1 01

◎Jinjiang Foreign Language App◎

01

Miyagi Prefecture, Sendai.

Shinsan Gakuen High School, Grade 1, Group 1.

Today is the day to return the last English quiz. Sixteen-year-old Kawakami Wakana confidently accepted the test paper, only to find that she... only scored 25 points.

"...??"

After school.

"This is impossible!" At her friend's house, Kawakami Wakana grabbed a cookie from the plate and gnawed on it with gritted teeth, as if it were an English textbook. Only after finishing three large cookies and downing a large glass of iced barley tea did she complain to her friend:

"Natsu-chan, isn't this strange?"

"I was very satisfied with my score this time. I could answer every single question, which is rare. How could I get such a low score!"

As he spoke, he grabbed another cookie and angrily began to gnaw on it.

Xia Jiang: "..."

Hinata Natsumi is Kawakami Wakana's classmate, and the two of them both joined the school's volleyball club. Perhaps because of this, they quickly found common ground and became best friends in the class.

For Kawakami Wakai, it was common to come to Hinata Natsu’s house for snacks on days when there were no club activities, finish her homework, and then go home.

Hinata Natsu did not reply to Ruoyi's endless chatter, but silently looked at the paper that had gained several more creases because of her friend's anger.

She first looked at the fill-in-the-blank questions—

"I agree with you" means "I agree with you".

What Kawakami Wakai wrote was—"I hate it."

"..."

"Isn't this simple?" Ruoyi also noticed the question her friend was looking at. "Isn't this word similar to 'ugly'? So it should mean that I think you are ugly, which means I hate you."

Hinata Natsume: "..."

Should she have said that the English word for "ugly" is "ugly," and that "agree" means "to agree"...?

Hinata Natsumi then looked at the next one—

The meaning of travel is ( ).

Kawakami Wakai wrote down four large characters: ∪ラブル (toraburu, problem, trouble).

"..."

I'm speechless.

When Hinata Shoyo returned home, he saw his younger sister holding an exam paper, looking utterly dejected.

"What's wrong, Xia?" He immediately went over to her.

"Brother—!" Hinata Natsumi exclaimed in surprise, "You're back from Brazil?"

"Yes, I graduated smoothly!" Hinata Shoyo gave a "V" sign.

"But look at you, let me see that expression after you got your score."

Finally, Hinata Shoyo saw the big, bright red number 25.

At this point, the owner of the exam paper was practically speechless with frustration.

Hinata Shoyo: Ah, this...

"Ruoyi-chan, you did pretty well on the test!" He grinned, revealing his big teeth, and pointed to one of the multiple-choice questions. "This one tests relative clauses, and you actually got it right."

Kawakami Wakana: "I guessed."

"..."

“Because you see,” Ruoyi pointed to the other options, “this word is the longest, isn’t it? As the saying goes, among three short options, choose the longest one—”

Hinata Shoyo's smile froze on his face for the first time; he didn't know whether to continue smiling or to stop.

"So, Ruoyi-chan, do you really hate English?" he asked gently, leaning slightly forward.

Kawakami Wakana nodded.

How could she possibly like this devilish technology!

Anyway, I won't need it when I go grocery shopping when I grow up.

The little girl immediately began to pour out her grievances.

"Wakai-chan, right?" Hinata Shoyo thought for a moment, "I remember Natsu mentioning that you also wanted to be a volleyball player?"

Upon hearing this, Kawakami Wakai's eyes immediately lit up.

Yes!

Speaking of which, the reason she was able to become friends with Xia Jiang so quickly is because she has an older brother who has achieved a lot in volleyball!

Kawakami Wakana immediately nodded excitedly: "I want to be a volleyball player! I want to play in the Olympics!!"

Hinata Shoyo nodded and said, "But Wakana-chan, if you really want to go abroad and compete with players from all over the world, language communication is definitely necessary."

Kawakami Wakai: "So you're saying that this requires learning English?"

He then sighed, "But I just can't memorize the words."

"—Besides, we're not in the US or England right now, everyone around us speaks Japanese, nobody speaks English to me..."

Hinata Shoyo: emmm

He clapped his hands: "This is easy!"

"You can chat with real foreigners online."

...Huh?

…………

night.

After taking a shower and changing into her pajamas, Kawakami Wakana hugged her Shiba Inu butt pillow and collapsed onto the bed. Her gaze fell on her phone on the table, and she immediately got up and, as if possessed, went to the app store.

Xia Jiang's brother, Xiang Yang, recommended an app called Jinjiang Foreign Language, which is mainly for chatting with foreigners.

Simply fill in the language you are learning, the languages ​​you speak, and your nationality, then add your hobbies to be matched with chat partners. If you find a suitable match, you can add each other as friends and chat.

"Matching" is also the only way to add friends on Jinjiang Foreign Language School website.

Give it a try, it shouldn't be a big problem, right?

So, Kawakami Wakana decisively registered an account, but she was a little stumped when she looked at the "name" field.

She originally wanted to use her real name. But remembering how her parents had repeatedly told her, using real-life examples, not to casually share her personal information with people she met online, she hesitated to do so.

After all, she usually makes friends in real life, and this is the first time she has tried to talk to strangers online, so it is indeed difficult to grasp the appropriate level of interaction.

Finally, after thinking for a long time, Ruoyi simply filled in "Meow" in the name column and used a picture of her cat Satoru as her profile picture.

As for her age, she deliberately filled in eighteen, which was a bit older.

Eighteen years old, although still a high school student, is considered an adult, at least by foreigners.

After confirming that everything was okay, she clicked the match button.

With a short animation, information about the matched object appears on the screen.

"Kind-hearted Lucias" is a doodle of a rat's head with a wide grin.

But the key lies in the following information—

Mother tongue: Russian

Languages ​​spoken: Russian

Language I want to learn: Japanese (beginner level)

"...?"

But she wanted to be matched with a native English speaker!

Therefore, Kawakami Wakai directly chose to rematch.

She started imagining that maybe this time she could be matched with an American girl or boy who speaks fluent Japanese, and then she wouldn't have to worry about her English homework anymore...

Until that rat's head appeared on the screen again.

Kawakami Ruoyi: "...??"

She refused to believe it!

With renewed vigor, Kawakami Wakana chose "rematch" once again.

It's still that same rat-headed guy.

Kawakami Wakai: I'm afraid he has some serious illness.

She put down her phone, somewhat annoyed.

Sure enough, she shouldn't have listened to Xia Jiang's advice and downloaded this app!

Let's be more down-to-earth... memorize more words and grammar rules.

She sighed, just about to watch some TV before bed, when a notification suddenly popped up on her screen.

Jinjiang Foreign Language notified her that someone had sent her a message.

And it's that rat head image again.

Kawakami Wakai:?

On the other side.

This is the third time we've been matched with this person.

Looking at the grinning orange cat on the screen, and then at the username "Nyanko" below, Fyodor: "..."

He began to suspect that the app was doing this on purpose.

It deliberately appeared on his phone and couldn't be deleted no matter what he tried. He even bought a new phone because of it, but it seemed to have become a pre-installed app, lying peacefully in his phone.

It's like you can't shake it off.

In the end, Fedor seemed to give in and registered an account and matched with chat partners.

He wanted to know why this inexplicable thing was happening, and he felt compelled to do so.

Then something even more unbelievable happened—

Surprisingly, I was matched with that person named "Meow" five times in a row.

Fyodor: ?

He looked at the orange cat avatar with great displeasure.

You should know that he, Fyodor, is the leader of the Dead House Rats, an underground thief organization in Lucia.

Cats and mice are natural enemies in the food chain.

It's as if... I'm deliberately going against him.

Fyodor became even more suspicious, wondering who had done this.

But unfortunately... the only way he can find out who did it is through this software.

After hesitating for a moment, Fyodor still chose to add "Meow" as a friend and then clicked chat.

He first wrote "Hello" in Russian, but noticed that "Meow's" profile stated that she wanted to learn English, so he ultimately changed it to...

こんにちわ (Hello in Japanese).

The message quickly became a read message, but there was no reply for a long time. It wasn't until Fyodor was about to close the crappy software that he finally replied with a single line.

[Nyako: It’s a こんにちは, not a こんにちわ. 】

Fyodor: ?

He deliberately misspelled the Japanese, just to see how the other person would react.

I never expected this person... to actually start teaching him Japanese?

Meanwhile...

After thinking for a while, Kawakami Wakana finally came up with a personal information that wouldn't reveal too much personal privacy, nor would it make her seem like an online scammer.

18 years old, living in Tokyo, and going to university next year... Perfect!

Having decided on her pseudonym, she happily began preparing her self-introduction.

But then she realized—

Wait a minute! How should I introduce myself in English?

It seems like all she can say is her name.

Kawakami Ruoyi: "..."

So, she sheepishly replied:

Hello, I'm Miaozi, currently a high school student.

The other side replied quickly. It was in English.

After clicking to translate, Kawakami Wakai looks at the famous characters.

Raskol... Nikov...? What the heck?

Foreign names are indeed very long!

[Author's Note]

I started writing this new story before my previous one was almost finished.

I'll try to update daily, but I might have to take a few days off before my last book is finished qwq

Hooray for the first chapter! Red envelopes (cash gifts) for the first three chapters!!