The next day!
AM 03:50.
Having experience with overnight shoots, Mai Sakurajima did not feel particularly uncomfortable when she woke from her light sleep. After glancing at Kazusa Touma and Mashiro Shiina, who were sleeping soundly beside her, she quietly got up without disturbing them.
What Mai Sakurajima had not expected was that, during the period when she could not be observed by others, she would meet and get to know several such interesting people. It was as though heaven were compensating her for having had no friends in the past. And after getting to know them, she understood what it meant that every family had its own troubles...
At that thought, she looked again at the sleeping Kazusa Touma. Like her, this glamorous-looking girl had a rather unreliable mother. The difference was that Mai's mother had secretly signed her up for a gravure photo shoot she did not want to do for the sake of money, while Youko Touma...
Mai Sakurajima shook her head. In truth, her circumstances were quite similar to Miss Kazusa's—both came from single-parent families, and both had unreliable mothers. But Kazusa Touma had always resisted in her own way, whereas Mai had gone along with it until she could endure it no longer...
Mai Sakurajima did not know who was right and who was wrong between herself and Kazusa Touma. Still, Kazusa had indeed tried something Mai herself had once considered but never dared to do. Mai admired that. Yet when they talked, she had also seen the look in Kazusa's eyes. It seemed that Kazusa admired her as well. Looking at it that way, it really was a muddled mess...
Still, their nearly identical upbringing had given them much to talk about. It improved the mood of Mai Sakurajima, who lacked opportunities to communicate