"I'm back!"
In the evening, a girl's lively voice rang out from the foyer.
Aoko hurried through the foyer and entrance hall into the living room, where she saw Arisu sitting.
There was no need to guess. Arisu had clearly spent the entire day here again.
But Aoko had no time to worry about that now. She desperately wanted to see someone—
"Where's Shirou? You didn't bully him today, did you?"
Without even looking up, Arisu turned a page and said softly, "He went out."
"Went out? By himself?" Aoko furrowed her brows suspiciously.
"Mm."
"Did he say what he went out to do?"
Arisu shook her head. "No."
Hearing that from her housemate, Aoko's expression immediately turned frantic.
"Why didn't you stop him? What if that boy runs away again?"
Arisu's brows knitted slightly. "Weren't you the one who told me not to argue with him?
"If he runs away again this time, then we can assume there really is something wrong with him."
"I already told you, that boy isn't a bad person!"
Aoko retorted unhappily, "If he really had bad intentions, he could've killed me countless times last night."
"..."
Arisu was actually somewhat displeased as well.
Shirou had just finished drinking her tea when he suddenly seemed to remember some urgent matter and ran out.
I didn't poison you or anything...
Just then, a knock came from the foyer.
Aoko's eyes lit up, and Arisu also turned her head curiously.
—Shirou was back.
"Sorry. I suddenly remembered that I'd forgotten to buy a few ingredients for dinner, so I went to the convenience store."
"What? If that's all it was, you should've said so sooner."
Aoko pressed a hand to her chest and let out a long breath of relief, while the boy spoke with an