They had planned to meet the following afternoon, so Kai decided to spend his morning cleaning up his home. As per usual, he woke up and made his way to the living room but did not come across Misako. He figured it was around time for her to show up, sipping tea with frizzled hair and bags under her eyes, but it appeared that she was still struggling with her manuscript.
First, he washed his face in the powder room. His bed head was especially bad today, so he took a quick shower to fix it and wash away his sweat. He had been leaving the AC on at nights so he wouldn’t get heatstroke, but just lightly enough that he wouldn’t catch a cold, either. Even with the cooling unit running, Kai still woke up to the heat of the morning sun and covered in sweat.
Before moving, Kai had imagined Niigata to be similar to Hokkaido, which had cool summers. However, the summer heat didn’t feel any different from Tokyo. After a quick search online, he’d realized that the temperatures of the two regions weren’t all that different.
Kai wiped himself dry with a bath towel and began to boil some water in his electric kettle before returning to the bathroom to dry his hair. By the time he was nice and dry, the kettle had worked its magic, and the water was boiling hot. He grabbed his usual mug from the kitchen cabinet and measured out some instant coffee.
After setting it down onto the coffee table in his living room, he went back to his bedroom to retrieve his laptop and four smartphones. Turning on his laptop, he opened Excel to the same file upon which he always recorded his data. He took a single gulp of coffee and began simultaneously tapping away at all four phones. Up until this point, it was just another morning.
Ding dong, the doorbell rang out of the blue, and Kai’s eyes snapped to the time displayed at the top of his phones’ screens. It wasn’t that early, but it was still too early for it to be a package delivery. To begin with, he didn’t think he had ordered anything, and his parents in Tokyo hadn’t told him to expect anything, either.
With that possibility crossed off, it was most likely to be Misako. However, she had never rang the doorbell before (after all, she had a spare key), and since she would probably devote herself to her manuscript for a little while longer, these odds weren’t all that high, either.
With these things in mind, Kai recalled that something like this had happened before, and his pulse quickened. Back then, he had come to the conclusion that it was Misako and had opened the door to find Nanaka instead.
As the scene played back in his mind, her smile came to life and made Kai nervous. Ding dong. Again, the doorbell served to rush him along. Kai rose to his feet and took a deep breath before opening the door.
“Ah! I’m so glad you were awake, Kai-kun. Morning! ♪”
“Wha, uh, good... morn... ing?” he managed to choke out. This made it twice, he lamented to himself. He’d been sure that he was going to be able to say ‘Good morning’ properly this time, but it was clearly not meant to be.
The girl in front of him—Yozakura Aina—practically wore a halo above her head with the way the morning sun shimmered off of her dark hair. Paired together with her gorgeous looks, she truly resembled an angel.
“...Kai-kun?” she said, after a short pause. “You okay? Did you just wake up?”
“N-No, I’m fine,” he denied hastily. “Um... Aina-san, what brings you here?”
“I came over because I kinda wanted to talk to you, Kai-kun. Is that... a no?”
The faintest angle, he thought distractedly. She’d tilted her head to the side by the slightest of angles, yet the sway of her hair and the upwards glance of her eyes turned that tiny movement into something special. It was her own magic spell that activated at ten degrees to the right.
“No, but—my room is dirty,” Kai had to admit. For the past few days, he’d been too busy preparing for the pool trip to clean up around the house. The laundry and dishes had piled up into a mountain.
“I’m the one who wants to talk, so I don’t mind, you know? Or... maybe...” Aina trailed off, before activating her ten degree magic once again. “Do you not want to talk to me?”
“Th-That’s not—”
“Then that’s that! Excuse me! ♪” Aina sang out, pushing Kai back into his own home. She took off her shoes instantly and he could hear the light tip-taps of her footsteps following behind him.
While wondering how someone could be so cute on every level down to the sound of her footsteps, Kai had a thought. Hold on, wait. Why is someone like that in my home, anyway?
“Ahh, I see what you mean now,” Aina said as she observed the piles of plates and clothes that needed to be washed. “...Kai-kun, are you living on your own?”
“Y-Yes,” he admitted.
“I see.” She looked around the room and then twirled around to face Kai. With a bashful look on her face, she said, “This is my first time visiting a boy who lives by himself... ♪”
“Right, um... Sorry.”
“Geez, what are you apologizing for?” Aina laughed and turned her eyes to the laptop in the living room. “Ah...! Sorry... It looks like I really did get in the way of something.” Pointing a slender finger toward the devices on the coffee table, she asked, “Is this something you do every day? Like a daily routine of yours?”
“Um... I’m always studying other social games,” he told her, “and I happened to be in the middle of that process.” How did she know I do this every day? he wondered.
Kai didn’t put that question to words, but Aina answered it all the same. “A laptop, four smartphones, and coffee,” she explained. “There’s a lot of stuff here, but it’s strangely organized... Like there’s not any unnecessary clutter? The whole thing seemed well-polished so I figured, ‘Kai-kun must do this all the time.’ But... do you really need this many phones?”
“Oh, that’s because I stay up to date with all of the games in the top 100 on the rankings,” he said automatically. “I wouldn’t be able to keep up with just one.”
“All of—?! S-Sorry! I’m really sorry for dropping by out of nowhere like this,” said Aina, rushing to apologize.
“I-It’s fine,” Kai said, dismissing her concerns. “I can always do this later.”
“...No, you shouldn’t put these kinds of things off! I have some basic training I always do in the mornings too, like running and voice checks... Wow. So this is the secret to your big success with Rondo. That’s amazing,” she concluded, while tenderly running her fingers across the keyboard. A small click click click rang out as her hand slid across the keys.
Then, Aina hopped up like a bunny and turned Kai’s way. “...Okay,” she sang out. “Kai, you go ahead with your daily routine. ♪”
“Huh? But what about the thing you wanted to talk about?”
“While you do that,” she said, pointing toward the dishes and laundry, “I’ll clean up for you. ♪”
“N-No, you don’t have to—”
“Hey... Kai-kun? The way things stand, I’m already bothering you, and the topic I want to discuss is kind of heavy to boot. I want to thank you... or, like, I’d be happy if you let me earn a favor here.”
Despite the fact that Aina had said her topic was only ‘kind of’ heavy, her grim face was far darker than the cheerful tone of her voice. Kai could only think of one subject of discussion that would make her feel that way; it must have been about Eru and Aina. There was no mistake that something had happened between those two. That being said, they couldn’t let the feud continue on forever; that would cause unending trouble for the club’s activities.
“...I understand,” he told her.
“Good!”
Kai only agreed to make it as easy as possible for Aina to speak up, but she was way happier than he anticipated. Her brilliant smile was infectious and tugged directly at Kai’s own emotions.
“Leave it to me! I might not seem like it, but I’m really good at housework!”