"I'm home…"
When Kei opened the door to his apartment, he said this out loud into the empty hallway. However, all that greeted him was silence. He hung his school blazer on to the coat rack beside the door before taking his shoes and socks off.
The uniform at his school was unique and visibly different from other schools in the district. They had custom uniform made only by the school where the boys' uniform consisted of grey long pants coupled with a long black shirt and dark purple blazer. The colour code for the girls were the same except that they had to wear skirts and their blazers were pink.
He left his bag in his bedroom before going into the shower. When he was done, he sat on the couch in his living room before idly staring at the ceiling. He thought back on the events that had happened today.
"Hmm… she has it rough too huh?"
Just as he started to think about Mai, the intercom to his apartment rang. When he opened the door, a beautiful girl with purple hair appeared wearing a hoodie and shorts.
"Good evening, Kei…"
"Mmm…"
The girl in question was Chihiro Mai. She looked different than she did when she was in school. At school, Mai had an elegant appearance with her hair tied with two low pigtails in front. The Chihiro Mai who currently stood in front of Kei had let her hair loose and looked to be in comfortable home attire.
"Have a seat in the living room, I'll make something for dinner." Kei said to her before donning his apron and disappeared into the kitchen.
Kei's apartment was a rather large apartment that clearly looked like it was for rich people. It had a large and spacious Japanese-styled living room and a spacious kitchen equipped with modern cooking equipment. The living room and kitchen were next to each other connected by a bar in the middle.
"You know… I still can't believe you actually live next to my apartment." Kei said while beating the eggs.
He was planning to make Tamagoyaki with miso soup along with rice, grilled mackerel, and other side dishes to go along with it.
"Heheh… I already knew quite a while ago. I kept trying to find ways to tell you but you just kept ignoring me…"
Kei couldn't help but remember the day where he finally budged and accepted her request of becoming his friend. On that same day, she waited for Kei after school when he decided to leave late. He reluctantly agreed to her asking to walk home together since they were now friends. He was confused as to why she walked with him all the way to his apartment complex where she said 'See you later.'. In that evening, his intercom rang while he was cooking and found Mai standing on his doorstep when he opened the door.
"And I still think we should keep our distance… but looks like you're not going to budge."
"Nope. I worked way too hard to find an actual friend. Never mind that, I still can't believe you know how to cook."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"I-it's just that… I thought boys in general couldn't really cook…"
"Well, it's not that you're wrong, it's just that some people have to learn how to do it whether they want to or not." Kei said with his expressionless tone and face.
Even when they were alone, Kei hardly ever showed any expressions or emotions to Mai. He made it clear to himself that he wouldn't actually treat Mai any different from how he treated other people. In his mind, he was still quietly trying to push Mai away by trying to let her know that there was nothing interesting about him or that he was going to treat her any different.
Even though he had been quietly trying to push Mai away, she still stuck close to him whenever she could. The only time when he could get any time away from her was at school where he made it clear that they shall not interact. Even if that's not how she wanted their friendship to be like, she couldn't do anything but agree to his request if it meant being able to befriend him.
"Still… If only you couldn't cook…" Mai said in a very soft voice while looking away quietly pouting.
Kei didn't manage to hear what she said and slightly tilted his head in confusion. However, he found himself quietly staring at Mai pouting for a while.
"Thank you for the meal." The both of them said in unison as they began to eat the meal that Kei prepared.
"Mmm… I still don't know how you can balance the Tamagoyaki's sweetness and saltiness so nicely."
"Hmm… I guess it boils down to how much dashi, salt, and honey I mix into it. Then again, I know that you don't like it too salty so I decreased it."
When Mai first came over to have dinner with Kei, Kei noticed that she was not handling the saltiness of his Tamagoyaki well. Even when she denied it, Kei silently decreased his Tamagoyaki's saltiness levels slowly meal by meal so she wouldn't notice it.
"I see… instead of sugar you use honey. I shall take note of this."
When they were alone, Mai was more talkative and looser with her behaviour, even if she was still quite shy and awkward when she talked to Kei. She found it comfortable when she talked with Kei, but it was also because she made it her mission to become more open with Kei so that they could become closer.
When they were done with their dinner, the two of them sat on the couch in the living room. Kei sat on the far right of the couch reading what seemed to be a light novel. On the far left of the couch sat Mai, who was still awkwardly doing nothing but looking down on her knees.
"Shouldn't you be going home by now?"
"It's not like I have anything to do when I go back anyway."
"It's not like you're doing anything here either."
When Kei said that, Mai got back into a pouty mood. She was thinking 'Why can't you notice what I'm trying to do?'. Suddenly, as if all her shyness and awkwardness had disappeared, she started crawling on the sofa towards Kei who hadn't noticed what she was doing yet. When he felt a presence close to his face, he put down the book and looked to his left to find that she was face to face with him. He suddenly felt awkward and slightly blushed thinking 'What the hell are you doing?', before she started saying…
"It's my mission to become closer to Kei, so I'm using all the time I can get."
At hearing this, Kei couldn't help but let his emotions leak slightly. The Chihiro Mai who was currently in front of him was not the one shy and awkward girl he was accustomed to. He was stunned and didn't know what to do. Before he knew it, Mai withdrew her face and sat next to him on the three-seater couch.
"Well, I guess I finally saw something new. That's progress enough for me for tonight."
Mai stood up, tidied herself before heading to the door. Kei followed her to the door before watching as she entered her apartment. Since they lived next to each other, there was no need for him to walk her home. Still, he was taught to be a gentleman his whole life so he thought he should at least make sure she is in her apartment before he returned to his.
When he returned into his apartment, he found his heart beating very fast before sitting down leaning against the door. He looked up at the empty hallway before muttering…
"Hmm… closer…huh…?" He now had a gloomy, depressed look to him.
Leaning against the door of the apartment next door, sat a severely red-faced Chihiro Mai who was curled up. It was clear that she was embarrassed.
"What did I just do?" She said as she held her head in embarrassment.