Seeing the confusion in his eyes, Miss Tamayo sighed. "So that really is the case."
"What do you mean?" Tetsu no Sosuke asked.
"The Insect Pillar," Miss Tamayo said. "Have you never paid close attention to her?"
"Shinobu Kocho?" Tetsu no Sosuke smiled. "Of course I have. Very close attention, in fact. We're family, after all. She's my wife's younger sister, and to me, she's like my own little sister. How could I not pay attention to her or care about her?"
"If you've paid such close attention, have you really not noticed?"
Miss Tamayo looked at Tetsu no Sosuke. "Not noticed that she likes you?"
"..."
Tetsu no Sosuke froze for a moment, then opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something. But then he frowned and shook his head.
Finally, he smiled. "That's a very creative joke."
"I'm serious." Miss Tamayo sighed. "Actually, both Yushiro and I can see it. This is your business, and as an outsider, I had no reason to interfere. Perhaps the way things are now is something you've both accepted. But lately, she hasn't seemed very emotionally stable. I'm worried that, at such a critical time, she might become trapped by her own feelings and suffer a mishap that should never have happened."
"That's why I took the liberty of bringing it up," Miss Tamayo told Tetsu no Sosuke. "If this has caused you any distress, I'm sorry."
Tetsu no Sosuke scratched his head. "I wouldn't call it distress. It's just... are you sure what you're saying is true?"
Miss Tamayo nodded in all seriousness.
Tetsu no Sosuke fell silent.
He thought it over carefully, and it did seem strange.
Shinobu Kocho's attitude toward him, sometimes distant and sometimes close, her shifting moods, and all her other behavior did seem to