As declared, the relationship between Amane and Mahiru remained that of passing strangers.
He recovered the day after he was cared for, and just so happened to bump into Mahiru while shopping at the convenience store, but they did not truly interact. It appeared Mahiru was a little relieved to see Amane looking fine however.
Class started on Monday, and nothing changed. Same for the others.
But if there was a tiny change, it was that when he went to school, he would lower his head while greeting others.
"Ohh, you're looking great there, Amane."
"Thanks to your care."
Itsuki was worried to see Amane half-dead the previous week when they were headed home. He had waited for Amane at the school building entrance, wanting to check on him. Over the weekend, he sent Amane a message, "You ain't dead right?"
Amane messaged back, saying he was fine, but Itsuki remained skeptical. It was only after seeing Amane all lively did he sigh in an exaggerated gesture.
"Well, even I would be worried seeing you like that. You're better now, but you should pay more attention to how you live. Start from cleaning up."
"Sounds like what someone else said."
"Nn?"
"Ah, it's nothing... I knew that over the weekend. Will be cleaning up these days."
No, you get down to it now,went the retort, but Amane ignored that.
Stop flexing over here,Amane gestured towards Itsuki, but the latter did not look unhappy. After all, it was normal for them after all. "This guy's hopeless," he laughed.
"What about you, Amane? Don't you find Shiina cute?"
"She's a beauty. That's all."
"That's boring."
"Well, she's a flower on a peak we can't reach. There's no reason for us to get involved with her; all we can do is look."
"You're not wrong."
Due to some coincidence, Mahiru took care of him days ago, but they were living in different worlds after all.
Amane did not foresee a future where he would get along well with Mahiru. Outstanding humans would only mesh well with other outstanding humans.
And Amane, painfully self-aware of how useless he was, could not possibly have anything to do with Mahiru, so cute and capable she was.
Yes, Amane himself assumed he would have nothing to do with her anymore.
"...What are you eating?"
And that notion was turned upside down when Amane was at the veranda, sipping his jelly juice as he looked outside.
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