In the end, Yuu and I went home together like normal after that. Once we got back, we returned the things we’d borrowed from each other, then each of us headed back to our own house again.

Right now, after all that, it still wasn’t even evening yet. I’d dropped off my stuff, changed clothes, and now here I was again, standing at the front door while putting on my shoes.

“Vegetables, meat... and I’m out of roux too...”

Before heading out, I checked the memo on my phone. It might’ve looked weird, like I was acting suspiciously for someone about to head over to Usotsuki-chan’s place, but it was nothing like that. I was just thinking I’d stop by the supermarket on the way back.

Curry was great because you could make a big batch and lock in several meals at once, which made life easier for the person cooking it. And honestly, I’d been craving it for a while, so the Hoshimiya household’s dinner was officially curry tonight. As of just now.

We usually went with medium-hot, but maybe sweet curry sounded good for once. My little sister was like me when it came to curry. Sweet to medium was the sweet spot for both of us.

Even so, it pissed me off a little that I kept chasing that ideal homemade taste, the kind that hits different from instant curry, and still couldn’t pull it off no matter how long I tried. I missed the taste of Yuu’s cooking.

Comparing myself to her felt unfair to her, but talent really was brutal. I wasn’t trying to deny the value of effort, but there were things in this world you just couldn’t do no matter how hard you tried, and she was living proof of that. I could stand on my damn head and still never match her skill.

If all I wanted was tasty curry, then sure, instant would do the job. But if I cared about nutrition, I wanted to serve curry loaded with simmered vegetables. My sister would eat that kind of meal without leaving anything behind too, which made it easier to keep her diet balanced, and as long as I paid attention to how much food I brought her, there was no real problem.

It was my own little rule: do what I could without leaning on Yuu too much. Good job, me.

“Anything else... nah, that should be everything for today.”

By the way, a little while ago I’d checked whether my shut-in sister needed anything from me, but since she didn’t answer, I figured there was nothing this time.

Well, if she needed something, she could always rely on her mighty ally: A◯azon. That seemed to be what she usually did anyway.

“...Seriously, all hail A◯azon. And thanks, as always, to the delivery guy too...”

Back when my sister had just become a shut-in and our parents still wouldn’t allow her to use online shopping, I’d been the one who had to go buy sanitary pads for her whenever she ran out.

I still remembered the writing on that loose-leaf page she’d slid out from under the door of the room she never left. I remembered the looks from other customers while I stood there trying to choose between the different packs on the shelf. I remembered the way the cashier had glanced at me for just a second when ringing them up.

That weird kind of tension drained the hell out of you in a way you didn’t expect. So yeah, A◯azon was the strongest. Thank you, A◯azon. I salute you, A◯azon.

“I’m heading out.”

Anyway, lately I had absolutely nothing to feel awkward about when it came to shopping. Feeling a little like a full-time househusband, I stepped outside and locked the front door behind me.

Then I noticed a shadow standing right behind me.

“Reeen-chan♥”

“Yuu?”

It was Yuu. When I turned around, she was standing there in casual clothes.

“What a coincidence♥”

“Yeah, real coincidence.”

She’d come all the way to the front door of my house, so there was nothing accidental about it, but while we both pretended to enjoy the “coincidence,” I looked her over.

She was wearing a dark brown sweater over a white blouse, with a beige long skirt underneath. Her hair was different too. Instead of her usual braided style, she’d let it down, and now it fell in a straight curtain of long black hair.

Even the faint scent of shampoo, like she’d just gotten out of the bath, drifted softly off her, and seeing her dressed like this, looking like she was in full day-off mode, made me stare for a second. If I looked closer, I could tell her glossy hair was still a little damp. She really should’ve dried it properly, but maybe she just couldn’t be bothered.

“Going shopping?”

“Something like that.”

When Yuu tilted her head, I showed her the shopping list in my phone’s memo app.

“Curry?”

“...Yeah. I figured I’d make curry tonight.”

I was mildly impressed that she’d guessed tonight’s Hoshimiya family dinner from the ingredients alone as I stepped across the stone path leading out to the road.

“I’m actually heading out to shop too~”

“Oh yeah?”

“The supermarket nearby, right? Can I come with you?”

“Of course.”

“Yay♥”

That threw my plans off a little. I’d been about to head to Usotsuki-chan’s place before shopping, but now Yuu had decided to come along. Officially, I was just going out to buy groceries, so it’d be weird as hell to refuse.

I didn’t mind getting drafted into carrying things for her, but something about her still bugged me. She was dressed so lightly that I wasn’t even sure she had her wallet on her, and she wasn’t carrying anything at all.

More importantly, there was one big problem. Usotsuki-chan’s house and the neighborhood supermarket were in slightly different directions. Once we reached the split in the road, she’d realize right away that I wasn’t actually heading to the supermarket.

If I couldn’t keep it secret anyway... if she was going to find out sooner or later, then it made more sense to tell her sooner.

...No, actually, it wasn’t even the kind of thing I needed to keep secret in the first place. My whole reason for going was because I cared about both Yuu and Usotsuki-chan.

“The truth is, I was planning to stop by Usotsuki-chan’s place before I went shopping.”

“...Huh.”

I’d confessed the truth almost as soon as we started walking down the road, and Yuu shot me a sideways glance, looking a little surprised.

“I thought maybe you were sneaking off to see your other girl.”

“Hey.”

“Ahaha. Kidding. Obviously I’m kidding.”

Yuu laughed brightly, then looked at me with those clear black eyes of hers, deep enough to feel like you could fall straight in.

“There’s no way Ren-chan is cheating, and no way you ever would.”

“Obviously.”

I answered like it was the most natural thing in the world, then glanced at what she was wearing and asked,

“You wanna come to Usotsuki-chan’s house too?”

“Can I?”

“Of course.”

She gave me the motion of checking whether I really meant it, but honestly, it felt like she’d already decided she was coming with me from the start. That was just the vibe I got.

“Gotta keep an eye on my boyfriend so he doesn’t cheat, right~”

“Hey.”

“Ahahaha♥”

Still grinning mischievously, Yuu grabbed my arm and pressed herself against me. The two of us ended up linking arms like an actual couple.

“...Uh.”

“What is it?♥”

“If you keep sticking this close...”

The soft fragrance drifting off her was bad enough on its own, but once I could feel the warmth of her body and the softness pressing against me too, there was no way I could just ignore it.

“If I keep sticking this close, what? You’re gonna get hard?♥”

“...”

“Hehe♥”

If you already know, then knock it off.

I didn’t bother hiding that thought and shot her a flat look, but Yuu just smiled even more sloppily, like she was having the time of her life. Every now and then her gaze drifted lovingly toward my crotch, and that alone made me hyper-aware of everything.

More than that, Yuu’s fixation on the fact that my impotence was getting better... no, more like that my erection was coming back to life... was intense as hell. I got that we were both that age, but even then, she was way too damn interested.

“Ren-chan.”

“What?”

“I just felt like saying your name~♥♥”

“...”

I wondered what Usotsuki-chan was going to think when the two of us showed up at her place like this. Hoping only that she wouldn’t get annoyed and throw us back out, I let Yuu stay stuck to me and kept heading for Usotsuki-chan’s house.

“Oh, right.”

Suddenly, I remembered something important.

“There’s actually something I wanted to ask you, Yuu.”

“What is it~?♥”

“About Nijouin.”

“...About what?”

The second I said that, the cheerful look she’d been wearing vanished so hard it was almost scary. Her mood dropped like a rock, and her face went completely blank.

“Don’t make that face. Sorry for bringing it up now. But I thought I needed to know what she’s usually like in class since she’s your classmate. If we’re going to solve this whole mess, I figured I needed to know.”

“...If that’s why...”

While we walked, Yuu told me everything she knew about Nijouin, and I kept turning over the rumors surrounding Usotsuki-chan in my head.

“Why are you both here...?”

Usotsuki-chan opened the front door and stared at us with a sleepy expression. One side of her usual two-side-up blonde hairstyle had come loose.

“And both of you, too...”

She looked at the two of us standing there, mostly at our linked arms, and her expression turned complicated. But maybe she had already guessed why we’d come, or maybe she just stopped giving a damn.

Either way, she continued in a flat voice.

“...Whatever. Just come in already.”

To be fair, she didn’t look scared of Yuu right now or anything like that.

““Excuse us~””

Yuu and I lined up our shoes neatly and stepped inside. The house smelled different from mine and different from Yuu’s too. In the corner of the living room, I noticed aroma oil sitting on a shelf. It wasn’t the same brand Yuu used in her room.

The eucalyptus scent was fresh, but also a little sharp and distinctive, and she’d adjusted the strength by only using three rattan sticks, which kept it from being too much. I’d only come to Usotsuki-chan’s house again yesterday for the first time in a while, and already my nose was starting to get used to the eucalyptus smell.

Human noses really got smell fatigue way too easily. You could just call it getting used to something and be done with it.

“Make yourselves comfortable.”

Even while saying that, Usotsuki-chan dropped onto the sofa by herself with a soft plop.

“Want me to tie your hair back up for you?”

Maybe the uneven hairstyle was bothering Yuu, because that was what she asked.

“Nah, I’m good. I was taking it down anyway.”

With that, Usotsuki-chan loosened the rest of her hair right in front of us and let her blonde strands fall free. She usually wore it in two side sections that only reached around her shoulders, but once she let it all down, it somehow looked way longer. It almost felt like a magic trick.

Looking closer, I could see she’d styled it in soft waves. The fact that it wasn’t damaged despite being dyed meant she was taking proper care of it.

“What are you staring at?”

“I’m not staring.”

Yuu puffed out her cheeks, and I immediately tried to defend myself. Seeing the two of us doing our usual thing, Usotsuki-chan didn’t butt in. She just laughed weakly.

She really seemed lower-energy than usual today. Still, Yuu and I both knew this side of her too. It was part of her “off” mode. She wasn’t putting on her usual bright, dramatic reactions, but when someone was relaxing at home, it wasn’t like anyone else had the right to complain about their energy level.

That said, if she looked even more drained than usual, then yeah, I was going to worry at least a little. I wanted to help if she had something on her mind.

“If something’s bothering you, I’ll listen.”

I tried easing into the real topic with a light jab, but to my surprise, Usotsuki-chan actually looked like she might answer.

“It’s not really a problem, exactly...”

She glanced between me and Yuu, then finally muttered,

“Actually... a guy named Sorimachi confessed to me.”

“...Oh?”

There it was. The name wasn’t surprising at all. Sorimachi from Class 1-C. Soccer club.

“One week ago. A week ago, he called me out behind the school building and confessed...”

“I see.”

What came out of her mouth was the most ordinary confession event imaginable. A guy from another class she’d barely ever spoken to confessed to her. Since she wasn’t in a place where she could date anyone right now, she told him, “Sorry,” and then went through the usual awkward hell that followed.

Fortunately, since he was from another class, they didn’t run into each other much, but after that, nasty rumors about her had started spreading.

“But I still don’t get why Ren-chan got dragged into it.”

“It’s not my fault.”

Usotsuki-chan answered Yuu without even looking at her. Yuu, clearly unhappy, pushed harder.

“That’s all you keep saying. Tsuki-chan, I seriously have to ask... you didn’t spread any weird rumors yourself, did you?”

“I didn’t. It’s probably just because someone saw me talking with Ren-kun or something.”

“Really? But even if someone saw you talking to Ren-chan, would a normal person jump straight to ‘she’s two-timing’? Juust maybe... you didn’t do anything behind the scenes, right?”

Yuu kept pressing so hard that even Usotsuki-chan finally looked annoyed. She tilted her head up, narrowed her eyes, and glared at her.

“I keep telling you, it’s not my fault. I didn’t do anything. You really seem to be suspicious of me, but from a normal outsider’s point of view, maybe Ren-kun just looked way too damn happy when he was talking to me.”

“—!!”

Yuu’s eyes flew open. She clamped her mouth shut in a straight line and balled both fists at her sides. Her head lowered. Her shoulders shook.

I couldn’t see her expression, but the second I saw that, alarm bells started screaming in my head. No, not alarm bells. It was more like the phantom sound of the ambulance siren Usotsuki-chan might end up hearing pretty damn soon.

“Tsuki-chan... you...!!”

“H-hey, Yuu, calm down.”

Calm down, Yuu. Nothing that bad had been confirmed yet.

This whole thing was about to derail into a fight over something that wasn’t even the main issue, so I hurried to step in.

“You too, Usotsuki-chan. Both of you, calm down. If you don’t, we’re never solving this.”

“...You’re right.”

Yuu took a breath and did a little anger management through controlled breathing while calming herself down. Good job, Yuu.

“Tsuki-chan lies all the time, and yeah, maybe there’s still a chance this was all self-inflicted somehow, but I definitely got too emotional.”

“This time’s different. Even I wouldn’t go around spreading lies just to mess with you two. I’d never do that.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

Usotsuki-chan had basically zero trust from Yuu at the root level, and the atmosphere between them stayed ugly as hell. Honestly, I still had no idea why these two were even friends. Sometimes it confused the hell out of me.

“Yuu. Usotsuki-chan is saying this much, so let it go already.”

“Ren-chan, you trust Tsuki-chan way too easily every single time!”

Yuu stepped closer and looked up at me. She still had one cheek puffed out in annoyance, but at least she’d gone back to looking like her usual cute self.

“You’re helping too, aren’t you? And Usotsuki-chan, come on, be a little more honest. Yuu’s been gathering information to help with this. You could at least appreciate that.”

“I never asked her to.”

“Tsuki-chan—!”

I held out a hand to stop Yuu before she could lunge at her. Water and oil. That was these two.

“Ren-chan...”

“Yuu, calm down. Usotsuki-chan just doesn’t know how to be straightforward.”

“I am straightforward by default.”

“Oh, come on...”

Usotsuki-chan kept her face turned away with that prickly attitude of hers. Apparently she was in an especially bad mood today. Sure, this whole thing did have an element of me... no, of us... sticking our noses into her business, but I’d been dragged into it too, so it wasn’t like I could just leave it alone.

Either way, this wasn’t going anywhere.

“Usotsuki-chan, can I ask you one thing?”

“...What?”

She looked wary. For someone who usually never let anyone know what she was thinking, she wasn’t even trying to hide her irritation right now. She looked up at me with that sharp, strong-willed gaze of hers, and it actually had more force to it than you’d expect.

“That story about you turning Sorimachi down. Did you tell anyone else about it? Or can you think of anything that might’ve let other people find out by accident?”

“I wouldn’t go out of my way to tell anyone that. But if someone found out by accident... I mean, if he told someone, then I don’t know...”

I got why she sounded so unsure. If it was true that she hadn’t told anyone she’d rejected Sorimachi, then there was a decent chance Sorimachi had told somebody else, and that was how the story spread.

“So then it’s all Sorimachi-kun’s fault, right?”

“No, not like that. Calm down.”

Yuu had already pulled out her phone and looked ready to do something, and I hurried to stop her. I had no idea what she’d been about to do, but I could already predict some kind of disaster descending on Sorimachi, so I shut that down before it started.

Even if Sorimachi was part of the reason these awful rumors had spread about Usotsuki-chan, it was hard to say whether he was really the one who deserved the blame. He might’ve had someone cheering him on before he confessed, and if that was the case, then sharing information with somebody close to you was just the kind of normal青春 thing that happened all the time. They might not have had any bad intentions at all.

The person who really deserved blame was whoever got involved in this with actual malice.

“It’s not even my fault, so why is this happening...”

““...””

Neither Yuu nor I answered. I was just plain confused, but Yuu clearly felt that Usotsuki-chan wasn’t just part of the cause. She looked like she thought Usotsuki-chan bore responsibility too. The bitter look on her face made that obvious.

And Usotsuki-chan’s attitude was only making Yuu feel that way more. If this kept going, their relationship was just going to get worse.

“By the way, I talked with someone named Nijouin after school today.”

I changed the subject, hoping it would take the edge off Usotsuki-chan’s mood, and to my surprise it worked immediately. The second I saw her reaction, I knew I’d hit the right topic.

“...Oh yeah?”

“You know her, right?”

“Well... kind of. She just calls me her ‘friend’ one-sidedly, that’s all...”

Even though she still sounded moody, she didn’t seem all that unhappy about it.

Nijouin was in the same class as Yuu and Usotsuki-chan. From what Yuu told me, Nijouin was pretty isolated in class, and probably because she knew that herself, she didn’t usually go out of her way to talk to anyone. From my own impression after talking to her, even with how intense her whole character was, I hadn’t found her unpleasant.

If anything, she was probably the type who could read the room. Which was exactly why it meant something that she apparently stayed quiet all day until after school. If she could read the room that well, then she probably understood exactly how the people around her would treat anyone she spoke to.

The fact that she’d decided to make Usotsuki-chan the exception showed she had damn good instincts.

You could say Nijouin had picked up on a similar “handle with care” stink and chosen to approach Usotsuki-chan because of it. And the one being saved by that choice probably wasn’t only Nijouin herself.

The only real mistake was that whole over-the-top persona of hers... maybe I shouldn’t say that, though.

...No, actually, maybe the reason she’d been treated like that in the first place was because of that exact persona, and that was why she could understand how Usotsuki-chan felt and approach her without hesitation despite the weird, hard-to-read air around her. When it came to dealing with Usotsuki-chan, being pushy enough to drag her along or force her into company might’ve been exactly the right distance.

“Yeah, I get how having someone declare they’re your friend out of nowhere could be a pain. But that Nijouin girl...”

Even if there was some calculation behind her actions, that kind of toughness deserved praise. It wasn’t bad selfishness.

That sort of thing could save someone.

“She was a good girl.”

“..................Yeah.”

Usotsuki-chan gave a tiny nod, looking either unwilling to admit it or strangely solemn. Seeing that, I became certain of something.

“...Alright. Let’s head home, Yuu.”

“We’re done already?”

“Yeah. I found out what I needed to know.”

“I see.”

I left the living room and started for the front door. Yuu followed behind me, glancing back at Usotsuki-chan every now and then like she couldn’t quite stop worrying about her. Maybe she was bothered by the fact that Usotsuki-chan didn’t even come to see us off. Maybe she was worried about her because of this whole mess.

Maybe it was both. Maybe it was something else entirely.

“Yuu, let’s just leave her alone for a bit.”

“...Yeah.”

Gently urging the kind-hearted girl along, I said,

“Thanks for having us,”

and the two of us left Usotsuki-chan’s house behind.

On the way back from Usotsuki-chan’s place, we stopped by the supermarket, finished the shopping, and then headed home.

Or rather, I did the shopping.

“Seriously... Ren-chan really is kind...”

Yuu said it in a strangely downcast voice.

“What’s with that all of a sudden?”

I asked back, not sure where her feelings were going with this. She’d said things like that to me plenty of times before, but this time it felt a little different.

You’re kind too, was the obvious answer, but that would’ve been nothing more than a casual line, and I knew that wouldn’t be enough here.

“...Ren-chan.”

“What?”

For a second I thought she was just going to do the whole I just wanted to say your name thing again, but instead she spoke like she’d made up her mind.

“I think a person’s kindness is finite.”

“...Oh.”

That came out of nowhere. Kindness? I didn’t really get where she was going, so I figured I’d just listen.

“Kindness is finite, huh.”

“Yeah. Because time, money, and physical energy are all finite, right?”

“That’s true.”

None of those things could increase forever. That just wasn’t how reality worked. They were limited resources.

“So what about it?”

I leaned in a little, and Yuu, without doing her usual gesture of raising one finger, started speaking in a steady stream.

“Time, money, energy... they’re all limited. So if that’s true, then the time and effort you give to the people you care about is limited too. Kindness is the same.”

“You could look at it that way.”

“No. It’s not just a way of looking at it. That’s just the truth.”

“...Yeah. Fair enough.”

Yuu looked down as she spoke, but her voice was firm.

“Ren-chan, when you see someone in trouble, you end up helping them, don’t you?”

“I’m not like that.”

“You are. I mean, I know you’re not going to admit it yourself, but still.”

“No, seriously, it’s not like I go around being nice to people with zero standards or anything.”

“I’m not saying it like that, but yeah, basically that’s what I mean.”

Yuu was stubborn as hell when it came to her opinion of me. She refused to change it.

“I know in my head that it’s a good thing, that it’s the right thing to do...”

“Hm?”

Yuu stopped walking. I slowed and turned back toward her.

“But my feelings won’t listen...”

The edge of the sky was dyed red by the setting sun. At the end of the long shadows stretching across the ground, her figure was outlined in gold.

“When I see you being kind to other people, Ren-chan... I just can’t help it... you know?”

Her voice trembled. Her eyes reflected the scenery in tiny glimmers, and at the same time they were shining with a fierce kind of light as she looked at me. A soft spring breeze drifted through and stirred her long hair.

She brushed the strands off her cheek with one hand, then quietly said,

“...If you don’t look only at me, I guess... I still get jealous.”

“I see.”

“Do you hate a girl like that?”

I gave a calm nod, and Yuu looked up at me like she was trying to read my face.

“I don’t hate it.”

“Really? You really don’t think it’s awful?”

She asked again like she was afraid of something, like she was panicking a little, and yet there was already a trace of relief in her voice too.

“Yeah. I don’t hate it.”

I wasn’t saying it just to reassure her, exactly, but I hated seeing Yuu look that uncertain.

“Really? Even when I get jealous and always complain to you about it... you never hated that?”

“I never did.”

Honestly, it felt weird for her to ask that now of all times. But thinking about it, I had noticed it too. Yesterday and today, the distance between us had changed in a strange way.

No, more than strange. We’d gotten closer than ever. There had been sudden physical contact. There had been that unexpected rush of out-of-control teenage sexuality. We’d each seen a hidden side of the other.

We were childhood friends, neighbors, fake boyfriend and girlfriend, and even after all that, it still felt like we’d touched parts of each other we hadn’t known before.

“Why are you asking me that now?”

“Because even though I was the one who forced my way along with you, I still got jealous, and then I kept getting mad at Tsuki-chan... so I thought maybe, from your point of view, I was just being annoying...”

So that was the part making her uneasy. I’d always known Yuu and Usotsuki-chan didn’t get along that well, and honestly, the fact that they still stayed friends despite that had impressed me more than anything. Watching them go at each other never made me think less of Yuu.

“I forced myself to come with you, then I got jealous, and then I got mad at Tsuki-chan over and over... I thought maybe you found that irritating...”

Still, I didn’t understand why this had made her so insecure. She’d been all over me on the way there, so what had changed now, when we were walking home? Had she started regretting her own behavior? Had something made her look back on it differently?

Girls’ feelings really were hard to figure out sometimes.

“I’ve never once found your jealousy annoying.”

“R-Really?”

“Yeah.”

I stepped closer to Yuu, who was still standing still, and held out my hand. She started to take it... then pulled her hand back instead.

The hand she’d withdrawn clenched tightly against her chest. So tightly it looked painful. So tightly her fingers had gone white.

“I-I...”

She was scared.

She was trembling.

“I want to have you all to myself, Ren-chan.”

“Yuu...”

There was nobody around. Not a single witness. Not even a passerby. And in a place where we didn’t need to perform our relationship for anyone, those words left her mouth.

That was her laying her heart bare. There was no mistaking it. It was a confession.

“I want you to look only at me, Ren-chan.”

The girl who couldn’t even bring herself to take my hand had a faint blush on her cheeks. It wasn’t the sunset making her red. It was all her. The tension in her face made that obvious.

“You’re not going to start hating me for being like this...?”

“I’m not.”

If anything, as a guy, I felt honored that someone could care about me that much. And I thought I understood, at least a little, how much courage it must’ve taken for her to say something like that out loud.

“You’re not going to hate me for wanting to keep you all to myself, for getting weird because of it?”

“There’s no way I would.”

I grabbed the hand she’d pulled back and held it, almost like I was stealing it by force.

“Ah...”

The hand she’d been clenching so hard slowly relaxed inside mine. Bit by bit, it softened, like it was melting. The trembling I’d felt when Yuu kept asking me over and over disappeared from her body.

“You’ve given me a lot, you know.”

“Huh...?”

My words made her eyes widen just a little, and her lips trembled.

“N-no, I don’t mean this like some debt between us...!”

Crap. I’d made her misunderstand me. Or more accurately, I’d said it in a way that practically invited misunderstanding. No wonder she was getting even more flustered. I should’ve chosen my words better.

“Yeah. It’s not really about owing each other anything. It’s because I wanted to do this for you.”

I’d hesitated over whether I should say it, but she’d just laid her heart bare to me, and it felt unfair if I was the only one who got to receive that.

“I want to give you something too. I want to be someone who gives to you. It’s not because I’ve taken so much from you, exactly... it’s more like... I don’t know, I’m not saying this well.”

I gave her a small laugh.

“I’m way more ungrateful than you think I am.”

That made Yuu’s face soften.

“Ren-chan...”

“Yeah, well... with my family situation and everything, it’s not like I can really predict what’s going to happen from here, or... a lot of stuff, you know.”

“Yeah...”

Yuu knew about the situation at home, so she answered like she understood. But leaning on that answer felt wrong. Not now.

“When I’m with you, I feel at peace. You make me want to keep going. The truth is... you saved me.”

That was right. Yuu had saved me.

“And even then, because I’m such an ungrateful bastard, instead of thinking about what I should do for you, I just think about how fun it is being with you, how comforting it feels, how happy I am... that’s the kind of stuff I keep thinking about. Pretty shitty, right?”

“No, it’s not! The one who got saved was me... and I’m the one doing bad things to you, Ren-chan—!!”

I shook my head at the girl who kept denying it. She’d given me a lively daily life, and I hadn’t given her anything back. That much was true.

And it was also true that even while being in that position, somewhere in my heart, I wanted to make her mine.

“I’m ungrateful. That’s why I keep wanting more, and more. I keep wanting to take more from you... and I end up thinking I want to make you mine.”

“—!♥”

“I want to be with you longer. Spending time with you makes me happy. That’s how I feel when I’m with you. I don’t feel this way about anyone else.”

“~~~~~~!?!!♥♥♥♥”

Yuu covered her mouth. The trembling in the hand I was holding stopped completely.

“Ren-chan—!”

“Yuu—”

I gently caught Yuu as she threw herself into my chest.

“If you’ve got time tonight... wanna cook together?”

The words slipped out naturally before I even had time to think about them.

“Huh? I can come to your house!?♥”

“Yeah. If you want to come... I mean, if it’s not a problem for your family... if your mom and dad are okay with it...”

The way Yuu lit up made me weirdly self-conscious, and even though I was the one who suggested it, I ended up sounding hesitant.

“No, not at all! It wouldn’t be a problem! I bet Mom and Dad would happily send me off♥”

“That’s a relief.”

For just a second, I found myself thinking, Their parents would happily send their daughter off...? But Yuu’s parents were easygoing people, so maybe that really was how it would go. Even if we were childhood friends and neighbors, they still seemed to trust me a little too much for a guy their daughter’s age.

“It’s not a bother to you...?”

“I’m the one who invited you, remember? There’s no way I’d think inviting you over is a bother.”

“R-Really!? Then I’ll head straight over after I get home♥”

“Y-Yeah.”

“It’s our joint project♥ We’re gonna make it delicious together♥♥”

“L-looking forward to it.”

Yuu’s excitement was completely off the charts, and I got steamrolled by it a little, but even then, I noticed that exchanges like this felt good.

My life should’ve turned into something bleak and ugly a long time ago, but thanks to Yuu, I could still laugh like this.

“...Yuu. Thanks.”

“...Hm? You’re welcome♥”

She didn’t really seem to get what I meant, but she answered anyway. That was Yuu. Same sloppy smile as always, still sticking close to me.

Smiling back at her, I walked down the twilight road with her at my side.

Chapter 6: I Was Just Trying to Enjoy a Normal School Life, and Somehow I Ended Up Accused of Two-Timing (2)