In the early morning, Ichin woke up under the covers.
Beside him, Utaha was still sound asleep. Not wanting to disturb her, Ichin stayed under the blanket for a couple of minutes to fully wake himself up. Then, he carefully lifted the covers, got out of bed, grabbed some clothes, and left the room.
After washing up, even though it was only 7 a.m., Ichin went straight to the kitchen to start preparing breakfast.
It wasn't something he _had_ to do, but last night at the studio, everyone had gone a little wild and started shouting about going to Disneyland today.
"Sure, they said they wanted to go to Disneyland… but are any of them even up yet?"
After preparing the filling for the buns, Ichin picked up his phone from the counter and sent a message to Rin Toyama.
As expected of the studio's most reliable person, Rin quickly replied—and soon showed up at Ichin's place to help with breakfast prep.
"Rin, is everyone else still asleep?"
"Yep, all completely out cold," she said with a smile she couldn't hide, clearly thinking back to Yagami Kō's sleeping pose when she left.
"After you and Utaha left last night, they kept the party going for quite a while."
"Sigh… I wonder if they'll still want to go to Disneyland. Wouldn't be surprised if none of them can wake up."
Looking out the kitchen window, Ichin noted that although it had snowed the night before, the snow hadn't piled up too much. They could still go to Disneyland if they wanted—_if_ they could get up in time.
Because of the snow, the late hour, and the drinks, everyone had ended up spending the night.
Aside from the studio's own rooms, even the guest room in Ichin's apartment had two occupants: the Yukinoshita sisters.
As Rin placed another wrapped bun into the steamer, she thought for a moment and said,
"They should be able to get up, I think? Before I left, I checked on everyone. Aoba and Tsubame heard me moving around, so they're probably awake by now. But Shizuka-sensei, who's sleeping on the studio's lounge sofa, is still snoring away. I passed by her twice and she didn't budge at all."
The studio had four bedrooms, but that still wasn't enough space for everyone. So Shizuka Hiratsuka, ever the responsible teacher, had volunteered to sleep on the lounge sofa.
Thankfully, the heating was on all night, so no one had to worry about catching a cold.
"Shizuka-sensei, huh?"
Ichin couldn't help but chuckle, recalling her drunken antics just before he left last night.
"Yeah, that sounds about right."
Before long, all the buns were wrapped, and it was time to move on to the next dishes.
Just then, the guest room door opened, and the Yukinoshita sisters stepped out, already dressed and fully awake.
Since they'd left the party with Ichin and Utaha last night, they'd managed to get a proper night's sleep.
Stretching with a smile, Haruno said cheerfully,
"Even though we didn't sleep at home, it still feels great! It's nice to go out and have fun once in a while. Right, Yukino?"
"As long as you don't cause trouble, I'm grateful," Yukino replied bluntly.
"Aw, don't say it like _that~_!"
Just then, the master bedroom door opened too, and Utaha stepped out in her pajamas.
"Good morning, Utaha!"
"Morning, Senpai."
Seeing the two sisters, Utaha returned the smile and greeted them as well.
"Good morning, Haruno-senpai, Yukino. You two go wash up—I'll go check how breakfast is coming along."
Before falling asleep last night, Ichin had told her he'd handle breakfast. So when she woke up and found him gone, there was only one place he could be: the kitchen.
Utaha walked into the kitchen and, just as expected, saw Ichin there—along with Rin Toyama, who had come to help.
"Good morning, Rin-senpai," she greeted, then walked over and hugged Ichin from behind.
"Ichin, what time did you wake up?"
"Just before seven. I _did_ promise to make breakfast, after all."
Turning to look at her, Ichin smiled and said,
"You could've slept in a bit longer. Most people probably aren't even up yet."
"It's fine. I'd rather get up," Utaha said as she gave his back a small affectionate rub. Then, glancing at the clay pot simmering on the stove, she asked,
"What's cooking in there?"
"Congee. Today's breakfast is lean pork congee, steamed buns, dumplings, and fried dough sticks. Anything else you feel like eating?"
"That's more than enough. I don't usually eat much in the morning anyway. You should be thinking more about whether all this will be enough to feed _everyone else_."
"Don't worry, I made plenty."
Ichin pointed to the other batch of buns that hadn't been steamed yet.
"Once I'm done here, I'll have Rin take the rest downstairs to steam them. There's not enough space in this kitchen."
"Then yeah, that should be enough."
Not wanting to get in Ichin's way, Utaha moved over to Rin and asked,
"Rin, need any help?"
"No need. There's not much left—it'll be done soon."
While skillfully wrapping a dumpling, Rin glanced at her and asked,
"You haven't washed up yet? Are Yukino and Haruno using the bathroom?"
"Mm-hmm, I let them go first. Just thought I'd come check in."
Utaha gave a small yawn, then looked out at the snowy scenery.
"Not much snow out there… I was kinda hoping we'd be able to have a snowball fight today."
"If you want a real snowball fight, we'll probably have to wait until we go to Hokkaido," Rin replied with a laugh.
"When it started snowing last night, Kō said the same thing. But I could tell the snowfall wasn't heavy—it's not going to pile up enough for that."
Just as she finished speaking, her phone rang. It was Yagami Kō calling.
As soon as Rin picked up, Kō's voice came through, loud and clear.
"Rin, where are you? You left already?"
"No, no, I didn't leave," Rin quickly replied.
"I'm upstairs helping with breakfast. You're up already? Great—go wash up and help me wake the others. We'll be eating soon. Didn't we say we were all going to Disneyland today? Don't start slacking now."
With that, she hung up.
"Heh~" Utaha leaned in with a teasing smile and gently bumped Rin's arm. "A check-in call?"
Rin's face turned bright red as she waved her hands in denial.
"N-no, nothing like that! I just… slept in Kō's room last night, so of course she'd come looking for me when she woke up."
"Isn't that _basically_ the same thing?" Ichin chimed in with a grin.
"Come on, Rin, how long has this been going on? Still no progress at all?"
With no one else around, it was the perfect moment to tease her about things they normally wouldn't say aloud.
"Wha—? Ichin-kun, don't say weird stuff!"
Utaha casually linked arms with Rin and added with a sly smile,
"It's _not_ weird at all. Anyone with eyes can see it—except for Kō, whose emotional intelligence is tragically low. Add to that the fact you're both girls, and she probably never even considered it. If you ask me, Rin-senpai, it's time to make a move! Hesitating too much is a _bad_ habit."
In response, Rin's entire face lit up with the classic flustered expression of a proper _steamed-girl-type_ heroine—just like Yagami Kō's own game character.
...
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