I wasn't sure whether we were friends or lovers, or whether our relationship took a step forward or backward, but ever since that day, our time together had increased.
Rather, we actually tried to increase it.
During the morning.
I had just woken up when I heard the doorbell ring.
"Yes, yes, this is Maehara."
{Good morning, Aunt Masaki. Is Maki awake?}
"My, good morning, Umi-chan. Maki just woke up. Seriously, that child has a terrible sleeping habit."
{Got it. Then I'll try to give him some 'encouragement'.}
"What the hell are you on about?"
When she heard my voice, Umi's expression brightened.
If she's here to wake me up, that means she must have woken up even earlier. I'm amazed that she could be so fired up this early in the morning.
{Good morning, Maki. I'm here to pick you up.}
"Mm… Good morning. Come on in, quickly.. Have you eaten breakfast yet?"
{I've eaten already. But I won't refuse if you give me some rice, eggs and miso soup.}
"Eating two meals early in the morning, is your stomach a black hole?"
We started going to school together whenever we had the chance. Though we weren't alone because we would meet up with Amami-san along the way.
…Also, she has been getting more clingy lately.
"Excuse me… Woah, your bed hair looks terrible. Come here, I'll fix it for you."
"It's fine, I'll fix it myself later. Just sprinkling it with water should do the trick."
"I said, I'll fix it for you. Just come here and stop complaining."
Then she proceeded to fix my bed hair with wax and a comb.
"…Why are you looking at us like that, mom?"
"Hm~? Nothing~ I just thought that I don't have to worry about your future anymore."
"…Is that so?"
She proceeded to stare at us for five whole minutes. Before I realized it, Umi finished her job already.
"…Alright, that's it. What do you think?"
"Mm… It isn't half bad…"
She handed me a hand mirror. My terrible bed hair had changed into a neat looking one.
It was against the school rules to put too much wax on, so we couldn't exactly style our hair up, but this was so much better than how I usually dealt with it.
If I could hide the dark circles below my eyes, I would look more presentable, probably.
"So, say the magic word?"
"…Thank you…"
"Hehe, you're welcome. You look cool, Maki."
"Even if you flatter me, I won't give you anything."
"I'm just telling the truth. You look slightly better than usual."
"Oi."
Of course she took the chance to tease me.
"Oh my, oh my!"
On the other hand, my mom was being rowdy on her own. She started taking pictures with a digital camera for some reason. Seriously, what is she doing?
It had been a while since Umi started visiting us in the morning, but during that time she had become a part of the Maehara family.
I guess that means I have to start visiting her family to make it even.
According to Umi, Sora-san had been telling her husband about me, so I had to introduce myself soon whether I liked it or not.
Also, it seemed like our mothers were bonding even quicker than we were. Apparently, ever since the sleeping over incident, they kept in touch with each other frequently and became considerably close.
Anyway, I made my mom leave the room to make space for both me and Umi to have breakfast together.
The food tasted the same, but I wonder why I felt more energetic while eating?
Also, maybe I should try to exercise once in a while. Umi had been nagging me about it.
"Alright, all done. It's a little early, but we should get going."
"Alright. Yuu told me she just left her house."
We cleaned up the dishes and left the house together.
We didn't hold hands out in the open because it was embarrassing. We didn't have much trouble doing it inside the house, but we were still embarrassed about displaying our affection publicly.
"…Ah right."
"Hm? What is it?"
"You know, the thing that I told you previously? The thing about your cute smile or something…"
"Ah… The thing about how I got the cutest smile in the world?"
"What are you on about? Are you high?"
Well, she could interpret it that way if she wanted to.
"Muu… Let me have it okay? I mean, I've been acting like an honor student for a long time now… Let me be selfish for once…"
"Sure, sure…"
Umi decided to reveal her true self to Amami-san little by little, but in front of the rest of the class she still wore her honor student mask. The whole lover's hold incident changed everyone's perspective of her though. Personally, I thought she should use this as an opportunity to show everyone her true self more.
"Mm… I could stop, but I don't want to even if it's tiring. Besides, Yuu has been starting to pay more attention to me, so it isn't all bad… Also…"
"Also?"
"I'm going to say it only once… So, listen properly…"
"…Okay?"
"I… Only want to show my real smile to you…"
She grabbed my sleeve as she muttered that embarrassing line.
"…I-I see…"
"…Mm…"
I wasn't the one who said it, but my face felt extremely hot.
It's good that we're the only ones here in this elevator. I wondered what would happen if someone were to suddenly enter at this time?
She's such a sweetheart and she's really cute, but I wish she would think about the timing a little.
"S-sorry… I-I shouldn't have said that with that timing… I just embarrassed myself… Ugh…"
"L-Let's just pretend that it never happened, okay?"
"R-Right… sorry…"
As I got off the elevator, the cool winter breeze cooled my burning cheeks.
It was another cold day.
Maybe after a short walk, the heat in my cheek would cool down even more and the pounding in my chest would eventually stop.
"Ah, Maki, wait. You dropped something."
"Eh? Was it the key to my hou–"
At that moment when I turned around, I felt a soft sensation against my cheek.
"U-Umi??"
"Hehe… You let your guard down…"
She moved away while holding her index finger to her lips.
"We'll do it on the lips after we properly become lovers, okay? …Then, I'm going to meet up with Yuu first…"
"Ah… O-Okay… Got it…"
"…Ehehe… See you later…"
Umi, whose face was red up to her ears, giggled and ran away.
"…Seriously, she is so…"
Never mind, I was wrong.
My burning cheeks and the pounding of my chest didn't subside at all.