She called out to me from the stairs. I woke up shortly after.

"Good morning...yawn... Mom." 

"I cooked some eggs for you, they should be fine." She began preparing her briefcase. I sat at the table, watching her.

"Do you work even on Sundays?" I asked her, while tasting the first egg.

"There's little else I can do. We have to finish a project and we're down to the wire." She tucked her attaché case under her arm. "Do you have any plans for today?" she asked in the rush of the moment.

"Not yet, I think I'll stay home."

"Are you sure you're feeling well? You've been a bit strange since last night."

"Don't worry. It's nothing serious." I remained vague, but it was actually true. What was troubling me was the thought of her...

"If you want to talk about it, we can do it tonight." She walked over to me, kissing my head. 

"Oh, come on, Mom..." It didn't really bother me, but it came naturally.

She smiled at me before saying goodbye. When she left, I stayed in the kitchen looking at my plate.

Do I really like Akari? Shiori had thought so, and Mom too, do I really give off that impression?

I pondered over it, even too much.

"Stop thinking about it!" I devoured the other egg too. 

I need to calm down.

DING. The doorbell rang.

"Could she have forgotten something?" I got up, heading toward the entrance. 

When I opened the door, it wasn't my mother I found there, but...

"Haru!?" 

"Hello, dear friend." He smiled at me, having arrived on his bicycle.

"What are you doing here?"

"What kind of question is that? Come on, get dressed, let's go for a ride." He kept smiling. 

"I don't know, I don't really feel like it..."

"Oh, come on. Today is a really nice day, let's go to the park."

Haruto's energy was incredible, the more I tried to refuse, the more I felt like going. 

"Ugh... fine, whatever, let's go." I took five minutes to make myself presentable and get my bike. 

"Okay, are you ready now?" he asked. 

"Whenever you are." I got on the bicycle.

"Here we go!" He started pedaling at full speed. "Come on Sora, catch me if you can!"

"Hey! You think you can beat me?!" Spurred on by the heat of the moment, I chased him with even greater eagerness. 

When we reached the park, we were out of breath and slightly sweaty. 

"Did... You... See..." He tried to say something to me, but he was too tired. We let ourselves drop onto a bench. 

The park was well-lit by the sun, but fortunately for us, the bench was under a large tree that provided shade.

"Maybe we went a little overboard." He commented.

"You think?" I was being ironical. 

Haru took his small backpack, pulled out two bottles of water and two sandwiches. 

"Don't be shy." He handed me one of each. 

"You, sharing food? Are you about to die?" I teased him. 

"Oh, shut up." He replied, bringing the sandwich to his mouth.

Once we finished eating, we stayed sitting for a while longer.

"Listen, Haru..." I decided to talk to him about it. He looked at me, curious. 

"Well..." My face flared up. I started speaking in monosyllables. 

"Sora, I'm not understanding anything here."

"Wait, I'll say it clearly now." I didn't think it would be this hard to admit it.

"Just as long as you don't take all day."

"Yeah, I know..." I gathered my courage. "Akari! I think I like Akari!" 

What will he think?

I wondered as I lifted my gaze. 

"Ahahah."

He burst out laughing. It caught me off guard. 

"Why are you laughing?! This is serious!"

"Sorry, sorry." He wiped his tears.

He smiled at me, a smile I had rarely seen him give.

"I was just wondering how long it would take you to realize it."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm just saying that right from the start you tried to get close to her, maybe her charm had already gotten to you."

I reflected on it for a second, I hadn't yet thought about what my behaviors really meant. 

"You said you wanted to get to know her better, but you could tell you were attracted to her. Maybe you're the only one who hadn't noticed." He chuckled again.

The more he pointed it out to me, the more I realized how foolish I had been. 

"Please, don't say another word, I'm dying of embarrassment."

"As you wish." He smiled, bringing his arms behind his head to lean back.

"I'm happy for you, anyway."

"Thank you... Even though I haven't actually accomplished anything with her yet." I scratched my head.

"Time will tell." He got up from the bench. "Come on, let's go. The day is still young." He offered me his hand. 

"Want to have another race and lose?" I grabbed it, looking at him.

"You mean a race where I'll win."

We took our bikes back and set off again, I spent the entire day with him.

We said goodbye just before dark, at a crossroads between our houses.

"Here we are, our little trip ends here." He said. 

"Yeah, see you tomorrow at school." I paused for a moment. "Haru... I wanted to tell you that... you really are a good friend, I'm lucky to have you." I extended my fist. 

"Modestly, I know... but you're a good friend too." He reciprocated my gesture.

I started pedaling again all the way to my house, when I arrived I noticed that my mother had already returned. 

"Welcome ba—" I reached her in the kitchen. She had her head resting on the table, sleeping.

"Rough day, huh?" I whispered, grabbing a blanket from the cabinet. "Don't worry, I'll take care of dinner." I draped it over her shoulders. 

I wasn't a great cook, but I could manage to whip something up. I busied myself between one big pot and another. 

Tomorrow we'll meet Akari, I'm really happy. The mere thought made my heartbeat quicken. 

"I'm really—" The pasta water began to boil over the pot. 

"Oh no! Oh no!" I managed to stop it just in time. "Damn, that was a close one." I sighed. 

"Sora! What have you done!" My mother had woken up. 

"W-wait, I can explain..."