Chapter 24

When I finished work and returned to my apartment, Misa-chan in her school uniform was standing with her back against my door.

“I’m home, Misa-chan. What is it, is something wrong?”

“Onitsuka-san… Um, I’m really sorry about this morning!”

Misa-chan bowed her head.

“This morning?”

“Yes, running away like that after leaving the pot… Plus, I feel like I was rude to Onitsuka-san’s girlfriend, too…”

Ah, come to think of it, something like that happened this morning.

“I didn’t mind it at all. Wait, were you actually waiting here just to say that?”

“Ah, yes. Sorry.”

The fact that she hadn’t changed out of her school uniform meant she must have been waiting here ever since she came back from school.

“I should be apologizing instead. Oh, and about that woman who was with me, she isn’t my girlfriend or anything, just a senior from work. She got drunk in my room and wouldn’t wake up, so she just ended up staying till morning.”

I cleared up the misunderstanding, just in case.

“Eh, a senior from work… She wasn’t your girlfriend?”

“That’s right. There’s no way someone that pretty would ever become my girlfriend.”

Personality aside, purely looking at her looks, Hosotani-san was top-tier while I was middle-of-the-road at best. We didn’t match at all.

“T-That’s not true at all! Onitsuka-san is wonderful, and you’re cool!”

Misa-chan looked up at me with flushed cheeks and protested desperately.

“Ah, yeah, thanks.”

For her to put up with embarrassment just to comfort me—Misa-chan really was such a kind-hearted girl.

Even if it was just flattery, it made me happy.

“Is Shimizu-san… isn’t your mom back yet?”

“No, looks like she’s still working. But I think she’ll be back soon.”

Saying that, Misa-chan reached into her bag to pull out her house keys and fumbled inside.

“I see. Well then, make sure you don’t catch a cold.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Thanks for the oden. See you later, then.”

“Yes.”

I gave Misa-chan a light wave, opened my own door a step ahead, and started to go ins—

“Eh? Huh…?”

—or at least I tried to, but Misa-chan’s perplexed voice made me stop in my tracks.

Leaving the door open, I called out,

“Misa-chan, something wrong?”

“Ah, well, I can’t seem to find my house keys…”

“Did you drop them?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I did… What should I do?”

Misa-chan looked troubled.

There wasn’t much I could do about it, though.

It was already dark outside, and if she had dropped her keys, searching for them now would be a tough task.

About the only thing I could do was…

“Want to wait inside my place until Shimizu-san gets back?”

Something like that.

“Eh… Is that okay? Won’t I be a bother…?”

“Not at all.”

As long as both Misa-chan and Shimizu-san shared my secret, we were practically family already.

“Come on in.”

I decided to invite Misa-chan into my room.

“You haven’t had dinner yet, right? Want to eat something?”

Though, to be honest, all I had was the oden she gave me this morning or the rice balls I bought on my way back from work.

“Ah, it’s fine. I’ll eat with Mom once she gets back. Please go ahead and eat without worrying about me, Onitsuka-san.”

“Is that so? Sorry about that.”

Right in front of Misa-chan, I pulled four rice balls out of the plastic bag and lined them up on the table.

On top of that, I placed the oden Misa-chan had given me this morning on the table as well.

Stuffing a tuna-mayo rice ball into my mouth, I asked,

“Want to watch some TV?”

Operating the remote, I started channel-surfing.

However, since there didn’t seem to be any particularly interesting programs, I stopped moving the remote on a news broadcast.

“How’s exam prep going? Making good progress?”

“Yes. On the national mock exams the other day, I got an A-rating.”

“Heh, that’s amazing.”

“Thank you. And well…”

I spent a relaxing dinner time chatting with Misa-chan as she happily talked about her improved grades.