situation if I didn’t show up unannounced, would I?” Shihoko replied.

“Ugh… Look, there’s no problem, okay? I’m keeping the place clean.”
“You certainly are; I’m surprised. You never kept your room clean at
home, but you’re doing better than I’d expected. I’m surprised.” Shihoko
nodded seriously, looking genuinely astonished as she surveyed the living
room.
The unspoken truth was that his place was only clean because Mahiru
had helped Amane tidy up. Her advice and constant scolding was a big part
of how his place had managed to stay clean, too. Really, Mahiru deserved
most of the credit, but there was no way Amane was going to tell his
mother that now.
“Your skin looks good, too; you must be eating well,” Shihoko
observed.
“…Yeah,” Amane admitted, unable to meet his mother’s eyes. Even his
improved health was something he owed to the angel.
“You’re even cooking properly, huh. Oh, but it looks like you’re cooking
for two?”
Shihoko’s manicured finger was pointing at his dish rack. Two people
had eaten lunch, so naturally there were two sets of dishes. Carelessly,
Amane had forgotten to put them away. He should’ve remembered how
perceptive his mother could be.
“Yeah, I had a friend over.” Amane’s answer was not quite a lie. He’d
spoken as indifferently as he was able, doing his best to stop himself from
shaking. It was fair to say that he and Mahiru had built up to something
resembling a friendship, so it wasn’t exactly untrue. There was the small
matter of hiding that the friend in question was a girl.
“Hmm,” Shihoko replied with a tone that suggested she didn’t really
accept that explanation at face value. She scanned the living room again.
“I suppose you get a passing mark. You’re doing so well, I can hardly
believe you’re a boy living on his own,” Amane’s mother finally conceded.
Somehow, Amane had been able to deceive her, though only just barely.
Strangely, he felt a chill run down his spine, and he was sweating bullets.
On the other hand, maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised to have
passed his mother’s inspection. Mahiru really had turned some things
around for him, after all.
“See, there was nothing for you to worry about, Mom.”
 “I suppose not; though I can hardly believe it. You could barely do
anything for yourself at home. You’ve certainly grown up.”
“…I’m basically an adult,” Amane replied, though inwardly, he scoffed
at himself for having the audacity to say such a thing.
“Good job,” Shihoko praised, smiling.
It made Amane a little uncomfortable to hear that, since of course he
hadn’t done any of it on his own. There was no way he could risk telling his
mother the truth, however, so he would have to leave things as they were
and try to get her out of there.
She’s pretty much finished her evaluation, right? I wonder if I can get
her to leave without saying anything about wanting to eat her cooking or
whatever, Amane thought.
“That just leaves the bedroom check, I suppose,” Shihoko mused
nonchalantly.
Amane’s eyes went wide at the drop of that bomb. Mahiru was still in
there. If his mother found a girl hiding in the bedroom, a far greater disaster
would ensue than if Amane had just revealed Mahiru from the get-go.
“Hey, don’t joke around. Even if you’re my mom, I don’t want you
digging around in my bedroom.”
“Oh? Something in there you’re feeling embarrassed about?” Shihoko
prodded.
“There’s probably one or two embarrassing things in any high school
guy’s room, if you think about it.”
“So you admit it?”
“Yeah, I admit it. Please don’t go in there.”
Even though it was shameful, there’d been no other choice. Amane had
been forced to go along with his mother’s assumption to keep her from
entering the bedroom. If she discovered Mahiru in Amane’s room, she
would most assuredly get the wrong idea. For both his own sake and
Mahiru’s, Amane needed to avoid that at all costs.
When Amane’s mother saw him blocking the door to his room,
desperately trying to keep her from getting through, she could tell right
away that he was hiding something. Closing in on her son, Shihoko said, “I
suppose you are grown up, if you’re hiding those sorts of things from your
parents.”
If it came down to it, Amane was prepared to keep his mom out by force
if necessary, though he admittedly didn’t like that idea. He stood ready to
stop her, but then…
Thump. There came a noise from inside the bedroom.
“Amane…”
“Yes.”
“What are you hiding?”
“…It has nothing to do with you, Mom.”
“So you say.” A wide grin spread across Shihoko’s face.
It was the kind of coercive smile that could not be denied. Amane
became extremely uncomfortable every time she looked at him like this. It
had a way of sapping his willpower to oppose her.
Amane groaned, and Shihoko saw an opening. She put her hand on the
doorknob to his room, and by the time Amane noticed, it was far too late.
Shihoko slipped past Amane, intent on discovering the source of the noise
on the other side of the door.
What met her eyes beyond that barrier that Amane had failed to protect
was the figure of a beautiful girl. She was leaning her back against the side
of the bed while hugging a cushion to her chest. The girl’s eyes were
closed, and her breaths were a gentle rhythm. Mahiru had dozed off by the
time Shihoko discovered her.
A warm room with a heater running and a full stomach after lunch were
the perfect conditions for an afternoon nap. Amane couldn’t help but
wonder whether Mahiru often slept in boys’ rooms, but all this really
confirmed was that she found Amane to be harmless enough to doze off in
his bedroom.
He couldn’t exactly blame her for it. Sitting motionless so as not to
make any noise had probably gotten real boring real fast.
The main problem was, obviously, Shihoko, who had arrived at just the
wrong moment to witness a situation she was sure to misunderstand.
Had he been the third party, Amane would have gotten the wrong idea,
too. He would have assumed they were so intimate that Mahiru had no
problem drifting off for a nap in his room.
Grimacing all the while, Amane glanced over at his mother and saw that
her eyes were sparkling. He could only imagine the commotion she was
about to raise.
“Oh my, Amane, you’ve got such an adorable girlfriend!” Shihoko
shrieked in her youthful voice. “This isn’t the kind of girl you can just hide
away in a corner, you know!”
Amane felt a headache coming on.
She had immediately jumped to possibly the worst conclusion available,
and to make matters worse, she was clearly very excited about the idea that
her son was dating such a lovely girl. There was no doubt that even
Amane’s mother was smitten with Mahiru’s beauty.
Mahiru looked so vulnerable when she was asleep. The practiced air of
elegant refinement that she always wore like a mask had melted away,
revealing the full captivating nature of her looks. Her cute face had never
looked more peaceful—or more pretty.
Amane had grown somewhat accustomed to Mahiru’s appearance, but
seeing her like this, he was once again struck by her incredible charm. Her
cherubic face held such an innocent serenity. Once again, he felt the urge to
reach out and touch her. Her sleeping figure, hugging Amane’s cushion
tight, awakened many desires in him that were best kept private.
 This truly captivating girl was Amane’s girlfriend, or so his mother
thought. It was no wonder she was excited.
“I suppose the reason you didn’t want your mother looking in this room
is because your girlfriend is here? Look at you, growing up right before my
eyes.”
“That’s not it! You’ve got it all wrong! She’s not my girlfriend or
anything!”
“Come now, you don’t have to make excuses! Your mother has no
intention of opposing your relationship, Amane.”
“No, I’m telling you, that’s not the issue here! We’re not in a romantic
relationship! You’ve got it totally wrong!”
“Well, whether I’m right or wrong, she’s in your bedroom right now,
isn’t she?”
“That’s because you showed up all of the sudden! We were just hanging
out in the living room, but I knew you would misunderstand!”
“You see, the problem with that excuse is that you would never let a girl
you don’t like into your apartment. And I really don’t think a girl would just
waltz right on into the apartment of someone she didn’t like, would she?”
Amane struggled to find a way to argue the issue. His mother was right;
Amane was awfully territorial about his living spaces and wasn’t inclined to
let just anyone into his domain.
The first time Mahiru had come in, she’d practically forced her way, but
ever since then, he’d welcomed her over, even when she wasn’t coming to
cook for him.
I guess that means I really do like her.
As far as Amane was concerned, he was sure he liked Mahiru for her
personality, not her appearance. He enjoyed that seemingly contradictory
part to her. There was a biting and honest side of her that she didn’t show at
school, and yet she found it hard to be open about her feelings. He liked her
curt and annoyingly helpful attitude and the reserved way she conducted
herself. When she was taken by surprise, she would get flustered, and the
mask would drop momentarily, which was another thing he enjoyed. Most
of all, Amane especially liked that rare angelic smile that he’d only seen
cross her face a few times. He supposed that each of those attributes were
all precious parts of Mahiru’s appeal.
If he had to say whether that was a feeling of romantic love, Amane
would have insisted that it was something else, but he couldn’t deny that
Mahiru was a wonderful girl for many reasons.
“I care about her as a friend. Not every relationship between members of
the opposite sex has to be romantic, you know. And I’m pretty sure she
doesn’t feel that way, either.” Amane was not the kind of mama’s boy who
would obediently play along with whatever Shihoko said. Plus, Mahiru
would certainly object to the suggestion that she had feelings for him.
“Now, you don’t know that, Amane! Aren’t you being rather
presumptuous, thinking you know exactly what her heart wants?”
“What can I say to get you to understand that our relationship is not like
that, Mom…? Shiina, please, help me out here…”
No matter how he tried to explain, Amane’s mother had already made up
her mind. Amane pressed a finger to his forehead, stumped on what to do.
With all possible urgency, he wished Mahiru would just wake up.
“Nn…”
Either Amane’s unspoken prayer had been heard or all the ruckus had,
because Mahiru’s eyelids fluttered open, and she made a sweet noise as she
raised her face. Her flaxen hair slipped over her shoulders. The girl’s
shining eyes, the color of caramel, were blurry with sleep, and she looked
so vulnerable that it felt somehow wrong to look directly at her.
Maybe she wasn’t quite fully awake yet as she looked up at Amane
vacantly, her eyes still relaxed and drowsy. Amane pointedly stared in
another direction.
“Shiina, I don’t mind that you fell asleep, but there’s been a
misunderstanding, so please help me clear things up.”
“Misunderstanding…?”
“Hey, hey, Miss Girlfriend, what’s your name?”
Mahiru was still clearly confused over what had happened, but Shihoko
didn’t hesitate to approach her, beaming with an amiable, carefree smile and
an overly familiar demeanor.
Mahiru was visibly flustered, still trying to get her bearings.
“Huh, uh, um…”
“It’s important to tell each other our names when we first meet, you
know!”
“Ah, I-I’m Mahiru Shiina…”
“Oh, Mahiru, what a cute name that is! I am Shihoko; please don’t be