Seated at his desk, Haruto rested his hands on the keyboard of his laptop. His eyes were closed, his expression solemn, brows furrowed tightly as if wrestling with some deep and complex question.
Suddenly, he drew in a sharp breath.
The tension in his face loosened, his brows relaxed. He lowered his head slowly and opened his eyes.
Sekai looked up, meeting his gaze. Her lips pressed together as she accepted the tissue he handed her, dabbing the corner of her mouth in silence. Then, without a word, she stood up and tossed the tissue into the bin by the desk.
"Would Setsuna… do something like that for you?"
"Occasionally."
His mind was still a bit blank. Haruto closed his eyes for a moment, searching his memory, then opened them and looked back at Sekai, who was sitting on the edge of his bed.
With summer fast approaching, the rising temperatures meant people on the street were starting to wear lighter clothing. Sekai, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt, followed Haruto's gaze downward, and when she realized where he was looking—under her arm—her face flushed crimson and she quickly pressed her arms against her body.
"You're staring at a girl's armpit—how rude!"
"Is it really that rude?"
"Of course it is! No matter how close you are to someone, you can't just go staring at their armpits like that!"
"Is it because of the smell?"
"NO!"
Watching her face turn bright red in flustered frustration, he chuckled and decided not to tease her any further. Instead, his gaze drifted to the wind chime hanging by the window, its soft, crystalline ringing pulling his thoughts away from the present moment.
Still mildly annoyed, Sekai was about to argue more to prove she didn't smell bad, when she noticed that Haruto had gone silent and was now gazing out the window. Following his eyes, she spotted the wind chime hanging near the top of the window frame and blinked in surprise.
"You bought that yourself?"
"Hmm?"
"The wind chime."
"Oh, that? Yeah, I bought it."
"It sounds really nice…"
Her gaze softened as she looked at it. Sekai hadn't expected him to buy something so delicate and nostalgic. She closed her eyes and simply listened to its gentle tinkling in the warm breeze.
"When you're alone in a room, there's always a bit of loneliness. But with the wind chime... it's like that feeling disappears."
"But you have Setsuna, don't you?"
Haruto stood up and, under Sekai's curious gaze, walked over to the window and casually pushed it open.
A warm breeze brushed against his face. He tilted his head up and stared at the blue sky dotted with drifting clouds. Somehow, no matter how many times he looked up, the sky always appeared unchanged—yet it never failed to captivate him. He could lose himself in that familiar blue over and over again. But why?
"Maybe… the people who live in reality are the ones who are wrong. It's the ones who cry who are truly right. It's the lonely ones… who still resemble real human beings."
"Isn't that… a little too dark of a thought?"
Sekai's brows furrowed slightly as she listened. She didn't quite understand why Haruto would say something like that. It was as if she was getting to know a new side of him—one she hadn't seen before. She turned to look at him, but all she could see was his profile, his face tilted upward, eyes lost in the vast sky outside.
"It's a bit dark, I admit," he said with a soft smile. "But I've been brainstorming for my new story. There's a character with a pretty bleak life… I was writing that line for her."
"Bleak, huh…"
Sekai's mind wandered to Angel Bearing with a Stigma Name, one of Haruto's previous novels. Since it was written by him, she had carefully read it twice, remembering nearly all of its content.
"That novel had a… kind of sad feeling too, didn't it?"
"I'm not really good at writing cheerful stories. Besides, sad ones tend to stick with people more, don't they?"
Turning back toward her, Haruto glanced at his laptop. He returned to his seat in front of the desk and sat down again.
"It's only after we get hurt that we truly understand what pain is. If a sad story can help even a few people realize what happiness is—or what shouldn't be done—then I think it has value."
Sekai stared blankly at Haruto. For a brief moment, she saw a soft white glow radiating from him, as if this fleeting instant had been deeply etched into her memory. She pressed her lips together, never expecting such meaning to emerge from such a sad ending.
"I never knew… there was such a meaning behind it..."
Seeing that Sekai seemed to truly believe his words, Haruto didn't try to explain further.
His gaze returned to the computer in front of him. His expression turned distant, almost numb, as he lowered his eyes and let out a quiet sigh.
"Summer's here, and I've gotten so lazy… I don't feel like doing anything."
"Oh, right."
"Hm?"
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Sekai slowly stood and walked over to Haruto. She crouched beside him, placing her hands on the armrest of his chair, tilting her head upward to look at him.
"My mom… she wants to invite you over for dinner tomorrow night."
"You know Mai-san was already upset when she found out your mom approached me last time, right?"
"She was? I didn't know… She came to you in secret?"
Sekai's expression turned a bit surprised, but she quickly lowered her head and sighed.
"That's just like her… If she hadn't done something, it wouldn't be her. Besides… Aunt Mai…"
She glanced at him, hesitating. Words caught in her throat as she saw his calm expression. What she wanted to say remained unspoken, stuck in her chest, her eyes lingering on him for a long moment, a swirl of emotion behind them.
"Hm?"
Haruto gave her a puzzled look, choosing to play dumb.
"Forget it… Things have already turned out like this… How did it even come to this?"
Even Haruto wanted to ask himself that. He had never actively sought any of this, yet the number of girls around him kept growing day by day. Even he was starting to feel something was off.
And it was still only the first semester of his first year of high school. If things kept going at this pace, he couldn't even imagine what graduation day would look like—it'd probably be something spectacular.
"So… do you accept the invitation? Or decline?"
"Tomorrow night… I don't mind just stopping by. But… you're not planning on having me stay the night, right?"
"Do you dislike the idea that much?"
Sekai's face dimmed with a tinge of disappointment. She had started feeling hopeful when Haruto seemed willing to accept. But his cautious follow-up made her look at him with a slightly hurt expression.
"It's not that I dislike it. It's just… if I stay over, Setsuna and Mai-san might not be too happy about it."
"…I understand. I'll talk to my mom. You can leave after dinner."
Standing up, Sekai glanced at Haruto, who was still sitting at his desk. She lightly brushed down her skirt, then walked toward the door.
"I'll head home now. Tomorrow… I'll be waiting for you at my place."
"Alright."
Haruto turned his head slightly, watching her leave the room. Once the door closed behind her, he shifted his gaze back to the computer screen, opened up his manuscript, and rested his fingers on the keyboard—ready to resume writing.
That evening, during dinner at the Kiyoura household, Mai suddenly looked up from her meal, something crossing her mind.
"That interview you said you did—it's airing tonight, isn't it?"
Setsuna, who had already remembered this clearly, continued eating silently.
"Yeah… I think so."
"It's supposed to be on late, right?"
"Around 11:00 PM. Just before midnight."
Mai kept her eyes on Haruto without saying anything else. But somehow, she had already said everything.
"I don't have a TV in my apartment. Would it be alright if I stayed here to watch?"
"Setsuna, you have school tomorrow—"
"And you have work tomorrow, Mom."
Before Mai could finish her sentence, Setsuna looked up and delivered a sharp rebuttal. Mai fell silent, staring hard at her daughter.
Setsuna didn't flinch. Their eyes locked, tension crackling between them like lightning. Haruto, seated beside them, looked away awkwardly.
"Haruto is my boyfriend."
"The bed in your room is a little small, so before the show starts, he can rest in my room."
"I can sleep in his arms. You can sleep alone."
"Setsuna! I'm your mother!"
"Exactly. That's why you shouldn't be competing with your daughter, right?"
"Ugh—!"
Mai glared at her daughter, but seeing how completely unfazed Setsuna was, she could only let out a long sigh. She glanced at Haruto—who had kept entirely silent the whole time—then quietly set down her chopsticks.
"I'm done. I'll go rest."
…
With Mai gone, only Haruto and Setsuna remained in the living room. After watching her mother silently walk away and close the door to her room, Haruto turned to face his girlfriend, who was still finishing her meal.
"Is that really okay?"
"Mm. We're not kids anymore. She'll be fine after a while."
"True enough."
Satisfied with her calm reply, Haruto gave a small nod and resumed eating. After dinner, they cleaned up the table together. Once the dishes were washed and placed in the cabinet, the two headed into Setsuna's room.
As the sound of the door closing echoed through the house, Mai slowly lifted her head from her pillow, glancing in the direction of the room.
…
Her daughter and Haruto were probably in the room now.
What were they doing?
"There's no need to even think about it. Of course I know what they're doing."
Just imagining her daughter in the same room with Haruto, doing the things she herself also wished to do, made Mai bite her lip. She flipped over in bed, restless, her emotions churning. Eventually, she sat up.
She slipped on her slippers and stepped out into the living room. Seeing the lights still on, she muttered under her breath about how those two had forgotten to turn them off. Quietly, she walked to the fridge, took out two cartons of milk, warmed them, and poured them into cups—her eyes fixed on her daughter's bedroom door.
Her thoughts were a tangled mess, filled with vivid, unwelcome images.
As the clock ticked closer to the show's airing time, she picked up the warmed milk and headed for Setsuna's door. Stopping just outside, she pressed her ear lightly to the door, straining to hear what was going on inside—
"Not doing it?"
"If we do, we won't be able to get up in time. Better to rest now. We still have to wake up for the show later. Did you set an alarm?"
"Mm-hmm."
"An electronic one? Back in Itomori, I used an old wind-up alarm clock in my room. Just twist it, and it would go off loudly at the set time."
"I know those. I had one when I was little too, but it broke after a while."
"The ringing was so harsh it ruined my mornings. Eventually, I started waking up way earlier than the alarm—just to avoid hearing that horrible sound."
Lying in bed with Setsuna nestled beside him, Haruto reminisced about his old life in Itomori. Remembering that frustrating alarm clock, a wry smile appeared on his face.
"Did you sleep alone back in Itomori?"
"Hm? No… I only started having my own room when I was around four or five. When Mitsuha was about three or four, she started sleeping with me. That lasted until she turned ten—then, all of a sudden, she refused to sleep in the same room. By then, Yotsuha had grown up a bit, so the two of them started sharing a room."
Haruto's expression turned wistful as he recalled Mitsuha's childhood.
"She was so adorable back then. I've got pictures back in Itomori, but I can't show you now. She used to follow me around everywhere, always asking for hugs… But now, it's different. I guess all siblings go through that phase—suddenly growing distant overnight."