The father and daughter turned and went into the back kitchen.
Hiiragi Shuichi turned to look at Kosui Taki, who stood behind him with a wronged look on her face.
She was even carrying a storage box in her hand.
Just why…?
Couldn’t she leave it at school?
“Kosui… just what do you have to say…?”
Seeing that Hiiragi Shuichi had finally given her room to speak, Kosui Taki’s cheeks, which had been puffed up all along, finally relaxed as she let out a breath, revealing the soft curves of her original face.
Kosui Taki carried the storage box slowly up to Hiiragi Shuichi, lifted the entire box with one hand, then rummaged back and forth inside it for a long while.
Finally, she pulled out a phone.
It was Hiiragi Shuichi’s phone.
“Hii-ra-gi! Don’t leave your phone behind again!”
Kosui Taki complained, enunciating each word.
‘Huh? When…?’
Hiiragi Shuichi had not realized at all that he had left his phone in the Home Economics Room.
Then he really had wronged Kosui Taki, but the problem was…
There really was no need to carry the storage box the whole way, right?
Hiiragi Shuichi saw that the storage box was packed full.
Even if it wasn’t too heavy, carrying it all that way would be tiring, right?
But Kosui Taki looked not tired at all.
Hiiragi Shuichi took the phone and apologized awkwardly, but habitually turned on the screen and saw a message hanging on the lock screen.
Hiiragi Shuichi couldn’t help reading those lines aloud:
“Sender… Koyuki Shoko?”
“During summer vacation, the Classical Literature Club will have a training camp.”
“Please be sure to attend…”
“Otherwise, either club fees will be collected, or you will be ordered to quit?”
Hiiragi Shuichi looked up in confusion.
Kosui Taki stood in front of him looking utterly harmless, wearing a smile that everyone loved.
Hiiragi Shuichi couldn’t help feeling a chill down his spine.
Because he did not have Koyuki Shoko as a friend at all, and his phone was protected by a lock screen password…
“Th-that… Kosui, thank you very much…”
It seemed she had definitely not just happened to pass by the Home Economics Room.
She had absolutely come prepared.
“Eh? No need to thank me~ Hiiragi is my friend, after all!”
“F-friend…? Since when…?”
“Eh? Oh, that…”
As Kosui Taki spoke, she wrapped her other arm around the storage box, felt around in her pocket with her free hand, and pulled out another phone.
She tapped away at it for a long while.
The sound of the nine-key keypad was very clear.
The owner of this phone was probably her.
“Buzz-buzz-“
Hiiragi Shuichi’s phone vibrated twice in his hand.
He opened LINE, and an unfamiliar Shiba Inu profile picture came into view.
Kosui Taki: Good afternoon! (very happy cute-style emoji)
Hiiragi Shuichi: ?
Hiiragi Shuichi swiped his phone, immediately exited the chat screen, and checked when they had become friends.
The time displayed was…
Just on the way to Asahi Bakery a moment ago…
‘His phone had been stolen, hadn’t it…?’
‘It definitely had been stolen…’
These thoughts began to swirl in Hiiragi Shuichi’s mind.
‘Was there anyone normal in this student council at all?’
To be honest, since he had concluded that all the friend requests had been sent by Kosui Taki, then Koyuki Shoko had probably struck some secret internal deal with Kosui Taki.
Could it be that Kosui Taki offered to get Hiiragi Shuichi’s contact information for Koyuki Shoko and relay the summer club activity matters, and in exchange her club fees would be waived…?
This was the most likely result Hiiragi Shuichi could think of.
But why had she added his contact information…?
Just thinking that Kosui Taki could freely use student council business as an excuse to hide her real reason for adding Hiiragi Shuichi’s contact information made Hiiragi Shuichi’s head ache.
LINE.
Hiiragi Shuichi: Was Kosui only trying to return the phone?
Kosui Taki: How strange. Aren’t we face to face? Why do we still need to communicate through LINE?
Hiiragi Shuichi: Um…
Kosui Taki still had not revealed the reason she had come looking for him.
Hiiragi Shuichi turned off his phone, slipped it into his pocket, and even checked several times that the phone was on him.
“Why does Kosui know my lock screen password?”
Hiiragi Shuichi thought, since she was unwilling to say why she had come, there was no need to keep asking.
No matter how much he asked, she probably would not tell him.
So it was better to ask something that truly mattered, such as his privacy and safety…
This time his phone had been swiped.
What if his Notebook…
“Eh? Lock screen password?”
“I don’t know it.”
“Then how did you…?”
Before Hiiragi Shuichi could finish, Kosui Taki shook her head.
“I’m not a hacker…”
“Could it be that Hiiragi’s phone was on the cooking counter and simply hadn’t gone dark?”
“This…”
Hiiragi Shuichi carefully recalled the scene in the Home Economics Room.
Komuro Ayumi had used his phone to look up a tutorial, and he had snatched it back.
At that moment, Kosui Taki had just come in…
It seemed that really was the case…
Kosui Taki’s words sounded like there was no problem and they were completely reasonable.
Even so, Hiiragi Shuichi felt that what Kosui Taki meant by that was:
“Eh~ Because I guessed your phone might have a lock screen password, just in case, I made a special point of not letting the screen turn off, okay?”
‘S-So scary…’
If it were her, she might be able to defy Aoba Tomoyo as she pleased.
Kosui Taki blinked and blinked, then put the phone back in her pocket.
Her eyelashes were much more plain, unlike other girls who brushed on all kinds of mascara.
Seeing how she was unwilling to leave for so long, Hiiragi Shuichi couldn’t help remembering the scene of Aoba Tomoyo standing at his front door and also refusing to leave for a long time.
But this time Hiiragi Shuichi would not be fooled.
He simply left Kosui Taki to one side and let her do whatever she liked.
In any case, Hiiragi Shuichi needed to get ready for work.
‘Huh? Work?’
Outside the door, a clear wind chime was rung by a cold wind that had arrived at some unknown time, but would definitely arrive in the end.
Aoba Tomoyo swayed her gray skirt and strode into Asahi Bakery.
Oh, right.
She was also coming here to work.
As soon as Aoba Tomoyo walked in, before her leather shoes had even stepped a few times on the shop’s wooden floor, she saw Kosui Taki standing beside Hiiragi Shuichi.
Her expression immediately darkened.
Anyone who saw that man-eating look would probably be frightened…
But Kosui Taki acted as if she had merely seen a kitten hissing at her.
Not only was she not frightened, she instead found the kitten adorable.
Kosui Taki set down the storage box, bowed slightly, raised her hand in an exaggerated greeting pose, and said with a smile:
“Wow, it’s Senior Aoba!”
“Good afternoon!”
“What a coincidence.”
“Do you need bread?”
She naturally put on the air of someone who was an employee of the shop.
Aoba Tomoyo looked her up and down twice, ignored her, went around to the front of the counter, and set down her commuter bag with a thud.
“Hiiragi, how many days have you known Kosui?”
That indifferent tone was truly cold and stinging.
“To answer you, Senior… it’s the second day…”
Hiiragi Shuichi replied flippantly, with a hint of mockery in it.
After all, he and Aoba Tomoyo ultimately had no special relationship to speak of.
Even knowing that she still liked Hiiragi Shuichi, Hiiragi Shuichi still believed that one-sided feelings did not count as a relationship.
But people are like that.
Even if something never belonged to them, when they see it taken by someone else, they still feel as if it has been snatched away.
“No, no! It’s the third day!!”
Kosui Taki suddenly retorted loudly.
“Did we meet on the weekend?”
Facing her unreasonable fussing, Hiiragi Shuichi couldn’t help asking back.
On the weekend, they had all gathered at Asahi Bakery, and at that time Hiiragi Shuichi had not even met Kosui Taki.
Now one day had already passed, and today was the second day.
Just what nonsense was Kosui Taki spouting?
As he thought about it, Hiiragi Shuichi suddenly felt a chill on his back, as if a dry ice machine nearby were constantly spraying.
When Hiiragi Shuichi turned to look, sure enough, there was a “natural dry ice machine” freely giving off her charm.
A deathly still smile slowly appeared on Aoba Tomoyo’s face, and she asked softly:
“Oh my… so Hiiragi was secretly meeting Kosui on the weekend?”
In an instant, Hiiragi Shuichi suddenly understood why Kosui Taki had been spouting nonsense.