Wednesday morning.
Mio had barely stepped into the classroom—hadn't even reached her seat yet—when Yuigahama Yui grabbed her and pulled her aside.
"Mio, Yumiko's birthday present—did you get one ready?"
Yui hadn't forgotten. The last time they'd gone gift shopping together, only she had actually bought something. Mio had been in a hurry and left empty-handed.
Mio blinked, then put on an exaggerated look of panic. "I think I forgot!"
"So you have already gotten one. Great."
"Eh!? I literally just said I hadn't."
"Your face told me the truth."
Yui poked Mio's cheek gently. That performance had been too theatrical—Mio was practically announcing I already got one. If she'd genuinely wanted to hide something, with her acting skills, Yui wouldn't have been able to tell.
Still. She was curious what Mio had actually picked out for Yumiko.
She remembered Mio had gone straight to Yumiko and asked her outright what she wanted.
"Yui, aren't you curious what kind of present I got?"
"What did you get?"
"Secret~" Mio pressed a fingertip to her lips with a mysterious smile.
Yui's lips twitched, as if she'd been expecting exactly that response. She was used to it by now. Mio could be this childish sometimes—but even her childish side was pretty cute.
The soft little smile at the corners of Yui's mouth caught Mio off guard. Wait—that wasn't right. Wasn't this the moment Yui was supposed to puff her cheeks out and pretend to be mad? Why was she smiling?
The bell cut short any further speculation. Mio hurried to her seat.
The period flew by. The moment the bell rang for break, the popular clique converged on Yumiko's desk.
They'd settled it a few days earlier: the birthday party would be at Yumiko's place, and her mother had signed off on the plan.
Now came the logistics. Groceries, snacks, decorations, who was handling what.
After some back-and-forth, the final split was: Mio, Yumiko, and Hayato on shopping duty.
Mio, as the one cooking tonight, obviously needed to be involved in picking out the ingredients. Yumiko, as the birthday girl, got to pick whatever she wanted to eat. Hayato—well, Hayato was just there to do the heavy lifting.
Mio didn't have any problem with the arrangement in principle, but a small thought nagged at her: Am I going to end up being the third wheel?
Then again, sending just Hayato and Yumiko shopping for food together wasn't exactly realistic either.
The second bell rang before anyone could finalize anything else.
While the teacher was still out of the room, Mio leaned over to Yumiko and said quietly, "Yumiko, what if I just write out the shopping list and you and Hayama-kun handle it yourselves?"
"No way. I'm hopeless at picking out groceries, and Hayato's probably the same."
"But think about it—aren't you missing a perfect chance to spend time with him alone?"
"I-It's fine. There'll be plenty of other chances."
"If you say so. I'll try to give you two some space out there anyway." Mio looked utterly serious.
"You don't need to force it."
Yumiko gave a small smile. Normally, hearing Mio say something like that would have made her genuinely happy. But today—she wasn't sure why—that familiar flicker of anticipation didn't quite come.
Noticing this, Yumiko let out a quiet, wistful sigh.
When she'd first started asking Mio for advice, it had been about winning Hayato over. Now, somehow, her feelings toward Hayato had shifted in some way she couldn't quite name. And her feelings toward Mio had also shifted.
She couldn't put it into words.
For some reason, Yumiko found herself doing the thing she'd done so many times before—turning her head just to look at Mio.
It hit her then: she was still sneaking glances at Mio out of habit. She knew it was something she should probably stop doing. But today was her birthday. She'd let it slide.
She saw Mio five days a week. Mio literally sat right next to her. And yet she still couldn't stop looking, and once she started looking, she kept losing track of time.
Like right now. By the time she pulled herself out of it, half the class period had already gone by.
Yumiko rubbed her cheeks, trying to shake herself awake, and forced her attention back onto the blackboard.
Afternoon. Final bell.
Because of the shopping run, Mio was skipping club activities today.
She handed off the task of walking Shiina Mashiro home to Chihiro-sensei, packed her things, and headed out with Yumiko and Hayato.
Mio had initially planned to slow down deliberately and give Yumiko and Hayato some space. But Yumiko didn't seem to pick up on the thoughtful gesture—she slowed her own pace to match Mio's, chatting about what food she wanted.
If anything, it was Hayato who looked like he had something on his mind, walking a noticeable distance ahead of the two of them.
Mio glanced up at his retreating back and cleared her throat quietly. "Yumiko, you're really not going to use this chance to score some points with Hayama-kun?"
"I wasn't mentally prepared today. Skip it."
"Okay. Anything you need me to do, just say the word."
"Mm."
The three of them made it to the supermarket and started sweeping the aisles for ingredients and snacks.
Partway through, as if something had just occurred to him, Hayato asked, "Shirai, is the cake ready?"
"Relax—I made it over lunch break. It's already in Yumiko's fridge."
"You made it yourself?" Yumiko asked, genuinely surprised. She'd known Mio was handling the cake, but it hadn't occurred to her that Mio would bake it from scratch.
"Don't worry. My cake is pretty good~"
Before she'd transmigrated, she'd put in serious work researching desserts—the dream of one day making them for a future girlfriend had driven her. Cake had been on the list, naturally.
Hence the confidence.
Mio, busy being pleased with herself, didn't notice that Yumiko was looking at her with an expression that was somewhat strange.