After hanging up Hōjō Suzune's call, Shiratori Seiya felt a wave of relief that he hadn't given in to her pleas. Shione would never let her high school senior sister run off to Tokyo—that was simply impossible.
He settled back at his desk, reviewing the phased plan he'd written for Takahashi Mio. Carefully checking each step. Confirmed. No issues. Time to sleep.
Ding-dong.
His phone screen lit up again. Takahashi Mio.
The notification showed three unread messages.
Right—she'd texted earlier, before Suzune called. He'd been distracted.
He opened the chat.
Takahashi Mio: "Shiratori-kun, are you free Saturday afternoon? Everyone wants to meet you~"
Takahashi Mio: [Image]
Takahashi Mio: "Shiratori-kun... is this you?"
Shiratori Seiya's expression froze.
The photo was blurry—phone zoom, low resolution—but unmistakable. Himself and Hōjō Shione. At the school gate. Her holding the umbrella, facing him.
Trouble.
Not because of Mio. He could explain that. But if this got out—if paparazzi learned Shione's "boyfriend" was at Tama University—the media circus would be endless.
He shouldn't have met her. Or at least not at the gate.
He typed back: "It's me."
Takahashi Mio: "Oh..."
Instant reply. Just "oh." Impossible to read.
"Is that Hōjō Shione?"
"Yes."
"So she really was your girlfriend?"
"I didn't lie to you."
"..."
>>>
Two hours earlier, Takahashi Mio had been feeling clever.
Haruno Reika's advice echoed in her mind: To know what kind of person he really is, you need to know his past. And to know his past, you need people who knew him then.
They'd found no one at Tama University who knew Shiratori Seiya.
Dead end.
So the plan shifted: a group dinner. Her friends, meeting him. Casual conversation, careful questions. Information extraction.
She felt a little guilty about it, honestly. But if he turned out to be a good person—and after these two days, she was starting to think he might be—she'd make it up to him. Be a real girlfriend. Fulfill her duties properly.
Because there was something about him. Something different from every other man she'd met. Reassuring. Compelling. She couldn't quite name it.
That evening, she'd booked the private room and headed to meet her friends.
The moment she walked in, the room went silent.
Eerie silence. The kind that made you check if the world had suddenly muted itself. Even Haruno Reika stared, mouth open, utterly dumbfounded.
Mio blinked, touching her face self-consciously. "What? Is something wrong?"
Her friends exchanged glances. Reika recovered first, forcing a smile.
"Mio... why did you change your whole style?"
Oh.
Right. The makeover.
After Shiratori Seiya's makeover, Takahashi Mio was practically unrecognizable.
The most dramatic change was her hair—the gold-streaked-with-blue disaster was gone, replaced by flowing black waves that curved gently at the ends, framing her face like a painting. The cut was perfect, designed specifically for her features. Her usual uniform of short skirts and stockings had been replaced by a pale blue long dress paired with a white chiffon blouse.
She looked elegant. Serene. Beautiful in a completely different way.
Before, she'd been flashy—a peacock displaying its feathers. Now she was like a rose in full bloom, radiating a quiet, deep beauty that made it impossible to look away.
Basking in her friends' astonished gazes, Mio felt a surge of satisfaction. She pretended shyness, smiling demurely. "Stop staring, it's weird. I'm still the same person..."
But her movements had become more graceful, more deliberate. She was enjoying this.
She settled beside Haruno Reika, picked up the menu. "Have you ordered yet? It's been forever since we all got together. My treat, okay?"
Reika's eyebrow twitched. She gave Mio a long look, then took the menu. "Finally. It's about time you treated us, now that you've landed a boyfriend."
That word—boyfriend—opened the floodgates.
The round-faced girl across the table lit up. "Wait, Reika said that earlier but I didn't believe it—Mio, you actually have a boyfriend?! When did this happen?! No warning at all!"
"Just recently, actually..."
"I knew it! You're so pretty, you should've had one ages ago. But your transformation is insane—I almost didn't recognize you walking in!"
The conversation flowed, girls from different majors chiming in with questions and comments. Mio and Reika explained Shiratori Seiya's situation in broad strokes—leaving out the debt, the money, the transactional nature of the arrangement. Just that she wanted them to vet him, to help her figure him out.
The part about digging into his past, his high school, his history? That would happen naturally when they all met. Women were never short on curiosity.
The topic shifted to gossip, as it always did.
One of the thinner girls—short-haired, almost gaunt—piped up. "Hey, did anyone check the school forum today?"
"No, what happened?" The round-faced girl paused mid-bite of her chicken snack. "Did someone's relationship explode? Someone's takeout get stolen? Another affair exposed?"
"Bigger. Way bigger."
She leaned in.
"Apparently Hōjō Shione came to our school today. And she ran off with some guy—her boyfriend, supposedly."
"Huh?"
"'Ran off' is a weird way to put it. And isn't she supposed to be prepping for that concert next month? She'd be crazy busy."
"That's what I thought too. But there's a photo."
"A photo? Really?"
"Yeah. Blurry, just a side profile, but..."
The girl zoomed in and placed her phone in the center of the table. Everyone crowded around.
Takahashi Mio held back. A bad feeling coiled in her stomach.
"No full face. She's wearing a mask. You sure that's Hōjō Shione?"
"Comments say lots of people saw her at noon. Probably not AI."
"Hey—Mio, you're her fan, right? Didn't you buy all her merch? Went to her lives? You'd recognize her."
All eyes turned to Mio.
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, smile carefully in place. "I should be able to tell."
She picked up the phone.
Her gaze landed on the photo—and froze.
The woman was Hōjō Shione. No question.
But it was the man beside her that made Mio's world tilt.
Shiratori Seiya.
The same build. Same posture. Same everything.
"Well? Is it her, Mio?"
She didn't hear the question. Her hand tightened on the phone.
Reika, sharp as ever, noticed. She stomped gently on Mio's foot beneath the table.
Mio startled back to reality. Set the phone down. Forced a laugh.
"Sorry, I was staring too hard." She shook her head, keeping her voice light. "Can't really tell. Too blurry, and the mask hides too much."
"Ah, too bad..."
The conversation moved on. New topics bubbled up. But Mio sat through dinner like a ghost, her mind replaying the lunch date with Shiratori Seiya on an endless loop.
That call he took. The way he'd looked afterward. Was that Hōjō Shione on the phone?
Is she really his girlfriend?
How is that possible?
>>>
Time blurred. Dinner ended. Goodbyes were said.
Reika pulled her aside near a streetlamp, lit a cigarette, and took a long drag.
"That was Hōjō Shione in the photo, wasn't it?"
Mio shook her head. "I don't know."
But she did. She'd known instantly.
Reika exhaled smoke. "And the guy? Your new boyfriend?"
This time, Mio nodded. Small. Stiff.
Reika finished her cigarette in silence, staring at the streetlight's glow.
When she spoke, her voice was quiet. Measured.
"Then maybe... this isn't such a bad thing for you."