Is That What Best Friends Are For?

"Strange?"

"Yes. Shouldn't you be brewing coffee in a beaker? Seeing you drink ordinary coffee so seriously like this feels a little hard to get used to," Houtarou Oreki said.

"What kind of stereotypical image is that? I may not have much of a presence, but I don't have any intention of being that eccentric," Rio Futaba said.

However.

Rio Futaba felt that it might actually work.

Because she seemed to have found a place and a direction where she could relax.

If she started a club herself, for example, the Science Club, then she could openly brew coffee in a beaker in the laboratory.

Utterly unconventional.

"So, think about it." As Rio Futaba was thinking that, she heard Houtarou Oreki's voice. She raised her head and saw his dark-green eyes. "How about becoming my close friend? The lifelong kind. And you need three people to start a club. I can join, then help you pull in one more person to make up the numbers."

"..." Rio Futaba.

Although she felt that Oreki was brimming with ambition, and that his goal was to obtain a close friend, Rio Futaba couldn't deny that this club-founding proposal of his had moved her a little.

This school wasn't one she had wanted to attend. Her family had made her come here.

Only.

Many students in this school lacked human warmth. They were selfish in all sorts of ways, and everything revolved around profit.

So Rio Futaba felt out of place here. But even though she felt out of place, she wouldn't take the initiative to stir up trouble. Instead, she lowered her own presence.

However.

Oreki's proposal now was offering her a relaxing space where she could break away from these money-scented, profit-driven relationships.

It was indeed very tempting.

"Don't worry. After the