"Let me take a look-see—just what have you got in your fridge?"
Shirai Mio opened the refrigerator and found there were actually quite a few ingredients inside; at the very least there was no problem putting together lunch for two.
As for why it had ended up being her doing the cooking, it was mainly because Sawamura Sayuri had left and still hadn't come back.
Eriri had just given her a call and discovered that her mom had gone off to hang out at a friend's place.
She'd said she might not even come back that night.
Eriri had good reason to suspect her mom was doing it on purpose.
Still, this actually worked out well—at least she got to eat Shirai Mio's cooking again.
Having mooched off Shirai Mio's bentos so often, she understood perfectly just how good Shirai Mio's cooking was.
Tying on an apron, Shirai Mio said to Eriri, "I can make you whatever you want to eat. Even if it's me you want to eat, that's no problem either~"
The words had barely left her mouth when Eriri bit down on her shoulder.
She didn't use much force, but the pain was unavoidable.
"Are you part dog or something?"
"What do you mean, part dog?"
"Forget it. As the famous Kashiwagi Eri, don't tell me you couldn't even understand what I meant by 'eat'?"
"Of course I understood. Who'd ever want to do that kind of thing to you!" Eriri put on a look of utter disdain.
But her gaze was drawn, all on its own, to the apron-clad Shirai Mio. Her feelings right then couldn't have been more conflicted.
Luckily, Shirai Mio was focused on cooking just then and didn't notice the expression on her face.
Since there were only the two of them, Shirai Mio worked especially fast, and in a little over half an hour lunch was ready.
Eating her lunch, Shirai Mio asked, "So, what should we do this afternoon?"
"Want to try a game I bought a while ago?"
"The game you bought? Wasn't it one of those romance-sim galgames? Two people can't exactly play that."
"I already cleared it, so I want to watch you play."
"As long as you won't find it boring, I don't really mind."
Seeing Shirai Mio's breezy air, the corners of Eriri's mouth curved into a faint smile.
Honestly, that game looked like a perfectly normal school-romance sim, but the relationships between its characters were tangled and complicated; one careless step and you'd wind up in a BAD END.
Back then it had taken her no small amount of effort—she'd even resorted to a walkthrough before she finally cleared it.
She could practically already picture Shirai Mio putting on the mask of suffering.
Once lunch was dealt with, the two of them went back to the room.
Eriri set up the console and dug the game out of her collection.
The cheerful BGM and bright color palette both seemed to remind the player that this was an ordinary romance sim.
Before her transmigration, Shirai Mio had actually played plenty of romance sims; a fair number of the love techniques she'd taught Miura Yumiko had come from games.
So when it came to this kind of game, Shirai Mio was rather confident.
And her confidence wasn't just talk. Not long after the game began, Shirai Mio, drawing on her rich pre-transmigration experience, realized this game wasn't as simple as it looked.
Having noticed that, her expression turned serious.
Eriri, who had originally wanted to watch Shirai Mio put on the mask of suffering, soon discovered that every choice Shirai Mio made looked casual, yet each time she precisely dodged the landmines and landed on the exact right option.
Once or twice would be one thing, but every single time was no coincidence.
Eriri was starting to suspect Shirai Mio had read a walkthrough.
Noticing Eriri's gaze, Shirai Mio gave a soft laugh. "Are you thinking I'm amazing?"
"So-so." Eriri cut her eyes aside and said stubbornly.
She really wanted to say she'd played it better than Shirai Mio, but on second thought she let it go—there was no way she could get those words out.
Because the game ran long, Shirai Mio still hadn't finished it by the time night fell.
Eriri tugged at the hem of Shirai Mio's clothes. "Why don't you just clear it next time? It's already dark out."
"Eh!? It's dark already?"
Shirai Mio turned to glance at the night sky outside the window, then fixed her eyes back on the screen. "It's fine. There's no class tomorrow anyway, so tonight I'm definitely clearing this game."
The game had seemed like nothing at the start, but the further you played, the more interesting it got—the kind you simply couldn't stop playing.
Eriri had been about to say something, but after hearing Shirai Mio's words she suddenly caught on: if the other girl was going to clear the game, didn't that mean she'd be staying the night at her place?
If that was the case, then there didn't seem to be any need for her to keep trying to talk her out of it.
She just simply wanted to swap game impressions with Shirai Mio. There was no other reason.
But how were they going to handle dinner?
Right then, Eriri noticed the door had opened a crack, and half of her mom's face had appeared in the gap.
When Sawamura Sayuri saw the two of them playing a game, undisguised disappointment welled up in her eyes.
What was this—she'd deliberately wandered around the neighborhood before coming home, only to come back and find these two playing a video game. What a waste of her consideration.
After a glance at Shirai Mio, Eriri stood up, walked to the door, and said to her mom, "So you're finally back. Those two hours were a little long~"
"Isn't that because I was afraid of disturbing you two? If I'd known you were just playing a game, I'd have come back ages ago."
"What else would we be doing if not playing a game?" Eriri couldn't help retorting.
"Do I really need to spell something like that out for you? More importantly…" Sawamura Sayuri leaned in close to Eriri's ear and asked in a low voice, "When did you and Mio-chan get together?"
"Wh—what do you mean, 'get together'! What are you even saying!"
"You really think I can't tell? This whole time at home you haven't given the slightest thought to your image, yet last night you actually went and cleaned your room."
"Obviously you clean a room when it's dirty." Eriri was still trying to tough it out.
"Then can you explain why you, who've been listless this entire time, suddenly have so much energy today of all days?"
"That's because…"
Just as Eriri was still scrambling for some kind of excuse, Sawamura Sayuri waved a hand. "Enough. If we keep this up it'll go on forever. Only you know what you're really thinking. You can fool other people, but you can't fool yourself. I'll go start on dinner first."
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