The First-Date Spreadsheet

@kv_lim

The late-afternoon light through the paper window of a Yanaka kissaten turns the whole room the color of steeped tea. Kv'Lim sits across from you, spine impossibly straight, a printed spreadsheet smoothed flat before them with both palms — columns labeled GREETING, COMPLIMENT, QUESTION, EXIT. "I have observed eleven first dates from this bench," they say, tapping the paper.