"Hayama, you sure you don't want to call someone else in?"
Mio eyed Hayato skeptically, his arms loaded with bags large and small.
Hayato forced a thin smile. "It's fine. It's not that far."
"If you say so. Hang in there~"
Mio genuinely wanted to help, but the sad truth was that she was a delicate, physically helpless damsel at the moment. The two bags of snacks in her hands were already her absolute limit.
Yumiko had it a little easier—she worked out regularly.
Confirming they hadn't forgotten anything, the three of them headed for Yumiko's place.
It was only about fifteen minutes on foot, but by the time they arrived, Hayato looked like a half-dead dog.
Yumiko pushed the door open to reveal a living room that already had some simple decorations up.
As Yumiko moved to pitch in with the setup, her older sister popped out of nowhere and sidled up to whisper in her ear, voice gleeful: "Yumiko, your little girlfriend is so good to you—she brought a cake over at lunch, made it with her own hands and everything. When am I ever going to get a girlfriend like that?"
"I… I think you should ask Mom. Maybe she can set you up."
This time, Yumiko didn't bother correcting her sister about her relationship with Mio. Her sister had already decided what she thought was going on, and nothing Yumiko said was going to change that.
The honest truth: she didn't feel like explaining.
Yeah. That was it.
Her sister gave a wry laugh. "Fine, fine. I'll take my time looking."
Yumiko raised an eyebrow. For a second she genuinely couldn't tell whether her sister was being serious.
She'd noticed this about her sister recently—she was a lot like Mio. Both of them had a habit of teasing that made it impossible to tell when they meant what they said.
By the time Yumiko snapped back to reality, Mio was already busy in the kitchen. With Yui.
She blinked and confirmed that the person standing next to Mio was, in fact, Yui. A flicker of confusion crossed her eyes.
If she remembered correctly, Yui didn't have any cooking skills to speak of.
But as she got closer, she noticed that while Yui was only helping with prep work, her movements were smooth and practiced. Clearly, she'd been practicing.
"Yui—since when do you cook?" Yumiko couldn't help asking.
"It started a little while ago. I asked Mio to teach me how to make cookies, and then I kind of got into cooking in general. Lately I've been learning from my mom."
"Mio, you can bake cookies too?"
Still working on the prep, Mio didn't even look up. "I can bake cakes—do you really think cookies are beyond me? If you want some, I'll make them for you."
"Okay."
Watching the easy rhythm between the two of them in the kitchen, Yumiko felt a small, unwelcome pang of envy toward Yui. If she could cook too…
Whatever she'd been about to think next, she cut it off sharply and turned, pressing her hands to her unexpectedly warm cheeks.
Something was very wrong with her. Her mind kept wandering off to places it had no business going.
At that exact moment, Mio's voice came from behind her. "Yumiko, what are you doing, covering your face like that?"
"N-Nothing!" Startled, Yumiko didn't manage to keep her voice down, and several heads turned her way from around the living room.
"Hm? Why is your face all red?"
"M-Maybe I haven't caught my breath yet." Yumiko forced a quick laugh. "I think my makeup's a mess. I'm going to fix it."
Without waiting for a response, she strode out of the kitchen.
Mio tilted her head. A little odd—but she didn't have time to dwell on it. She delivered a tray of washed fruit to the living room and went back to her cutting board.
Watching Yui's increasingly practiced movements, Mio smiled. "Yui, you're really getting the hang of this lately."
"I've been practicing with my mom at home." Yui beamed, flushed with the praise.
Picking up cooking had turned out to be, from her perspective, an excellent decision. For one thing, it let her help Mio. For another, it gave her these little stretches of time with Mio all to herself.
That alone was more than enough for her.
Watching Mio and Yui working side by side at the stove, both wearing aprons, Ebina Hina pushed her glasses up and said with mounting excitement: "You know, I'm starting to think yuri might be the way to go. Don't those two look exactly like a newlywed couple?"
"Do not spread your weird ideas here!" Yumiko pinched Hina's cheek and tugged.
She couldn't have said why, but something in her chest felt oddly sour right now—like she'd just bitten into a lemon.
"Yumiko~"
Hearing her sister's familiar sing-song voice at her ear, Yumiko instinctively pulled away and pinned her sister with a meaningful stare. Do not say anything weird right now.
Sisters were sisters. Her sister got the message loud and clear. And yet she still leaned in and whispered: "Yumiko, based on my careful observations, somebody else is interested in your little girlfriend. You'd better be careful~"
With that, she cast a pointed glance toward the kitchen. The implication couldn't have been more obvious.
Yumiko followed her sister's gaze—of course—and saw the two of them again. Now that she thought about it, Yui and Mio were unusually close these days.
If the two of them were—
Wait. She and Mio were just friends. Why was she even thinking about this?
The truth was, Yumiko understood on some level that her feelings for Mio had taken a strange turn. And she knew that thought was not one she was allowed to have. Which was exactly why she was so tangled up about it.
Quietly, she let her gaze drift to Hayato. She sighed, small and soft.
She was supposed to be in love with Hayato. But it was starting to look more and more like she'd fallen for someone else. And on top of that—a girl.
What the hell was she supposed to do?