"Food's ready, come eat!"
Kyōka's voice cut through the conversation at just the right moment.
Poking her head through the doorframe with a slight smile, she watched the three of them chatting. Her gaze swept over the scene with satisfaction, and lingered on Jin a second longer than necessary before disappearing back into the kitchen.
"Yesss! I can already smell it!"
Yuika bounced off the couch like she had springs. But instead of bolting toward the kitchen, she turned to Jin. "Jin-kun, the food Mom makes is crazy delicious!"
Grabbing his wrist without asking permission, she pulled him off the couch. "Come see, quick, I guarantee you'll be blown away!"
Her fingers were firm around him and she didn't seem to have any intention of letting go anytime soon.
Koharu also stood up, gently smoothing the creases in her clothes.
"Mom started preparing it this morning..." she added quietly.
But her eyes weren't on the kitchen. Her gaze had discreetly slid to Jin's wrist, where her sister's fingers held him with familiarity. A trace of curiosity crossed her face, mixed with something harder to identify.
'It seems like Yuika is already very close to Jin-kun...'
...
The dining room greeted them with an aroma that made Jin's stomach growl before he could hide it.
The table was a spectacle.
The grilled fish glistened with caramelized skin shining. The tempura rested on a neatly arranged platter, fried to perfection, with that light texture you only achieve when someone knows exactly what they're doing. The miso soup gave off hot steam that rose steadily, and several colorful side dishes were carefully arranged on small plates like a mosaic.
In the center, a plate of chicken teriyaki gleamed under a coat of glazed sauce.
This wasn't a lunch. It was a feast.
"..."
Jin scanned the table, genuinely impressed.
"Miss Kyōka... you prepared all of this by yourself?"
Kyōka had just taken off her apron, draping it over the back of a chair. Her cheeks were slightly flushed from the kitchen heat, giving her a natural blush that softened her, and beads of sweat glistened along her neckline, sliding slowly toward the cleavage where they vanished into the fabric.
"I just made a few simple home cooked dishes." She said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I wonder if they'll suit your taste."
"Mom's way too humble."
Yuika had already sat in her seat impatiently and propped her elbows on the table, pointing at the dishes. "Normally the meals are way simpler. She made all of this today completely for you!"
"Sister!"
Koharu gently tugged on Yuika's sleeve, shooting her a reproachful look before turning to Jin with her cheeks colored in embarrassment.
Her older sister's lack of discretion was an incorrigible talent.
Kyōka pretended not to hear her daughter's revelation, keeping her serene smile. Instead, she naturally pointed to the empty seat between the two sisters.
"Jin-kun, sit here, between Yuika and Koharu."
Jin complied without questioning the arrangement.
Once all four were seated, they pressed their hands together in the traditional gesture.
"Let's eat!"
Jin picked up a piece of chicken teriyaki and brought it to his mouth.
It was glorious.
The meat was tender and juicy, practically melting apart, and the sauce had a perfect balance between sweet and savory.
"This is exquisite! With Miss Kyōka's skills you could simply open a restaurant."
Kyōka covered her mouth with her fingers, chuckling with a mix of flattery and flirtation that lit up her eyes.
"You really know how to talk." She turned to her younger daughter with a maternal smile. "Haru, serve Jin-kun a bowl of soup."
"Okay."
Koharu took the soup ladle and carefully served a bowl of miso soup, focusing on not spilling a single drop.
She leaned toward Jin to hand him the bowl, and as she did, her fingers accidentally brushed the back of his hand.
The contact was fleeting.
Koharu pulled her hand back as if she'd been burned, her ears turning red while she kept her eyes fixed on the table. Jin accepted the bowl with a calm smile, not making much of it.
But someone did care.
"Mom." Yuika chewed on a piece of tempura with a mischievous smile. "Why are you only worrying about Jin-kun today? Don't I usually get served soup first?"
"Silly girl!"
Kyōka shot her a reproachful look. "Jin-kun is our guest, it's the proper thing to do." But even so, she grabbed a large fried shrimp from the tempura platter and placed it in Yuika's bowl. "Here, this is the shrimp you like the most. Now eat and stop being a pest."
Yuika snagged the shrimp with her chopsticks and took a satisfied bite, but the mischievous smile didn't leave her face even while chewing.
Suddenly, she set her chopsticks down on the table with a sharp tap. She planted her hands on the table, leaned forward, and her eyes sparkled with an excitement that made Koharu raise her guard.
Every time her sister made that face, something embarrassing was about to happen.
"Let's go to the beach for summer vacation and Jin-kun has to come with us too!"
"The beach?"
Koharu's chopsticks stopped midway, with a few grains of rice stuck to the corner of her lips that she completely ignored.
Her brain had just short circuited between the image of Jin at the beach and the image of herself in a swimsuit in front of Jin at the beach.
"Hmm, come to think of it, it's been a long time since we went on a trip." Yuika turned to Kyōka. "Mom, what do you say?"
"..."
Kyōka slowly wiped her mouth with her napkin, taking her time, and her gaze wandered between Jin and her two daughters.
A beach trip. With Jin. With her daughters in swimsuits... With herself in a swimsuit.
The smile that formed on her lips had enough layers to write a thesis on.
"If Jin-kun is willing..."
"Being welcome, I'm completely willing."
Jin nodded with a kind smile. He needed to strengthen ties with them and besides, he was planning to take care of certain matters at that beach they'd be going to.
"Of course you're coming!" Yuika slapped the table excitedly. "We can swim, smash watermelons, play with fireworks!"
Koharu was starting to relax at the idea, allowing herself a small shy smile, when Yuika turned to her.
"Oh, that's right! Haru looks super adorable in a swimsuit!"
"Ah...!"
Koharu's face lit up like a traffic light.
...
The lunch continued in that cheerful atmosphere that stretched far beyond what Jin had anticipated. Kyōka served him food frequently, placing the best pieces on his plate while maintaining light conversation that never let an awkward silence fall.
Yuika dominated the conversation with her energy, firing off questions, telling anecdotes, and finding excuses to lean toward Jin every time she showed him something on her phone.
Koharu participated with more shyness, but every time Jin addressed her directly, she responded with a smile that lasted a little longer than the previous one.
The plates emptied. The laughter accumulated. And when Jin checked his watch, he discovered almost two hours had passed.
He finally stood from the table, thanking her for the meal with a sincere bow.
"Everything was incredible, Miss Kyōka. Thank you so much for the invitation."
Kyōka received the compliment with a satisfied smile and turned to her daughters.
"Go see Jin-kun off."
The three of them walked to the entrance in a comfortable silence. Jin put on his shoes in the genkan while the sisters waited in the hallway.
Koharu had her hands clasped in front of her lap, and Yuika leaned against the wall with her arms crossed and an expression that gave away she was scheming something.
Jin had barely put his hand on the doorknob when he felt a tug on his sleeve.
"Jin-kun." Yuika held him back with a playful smile. "What do you think of my sister?"
"Huh?"
Finding herself suddenly mentioned, Koharu showed a trace of confusion that quickly transformed into alarm.
"Koharu is really cute, right?"
Yuika didn't wait for an answer and rose on her tiptoes until she was level with Jin's ear and spoke against his skin, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "Even though she's a little shy, you'll find she's quite interesting once you get to know her better..."
"Yuika!" Koharu, who had caught the movement even if not the exact words, rushed forward with her face on fire and hurriedly pulled her sister away from Jin. "You're doing it again! I-If you don't stop, I'm really going to tell Mom."
The threat would have sounded more convincing if her voice wasn't shaking.
But Yuika showed total indifference to the retaliation. She slipped free from her sister's grip and waved at Jin with energy from the hallway.
"See you next time! Remember our beach date!"
Koharu, still blushing, forced herself to recompose enough to wave goodbye with a shy gesture and a small smile.
"I-It was nice meeting you, Jin-kun."
Jin looked at the smiling faces of the two sisters and beyond them, at the end of the hallway, he could make out the figure of Kyōka leaning against the kitchen doorframe, watching him with a serene smile that said far more than any words could express.
Three women. One family. A door that had just opened.
"See you next time!"
Returning the smile to all three of them, he turned around and walked toward the street.
As his steps carried him away from the Tachibana residence, an expectation that was hard to define sprouted in his chest.
Summer was going to be very interesting.
...
After saying goodbye to the Tachibanas, he didn't head for the train station. Instead, he turned down a side street and walked at a relaxed pace toward a nearby residential area. The visit to Kyōka had been productive, but the day wasn't over yet.
A few minutes later he stopped in front of a modern looking apartment complex.
"Yoyogi Apartments..."
The name echoed in his memory like a distant bell. Miwa lived here, he knew that.
That was the reason he'd come. But there was something else associated with that name he couldn't quite pin down... Yorogi Apartments... Yoyogi... Where had he read that before?
Setting the doubt aside for the moment, he assessed the situation.
His plan was to surprise Miwa, but upon noticing the security guard posted by the main entrance, he shook his head with regret.
Pulling out his phone, he was about to call Miwa when a sound stopped him.
A series of feminine gasps, broken by exertion, reached him from behind.
Turning his head, he found a young woman struggling to drag an absurdly large pile of luggage toward the building's entrance.
Suitcases, cardboard boxes, and cloth bags were stacked on a cart that had seen better days, teetering dangerously with every tug she gave it.
The woman would advance one step, stop to catch her breath, adjust her grip, and pull again.
It was like watching an ant trying to move a mountain.
But it wasn't the luggage that stole Jin's attention.
It was her.
Beautiful facial features, the kind a sculptor would spend years trying to replicate without succeeding.
Water blue eyes, transparent as the surface of a lake, framed by long lashes. Her long silver white hair like freshly fallen snow was wound up in a bun on top of her head, with some strands falling over her neck and temples.
Her skin was an almost ethereal whiteness, so pale and fine that the light blue lines of blood vessels could be made out beneath the surface. And her body, despite the exertion and the simple clothes she wore, displayed curves that her clothing couldn't hide.
She was, in a word, supernatural.
Too beautiful to seem completely real.
And then the name hit him like a punch.
'Wait... Yoyogi Apartments. Silver hair... White skin... Blue eyes...'
The fragments clicked into place.
'Yukino Nifuyu? It's Yukino Nifuyu!'
Of all the encounters he could have had today, running into her was the last one he'd anticipated.
Jin knew her from the original story: a woman with a complicated past and abilities that went far beyond what her delicate appearance suggested. The fact that she lived in the same building as Miwa was a coincidence too convenient to be chance.
Or maybe it wasn't coincidence at all.
"Um... sir, is there something you need from me?"
A soft voice, tinged with unease, yanked him from his thoughts. Blinking, he realized he'd been staring at her for several seconds without saying a word.
The woman had stopped her efforts with the luggage and was watching him cautiously, keeping a prudent distance.
"Ah, how rude of me." Jin scratched the back of his neck with a dopey smile he'd perfected for situations like this. "It's just that I was trying to remember if I'd seen you somewhere before... and I just realized I haven't. It's simply impossible to forget a face like yours, so this has to be the first time."
"Huh!?"
The direct compliment caught her off guard. Her white cheeks, those cheeks that seemed incapable of showing color, flushed an intense pink that spread all the way to her ears.
"You... you're exaggerating..." She lowered her gaze shyly, gripping the cart handle tighter. "I'm an extremely ordinary person..."
'Ordinary?' Jin held back a laugh. That woman was many things, but ordinary wasn't on the list even with a telescope.
"Do you need help?"
He took a step forward, pointing at the mountain of suitcases that was leaning dangerously to the left. He knew the answer, but he needed a pretext to get closer.
"No, that's not necessary! I can manage on my own!"
The woman retreated hastily, waving her hands in front of her in a nervous gesture of refusal. But in her rush to back away, her heel caught on one of the suitcases that had slid off the cart.
She lost her balance instantly.
Her blue eyes flew wide open as her body tilted backward, arms flailing in the air searching for something that wasn't there.
But Jin's hand reached her before she fell.
His fingers closed gently around her delicate hand, holding her firmly while stabilizing her with a subtle pull that brought her back upright.
"..."
The contact lasted barely a second.
But in that second, something pierced Jin's skin.
A sharp, deep cold that climbed up his arm like frost spreading across glass.
This wasn't natural temperature, it was something more: a frigid aura emanating directly from her skin, but Jin's body, recently strengthened, absorbed the cold and dissolved it into nothing before it reached his shoulder.
He barely felt a tingle.
"...!"
Yukino let go quickly, stepping back with her eyes wide open. The blush vanished from her face, replaced by a paleness that went beyond her natural tone.
"Are you okay!?"
Her eyes scanned Jin's arm frantically, searching for signs of damage, of pain, of frostbite. Searching for the consequences that always, always came when someone touched her.
But she found nothing.
Jin stood in front of her with the same relaxed expression as before. No trembling, no blue skin, not the slightest hint of discomfort. His hand, the one that had held hers an instant ago, hung at his side with complete normalcy.
Yukino's pupils trembled.
'How is this possible...? This young man really isn't affected by me?'
________
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