Cagalli slowly turned around. Before her stood Jiliang, wearing a gentle smile, with Lacus beside her, also smiling softly.
The two stood intimately side by side, Jiliang's dark brown hair and Lacus's pink hair swaying gently beneath the ship's white lights.
They looked like the most harmonious painting in the world—two peerless girls standing arm in arm at the corner of a steel corridor, their smiles so pure they held not a trace of impurity.
Starlight filled Jiliang's violet eyes, while spring waters rippled in Lacus's blue ones. In that instant, Cagalli understood why Mu had worn such a despairing expression. These two were simply too dazzling.
Needless to say, they were Jiliang and Lacus, the two people the three had just been discussing.
"Jiliang, Lacus..."
"...Uh, Cagalli? What's wrong? Your face is really red... You don't have a fever, do you?"
"Xia Ya, Mu, your expressions both look rather strange... Did something happen?"
Having just arrived, Jiliang and Lacus naturally had no idea what the three had been talking about.
They had merely finished inventorying the supplies aboard the ship. On their way back to their quarters, they had spotted Mu, Xia Ya, and Cagalli gathered together and naturally walked over.
Yet they ran headlong into this stagnant air—a complicated scent mixed with guilt, embarrassment, despair, and shame, like spilled bottles of seasoning quietly fermenting in the corridor.
Pure confusion appeared in Jiliang's amethyst-like eyes. She blinked suspiciously, her gaze moving back and forth across the three faces bearing entirely different expressions.
Lacus, meanwhile, tilted her head slightly. Her pink hair swayed softly with the motion, and her usual elegant smile remained on her face, though it carried a hint of bewilderment as well.
Her fingers lightly tapped her smooth chin, as if she were pondering some riddle.
On