Hearing Sakamoto Yuuji's shout, Kirishima Shouko paid it no mind. She then spoke to Yuuji gently.
"This is compensation for not being able to see you during class time, you know!"
"I don't need this kind of compensation."
The next second, Yuuji dragged his chains toward the exit. "I think I'd rather just go home after all…"
Kirishima Shouko looked in the direction Yuuji was leaving, pulled out her stun gun, and said, "Today—I'm not letting you leave."
Zzz zzz zzz
Sakamoto Yuuji turned his head and saw Kirishima Shouko approaching him like a witch with the stun gun in hand. He finally panicked.
"What… wait, wait, Shouko, what is that!? It's dangerous… stop… ah!!"
Soon after, bright flashes sparked across Yuuji's body. If you ignored his expression, under that glow he looked almost like a thunder god descending.
Afterward, Kirishima Shouko carried the now unconscious Sakamoto Yuuji over her shoulder with a calm face. She held up two fingers to the ticket seller and said, "Two student tickets, two showings."
The ticket seller remained completely unfazed, flashing a professional smile as if this kind of thing happened all the time.
"Got it. One student ticket, one unconscious student ticket, two showings, right…"
Himeji Mizuki and Shimada Minami looked over with envious gazes.
"They're such a passionate couple."
"So enviable."
Watching the two of them, Yoshii Akihisa fell completely speechless.
(From a certain perspective, they really are a passionate couple.)
"Saiki, what are you doing? Let's go watch too."
Kinoshita Hideyoshi spoke to Saiki, who was still watching the show.
[Forget it. I'll just eat outside. You guys go in and watch.]
Tsuchiya Kouta: "If you only came here to eat, isn't that wasting the movie tickets? Since we're already here, why not watch something while we're at it?"
[…Fine then.]
(Watching a movie, huh. Whatever. We're already here, might as well watch. It's not like I hate movies. If I could just avoid the spoilers in people's heads, I'd actually be pretty interested.)
After that, Saiki and the others went inside as well.
...
By the time Saiki left the movie theater and started walking home, the sky had already turned dark.
(Yare yare, I really am no good at watching movies.)
(Even though it was supposed to be a romance film, I didn't feel like I actually watched it at all.)
During the movie today, on the surface there were tons of couples watching together, but in reality their inner thoughts were all like this:
[What even is this? That girl is so dumb.]
[Ah, so stupid. These main characters are total idiots.]
[I don't get it. I seriously don't get it. This is so awkward.]
[Couldn't get a date with the goddess today, so I'm stuck watching a movie with this bargain-bin girl.]
Hearing so many thoughts like that made it impossible for Saiki to keep watching. Listening to their inner monologues was honestly more entertaining than the movie itself.
(I remember there was supposed to be some kind of substance that could block my telepathy. What was it called again? My memory's getting worse. I haven't remembered it for years now.)
(Whatever. I'll look into it later. Worst case I'll just try every possibility…)
While Saiki was busy complaining and thinking random things, he had already arrived at his front door.
[I'm home…]
After Saiki entered, he noticed the originally pitch-black apartment was now lit up. It was almost 7 p.m. already.
[Saiki-kun, welcome back.]
(So it's Shiina-san. I didn't expect her to still be here.)
Saiki had almost forgotten about the girl who caught a cold. He had assumed she would go back to her own place after waking up and taking her medicine.
(Whatever. I'll ask later.)
While Saiki was sitting on the floor changing his shoes, footsteps came from behind him again.
Shiina Mahiru walked over, broke into a smile, and said in a sweet voice, "Welcome home, Saiki-kun…"
Saiki looked up and saw Shiina Mahiru wearing his green Pikachu apron, bending at the waist with her hands on her knees in a half-squat, looking right at him.
Their eyes met. Shiina Mahiru blinked her big eyes a few times.
[Shiina-san, what are you…]
After changing his shoes and standing up, Saiki pointed at her current outfit.
Shiina Mahiru's face turned slightly red. She lowered her head. "Come in first. Um, sorry… I borrowed your kitchen and apron without asking…"
[That's not really an issue.]
"It's just… ah, wait! There's still soup simmering in the kitchen. Hold on—" Shiina Mahiru said in a panic and hurried back toward the kitchen.
Saiki: …
Saiki walked into the living room and saw that Shiina Mahiru had prepared a huge spread of dishes: salad, fried chicken cutlets, bell peppers stuffed with meat, pan-fried tofu, salmon, enoki mushrooms, and all sorts of other things. It looked like way more food than one person could possibly finish in a single meal.
(This is a bit too much.)
(And it looks like most of it has already been sitting out for a while.)
Saiki glanced at Shiina Mahiru, who was still busy in the kitchen.
(Shiina-san really went all out trying to repay the favor. She might have gone a little overboard.)
(Whatever. It's already done, and it looks pretty tasty. Guess I'll just have to accept it.)
Saiki went back to his room. A few minutes later, after changing clothes, he came out and sat down in the living room.
At that moment, Shiina Mahiru came out of the kitchen carrying a pot of soup. She looked exactly like a young wife. After setting it down, she smiled at Saiki and said,
"All ready."
[Thanks for going through the trouble, Shiina-san. You only just got over your cold and you're already making dinner.]
Shiina Mahiru waved her hand. "No, no. Compared to you saving me, this is nothing. I'm really sorry for using your kitchen without permission."
[Seriously, don't worry about it.]
"I didn't know what you liked to eat, so I ended up making a lot without realizing… I hope it suits your taste."
Saiki looked at the abundant dishes on the table. [I'm not picky. I'll eat pretty much anything. But Shiina-san, don't you think you went a bit overboard?]
Shiina Mahiru looked at the table full of food. (((o(ﾟ▽ﾟ)o))) [Eh! Did I really make that much?]
Because Shiina Mahiru genuinely didn't know what Saiki liked to eat, she ended up overdoing it without even noticing.
Shiina Mahiru scratched her cheek awkwardly and laughed. "Yeah… I guess I made a little too much…"
[By the way, Shiina-san, have you eaten yet?]
Shiina Mahiru slowly shook her head.
[Then let's eat together. There's way too much for me to finish alone. Come help me out.]
"Really? Is that okay?"
[It's fine. Besides, you made it. Let's eat together.]
Seeing that, Shiina Mahiru didn't hold back anymore. She picked up a bowl and chopsticks and sat down next to Saiki. "Thank you, Saiki-kun. Then… I'll dig in."
Saiki took a bite. (Hm, pretty good.)
For someone who had long since become numb to his own cooking, eating someone else's different style of food—and it being quite tasty—felt refreshing.
After that, he didn't say anything more and just focused on eating. He had been out for so long today and was already starving anyway. Might as well just eat without thinking about anything complicated.
(….)