending on the animal, I can’t read it at all from the appearance, and after all, what I’m seeing is like an image projection, so it’s hard to guess from expressions and gestures.”

“I see. Indeed, it’s extremely difficult to read the emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure from the expressions of animals.”

“If it’s the same person, I can get a sense of it with some familiarity. But today was quite difficult. There was almost no change in the hippo’s expression.”

You don’t often get an up-close look at hippos at the zoo, and there’s hardly ever a hippo segment on TV or the internet. Plus, hippos are said to be super strong, so it would be a life-threatening situation. They’re the strongest in the swamp, right?

For other animals, the same reaction can mean very different things. With the same person, it becomes more predictable over time, even if you don’t know the animal. Like with my neighbor, Gossan, who I didn’t understand at all at first.

Well, except for the exception that is me.

“How was it for you, Tora-senpai? It was a cliche situation, though.”

“…Honestly, I was pretty nervous until halfway through. I was really into the movie’s content, and I thought I was used to having a guy next to me, but…”

“Was there something different?”

As I asked while picking at my fries, Tora-senpai took a bite of her burger and then said,

“Mmm… It’s quite different. When I think of interacting with someone of the opposite sex, I get nervous.”

“Is that how it is… But I guess I was nervous too. I usually can keep my composure around girls because of the animal appearance, but the feel of a human hand under the blanket and not seeing your face played a big part. When I saw your face as a cat, I calmed down a bit.”

“I see. So, to make you fall for me, should we go on a date with blindfolds to take away the sense of sight?”

“That sounds like some kind of punishment game or a new kind of play… And frankly, if we’re touching each other with our sight shut, I wonder if it would make any difference who the other person is. Would the curse be lifted in that state? It’s dubious, isn’t it?”

“Mmm… You have a point. Since the conditions for breaking the curse aren’t clear, there might be a possibility it could work.”

“But still, it’s not like we should just go around kissing in trial and error, right? At least Tora-senpai has tried quite a bit to get to this point.”

Tora-senpai nodded heavily and munched on her burger. Somehow, she didn’t seem to exude an aura of failure. She must have known it wouldn’t be easy. That’s why she wasn’t getting too down about it.

Still, for me to fall for Tora-senpai in a romantic sense… I knew it, but the appearance is the biggest hurdle.