Tokyo: Oreimo

Because I'm going out today.

When he changed his clothes and opened the door, Ling Nai was already waiting by the window at the end of the second-floor corridor.

The girl was wearing a white shirt and a dark blue high-waisted pleated skirt, with a light gray knitted cardigan over it.

Her long, golden hair wasn't casually draped as usual, but tied into a neat ponytail, the ends gleaming softly in the morning light. Her lips were coated with a light, glossy lip gloss.

Hearing the door open, she looked up from her phone screen and sized Ryosuke up and down.

"Too slow, didn't we agree to leave at 8:30?"

It's only 8:25 now.

"It's common sense to leave the building five minutes early, right?"

Ling Nai stuffed her phone into her small bag and walked past him, her ponytail swinging in the air in an arc, leaving behind a faint scent of shampoo.

Ryosuke followed behind and glanced at his mother's room.

Today is Saturday, but Takashiro Isao went to the police station to work overtime, and Mieko also went out early in the morning to attend a town association event, leaving only the two of them at home.

The train journey from Chiba to Waseda takes about forty minutes.

Ling Nai kept looking at her phone the whole way, occasionally glancing at the scenery outside the window.

"Is your club activity room a mess?" she suddenly asked.

"Fortunately, Horiuchi-senpai knows how to handle it."

"Where is the president who wears glasses?"

"He's in charge of making a mess of things."

Ling Nai scoffed lightly and continued looking at her phone.

When I arrived at Waseda Station, the cherry trees on campus were all bare, but the ginkgo trees in autumn were a golden yellow, carpeting the ground.

The activity room for the manga club is on the second floor of the old club building on the west side of the school. The fluorescent lights in the corridor are still barely working, with one of them having a faulty connection and flickering every few seconds.

Ling followed behind Liangjie, her gaze sweeping over the faded edges of the posters on the corridor wall, and then looking at the wooden door with its paint peeling off.

"Is this the place?"

"Ah."

Ryosuke reached out and pushed open the door to the activity room.

Three people had already arrived in the activity room.

Tian Zhongxue sat at the far end of the long table, holding a pen in his hand, with a well-worn doujinshi open in front of him, muttering to himself while looking at a particular page.

Ayumi sat in a window seat with a sketchboard in front of her, her pencil scratching across the paper.

There was another person sitting near the door; it was Misaki Asakura.

She was sipping a carton of strawberry milk while flipping through a printed document on the table with her other hand.

The sound of the door being pushed open made all three of them look up at the same time.

Then, all three of them were stunned.

"Huh?"

Misaki Asakura was the first to speak, almost spilling her strawberry milk. Her gaze fell on the blonde beauty behind Ryosuke, her eyes wide open.

"Um, Takashiro-kun? And this is...?"

"My sister." Ryosuke stepped aside to let Ryosuke in.

"My name is Takashiro Ryouno, nice to meet you."

Ling Nai stood at the door, bowing slightly, displaying impeccable social etiquette.

But her gaze carried a hint of scrutiny as she swept from one end of the activity room to the other, like a cat led into unfamiliar territory, outwardly calm but with its tail slightly raised in alertness.

Tian Zhongxue suddenly jumped up from his chair, "Gao Cheng, you actually came today too!"

"President, you're too noisy." Ayumi's voice was as cold as ever, but even she put down her pen and lingered on Ling Nai for a few more seconds.

"Thank you for your guidance last time, Ling Nai. I didn't expect you to come today."

"I happen to have some free time," Ling Nai muttered, glancing at Ayumi's face as a greeting.

Misaki Asakura stood up from her chair, still holding the box of strawberry milk in both hands, and nodded somewhat awkwardly to Ayano.

"Hello, my name is Asakura Misaki, and I'm a first-year student like Takashiro... Your little sister is so pretty..."

Ling Nai blinked, and the corners of her mouth curled up very slightly.

"Thank you."

After she said that word, she didn't know what to say next.

She's never really been comfortable with people complimenting her looks to her face, especially when the person looks like they're about to pull out a notebook and ask for her autograph.

Ryosuke saw this and gently patted Ling Nai's shoulder.

"Alright, come in and sit down. Asakura, don't be nervous, she won't bite."

"You bastard, who's the one who bites?" Ling Nai turned her head and glared at him, muttering under her breath, before Liang Jie pressed her down to sit in a window seat in the back row.

Tian Zhongxue was already getting restless, clearly not expecting the club member to bring his younger sister along.

But to him, guests are guests and must be treated well, so he started rummaging through the disposable cups next to the water dispenser.

"Takashiro's sister is here, we must treat her well! The weather's been dry lately, so please have some hot water..."

"President," Ayumi stopped him, "you don't need to tell me to pour water."

"I just wanted to express my welcome!"

"Your way of welcoming us is to spill water from the water dispenser all over the floor."

"That was last time! Everyone makes mistakes! And I cleaned it up afterwards!"

While the two were bickering, the door to the activity room opened again.

Yosuke Kobayashi and Shota Okubo walked in one after the other. Kobayashi was holding a cup of coffee he bought from a vending machine, while Okubo was chewing on something.

The two of them stopped at the same time as they crossed the threshold.

Okubo stopped chewing, and Kobayashi's finger, which was pushing up his glasses, hovered in mid-air.

"...Who is this?"

Okubo swallowed the food in his mouth and stared intently at the window seat in the back row.

A beautiful girl they had never seen before was sitting in that spot.

With blonde hair in a high ponytail, delicate features, and skin so white it almost glowed, she was looking out the window with her face turned to the side. The autumn afternoon sun shone obliquely through the window, casting a light shadow on her profile.

When did the activity room get an extra person? No, when did it get an extra person who seemed to have stepped out of a painting?

"Ah, Okubo, Kobayashi, you've come!"

Tian Zhongxue straightened up from beside the water dispenser, a smug look on his face that seemed to say, "Ask me who I am, ask me now!"

But Horiuchi Ayumi didn't give him that chance at all and started making her own introduction.

"This is Takashiro's younger sister, she's visiting the manga club today!"

"younger sister?"

Shota Okubo's mouth formed an "O" shape. He turned to Ryosuke, then back to look at Ryo, and then back to Ryosuke.

"Gao Cheng, your sister? Your biological sister?"

“Stepsister,” Ryosuke corrected.

"No matter what kind of girl she is, this is just too outrageous!!"

Okubo gestured a blurry outline of his face with both hands. "You look like this, but your sister looks like a character from a painting. Is that reasonable?"

"?"

Is this a compliment or an insult?

Ryosuke raised an eyebrow.

"How enviable."

Tian Zhongxue chimed in, gently nudging his shoulder, "Having such a beautiful stepsister..."

Yosuke Kobayashi didn't shout like Okubo.

He quietly walked to his seat, placed his coffee on the table, and adjusted his glasses.

"Gao Cheng, is your sister also a high school student?"

"I'm a senior in high school this year, and I'll graduate next year."

"No wonder, young people do have a different temperament."

Kobayashi nodded seriously, then opened her notebook. "I heard the president mention the incident at the Electric Town Festival. Takashiro was also a great help. Please take care of me."

Ling Nai glanced at him sideways and nodded her chin in response.

Yosuke Kobayashi is not a talkative person and does not like tedious small talk.

He asked what he wanted to confirm, and after receiving the answer, he stopped pursuing it and lowered his head to start doodling something in his notebook.

Shota Okubo seemed to be enjoying himself more, and after sitting down next to Ryou, he would occasionally steal glances at the blonde girl.

He usually prided himself on having seen countless people and had seen quite a few pretty girls on the streets of Shinjuku, but the appearance and temperament of the girl in front of him completely exceeded the scope of an ordinary high school girl.

No, rather than being beautiful, it has a sharp, unapproachable quality that makes one completely lack the courage to get close.

The manga club activity room was quiet for a short while.

Ling Nai took out her phone from her small bag and started fiddling with it.

Her movements were calm, but her lips were slightly pursed, a habit she had when she felt a little uncomfortable.

From childhood to adulthood, her feelings of attention from outsiders can never be described as liking. It's not quite the same as the shame that comes with being noticed; it's more of a feeling of anxiety.

Ryosuke stepped over the seated crowd and sat down in the chair next to her.

Ling Nai looked up from her phone screen, glanced at him briefly, and then quickly looked away, but her shoulders relaxed a little.