"Good morning, Miss Arisu."
Shirou hurriedly wiped his hands on his apron and came over.
"I was using the kitchen."
The girl unhappily raised an eyebrow. "You could tell that just by looking."
Shirou awkwardly scratched his cheek. "I figured I had nothing else to do during the day, so I might as well make lunch... Sorry for using the kitchen without telling you."
Arisu glanced into the kitchen.
She saw the rice cooker boiling rice, the diced ham and carrots on the cutting board, and the green peas, scallions, corn kernels, and eggs in small bowls.
Fried rice?
He was indeed cooking... Was this the entrance hall he had passed through when he went out to buy ingredients earlier?
Remembering that the unfamiliar boy in front of her had seen her sleeping defenselessly, Arisu felt irritated again.
If you hadn't suddenly gotten the urge to make fried rice, I wouldn't have been...
The girl had really wanted to lash out—"Don't enter the kitchen without my permission again!"—but then she reconsidered—
This was probably something Aoko had told him to do.
If Aoko hadn't asked him, there was no reason for the boy to go out of his way to cook.
Feeling somewhat in the wrong, Arisu gave up on lecturing Shirou and merely uttered a single word.
"The furnace..."
"Ah... You noticed?"
Shirou was both hopeful and embarrassed. He hadn't repaired the furnace to curry favor with Arisu.
But if doing this could mend their relationship—
"Don't do this again."
The girl's words were colder than the wind on a winter night, piercing the boy's chest like a sharp blade.
"I understand that you were only following Aoko's instructions.
"That is precisely why it makes me uncomfortable... You clearly don't feel that way, yet you perform such gentle acts...