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Satsuki was smug. Akiha was upset.
But it was Akiha’s fault this was happening. If she was humiliated, it was her own fault. She had no one to blame but herself. She had asked for it.
They sat in the conversation room of the Tohno manor. The two of them were alone, sitting on one of the couches together. Kohaku had left a tray with tea and tea biscuits on it, but Akiha had otherwise dismissed her. She didn’t want that fox in the room for this. Akiha knew that if she was, she would never hear the end of it.
Next to the tray was a smartphone. It was fresh out of the box, which was sitting not far away.
Akiha was hardly the most up to date person in the world. While she followed world events and kept up with things, she did so by reading the newspaper. When it came to technology, she was hopeless.
It was a natural consequence of her lifestyle. She was conservative in most ways, and that included technology. The Tohno manor was decades behind the times. But even though they had computers, it wasn’t Akiha’s job to use them except for management. The programs she used were ones which had existed for decades without any kind of significant change. And whenever something more complicated was needed, she would get Kohaku or Hisui, or even Shiki, to deal with it.
Akiha was insulated from modernity. She liked her life that way, or else she wouldn’t live like that, but it caused problems.
She needed to learn how to use a smartphone. Conservative as she was, Akiha could see the world passing her by. She needed to catch up.
She couldn’t ask Kohaku for help. It was far too embarrassing. She couldn’t ask Shiki, either. Hisui was more experienced than her, but the least of the three. Besides, Akiha didn’t want help from within the mansion. She needed distance.
Whoever would help her with this needed to be someone from outside.
Akiha didn’t know anyone her age. When she thought of modern teenagers, ones who might be hip with what was current, there was only one she could think of.
That’s how she came to be sitting side by side with Satsuki, with a smartphone in front of her.
“Alright, Akiha, the first thing we need to do is set up the password.”
“Password? Oh, right, computers have those, too…” Akiha thought for a moment. “My computer’s password is quite complicated. Will I really need to input that every time?”
Satsuki giggled. “You don’t set a long password. You set a numerical one. Is there a set of numbers that you know you’ll remember? Oh, but after we’ve got that, we can set up other ways of unlocking your phone. We’ll get to that later.”
“O-okay.” Akiha picked up the phone, then turned so that Satsuki couldn’t see what she was doing. At least that meant that Satsuki wouldn’t have to explain the concept of password security to her.
Some of the setup had already been dealt with. The phone was connected to cell data and didn’t need any updates. Thus, Satsuki was able to skip ahead to the instructions that she had been called over for.
“Do you know how to use an app?”
Akiha stared at Satuski with a blank expression on her face. Satsuki pointed at the phone and said, “You see those icons? Tap on one of them.”
Akiha nodded and did as Satsuki said. The app opened, revealing the messages screen.
“Ah, okay, so that’s for texting. Do you know what that is?”
“Of course I do,” Akiha snapped back. “My old phone could also do that.”
“Ah, that’s good to know!” Satsuki nodded. “Then I shouldn’t need to walk you through those basic functions. You know how to make calls and add contacts, right?”
Akiha stared at her blankly again, before quietly admitting, “Kohaku often helps me…”
“Ah! Well, in that case…” Satsuki dug her phone out of her pocket. “Here. Let me help.” She read off her phone number to Akiha. “Then, you go to this app…” She pointed at the screen, “and type that in. In addition to the phone number, you can put my name in. That way, you’ll see whenever I’m texting you!”
Akiha looked confused. “We don’t talk that often. Why would I do that?”
Satsuki’s eyes narrowed. “You can do this for other people, too.”
Then Akiha understood. “Oh, I see. I will have to look through my address books later.”
What a formal way of doing things.
“Oh, click on that one. That’s the web browser. You know what that is, right?”
Akiha nodded. “Yes, I’m familiar with web browsers. I have one on my computer.”
“Great!”
“I use it for emails. I assume this will work for that purpose?”
“Oh, um…” Satsuki pointed elsewhere on the screen. “There’s actually a dedicated email app. You can use that instead.”
Satsuki took that as a chance to run through the other apps available on the phone. As she did, she got the impression that Akiha really didn’t use her computer for much. But that wasn’t Satsuki’s problem. She was just here to be a teacher. Akiha would be her student.
If Akiha was her student, Satsuki didn’t feel she would be getting a high grade. Even after having everything pointed out to her, she still seemed rather inept.
But that was fine. Once Akiha was satisfied, Satsuki could go home.
And it seemed like they were nearly done. Satsuki was running out of things to tell Akiha, without getting deeply into the weeds.
Akiha seemed quite pleased with herself. While all that she had learned was ultimately rather basic, it still seemed like she had been giving it her all. Satsuki had to give her some credit there.
“If you have any other questions, you can ask me.” Satsuki decided to offer that, knowing that Akiha was nervous about asking her housemates for help.
Akiha nodded. “It’s appreciated. And, Yumizuka… thanks for this.”
Satsuki giggled. “Of course.” It hadn’t been as rough as she had expected it to be. And besides, if Akiha made her upset again in the future, this could serve as blackmail material.
As she was on her way out, she noticed Kohaku standing outside the door. From the foxish grin on her face, Satsuki could surmise that she had been listening in on them. Not one to spoil her fun, Satsuki gave her a thumbs up.
On their way out, they traded phone numbers. Maybe they could trade blackmail material later.