After filling out the club application form, Chihaya Anon invited Amaya Yuu and Takamatsu Tomori to go to karaoke.
But Amaya Yuu did not go; only Chihaya Anon and Takamatsu Tomori went together.
Just as he had stated many times before, he was truly clueless about music.
Rather than sitting awkwardly in the KTV, he preferred to just go straight home.
Before parting ways with them, Amaya Yuu painfully spent 200 points to use “Insight”.
After using it, he only had 100 points left!
When will the system release some easy-to-complete tasks?
『Character: Chihaya Anon』
『Charm: 8』
『Intelligence: 7』
『Physique: 7』
『Strength: 4』
『Status: Actively integrating into a new environment to escape an unbearable past!
』
『Character: Takamatsu Tomori』
『Charm: 8』
『Intelligence: 6』
『Physique: 3』
『Strength: 3』
『Status: Has social anxiety, but actually yearns to communicate with others.
』
To Amaya Yuu’s surprise, no tasks were triggered at all.
Could there be a limit to investigation tasks?
Or are Misumi Uika and Togawa Sakiko special?
After leaving school, a puzzled Amaya Yuu boarded the train alone.
The carriage swayed gently along the tracks; he leaned against the door, watching the flowing night scenery outside the window as it headed toward his apartment.
By the time he arrived at the station near his apartment, it was completely dark.
People returning home at this hour were usually just students who had participated in club activities or worked part-time jobs.
After exiting the station, Amaya Yuu still had about a ten-minute walk.
Thinking that he would pass by a supermarket in the downtown area, he stopped by to buy some ingredients and necessary kitchen utensils, but since he bought a bit too much, he could only move slowly, which caused him to arrive home later than expected.
“What a long day.”
Seeing the outline of the apartment building from afar and feeling the heavy shopping bags in his hands, he couldn’t help but sigh softly.
Just then, a taxi drove past him and slowly stopped at the apartment entrance.
Inside the car, Misumi Uika let out a soft sigh.
As a member of the idol group “sumimi”, she had just finished a day of work.
She had even impulsively gone to the planetarium today, resulting in missing her meal time, but since she could see the stars, none of that mattered; she could just make a cup of instant noodles when she got home.
Once the car stopped, she put on her sunglasses and prepared to get out.
After a busy day, only looking at the stars could make her feel a moment of peace, reminding her of her childhood days on Shodoshima; back then, she didn’t need to go to any planetarium—at night, she only had to look up to see a sky full of stars.
“It really is only by looking at the stars that I can recall—”
Misumi Uika stood downstairs at the apartment building and had just pressed the elevator button when a call from afar interrupted her thoughts.
“Misumi-san!
What a coincidence; we meet again!”
Amaya Yuu was seen carrying bags upon bags of groceries; even though both his hands were full, he still tried hard to lift his arm and wave enthusiastically at her.
This slightly comical yet energetic appearance made Misumi Uika smile, and she reached out to take off her sunglasses.
“Amaya-kun is still as humorous as ever!”
Worried that he wouldn’t be able to hear her because of the distance, Misumi Uika raised her voice slightly to respond.
In order not to keep Misumi Uika waiting, Amaya Yuu quickened his pace and started jogging.
By the time he finally reached the elevator, carrying the heavy items and running had almost exhausted his already meager stamina, which the system had rated at 2 points.
He barely managed to move the shopping bags into the elevator car, then grabbed the inner handrail, gasping for breath with fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead.
Seeing him out of breath, Misumi Uika couldn’t help but ask with concern: “Amaya-kun, are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine…
just lacking exercise…”
Amaya Yuu managed to squeeze out a sentence.
At that moment, the elevator gave a soft “ding,” and they arrived at the seventh floor.
Seeing that he was in a difficult spot, Misumi Uika naturally reached out to take half of his shopping bags and walked out of the elevator with a light step, looking much more composed than him.
“I’m really troubling you!”
Amaya Yuu was so embarrassed that he just wanted to find a place to hide; without realizing it, he even used honorifics.
“Don’t mention it, we are friends.”
Misumi Uika flashed her signature perfect smile again.
With her help, Amaya Yuu quickly packed the purchased ingredients neatly into the refrigerator, and the various kitchen utensils were also put in their proper places.
Just as things quieted down, Misumi Uika’s stomach rumbled “gurgle” in a very atmosphere-reading way.
The sound wasn’t loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the quiet living room.
She subconsciously covered her abdomen; this time, it was her turn to be so embarrassed that she wanted to find a place to hide.
“Misumi-san, have you not had dinner yet?”
Amaya Yuu took the opportunity to suggest in a light tone, “I was just about to prepare dinner; since you helped me so much today, let me express my gratitude.”
“No, no need to trouble yourself,”
Misumi Uika shook her head quickly, her voice lowering, “It was because of me that you exhausted your stamina in the first place…
The little thing I did was nothing.
Besides, you already spent a fortune on the last gift…”
“Precisely because Misumi-san doesn’t cook often and is still hungry this late, you shouldn’t settle for less.”
Amaya Yuu paused and also smiled, “Don’t mention it, we are friends.”
Misumi Uika pursed her lips slightly, unconsciously placing a piping hot, freshly made dinner and cold cup noodles on either side of a mental scale.
The aroma of the steak seemed to still be floating in her memory, combined with that phrase, “We are friends.”
The scale tipped easily.
She finally stopped insisting but still nodded slightly with some embarrassment: “Then…
I’ll trouble you, Amaya-kun.”
“Then please take a rest, Misumi-san!”
Amaya Yuu’s apartment layout was similar to the one next door; there was no dining table in the center of the living room, so Misumi Uika, just like last night, naturally sat on the high stool by the bar counter.
While Amaya Yuu was preparing the ingredients, she noticed two cute penguin bandages on his elbow.
“Amaya-kun is unexpectedly going for a cute style.”
“Huh?”
Amaya Yuu didn’t react for a moment.
“Those bandages.”
“Ah, this is purely an accident; someone gave them to me.”
He lifted his elbow with a smile to show them, “But speaking of this, today was a blessing in disguise; I joined a quite interesting club.”
“An interesting club?”
“Yeah, it’s the Astronomy Club.”
“Astronomy Club?”
Misumi Uika’s voice suddenly brightened.
“Does Amaya-kun also like observing stars?”
“Actually, I don’t know much about astronomy, but maybe I’ll come to like it after joining the Astronomy Club.”
“I see…”
Misumi Uika nodded thoughtfully, then her eyes suddenly lit up.
“Amaya-kun, please wait a moment!”
After saying this, she walked out the door quickly, and before long, she returned with hurried footsteps, holding a small, uniquely designed lamp in her hand.
“This is a gift for my first visit!”
Misumi Uika walked to Amaya Yuu’s side and carefully held the lamp up in front of him.
“It’s a starry sky lamp!”
After saying that, Misumi Uika skillfully turned off the lights in the room, and the room fell into a soft darkness.
She carefully placed the starry sky lamp in the center of the bar counter and pressed the switch on the base.
In an instant, warm yellow specks of stars lit up, spreading across the ceiling and walls, rotating and changing softly, as if a miniature starry sky had been moved indoors.
“Look,”
Misumi Uika extended her finger and pointed gently at three exceptionally bright points of light in the projection.
“Those are Deneb, Altair, and Vega; they form the brightest ‘Summer Triangle’ in the summer night sky.”
“Because I particularly like this star cluster, I specifically chose this starry sky lamp when purchasing it.”
She paused, her voice becoming exceptionally soft under the reflection of the starlight: “Whenever I feel exhausted or lost, I look at the stars.
They are so distant, yet they hang there consistently, giving people an indescribable sense of peace.”
“A sense of peace…”
Amaya Yuu repeated softly, but his gaze quietly shifted from the flowing light and shadows to the side profile of Misumi Uika, who was gazing at the “Summer Triangle.”
The soft light of the star lamp plated her focused silhouette with a hazy, warm color.
“So beautiful…”
This sincere exclamation slipped out of his mouth softly.
But was he praising this artificial starlight, or the moving face illuminated by the starlight?
Even he himself couldn’t tell.