"Are you two heading out?"
Shirai Mio, having just finished dinner, looked at Shiina Mashiro and Rita Ainsworth—both dressed and ready to go—and asked with mild curiosity.
"Mm. I want Mashiro to come out for a walk with me," Rita said with a smile.
"Stay safe out there, then. Call me if anything comes up. Though I think you already know this—you absolutely cannot let Mashiro out of your sight," Mio said, her expression completely serious.
"I know. I won't let her wander off."
Beside her, Mashiro nodded too.
After seeing the two of them out the door, a flicker of confusion crossed Mio's eyes. Somehow both Mashiro and Rita had seemed a little off tonight. Still, with Rita keeping an eye on her, she wasn't too worried about Mashiro's safety.
Just as Mio was about to head back to her room to do her homework, the doorbell rang.
Puzzled, she walked over and opened the door—and there stood Yukinoshita Haruno.
"Senpai, didn't you say you wouldn't be back until late tonight?" Mio asked, surprised.
"Because I missed my pretty little kouhai, so I came back early~" Haruno pulled Mio into a big hug right there on the spot.
Mio, who knew herself well enough, didn't even bother to struggle. She let Haruno nuzzle against her cheek and said, "You could've told me you were coming back. I didn't save you any dinner. Want me to go make you something now?"
"No need. I ate before I came back." Haruno buried her face in the crook of Mio's neck, took a deep breath, then said with a grin, "Kouhai, don't you think you're acting a lot like my wife right now?"
"That's just your imagination, Senpai."
Once she felt Haruno let go, Mio turned and walked straight back to the living room. Haruno, familiar with the place, pulled her own personal pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet, slipped them on, and went to sit down beside Mio.
Then Haruno spotted Sengoku Chihiro in the kitchen, washing dishes.
"Well, if it isn't Chihiro-sensei. What are you doing washing dishes over here?" Haruno covered her mouth, feigning surprise.
Chihiro pursed her lips. "Is it fun, asking questions you already know the answer to?"
"Depends on the situation. In a situation like this one, it's definitely fun."
As an old acquaintance of Haruno's, Chihiro knew perfectly well that the best move at times like these was to ignore her—and in fact, that was exactly what she planned to do.
Then again, ever since Haruno had moved in nearby, she'd been dropping by at all hours for no real reason. With only her cousin and Mio living here, it wasn't hard to guess who Haruno was really coming to see.
Good thing her cousin had met Mio first. Otherwise, Mio might've been swept away by Haruno long ago.
Now that Rita was here to help her cousin, Chihiro wondered whether things might shift a little. Honestly, she was looking forward to it.
Once the dishes were done, Chihiro didn't linger at Mio's place. She went straight back next door to her own apartment.
Rita had just texted her, asking to borrow her kitchen.
It didn't take much thought to work out that Valentine's Day was only a couple of days away. The reason for borrowing the kitchen was almost certainly to make chocolate as a surprise for Mio.
Chihiro had just cracked open a canned beer and taken a single sip when she heard the door open. Mashiro and Rita walked in together.
One look at the bags in their hands, and Chihiro knew her guess had been right.
Rita set her things down. "Mashiro, take a little break first. I'll teach you how to make it in a bit."
"Okay."
Having sent Mashiro off to read manga, Rita walked over and sat down across from Chihiro. "Valentine's Day is almost here. You're not going to spend it alone, are you, Chihiro-neesan?"
Chihiro shot her a gentle look. "Ask whatever it is you want to ask. Don't needle me with stuff like that."
"All right." Rita answered without hesitation, then went on, "Then I'll be straight with you. I want to talk about Shirai Mio."
As if she'd long anticipated the question, Chihiro took a satisfying swig of beer before she began filling Rita in on Mio's situation.
Even though Chihiro was only hitting the important points, by the time she finished, more than half an hour had passed. Throughout, Rita took careful notes—though only she knew exactly what those notes were.
Rita flipped back through them, then frowned. "Why do you say Mio is so popular with the girls at school?"
"You're asking the wrong person—I don't know either. I only heard about it from... from a friend. Anyway, Mashiro's got more than one rival, and definitely more than just the one diagonally across from her."
Rita had assumed all she needed to do was help Mashiro win Mio over. Now it seemed things weren't as simple as she'd thought.
Her head hurt.
Rita rubbed her temples, then stood and turned to Mashiro, who was reading manga. "Mashiro, time to get to work."
The moment she heard Rita, Mashiro set down her manga and followed her into the kitchen, her expression completely serious.
For someone like Mashiro, who had never cooked before, Rita hadn't picked anything complicated—just the simplest kind of chocolate. Even the simplest recipe would do. As long as Mashiro made it herself and gave it to Mio, Mio was bound to be moved. After all, this was Mashiro.
But even with the simplest method, guiding Mashiro through it was a frantic, fumbling affair—and the barely finished result didn't look like much.
Still, Valentine's Day was the day after tomorrow. Even if they didn't finish tonight, there was still all of tomorrow.
True to the principle of not wasting food, Rita took Mashiro's handiwork straight to Chihiro.
"Mashiro says you might not get any chocolate on Valentine's Day, Chihiro-neesan, so she told me to give all of this to you," Rita said, perfectly deadpan.
Chihiro glanced at the chocolate that no longer looked anything like chocolate. "Do I look like a sucker to you?"
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