"Sigh..."
The thousands of words in his heart finally turned into nothing but a deep sigh.
When the red light turned green, just as Senba Gari was about to step onto the crosswalk, a soft, sweet voice suddenly called out to him from behind.
"Gari-nii?"
Senba Gari's body gave a sharp jolt. Then he turned around and saw Minami Kotori standing behind him, carrying a bag in each hand.
"It really is Gari-nii. I thought I'd recognized the wrong person." Once she confirmed that the person in front of her was Senba Gari, Minami Kotori happily came closer.
As Minami Kotori walked toward him, he also moved in her direction. On the busy street, he even had the spare focus to study Minami Kotori's outfit under the streetlight.
The bow on her head had, unusually, been changed to a green frilled hair tie. Around her neck was a simple, plain necklace shaped like a little bird. She wore a pale green, almost white knitted coat, with a white blouse underneath that had hollowed-out lace trim. Her black-gray short skirt had tiny bows on both sides. Perhaps because it was already late October and the nights were relatively colder than the days now, she had deliberately put on gray tights. There was also a faint blush on her face, making her look rather adorable.
"You're getting prettier and prettier." Perhaps because he had been absentminded all night, Senba Gari unconsciously said what was in his heart out loud.
"Hm? What did you say?"
Minami Kotori happened to hear him, but because of the noisy voices around them and because Senba Gari's voice just now had been very quiet, she couldn't make out the inner thought he had accidentally spoken aloud.
"Uh, no, nothing." He felt relieved inside, yet also found it