I'm not letting myself get excited for the ship between MC and Mariko.. I can't help but expect that the author will pull one on us and troll at the end.
They can always reschedule the date can already tell she will try to juggle both.
@henkingu could see going the same route and maybe similarly to kiyoshi a cross dressing fetish ruins the relationship but I think this main character will atleast be faithful so I think theres hope for him.
@Starbright Idk man, she likes manga and even cosplays, I think the she'd even like the cross dressing version of him even better seeing as how good looking it is.....now I can see her going to the editor instead and him thinking he got stood up and thinking that he was right and she doesn't like him enough to date like he thought for a second and they wont be able to communicate with one another since they are so awkward in thinking one is too good for the other LOL
So this is a non-problem the author is going to turn into one? Just tell the truth, you have an important work meeting, problem solved. But no... she will do something dumb like say nothing.