How We Spend Time Together

"Amane, what have you been doing with Miss Shiina when you're alone together?"

On the way home from school, Amane stopped by a bookstore to buy a study book, and Itsuki, who never seemed to have any interest in such things, suddenly asked him that question in a quiet voice.

It really was sudden, so Amane shot his friend a puzzled look, but he saw that Itsuki was holding a magazine in his hands with a headline written in big letters, "Recommended Ways to Spend Time Together on a Home Date!" so that explained some things.

He's asked me something similar before. What is he thinking, when we're not even dating?

Amane was annoyed, but he didn't have the slightest thing to feel guilty about, so he decided it would seem more suspicious to avoid the question.

With that thought, Amane looked up a little, still holding the study book he needed in his hand, and recalled how he and Mahiru had been spending their time together.

They certainly didn't spend their time the way Itsuki was probably thinking.

It should have been obvious, but Amane and Mahiru were just close friends at the moment. They regularly ate meals together, but that was it. There was absolutely no romantic involvement.

So there were none of the salacious details that Itsuki seemed to be expecting, no lovers' embraces to speak of, like boyfriend and girlfriend might do. All he could say was that they usually spent their time together.

"…Even when we're in the same room, sometimes we're doing different stuff, or sometimes we do homework or something. At most, we watch TV or read together… That's about it."

Both Amane and Mahiru were diligent students—Amane perhaps less so than Mahiru. After they enjoyed whatever Mahiru made for dinner, the two of them usually cleaned up and then completed their homework assignments, reviewed and prepared their study materials, and got ready for the next day's classes. If they had extra time, they relaxed and watched television, or flipped through a comic book or magazine together, or occasionally played a video game. That was about the state of things.

They also frequently sat beside each other doing their own things, as Amane had described.

Mahiru had her lacework and embroidery, which served as a diversion and hobby, and Amane spent his time playing social media games and watching video clips on the internet.

They weren't necessarily always doing something together, and when they were each engaged doing something they liked, neither of them ever really bothered the other.

Amane explained this simply, and Itsuki opened his eyes unnaturally wide, as if he had seen something he couldn't believe, and said in a trembling voice, "Why aren't you making any progress, when you've got the girl you love all to yourself?!"

"Shut up. First of all, I do love her, which is why I'm not forcing anything along."

"Coward!"

"Be quiet! Anyway, if I did anything, I would only be inviting danger."

It was unthinkable, but just supposing that Amane were to act like an animal and pounce on Mahiru, she probably wouldn't hesitate to attack him in the most tender of targets.

He could be sure of that, since she had already told him she would fight back if provoked.

He absolutely believed that he would be crushed, without a doubt. "Miss Shiina would do that?"

"She told me she would, right from the start."

"Huh…"

Itsuki seemed to think that Mahiru was polite and quiet and wouldn't ever do anything violent. But while Amane would agree that she was polite and quiet, she was also a levelheaded person who was alert to the danger around her and would not hesitate to deal with any threats.

Of course, it was only natural that she had the right to protect herself, but Itsuki seemed skeptical.

"Would she really go that far?"

"Well, I don't want to hurt Mahiru in the first place, and I hate the idea of forcing her to do something she doesn't want and having her despise me. Why should I make her cry, when I want to cherish her? I don't want to become the kind of awful guy who just takes what he wants, no matter what."

Amane would be much worse off if he tried to force his desires on her and she ended up in tears, hating him for it.

Amane wanted to treat Mahiru with kindness and sincerity, so he couldn't selfishly force his feelings on her. That applied with Mahiru, of course, but also with any other person as well.

"That's a good quality of yours, but you're still a coward, man."

"Oh, shut up… Seriously, it's fine. I'm having a perfectly good time just spending the day together."

He wasn't in a rush to move their relationship to the next level or do whatever Itsuki was thinking about.

Of course, he did want Mahiru to like him back, but he wanted her to take her time and fall for him after she got to know him better. Particularly with Mahiru, he wasn't just interested in her superficial qualities, so he also wanted her to really get to know him, even if it took time.

After all, he figured she already knew about the sloppy and irresponsible parts of him. So if she still wanted to take the time to get to know him, he wasn't going to deny her the chance.

Itsuki looked pretty astonished by Amane's words, but Amane had no intention of changing his opinion, so he ignored the look Itsuki was giving him and carried his study book up to the register.

When Amane got home, he helped Mahiru make dinner as he always did. They ate together, and then it was time to relax and study.

Really, nothing much was different, as Mahiru sat quietly beside Amane, devoting herself to her studies. She was apparently already finished with her homework, so she was going over the material for their upcoming lessons.

It wasn't an especially romantic situation, the way Itsuki seemed to imagine, and Amane also had his own studies to work on. He was quietly engrossed in the reference book he had purchased earlier that day.

The only sounds were the scratching of their mechanical pencils across paper, the turning of pages, and their breathing, resonating in the silence.

The television was off so they could concentrate, and night had fallen, so the room was a really peaceful space.

Amane had been silently working through the problems in his study book for a while. Feeling his concentration start to waver, he raised his head to take a breather.

As he moved his shoulders gently up and down to loosen his muscles, he happened to glance beside him, where Mahiru was still working away at her study book. Her ramrod-straight posture was lovely and composed—anyone would have thought as much.

Her expression was serious as she wordlessly moved her pencil.

There was an almost dreamlike, bewitching quality to her slightly downturned eyes, and without meaning to, Amane let the pencil he was holding slip from his hand as he stared at Mahiru, utterly absorbed.

"…Is something the matter?"

Mahiru had apparently noticed his gaze, and she twisted her body so that she was facing him. A gentle, slightly discouraged smile drifted across her lips. Amane suddenly felt embarrassed that he had been so captivated by her.

"Ah, n-no, it's nothing." "…Really?"

"N-no, I just, well, I was thinking, your posture is so nice."

He wasn't lying, so he figured that was all right. He had indeed been impressed by her posture, after all.

Mahiru blinked several times at the mention of her posture. "Is that so? This is how I normally sit."

"And I think it's amazing that that is your 'normal.' Your back is absolutely straight when we're eating meals, too, which is proof that you always maintain good posture."

"He-he, well, Miss Koyuki was very strict about that. She always said that lovely posture and bearing gives other people a favorable impression of you and that if your posture is good, you end up looking straight ahead, and that's naturally connected to having self-confidence."

The idea was persuasive when Mahiru said it with an elegant smile.

Graceful manners were naturally more likable than coarse manners, and people with good posture did seem to have more confidence. Those who seemed confident were probably treated as such and gained more confidence, too.

"You're usually a little hunched over, Amane, so you ought to think about improving your posture and training your back muscles. Here, sit up!"

With a sweet-sounding command, Mahiru reached over to straighten Amane's somewhat curved back. She gently grabbed one of Amane's shoulders, placed her other hand on his back, and corrected his posture.

"Having nice posture is proof that you've trained your body. If your back muscles are weak, your torso will shift around, and you'll have a tendency to hunch. You've been working hard at your training recently, so I may be sticking my nose where it doesn't belong, but as important as exercising your legs is, you should also properly train up the muscles on your back. Consciously improving your posture is also a form of training, you know."

Amane felt a strange chill as Mahiru slowly rubbed his back, which was now straight, while whispering those words close to his ear. "S-sure," he yelped in a shrill voice.

Mahiru let out a soft, easygoing laugh, like the tinkling of a bell.

"You don't have to be so stiff. You can fix your posture just by paying a little bit of attention, okay?"

Amane was slightly relieved to realize that Mahiru had apparently concluded it was the unfamiliar position that was bothering him.

Beside him, satisfied that he would keep his back straight this time, Mahiru moved away a little…and then stared directly at Amane.

"…What?"

"Payback for earlier." "I see."

Apparently, Mahiru was going to stare at Amane this time, which made it extremely difficult for Amane to do anything.

Maintaining her lovely posture and smiling happily as she looked at him, Mahiru gave off a kind of impish impression.

"…I can't imagine it's all that much fun looking at me." "You're wrong about that. It is fun."

"What's fun about it?"

"Let me see; it's fun for me to make observations, like how your eyelashes are surprisingly long, and that your bangs have grown out a little and look like they might be in your way, and that your Adam's apple is quite visible."

His embarrassment grew as she listed these unexpected details.

There was no way he wouldn't be embarrassed, having parts of him he was hardly even aware of described like that.

He didn't exactly hate it, but being checked over in detail by the girl he liked suddenly made him feel like running away.

"Don't look at me so closely, please." "No way, you're adorable."

Amane wondered what exactly she was looking at that made her say something like that, but before he could complain, he heard Mahiru's tinkling laugh again.

"You've got plenty of charms, Amane, even in places you yourself don't realize. I thought I would take a good look at some of them."

Mahiru put her hand to her mouth and laughed elegantly.

Unable to stand it, Amane grumbled, "Do as you please," and turned back to his reference book.

Perhaps it was inevitable, but under Mahiru's scrutiny, his posture quickly broke down, and he collapsed onto the table. Her amused laughter increased even more.