Solving Cases is My Daily Life Now: Volume 3

Chapter 20

As the two of them entered her house, the voices of Wu and Rina's father grew louder, and it was clear that they were in the living room. The voices stopped however, when Masaru closed the door behind him.

"Rina?" Her dad's voice called out.

"Yeah, it's me." Rina said, peeking around the corner.

Wu and her father were sitting on the couch, and both of them smiled at her when they saw her. They both looked slightly surprised to see Masaru walk around the corner.

"Hello." Masaru said simply, giving a nod, likely the closest thing to a bow he was willing to muster.

Rina frowned at that fact, but pushed it out of her mind.

"Oh, hi." Her dad said, his smile returning, "Fukuhara, right?"

"Masaru is fine." Masaru said simply.

"Ah, it is Rina's boyfriend!" Wu said, "It is nice to be seeing you again."

"We're going to go put my stuff up, then we'll be back down." Rina said, walking for the stairs.

"You're...both going?" Her dad asked, "To your room?"

"Yeah?" Rina was confused by his response until the thought occurred to her.

Her face began to heat up at the implication, and she shook her head.

"We're going to be right back down!" She said, quickly going up the stairs.

Masaru followed behind her at his own pace, until they were both at the top.

"Which room is yours?" He asked.

"This one on the left here." Rina said, opening the door and stepping inside.

She smiled as she sniffed the air, it smelled just as sweet as she hoped it would.

"So this is your room..." Masaru said, looking around.

"Yeah..." Rina said quietly, setting her school bag on her desk.

She put a hand to her chest, feeling her chest pound. She had never imagined that Masaru would be in her room! But there he was, looking around with his hands in his pockets. Rina looked back at him, watching the things he looked at, and wondering what was going through his mind. His eyebrows raised, and he walked over to a picture, picking it up.

"You look so young in this picture." He said.

"Don't look at that!" She insisted, walking over to him and reaching for it.

"Relax." Masaru said, pulling the picture out of her reach and turning around to get a closer look at it, "You were a pretty cute kid."

Rina put her hands on her hips and scowled, not sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or not. But the thumping in her heart became stronger when she remember what that was a picture of.

"This woman..." Masaru said, "This is..."

Rina clenched her fists.

"My mother, yes." She said, "She...died, a little over ten years ago."

Rina looked at the floor, clutching the front of her shirt. She had thought that maybe he would offer some empty words, some halfhearted attempt to make her feel better. She felt that she had heard them all, and even if it was from Masaru, it likely wouldn't do much for her. But he didn't do any of that. He only made one simple statement,

"You look a lot like her."

Rina looked up at his back, her clenched fists relaxing. Her eyes began to grow wet, but she managed to keep control of her emotions for the most part.