"I'm home~"
Hearing Mashiro's voice, Mio paused what she was doing and stepped out of her room. She saw Mashiro and Rita walk in together.
She asked, a little curious, "Where did you two go? Why are you back so late?" A moment ago, she'd nearly picked up the phone to call and check on them.
Rita answered lazily, "We just wandered around nearby and got to talking, and before we knew it, it was this late. My fault—I wasn't watching the time."
There was nothing really wrong with Rita's explanation. She and Mashiro hadn't seen each other in ages, so having a lot to catch up on was understandable. But Mio still felt like something was off.
Just then, Mashiro sidled right up to her and tugged at her sleeve. "Mio, I want to take a bath."
"Didn't you just take one with me yesterday?"
"I want to take a bath with Mio every day."
Mio sighed helplessly, then took Mashiro by the hand and led her into the room.
Watching the two of them go, Rita finally let out a quiet breath of relief. If the secret slipped now, the whole surprise would be ruined. Thanks to her careful coaching, Mashiro could now make chocolate that actually looked decent. All she could hope was that tomorrow Mashiro would remember today's steps.
No more slip-ups!
On top of that, she'd have to prep more ingredients tomorrow—everything they'd bought tonight was already used up. She really hadn't expected that teaching Mashiro anything other than painting would be this hard.
······
Early the next morning.
Mio arrived about ten minutes earlier than usual, mainly because Rita had somehow gotten up even earlier than her and had even made breakfast. All Mio had to do was pack a bento, so it barely took any time.
With Valentine's Day the next day, the moment Mio walked into the classroom she heard plenty of people talking about it. She could even feel more than a few of them glancing her way as they did.
No sooner had Mio sat down than Yuigahama Yui hurried over, beaming. "Mio, tomorrow's Valentine's Day. Have you decided who you're giving chocolate to?"
"Eh!? Tomorrow's Valentine's already?" Mio put on a deliberately surprised expression, but she didn't bother selling it, so her act came off overblown—obviously fake.
In truth, Mio had already made up her mind. She planned to give chocolate to everyone registered on the System Panel, plus a few people she was close to, like Sengoku Chihiro and Hiratsuka Shizuka—those two perpetually single older women.
"You know full well tomorrow's Valentine's. If I announced it ahead of time, where's the surprise in that~"
Yui pursed her lips. "When you bought Yumiko's birthday present, didn't you just straight-up ask her what she wanted? Since when do you care about surprises?"
"A birthday present and chocolate aren't the same thing." As she spoke, Mio glanced over at Miura Yumiko.
Taking in Yumiko's long legs sheathed in black tights, Mio couldn't help the faint smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"Fine, fine. Since you put it that way, I won't ask." Yui nuzzled against Mio's cheek, then moved on to other topics.
Good times never last. As the bell rang, Yui had no choice but to head back to her own seat.
Once Yui was gone, Yumiko suddenly spoke up. "You—what were you just looking at?"
"Your legs," Mio said, perfectly honest.
Yumiko instinctively glanced down at her own legs. Nothing seemed odd about them. Why did she get the feeling Mio was teasing her?
In the past, something like this might've sent Yumiko into a furious huff. But now she just gave Mio a resigned look and murmured, "If you'd just go out with me, then forget just looking—you could even touch them, no problem."
"So I can't put my hands on them unless we're going out?"
Yumiko blinked, thought it over for a moment, then said, "Well... I guess it's not that you can't. But if you get to touch me, then I get to touch you too. That's only fair."
"We'll see when the time comes."
At the crucial moment, Mio chickened out. Her body had... issues, and if she actually went along with what Yumiko said, she'd probably end up embarrassing herself.
Seeing Mio's reaction, Yumiko gave a cold little laugh. She'd known Mio was a paper tiger—all talk, and the first to lose her nerve when things actually got physical. She really wanted to see the panicked look on Mio's face the moment she got pushed down. That would probably be pretty fun.
Too bad that wasn't something she could pull off just yet.
As the teacher walked in, the two of them paused their exchange.
······
That afternoon, during club activities.
As usual, Mio packed up her things and got ready to go find Mashiro so they could head to the club together. But when she reached Mashiro's classroom, there was no sign of her.
Mio, a regular in this class by now, had gotten friendly with quite a few people. A girl she was on good terms with told her, "Shiina-san left a little while ago with some blonde girl. She asked me to tell you she's got something to do and won't be at the club today."
Though she was fairly sure the person who'd taken Mashiro was almost certainly Rita, she still made a call to check. Only after confirming Mashiro was right there with Rita did she relax.
Then she headed alone toward the clubroom.
Eriri, already seated, looked puzzled when she saw Mio. "How come it's just you?"
"Mashiro's got something going on. She's not coming today."
"I see." Eriri nodded thoughtfully. If Mashiro wasn't around, did that mean she could walk home with Mio today?
It wasn't that she was looking forward to walking home with Mio—she just wanted to use the chance to ask Mio what she thought after reading her manga manuscript.
Yeah. That's right. Exactly that.
······