ai | s. manjiro & m. takashi

さんじゅうろく

"Huh? The four of you are back here again?" Ai asks, her eyes slightly widening as she sees Akkun, Takuya, Makoto and Yamagishi standing in front of her by the school gates.

"Well we were on our way to some place but then we happened to pass by here!" Yamagishi says, palms positioned up to the sky as he explains to Ai.

"Am I really not in your way...?" Ai asks, biting her lower lip as her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Nope!"

"No way!"

"We definitely wanted to spend time with you!"

"Yep!"

Finally painting a smile on her lips, Ai nodded her head. "If you four say so!" She chirps before going to a different direction.

"Uh...Ai?" Akkun asks, index finger pointing at a different direction from where Ai is. "Isn't your home this way?"

"Ah!" Ai gasps, "I'm not heading home yet! I have to pick up a few ingredients!" She smiles, lightly pulling the straps of her backpack.

"If Ai is going to the grocery then we are all going there!" Makoto declares, taking the lead in heading towards the nearest mart in sight.

"By the way" Yamagishi starts to say, adjusting his eyeglasses. "What's your ideal type in a guy?" He asks, turning his head to look at Ai.

Ai blinked thrice before breaking into a sad smile. "It used to be Mikey..." she says, her voice trailing off. "But I think it changed..." she said.

"Really?" Yamagishi says, "Then what's your ideal type now?"

"That's the funny part! I don't know what my ideal type is now!" Ai chuckles softly. "But if I were to think about it...I like a guy who is caring and sweet." Ai says, slowly nodding her head.

Makoto leans down to whisper in Yamagishi's ear. "Man, don't get your hopes up. You're not the caring and sweet type." He says, snickering after.

"As if you're caring and sweet too!" Yamagishi retorts back

"Hm? What?" Ai hums, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Nothing!" Both Yamagishi and Makoto respond together. As the two lead the way, they began whispering amongst themselves.

"Akkun is the caring type and Takuya is the sweet type" Yamagishi whispers to Makoto

"We can't let them have an alone time with Ai" Makoto agrees, whispering back

"Let's split up and drag those two away when we get there, okay?" 

"Roger that!"

Both Yamagishi and Makoto slowly turned their heads to look back, eyeing Akkun and Takuya in jealousy as they get to talk to Ai who stood in between them.

. . . . . . . . . . ♡

Two hours before the clock strikes midnight, Ai neatly wrapped her gift, designing it with an orange ribbon in the middle before slowly going down the stairs. She took a peak behind the wall to see if Yuzuha was still in the living room, much to her relief, her older sister wasn't there anymore. Freely yet quietly walking down the stairs, she made her way to the kitchen to begin baking again.

Ai thought about moving and working quietly in the hopes that Yuzuha and Hakkai won't come out of their rooms to check up on her, but since she realized that the oven will chime after the time is up, Ai gave up on working quietly and just decided to work in a normal pace.