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"…Hold on a sec. Let me text home first."
Facing his childhood friend's sudden invitation, Bokue briefly pondered before deciding to inform a certain kitty-cat at home first—that he'd be a bit late tonight, and there was no need to wait up for him for dinner.
His fingers danced quickly across the screen, typing the message. Irina curiously leaned in to glance at his phone.
"Texting home…? Bokue, aren't you living alone in Tokyo right now? I remember Yura-chan should still be back in Kyoto, right? Your father too… Wait! Don't tell me Auntie moved to Tokyo as well?"
"Of course not—she even made a quick trip back to the 'Hero Village' a while ago."
Bokue swiftly typed and sent his message, but not before Irina caught a glimpse of the contact name at the top.
"Kuro…ka? That sounds like a girl's name, though? Is it your girlfriend? Wait, but that can't be right…"
The twintailed girl trailed off, correcting herself mid-sentence as she suddenly recalled a certain crimson-haired heiress proudly claiming to be Bokue's girlfriend.
While she was still puzzling it out, Bokue lightly tapped her forehead with a finger.
"What's so confusing? I never said I had only one girlfriend."
"H-Huh?!"
As if she'd just heard something utterly inconceivable, Irina opened her mouth wide, cute little fang peeking out. Her usually sharp tongue got tangled for once.
"B-But wouldn't that make it… polygamy?! Wait, but Auntie… no, Yura-chan would never allow that, right?!"
"Then I just won't tell her,"
Bokue casually tucked his phone away, walking past Irina as he tossed back a nonchalant remark.
"Come on, let's grab some dinner first. I'm buying tonight—what do you feel like eating?"
"I… I'm okay with anything, I guess."
Irina responded vaguely.
As the saying goes, it's delightful when friends come from afar. Usually, if an old friend whom you haven't seen in years arrives, it's expected you'd treat them to something nice.
But then again, the saying also goes that guests should follow the host's preference.
Since Irina put the decision in his hands, Bokue naturally felt no need to be overly polite about it.
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Thus, twenty minutes later—
At the free public park about three hundred meters from Kuoh Academy, on a bench beneath a softly glowing streetlamp, the aroma of freshly opened fast food wafted gently through the lush greenery surrounding them.
Irina stared silently at the steaming burger she held, its warmth still radiating through the packaging, suddenly unsure of what to say.
Glancing at Bokue, who was already cheerfully unwrapping his own burger, Irina awkwardly lifted her burger and questioned quietly,
"So… this is our dinner?"
Bokue paused mid-bite, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Would you prefer something more fancy? There are a few restaurants nearby—but it's dinnertime now, the busiest hour. You sure you want to squeeze into a packed place?"
"…I'll pass."
After a brief hesitation, Irina chose to give up. She understood Bokue hadn't chosen fast food out of stinginess or to save money—he simply preferred takeout instead of rubbing elbows with a crowd.
Truth be told, after everything she'd experienced today, Irina didn't really have the mood to immerse herself in a noisy, bustling restaurant atmosphere either.
Right now, she preferred a quiet moment instead.
And since it was dinnertime, this free park was pretty much empty. The elders who loved strolling around after dinner hadn't yet arrived, and the thick greenery behind them muffled the noise from the road.
It was as if they had temporarily reserved this whole park for themselves.
This… wasn't bad at all.
Smiling faintly at that thought, Irina unwrapped her burger and took a small bite.
After swallowing, she lowered her hands gently, letting her hair fall forward slightly and hide her eyes beneath her bangs.
"Hey, Bokue…"
"Hm?"
"Do you… still remember the things we did when we were kids?"
"There's way too many to list."
His muffled voice answered casually.
Irina hesitated briefly, then quietly asked,
"Then, do you remember that one time we went to play in the mountains near Kyoto, when the wind blew away my hat, and it got caught on a tree branch over the cliff edge…?"
"Oh, that time, huh?"
Bokue nodded, suddenly recalling it.
"I was ready to climb down the cliff right away to retrieve it, but you freaked out and stopped me."
"W-Well, of course I stopped you!" Irina sputtered indignantly. "That was a cliff! So steep, and we didn't even have any climbing gear. If you fell, it'd be all over—"
Then she switched her tone, pouting slightly.
"And after that, you just picked up a rock and knocked my hat straight off the cliff instead!"
"Finish your sentence." Bokue shot her a sideways glance, amused. "Didn't I take you all the way around to pick it up after that?"
"I mean, yeah… but we ended up walking a really long way through the forest to get it back…"
Irina mumbled softly, cheeks slightly pink.
"It was the best choice we had at the time," Bokue shrugged. "I considered a few other plans, too. Given the situation, the safest bet was probably to run home, grab climbing gear, and return—but that would cause two problems."
"First, we'd still have to trek all the way back down. Second, there was no guarantee the hat wouldn't be blown away completely while we were gone, and then we'd have no idea where it landed."
"So, logically, I decided it'd be simpler just to knock the hat down first. Either way, we'd have to take the long way around, at least we'd know exactly where it ended up. Besides, it's just a hat—it wasn't going to break or die."
"Haha… yeah, that's true."
Listening to his calm analysis, Irina couldn't help but laugh softly.
"You've always been pretty decisive about things since we were kids."
"Not really," Bokue shrugged again lightly, "it's just choosing the lesser evil between bad and worse."
A short silence followed before Irina spoke up again, softly,
"Hey—can you answer me one more question?"
"What is it?"
"Well, since you still clearly remember things from our childhood so well…"
She took a deep breath, pausing briefly before continuing slowly:
"Then, during all these years after I moved to Europe… did you ever think of me?"
"Yeah, I did. Why?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Bokue instantly replied, clear and certain.
For him, the question wasn't difficult at all. After all, she was still his childhood friend. And Irina had only moved to Europe with her family—she wasn't exactly devoured by some one-eyed dragon who enjoyed flipping Maybachs repeatedly on rainy overpasses.
To say he'd never thought of her at all? That was nearly impossible.
But his seemingly casual reply struck Irina like a bolt from the blue. Her head jerked upward, eyes wide in surprise, and the faint sadness from earlier instantly vanished—replaced by a joyful smile blossoming warmly across her features, like the first sprouts breaking through winter soil.
"Then, I guess we're the same."
"Hm?"
Her voice softened gently, her eyes meeting his with warmth and tenderness she could no longer hide.
"Because, ever since I moved away to Europe—every single day without you, I've always been thinking of you."
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