After leaving the station exit, Ishikawa Hayato saw Ryo take out her phone and scroll through it.
"Is this your first time here, Ryo?"
"Yeah," Ryo replied.
After answering, she confirmed the direction and started walking with her phone in hand.
Ishikawa Hayato trailed two steps behind her.
But less than two minutes later, Ryo turned around and asked in a puzzled voice.
"Why are you walking behind me?"
"Ah, I just wanted to see how long it'd take before you turned around."
Ishikawa Hayato smiled and caught up beside her.
Ryo said with faint disdain.
"Are you a child...?"
Ishikawa Hayato clasped both hands to his chest and called sweetly.
"Sister Ryo."
Without saying a word, Ryo quickened her pace. Ishikawa Hayato shut up and hurried after her.
The place Ryo wanted to go was a little farther than Ishikawa Hayato had expected, and she surprisingly had plenty of stamina. Though she did not walk quickly, she had not stopped once since leaving the station.
When they passed a vending machine, Ishikawa Hayato felt thirsty and bought a bottle of mineral water and a bottle of orange juice.
Ryo did not turn around, but she slowed slightly. Her black combat boots kicked up dust from the packed earth.
Ishikawa Hayato took the drinks from the vending machine, caught up to her, and stuffed the orange juice into her hands.
"I didn't know what you liked, so I got you the ultimate drink with a sixty-three percent sales rate among minors at live houses: orange juice."
"If you thought that much about it, couldn't you have just asked?"
After walking for quite a while in the somewhat warm weather, a faint sheen of sweat had appeared on Ryo's snow-white skin. She accepted the drink.
"Thanks, but I'm not paying