The morning had a characteristic dew, some birds were singing, and Ima's mother was watering the plants. On his part, the messy Ima was just beginning to wake up. Once again, he had stayed up late playing an erotic game. He kept thinking about the hateful ending the game had.
"The graphics, fluidity, animations, and characters were all quite good for such a horrible ending," he thought, running his hand over the covers.
He went to the bathroom, took a shower calmly, and brushed his teeth. He looked at himself in the mirror while drying his body.
"You're going to achieve something today, I know it." The encouragement he gave himself, despite everything, did not make him realize that he would be late for class again.
He dressed as "attractively" as he could, grabbed a piece of bread with jam from the kitchen table, and said goodbye to his mother. He carried a sense of joviality, at least until he checked the time on his cell phone.
Ima ran as fast as he could. His clothes, which were perfect minutes ago, were now excessively wrinkled; his hair, which had been neatly arranged with just water, was now messy, dry, and dull.
Upon arriving at school, standing outside his classroom door, his hopes for a normal day vanished. The teacher was already inside the room when Ima opened the door to enter. All the spirit and joviality on his face, which had already been decimated by the marathon he ran to arrive, ended as the unified laughter of his classmates became evident. No one took him seriously, and he was tired of it.
The professor let him in, but not without giving a scornful look. He finally went to his desk, the one next to the girl he liked, where he could fully admire the beauty of his beloved, the only 3D woman he believed to be perfect.
He had decided since the semester began to confess his feelings at some point. In his previous school, before moving, he had no one, only himself. Here, it was different; here, she treated him well from the start, just like any other person. And faced with that kind of affection, Ima was more than susceptible.
"Damn," he muttered, thinking he would even dare to give up his obsession with erotic games to have a partner like her.
Her name was Vanessa, although Ima honestly did not remember her last name well. She was an angel in every sense: beautiful facial features, a figure without exaggeration or repulsion, an average but focused mind, and someone quite empathetic. There was no doubt that she was an exceptional person among all the group's scum.
Math class passed, then biology, and finally, the alarm indicating the break rang.
Ima did not feel comfortable with this, because the same dynamic always repeated itself every couple of days: the group's "spoiled brats" would start asking him for money. Money they never returned.
"What's up, Ima? Nice day, isn't it?" asked the most imposing brat of them all. A tall guy, wide-shouldered, well-dressed, and serious. The stereotyped "sexy and powerful" character.
Ima simply lowered his head in submission and tried to ignore the person in front of him.
Inevitably, it did not work. He was grabbed by the chin, like a defenseless woman, and his head yielded, moving to meet the "Alpha's" penetrating gaze. Ima's only consolation lay in the calmness of the brats. They never raised a hand to him or gave an order with violence. But still, their mere presence made Ima look pathetic. Deep down, he felt that if he dared to respond to their intimidation, they would probably gang up on him.
"Y-yes, it's a nice day. What do you need, guys?" Ima asked, as if it wasn't the same thing every time. As if something was going to change.
"You know... We're still short on money, and we'd appreciate it if you could lend us some to buy breakfast."
The routine always became a spectacle for his other classmates. No one stood up, no one seemed uncomfortable by it; even the girl he liked, who was always in the front row to observe his submission, offered a smile as if that would make everything pleasant, reacting to a performance.
"I'm sorry, guys, but today I would like to... Well, I have to save up to buy a video game soon and..."
The "Alpha" straightened up, and with just a sigh in front of him, he completed the submission: Ima immediately lowered his head, pulled his wallet from his backpack, and handed over some money. As the brats left, chuckling, he turned his head looking for someone to console him, but even the one he loved ignored him, only smiling with pity.
"If only I could…?" He thought one last time before getting up to look for another cheap breakfast.
II
Ima went up to the school rooftop, where he prepared to eat another packaged breakfast. He took the plastic fork and started eating the lightest part first. His mind was busy rushing a strategy for his confession: Should he confess now, or after classes ended? Anyway, in the morning, when he arrived in a hurry, he didn't waste time slipping a letter into Vanessa's locker.
"What a cliché thing to do. But it's sure to work. There's no difference between the surprise of receiving a letter for 2D girls or 3D girls," he thought, aggressively biting into a cherry tomato.
His spirits rose; he set aside his food and stood up with airs of grandeur, feeling separated from everything. He started singing almost shouting, while walking around the fences that surrounded the rooftop.
He stopped abruptly when he saw the school garden: among all the flowers, plants, and vegetal brilliance, Vanessa, sitting next to her friends, shone like an anomaly in Ima's eyes. She might not be the prettiest in the class, but she was a potential candidate. Ima shuddered and regained his focus. He sat down to eat again.
After finishing his breakfast, his mind began to fill with memories of the first months of the course. Whenever he had a problem, whenever he forgot something, or there was any circumstance, Vanessa was there. Always taking advantage of the fact that she was next to him, Ima never feared asking questions about the class, borrowing something from her, and she even spoke directly to him a couple of times, without any intermediary, although they were barely five-minute or utterly banal conversations. And Ima, sooner or later, would fall victim to love. Little by little, he began to feel shy around her, embarrassed. The idea that someone so kind could exist... it was as if one of his many "waifus" from his video games crossed the barrier from unreal to real.
He arrived at the classroom, watched his "debtors" laughing, and couldn't help but feel irritated and shy when they saw him enter the room. He took his seat and anxiously awaited the last class—the anteroom of the hall of fame before his brave confession.
He took notes, unable to stop the trembling in his hands. He listened carefully, and even when the professor asked him to participate, he didn't refuse. Certainly, Ima wasn't slow, but the shame generated by his presence given the knowledge of his tastes and that kind of solipsism caused by video games didn't give him a better appearance. In his mind, he devised how he could approach the confession: whether he should maintain a timid status or show Vanessa his courage, proving that he wasn't the submissive failure she surely believed.
Finally, the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. He felt as if something had punched him hard in the stomach. He rushed to pack his things, trying to ignore Vanessa, who also showed horrible anxiety. "Maybe because of the letter," Ima thought.
He ran quickly to the nearest bathroom and tried to improve his appearance as best he could there. He wet his hair and styled it, wiped what he thought might be dust off his uniform with a damp cloth, tried to smooth out wrinkles in his clothes, and began reciting his words to the mirror for three whole minutes. Ima had stipulated that Vanessa should wait for him 10 minutes after class next to the main building.
He arrived on time and observed from a blind spot that Vanessa was impatiently waiting, just as he had foreseen. While proudly repeating in his mind that everything had worked, he finally sighed and launched himself forward.
His heart was pounding; he was finally in front of her. She looked at him curiously. Perhaps Vanessa thought he was just passing by; at least until he stopped abruptly.
"I don't know how to start this, but, Vanessa, for some time now you've noticed my presence like no one else ever did. You've treated me kindly and become an angel to me. You're not like the other girls, and that's why I dared to summon you here today because I…"
Before Ima could utter that brave "I love you and I want you to be my partner," the atmosphere suddenly changed: From the other end, from the path behind Vanessa, the "Alpha" and his group of idiots appeared. The atmosphere that Ima had painstakingly built was destroyed in seconds.
As soon as they noticed the setting—that Ima was dressed up and blushing—they perfectly guessed what was happening.
It was easy and fun for them to consider Ima's pathetic figure and Vanessa's shame as something everyone deserved to see, and indeed, everyone deserved to see it. The "Alpha," laughing at the situation, didn't waste time and started a live stream on one of his lackeys' phones. People who knew him and most of the classmates quickly joined. While he expressed what was happening with the professionalism of a reporter, the comments on the live stream made his lackeys laugh: "Isn't that Ima?", "Isn't he the weirdo with the video games?", "Is he confessing to a real girl!?" etc.
Ima felt an uncontrolled rage, but the impotence and Vanessa's embarrassed face made him retract his attempt to defend himself.
"Don't pay attention to them! Please, look at me!" Ima shouted, calling Vanessa's attention. "I love you! You've always been different from the rest, and that's why I fell in love with you! Date me, please!"
Silence flooded the scene; even the "Alpha" was surprised by Ima's sudden courage, but not even that made him back down.
"Come on, girl, why don't you reject him quickly? Do you really think Ima is enough for you? I mean, look at him…" commented the guy holding the phone toward the scene. A chubby guy with an aggressive look.
"He's right, just think about how someone like him will affect your image. Don't you think he only wants to do to you the same thing he does with his weird video game characters?" the "Alpha" said, in a serene voice, as if it were a truly serious problem.
Vanessa looked at both sides; an uncontrollable shame could be read on her face.
"I... I don't know what to say…" Vanessa began.
"Screw it, who cares about the guy!" shouted the other lackey. A thin guy with sharp features.
Before she could say another word, the trio began to chant a chorus inciting Ima's rejection. Even the comments, though only visible to the chubby guy, supported the idea and laughed.
"Vanessa, I want you to be my girlfriend! Don't let them influence you, please!" Ima vociferated again and bowed respectfully.
Faced with pressure from both sides, the girl finally gave in, and with a face burning with anger, she spoke:
"Look at the shame you've made me go through! How am I supposed to fix my image after this?! I am not one of your weird video game girls!" Vanessa moved as if in a performance. "I wouldn't be a girlfriend to someone like you…! Look at yourself…" Vanessa's tone of voice dropped. "You're weird, an outcast. If your confession was about coming dressed in a horrible fashion and making me the laughingstock of the class, you've succeeded…"
"But… I thought she… Everything was going so well. I dressed well enough, I dedicated time to my strategy, and…" Ima's brain exploded. His heart began to beat ferociously, his eyes felt burning, and he finally broke into tears. He didn't even say a word; he just gritted his teeth and ran away, while the trio of buffoons mocked his flight.
He ran non-stop, bumping into people who cursed him. He looked up at the sky and let the tears fall. In his mind, only one thing repeated: "3D women are horrible. They are cruel and self-interested… A 2D woman would never do something like this! Never! Never!"
Without noticing the street he was crossing, Ima was hit and thrown several meters ahead against the concrete by a vehicle.