"I'm home..."
Yui Yuigahama walked through the door in a daze, then called out to her home as usual.
However, compared to her usually energetic call, this time her voice was a bit confused, as if she hadn't fully come to her senses.
"Hmm? Yui's back? Did you have fun today?"
Yui Yuigahama's mother heard her voice and came out of the kitchen with a smile.
"Dinner will be ready in a while. You can watch TV first."
"..."
Yui Yuigahama still seemed somewhat absent-minded. She just replied casually, then sat down on the sofa in a daze.
Although her mother said she could watch TV first, Yui Yuigahama didn't reach for the remote at all, just staring blankly at the black screen of the TV.
Mrs. Yuigahama, who was about to return to the kitchen to continue cooking, seemed to notice something was wrong with Yui Yuigahama's condition.
She, who always cared about her daughter, naturally put down what she was doing first and came before Yui Yuigahama, bending down slightly with a worried look:
"Yui? Are you okay? You don't look well. Are you sick?"
"No... I'm fine..."
Yui Yuigahama still had that confused look. Shin's somewhat deep kiss just now had left her still immersed in it.
Facing her mother's words, she just instinctively answered, but her expression never cleared up, still maintaining that dreamlike confusion.
"I heard you went out with a boy today."
Mrs. Yuigahama looked at her daughter's confused expression and seemed to think of something, couldn't help asking curiously.
"Could it be that something happened with that boy?"
As an adult, Mrs. Yuigahama's senses were quite sharp—as soon as she said this, Yui Yuigahama suddenly shuddered all over, seemingly finally coming to her senses.
Her face suddenly turned bright red, then she waved her hands repeatedly at her mother, becoming extremely nervous, her tone becoming urgent:
"N-no! Mom, what are you saying!?"
"Oh my... it seems something really did happen."
Although Yui Yuigahama instinctively denied it, how could Mrs. Yuigahama not see that her daughter was just being shy?
Her reaction actually confirmed her guess. Although she still didn't know the boy's name, she was curious about how far her daughter had progressed with him:
"What's that boy's name? Is he from your school?"
"Mom... stop asking!"
Hearing her mother's continuous questions, Yui Yuigahama finally couldn't take it anymore, covered her face shyly and fled back to her room, slamming the door shut.
"Really, acting so shy at this age."
Mrs. Yuigahama looked at her fleeing daughter with a pleased smile.
She had actually been worried about whether Yui Yuigahama's personality, which wasn't good at expressing herself, would be able to find a suitable boy in the future.
But now, seeing Yui Yuigahama's appearance, she was obviously very satisfied with that boy—although Mrs. Yuigahama hadn't met him yet, as long as Yui Yuigahama liked him, that was good.
"Should I prepare red bean rice..."
In Japan, red bean rice was prepared whenever there was a celebratory occasion, showing how happy Mrs. Yuigahama was at this moment.
However, Yui Yuigahama, who had fled back to her room, didn't know her mother was already thinking about preparing red bean rice.
After returning to her room, she buried her entire face in her pillow and took quite a while to recover.
Of course, Yui Yuigahama soon noticed something else—she sat up from the bed, her face covered with a troubled expression:
"Speaking of which, how do I tell Miura about this..."
Although she had gotten ahead and established a relationship with Shin, she knew very well that Yumiko Miura was the one who had been interested in Shin first.
Yui Yuigahama still cared quite a bit about her friend Yumiko Miura. Previously, she had been hesitating about whether to reveal her feelings to Shin partly because of Yumiko Miura.
However, seeing Shin about to leave, Yui Yuigahama felt that if she missed this opportunity, she didn't know when there would be such a good chance again.
So on impulse, she had directly expressed her feelings to Shin and received Shin's simple and crude response.
But how to tell Yumiko Miura about this afterward without ruining their relationship... became Yui Yuigahama's new worry.
"Maybe... I should have Shin-san work hard and get Miura too...?"
After struggling for quite a while, Yui Yuigahama finally reached a conclusion in her heart.
As long as Yumiko Miura also became one of those around Shin, wouldn't they be companions?
If Shin knew about Yui Yuigahama's conclusion, he would probably find it both funny and exasperating.
He had quite a few girls around him, but like Yui Yuigahama, who actively wanted to help Shin pursue other girls—even her good friend—she was probably unique.
Other girls would rather Shin not get involved with more girls.
"Ah, Shin! Welcome back!"
When Shin returned home, he saw everyone from Kessoku Band in the lounge and Ijichi Nijika was the first to wave at Shin as he entered the room.
This lounge originally had nothing in it, but now there was a brand new electronic keyboard, obviously what Kessoku Band and Megumi Kato had bought today.
"Why are you all here?"
Shin walked into the lounge, somewhat surprised—he hadn't expected all of Kessoku Band to be here.
Moreover, Hitori Gotou, Ikuyo Kita, and Ryo Yamada all had guitars and a bass in their hands, with sweat on their faces, obviously having just finished playing.
Only Ijichi Nijika looked more relaxed—thinking about it, she was the drummer, and drum kits obviously weren't something that could be carried around.
"We came to help test this keyboard's sound quality."
Ikuyo Kita had a satisfied smile on her face as she explained to Shin.
"It sounds pretty good. Although Kato-san is still quite inexperienced, simple sound testing is no problem."
It seemed that to test the keyboard's sound quality, they had briefly played together—although Megumi Kato was still a beginner, simply pressing a few notes for testing wasn't difficult.
"Ka... Kato-san is also quite talented."
Hitori Gotou, as the guitar hero, also affirmed Megumi Kato's talent—although Shin didn't know how she, a guitarist, could judge a keyboardist.
"Since you're all here anyway, stay for dinner. It's getting late."
Seeing that Kessoku Band seemed quite satisfied, Shin also nodded and casually extended an invitation.
"Great!"
As expected, the first to respond was Ryo Yamada—with an opportunity to mooch a meal, she absolutely wouldn't let it pass.
To be continued…