"Shirai? Yeah, she's in my class. Why do you ask?"
Hayama Hayato gave Yukinoshita Yukino a slightly surprised look. She had never shown interest in this kind of thing before—and yet here she was, asking about the transfer student out of nowhere.
Mio had been at the school for over a month now. If Yukino had been curious about her, she would've asked long before this.
Yukino knew it was strange, but she pressed on anyway. "I've just been hearing her name come up a lot lately. I got curious. What kind of person is she?"
As she spoke, she glanced at her sister out of the corner of her eye.
Sure enough, the moment Mio's name came up, Yukinoshita Haruno set her phone down—not even trying to hide the interest that lit up her face.
Hayama thought for a moment before answering. "I haven't known Shirai for that long, but we talk pretty often. I'd say we're actually good friends by now. Setting aside how good-looking she is—her personality's great too. She can talk to anyone. She has these moments where she does something kind of childish, but a lot of the time you get this sense of maturity from her that feels like it belongs to someone older."
"Maturity?"
"It's hard to explain. More of a feeling. Whether it's in conversation or the way she handles herself around people—once you spend enough time with her, you just pick up on it."
Haruno nodded beside them, and it wasn't a polite nod. She was agreeing from experience. Whenever she spent time with Mio, she often forgot the girl was still in high school.
Hayama noticed. It gave him pause. Being curious about gossip was one thing—but why was Haruno nodding along like she knew?
Did Yukinoshita Haruno actually know Shirai Mio?
Yukino had been watching her sister. She'd caught it too.
Feeling two pairs of eyes on her, Haruno didn't miss a beat. "Don't mind me, keep going. Why are you both looking at me?"
"Sorry—I was just wondering, Haruno-nee, do you actually know Shirai-san?"
"Of course I do. I practically mooch meals off her place on the regular. My cute little kouhai is an excellent cook, and she's really good at taking care of people."
The most important detail, Haruno kept to herself: that sleeping next to Mio was the only time she ever got a proper night's rest.
Ever since that one time they'd slept together, she'd been wondering whether her unusually deep sleep had something to do with the girl herself. So today, using "curiosity" as cover, she'd dragged Mio to a couple's hotel to test the theory.
The theory had been correct.
She had terrible sleep habits. Without Mio there, she probably wouldn't have been able to sleep at all.
If she had a proper excuse, she'd have been tempted to just move in entirely.
She wasn't sure why it worked that way. But that was a problem for another day. What mattered was that she'd finally found a cure for her insomnia.
Now she just had to figure out how to make it a regular arrangement.
Was there a way to make sleeping next to Mio completely legitimate?
Haruno turned the question over. If we started dating, that would solve everything, wouldn't it?
...She wasn't ready to go that far. Not yet.
Hayama watched Haruno's face light up the way it did whenever someone brought up Mio's name, and felt something dim quietly behind his eyes.
Why am I suddenly envious of Shirai?
He didn't know when it had started—but somewhere along the way, he'd begun wondering if anyone would ever look at him the way Haruno looked when that name came up.
"How did you two... meet?" Yukino hesitated, but the question came out anyway.
"You know how I'm always going out for drinks with Chihiro and Shizuka? She lives right next door to Chihiro. That's how." Haruno tilted her head at her sister. "You're acting strange today, Yukino. You're never usually interested in this kind of thing."
"I'm not interested. I just found it a little odd that a university student like you would know a high schooler like Shirai-san. That's all."
Haruno lowered her gaze back to the book she'd just bought. Her eyes were on the page, but the vague emptiness in them made it clear her mind was somewhere else entirely.
She's thinking about what kind of relationship Haruno-nee has with Shirai-san.
Friends? They'd gone to a couple's hotel together. That wasn't exactly something friends did.
Or maybe... a couple?
If that were the case, and their mother found out—
"By the way—if Shirai really is that impressive, she must have quite a few people pursuing her at school, right?"
"She does, actually. But she's turned all of them down. As far as I can tell, I haven't seen her close to any guys."
"What about girls?" Haruno asked, her tone casually curious.
The question struck Hayama as a little odd, but he answered honestly. "She's got quite a few close female friends."
Haruno absorbed this with a thoughtful nod.
I've had my suspicions. Now I'm more certain.
She didn't notice that her "concern" about Mio being snatched away only made Yukino more convinced the two of them were already together.
Yukino stared at the table.
What do I do? My sister might actually have a serious problem.
"Achoo!"
Mio rubbed her nose. Either the wind at the amusement park had gotten to her, or she was coming down with something—she could already feel the early warning signs of a cold.
...Or someone out there was talking trash about her. Both options were on the table.
She lay bundled under her blankets like a salted fish beached on her own bed. She checked her phone. Not even seven o'clock.
Mashiro probably wouldn't be back for a while.
As she debated whether to drag herself up and work on her doujinshi, her phone buzzed. A message from Yukinoshita Haruno.
She opened the app and found a photo.
The background: the gondola of a Ferris wheel, scenic view glowing through the window.
But that wasn't the important part.
The important part was the girl in the photo—eyes closed, chin tilted upward, expression quiet and expectant. Like someone waiting to be kissed.
"...Tch."
...