Socializing

Come to think of it, that flower shop I just went to...

Was it Ino's family's?

Chiba lowered his head and looked at the small sunflowers in his hand, blooming beautifully, their petals glimmering with a golden sheen. As he looked at the tightly shut front door, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

This morning, after following Nao's suggestion to purchase the Weighted Training Gear and the items on Hirohiko's list, he had gone to the village flower shop and bought this bouquet. Then, around noon—right now—Chiba had stood here waiting for Yukina, as Nao instructed, with an attitude of "sincerity."

Yukina only had to go to the Defense Force for the morning today. Noon and the afternoon were her time off.

But... why hadn't I thought of this? Girls probably like flowers and things like that, right? Then wouldn't giving her flowers be effective? If Yukina sees these, maybe she won't be angry anymore. Maybe she'll feel better.

Looking at the golden flowers, Chiba silently nodded. He deeply felt that Nao was right, and also deeply felt that although living with Hirohiko and the others these past few years had improved his social skills somewhat, socializing was still his weakness.

He even felt that it might remain his weakness forever. After all, aside from people he knew well, he still did not know how to respond when facing strangers—especially strangers who approached him with goodwill.

But...

How was he supposed to give her these flowers?

Then Chiba realized there was a very serious problem. He had bought the flowers, and everything was ready, but how was he supposed to apologize to Yukina?

"I'm sorry?"

As he thought this, Chiba suddenly made a gesture of offering the flowers, speaking in a tone that even he found difficult.

Too forced.

An