After-School Date

Today got off to a wonderful start. When I saw the picture of the corner near my house (with the sunflowers and the red mailbox), I knew that Manaka would come to meet me and walk to school with me. And I was right!

When Manaka appeared in her uniform, with a pretty pink bow, and smiled at me, I felt so overwhelmed. She's a really lovely girl. I'm sure I've commented about this before, but the really amazing thing about the LovePlus games is their ability to evoke a genuine emotional response from the player. You really do feel the wonder of new love when you play. ^^

Walking to school with Manaka and holding her hand is a delight. I especially love the chibi-Manaka figure she has on her schoolbag...

The next few photos are from today's chapter of the "Seishun No. 1 Page", where Manaka appears quite embarrassed by the attention she's getting at Tennis Club from the new young girl.

During the morning, Manaka call me up and booked a date for Sunday at 9:30 am.

Then it was time to play through my very first after-school date. This is a special kind of date, where you call your girlfriend during the morning timeslot using the usual "book a date" option, but then you make the date for the same afternoon. I tried to book it for around 5:30 pm (when I usually finish work in the real world), but that was too late, and Manaka wouldn't accept anything later than 3:30 pm.

Problem. But as luck would have it, I was able to finish work early today, so I would have time to play through the date. And I'm sure glad I did! I guess when I thought about having an "after school date", I kinda expected something quick and easy on the way home from school - but boy, was I wrong. Even though I used only two hearts in each attribute, it turned out to be a MEGA date, with all the trimmings, and took almost an hour to play through. Doing it at work might have been...embarrassing. And impossible.

The date was full of surprises, too. First up, Manaka met me sporting a new hairstyle. I don't like it that much, but I was keen to get rid of her default hairstyle, so I told her I liked it. Hopefully she won't go back to the default. Second, she seems to have switched to the "kawaii" (cute) style of clothing, which looked really nice. I have to say that Manaka has great taste in fashion, especially compared to poor Rinko. Her Alice in Wonderland shoulder-bag was a nice touch, too - and I adore her hat.

So, with the preliminaries out of the way, we headed off for a bit to eat. Sadly, there's not a lot of options around Shin Towano yet, so good old Winning Burger (Fast Food) was our only choice. Oh well, Manaka likes eating there.

We ordered the Hamburger Set and got the Hot Dog Set instead.

Don't make this face again, Manaka! It's too darned cute!!

Our date location was the Mountain Zoo. We visited the small animals (petting zoo), which Manaka liked very much.

I was surprised again (with only two activity hearts used up) to have the option of a second date location! So I took her across to the Amusement Park and visited the Haunted House, which she also loved.

And then, at what was supposed to be the end of the date...Manaka invited me back to her place to meet her parents. I only had one shot left on my camera (damn! damn!), and it's not a great one, but it shows how beautiful Manaka's house looks on the inside. She certainly is a little princess...

We played through the study date. First time answering three questions right, Manaka made tea and a cake for me. Second time, she changed into an unbearably cute pink lolita outfit and wore her hair in two ponytails. I died when I saw her! And third time was the intimate photo session. T_T Have to make sure I save some photos next time.

Even after all that, Manaka wanted me to stay longer...but I was exhausted by then, and had to refuse. But wow, what a big date. It was my first real date with Manaka, too, and it's one that I'll always remember. Now I just have to work hard to build up my stats and unlock a few more date locations before my next date on Sunday.