Not long after Sawamura Haruno had started his classes—
The girl who had been sleeping wedged between the quilt and the bedsheet at home finally stirred awake.
Unlike Haruno, who could clearly grasp the day's "mission" the moment he got out of bed—along with producing a stream of internal snark—Miyazawa Maki lay there in a daze for a full ten-plus minutes after waking up, only then finding the energy to think about her current situation.
And soon after, she remembered why she was in this completely unfamiliar room in the first place—and what she'd done last night.
——I really want to do it again.
That was the very first thought that surfaced in Miyazawa Maki's mind.
The thrill of being treated as her older sister last night hadn't faded in the slightest. Even though it had all been nothing more than fantasy, the realization that the person she'd fantasized about was now separated from her by just a single wall only made her feel even more excited.
She knew perfectly well that thoughts like these were twisted—
yet for some reason, she simply couldn't bring herself to reject them.
"Mmm…"
The girl lightly bit her lip again, her eyes growing hazy, just like when she'd first woken up.
This state lasted until about twenty minutes later, when it finally came to an end.
This time, Miyazawa Maki was fully awake.
"…There's no feeling at all."
She sat up, tidied her now-disheveled clothes, and muttered expressionlessly to herself,
"There's really nothing good about being treated as Mana. Not even a little."
That's right.
Not good at all.
She tossed the quilt aside and padded barefoot across the floor toward the living room.
The empty living room felt unusually quiet, and the air didn't carry even a trace of lingering cooking smells.
Maki walked up to Sawamura Haruno's bedroom door and tried the handle. As expected, it wouldn't open—but judging from the situation, he'd probably already gone to class.
——Which meant that right now, she was the only one in the apartment.
After a brief moment of thought, she stopped dwelling on it and headed straight into the kitchen to rummage for food.
She clearly remembered where Haruno had taken out the instant noodles and potato chips last night, so finding them again was easy. In no time at all, she'd dug out every bit of snack food he'd stocked at home.
Once she'd gathered everything, Maki didn't bother standing on ceremony. She plopped down on the couch, crossed her legs, tore open the bags, and started eating, all while thinking about what she should do today.
"With a hundred thousand yen, I could play games for a long time…"
She absentmindedly tossed chips into her mouth.
Back when she'd been holed up at home, she'd relied on video games and online novels to numb herself.
Even though she was a girl, this was her first time officially becoming a NEET. Aside from copying what she'd seen NEET protagonists do in anime, she honestly had no idea what she was supposed to do.
And even if there were things she wanted to do, it wasn't like she'd ever get anyone's approval anyway—
after all, Mana was always better at everything than she was.
"…Forget it. I'll just go out and play games."
After thinking it over, Maki lost interest and tossed the chips onto the table.
She ran out to the balcony to collect the clothes she'd left drying since yesterday. After a quick shower, she didn't bother worrying about whether she had keys or not—grabbing the money Haruno had given her, she headed straight out.
Haruno's new apartment was actually very close to several busy shopping streets in Shinjuku. The station was only a seven- or eight-minute walk away, making the location extremely convenient, with plenty of places to eat and hang out nearby.
But that wasn't where Maki wanted to go.
Ever since she'd started shutting herself in at home, she'd rarely gone out shopping. And since the Miyazawa family also lived in Shinjuku, she'd already visited all the nearby "fun" spots long ago.
In the end, she wandered over to the station, planning to go explore some other district.
That said, when it came time to actually choose a destination, nothing came to mind.
Maki stood under the departure board, staring at it blankly for a long while. Eventually, standing in front of the ticket machine, she bought a ticket to Meguro almost on impulse.
It didn't take long to get there.
By the time she snapped back to her senses, she was already standing not far from the entrance of the University of Tokyo's Komaba campus.
"…."
She glanced at her phone.
11:07 a.m.
Why did I come all the way here… I might as well have gone to Taito Ward.
"Sigh…"
Maki let out a breath and turned to leave, planning to find something nearby to kill time.
Standing in a place like this was dangerous for her. If she ran into Sawamura Haruno, she could still come up with some kind of explanation—worst case, she could just reuse last night's seductive tactics.
But if she ran into Mana, she'd be in real trouble.
She didn't know what she'd even say to her.
More importantly, she didn't want to see her at all.
"Mana?"
As if summoned by her own fears, just as Maki was about to leave, a girl's doubtful voice called out from behind her.
"…Crap."
Maki's heart jolted, an overwhelming sense of dread washing over her.
She'd been so focused on avoiding Mana that she'd forgotten something important—
At this university, there were plenty of people who might mistake her for her sister.
After all, they were identical twins. If Maki hadn't deliberately changed her hairstyle, even their parents sometimes had trouble telling them apart.
"Why did you come back to campus? Didn't you say you didn't have any classes today?"
The girl who'd called out to her walked a few steps forward, blocking Maki's attempt to retreat.
"Huh—?"
The girl looked startled.
"When did you cut your hair? You clearly still had long hair this morning when you came to class."
"…You've got the wrong person."
Maki stiffened her small face, lowering her gaze and putting on her signature do not approach expression.
This tactic had worked countless times in the past. Back in high school, she'd used it to brush off more boys and girls than she could count.
Normally, anyone would back off once they saw this expression.
Unfortunately—
The person she'd run into today was someone unusually outgoing: her sister Mana's friend, Uemura Rena.
"What do you mean, wrong person? Why are you saying such weird things?"
Uemura looked at her strangely, then broke into a grin.
"But hey, that's fine too. You actually look cuter with short hair."
"…Really?"
Maki unconsciously reached up to touch the slightly curled hair that barely brushed her shoulders.
For some reason, her mood suddenly lifted.
"Yeah. It's not that you didn't look good with long hair before—just that you look pretty nice like this too."
Uemura laughed lightly.
"Anyway, you don't have anything else to do right now, right? Want to go grab lunch at the cafeteria?"
"I—I still have—"
Maki tried to refuse out of habit, but before she could finish—
"Great! Let's go!"
Uemura didn't give her any chance to object. She grabbed Maki by the hand and, while Maki was still completely bewildered, dragged her straight into campus.
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