After school, Mahiru, Hiyori, and Yukiho bought snacks and juice and went straight to Utatane Heights, where Mahiru lives. Aki, by the way, had gone home to get a change of clothes for today's stay at Midday's house.
“W-Woah…I-It’s really clean…”
“I-I can’t believe that I can see the floor in Hima's room…”
Hiyori and Yukio reacted with surprise, and Mahiru laughed with a smile, saying, “Fufu! I told you so~” as she put the drinks and chocolate candies in the refrigerator.
“What are you so proud of? Isn’t thanks to Yamori-san that this room is clean?”
“Ugh!? Well, it's true that Onii-san did most of the cleaning, But…I was the one who cleaned up the clothes that were scattered around the room!!”
“That’s your own fault, isn’t it? Why would you scatter your clothes so much that you can't see the floor in the first place?”
“T-That’s because I have so many clothes that I’m always at a lost what to wear…”
“And that’s why I always tell you to clean it up each time.”
“I-I’m sorry…”
Mahiru’s depressed after being scolded by the girl who’s her “Mom.” The girl with glasses, who was the mood-maker, changed the subject for the parent and child duo, saying, “Well, that's it.”
“I know I've been letting it slide, but Mahiru, you brought that "brother" up to your room, didn't you? Was that okay…?”
“? What do you mean?”
“That’s…D-Did he attacked you or something…?”
“Yukiho…is that all you think about?”
“I'm not! I was just genuinely worried about Mahiru…”
Hiyori let out a sigh when she started talking to the girl with glasses who kept saying things like “I want a boyfriend!” and “I want to talk about romance!”
“But you met Yamori-san at the Sports Festival, right, Yukiho? Did he look like such a dangerous person?”
“W-Well, he certainly seemed harmless enough, but they say that looks can be deceiving, don't they?”
“I’m sure he’s fine. Nothing has happened in the past two months. Right, Hima? Uhm, Hima…?”
When they suddenly looked at Mahiru—she was looking down with her face so red that she looked as if she was about to burst into flames. “Ehh…?” Seeing this reaction, Hiyori and Yukiho simultaneously emitted a drawn-out voice.
“H-Hima…D-Don’t tell me…!?”
“Y-You’re wrong! O-Onii-san didn’t have any bad intentions. it's just that I was too conscious of it!!”
Even so, her friends were still suspicious because of her weird behavior.
However, there was no way Mahiru could have said that she was strangely conscious of Yuu when he called her “Cute,”* and when he forcefully hugged her, that would make a lot of misunderstandings. (Tired: It was pretty in Chapter 43.)
It was obvious that Hiyori would be worried and Yukio would turn to her with a jealous look on her face if she spoke out of turn.
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“C-Come to think of it, Aki-chan is late. What do you think she’s doing?”
“Hiyori, this girl just blatantly changing the subject…”
“...Well, she is late. You did tell her where you live, right?”
“U-Un. I gave her the address and general appearance, so I don't think she’s going to get lost…”
“Aki-chan is just the type of person that does things at their own pace. She’s probably talking to someone she met while she’s on her way here.”
That easy-going girl has the widest social circle of all the girls in this group. As Yukiho said, it’s quite possible that she may have run into someone she knows before she arrived here and had a nice chat with them.
“I'm going to go outside for a bit. You two have some juice and wait for me.”
“Un.”
“All right~ Of course, we'll ask you later about what you just said.”
“I-I told you, nothing happened!”
With this exchange going on, Mahiru left the house alone. As she walked down the stairs, passed the mailbox, and headed outside, she saw Aki standing alone around the bicycle parking lot.
“Ah, there she is. Aki-cha—!”
“AHAHA~! What’s with that~!?”
Just as Mahiru was about to approach Aki, calling out to her from a distance, Aki burst into a joyful laugh. She then wondered if she was talking to someone, and she saw that the person Aki was talking to was—A young man whose silhouette was familiar to her by now.