"What's the matter? Is something wrong?"
Standing in the doorway, Yukinoshita Haruno watched Shirai Mio with a sunny little smile. She loved seeing that startled look on Mio's face—because it was just so cute.
Catching Haruno's expression, Mio realized she'd let her composure slip a bit. She cleared her throat twice and asked, "Senpai, did you rent the place across the hall?"
"That's right. So? Feeling pleasantly surprised?"
Mio's mouth twitched. Pleasantly surprised? She wasn't sure about that—but startled? Definitely.
Haruno had been glued to her side for days now, and yet she'd still managed to spring something like this. Mio honestly didn't know what to say. Was this the kind of power of money that came with being the heir to the Yukinoshita family?
"But—is living here really not a problem? Holidays are one thing, but once you've got university classes again, isn't it a long haul to get there?"
"It's fine. I've got a driver to take me back and forth either way. Worst case, I just wake up a little earlier than before."
"Besides, if I live here, I get to come mooch a meal at your place every single day!"
Whether she was picturing Mio's cooking or thinking about something else entirely, Haruno licked her lips.
"Going this far just to mooch food—I really have to hand it to you, senpai."
"Moving over here isn't only about mooching meals, you know. I've got other goals too. Want to take a guess at them?"
"No thanks. Rather than waste time puzzling over what's going on in your head, senpai, I'd sooner puzzle over what to make for lunch."
Mio waved Haruno off, then added, "And senpai—when it's mealtime, remember to come over on your own."
"No need to wait for mealtime. I'll come over right now."
Haruno casually pulled the door of her brand-new place shut and slipped straight into Mio's apartment. With the ease of someone who'd done it a hundred times, she dug out her own pair of slippers, then sprawled lazily across the sofa—and flicked on the TV for good measure.
After that whole smooth sequence, Mio couldn't even tell anymore whose apartment this was supposed to be.
Three days away from home meant the fridge was, naturally, picked clean of anything usable.
So after setting down her luggage, Mio didn't even sit down for a glass of water before getting ready to head out again.
Haruno seemed to have seen it coming. The moment she spotted Mio changing into her shoes, she sidled right over. "I'll tag along with you."
Having someone to help carry things—Mio wasn't about to turn that down.
Then she noticed Shiina Mashiro practically itching to come along, and gave a helpless little smile. "Mashiro, you just stay home and behave, okay? You haven't drawn any manga in days, have you? We'll be back soon."
Mashiro hesitated, then gave a small nod. Before retreating to her room, though, she made a point of walking right up to Mio, her face dead serious. "Mio. Be careful of that bad woman."
"I know, I know."
"You know, you two could try whispering a little quieter. I heard every word of that."
"So you heard it. Doesn't change the fact that I think Mashiro's got a point."
"Say things like that and you'll hurt your senpai's feelings, you know."
Haruno had been gearing up to put on a little show of crying—but the second she saw Mio walk out the door without so much as a backward glance, she hurried to catch up.
On the way to the supermarket, Haruno asked, a little curious, "Oh right—don't you keep a cat at your place? Where's the cat?"
"Got a friend looking after it."
Before the trip, she'd handed Cake off to Yuigahama Yui. Yui had taken the cat straight back to her family's hometown and wouldn't be back until tomorrow, so Mio planned to go pick Cake up in person then.
"Ah, I see."
Something seemed to occur to Mio, and she turned to look at Haruno. "Right—senpai, if you want to get your little sister to come visit you, you could use my cat as bait. Yukinoshita-san is pretty fond of cats."
"That'd work?"
"Of course. Though we'll have to wait until I bring Cake back tomorrow."
Chatting as they walked, the two of them soon reached the supermarket. With her fridge completely empty, Mio went all out on a shopping spree, fully intending to put her handy little errand-runner Haruno to good use.
What Mio didn't expect was that Haruno had apparently anticipated this exact situation.
Just as she finished paying, a familiar figure appeared in Mio's line of sight.
Hayama Hayato.
From the way he was breathing—hard and quick—it was obvious he'd run the whole way over.
"Hayato, over here, over here~"
"You called me out here so suddenly—is there some kind of emergency?" Hayato said, giving Mio a nod in greeting as he spoke.
"Um, I sort of accidentally bought way too much. Could I trouble you to help carry it all back?"
"I thought you lived near the university? Why are you shopping at a supermarket all the way out here?"
"I moved. To somewhere around here."
Hayato shot Haruno a surprised look. When had she moved? How did he not know?
Come to think of it, hadn't Haruno been off vacationing at a hot-spring inn these past few days?
"Alright, quit standing there in a daze and come help already."
Watching Hayato lug bag after bag, big and small, Mio threw Haruno a helpless look and murmured, "Calling someone out of the blue just to make them your pack mule—that's not really okay, is it?"
"It's not like it's the first time."
"Senpai, you really are a bad woman."
Mio couldn't stand to just watch, and wanted to take some of the load off Hayato—but her own strength was genuinely limited, and there wasn't much she could carry.
By the time Hayato had finally hauled everything upstairs, he discovered that Mio lived around here too—directly across the hall from Haruno's new place, no less.
Could it be... that Haruno had moved out here because of Mio?
Otherwise he honestly couldn't make sense of why Haruno would move at all. This place was a fair distance from her university, and the round trip ate up plenty of time—it wasn't at all like Haruno's usual style.
Just being interested in someone—was that really worth moving all the way out here for?
Or was it that Haruno's interest in Mio wasn't the kind of interest he'd been assuming?
But they were both girls. Was that even possible? Or was he overthinking it?
Hayato felt his thoughts getting tangled.
Seeing him standing there in a daze, Mio reached out and gave a light wave in front of his face. "Hayama-kun, what are you spacing out for? Want to come in for a cup of tea?"
"No—no, I'm good. I've still got some other things to take care of, so I'll head back. See you at school in a few days."
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