Two weeks later Yuno Gasai's injuries had mostly healed.
Just as Getsusa was helping Aria and the orphanage move, the pink-haired girl insisted on coming to meet Grandma.
'Are you sure? Your injuries?'
Yuno flexed playfully. 'All better! Tsukisa took perfect care of me.'
She bobbed in front of Getsusa like a puppy after praise. 'So, how do I look?'
She wore a black dress edged with cut-out lace.
A thin gold thread hung from each ear, tipped with a tiny silver crescent.
Matching heels and a vintage leather shoulder bag completed the outfit.
The tailored bodice stretched tight over her chest; a slender waist flared to bare arms and pale shoulders.
She'd done her face—pencilled brows, lips brushed pale rose.
She stood, hands behind her back, pink hair brushing her hips, eyes questioning.
Without waiting for an answer she spun happily.
'Well?' she asked again.
Getsusa had to admit she looked stunning.
Still, movers would handle the heavy lifting; was such formality practical?
'It's for Aria and the kids. Gotta make a good impression.' Yuno leaned in: 'I'm your girlfriend, meeting the elders.'
Getsusa pushed her face away; Yuno nipped playfully at her fingertip, then looked innocent.
'Heh, wouldn't that be nice?'
Yuno Gasai had no sense of shame at all. Watching Sen Getsusa roll her eyes, she straightened her back and mimicked in a deep, rough voice, "'Hello! I'm Sen Getsusa's girlfriend!' How was that?"
"Why would a girlfriend speak so gruffly?" Sen Getsusa pictured her own family. "Hmm, the Boys will just think they've gained another big sister to buy them games; the girls... they'll be even happier—another sister means one more ally. As for Grandma Ailiya..."
Yuno Gasai grew subtly anxious, fingers twisting and curling behind her back as she listened.
"Ailiya will be thrilled—she's suspected it about me for ages," Sen Getsusa recalled the old woman's teasing.
'Little Tsukisa doesn't give Boys the time of day, yet loves playing with girls—how odd.'
Earlier, Ailiya had tossed that comment out as if off-hand.
Sen Getsusa had answered then, "Girls should play with girls. Everyone does it—what's strange about that?"
'Oh? Is that so? Guess I'm old and out of touch. I just thought little Tsukisa looked awfully happy while kissing. So it was only playing after all.'
Sen Getsusa:...Old folks always ask questions they already know the answers to.
'So—you saw?'
Ailiya was knitting scarves for the children. For convenience she'd bought only two or three colors of yarn, so every pattern favored the girls—some Boys had protested: wearing pink or cherry-blossom scarves to school would get them teased.
But the girls crushed those protests easily, without Sen Getsusa lifting a finger.
Afterward, those pink-scarf Boys became the orphanage's unrivaled splash of color for a time.
The very definition of manly hues.
Thick-lensed black frames perched on her face, wrinkles lifting with her smile, Ailiya knitted and chuckled, "What's her name? That quiet girl—she looks gentle and virtuous."
'Tojo Aoi.'
Tojo, you say?
Ailiya's knitting needles stilled.
'The Tojo Family, or just a coincidence of surname?'
Sen Getsusa hadn't expected the old woman to be so up-to-date: "The Tojo Family."
'Not up-to-date—back in my day those clans were famous. Once the internet age arrived they kept a low profile.'
Ailiya sighed, toying with a needle. "A Child of the Tojo..."
She didn't dissuade Sen Getsusa. After the girl's adoptive parents died, Ailiya had handled everything—inheritance, funeral, all of it.
She knew Sen Getsusa's worth: far below the Tojo Group's empire, yet still a titanic fortune.
'Cherish the time you have together.'
That's what Ailiya had said. Later, after the breakup, Sen Getsusa mentioned Tojo Aoi less and less.
Ailiya understood and never brought it up again... "I thought Tsukisa lived a hard, frugal life—yet she takes a cab for such a short trip? Richer than I imagined."
Inside the taxi, Yuno Gasai stared oddly at Sen Getsusa: a girl wild on the sports field, yet surprisingly lazy in daily life—
—currently draped boneless over the back seat.
Hearing that, the girl rolled her pretty eyes. "I spared you a second injury on the subway and you still complain. Who insisted on helping move before fully healed?"
Yuno giggled: "I wanted to see Grandma Ailiya and the kids."
—and to stay with you.
"I've arranged for little Nanami to come for dinner in a couple of days."
Sen Getsusa had mentioned it last time; worried about Yuno's injury, she hadn't met Aoyama Nanami again.
The girl kept asking in messages.
Yuno only answered with a disdainful sniff.
'I don't want to see her. Why waste precious time on someone irrelevant?'
So the matter stalled.
Only today, seeing Yuno mending, Sen Getsusa set the date with Aoyama Nanami.
Even if Yuno didn't count Aoyama Nanami as a friend, she was Sen Getsusa's friend.
"I know—whoever Tsukisa likes is fine. What shall we eat?" Yuno asked.
Since recovering, Yuno had forcibly seized all cooking duties, feeding Sen Getsusa three varied meals a day—so much that the athletic girl had stepped on the scale and discovered she'd gained weight!
"Rather than me caring for Yuno, Yuno cares for me. When I lived alone I cooked everything; since she arrived I've turned lazy..."
Yuno snickered.
"Something light—I feel fat lately," Sen Getsusa said, troubled.
Yuno's gaze swept her: "Weren't you always fat?"
...Say something broadcast-worthy, please.
"No way—just veggies, boiled in plain water!"
Sen Getsusa's fantasy earned only skepticism: "Really? Yesterday you bought wagyu. If we don't eat it soon the texture will spoil. Shall we give it to Nanami?"
Juicy, fragrant... "What veggies! Sukiyaki—wagyu, eggs, mushrooms!"
Sen Getsusa licked her lips, loyal to her heart's choice.
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