Unaware of the hurricane of thoughts that were making Chihiro dizzy, Yuuta walked towards the comfortable couch which was separately placed in front of a giant television.

The couch was cozy enough to engulf Yuuta when he sat on it while keeping safe his precious coffee, strangely too delicious to let it spill. 

Enjoying the coffee, he felt someone approaching, and without lifting his gaze, he knew who he was.

Chihiro, after walking to the living room with a freshly brewed coffee in her hand, seemed to find it difficult where to sit since, apart from the couch, there wasn't anything to sit on.

Yuuta also saw her being troubled before he parted his lips to say the obvious.

"Isn't it fine to sit just here? We aren't that distant to mind such formalities, right?"

Chihiro became flustered as she heard Yuuta's calm voice, which told her it was completely fine to sit such intimately.

"T-then, please excuse me."

Walking in a slight hurry in fear that Yuuta might change his mind, Chihiro turned on her heel and was about to plop down on the couch when her foot slipped on the turn.

"Ah!"

A droplet of coffee spilled on her white shirt, but she didn't feel the pain she expected, as a big warm hand supported her back, almost lifting her in the mid-fall.

Opening her eyes slowly, she found Yuuta had his hand pressed on her back while he was still sipping on the coffee like nothing sort of mentioning happened.

'This guy ...'

Chihiro pouted at the lack of sympathy before she stood up and thanked him dryly.

"Thank you for helping this clutz me."

Even if it was for a second, Chihiro saw his curved eyes signifying his amusement, which didn't help but make her embarrassed down the core.

"I never said you're clutz."

Hearing his light-hearted tone, which was clearly hiding his laughter, Chihiro pouted even harder with her both soft cheeks bulging like mochi as she glared at the hurtful man.

"Hmph!"

Humping, she sat on the couch, which naturally made her quite close to Yuuta, and the way she sat, her shoulder was slightly touching his arm.

Her pout was exhausted in a second as she realized how she had positioned herself unintentionally. But if she moves away now, it would make Yuuta conscious about it too.

'What should I do...Is it okay for me to be like this...Am I betraying Mio? But...but...he is so warm...Wait, what am I even thinking !!'

The dilemma made Chihiro occupied again when she heard a lazy voice from her left as Yuuta thanked her out of nowhere. 

"Thank you for today, Chihiro. You don't know how worried I was when I saw Mio like that. To be honest, this was the first time I panicked all over the place when your name suddenly popped into my mind, and here I am. So Chihiro..."

Extending his hand with a gentle smile on his face, Yuuta held her hand lightly for a second as he concluded his words.

"Thanks for being here for Mio and for me too. I am glad I became your friend."

Chihiro, from start to end, was looking at Yuuta with slightly wide eyes as she heard him unexpectedly thanking her for something she found natural to do. 

But in the end, when he suddenly smiled at her and held her hand, she immediately withdrew her gaze and faced forward, knowing her face would light up embarrassingly.

And indeed, Chihiro's blush was so evident that even her neck was burning red with the sensation. 

In the end, she only was able to mutter three words while trying her best not to bite her tongue.

"Mee..too...glad."

The living area fell into silence as the shy girl felt it hard even to breathe under the strong influence Yuuta left on her hand. 

Her coffee became cold as she just sat there motionlessly for quite some time when suddenly Yuuta initiated the conversation as he felt the awkwardness.

"So Chihiro. Where are your parents? I mean, answer only if it's not a problem for you."

Yuuta corrected his stance since he didn't want to sound too nosy in someone's personal life but looking at the shaking head of Chihiro; he concluded it was okay for him to ask.

"It's no problem, Yuuta-kun. As I said, you are my friend, just like Shio and Mio."

Yuuta nodded with a smile as Chihiro finally seemed to calm down a little as she leaned back on the couch with the cup still in her hold.

"My parents, by profession, are chefs who travel across the world and share their experience and do other stuff, which I mostly don't find interesting. They have hundreds of restaurants around the globe that they often visit, and right now, too, they are volunteering as the welcoming host of a foreign hero in a specific country. Ironically, they are also foreigners there, yet they are welcoming someone from distant lands."

A dry laugh left Chihiro's lips as she told about the whereabouts of the people she shares this house with. Unlike Yuuta, who mostly talks with his parents daily, when they travel to other countries, Chihiro gets a call only when they feel like it, or they transfer funds for her living.

Shio and Mio were the only ones who had known about her life until now, and they could do nothing but sympathize with Chihiro.

But in the case of Yuuta...

"So, are you sad about their absence?"

Yuuta knows how it feels to live without familial love. He has lived such a life for 18 years in his previous world. So understanding how Chihiro feels was a little easier for him, which led Yuuta to ask something so straightforwardly rather than straight up showing condolences. 

Chihiro was slightly taken aback, yet still, she answered honestly.

"Well yeah, I do feel a little empty sometimes, but honestly, I don't feel that much sad since I don't know how it actually feels to live with full-time parents."

Yuuta was genuinely surprised to hear such an answer as somewhat he expected Chihiro to grieve out her loneliness, but here she answered what he always thought in his previous life.

Since his parents left him when he still wasn't conscious of his surroundings, Yuuta never came to know how it feels to live under the familial shadow.

And now, when he has been living with his newly found parents for some time, he came to the realization of how beautiful a relationship it was between a child and their parents. He was utterly happy to find such good parents in this life.

"So what if, one day, they completely abandon you, Chihiro? Will you hate them?"

Without realizing Yuuta prolonged the conversation to a deeper extent as somehow he was trying to know that what he felt in his last life, was actually right?

However, Chihiro's answer, which she spoke so casually that it seemed she never thought about it, left Yuuta utterly flabbergasted. 

"Hmmm...well, I don't know what reaction I will make when they suddenly say I am not their child anymore. But you know what, I don't think I will hate them."

Yuuta raised his brows as he stared at Chihro's side profile before he asked in perplexion.

"And why is that?"

Being asked like that so precisely, Chihiro became conscious of Yuuta's gaze, but somehow, she felt she should answer this while looking at him without shying away, so she did.

Matching her gaze with his, Chihiro smiled innocently as, for the first time, she profoundly influenced Yuuta. 

"I won't hate them because, in actuality, I never loved them. I didn't make any attachment with my parents, which could hurt me upon breaking. Even though I sound like I am trying to act grown-up and all, this is the truth that I can't hate people until I don't become deeply connected with them. That's why I always try to be cautious about whom to love since I will do my best to keep them by my side until the very end, Yuu."

__________________ 

A/N:- Ah, she called him like that, but neither of them would remember it. This is the start of something big, so look forward to it~

Editor : Zenon #4120