I have bound two systems.

"The fireworks display is so nostalgic. It's this weekend... I guess as a mother I can't just not say anything."

Touma Kazusa asked somewhat uneasily,

"What are you going to do, Mom?"

"Keep it a secret~ You will know on that day~"

It was brushed aside so lightly.

………………

Chapter 7 Fireworks Display (k)

"Good morning, Senior~"

"Excuse me, Xiaoxue."

On Saturday morning, Isshi Iroha and Yuigahama Yui knocked on the door of Yukinoshita Yukino's house.

This was not the first time that the two of them had visited, and Yukinoshita Yukino smiled and invited them both into the house.

"Eh?"

When the sharp-eyed Isshiki Iroha arrived at the living room, the first thing she saw was two teacups placed on the coffee table.

"Senior, did you have any guests at your house just now?"

She blinked her beautiful big eyes and looked at Yukinoshita Yukino who asked a casual question.

"!"

Yukinoshita Yukino's breathing quickened for a moment, but she still tried to calm herself down. She just replied "Yeah" in the shortest way, then naturally picked up the unused cup and walked to the kitchen, and let them sit on the sofa for a while.

This little episode did not make the two visitors have any special thoughts. After all, even for Yukinoshita Yukino, who usually doesn't like to communicate with others, it is a very normal thing for guests to visit her apartment.

There was nothing special about the purpose of their visit today, but they just kept their old habits and liked the feeling of spending time peacefully at Yukinoshita's home.

The apartment has a good environment, a great view, and the air conditioning is turned on high. There are no elders present due to the generation gap that makes it difficult to feel at ease. If I have homework questions that I don’t understand, the top students in the grade will answer them.

The most important thing is the person who lives next door to Yukinoshita-senpai.

Although the last few times I've taken the initiative to invite him out, Suzumiya-senpai had rejected them all on the grounds that he was busy, but today is Sunday, and if I take the initiative to visit him this time, it shouldn't be impossible for us to meet.

After studying for a while, I will find any excuse to go find him. I hope he is the only one at home and there is no one else to disturb the situation.

With this in mind, Isshiki Iroha took out the cranberry cookies she had recently tried to bake and shared them with others after learning.

After listening to Yuigahama Yui's shining eyes praising the dish after tasting it, Isshi Iroha felt a little better for the depressed mood she had been in in recent days.

"Speaking of which, summer vacation is coming soon."

Yuigahama Yui licked the cookie crumbs on her fingertips and asked the other two with great interest,

"What are the plans, Koyuki and Iroha-chan?"

"Summer vacation..."

Isshi Iroha held her chin up and looked upwards with a thoughtful expression.

"Mom and Dad seemed to have mentioned before that they would go back to their hometown to visit grandpa and grandma during the summer vacation. I should go with them, but I probably won't be able to stay for a few days. After all, we students do have summer vacations, but adults don't have this benefit. At most, we can only take a week off. So after we come back, I guess I will stay at home all the time and won't have any other plans."

"That's surprising. I thought Iroha-chan would have a lot of plans with her friends."

Isshi Iroha asked with concern,

"What made Yui-senpai come up with such an idea?"

"Because Iroha-chan is very cute and cheerful, and she seems to be very popular."

"You think too highly of me. Actually, my relationship with other students in the class is not that good. There are only a few people I can talk to. If I have to say, I am still a little short of being close friends."

"Hey! How could that be?"

Yuigahama Yui's face was full of disbelief.

Isshi Iroha leaned back on the edge of the sofa without minding.

"Let's not talk about the boys, because I don't want to have too much contact with them. As for the girls... I don't know why, I always feel that quite a lot of people don't like me. Maybe it's because of the influence of these people. I haven't been very popular among girls since I was a child."

"That's it..."

Yuigahama Yui didn't know what to say at this moment. She always felt as if she had done something bad and brought up a bad topic, causing Isshiki Iroha to talk about her unhappy past.

Although she seemed to not care about it at all, the sudden feeling of guilt still made her quite uneasy, so she quickly scratched her head and laughed dryly a few times, then quickly turned her gaze to Yukinoshita Yukino,

"Xiaoxue, what about you?"

Looking at Yuigahama Yui's pitiful look of help, Yukinoshita Yukino helplessly closed the cat picture book in her hand and replied,

"Summer vacation is nothing special to me, so I will probably stay at home and read books, prepare for the next semester's classes, cook some of my favorite dishes, go out to buy some daily necessities, and go to a cat cafe for a while, just like usual."

"Eh? It's so hard to get a long vacation, Xiaoxue, aren't you going home?"

"Maybe I'll stay for a night or two, and then I'll be back the next day. I still like to be alone."

After answering Yuigahama Yui's question, Yukinoshita Yukino stood up and turned up the temperature of the air conditioner.

"As for me... apart from promising Yumiko that I would take a day off to go shopping for clothes with her, I don't have any special plans."

"Really? That's great. Considering the stage we're in right now where we need to think about further studies, this may be our last relatively leisurely vacation in the past two years. Enjoy it."

Yukinoshita Yukino took out the cherries she had washed in advance from the refrigerator and placed them on the coffee table for everyone to enjoy.

"so big."

"really."

Isshi Iroha and Yuigahama Yui looked at the fruits on the table and exclaimed one after another, and said similar words in unison.

"It should be expensive, right?"

"Isn't it cheap?"

Yukinoshita Yukino picked up the cat picture book again and shook her head slightly to signal them not to worry about it.

"It's a gift from a friend. If you like it, eat more. When you go back later, take some back with you."

"Please introduce such a friend to me. I really need such a caring friend... Mmm, it's delicious!"

Isshi Iroha joked and put a cherry bigger than her thumb into her mouth. The next moment, her cheeks puffed up like a hamster and a very happy smile appeared on her face. In some ways, she was a person who was easily satisfied.

Yukinoshita Yukino smiled and didn't say anything.

I thought to myself that you have known that person for a long time.

That’s right, the whole box of premium cherries displayed in the kitchen was sent by our next-door neighbor Chisato Suzumiya.

According to his explanation, it was given to him by a president he knew and had worked with before. Three boxes were mailed directly to his door. He couldn't finish them all by himself, so he gave her one box.

Yuigahama Yui's way of eating cherries is much more tactful. She doesn't stuff them into her mouth like Isshiki Iroha, but takes small bites.

"Come to think of it, Xiaoxue, you really like cats. It was the same during the school festival before. The activity of Class 3 was a pet photography exhibition. Xiaoxue stayed there for a long time and looked at it very attentively. Later, she answered the questions about the categories of various cat photos correctly, and was awarded a large cat doll as a reward."

“Hey, there is such a thing.”

"Yeah! And one time I accidentally saw Xiaoxue feeding a wild cat with dried meat behind the campus. When the cat lowered its head to eat, she stroked its head and made a meowing sound unconsciously. I quickly took a picture of Xiaoxue like that. She was so cute."

Isshi Iroha's interest and curiosity were aroused.

“I want to see it!”

"Yuigahama-san, didn't I ask you to delete that photo? And Isshiki-san, why is it so necessary to look at something like this?"

The extremely shy Yukinoshita Yukino tried to stop it, but it didn't work.

The two of them put their heads together and laughed at the same time the next moment.

Yukinoshita Yukino sighed helplessly.

"If you like cats so much, why don't you just get one, Yukinoshita-senpai?"

After the satisfied Isshiki Iroha came to her senses, she said in confusion,

"If you live alone, you don't have to consider what others think. Besides, senior sister, you shouldn't be short of money to raise a cat."

Yuigahama Yui also agreed, she looked around,

"Yeah, and the house is pretty big, so I think there's enough space for the cat litter box and bed."

Yukinoshita Yukino answered them,

"I do have the idea of ​​getting a cat, but sometimes, before you do something, you have to consider what will happen in the future."

"for example."

"I'm a student and I'm not at home most of the time during the day. If I have a cat, I think it will be lonely if I can't be with it most of the time."

"Lonely... lonely."

Isshi Iroha looked at Yukinoshita Yukino who said this very seriously and realized once again how much she loved cats.

Generally speaking, do people who keep pets think about this kind of question on purpose?

People always have various things to deal with. Unless you are a homebody or a retired old man or woman, who would stay at home all day?

Yukinoshita Yukino's answer continued.

"It's not just about loneliness, but also about the possibility of all sorts of accidents happening when I'm not at home."

"It's not that exaggerated, Xiaoxue. Cats are actually very easy to raise as pets, otherwise so many people wouldn't take them home. Just feed them on time, take them to the veterinary hospital for checkups regularly, and let nature take its course. "

"That's what I said, but when it comes to practice, there will always be all kinds of unpredictable accidents. I really like cats... but to be honest, I have no confidence that I can take good care of it. Before I think I have the ability and formally prepared for it, I don't think I will easily make up my mind to raise a cat."

"So heavy..."

After Isshiki Iroha and Yuigahama Yui heard what Yukinoshita Yukino said in an extremely serious tone, they turned their heads slightly to look at each other and caught these thoughts from each other's eyes at the same time.

Is raising a cat such a serious and heavy thing?

Why does it feel like raising a cat is so important? For Yukinoshita Yukino, it's not much easier than raising a baby.

How much does this person like cats?

"Ha...haha, let's not talk about this for now. I'm going to leave for a while and go visit the neighbors across the street."

Isshiki Iroha stood up.

Yukinoshita Yukino didn't react in any particular way to this.

Yuigahama Yui gave her an encouraging look.

"Come on."

"I'm just visiting, what are you talking about, Yui-senpai."

"Yes yes~"

Isshi Iroha left the living room and heard the door of the apartment close.

Yuigahama Yui picked up a cherry, sat next to Yukinoshita Yukino, and put it to her mouth with a "eh".

Looking at the other person's overly bright smile, Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't do anything about her and could only bite it with her teeth and then catch it with her hands.

"Although the other person is very outstanding, he is also very unfaithful. I wonder if Caiyu-chan's relationship can be successful."

Yukinoshita Yukino listened to her casual sigh, swallowed the food in her mouth, and then slowly turned her head to look out the floor-to-ceiling window.

The sun is shining brightly and the sky is clear and blue.

"Who knows."

"I heard her say that she has been in less contact with him recently. She feels like he is avoiding her on purpose, but she doesn't have any good solutions. It seems that Caiyu-chan still has a long way to go in her love life."

"..."

Yukinoshita Yukino didn't reply and silently absorbed the information from Yuigahama Yui's words.

In the past, she was not indifferent to topics like Chisato Suzumiya, but after spending some time together, her inner feelings changed and she did develop some interest in this person.

"Let's not talk about this anymore~ It's not good to always talk about others behind their backs. By the way, is Yukino free this Sunday?"

"No plans, what's up?"

"Yes, there will be an unusual fireworks display held in the Jingu Gaien this Sunday."

"A fireworks display..."

Yukinoshita Yukino imagined the scene of that kind of event, and after imagining the crowds of people, she quickly shook her head.