"That felt amazing~"
After walking out of the karaoke place with Shirai Mio, Eriri could not help voicing her satisfaction.
While singing, she had vented all the frustration she had built up yesterday, and now she felt considerably refreshed.
Wait. Could Shirai Mio have realized that Eriri had been upset yesterday and deliberately brought her to karaoke under the pretext of gathering references?
Sensing Eriri's gaze, Shirai Mio tilted her head. "What is it?"
"N-Nothing. Where are we going now?"
Shirai Mio took out her phone and checked the time. There were nearly two hours left until dinner, so after thinking for a moment, she said, "Let's go watch a movie first."
"A movie?"
"Yeah. A movie theater's screening room is another excellent setting for gathering references."
"Are you treating the cameras in the screening room like decorations?" Since they had left the private room, Eriri lowered her voice as she retorted.
"When you're drawing a doujinshi, you can establish that the cameras are broken or simply ignore them altogether. That's an author's privilege."
"That… actually makes sense." Eriri often did the same thing when drawing doujinshi.
As for whether Shirai Mio was genuinely going to the movie theater to gather references, Eriri no longer felt like dwelling on it. She had already decided to treat today as a date anyway.
Going on a date with that white-haired little bitch actually felt pretty nice.
They visited different places together and talked about interests they shared. It was such a simple thing, so why were some people incapable of doing it?
Pulling back her wandering thoughts, Eriri followed Shirai Mio to the movie theater.
Since neither of them had decided what to watch beforehand, they agonized in front of the ticket machine for quite a while before finally choosing a romance film.
Eriri had originally wanted to watch a horror movie. It was rare for her to have someone willing to watch one with her, but the moment she mentioned horror, Shirai Mio looked as though she had seen a ghost, so Eriri eventually gave up.
She genuinely had not expected Shirai Mio to be afraid of horror movies.
It felt as though she understood that white-haired little bitch a little better now.
The first half of the movie was very funny, but the story gradually became sadder. Eriri found herself wanting to lean against Shirai Mio's shoulder.
Just as she hesitated over whether to do so, Shirai Mio leaned against her shoulder first.
Not because she was sad, but because she had fallen asleep.
Looking at Shirai Mio sleeping soundly against her, even Eriri did not know what to say for a moment.
At the same time, Shirai Mio's antics diluted the sadness the movie had stirred in her.
In the end, Eriri sighed softly and let Shirai Mio rest on her shoulder until the movie ended.
"Wake up. The movie's over."
Hearing her voice, Shirai Mio slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the departing crowd. She gave a lazy yawn and asked, "It's over already?"
"You slept for almost an hour." Eriri sounded somewhat resentful. "Who falls asleep while watching a movie with someone?"
"Sorry, sorry. I stayed up late last night, and then I had to get up early this morning to go on a da—to gather references with you."
Shirai Mio had nearly let the word "date" slip out by force of habit.
Although she stopped herself, Eriri still caught it immediately. Just as she had suspected, reference gathering was merely a pretext. Shirai Mio's true goal was to go on a date!
To conceal her embarrassment, Shirai Mio stood up. "Um, let's go. There's one last place."
"Where?"
"Dinner."
Since Shirai Mio had specifically gone out to gather references today, she naturally would not overlook Aki Tomoya, such excellent source material. After leaving the movie theater, she took Eriri straight to the restaurant where Aki Tomoya worked.
Looking at the familiar storefront, Eriri raised an eyebrow. She had already realized that this was Aki Tomoya's workplace.
She had never expected Shirai Mio to bring her here for dinner and had no idea what that white-haired little bitch was planning.
Still, they had already come this far, so she did not hesitate and followed Shirai Mio inside.
The moment they entered, Aki Tomoya's familiar voice rang out. "Welcome."
Aki Tomoya was about to ask how many people were in their party when he realized that the two standing before him were Shirai Mio and Eriri.
"Well, if it isn't Aki-kun~"
"H-Hello." Aki Tomoya awkwardly greeted Shirai Mio, then shifted his gaze to Eriri.
He had warned Eriri several times before that Shirai Mio was a dangerous woman. Yet lately, Eriri seemed to be spending a great deal of time with Shirai Mio. He even saw the two of them going to school together quite often.
Was Eriri spending today with Shirai Mio too?
While Aki Tomoya's thoughts ran wild, one of his senior coworkers walked over and said, "Tomoya, don't just stand there staring. Show the customers to their seats!"
"S-Sorry. Please follow me."
Aki Tomoya led them to a table. After Shirai Mio casually ordered a set meal, she handed the menu to Eriri.
Eriri did not take long either and ordered a set meal similar to Shirai Mio's.
Only after Aki Tomoya left with the menu did Eriri say, "You brought me here on purpose, didn't you?"
"No. I've eaten here pretty often before. The food at this restaurant is pretty good."
Eriri rolled her eyes at Shirai Mio's answer. There was no way she believed that nonsense.
Then again, if Shirai Mio had come here to gather references, Eriri had yet to notice anything worth using as material.
If it was not for reference gathering, Shirai Mio could not possibly have brought Eriri here just to show off in front of Aki Tomoya, could she?
No. She and Shirai Mio were merely ordinary friends. There was nothing about that relationship worth showing off.
Unable to figure it out, Eriri decided to ask directly. "Shirai, what is your real reason for coming here to eat?"
"I came purely to have dinner."
Shirai Mio could hardly tell Eriri that she wanted to observe Aki Tomoya's reaction, so she could only stick to the explanation she had already given.
If she wanted to observe his reaction, should she do something affectionate with Eriri?
Shirai Mio silently turned her gaze toward Eriri.
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