After a while, Nakano Ichika was still diligently taking notes. The mother and daughter Fushimi Makoto had been watching from the corner of his eye finally made a move.
The little girl walked toward the counter with a Rubik's Cube in her hands. As she passed their table, she might have been too distracted by the cats in the shop, because the cube slipped from her fingers and rolled right to Yukino's feet.
Yukino was about to reach down for it, but Fushimi Makoto picked it up first.
When she looked up, she saw Makoto holding the scrambled cube. He said wistfully, "A 3x3 Rubik's Cube. I used to play with one all the time when I was a kid. Those were the days."
Then he looked at the little girl, who'd been drawn over by his words, and smiled. "Would you like me to solve it for you?"
"Yes!" The little girl nodded enthusiastically. "I've been trying to figure it out for ages, but I don't know how to solve it."
Yukino and Nakano Ichika both looked over.
Fushimi Makoto solved the cube in just a few quick moves, and the little girl's face lit up. "That's amazing!"
"If you learn the right method and practice, you'll be able to do it easily too." Makoto handed the cube back.
Just then, the woman stood up and came over.
As a mother, she couldn't help being concerned when she saw her daughter happily chatting with a stranger.
That was exactly what Fushimi Makoto had wanted.
"You two seem to be having fun," the woman said with a warm smile.
"Mom, this big brother is amazing! He solved my cube just like that!" The little girl was still excited.
"Is that so?" The woman affectionately patted her daughter's head.
Makoto seized the opportunity to speak. "Hello. I'm Fushimi Makoto, a first-year student at Toyosaki School. I picked up your daughter's Rubik's Cube just now, and I couldn't resist showing off a little."
The woman smiled. "It looks like my daughter enjoyed your little show."
Makoto smoothly turned toward Yukino and Nakano Ichika. "They're my classmates."
Both girls politely introduced themselves.
"Hello, I'm Yukinoshita Yukino."
"Hello, I'm Nakano Ichika."
The woman was visibly surprised for a moment when she heard the girls' names, but quickly hid it.
She smiled and asked, "Would you mind if I sat with you? My daughter seems to enjoy spending time with you."
The little girl nodded. "I want to play with this big brother."
Makoto answered with a smile. "Of course."
For some reason, the woman found Makoto's smile familiar. The Yukinoshita name had also caught her attention, so she sat down with her daughter.
After taking their seats, the woman chatted warmly with Fushimi Makoto and the two girls.
Yukino and Nakano Ichika both sat up straight, looking attentive and polite.
Makoto alone remained as casual as ever.
He'd been through this scene during the Time Loop.
When the woman mentioned that her greatest hobbies were petting cats and painting, Nakano Ichika added, "Fushimi is really good at painting. Maybe you could all talk about it."
The woman looked at Makoto, who calmly replied, "I've certainly studied it."
Yukino couldn't help looking at him too.
You've studied it again, huh?
Seriously, what haven't you studied?
After a little more conversation, the woman took her daughter and said goodbye, careful not to impose.
Before leaving, she exchanged contact information with Makoto and the others.
As soon as they were gone, Yukino and Nakano Ichika fell silent in perfect unison.
Their eyes both landed on Makoto.
Makoto seemed not to notice at all. He simply picked up a calico cat.
"You started talking to her on purpose," Yukino said first.
It wasn't a question. She sounded certain.
Nakano Ichika tilted her head and said cutely, "So you really did do it on purpose. I thought I was imagining things."
Yukino stared at Makoto, wanting to hear his answer.
And then...
Makoto rubbed the calico cat so comfortably that it kept letting out soft, adorable meows.
Yukino's gaze drifted to the cat without her realizing it.
No.
Look at the cat later!
Yukino quickly collected herself.
Before she could speak, Makoto said, "I did do it on purpose."
The two girls sitting across from him perked up, waiting for him to continue.
Makoto first explained to Nakano Ichika. "Yukinoshita's parents have been negotiating a very important business deal lately, but for various reasons, they still haven't finalized the partnership."
Nakano Ichika looked confused. "Why are you suddenly bringing that up?"
What she was really thinking was: Is he close enough to Yukinoshita to have met her parents already?
Yukino, however, looked thoughtful. "Could that woman just now have been Mrs. Fujiwara...?"
"That's right. Her family is the one your mother wants to work with," Makoto answered.
Yukino froze for a moment.
Nakano Ichika gradually understood too. "So Fushimi, you're helping Yukinoshita?"
Then she added, "But just sitting together and chatting doesn't mean the other party will agree to work with the Yukinoshita Family."
Makoto smiled at her. "That's the key. Since you and Yukinoshita were both there today, that woman will go home and put in a good word for you."
He added, "She's not a housewife, either. She has a lot of influence at home."
Nakano Ichika was about to ask how he knew, but Yukino spoke first. "Ichika, does your family have an unusual background?"
Makoto looked at the two beautiful girls before him and said slowly, "If Yukinoshita is the second daughter of her family, then Ichika could be considered a young lady from a prominent family."
Nakano Ichika laughed helplessly and waved a hand. "Don't call me something so strange. No one's ever called me that before."
"I see," Yukino said, understanding.
By the time she looked at Makoto again, her feelings had already shifted.
Makoto scratched the cat under its chin and said casually, "Yukinoshita, you'll get a call from your mother tonight. In a few days, I might even meet her."
Yukino's little face tensed.
Clearly, Mrs. Yukinoshita still put a lot of pressure on her.
Nakano Ichika noticed and asked tentatively, "Yukinoshita, is something wrong?"
Yukino shook her head. She didn't really want to talk about her mother with someone else.
Nakano Ichika tactfully left it there, then smiled at Makoto. "So today you used Yukinoshita and me to borrow authority for your own purposes?"
Makoto replied, "That's one way to put it."
Nakano Ichika blinked playfully. "Then shouldn't you thank me too?"
"If I'm really going to thank you, I should probably thank your four younger sisters too. You're a family, after all."
"That's fine. I can accept your thanks on their behalf."
Nakano Ichika said with a smile. Then she seemed to think of something, and her smile grew even sweeter. "By the way, we're all friends now, so call me Ichika from now on."
"Sure." Makoto didn't refuse.
The smile in Nakano Ichika's eyes deepened. "Then can I call you Makoto?"
Makoto said, "If you don't mind, you can call me Brother Makoto."
"Oh? So you like girls calling you big brother? I suppose I don't mind," Nakano Ichika teased.
Listening to their conversation, Yukino felt a strange sort of unease.
The feeling was unmistakable, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
Then Nakano Ichika asked Makoto for acting advice again, and he answered every question without holding anything back.
At last, Yukino understood what that strange feeling was.
The difference!
He treated Ichika differently from the way he treated me.
It was like how he'd called her "Yukino" at first, but now called her "Yukinoshita."
Yukino hadn't seen A Chinese Odyssey, or she might have understood the line from the Bull Demoness: Back then, you called me your little sweetheart.
She knew perfectly well that she absolutely didn't like Fushimi Makoto.
So there was only one explanation for why that difference bothered her: just as he'd said, she really did care about what he did.
If they'd only just met, she wouldn't feel this way.
But things were different now.
She knew the Time Loop existed, and she wanted to understand the truth... or perhaps she wanted to uncover the truth about this world.
Now that supernatural phenomena existed, if she didn't figure things out, the growing number of mysteries would surely keep her up at night.
And the key to the truth was hidden with Fushimi Makoto.
Yet right now, he was giving more of his attention to Nakano Ichika.
When Fushimi Makoto left the cat café, he messaged Matsukaze Mayu to say he'd made plans with a classmate that day and wouldn't be home for dinner.
Matsukaze Mayu understandingly replied that it was all right.
After dinner, Nakano Ichika also prepared to head home.
While Makoto was buying water at a convenience store, she noticed that Yukino didn't seem ready to leave and asked, "Yukinoshita, have you noticed? Makoto seems more charming today."
"What do you mean, more charming?" Yukino asked, puzzled.
Nakano Ichika pressed a pale finger to her lips as she thought. "Hmm, how should I put it? He just feels more approachable, maybe? I'm not sure if that's the right way to say it."
Yukino froze.
That's right!
I feel that way too.
No wonder I care about him more than before.
"There is something different," Yukino admitted.
Nakano Ichika gazed at Makoto, who was paying at the convenience store, and murmured as if to herself, "I wish I'd met him sooner."
Yukino said flatly, "Are you saying what you really feel, or are you trying to test what I think of him?"
Nakano Ichika smiled. "You're overthinking it. I'm just musing."
Yukino remembered that Fushimi Makoto was a womanizer by nature.
But she wasn't the sort of person to talk badly about someone behind his back.
So, when the words reached her lips, she said in an even tone, "Only a fool would date him."
Nakano Ichika looked taken aback. "Why?"
Before you continue