ON her way home, all the hopes Mia had built up were mercilessly crushed. She hadn’t changed from her school uniform yet, which made it glaringly apparent that she was still a minor. So anywhere she tried going to buy some alcohol or cigarettes, be it a supermarket, a liquor store, or even a convenience store notorious for its lax age control, she was refused. As her last resort, she turned to vending machines, but even those required an ID card proving she was over 21.
At school, Mia had seen delinquents smoking cigarettes so many times she was completely convinced getting them was as easy as flying in the air, which made her own inability of getting a pack of cigarettes that much harder to swallow. How in the world did they buy them?
Mia had no choice but to drag her feet home in defeat. Well, not home, exactly, because after school she went to Subaru’s apartment instead of her own. Their arrangement was still in place. …For some reason, the number of people involved in it went up though.
Arriving at Subaru’s place, she held down the bell button, letting the chime ring. After a moment, the door was thrown open.
“Welcome back, Mia!”
“Th-Thank you,” Mia replied to Subaru’s greeting with unease plainly written on her face, and took off her shoes at the entrance.
No matter how many times she heard those words, conveying that her presence here was appreciated, something looked forward to even, she just couldn’t get used to them; each time she came, she felt strangely unsettled.
“I was just making dinner. It’ll be ready in another twenty minutes or so. Watch TV or something in the meantime, okay?”
“All right,” answered Mia, and Subaru promptly returned to the kitchen.
Mia padded to the living room and leaned over to prop her schoolbag against the side of the low dining table.
“Hey, good to see you again, Mia!”
“Blegh… Thank you…?”
There was someone already sitting at the table, namely, Crow Ranger Green—Ren. He was smoking a cigarette, another finished one laid smothered in the ashtray.
Lately, Ren started showing up at Mia and Subaru’s shared meals. He had probably heard from Subaru that he was having Mia over for dinner. But it didn’t stop at Ren just showing up, no not at all. Before Ren butted in, Mia went back to eating prepacked meals she bought at a supermarket or a convenience store on the days when Subaru was stuck on nightshift, but ever since Ren began joining them, he made food when Subaru couldn’t. That meant that Mia went to Subaru’s place for dinner every night. She would just have different cooks based on who was working.
What surprised Mia the most was that Ren could actually cook. When he prepared dinner for the first time, Mia stared at it with eyes wide as saucers, as if it were some kind of alien artifact, and shut her eyes tightly in anticipation when she took the first bite, but it turned out to be surprisingly tasty. Ren had then playfully told her, “Duh, who did you take meow for, huh?!” and rubbed her head so vigorously he almost gave Mia an afro.
By the way, unlike Subaru, Ren mostly made stir-fries, like fried rice, or noodle dishes, like udon or ramen. Also, while Subaru’s cooking was undoubtedly more refined, Mia found that she didn’t mind Ren’s erratic seasoning habits at all—not that she would tell him that, of course.
Without even realizing it, Mia was eating out of their hands.
After the initial greeting, Ren and Mia both settled comfortably atop cushions lying around the table and their eyes flickered to the TV screen. There, a news program was on, showing some special feature on fine dining. The presenter was recommending what to eat at the local restaurants and later went on to introduce the highlights of the morning market.
Mia was watching it halfheartedly, until her drifting gaze suddenly stopped at the cigarette Ren was smoking. Noticing her, he curiously tilted his head to the side. “What, you want a welcome home kiss?”
“Wha—I made no such requests! I was just looking at your cigarette!”
Ren made it a habit to try to initiate physical contact with Mia at every opportunity. Not used to such attentions, she reacted with suspicion to all his attempts.
Ren pinched the cigarette between his fingers and waggled it around a bit. “You mean this?”
Mia lightly nodded, and then tentatively asked, “Um, would you mind giving me one of these?”
“Aren’t you forgetting the tiny little fact that I’m a cop? Like hell I’d give a young girl a cigarette!”
“That’s true.” Mia flinched at his indignant tone of voice and hunched her shoulders.
She knew that Ren wouldn’t share his cigarettes with her. She just figured asking was worth a try.
Ren pressed the stub of his cigarette into the ashtray, completely putting it out, and turned to fully face Mia, eyeing her suspiciously.
“Why do you want a smoke all of a sudden?”
“Eh? A-Ah, err… C-Curiosity, that’s all. I was just wondering what smoking is like.” Mia waved her hands around frantically.
There was no way she would admit to him that she was trying to get into perpetrating evil deeds, like a proper villain should. Ren seemed to have caught on to her trying to cover something up, but thought better of pursuing the topic, returning his eyes to the TV set.
Mia rested her eyes on Ren’s profile, observing it minutely. The corners of his eyes were sharp and upturned, a line of white always visible between his lower lash line and his irises. Because of those eyes, his face looked rather evil, even under normal circumstances. Right now, he was leisurely watching TV with a neutral expression on his face, but, when he smiled, his face contorted into a smirk, and, unlike the one she had spent so much time practicing, his looked positively villainous.
And with a face like that, not only is he an officer of the law, but a Champion of Justice to boot! The world is full of mysteries indeed, Mia thought to herself.
Ren, feeling Mia’s gaze boring holes in him, once again turned to face her, warily looking at her. “What is it? Spit it out. Or else I’ll really kiss you.”
“No! Argh. With that face, he surely… Eh, but… Though maybe…”
“Huh? What’s that about my face? If you’ve got something to tell me, speak up!”