When I opened my eyes and found a white fluffball sleeping soundly in my arms… wait, doesn’t that sound like I’ve been cuddling a pet or something weird?

Anyway. I woke up feeling uneasy, but the moment I saw Hina snuggled up to me, all that unease washed away. So what if I made some questionable trades last night? As long as I’m happy right now, isn’t that what counts?

Burying my doubts about my choices deep in my mind, I carefully groped around to find my cell phone without waking Hina.

[6:10 AM]

Ugh~ Damn it. I can’t even tell if I’ve slept four hours or not. No way am I late; I’m basically wide awake. Maybe it’s because my mind is so clear that lying down would just be a waste of time.

…But, glancing at Hina’s peacefully sleeping face, I thought it might actually be nice to just stay like this for a while. That idea snuck into my brain without my realizing it.

No, that’s not right; I can’t do that. If my guess is correct, Hina will wake up around 6:30 or maybe 7 at the latest. Since I’ve already woken up, I wanted to prepare something for Hina, who is going to have a tough day today.

Basically, Hina has this image of someone who doesn’t take care of her own breakfast but would readily learn how to cook if it’s for someone else. The key point here is that she seems like she wouldn’t take care of her own breakfast.

Because of that, I tried to use my experience living alone to whip up at least a simple breakfast.

“…Hoo.”

What to do? No matter how I think about it, getting up without waking Hina in this position seems impossible. We were too close, plus one of my arms was pinned under her, making it a real chore to pull it out.

But I couldn’t just stay here forever. I carefully pulled my arm out, trying to make sure Hina wouldn’t wake up.

Fortunately, as I withdrew my arm, Hina only stirred slightly. Relieved, I slowly sat up and was about to get out of bed when a halo appeared above Hina’s head.

“Mika, where are you going…?”

Her voice was drowsy and dreamy, with her eyes half-open. She looked utterly half-asleep. If I played it right, maybe I could still get her back to sleep, I thought, and I gently pressed my lips to her forehead and whispered.

“Nothing much, Hina-chan. I’m just going to the bathroom for a bit.”

“…Mmm, okay. Hurry back.”

“Yeah, yeah, sleep a bit more.”

Fortunately, that worked; Hina shut her eyes tightly. The halo flickered a couple of times before disappearing again.

…But seriously, what is Hina? She’s not an onion or anything, yet the more you peel her layers, the cuter she gets. With a heart-thumping dose of cuteness swimming in my mind, I carefully left Hina’s room.

I closed the door quietly and walked to the kitchen. The house is a bit too big for one person, yet it doesn’t feel huge at all. It definitely needs some human warmth.

Well, now that I know, I can take my time to change things little by little. When I can’t take care of it myself, I can always rely on Aco.

Even opening the fridge, I didn’t have high expectations. After all, why would someone who hardly spends any time at home have proper ingredients stocked?

Sure enough, the fridge was almost empty. I could tell there was some milk in there, but that was about it.

But that’s okay. No expectations mean no disappointments. What I was looking for was a staple that should be in any fridge anyway.

Eggs and butter. That should be enough for today. I’ll have to find some time this afternoon to grab some groceries.

*

Scrambled eggs are usually best enjoyed when paired with something else, be it bacon or toast.

Unfortunately, Hina’s place lacked any bacon, but I found bread, jam, and even a toaster. That gave me insight into her usual meals.

Eggs, bread, jam, and milk. Even if she ran out of bacon, it seemed like she at least had some decent meals now and then.

So I prepared a simple breakfast. Just placing shiny scrambled eggs on golden toast made for a very simple but complete meal.

I had thought that Hina would wake up at 6:30 rather than 7, and judging by the faint sound of an alarm ringing, it seemed I was right.

About five minutes later, Hina, with her messy hair and sleepy eyes, stepped out of her room and looked at me in the kitchen with an indescribable expression. Honestly, I’m not a great cook, but during my time here, I was determined to at least take care of her breakfast.

“…Thank you, Mika. You’ve saved me the trouble of making breakfast.”

“Yeah, it’s not much, but enjoy!”

I had Hina sit at the table and poured her a glass of milk. It seems kids with height complexes, like Hina, especially tend to drink milk. I guess she wasn’t immune to this part.

By the way, this applies to me too. I think I’m pretty close to perfect now, but I still wish I were just a tad taller.

There was no doubt about the taste of the scrambled eggs. After all, as long as you copy a proper recipe, failure is highly unlikely, especially for things you’ve made often enough to get the hang of.

“…Delicious.”

Hina’s praise felt a bit on the lighter side, but I decided to think of it as her gratitude for me preparing her breakfast.

“When do you usually head to school, Hina-chan?”

“Usually, I leave home around 7:30. Why do you ask?”

“Ahaha, it’s nothing. Just thought I might help out with the preparations. Oh, and I’ll swing by the Student Council room before lunch. Let’s have lunch together!”

“…Got it.”

I just can’t miss out on trying Fuuka’s cafeteria food after coming all the way to Gehenna. It’s an absolutely reasonable choice.

We chatted casually about various things while eating. As for me, my main agenda today is coordinating schedules with the Student Council and Millennium side.

If I had to do this from Trinity, I would’ve been swamped with work and likely overwhelmed. But today, I’m free from paperwork. It’s truly a liberating and unbeatable feeling.

In the afternoon, Hina urged me not to help with the external Student Council duties, but I thought I’d take a little stroll as a kind of post-meal exercise.

“Hey, Mika. I think accepting your proposal was one of the smartest choices I’ve made this year.”

“Hmm… What’s the basis for that statement? Is it a work-related perspective? Or is it more about the fact that I got to meet you?”

“Well, if you keep asking me about it when you already know, that puts me in a bind…”

“Haha, Hina-chan, you’re just so cute; I never get tired of seeing it! Oh, if you’re done eating, leave your plate and hurry to wash up. I’ll take care of the dishes later!”

“Thanks— huh?!”

It’s not that Hina thanking me isn’t adorable, but it’s slowly becoming burdensome to hear it over and over. After silencing her with light skinship, I nudged Hina toward the bathroom and opened Momotalk.

The contacts I need to reach are Noah, the secretary of the seminar, and Rin, the head admin of the Student Council, but given the time, I decided to wait an hour or two before reaching out. Then, I opened Momotalk with Nagisa.

…I wondered if asking for good morning, lunch, and dinner messages might be a bit excessive, but isn’t that just how relationships go?

Ironically, I’m finding this lovely girl’s annoying traits irresistible, so I guess it’s all good.

*

After Hina headed off to the academy, I found a coffee mix and poured myself a cup. I know it’s not polite to do this in someone else’s house… but can you really call Hina and me strangers at this point?

I had already sent messages to Rin, who hasn’t seen them yet, while I got straight through to Noah and conveyed my message. Now all I could do was wait.

Sipping my coffee, I spent some time browsing articles on the main page of a portal site. Honestly, coffee mix has a flavor all its own, distinctly different from coffee served in cafes.

[Internal Strife in Gehenna’s Upper Echelons?! Conflict Between the Manma Battle and Student Council Erupts!]

[Do Opposites Attract? Investigating the Love Triangle Between the Two Student Council Presidents of Trinity and the Gehenna Student Council Head.]

[It’s Obvious Trinity Will Win… The Embarrassment of the Overconfident Host of the Trinity T-party.]

What’s up with all these articles being so one-sided? They only cover things I already know, making them dull reads. There were articles discussing the sinking of Odyssey’s academy ship and one highlighting my political stance as well, but I didn’t hit the “click” factor for those either.

[The Biggest Beneficiaries of the 1st Gehenna•Trinity Boat Summer Festival Turned Out to Be the Millennium Science School?!]

Come on, isn’t the competition next year? This year is just the 20XX Summer Festival…!

Anyway, this article had at least somewhat interesting content. With Millennium’s technology being so deeply involved in the overall contest, it highlighted how they gained significant promotional benefits.

The claim that the relationship among the three major academies has developed further wasn’t exaggerated in the article, as that was indeed the case. I bet Rion was surprised to see the size of the slice of pie they brought back from this.

Of course, it wasn’t funded by the seminar’s public money, so they couldn’t commit any embezzlement.

As I picked the articles worth reading, a call finally came in.

Caller ID showed it was Ushio Noa. The name I had been waiting for.