How We Met Again

Chapter 7: Coldness and Cutlery and Catharsis

We finally ran out of snacks.

About an hour into the English section, the last pretzel was consumed. With the fantastic spread gone, Miku lost interest. She got up from the couch, brushed herself off of crumbs, and returned to her room. Yotsuba and I powered through the rest of the English vocabulary, but with the snacks thoroughly depleted, I could see Yotsuba visibly starting to falter.

I guess the only thing that was enabling her to study this long was the prospect of snacks, and the frequent breaks for meals, huh? Maybe this sort of intense studying is too much for her.

"You holding up ok, Yotsuba?"

"I'm... I'm alright... my head is just starting to hurt a bit. We've been at this for a long time now..."

"Just a bit more, and then we're through. Do you want to stop for a bit to take some pain medication? I'm here until after dinner anyways, so there's not a rush."

"Sure," she said gratefully, getting up. "That's a good idea, I'll be right back Uesugi-san."

She left the couches, and then suddenly it was just myself and Nino in the room. She had finished doing her nails, and was now just letting them air-dry. Our backs were turned to one another, so I just awkwardly found somewhere to stare in the apartment. She had earbuds in, and seemed to be watching some type of tutorial video. With the temporary moment of solitude, I finally allowed myself to ogle the room.

This place is huge. I wonder how much the rent is each month? Probably more than our entire apartment is worth to buy. Or maybe this is the sort of apartment that you have to buy outright...

I looked up at the giant television that was mounted on the wall in front of me.

I think that TV might be larger than the exterior wall of our apartment. That's absolutely nuts.

My eyes wandered around the room, drinking in the details. I'd never been to a place like this before in my entire life. Eventually, my eyes made it to the table, and I glanced at the back of Nino's head.

I wonder if she'll really be easier to bring around than Itsuki. It's true that she hasn't been avoiding me all day, but... she's made her dislike of me abundantly clear. It seems pretty deep-seated, too. That said, she has made food for me twice. And it's been good food each time. Not a single drop of poison as far as I could tell, so she can't hate me too much... right?

Then my brow furrowed.

Wait, if she poisoned me, would I even realize it until later?

I pondered that thought for a moment, then shook my head.

What am I even thinking? Yotsuba's sister isn't going to poison me, especially for a reason as silly as this.

I glanced back at her head again.

Probably.

Suddenly, I heard a clicking sound from the front door, and I turned back around to face the entrance just in time to see a very tired-looking Ichika walk into the apartment. She was wearing high-waisted jeans and a knitted sweater-shirt, with aviator glasses on her forehead. From her outfit, it was clear she'd been somewhere fancy -- from my unfortunately not-insignificant experience, it didn't look like the sort of thing you wore to a retail job.

"Hey, I'm home! Oh, hi, Fuutarou-kun. I didn't know you were going to be staying so late. Lucky me!"

She took off her shoes, walked in, and then looked around. "Where's Yotsuba? Also, hi Nino. Glad to see you're hanging out with our guest."