Progress

Over the course of the week, Reiji continued to tutor Haruna after school at her place. Granny, who still had to work, came home at different times depending on the foot traffic at the market.

She would always try to stay out of the way during their study sessions to not distract them, resting in a different room whenever Reiji was there, only chatting with them during dinnertime.

Of course, Reiji was the one who cooked for the most part, though the other two helped quite a bit.

Haruna had improved rapidly, able to make her own inferences when he was teaching her new topics due to the accumulation of her effort over the past few days.

Hearing how smart she was in the game was completely different from actually witnessing firsthand how quickly she had grown, to the point that there was a sense of satisfaction in being her temporary tutor.

"Finallyyyy!" Haruna groaned, collapsing onto her bed with exhaustion.

Reiji started tidying up the books, nodding to himself with a pleased expression when he glanced over the practice test she had just finished.

There were barely any red marks because she got most of them right.

"Good job, you worked hard!"

He laughed when he saw her already curling into her blanket, her eyes shut tightly as she burrowed her head under the covers.

"Turn off the light when you go," she mumbled sleepily.

"Hey, at least brush your teeth!"

"Urrghh, no!"

Reiji smiled with an evil glint at her annoyed tone, poking the small bundle on the bed teasingly.

"Get up or I'll get Granny to do it," he whispered slyly.

The now wide-awake girl threw off the covers in an instant, bounding over to the bathroom with such speed that he would've missed it if he blinked.

He chuckled as she looked back with a murderous glare before slamming the door shut.

Reiji sat back down on the floor to continue cleaning up, studying the bedroom with a soft sigh. They had been conducting their lessons here over the past few days, and even now, he felt a little pity every time he stepped into the room.

Haruna would hate it if she knew he felt that way; her pride was one of the main reasons she never told anyone about her situation after all, but it was simply his natural reaction to the bare-boned nature of the interior.

The paint on the walls was peeling, there was almost no decoration aside from home-made crafts that seemed to be made by a much younger Haruna, and only two twin-sized beds that were stuffed into the tiny space.

Decrepit was the best way to describe it, because even the obvious effort in trying to cover up these flaws wasn't effective enough.

Reiji picked up his bag and walked out of the bedroom, seeing Granny asleep on the couch in an uncomfortable position, her quiet snores muffled by the throw pillow that her face was smushed up against.

It was almost 11, so it wasn't exactly a surprise.

He walked over with exasperation and shook her awake slowly, her tired eyes softening when she saw him standing over her with furrowed brows.

"Are you done, brat?" she croaked, her voice laced with fatigue and sleepiness.

"Wow, still snide even when you're this tired? I told you to go inside; we could've studied out here," he muttered with worried irritation.

The old woman took her time to straighten up, extending her arms for a deep stretch.

"Like I said, the soundproofing is better in the bedroom. You can hear the outside noise quite easily if you do it here," she yawned.

"....Alright, that's it. From Friday, Haruna is coming over to my place instead. you'll ruin what little health you have at this rate."

"Tch, I'm perfectly healthy, thank you very much! And we can't impose on you more than we already have!"

Reiji clutched the book in his hand tightly, the anger in his eyes highlighting his displeasure.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, haven't we been over this already?" he snapped, slightly miffed at her words.

Granny huffed as she placed her hands on her hips.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with you? I thought I'd only have Haruna's stubbornness to deal with, but you are so much worse!"

Reiji just rolled his eyes, heading over to the entrance to put his shoes on.

"It's settled then, since I have club activities after school tomorrow, we'll come here one more time before going to my place starting Friday."

He had MMA club on Thursdays, so Haruna would otherwise have to wait for him at school, which wasn't exactly ideal.

As he put one foot out the entrance, he glanced back with a smirk.

"After all, a sack of bones like you needs a good rest!"

Before Granny could protest further, he'd already closed the door behind him, walking off in a hurry while she just stood there with her mouth agape.

A few seconds later, Haruna came out of the bedroom while wiping her face with a towel. She noticed the old woman muttering to herself angrily, leaving her puzzled.

"What happened? Wait, where is he? Don't tell me he already left???"

"Screw that brat! When he comes over tomorrow, I'm giving him a good beating!"

Haruna blinked with confusion.

'Geez, they're still at each other's throats??'

***

Reiji whistled calmly as he shuffled through the dark streets, the dim streetlights casting a barely visible glow over the empty road.

It felt like something straight out of a horror movie, but he didn't really think much of it.

The two of them had told him to stay over multiple times out of caution, but it would make it difficult to get ready for school in the morning, so he'd refused.

Still, it was quite tiring to walk all the way back because it wasn't easy to find taxis in this area.

'I gotta get a car.... Can't keep putting it off.'

He decided to start the process after the midterms. He had a license in his past life, so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to do it again.

The process was actually frighteningly simple in this world; it wouldn't take much time.

You could even do a road test right after completing the written exam and get your license immediately.

Video game logic never failed to amuse him, especially with little things like this.

Of course, you had to use a personal vehicle for the test, and a failure would lead to a mandatory enrollment in a driving school, so it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.

But now that his friend group had grown more than he ever expected, his urge to get a car increased tenfold because a lot of fun activities were only available outside of the city.

The group had met one more time since then, after today's cooking club, for another food party.

Though Airi, Greeny, and Ren joined him for lunch at the rooftop, Hina wasn't ready to blatantly break the rules in the middle of the school day, so Haruna accompanied her in the classroom.

But after the club sessions ended and it was fairly empty on campus, she got a little more courage to try again today.

Hina was still quite reserved, but she was more open to conversation this time, yet she hadn't really talked to him personally.

And since this meeting was much shorter because everyone else had also started to prepare for the midterms by this point, there was still a clear mismatch in how comfortable each person felt with the other.

'Ehh, there's no real hurry. I wasn't even expecting these people to mingle like this in the first place.'

What Reiji was more concerned about was Yui.

This Saturday was the scheduled second meeting between her and the protagonist. Normally, he'd have a solid idea of where they would meet, but since their initial encounter ended up with a completely unknown '5th option', that wasn't the case.

All he knew was the fact that it was supposed to happen on Saturday, with no other information on when or how they would interact.

'....Maybe there's a chance they won't meet at all?'

But he quickly pushed that thought aside; it was too risky to let fate play itself out. He had to think of a way to interfere, but had no idea how to do it.

With how unpredictable Riku had been, it was safe to say that hoping they could hash things out and not cause issues was almost impossible.

With these turbulent thoughts causing chaos in his mind, he finally reached his apartment and stepped inside with relief.

He took off his shoes, flung his bag onto a chair, and promptly collapsed onto the sofa to get a few minutes of rest before he had to freshen up.

He thought over what he could do to intervene this time, especially since he couldn't make the same mistake and let them meet again, no matter what.

He rubbed his temples slowly, a series of ideas coursing through one by one, when one made him widen his eyes with realization.

"Oh... Yeah, I guess I can just do that?"