Pushing a supermarket cart, dressed in a thick navy hoodie and blue jeans, Miyahito skillfully navigated the meat section.
Beef tongue, one pack.
Chicken cartilage, one pack.
Oh, right. Almost forgot. Beef backstrap, two packs.
Just as he tossed the selected beef into the cart, something shiny instantly caught his eye.
"Whoa! Didn't expect them to sell whole chickens here. Lucky!"
With "happy" practically written on his face, he deftly picked out a fresh whole chicken and dropped it into the cart.
Pushing the cart forward while continuing to shop, he muttered softly.
I'll swing by Chinatown later to grab some glutinous rice. Gonna make lotus leaf wrapped chicken for Ayase tomorrow!
Though, he wasn't sure if Tokyo's Chinese markets would actually have lotus leaves... Aluminum foil could work as a backup for baking.
But lotus leaf chicken without actual lotus leaves just felt like something was missing.
Pondering what if there are no lotus leaves, Miyahito walked backward through the snack aisle, multitasking as he scanned the shelves for Ayase's favorite treats.
Distracted, he absentmindedly reached out, his fingertips brushing across the various snacks on the shelf.
At that moment, he completely failed to notice that another customer was doing the exact same thing, reaching for snacks in the exact same way.
Three meters, two meters, one meter... Gradually, the distance between Miyahito and the other customer closed in.
And then.
Two hands, both reaching across the shelf, met. It was unexpected, yet somehow entirely predictable. They brushed against each other lightly.
The moment their skin made contact, both instinctively recoiled as if shocked, quickly pulling their hands back.
Miyahito, having withdrawn first, instinctively spoke up.
"Ah, sorry."
The other customer, seemingly caught off guard by his quick reaction, paused for a split second before politely replying,
"No, it's quite alright."
Hmm? A girl?
Purely out of reflex, Miyahito lifted his gaze slightly.
And in that instant.
A delicate face, overlapping with the visage etched deepest in his heart, reflected in his dark eyes as if bridging time and space.
'Se... Senpai?'
In a flash, an emotion he could hardly suppress flickered through him.
No, this girl isn't Senpai.
His eyes caught the cascade of black hair, noting the absence of the familiar white hairband he knew so well.
A bucket of ice-cold water instantly poured over him, bringing rationality back and ruthlessly extinguishing his inner turmoil.
'Haha, idiot. Didn't you already confirm Senpai is a second-year?'
'Besides, look closely. This girl doesn't look like a high schooler at all. At most, she's a middle schooler who just graduated.'
In just a few short seconds, Miyahito's emotions went on a rollercoaster.
From calm, to stirred, back to rational in an instant.
Inevitably, a vague, indescribable fatigue washed over him.
This left him unaware of the girl standing before him, who had slightly averted her gaze, and the fleeting blush that crossed her cheeks.
'She's probably Senpai's younger sister.'
With his rationality fully back online, Miyahito silently guessed the girl's identity. A polite, slightly distant smile appeared on his face.
He nodded in greeting, then casually pushed his cart away from the snack aisle.
Hmm... what should I say?
Those 2D memories from my past life really are unreliable.
Shaking his head in mild frustration, and surprised to learn that "Senpai in the 3D world actually has a sister," Miyahito silently warned himself.
'I need to be more careful. 2D is 2D. Don't confuse it with reality anymore.'
Right. Setting aside the fact that Senpai, who was always alone in the anime, apparently has a sister in reality...
Just like in my sister Ayase's anime, there's no older brother character named Aragaki Miyahito.
So, I really need to stop letting preconceived memories dictate my perceptions.
Aragaki Miyahito, got it?
....
W-Why... Why is he here?!
Letting the shopping basket in her hand drop to the floor, Kasumigaoka Utaha leaned her back against the shelf and raised both hands.
She pressed them tightly, almost desperately, against her increasingly burning cheeks.
'I... He... We... We're even wearing m-matching outfits?!'
As the scene of their accidental encounter replayed over and over in her mind, Utaha's already flushed face grew even redder.
Even her ears were burning red.
"Ugh..." A soft sound, indistinguishable between shyness and reluctance, slipped through her fingers.
Then.
"Matching outfits... Ah, this is so embarrassing."
Overwhelmed by the bursting shyness, Utaha squatted down on the floor, hiding her face.
She pressed her flushed cheeks hard against her palms, which in turn pressed against her thighs.
Feeling the slightly rough texture of denim through her hands, she tried desperately to suppress the wild fantasies churning in her mind.
This was the first time she felt how utterly annoying her writer's imagination—and the various romance tropes she'd researched to write emotional scenes—could be.
Especially considering that certain doujinshi artist who was already gaining popularity online.
Ahhh, why did I have to click on that artist's doujin back then?!
After struggling for a while, the heat in her cheeks finally began to subside. Only a pair of wine-red eyes, shimmering with unspoken bashfulness like clear water, remained.
Kasumigaoka Utaha had probably, maybe, somewhat calmed down.
Carefully scanning her surroundings to ensure her "ungraceful moment" hadn't been witnessed, she hurriedly picked up her empty basket.
Keeping her head down, she blindly grabbed one or two bags of chips from the shelf and tossed them in.
Then, looking visibly flustered, she turned and walked quickly toward the checkout counter not far away.
However, it seemed someone had no intention of letting her off that easily.
Just as she stepped out of the snack aisle, about ten paces from the registers...
A figure at the very end of the line, pushing a cart overflowing with groceries, suddenly entered Utaha's field of vision.
Instantly, her expression froze.
'Is... is there no one else?'
She anxiously scanned the area, hoping someone else would step up to queue, but sadly, apart from her, no one was heading to the registers.
'Should I wait?'
As the thought crossed her mind, her white teeth unconsciously bit into her lower lip.
After a brief, intense mental debate...
'No! I haven't done anything wrong. Why should I be afraid of standing in line with him?!'
Steeling herself, Utaha took a step toward the queue.
Putting on a "nothing happened" expression on her flushed face, she carried her basket—which held only two bags of chips—with exaggerated effort.
She carefully positioned herself behind the boy known as Aragaki-kun.
However, he seemed completely unaware of her presence.
In Utaha's view, Aragaki-kun kept his head down, his eyes fixed on his phone screen.
He looked like he was chatting with someone on a messaging app.
'Probably texting his girlfriend. No wonder he could say those things that day.'
For some reason, thinking this suddenly brought a faint wave of loss to her chest.
The next second.
Aragaki-kun suddenly looked up, his gaze turning toward her as he lifted his head.
At the same time.
A contact saved as 「Little Sister」 on his phone screen clearly entered Utaha's wine-red eyes.
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