Shiina: "What's a Fiji Cup?"

Today was actually pretty busy.

He sighed inwardly and hurried over, taking three steps for every two.

"Long time no see, Xia Mu." Seeing Xia Mu return, Shiina breathed a small sigh of relief, a gentle smile spreading across her little face.

Lately, she had deliberately avoided contact with Xia Mu, afraid Long Yuan would give him trouble.

But after several days without seeing him, she still felt worried, so she took the initiative to come find him.

To her surprise, he wasn't in his dorm, and he didn't reply to her messages. She worried that Long Yuan might have given him trouble.

She would feel terribly guilty if that were the case, since she had been the one to invite Xia Mu to be her reading companion.

Now that she saw he was all right, she felt relieved.

But once the relief passed, she didn't know what to say. She could only awkwardly tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Come in and sit for a while."

Noticing Shiina's awkwardness, Xia Mu opened the door wide and spoke softly.

"Ah, okay..." Shiina answered quietly, changed her shoes, and stepped inside.

As soon as she entered, she curiously looked around.

What would a boy's room be like?

But the result disappointed her. It was pretty clean, but was that pair of underwear swaying in the breeze on the balcony really for real?

"Help yourself to the snacks on the table," Xia Mu said, then asked, "What would you like to drink?"

"Ah, anything's fine. Just get me some kind of sparkling water," Shiina replied. While Xia Mu went to get drinks, she looked through the snack bags on the table.

Just then, a gigantic sausage caught her eye.

It must be a Jumbo Sausage!

She knew a lot about snacks, but at the same time, she noticed a note beside the sausage.

"Wait, don't look!!!"

Xia Mu had just taken out the drinks. His heart jumped, and he blurted out a shout.

"Huh?" The sudden yell startled Shiina. "What's wrong?"

But Xia Mu telling her not to look only made her more curious.

Xia Mu was usually so quiet and composed. That note had to hold one of his little secrets!

"Uh, it's nothing."

Xia Mu thought it over. "Go ahead and look."

She couldn't read Chinese anyway.

"Oh~"

Shiina blinked cutely and looked down. "Was this sent to you by a friend?"

"Mm..."

"Fēijībēi? What's that? Is that what you call this sausage in Huaxia?"

Shiina's words struck Xia Mu like a bolt from the blue. He stood there, stunned.

Such a cute girl had just read out the words "Fiji Cup."

That was pretty erotic.

But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was, "You can read those characters!!???" Xia Mu exclaimed in shock.

"Mm-hm."

Shiina had spent a long time trying to figure out what the three characters meant, so she'd memorized them. Then she put down the note and turned to look at Xia Mu with a puzzled expression. "What's wrong?"

"I studied Chinese really hard so I could read novels from Huaxia."

"Cough, cough..."

"It's nothing."

Xia Mu was sweating buckets, so he hurriedly changed the subject. "Let's have our drinks."

Then he handed Shiina the drink in his hand.

"Hmm?" Shiina stared intently at Xia Mu's face. There was definitely something fishy going on.

But she didn't press him. She sat down slowly, opened the sparkling water, and took a sip. "Ah~"

After drinking, she wore a blissful smile.

"I thought only shut-ins like me enjoyed sparkling water," Xia Mu said, taking a small sip too.

"Wrong!"

Shiina pushed the can away. "That's completely wrong. You can't label a certain group of people just because they like something. Wouldn't that be unfair to everyone else who genuinely likes it?"

Her little face shone with earnestness.

Though it did sound a bit like she was defending herself.

In fact, she was a shut-in too, and she liked staying in to read.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Xia Mu joked. "How could I ever argue with a young lady~"

"Hmph." Shiina gave a quiet huff and shook her clenched fist. Then, as if she'd just thought of something, she asked Xia Mu, "By the way, has Long Yuan been giving you any trouble lately?"

"No," Xia Mu replied.

It'd be a miracle if I were the one who didn't give him trouble.

"Phew..." Seeing that Xia Mu didn't seem to be lying, Shiina finally felt the weight lift from her heart.

Then she took a few books out of her shoulder bag and looked at Xia Mu with a blink. "Could you read with me again?"

"I thought about it, and there are a lot of people in the library who'd see us together."

"They might misunderstand our relationship and get in the way of you finding a girlfriend!"

She put extra emphasis on that last sentence, wanting to see how Xia Mu would react.

But Xia Mu only answered calmly, "Sure."

"Mm... all right."

Shiina's feelings were complicated. She was happy, but also a little disappointed.

She was happy that she could read with Xia Mu again, but disappointed that he didn't want other people to misunderstand their relationship.

These strange feelings that had suddenly sprung up muddled Shiina's thoughts, leaving her at a loss.

Still, it had been several days since she'd spent time reading with Xia Mu.

Now they were finally together again. It felt wonderful...

Shiina stole a glance at Xia Mu and smiled to herself.

It was almost midnight by the time she reluctantly said goodbye to Xia Mu and returned to her room.

She opened her computer and typed "Fiji Cup" into the search bar.

Shiina hadn't forgotten those three crucial characters.

There was no harm in looking, but the instant she did, her little face turned bright red.

A blush spread across both cheeks.

"Ughhh..."

Now that she understood what it was, she was both embarrassed and curious.

She turned off the lights and, despite her embarrassment, continued reading about what a "Fiji Cup" was used for.

The dim white light fell across her cheeks, reflecting a rosy glow.

"So that's what it is..."

Only now did she realize just how mortifying her behavior had been.

"Does Xia Mu do that kind of thing too?"

She leaned back in her chair, hugging a stuffed toy, and couldn't help imagining it.

"Eek... ahh..."

Just thinking about it was enough to make her unbearably embarrassed. She quickly covered her face with the toy, then wiped her browsing history clean.

To make sure it couldn't come back, she even uninstalled and reinstalled the browser. Only then did she feel at ease.

The next day, since he'd promised Horikita Suzune the day before, Xia Mu had no choice but to take action.

As soon as class ended, he followed the Trio to the gymnasium.

The gymnasium at this school was huge, and it was divided into areas such as the basketball court and the badminton court.

"Ken, Xia Mu seems to be following us."

Rather than following them, he was practically walking alongside them in the open.

Kanji had spotted Xia Mu a long time ago. The events of that night still lingered in his mind like a nightmare he couldn't shake.

Yamauchi was there too, and all three of them had been sweating buckets for a while now.

"Tch!!"

Sudo gritted his teeth, looking thoroughly unconvinced as he hurled a basketball at Xia Mu. "What the hell do you want?"

But when the basketball came hurtling toward Xia Mu at tremendous speed, he stopped it with casual ease.

That alone showed just how strong he was.

Xia Mu tossed the basketball back and cracked his neck. "I came to invite you guys to study."