The final day has arrived.

Aisa’s mood is noticeably down.

“Um…”

“Ugh…”

By the time we got back from school, Aisa was practically glued to my side.

Tonight, her family’s coming back home, so I’m supposed to head back to my place in their stead.

As if refusing to let me go, Aisa grabbed my arm and kept letting out these little growls.

Can’t be helped… I’ll let her do what she wants for now and try to calm her down with some talk.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?”

“…Yeah.”

Our three-day, two-night cohabitation flew by in the blink of an eye.

We did all sorts of things under the guise of “couple-like” activities, but these past few days, it feels like we’ve gone beyond that kind of relationship.

Yeah, it’s almost like what they said at the start—something like a married couple…

“Kouki…?”

“Oh, sorry, sorry.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Well, like… what even counts as ‘couple-like’ stuff, you know?”

Aisa tilts her head.

I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say…

While I was wrestling with that thought, Aisa suddenly spoke up.

“Oh, right, this whole living-together thing was supposed to be about doing couple-like stuff!”

Oh, yeah, that’s how it was framed, wasn’t it?

“Kouki, did you… not really feel like it was couple-like?”

“Well…”

As I hesitated on how to explain, Aisa cut in.

“Hmm… okay, then, did you have fun?”

“Of course I did.”

“R-Really…”

When I answered without missing a beat, Aisa looked away. Her reaction’s making me feel embarrassed now…

Oh, but yeah, that’s it.

“It was fun, right?”

“Yeah…”

Aisa leans her head on my shoulder and nods.

“Then maybe we don’t need to rush things, you know.”

I’ve been trying so hard to do “couple-like” things, but I don’t think that’s what really matters.

“As long as I’m having fun with you, Aisa, that’s what matters most to me.”

I naturally start patting her head as I say it.

Of course, I haven’t forgotten the things Aisa wrote on those sticky notes about what she wanted to do, but even so, I don’t think we need to force ourselves to act like a couple. With Aisa and me, it feels like we’ll be fine either way…

“Being with you like this forever, Aisa—that’s the best part, isn’t it?”

After I said that, Aisa’s face turned bright red for a while, but when I stopped patting her head, she silently nudged me to keep going. So, I ended up stroking her head until Manami-san and the others got back.