"We finally did it!"
Mio looked at the cookie in her hand with a bite taken out of it. This was Yui's seventh attempt, and she'd finally produced cookies that looked and tasted decent.
"Mio, thank you."
Yui looked deeply at Mio. It was already 3 PM. After returning from the supermarket, aside from making lunch, Mio had been here teaching her how to make cookies the entire time. Despite failing so many times, Mio hadn't shown even a hint of impatience.
Yui herself had wanted to give up after the first few failures. It was only because Mio kept encouraging her that she'd persevered until now.
Though the result still had a bit of a gap compared to Mio's version, Yui was already very satisfied.
After cleaning up the kitchen together, Mio brought Yui to her room.
This was Yui's first time entering Mio's bedroom, and she looked around with curiosity at everything.
Unlike the living room, the bedroom had quite a few of Mio's personal belongings, giving it much more of a lived-in feeling.
She glanced hesitantly at Mio, unsure whether she should ask about Mio's home situation.
Noticing Yui's hesitant expression, Mio smiled. "If you've got something to say, just say it, Yui. I won't mind."
"I... I just wanted to ask why you're living here alone. I'm just curious—if you don't want to answer, you don't have to force yourself."
It seemed Mio had expected this question. She took a moment to get into character, then retold the story she'd once used to fool Sengoku Chihiro, though with some polish. Of course, she was also careful to manage her own emotional reactions.
After hearing Mio's story, Yui finally understood why Mio would rather sit on a park bench than go home that day.
Because she didn't want to return to an empty house with no one there.
Thinking about this, Yui suddenly felt her heart ache for Mio.
Just as Mio was about to change the subject, the System's voice rang out once more: "Host, your luck today is pretty damn good! You've triggered another task."
"Find a way to make Yuigahama Yui proactively stay the night, and proactively sleep in the same bed with you until 6 AM tomorrow morning. Success may reward you with a Yuigahama Yui series card or item. Failure will result in drawing a penalty card."
"Do your best, Host~"
The previous similar task only required her to stay over. Now it was escalating to sleeping in the same bed? If the difficulty kept increasing like this, would she eventually need to do something in that bed?
Originally, Mio had planned to borrow a movie from Chihiro next door to pass the time—she just hadn't decided what genre to borrow.
Now that the task had appeared, she hoped Chihiro had horror movies. Otherwise, she'd have to rent some from a nearby video store.
"Yui, wait here for a sec. I'm gonna check what DVDs Chihiro-sensei has."
"Oh."
Shortly after, Mio returned home carrying several horror movie DVDs.
Seeing the terrifying covers on the boxes, Yui couldn't help but remember how scared Mio had been when they watched a horror movie together last week.
"Are you sure you want to watch these?"
"Yeah. I only dare to watch them when you're around, Yui." Mio's face showed a gentle smile.
"Alright then." With Mio putting it that way, Yui had no reason to refuse. It was just horror movies, after all.
Mio selected one that Chihiro had strongly recommended, put the disc in the DVD player, then immediately rushed to Yui's side at top speed, pressing tightly against her.
No choice—she needed to act scared so Yui would proactively stay over.
Just like last time, Mio buried her face in Yui's shoulder partway through, only peeking at the movie from the corner of her eye.
Yui felt that compared to the movie itself, Mio's occasional shrieks were actually more frightening.
Though she had to admit, trembling Mio was pretty cute.
As the nearly two-hour movie ended, Mio looked completely drained, leaning weakly against Yui. "If I ever watch another horror movie, I'm a dog!"
"I'll remember you said that."
Yui glanced at the sunset outside the window. "It's getting late. I should probably head home."
"Eh!?"
Mio looked pitifully at Yui. She didn't say anything to try to keep her, just tightly gripped the hem of Yui's clothes with her hand.
Noticing Mio's small gesture, Yui finally realized—Mio lived here all alone. If Yui left, she'd probably be really scared by herself, right?
Without much hesitation, Yui sat back down on the sofa. "You look so scared... how about I stay over tonight to keep you company?"
"I... I'm not scared." Mio's eyes darted away guiltily before she said quietly, "But since you insist on staying, I guess that's fine."
"Yeah, yeah, I insisted on staying."
While saying this, Yui pulled out her phone and sent a message to her mom, letting her know she wouldn't be coming home tonight.
After sending the message, Yui noticed Mio had picked up another disc.
She couldn't help but comment, "You're... you're planning to keep watching? Who just said watching horror movies makes them a dog?"
"Woof woof woof!"
Even Yui hadn't expected Mio to be so decisive. She covered her face. "Forget it. Do whatever makes you happy."
Since Yui had already proactively chosen to stay over, Mio needed to start laying the groundwork for the next phase of the task.
Based on Mio's observations, Yui's courage wasn't actually that great either. She only seemed unfazed because Mio was acting so scared and dependent on her.
But Mio knew that when Yui saw certain horror scenes, she'd still instinctively close her eyes in fright.
After finishing the current movie, then watching one more before bed, Mio figured that even if she didn't act scared, Yui would proactively ask to sleep in the same bed.
She just felt a bit bad about putting Yui through this.
She'd figure out a way to make it up to her later.