A long period of silence fell between them.

"Why aren’t you saying anything?"

Mika felt embarra.s.sed when her two friends stared at her, dazed, and her face flushed even redder.

"Do you want us to say anything?" Seiji asked after he'd returned to his senses.

"Of course, this... was obvious, wasn’t it!?" Mika said, her face crimson. "I... was just playing a joke to lighten the mood."

‘Your joke was a little too much for us, Uehara-san!’ Seiji and Chiaki exchanged glances and both smiled wryly.

"You succeeded in scaring us, Mika." Chiaki sighed. "Your level is far too high, and we can only admire you from afar."

"What’s this... don’t you guys always act like this?" The double-pigtailed girl looked genuinely surprised. "I was only imitating you."

"Imitating... okay, I suppose that’s fine," Seiji said with an air of helplessness.

It seemed that Mika had only wanted to play a joke on them, but her acting was too convincing, making it difficult to respond.

Another period of silence fell between them.

"Alright, I’ll be serious—what was it that you guys wanted to tell me?" Chiaki asked. She ignored what had just happened and led the conversation back to a serious direction again.

"It’s like this..."

Seiji summarised the "mystical" world to Chiaki.

Chiaki was rather surprised to hear all this, but she was able to accept it quickly.

"A hidden side to our world... Yin-Yang Masters and Spirit-branded Retainers... I didn’t expect that real life was just as wondrous as a movie. But that’s just how it is, since real life is always... stranger than fiction."

Currently, the three of them were drinking some refreshments purchased from a vending machine in a park.

After speaking, the tomboy fell silent for a moment before looking towards her two friends again.

"Thank you guys for telling all this to me." She smiled at them. "I’m very happy that you chose to be honest with me rather than concealing the truth. I don’t know what else I can say... We’re good friends, and always will be, just like before, right?"

Seiji and Mika also smiled.

"Of course," the two of them said simultaneously.

The three of them exchanged grins.

Seiji first took Mika back to the Uehara apartment, before taking Chiaki home.

They walked back to Chiaki's house in silence.

"Seiji... I’m actually slightly downcast," Chiaki said, breaking the silence.

The tomboy sighed; she'd decided to reveal her true thoughts to Seiji after remaining silent earlier.

"I’m indeed happy that you were willing to share this secret with me, but despite this... I also feel like as if I’m only an ‘ordinary person.’ I feel different from you guys. I know that I’m thinking too much about it, but I can’t control my own emotions... that’s how it is."

Seiji looked at her with a gentle look in his eyes. "If you can’t control them, then there’s no need to. Just express whatever you want, and I’ll listen to your complaints."

"That’s all, you’ll only listen to my complaints?" Chiaki asked.

"What else do you want, then?"

Chiaki looked at him, and a strange light flashed through her eyes. "I want to drink alcohol! I want you to drink with me!!"

Seiji was rendered speechless.

"You’re not allowed to refuse!" she said merrily. "You’re not allowed to talk back; that’s how it is then!"

Chiaki was acting spoiled before Seiji could get a chance to speak.

‘She’s just like a kid throwing a temper tantrum.’ Seiji inwardly sighed.

"How do you want to do this?" he asked helplessly.

"Let’s go to a bar!"

Seiji silently raised his hand and made it into a fist in an imposing manner. It felt as if he was saying ‘If you make any unreasonable requests, you shall be punished.’

Chiaki cowered in fear. She recalled being vanquished by the fist of justice.

"Then... come over to my place for some drinks," she said, relenting.

Seiji silently mulled it over.

"Come, have a little drink in my home; it won’t be anything." Chiaki grabbed his arm and shook it. "I... I really am a little depressed and just want you to accompany me."

Seiji could only sigh in front of how spoiled she was acting. "You can only drink a little."

"You actually agreed!?" 

"Even if I didn’t, you would probably drink on your own." Seiji looked at her face.

"Hehe~" Chiaki stuck out her tongue and giggled.

While this pose was unbearably cute, Seiji had the urge to give her a smack on the head!

'Forget it—she said that she's a little depressed, which is probably true... I might as well accompany her in drinking just once.'

Seiji made up his mind and accompanied Chiaki back to her luxurious apartment.

Chiaki took him inside, and they took an elevator to her room.

"Please come in," she said.

"Please excuse my intrusion."

Seiji entered Chiaki’s home for the first time.

The living room was rather grand. It was one that would appear in a television show in some idol’s home. It was s.p.a.cious and well-lit, with extravagant furniture.

The most eye-catching part was all the artwork hanging from the wall. There was scenery, real people, and even abstract artwork—and all seemed rather high-cla.s.s.

Seiji recalled that Chiaki mentioned before that her father was a famous artist.

'All this artwork here is probably from her father, then...'

"Have a seat anywhere; I’ll bring the alcohol!" Chiaki said, before disappearing into another room.

Rather than sitting down, he walked over to the artwork hanging on the wall and inspected it.

He didn’t know how to appraise art, so he couldn’t estimate its value. He just judged it using his own sense.

He randomly looked at several and thought that they were pretty good. Then, he looked at a portrait.

The portrait depicted a woman wearing a long dress. She was standing in the midst of flying cherry blossoms, spinning around while holding her hair.

The artwork was rather beautiful, but only the side of the woman's face was visible, and her eyes were covered by the cherry blossoms, so Seiji couldn’t see her face clearly.

It was a piece of art that would capture the viewer’s imagination, but as for the overall impression it gave him... Seiji didn’t know how to describe it.

This indescribable feeling made him feel internally conflicted, so he couldn’t help but stare at this artwork for quite a while.

"Here’s the alcohol!"

Chiaki’s voice snapped him out of his daze.

When he turned around to look, he saw that she'd brought out a tray with an expensive-looking bottle of red wine, along with two tall winegla.s.ses and a gla.s.s bowl filled with ice cubes.

The label on the wine... seemed to be written in French. Seiji was unable to read it.

At any rate, he felt that the wine was likely expensive.

'Is it really alright to be drinking it?'

"What red wine is this, Chiaki?" he asked.

"I don’t know; I randomly picked one from my dad’s collection," she responded flippantly.

"This wouldn’t be an incredibly expensive high-cla.s.s brand of wine, would it?"

"Who knows? I just casually picked one, and I’ve drank so many of his wines already... cough, I meant that there’s many of this exact same bottle in his collection, so it’s not a rare one."

"If your father scolds you harshly, it has nothing to do with me," Seiji said after a pause.

Chiaki chuckled. "Relax, he won’t; if he wants to scold me he has to come home first, and he only comes here a few times a year." 

Her expression seemed normal, but Seiji could detect a trace of loneliness deep within her.

She always stayed at home by herself... so what did Chiaki typically do at home? Seiji felt a sudden burst of curiosity.

The tomboy put some ice cubes in the two winegla.s.ses, then she took out an uncorker and uncorked the wine bottle with practiced movements before pouring some wine for both of them.

The pungent smell of alcohol instantly wafted out of the bottle.

Just this odor made Seiji realize that this alcohol was out of the ordinary.

Seiji was no wine appraiser, but he had some experience with alcohol in his previous life. Once again, he wondered in doubt if this alcohol was really just randomly grabbed by Chiaki...

Was it that this world had higher quality wine than his previous world, or was Chiaki’s family just too rich?

"Come, cheers!"

After Chiaki finished pouring the wine, she lifted a gla.s.s and indicated to Seiji that he should lift the other gla.s.s.

"...Cheers."

Seiji took the winegla.s.s and clinked it lightly against Chiaki’s before bringing it to his mouth.

After savoring the scent for a while, he finally tipped the winegla.s.s and slowly began drinking the sweet red wine.

The alcohol left a pleasant feeling and scent behind as he drank.

It really was great wine.

Seiji released a sigh of contentment as he put down his winegla.s.s.

He saw the silver-haired girl sitting across from him smiling sweetly.