Dedicated to everyone who lives in the 'bot world'.

This novel was inspired by the fact that we started playing with bots and saw that many people were actually dating.

From knowing through avatars and account names that sometimes are not even close to the real identity of the player.

We who just started playing for almost a year....compared to people who have been playing for many years, we know very little.

When I try to catch the beginning and the end Try to bring together many stories that many people have told you and feel that

That we are Someone's 'unknown person' is so wonderful.

And that we have Its own 'people who don't know who' are also wonderful.

Just the account name Just a display image Just the character that is made up does not determine who is good or bad.

Compatibility Sometimes it comes in the form of fate. We believe so

How many people will never even know their real name? But they get along as if they've known each other for years.

There will be many people who never know their face. But you can feel what kind of person the other person is.

How many people are there who have just greeted each other a few days ago? But we could sit and talk on the phone for hours.

How many people are happy to get to know us even though they don't know who we are?

How many people would we dare to tell many stories to, even though we have never met each other once?

This is all just a short story. A simple story written in a matter of hours.

It's a story.

Base on true story

that has many things added It's not all that actually happened.

It may resonate with many people. or does not match with anyone at all But I want it to be entertaining as a short novel ^^

Thank you everyone <3

Someone you don't know who

There are many people in this world that you don't know but love with almost all your heart...

Of course, the answer must be the name of your favorite singer and charming actor. Famous people from many fields or even cartoon characters that may not have real life

For me, he is a person whose real name I don't know, I don't know his face, I don't know his age, I don't know his occupation. I don't know my preferences. I don't know anything...all I know is that his account name is @.

TatsuyaHoshino

whose profile picture is a picture of a young man wearing reading glasses and a warm smile, an image you can see if you search Google.

That's it....that's it...

If you ask why I use the word 'Almost' because I didn't love him so much that I was willing to sacrifice my life for him. Or allow yourself to look foolish in order to find him, even though you want to find him. But that's it....I can't do anything.

We got to know each other in

SNS

I, a social media addict, accidentally stumbled across his account on a webboard for people who like to read translated novels in a specific group. No one on there used their real name or last name, and everyone used a pseudonym and a picture. It's not really a picture of myself. I met him in a comment he wrote on a novel I translated. He praised the original writer.

He really liked this writer's work, but since he wasn't a good talker and a person with good people relations, all he commented was 'Thank you, I really like this writer. Please continue translating.' That's it.

Why am I interested in him?

Because we like the same writer. And I have the ability to translate and he has the ability to find the original source of the novel for the translator group. I have to depend on him, he has to rely on me.

We just talked through the comments and just because he sent me the original novel doesn't mean that we could talk more than that.

My account is a sweet account. Use words like a woman and use the name @

Ayakochuchu

The display image is a picture of a pink book because I feel that using this image will make people who come to read it feel more relaxed than using my own character because I am just a stiff, charmless guy.

But what made me start to have fun besides translating novels for other people to read was the fact that on web boards there were discussions to exchange interests about novels or other subjects. As a translator, I had people waiting. Many people are following As for him who is a level reader

VIP

of the web board is a familiar face in the comment box, so a joke arose that he was the first commenter on every forum. The stories I translated and I translated the stories he hinted at. That I always wanted to read by accident, so I was teased that they were soulmates.

It was just a fun game of the web board community. I played along with the cheerful character that I had created. He was still a cool young man with a kind side to me as usual. The addition was teasing each other. Have fun playing to serve others. He seemed fun on the board, and I enjoyed it too.

I was enjoying it until the day he came to me with the latest novel we were working on together.

[From now on, I won't have much time to come in and probably won't see me for a while. But I will send you the novel until the story is finished.]

That's how it is. I'm not worried about anything. I'm just worried that if he doesn't send the next chapter of the novel for translation, it will make other readers wait a long time. Even if you really think like that...

....but when he really disappeared I'm both lonely and nostalgic.

I'm waiting for his comments. Waiting for a chat from him, waiting for a service joke like they often do. People on the webboard also began to see that I was lonely when he wasn't here and invited me to talk to make me forget until I got to the point where I realized that waiting for him to enter the webboard every day probably wasn't just waiting for a friend. To come and have fun together, but probably in a different capacity...

Like someone once said. That we don't know the value of what we have until we lose it, and now I just realized that I really like him when he's not available to play on the web board.

And like someone once said, if you get teased a lot, be careful, you'll really fall in love. Hmm....falling hurts...

But that's it...let's realize what will happen now when he has long disappeared into the clouds. to appear with the latest novel. And then it disappeared. Didn't even reply to messages asking about my health and well-being.

Is that hope?... 0%, no shortage, no more than

But I'm not quite alone. I still have friends Translators and readers who follow the work Including people who found interesting novels and shared them with the translators, I still have some friends to talk to and have become close to many people. Some of them are close to the point of knowing each other's identities. When they found out that I was a man, He didn't say anything because no one on this forum used their real names.

And with the passage of many months My thoughts still remain as I once heard that we only talked for one minute. Makes me think about the next two months when he came to send me a novel, I said hello, he answered with one sentence or sometimes didn't answer at all and then left. I'm so glad to see that he's still around. But.....I miss it for many more months before he comes back.

I learned that he has been active on this forum for longer than I have been a reader.

VIP

And many people have known him before. If compared to me, who has been using this forum for less than a year, I am considered a very newbie. But because he is a cute character translator, It allows me to upgrade myself to fight.

Ranking

You can get high in a short time. I tried asking about him with many people who knew him before and found out a little bit about him which... made many people... People also know that I secretly like him.

No one interrupts No one is disgusted, but almost everyone says in the same voice that if you have a choice, just give up. Don't expect anything from him because he really only came to this web board because he wanted to read a novel. I don't want to get to know anyone in particular. Even his best friend who is a translator like me has not had much contact with him yet.

[He has a lot of work to do. Just finding the time to find the original novel is overwhelming. Even I hardly get to talk to him. I'll give it up.]

His close friend told me that....

I don't want to speculate too much on what his real personality is. What kind of work do you do? Is it like the character he expresses? I wanted to know everything but I chose not to ask because this close friend of his was probably afraid that I would interfere too much with his private life and was trying to protect his friend from me, which I understand.

But I'm secretly envious of my best friend, who gets to talk with the person she likes every day in the translator's chat box. You can see the two of them secretly having a sweet time with each other. After kissing each other, everyone joined in congratulating him.

Will I ever have that day?

I could only do my job, translating novels, talking with people on the web board, setting up meetings with people I was close to. But there was never a time when he showed up...

I can see his display pictures on other social media because they are free pictures that can be easily found in searches. But I didn't feel anything. I wasn't lost in the image of that young man wearing reading glasses. But when I opened his account, my heart fluttered and pounded, with tears threatening to fall.

It must only be him....no matter how many hundreds of thousands of other accounts that appear to be similar to him, if it's not him... I didn't feel it.

The story of my feelings seems to be starting to spread. More and more people know about it. It might be because of my straightforward character that many people know about it. It's not difficult for people to see what feelings I have for someone. Including things that we tease each other until we're used to it, there's still some teasing that I'm waiting for my boyfriend to come back and, most importantly, that I get to know more people.

Have more friends with whom you can talk and with whom you feel like you can tell everything to. I told him about it.

Now I can say with certainty that most people on the forum already know how I feel about him. It's just that many people are still hesitant about the fact that I really like him. Or just play service

Even though I looked forward to it every day, one day I missed the opportunity to meet him....

That day there was an underground book selling event for translated novels because those novels had not been licensed and imported into our country for proper translation. I persuaded my friends. Some close friends went to the event, some went, some didn't go to the event for all three days. So I went from day one.

Do you know anything? He himself went to that event as well but later told me that he went....

He greeted me with the same story as before, so I asked if he had gone to this event. He replied that he went with his close friend, the person I had invited to go with, but the said close friend went on a different day than me. So we didn't meet up.

My first regret....that close friend didn't tell me that he was also going to the event, so I didn't contact him to ask to meet.

Second regret....He told me about his close friend until I realized that between the two of them who had been together for a long time, there was no place for me to intervene.

Third regret....This novel is the final episode of the series that he and I are working on together.

The novel is finished...he has no obligation to send the novel to anyone. He doesn't have to perform this duty anymore. From now on, he is just a reader who reads stories on the webboard and may send some original novels if want to do Which he probably doesn't want....especially me.

I don't know. I just feel like if he cared about me even a little, he would find a way to contact me. Not just submitting novels, but even though I try to let go every day. Every time he comes in he always says he misses me. And he will feel guilty for making me wait. and wants me to keep waiting, he will try to come in more often

But it didn't come....still disappeared for months. Even though my friends on the web board gave me encouragement because my partner disappeared, there was nothing I could do about it. I can only wait....wait with a little hope that he will come back and a 0% hope that he will have feelings for me.

Until one day, I talked with readers who kept coming to follow my work, but not as often as high-ranking people. and has a small translation work Some of them joined the translators' group as well. After talking with each other, we felt that our passions were the same in many things. We began to become closer to each other, even telling each other our real names. He was good at talking and told me all kinds of stories.

[I've met Mr. Tatsuya at a past book fair as well. I felt indifferent to him. I don't know. He didn't seem like a very pleasant person to hang out with, like a cold character. That's his.]

[What is he like in real life?]

[Like I said...it's not the person I'm comfortable with. It's really a web board like this. But I signed up to play with two accounts. I don't know what they were thinking. Maybe I had more fun playing characters than reading novels.]

[What do you mean he has two accounts!?]

[Don't tell anyone or they'll attack me later....That's the translator couple who flirt with each other every day. That's Haruto-kun's partner who is said to be Mr. Tat's close friend. That Tsuya is actually Mr. Tatsuya himself... The two of them have known each other for a long time, so they're keeping it quiet. Haruto-kun told me.]

Just then, everything collapsed in that moment.

The Tatsuya who said he misses me is the same person who is Haruto's lover who is Tatsuya's close friend...

And all the time that Tatsuya was gone, the two of them still came out to talk for me to see every day.

....Even though we truly know each other's feelings. Even though you know what my heart really thinks. Na....so mean.

Tatsuya always gets annoyed if I change my display picture to something that doesn't seem connected to him. He says that my display picture is of a book and his is a person reading a book makes it feel special. It felt like we were connected no matter how much better pictures I found, but I never thought about changing because I wanted to be with him. I want him to know that I'm still waiting for him here.

But he never cared...

Even though he knows that I wait for him every day, even though he himself used to tease me with that account. But he never thought of returning as Mr. Tatsuya, but instead told me to wait for him, which I did, and he knew that I was waiting....

Of course, you never know what someone you don't even know by name is thinking.

I know he's probably not a very nice person. I know he's not the nicest looking person. I know that he may not be the person that heaven sent for me today. The day I heard his story It made me so sad that I felt that the fact that I was this sad meant that the thought that I had gotten over him was just crazy.

Hope.... -0%

Love.... 90%

Regret....

x100%

I didn't understand myself that falling in love with someone just by seeing each other through a web board could happen so easily. I never believed it, but today I believe it with all my heart. Mind that feelings can occur on their own without using the brain to think at all.

No matter who comes in I still miss him.

No matter the truth is revealed, I still hope his account is online.

No matter who consoles me But I'm still sad

Whether it's being so distant that you've forgotten the last sentence we talked about But I still feel

It's just a crazy story of a stupid person who didn't think it could happen. That's all. I don't hope for anything else. I don't hope he'll send me novels for translation again. I don't hope he'll come back to play on this forum as Mr. Tatsuya again. I don't hope he'll care about me at all as a friend. I don't hope he feels...

Because no matter what, for him.....I'm just someone he doesn't know who he is.....

As time passed, I almost forgot that I had feelings for someone on the forum. No, I wouldn't say I forgot, it was just that they were so faint that I wasn't sure what I was feeling. It's been a while since I've gotten over it, or I've been distant until things have faded, but I still remember the heartache and pain I felt when I found out that Mr. Tatsuya, who I liked, was actually flirting with someone else. without caring about my eyes at all

Today I came to submit a manuscript to a publishing house. Now that I've debuted as a novelist, my work is widely available for sale, but it's not as famous as having my own autograph session. So I haven't been able to translate novels on that web board much, but I don't have to worry about readers waiting because now there are new and energetic translators coming in to replace those who are busy with real-life work. Please make the web board still colorful as before.

As for me, even though I have less translation work, But still keep in touch with friends who are close to each other. We meet up sometimes. They told each other's stories, including men and women of all ages. Of course, none of them matched the characters on the webboard.

Today, my editor was away because he had to follow another writer's job in a nearby province. So I went to talk directly to the head of the editor, who I had contacted before. I was a little excited because I had never talked. directly with the head of the department Before, I heard that he was a very neat person. But when I actually came across it, there wasn't much to it. I'm a neat person with work. But his personality seems more casual than he thought.

In the end the work went well and now I came out to wait for a taxi along with another editor in the department who was ordered to come out and drop me off.

“I heard you used to be a translator,” he chatted while waiting for a taxi.

"Yes, I'm just a translator on a web board. I don't really do it as a profession."

“Hmm...webboard?...I don't play much.

SNS

But I've heard that on web boards like that, people don't know each other. You don't feel strange. Do you have to work with people you don't even know by name?”

“No, I just have the same preferences. It's okay, I don't know him. He doesn't know me, which is fair."

"Aren't you afraid you'll be tricked..."

I was a little taken aback when I heard that question. “I'm not afraid.... because I know that I'm going to be deceived anyway. There's no way of knowing who's telling the truth and who's lying.”

“But will I still live in that society?”

“Even though it is a deceitful world But if it's a world that can make me happy, I'm happy.”

It was at the same time that the editor called for a taxi, so I said my goodbyes and got in the taxi. The conversation I had just now made me think back to a person I used to really like many years ago. But no matter what, people who don't know me don't know me. In the end, I just left my heart on that webboard, letting it decay with old accounts that slowly faded away.

Fading away every day....

“It's really been a long time, Hoshino,” said a young man wearing dark-rimmed glasses who was sitting in the position of editor when a simple-looking young man in a suit returned to the office after dropping off the publisher's regular writer.

"Let's talk a little."

“What is the matter?”

“The matter that he used to be a translator on a web board.”

The young chief of staff immediately flicked his eyes up and looked at his subordinates who were about the same age as him. “.....Is there nothing?”

“Not at all.” The young man in the suit shrugged his shoulders before looking at his master carefully. “He said he already knew that he was going to be tricked, but if it was a world where being tricked would make him happy. He was pleased...."

The young man in black-rimmed glasses pretended to ignore those words. But the owner of the name Hoshino continued to speak.

"He's not running away from what happened. You, what are you going to do? Using my name as your own account name and hurting other people like that.... As a friend from the past My child doesn't have any sympathy for you.” The change in pronouns in the last sentence made the other young man smile slightly.

“Well, I was really busy at that time, and just casually flirted with Haruto to relieve my boredom. I didn't think it would make him this sad.”

“So, when the day he cut back on his translation work because he was debuting as a writer, you were so sad you almost cried, weren't you?”

“Talk a lot..”

"At that time, you didn't care about him because you knew that no matter what, he would wait for you. When the day came that he would disappear, you came back and regretted it because you didn't know how to contact him....it's so funny."

“A love affair with someone you don't even know your name is impossible.”

“But it happened,” Hoshino smiled before sitting down at his own table, which was next to the other person's desk. ..Are you still going to deny that you liked him all along?”

“Ayako on the forum is a sensitive person....but in real life she seems so strong that I respect it. It seems like he doesn't go on the forum at all. He must have forgotten me.”

"Even though we've actually met each other, are you really not going to tell him?"

“No, let's just keep it like this and let my heart break at the same time. with old accounts It was best that I started lying to him first..."

The owner of the account, Tatsuya Hoshino, who was not his real name, looked at the computer screen that opened the underground novel translation board page, his eyes falling on an account with a star symbol on it. This is to show that it's a favorite account and it's an account that hasn't been active in almost a year.

Every moment we talked.... Everything that we had done together was definitely never forgotten.

I didn't think that I would be so sad when Ayako came out and said that she would reduce her translation work because she already had a full-time job. On that day, he greeted Ayako, but all he received was a statement that You may be so busy that you don't go to the webboard. Everything seems to come back to you. What was once done to other people now feels what it is like.

Until in the end, they didn't even have the courage to say sorry, didn't even have the courage to tell the truth, even though they had the opportunity to actually meet each other's identities, what they used to call Ayako turned into calling each other's real names. who used to be called Mr. Tatsuya Now he's called by his real name as well, but even so, there's still one word that's stuck in his head. It's the sentence he said to his close friend Haruto on the day he realized he was just sorry. Where did the people who had always waited for him stop waiting for him in order to progress further in the real world....

And it was a sentence that made him think that sometimes the enormous feelings that arise in one's heart can occur with just a few letters.....

[Just hold on because no matter what, for him.....I'm still just someone he doesn't know who he is.....]

END.