"Yui~"
Yui, who'd been waiting at the usual spot, suddenly heard Mio's familiar voice.
She whipped her head around and, in one glance, caught sight of the Mio she hadn't seen in ages — and though it had only been a few days, to Yui it might as well have been forever.
It was only when she noticed Shiina Mashiro tagging along at Mio's side that she understood spending time alone with Mio today probably wasn't in the cards.
Looking at Yui, decked out in a gorgeous kimono, Mio walked over. "Yui, you look so pretty today — not that you're not pretty normally, just, today you look especially good~"
"Thanks." Praised, Yui broke into a happy smile. Then she looked Mio over — same as ever — and asked, "How come you and Shiina-san aren't wearing one?"
Mio gave an awkward but polite smile. "Forgot."
The truth was, she'd have liked to try wearing one herself; she didn't really care either way about her own outfit, but she'd wanted to see Mashiro in one. She'd just forgotten to get them ready beforehand, so it ended up being business as usual.
"And here I was hoping to see a different side of you. A little disappointing~" Yui said it like that, but having finally gotten to see Mio, she didn't look the least bit disappointed.
"You'll get plenty of chances. Don't dwell on it. More importantly, let's get going."
"Okay."
Yui answered, then sidled up to Mio as if it were the most natural thing in the world and took her hand.
Mashiro, noticing, quietly grabbed hold of Mio's other hand — and the look she turned on Yui carried a touch of wariness.
She was finally starting to grasp what her cousin had meant when she'd said Mio was popular.
Sandwiched between two beautiful girls, Mio was pretty happy about it — but somehow the pressure had gone up by a baffling amount.
Back before she transmigrated, being sandwiched between two stunning girls like this probably would've earned her death glares from every passerby in sight.
But now... well.
Better left unsaid.
On the first day of the new year, the crowds at the shrine for hatsumōde were enormous — "a sea of people" wasn't an exaggeration in the slightest.
It took the three of them a good while to inch their way to the front of the line, which carried more than a little of that same feeling as attending Comiket a while back.
Once they'd finally finished offering their prayers and squeezed back out of the throng, Yui dragged her into yet another round of lining up — this time to buy charms.
Mio was waiting in that line when a familiar voice suddenly rang out behind them. "Yui — and Mio-chan! You two finally made it~"
Mio turned at the sound and instantly spotted Yui's mother. Mrs. Yuigahama, dressed in a kimono, had a certain charm all her own — even Mio couldn't help sneaking a few extra glances.
"Host, there you go again!"
"No — I'm not, I didn't, stop making things up."
After tossing off that flimsy defense for herself, Mio turned to greet Mrs. Yuigahama. "I didn't see you with Yui earlier, so I figured you had other things going on today."
"I actually wanted to come along with my daughter, but she cruelly turned me down." Mrs. Yuigahama made a show of dabbing at nonexistent tears before going on, "This morning Yui was up at the crack of dawn, changing her clothes and putting on makeup and all that. I thought she had a date with someone — turns out it was with Mio-chan~"
"I-I just went to bed early last night, so I got up early! That's all!" Yui scrambled to defend herself from the side.
"Oh~? So three in the morning counts as early now, does it?"
Seeing her mom gearing up to spill more, Yui hurriedly clapped a hand over her mother's mouth, then shot her a warning through eye contact alone.
"All right, all right, I won't say anything."
Mrs. Yuigahama let out a soft laugh, then glanced at Mashiro — who'd stuck close by Mio's side the whole time — a thoughtful look surfacing in her eyes.
But she quickly smiled and said, "Well, I'll stop bothering you three. Yui, you'd better give it your all~"
"G-give what my all?"
Yui dodged her mother's gaze with a guilty pang. By now she'd basically figured out that her mom had seen straight through the little feelings she had for Mio.
Otherwise there was no way she'd be dropping that many loaded hints.
She wanted to give it her all, too.
Yui shot Mio a long, deep look — but for the life of her she couldn't think of a way to raise Mio's affection toward her. A straight-up confession ran far too high a risk of crashing and burning.
So what on earth was she supposed to do?
Maybe... maybe she should get a little more aggressive?
Beside her, Mio suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. She glanced around on reflex, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Probably just the wind. It was pretty cold today — it had even snowed last night.
Tucking the stray thought away, Mio asked Yui, curious, "Hey, Yui — when you're in a kimono, you're not supposed to wear underwear underneath, right?"
"Huh?" Apparently not expecting that question, Yui blanked for a second before answering, "It's not that you can't, exactly. It's just that there's no real need to."
"In that case, are you right now... ?"
Yui instinctively shielded her chest — but she quickly snapped out of it. A second ago she'd been telling herself to be bolder, and now here she was, going all bashful under Mio's teasing.
Guess deciding to be bolder didn't mean you could just flip the switch that easily, huh?
Right then, Mashiro suddenly asked, "Mio, do you prefer it when there's nothing on underneath?"
"What exactly is rattling around in that little head of yours? I said no such thing." Mio gave Mashiro a light tap on the top of her little head.
Nearly twenty minutes later, the three of them finally made it to the front of the line again.
Mio looked over the dazzling array of amulets and went straight for a household safety charm, then turned her eyes to the other two.
Yui seemed to be wrestling with something. She wanted to pick a love charm, but with Mio standing right there watching, she worried that... no, there was nothing to worry about. She was going to pick the love charm!
Seeing Yui choose a love charm, Mio's first instinct was to tease her about it — but she caught herself fast. Tease her right now and she'd likely get hit with a brutal counter.
After all, the Yui of today was no longer that soft, sweet girl who could only blush, the way she'd been back when they first met.
"Mm? Aren't you going to ask me why I'm picking this kind of charm?"
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