Whether it's true or not, in Japan, one often hears that students in single-sex schools have fewer dating opportunities than in co-ed schools.

Obviously, being in a single-sex school makes it harder for you to meet someone if you happen to be interested in the opposite sex. However, such opportunities are not entirely absent. Many schools organize festivals which are often open to the public, which means students from other schools are free to attend.

Manga artist コンテくん Conte-kun (@conte_kun) is one such person who spent his junior high and high school years at an all-boys school.

He was looking forward to meeting girls from other schools, so when his class was organizing food stands for the school festival, he and some of his classmates decided to sell sweet things that they hoped would appeal to girls' tastes.

Reproduced with permission from コンテくん Conte-kun (@conte_kun)

English text added by grape Japan.

Conte-kun had his hopes up when he was picked up by a girl at his waffle stand. She was cute, confident and seemed to have a lot going for her but there was just one problem: her handwriting!

ギャル文字 gyaru-moji refers to a style of writing that was popularized by gyaru (from "gal") beginning in the early 2000s in which letters are replaced with various symbols to created a unique look that was considered cute. It has mostly gone out of style today but Conte-kun is relating an incident that happened in the past when it was still a popular trend.

It's unfortunate but the girl must have been waiting to get an e-mail from Conte-kun, not knowing that her note was the reason he couldn't do so.

Many people commented on Conte-kun's episode tinged with the bittersweet overtones characteristic of youth. For example:

  • "Ohhhhhh! That's too bad for the girl. She missed her chance..."
  • "I wonder if in this day and age, they could have connected with each other on social networking sites even without knowing each other's e-mail addresses..."
  • "I almost fell off my chair at the ending lol. Maybe the girl was just acting confident and was in fact so nervous that it affected her handwriting?"

In a follow-up comment, Conte-kun wistfully remarks: "If the note had been nicely written, my life might have turned out a little differently.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you feel like writing your contact information by hand, you might want to take care to write it as clearly as possible!


By - grape Japan editorial staff.