Not bad for a first date, right?

"..."

"..."

James awkwardly sipped the cup of coffee in his hand. From the opposite side of the table, Karin was seated in an even more awkward expression.

Neither of them said a word. They didn't even share any glances at each other.

On the contrary, on the rare occasion their eyes met, Katin hurridly looked away with small blushes on her cheeks.

Finally, James spoke up.

"...so, is there anything you want to do?"

He asked.

Karin jumped in her seat so hard that she nearly spilled coffee all over her.

"I-I-what? No, I...uhm..."

Karin looked down, twirling her index finger in her hair.

She glanced out the café window for help.

Asuna was pressed up against the window boldly thinking James hadn't noticed her spying on them.

'Say what you like to do!'

Asuna mouthed with such exaggerated motions, James could almost hear her voice saying it out-loud.

However, that advice only seemed to puzzle Karin even more.

Her fingers trembled as she took a sip from her coffee and her eyes darted all around the place, most likely frantically rummaging through the list of things she liked to do.

At the very least, this was a much needed wake-up call for James as well.

'...I really should get to know everyone better.'

Up until recently, James had thought he was doing his best to take care of the characters by giving them free reigns and do whatever they want.

However, he had never considered that they'd want spend time with him—sometimes outside of bed.

'Goshujin-sama~! Karin said she wants to go out with you today!'

That was why he accepted Asuna's suggestion of uietly going out on a date with Karin, who was also the character he had the least interaction with.

Unfortunately, that lack of information about her was backfiring horrendously as soon as they came out together.

All James knew about Karin was that she and Asuna was a pair, and Karin was the more down-to-earth character than her blonde partner.

The problem was, James had no idea what a more down-to-earth girl would like to do on a date.

For being the mastermind dominator on bed, James was still a novice in the dating department, since this was his first one as well.

"...um."

James snapped out of his thoughts as Karin spoke up.

"How...about a movie, master?"

James had rarely ever gone to a movie in his life.

Before he got staggeringly rich, it was a luxurious hobby that consumed time and money—two things he couldn't afford to waste.

And after he gotten rich...not only did he jump straight into the whole character-buisness, but he hadn't really left his mansion ever since buying it.

Sure, he have watched some movies with the giant TV in the Master bedroom.

But those were mostly anime-based, and he only picked them up so that he could better understand the origin of his characters.

And unfortunately for him, the roster up in the movie theater didn't contain any anime movies.

"Look, master! That looks fun, doesn't it?"

"Uhm..."

James glanced between Karin, who were unusually excited, and the movie she was pointing at.

The poster was dark with two silhouettes of a man and a woman, whom he could only guess as some sort of spies.

"...sure, let's watch that."

As Karin hurried to get two tickets, James pickef up a small pamphlet explaining the movie from placed the poster.

SHADOW PROTOCOL: DIRECTIVE OMEGA
“Trust is the deadliest weapon.”
When a high-ranking intelligence officer is found dead in a locked room, whispers of a covert operation called Directive Omega resurface — an off-the-books mission capable of collapsing global order. Disavowed agent Elena Voss is pulled from exile to uncover the truth, navigating a silent war between rival agencies, encrypted betrayals, and ghosts from her own past. As she races to stop a conspiracy hidden in plain sight, every ally may be an enemy… and every secret has a body count.
A cerebral espionage thriller where every line of dialogue matters — and silence speaks louder than bullets.

"...hmm..."

By the brief summary, it sounded like the movie was going to be a thriller spy movie, which was definitely not his style.

"Master, I got the tickets. It's also starting in 10 mintues, so we better go in right now!"

"Alright, let's go."

But James just couldn't find the heart to turn down the movie when Karin was so much eager about it.

'Ah, what the hell. Maybe the movie would be good enough for me to enjoy it.'

With hopes in mind, James followed Karin to the theater.

Sadly, the movie was not enjoyable.

Not even close.

"The target is locked in. I don’t pull the trigger yet; Patience is the last mercy I offer to him."

"Jesus christ..."

James murmured under his breath, nearly folding his limbs in half at the cringy dialog of the female protagonists.

It was 40 minutes into the movie, which was barely beneath the half-way point and he was already wishing that someone would set fire on the theater.

In James's eyes, the movie was too dark, too stale and uneventful.

The main protagonists, a fenale sniper was bland and her one-liners made his skin scrunch up uncomfortably.

On the flip side, Karin was thoroughly invested in the movie.

James wondered if that had to do with what Karin did in the Cleaning & Clearing club on her past.

He was yet to get started on Blue Archive yet.

It being a mobile game really made it hard for him to pick it up, but he had done enough research to know that Karin used to be a sniper there.

'Maybe she'd like to go a shooting range after this...or maybe not?'

James tapped the side of his head, wondering what Karin would like.

For a female sniper special ops agent, Karin also seemed to have regualr school-girl loke interests as well...but then she also enjoyed a movie like this.

"..."

James felt his eyelids getting heavy.

'Uh oh.'

Despite his best efforts to fight it, his head soon drooped to the side.

"...ster, master?"

"—Huh, I wasn't asleep!"

James blurted out as he jerked awake. The sudden bright light **** him to scruch his eyes and take a look around.

The movie was over. The front screen was slowly scrolling through the last of the credits.

Everyone else had already left, leaving James and Karin alone in the room.

I...didn't notice you were asleep."

Karin murmured. She tried her best to sound normal, which made the let-down in her voice feel all the worse.

"I'm sorry, master...I should've picked a better movie that you could've enjoyed."

"No, no. The movie was fine! I was just...tired."

James stammered.

Karin nodded, but the walk back out of the theater was even more awkward than before.

Karin's head looked down the entire time, no matter what James said in an effort to chear her up.

James swallowed a sigh, worried that it might provoke Karin even more.

He couldn't believe he'd let himself fall asleep when Karin was sittinf right next to him, and—

"W-wait! Get your hand off me!"

Then, a familiar shrill voice came from the lobby of the theater.