A few minutes after I joined Yoizuki—temporarily, at least—in the guild master’s office, I found myself in one of the building’s standby rooms.
“How did this happen…?” I murmured without meaning to.
The room had a furnished space to eat, where I now sat at a table with Rei and Yui—and Claire, who somehow felt the most unexpected, even though she was the person who brought me to Yoizuki.
“Something wrong?” Claire asked from the seat to my left.
“It’s nothing,” I replied in a hurry. But, seriously, wasn’t it strange for her to join us so casually?
As surprised as I was to see Rei and Yui in Yoizuki (especially Rei), they were pretty surprised to see me too. Apparently, Claire was giving them a tour and they were on the way to this very room when we ran into each other.
Okay, so the how of it was simple, but I was still hung up on the why. Was fate setting me up?
Rei and Yui wanted to know why I was at Yoizuki too, of course. I told them about my decision to join on a provisional basis, and we decided to chat about what we’d been up to lately.
A guild clerk brought over two small plates of snacks and hot tea for everyone.
“Here you go,” she said.
“Thank you.”
I accepted them with a grateful nod, but internally, I was squirming. Other people were sitting around the room and many of them had turned to watch us. Maybe because I was a newcomer, or because of Claire?
I told myself I shouldn’t take it to heart.
Instead, I pushed the conversation forward. “I didn’t expect you to join Yoizuki, Rei.”
“There were limits to going solo,” she said.
The world sure was a small place. I never imagined Rei would join Yoizuki of all guilds. Maybe Yui invited her, or the guild master set his sights on her because of her unique skill. Either way, she must’ve liked the energy of Yoizuki if she’d decided to join.
In the seat diagonal from mine, Yui smiled. “I was more surprised to see you here, Rin-senpai! What changed your mind?”
“A few things.”
“Well, whatever the reason, I’m so glad you joined!”
“Yeah, uh, I’ll…make the best of it.” It was kind of embarrassing to be the reason for her obvious joy.
Beside me, Claire nodded with interest. “You two seem rather close. I heard you were about two years apart?”
“Well, the thing is,” Yui chirped in her bright, chatty voice, “when I only just became an adventurer, Rin-senpai rescued me from a super dangerous situation! After that, I found out his little sister was my kouhai at school. That’s why we’re so close now.”
“I see. Is he the senpai you said you look up to?”
“The senpai you look up to…?” I echoed.
“C-Claire-senpai!” Yui blushed and waved her hands as if to dispel Claire’s words. “You don’t need to bring that up…”
Based on Yui’s outsized reaction, what Claire said was true. I was surprised to hear that Yui was talking me up around the guild, but hey. Not a bad feeling.
“Yui, you can have this,” I said, sliding a snack plate toward her as thanks.
“Huh? Uh, thank you…?”
Rei’s neutral expression furrowed downward into a frown. “Why only Yui? I can sing your praises as well as she can…”
I didn’t know what set her off, but clearly Rei was feeling competitive. What followed was a barrage—she rapid-fired compliments at me for three whole minutes without running out of ammo.
“Okay, okay!” I interjected. “That’s plenty.”
To quiet her down, I plucked a toothpick with one of the snacks from the second plate and handed it to her. She stuffed it in her mouth and chewed haughtily, but I could tell she was pleased. She was like a small animal who needed a treat. It was cute.
Completely by accident, I’d given away all of my snacks, but that was okay.
“Rin-senpai, you didn’t eat any of them. Are you okay with that?” Yui asked, reading my mind.
I didn’t want to make her feel guilty, so I grasped for a reason it was fine.
“Nah, I’m on a diet right now,” I fibbed.
The air around us froze. Yui and Rei looked at each other and simultaneously pushed the plate with the last snack back to the middle of the table.
“Well, I like watching you enjoy snacks,” Yui huffed. “So have at it!”
“As did I,” Rei added.
“O-oh. Okay?”
My excuse only increased the pressure on me, somehow. Since they’d outvoted me, I moved the plate back and ended up right where the conversation started.
I turned to Claire, who was also giving off a powerful aura, even greater than the other girls. She touched the final snack plate, glanced between the plate and me several times, then slid it over to herself.
“…Eat it now or I will,” she said.
She looked so calm that I didn’t expect a reaction like that from her. I was speechless under her level gaze. In a rush, I stuffed the snack in my mouth to hide the wobbly feeling that she gave me.
“Thanks,” I said after I washed it down with the somewhat-cooled tea. I finally felt like I could take a full breath.
We talked for a while longer. I felt like I knew them all a little better by the end of it.