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“Ryu-chaaan, Taiga-chan’s room is dark, and the curtains are still shut.”

Wrapping her hair in a curling iron, Yasuko came into the kitchen barefoot.

Finishing up frying the last breaded pork tonkatsu, Ryuuji scowled. “Really? She’d better hurry up. These are best right after they’re done.”

“Oooh, it looks yummy! I just love me some tonkatsu.”

Together, the parent-child pair stared straight at the three servings of tonkatsu that sizzled so deliciously in front of them. Although their faces didn’t look alike, they were thinking the same thing—if we don’t eat quick, it’ll get cold.

Ever since the after-school mishap, Taiga had behaved oddly.

It seemed like she’d hit her forehead pretty badly, but there wasn’t any blood or nausea or any other worrying symptoms, and eventually, she returned to peak condition.Where were you looking? Were you trying to kill me? That’s a lot of guts for a dog!And on she went—classic Taiga.

If she was in a bad mood, that was fine, but she seemed too…dark.If Taiga were normally like a firework that had gone off accidentally, after the mishap, she was now more like a piece of poisoned fruit, melting from the inside out. After a word or two of complaint, she pretty much went into a heavy silence. She didn’t once open her mouth until they got to her condo. She didn’t even talk about Ami.

It wasn’t the same as ignoring him. She wasn’t shunning Ryuuji on purpose. It seemed more like she was deep in thought, and because she was deeply lost inside those thoughts, her reactions to the outside world were dulled.

And then, at half past six in the evening, even though it was time for dinner, she hadn’t arrived at the Takasu place.

A pair of chopsticks in one hand, Ryuuji crossed his arms, looked down at the tonkatsu, and muttered, “Maybe she’s not feeling well? And then went to the hospital…by herself? If that’s the case, I shouldn’t have let her force herself to go home. I should have just taken her straight to the hospital…maybe I shouldn’t have been frying the tonkatsu this whole time.”

“Nooo, I have a feeling there’s someone in there. I sense a certain something coming from the window,” Yasuko declared, busy holding a gaudy dress up to herself as she looked in the mirror. “I’m sensitive to the presence of girls. Inko-chan thinks so, too, right?”

The bird that had suddenly been brought up in the conversation made a vacant, idiotic face. “Huh…? Oh, yes,” Inko-chan chimed in with a strangely human-like response.

Inko aside, Yasuko’s hunches were usually right in times like these. She was, after all, a self-proclaimed “slight psychic.”

“Ryu-chan, if you’re worried, why don’t you go and get her?”

While saying that, Yasuko settled on her clothes, hung them off the top of the doorframe for the time being, and continued to do her hair with her right hand. With her left hand she poked her phone, skillfully texting away. Around this time of night, she would always noisily multitask in the Yasuko style—dressing while taking care of her business mail.

Guess I have to. Ryuuji nodded at the tonkatsu. It wouldn’t help to just keep worrying like this, and he couldn’t have Yasuko wait when she was working staggered hours.

“Then I’ll go over for a bit. Once you’re done with all that, don’t forget to eat.”

“Ooh la la!” When his own mother replied with an enigmatic, sexy pose, Ryuuji averted his eyes and left the house. He slipped out the front entrance, still in his t-shirt.