Chapter 554

Ding!

As she stepped into the bookstore, the chime of an old-fashioned bell tickled her ears.

Come to think of it, she rarely visited places like this.

She ought to start coming here more often.

"Is this some kind of secondhand bookstore?"

Matsuda asked the same question he had in the past.

After offering a polite bow to the elderly owner, Miyuki answered quietly.

"There are a lot of secondhand books, yeah."

Now, Matsuda would probably ask about the manga section.

"Do they have manga too?"

Just as she expected.

It was nice seeing things play out exactly as they had before, but part of her felt a little disappointed too.

It would have been more fun if they had talked about something else.

"They do. It's over there. But Matsuda-kun, we came to buy study materials, so why are you looking for manga?"

"Might as well buy some manga while we're here."

"Then I'll go pick out my workbooks, and you can choose some manga for me to read, Matsuda-kun."

"What do you want to read?"

"Romance. Something that looks fun."

"Got it."

Mm-hm. That felt natural.

This way, while reading manga together during their break, she could subtly lie down on the futon next to him.

Lost in wild fantasies about the future, Miyuki pretended to browse for workbooks while staying relatively close to Matsuda, her eyes sparkling.

'It was definitely around here...'

Haphazardly stacked books sat on the very top shelf of the bookcase.

She remembered having to stand on her tiptoes right around here.

Was it this shelf? Or the next one over?

She had been so flustered back then that her memory was a bit hazy.

Still, guided by a strong gut feeling, Miyuki rose on her tiptoes to pull out a math workbook wedged in the middle of a stack.

The moment her slender fingers brushed the edge of the book, a soft thud sounded.

"Uh...?"

The precariously stacked pile of books teetered.

This was it. It had definitely happened exactly like this back then.

But had she been too forceful? If those heavy books fell on her, it was going to hurt.

Just as Miyuki braced herself for the impact, a loud smack rang out.

Matsuda's thick, long arm reached right over her shoulder, easily catching the tumbling books.

"You should be careful."

He casually pushed the books back onto the stack and dusted off his hands.

Unable to hide her bewilderment at the situation playing out differently yet again, Miyuki's jaw dropped.

"Hey."

Matsuda waved a hand in front of her face. Snapping out of her daze, she forced an awkward smile.

"Ah, th-thanks..."

Just why—why was Matsuda already right here?

He was supposed to come sprinting over from the other side of the store... It was utterly baffling.

"What were you trying to take out? This?"

"No... under that... the math workbook..."

"This one?"

"Yeah..."

"Here."

Matsuda held several volumes of manga in his other hand.

A quick glance at the titles confirmed they were romance.

He must have picked out the manga in record time and come over to ask her opinion, only to accidentally save her from the falling books.

"Thanks."

Voicing her thanks, Miyuki began to grumble inwardly.

Her complaints weren't directed at Matsuda, but at whatever being had sent her back in time.

'What is this...!'

How was the event supposed to progress properly at this rate? They really didn't know the first thing about this... no, that esteemed being didn't.

No, wait. Everything had a certain flow to it, didn't it?

Perhaps because she had been dilly-dallying, and Matsuda had been standing so close, the original flow had been broken, pushing the event in an entirely different direction.

She shouldn't be so quick to curse them.

Should she try stumbling over in another aisle? If she did, wouldn't Matsuda catch her?

The image of his hands wrapping around her waist wasn't a bad outcome either...

'Why do I keep thinking only weird things...?'

She felt like an absolute pervert for fixating so heavily on the physical contact part.

She needed to stop. Whether the interaction was grand or completely trivial, all that mattered was creating a moment that stirred their feelings for one another.

"Why are you walking like that?"

Matsuda's flat voice broke through her wild imagination from behind.

Realizing she was still tiptoeing across the floor, Miyuki let out a fake cough and feigned ignorance.

"Huh...? What do you mean?"

"Why are you walking all stiff and wobbly? Like you're trying to step over a puddle."

"Wh-when did I do that...?"

"Just now."

"I am not...! Aren't you just viewing the world a bit too negatively?"

"I only asked why you were walking weird. Did you really need to bring my worldview into this?"

"That's my business."

"You're just being stubborn."

Annoyed by Matsuda's amused snort, Miyuki shot him a glare and stuck out her bottom lip in a pout.

Right then, she caught a blur of dark movement out of the corner of her eye.

Glancing down to see what it was, Miyuki spotted a massive centipede, as long as a middle finger, slithering right over the toe of her shoe.

With its countless legs and horrifyingly flexible black body.

The moment her brain registered what she was looking at, a piercing scream tore from her throat.

"Kyaaaah!!!"

"Wh-what the—? Oof...!"

Covered in goosebumps, Miyuki grabbed onto the startled Matsuda's shoulders and leaped squarely into his arms.

It was an incredibly intimate, if entirely accidental, moment of physical contact. But Miyuki was so terrified that she didn't notice in the slightest; she just clung for dear life to Matsuda, who had instinctively wrapped an arm under her bottom to support her.

"Centipede...! There's a centipede...!!"

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as she thrashed around wildly.

Chuckling at her frantic flailing, Matsuda spoke in a perfectly flat tone.

"It's gone."

Hearing his calm voice, Miyuki cautiously peeked down at the floor, still clinging tightly to his neck.

"Really...?"

"Yeah. It's gone."

Since she lived in a detached house with a front yard, bugs did occasionally find their way inside.

But the property was regularly treated by exterminators. Even if a bug did pop up, she usually just squashed it with a wad of tissues or a heavy book...

However, she had never seen such a massive, thick centipede before—the kind you might only see on a rare visit to her grandmother's house in the countryside—and it had utterly terrified her.

"Haa..."

Letting out a long sigh to calm her racing heart, Miyuki suddenly realized that her gaze was perfectly level with Matsuda's, when normally she had to look up to meet his eyes.

Furthermore, the heavy, solid sensation firmly planted under her bottom was Matsuda's arm, and her own hands were currently gripping his shoulders tight enough to crush bone.

"Ah..."

Realizing exactly what she had just done, Miyuki briefly debated whether she should just stay like this, but quickly snapped back to her senses and hopped down from his arms.

"S-sorry... I just got so startled..."

"I could tell."

"Is your arm okay...?"

"What's wrong with my arm? You think it got crushed under your weight?"

"Nooo...! I just meant that catching me with one arm might have..."

"I'm just joking. I'm fine."

Even though it had been purely instinctive, being held like that made her feel so much better.

Her energy reserves had been fully charged for the next few days.

It was a bit of a shame to have let go, though.

Still, she never could have expected a massive centipede to ambush her out of nowhere.

It would have been much nicer if a slightly cuter bug had shown up. It was so utterly ridiculous.

Of course, there was no such thing as a "cute bug," but it felt like she was being actively punished for grumbling against the entity that had sent her back in time.

Rubbing her chest to soothe her racing heart, Miyuki let out a fluttering breath through her lips, prompting Matsuda to chuckle and begin teasing her again.

"Look at that upper lip fluttering. Absolutely vicious."

"M-my upper lip...? What does that even mean?"

"You know... a dog's mouth. The part that sticks out. What's it called? A snout?"

"A s-snout...? Are you calling me a dog?!"

"I'd say you look a bit like a Welsh Corgi."

"Welsh Corgis have stubby legs...! Are you saying my legs are stubby?!"

"I meant your face."

It felt like he was praising her for being cute, but at the same time, subtly insulting her... It was a very mixed feeling.

She really didn't know if she should be happy about that or not.

"You have more workbooks to choose, right?"

".... I do."

"Then point them out. I'll grab them for you."

'This guy...'

Suppressing the urge to tell him to just shove off and pick out more manga, Miyuki let out an internal sigh.

The timeline had drifted off course yet again.

Still, it was a relief that it didn't completely ruin the moment like it had last time.

Come to think of it, when she had leaped into his arms earlier, Matsuda had actually looked a tiny bit embarrassed...

If she took that into consideration, this could be considered a solid win.

What was the slang term for this again...? "Lucky" something or other, but she couldn't quite remember.

"I'll take this home with me."

Matsuda spoke as he haphazardly stuffed their workbooks and manga into a shopping bag, prompting Miyuki to shake her head.

"Just give it here. I can carry them in my bag."

"You're tiny enough as it is. Carrying all that heavy stuff on your shoulders will stunt your growth."

"I'm not tiny...! I'm perfectly average height...!"

"Judging by how defensive you're getting, I'm betting you're slightly below average."

"For your information, I'm actually slightly above average!"

"Then you're not average height, are you?"

"I'm within the average margin, so it still counts...!"

"Got it. But why do you sound so angry?"

"I'm not! You're just imagining things!"

"Whatever you say."

She was getting swept into his pace all over again.

Would he keep up this attitude if she pounced on him right now?

She was awfully tempted to test the theory.

"Haa... Are you heading to your academy now?"

"I have to. It's about time."

"Can I come watch?"

"Look around the academy?"

"Yeah. Like I told you earlier, I've been wanting to learn the piano. You mentioned the academy covers all sorts of band instruments, which got me curious. I want to go see what the environment is like."

She had made a mistake.

She shouldn't have brought up the piano and just stuck to checking out the environment...

At this rate, it was way too obvious that she was just fishing for excuses to take classes alongside him.

"Sure... whatever. Take a look around and head out whenever you want."

"Head out by myself? Couldn't we grab dinner together afterward...?"

"You're really going to wait until my classes are over?"

"I can get a consultation with the director while I'm there... Maybe even take a placement test if they offer one... I could sit in and watch a few other classes, and by then, the timing should work out perfectly..."

"Not a bad idea."

She had been fully expecting another dismissive answer like 'Whatever' or 'Suit yourself', but to hear him actually say it wasn't a bad idea... What a relief.

It felt like absentmindedly rummaging through an old coat pocket and suddenly finding a crisp 10,000 yen bill.

It seemed today hadn't just been a minor win—she had hit the absolute jackpot.

After all the emotional distress she had suffered these past few days, it was only fair that she be rewarded like this.

Barely suppressing the urge to clap her hands in pure joy, Miyuki happily set off toward the bustling downtown area with Matsuda by her side.