The Goddess Needs A Break!

Hey everyone, it's been a while. College has started for me, and I'm still working at my current job so it's been a whirlwind these past few weeks.

So, how was volume two? Did you guys and gals enjoy it? Hate it? Would you like to change something about it? I would love to hear all of your constructive criticism, so I can adjust for future chapters.

Anyways, that ending was a real big cliffhanger, huh? I feel kind of bad since I also really hate cliffhangers.

Don't worry though, volume three will start tomorrow. It'll address your concerns about the ending of chapter 60. I promise it wasn't a jebait.

For volume two, I tried my best to have a good balance between the sugary moments and the serious moments, which resulted in a pretty good volume in my opinion.

However, the next volume will have a skewed ratio between the sugary moments and the serious moments since I'm a biased author. I love the sugary sweet moments that my good friend, Sugar-san, always supplies me with.

Therefore, Serious-san will have a reduced amount of participation in the next volume. He will still be in the postword very often, but Sugar-san will be taking over the show most of the time now.

How unlucky for him.

Putting that aside, I will try my best to keep the daily uploads going. There may be a few days now and then where I might skip a day due to my heavy workload. Being an engineering major isn't easy in the slightest (LOL). There might be small breaks when exam season rolls around, but I'll try to make sure you guys aren't deprived of chapters.

I hope I will see all of you readers again in volume three. Takei and Akari will be patiently waiting for your return. The long awaited moment will be happening in this volume, so don't miss it. Once again, chapter 61 will be released tomorrow (8/24/21).

Since today is only the afterword, I will release a snippet of what this story initially was (A supernatural romcom). There are some reused names and some names that were mixed up when transferring over to this story. I hope you enjoy chapter one of this rough draft while I get volume three ready for you all.

P.S. You don't have to read this if you don't want to. It will have no effect on TGNAB!

A/N: Reading chapter one again made me realize that I ended it on a cliffhanger before you even got to meet the main love interest. To apologize for chapter 60's cliffhanger, I will also add chapter two.

AFTERWORD END

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Chapter 1

Dreams and Reality

One night, I had a dream that began a string of consecutive dreams that would continue every time I fell asleep. The dreams themselves were not anything special, rather it was the person inside the dreams.

There was a particular girl that kept reappearing in those very dreams. I had spent a lot of time with her in the dream world as a result of me entering that dream world every time I fell asleep. The dream girl's height was about a head shorter than me which had me looking down towards her very often.

The dreams didn't last long enough for me to remember small details, although there were many scenes that did stick with me. It's been a while since that dream and I am still incapable of recalling her name or face at all.

The dream girl's facial features had been entirely obscured due to my lack of memory. The name has also been lost in the recesses of my mind. I can try to remember it as hard as I can, but nothing comes out of it.

She came to my grandma's house in the dreams very often and we hung out everyday. There was not a day that was dull or boring because of her intervention. In these dreams, she truly was the center of my world.

That girl was able to give me the satisfaction and enjoyment that I lacked in real life. She... was truly precious to me. I would've died for her a hundred times over.

Unfortunately, that resolve never came to be tested.

The last thing I remembered was me wrapping my arms around her as a blinding white light overtook my vision. I tried my best to protect her from the white light, but everything was in vain.

After this event, she was gone and I never saw her in a dream ever again. I wish I could've been able to say goodbye to her at least. Leaving without a goodbye, how harsh. Jokes aside, this event impacted me more than I thought it would.

Shortly after, I was struggling to function as a normal human being. When did I become so fragile? I had a lot of faith in my mental fortitude, but I guess that faith was misplaced. The hole inside me after losing someone so precious was tearing me apart.

Lines between reality and dreams had me in the crossfire.

Certains parts of the dream stayed vividly imprinted into my mind. The dream felt so surreal to me and in the end, I couldn't shake the feeling of realism that the dream girl had.

Could I find her in this reality?

Even if I did, what would I even say to her?

My mind is just a complete mess right now.

"..."

"Hey Haruto... you okay dude?"

I looked past my right shoulder and saw my best friend staring at me with concern in his eyes.

Eiji Tanaka, my best friend and childhood friend of ten years and more to come. I've been through hell with him and we've managed to stay together all this time. He stands at a massively tall six foot two inches with a chiseled jawline to match his stoic attitude. Eiji isn't muscular nor does sports, but his popularity has not deteriorated at all. I guess good looks are enough for most girls as is.

I've been dozing off during class and conversations a lot recently. I promise I'm not doing it on purpose, I'm just tired.

"Yeah I'm fine, just a bit tired. Let's hurry up and go to lunch," I replied quickly.

"Haruto, please make sure you're getting enough sleep. I promised your mom I would look out for you."

"Yeah yeah, I understand."

Due to some circumstances, I'm living with my little sister away from our parents. It's been made much easier due to me having such a studious little sister, but it's still not as easy as I thought it would be. Nonetheless, I take care of the physical labor while my sister takes care of the cooking and laundry. Our dynamic is that of a married couple, but I swear I don't love my sister like that.

Continuing from earlier, to put it simply my mom has an illness so our father wanted to focus all of his time on her. He sent us away to an apartment complex and we receive money from him each month for rent, food and necessities. I wouldn't say this is the most logical or efficient way of handling the root problem. However, my dad is very scared of losing my mom so I can understand what led him to make these decisions. Our father wants us to focus on our schoolwork and leave him to tend to our mom, so we don't get distracted from our first and foremost priorities.

Back to reality, Eiji and I had just made it to our lunch table after buying some snacks from a vending machine. We don't usually eat in the cafeteria, but I guess Eiji wanted me to have a change of pace today to help me with my sleepiness. At school, I just usually eat the bare minimum necessary to keep me going. I'm not the biggest fan of spending large amounts of money for exotic tasting food.

The cafeteria is theoretically a good place to eat food in. The atmosphere and environment are geared towards eating and conversing with friends. It seems like a good deal, right? To most people the answer is yes, but to me the answer is completely different. My personality is entirely a lone wolf based one and that is a big reason as to why I don't have many friends. I'm not the type of person to actively search for people to connect with. Working by myself is several times more efficient than working with others. Eiji became my friend after he accepted my personality and found ways to work around it. For example, he supports me on the sidelines on any decisions I make without a word of hesitation. Looking back on it, he really is a good guy.

At school, Eiji is extremely popular for his good looks and high academic prowess. Many girls flock to him naturally hoping for a chance to date him. The only person who knows the real side of him is me. At home, Eiji is your typical otaku nerd who has no romantic interest in 3D girls. He's managed to fool everyone at school using his honor student facade while reverting to his normal otaku personality at home. If people were to find out, the whole school would be shaken to its very core.

Nonetheless, lunch proceeded as normally as any other day. Eiji and I conversed for a bit as we ate our snacks. It was just trivial everyday stuff that had no significance, but it was still refreshing for the both of us. That was proof of how deep our bonds were. We both got up and threw away our trash and started to head towards our classroom because class was going to start soon.

Out of nowhere, a girl's voice rang out and startled the both of us while we were walking.

"Eiji, wait up!"

A young girl came up behind us and looked at Eiji pleadingly.

"What's up, Suzuha?"

This was Suzuha Amamiya of Class 1-B. We were all in the same grade, but she was in a different class than our Class 1-A. A popular, outgoing girl was the impression I had of her. Suzuha always had her trademarked ponytail and her sweater tied around her waist. She was a bit on the shorter side, standing at five foot four inches. However, in contrast to her short stature, Suzuha's personality was very large. By large, I mean she was loud and persistent. As a fellow human, she is very hard to handle which results in me trying to avoid her at all costs. In the end, all my efforts were in vain because she still managed to get my contact information somehow.

"I need help with lifting some boxes for the student council, can you please help me?"

There was no doubt that this was only an excuse to try and talk to Eiji.

"Ah sure, sorry Haruto I need to go help her out," Eiji said.

"It's fine, I understand," I replied.

"See you in class."

The two of them walked off towards the student council room soon after. I knew Eiji liked helping other people out, so I was already aware of his answer. This didn't bother me though because I know I can't keep a monopoly on a single person. In hindsight, this might've been a blessing in disguise. I can go to the roof and clear my mind before class starts.

The stairs to the roof weren't guarded nor were they very long. It took me approximately 30 seconds to go from the first floor of the school to the entrance of the roof which was above the third floor. I slowly opened the door to the roof to find an image that would be carved into my mind for a long time. The scene that was reflected in my eyes was of an angel crying in distress.

Chapter 2

Chance Encounter

There was a lone girl sitting down next to the entrance to the roof. She didn't look bad for a person that's been crying, but to say she looks good was also a stretch. Usually she was the unparalleled beauty at the top of the school hierarchy, Haruka Hoshino. Right now though, she looked like nothing more than a frail girl. I've personally never talked to her because of our different classes since she was in Class 1-B. It's not like I had a chance either way, there's no way she could like a guy like me who was at the bottom of the school hierarchy or in other words a ghost.

Despite that, there was a weird air to her that felt familiar...

What was this sense of nostalgia and familiarity?

It's almost like I already know her personally somehow...

That can't be it, I'm just not thinking rationally.

Personally, I didn't want to get involved with her problems. Dealing with other people's problems has always been the biggest time waster in history. It's not like I didn't care, I just wanted to focus on myself before I could reach a point to help others. I went to slowly close the door, but then...

"Who's there?"

Shit, I've been caught. The door was closing fine until it started to creak due to how old it was. There's only two options here, confront her head on or run away. Running away would've been the easiest option, but it would've done nothing to better her mood and I would've felt guilty over it later. It was then I realized that from the second I opened the door, my fate was sealed. Knowing that, I decided to take option one and confront her head on.

"Hey there, I came up here to clear my mind and I found you by accident. I apologize if I startled you," I quickly spat out.

"No it's fine, I should've known that there was a chance people could come up here. It's entirely my fault," Haruka said while trying to muster up a smile.

"It looks like you were crying, are you okay?"

I really didn't feel like pointing out the obvious, but she was in an obviously dire situation and it felt like she was going to crumble if I didn't help.

"I can tell you but please don't tell anyone, alright?"

"My lips are sealed," I replied.

She looked hesitant to continue, but she pressed on nonetheless.

"Recently, everyone has been dumping their work onto me and expecting me to do it at an unreasonable pace. I just can't keep up with everyone's expectations of me. What's worse is that even though I'm swamped with my current work, I can't even say no to new requests because they look so desperate and in need of help. I just don't know what to do anymore..." Haruka rambled.

This looks like a pretty common case to me. It seemed that lazy students and teachers decided to make light of the fact that Haruka was an admirable honor student who couldn't say no to others in order to manipulate her into doing all of these tasks. Honestly, these people disgust me. The second they mess up on something, they pawn it off to another person and act like it's not their problem anymore.

"Listen, I'm going to give you my honest opinion. You can take it however you want because I'm just a nobody trying to help out a somebody. To prevent this situation from happening again, you need to learn how to be selfish every once in a while. Oftenly, the word 'selfish' has negative connotations whenever it is spoken. The truth behind the matter is that humans need a certain level of selfishness or they will crumble and falter. Moderation is the key here. You need to be able to take care of yourself first before helping others. This advice may sound like me being a pretentious jerk, but what I really am is a realist. We don't live in an idealistic world, so don't act like it," I stated.

I have to admit, my words did come out a bit harsher than I intended. If my words at least reached her, then it wouldn't have mattered how hurtful my words were if it at least gave her hope.

I looked over to see her now unclouded hazel brown eyes staring back at me. It looks like she stopped crying a while ago and regained her composure during my speech. At this very moment, I could now understand why everyone at my school calls her "the angel." She has a model worthy body with a tight waist that accentuated all of her curves. Her charm was nothing to scoff at either. She had a very innocent, but mature feeling to her. I always see her bringing a bento to school, so I can only assume that she would be a very good housewife too. If people found out that an unpopular guy like me was consoling the angel of our school, then there would be hell to raise in the aftermath.

A quick glance at my watch revealed that class was about to start. I hurriedly made it to the door and gave her some parting words.

"Don't try to take on the responsibilities of the world by yourself. Find a friend to be your pillar of support and bear the burden with you. Classes are starting soon, so I'll see you later."

"Excuse me, who really are you?" Haruka asked with an air of uncertainty.

"A nobody," I quickly replied.

I left the roof and started to descend the staircase. Looks like my conscience will still be intact after today. I can't wait to tell Eiji about how this incident unfolded. Hopefully, this situation won't affect the calm and tranquil school life that I have. At the same time, I'm not sure why but I have a gut feeling things are going to get a lot more hectic now than it was before.