"I don't think there's any need to promote it when we're the ones providing help..." Yukino Yukinoshita looked somewhat flustered.
"Hehe..." This time, before Sogo Doma could speak, Utaha Kasumigaoka laughed. "So Snow Girl didn't actually do anything?"
"I..." The young lady opened her mouth.
"Actually, Yukinoshita could say she's helping Mashiro..." Sogo said, once again raising and wagging his index finger.
Yukino Yukinoshita: "..."
She couldn't say it. She absolutely couldn't say it. The one who had asked her to help Mashiro was the guy right in front of her. If she used that excuse, it would only prove he was right: aside from founding the Service Club, she had done nothing. Even the only request she had received had come looking for her...
"So I haven't accomplished anything?" she murmured.
"Yukinoshita, didn't I say so? You're helping Mashiro..." Sogo tilted his head.
"Is that supposed to be sarcasm?" The young lady gritted her teeth. Maybe he was right, but...
"It isn't sarcasm..." Sogo shook his head again. "Even if helping Mashiro came from my request, you still went and did it, didn't you?"
"You..."
"Didn't you say that someone who can create nothing, gain nothing, and give nothing is the very definition of a fake?"
"..." The young lady did not answer.
Fortunately, Sogo did not mind. "Since you've already defined what a fake is, why are you asking me what's real? Being able to create what should be created, reap what should be reaped, and give what one can give—isn't that the real thing? So here's the question: did you find something real while helping Mashiro?"
"..." The young lady still did not answer. Or rather, she did not know how to answer.
"You created shared memories, gained a wonderful stretch of time, and gave each other