"Mio, why are you walking so fast?"
Yuigahama Yui had noticed it the moment they left the shop—ever since she'd finished buying her gift, Shirai Mio had been strangely on edge, her pace picking up with every step.
"I just want to get home and study."
Mio kept her expression carefully neutral as she said it.
In reality, her heart was hammering. Because while Yui had been at the register, the counter had—inexplicably—ticked from 3 to 4. One more person needed to mistake them for a couple, and the task would complete.
The good news, at least, was that Yui had her hands full with shopping bags now and had stopped holding onto her arm. To any onlooker, they'd just look like two ordinary friends walking together. No reason for anyone to get the wrong idea.
Still, better to get out of here as fast as possible. The task only failed if she left without triggering it—so the exit was her finish line.
Yui narrowed her eyes at the excuse. Study? The Mio she knew treated schoolwork with about as much urgency as a napping cat. She wasn't buying it for a second.
They rode the elevator down to the ground floor. The main entrance was right there—just a short walk across the atrium. In Mio's eyes, those doors might as well have been a portal to salvation.
Almost there. Just a few more steps—
A familiar figure brushed past them in the crowd.
Hikigaya Hachiman. The Great Teacher himself.
In the same instant, the counter in her vision jumped from 4 to 5. Time ground to a halt.
"Congratulations, Host, on completing the task. Yuigahama Yui's conquest rating has increased by 2 points. Yuigahama Yui's conquest rating has now reached 50. Task difficulty will advance to the next stage. The host has taken yet another step down the road to becoming someone's girlfriend~"
"Why—why did it come to this?!"
In the frozen world, Mio's face was a picture of pure helplessness.
She'd been steps from the exit. A few more seconds and the task would have failed. But no—of all the moments for it to trigger, it had to be now, when she and Yui weren't even doing anything remotely couple-ish.
Who? Who had looked at them just now and thought those two are dating? They weren't hugging, weren't holding hands, weren't even standing that close—
"System. You didn't rig this."
"Of course not. Someone genuinely did just mistake you two for a couple—that's the only way the task completes. If anything, Host, today's luck was extraordinary~" The System sounded thoroughly delighted.
"Screw that kind of luck. Keep it."
"Well, the task is done either way. Perhaps the host would like to focus on choosing her reward~"
Honestly, Mio had zero interest in rewards right now. She gave the options a cursory glance—and then stopped.
Among the selections was a card labeled [Vacation Pass].
It would grant her one task-free day per month. No tasks would trigger during that day, period.
The moment she saw it, her eyes stung. She selected it without a second's hesitation.
Under normal circumstances, pulling a card like this would have had her grinning for a week. Right now, she didn't know whether to feel relieved or hollow.
Both, probably.
She had no idea what kind of deranged tasks awaited her now that the difficulty had escalated. But at least she'd have one day a month to breathe.
Time resumed.
Yui blinked at her. "Mio? You stopped walking."
Mio let out a small sigh, then turned to her with a practiced sweet smile. "Sorry—thought I spotted a classmate."
"Huh?" Yui glanced around but saw nothing. Her attention had been on Mio the entire time; she hadn't been watching the crowd.
"They probably moved on already. Come on, let's head out. I really do want to study."
"...Okay."
Across the atrium, Hikigaya Komachi tugged on her brother's sleeve.
"Hey, Onii-chan—did you see that? The silver-haired girl. She was absolutely gorgeous."
"Yeah," Hikigaya Hachiman said calmly. "She's in my class."
"What?! You have someone that pretty in your class and you never mentioned her?!"
"Because she has nothing to do with me." He paused, then added under his breath, "Besides—if I had to guess, she's probably only interested in girls."
"Onii-chan, I kind of already figured that just from looking at them." Komachi's tone was matter-of-fact.
"...Komachi, that hurt a little."
"Don't worry! You'll always have me~" She patted her chest proudly. "And for the record? That last comment of yours earned you a lot of Komachi points."
"I'm home~"
Yuigahama Yui let herself in and called out of habit. The only response was Sablé trotting out to greet her—no sign of her mother anywhere.
She went to the kitchen to fix some drinks and snacks, and that was when she spotted the note stuck to the fridge door.
"Sweetie, something came up and I had to head out! I probably won't be back until after six—and that's the earliest. Could easily be later. If you need me to come home even later, just call or text anytime! ♡"
Her mother had drawn a little smiley face at the bottom.
Looking at it, Yui felt her mother's smile surface in her memory. She peeled the note off the fridge without a second's hesitation and tucked it out of sight.
Good thing Mio hadn't seen that.
Though—even if she had, it probably wouldn't have mattered.
Yui arranged the drinks and snacks on a tray and headed back to her room. She pushed the door open—and found Shirai Mio sprawled across her bed, rolling back and forth with the restless energy of someone wrestling with a very large problem.
"Mio." Yui set the tray down. "What's going on with you?"
Mio stopped rolling. She sat up slowly, tilted her head, and said with a perfectly composed expression, "Nothing. Let's get back to studying."
She said it easily enough. What she didn't say was that while Yui had been in the kitchen, the System had surfaced again—and handed her a new task.