"Likes?!"
Sonoko was instantly dumbfounded when she heard that.
She swallowed, a few unpleasant possibilities surfacing in her mind.
Ran saw the strange expression on her best friend's face and didn't understand it.
Sonoko fidgeted. "Hey, Ran, when you said likes..."
"Don't tell me she has... those kinds of feelings for me?"
"Huh?"
Ran was dumbfounded too.
No, what was her best friend even thinking?
Was... was that reasonable?
The corner of her mouth twitched. "Sonoko?"
Sonoko coughed lightly. "Ran, when you said likes, you didn't mean... the kind of liking between girls, did you...?"
"Wait a second!"
Ran immediately cut off Sonoko's wild words. "What on earth are you talking about?"
"I mean the liking you mentioned, Ran..." Sonoko said quietly. "I saw it in manga before. That kind of thing."
"..."
Ran gave her a deadpan stare as she looked at her best friend...
She felt like her best friend might have some strange preferences.
Still, after thinking about it, she sighed.
Then she explained, "What I meant was... she doesn't dislike you. She likes you... has a favorable impression of you... Uh..."
But as she spoke, she realized she really didn't know how to explain it.
In the end, she could only rack her brains, take a deep breath, and explain, "It means she doesn't dislike you..."
"In a sense, it's like how we're good friends."
"It feels like sisters."
"Oh, so that's what it was..."
Sonoko immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Ran: "..."
This really wasn't the time to relax, was it?!
Wasn't the important thing the matter between her, Momiji, and Senior?!
She fell silent for a moment, grumbled inwardly, then asked, "Then, Sonoko, what do you think?"
"About what...?" Sonoko looked puzzled. "What do you mean, what do I think?"
"I mean the