Standing outside Midori's place, I press the buzzer at the front gate just like Midori said in her text. Thanks to Yume letting me know what Google was, I was able to use the maps function I found to just input Midori's address into it and all I had to do was follow the directions. It honestly amazes me that something like this was with me this whole time in plain sight.
"Hello?"
Just then, a voice came out of the speaker next to the buzzer. It doesn't sound like Midori, so could this be her mother? I hope I didn't come too early. I figured I should come after lunch as Midori did have plans for me to have dinner at her place.
"Hello. This is Luna. I'm friends with-"
"Ah~ Luna. Yes! Come on through."
And just like that, the gate in front of me unlocked as I gingerly made my way through, approaching the front door.
This place sure is secured. With tall walls connecting to a gate like that, I don't expect the average person to easily climb over, which makes sense considering that this place has two stories unlike my small apartment. The last time I was ever in such a place like this was when I was little...
"Hello~"
But right as I came up to the front door, the door opened up to reveal a tall woman. Her hair braided to the side, resting on her shoulder with a bright smile on her face which instantly reminded me of Midori.
"Hello. Sorry if I'm intruding. I might be a little early."
"Oh that's fine~ Come on in!"
"Thank you."
I do as she says and step into the household, taking off my shoes at the entrance as she closes the door for me.
"Midori is just upstairs."
"Right- Oh, but before that... Here-"
"Oh?"
After slipping out of my shoes, I extend my hand out with the bag in my hands, containing the box of chocolates I had bought along with a bottle of sparkling grape juice as well.
"Ah, you didn't need to do that, hehe. Having you come over to help my daughter study is more than enough."
"I just didn't want to come empty handed."
"Hmmm, then why don't we all have some of these together? After dinner of course."
"Y-yes..."
Seeing her mother like this is honestly a bit unnerving. It was just for a moment, but just now, for a second... I felt like I saw mom in her...
"Hehe, then I'll take these off of you. I'll show you to her room."
"Okay. Thank you."
With her mother's guidance, we eventually reach outside of Midori's room. In the next moment, her mother knocks on the door as I wait beside her.
"Midori~"
"Come in!"
I found it interesting that her mother knocked before entering. Back when my parents were still alive, I don't remember them ever knocking on our door. I guess it didn't really bother us though as we were just little kids, but in the next moment, Midori's mom opens the door, revealing the contents of the room before me. My eyes however were locked onto the person inside the room; Midori herself.
She seemed to be cleaning up some things, folding clothes that were on the ground before putting them away in the drawer. As for the clothes she's wearing, she seems to be only wearing a shirt that is just barely past her hips. As for what's below that, It honestly looks like she's just wearing that shirt... Is she at least wearing panties under that? It also doesn't look like she's seen me yet, but as if right on que, Midori turns her head to the side before quickly locking eyes with me, her eyes snapping wide open.
"...M...M-m-mom!?"
She completely froze up for a few moments before blurting out towards her mother. Her face now dyed red as if she had just swallowed flames whilst she pulls the hem of her shirt down further, stretching it over her thighs. Wait... Is she seriously not wearing anything? Or could she have been changing just now?
"Your friend is here~"
"I-I'm aware of that! Why did you let her in!"
"Well I'm not about to be rude to our guest."
"W-well you could've at least warned me!"
"Then you shouldn't have stayed up all night cleaning your room. Maybe you could've woken up sooner."
"M-Mom!"
"Fufu."
Wait, Midori was up all night cleaning? I didn't expect someone like Midori to be messy, but did she seriously just wake up?
"Well then, I'll leave you two to it~"
With those parting words, Midori's mother walks off, shooting a smile my way before descending down the stairs behind me. But as I look back inside Midori's room-
"Just give me a moment!"
She looked to have teleported as the door closed right in front of me. I guess I understand why she's embarrassed, but personally I wouldn't really mind if Midori saw me in a similar state. We have seen each other in our underwear before back when we changed for PE. Just more things to learn about her I suppose.
After about a minute of waiting, the door quietly opens, revealing Midori who is now dressed in some shorts while still wearing the same shirt.
"C-come in..."
I walk inside Midori's room as she gently closes the door behind me, her face still slightly flushed from earlier.
"Your mom's quite nice."
"Ah, yeah..."
"Sorry. Maybe I should've come a bit later."
"No no! You're okay. It's my fault anyways."
"Right. Your mom did say you were up all night cleaning, haha."
"...Well, of course. I didn't want you to think I was dirty... or something..."
I was hoping that laughing about what happened earlier would relieve some tension from her, but she still looks quite embarrassed. Hmmm...
"Well you did a good job. My place can't even compare to this."
"What? No, no. I still think it's a little messy..."
Messy? From what I can see, there's nothing disorganized here at all. But there does appear to be quite a lot of plushies scattered around her bed. Maybe that's what she's talking about?
"I don't think you need to worry so much. Your room is cute."
"Th-thank you..."
We take our seat on the floor with the table separating the both of us. I take this time to bring out my other bag filled with the learning materials I got from the library before stacking them onto the table.
"You bought 'that' much?"
"Well, you said that you needed help with a bit of everything."
"Mmmm.... Hahh~ Alright."
Looks like Midori has finally calmed down now.
"So what do you want to start with?"
"Hmmm~ Maybe chemistry?"
And so began our first study session.
Things were relatively smooth sailing for the most part. Just like I had thought, Midori seemed to have a solid grasp on every subject, but there was a few or more areas within those subjects that she was having trouble with. I'd say even without this study session she'd easily get above 70. I guess her parents want her to strive even higher? Being an only child comes with some difficulties it looks like, but it seems like Midori is getting the hang of it.
"Hmmm, I see... Wait, but how would I know the difference between Sine and Cosine? Aren't they the same?"
"No. You see, you use Sine when you want to calculate the length 'opposite' of the angle. Cosine is adjacent to it."
"Ahh~ I see."
I watch as Midori takes notes before moving onto a practice example. I'm quite confident in all of this, so I just focus on her writing, and in no time at all, she finishes the problem.
"So then it'll be this?"
"Nn. Correct."
"Yes!"
"Okay. I guess it's time for a-"
Just then, the door to Midori's room knocks a couple times before opening. There stood her mother carrying some drinks as well as some snacks. Did she read my mind just now? Or was she waiting outside the door, waiting for the perfect moment?
"I've brought snacks for you two~"
"Thanks mom."
"How's everything going?"
"Great!"
"Fufu. Then I'll start getting prepared for dinner. Be sure to take a break~"
With that, her mother walks off, closing the door behind her. Midori goes for one of the snacks first before I too grab one. I'm not that hungry, but after seeing the delicious platter before me, I can't help but take a couple bites.
"Maybe this time I can catch up with you."
"Hmmm? Are you sure about that?"
"Hey, don't act all smug."
"Pfft."
In all honesty, I do think that Midori is capable of matching me. I'm not "that" amazing as I could do better, acing every test I get, but I guess when compared to everyone else I am quite an outlier.
"Just be sure to review what you learnt today."
"Mhmm!"
We both take another bite from our snacks before we both drink from our glasses of water.
I didn't know what to expect coming here, but I'm surprised at how relaxing it is, studying with someone else. It's somewhat reminiscent of when Reina and I would study together… But it does makes me wonder what it'd be like if Midori invited Nicole and the others here as well. Actually... Why was it that Midori only invited me?
"...Hey."
But before I could speak, Midori spoke first with a bit of a softer tone.
"I was meaning to ask, but... How was yesterday?"
"Hmm? Ah, you mean when I went to the library?"
"Mm..."
"Well, nothing really. Reina didn't show up, so Yume and I just chatted for a while before going our separate ways.
"And she didn't tell you anything about your sister?"
"No... She actually said that Reina hasn't been to school all week, so she couldn't even tell her about me."
"I see..."
Talking about it again like this does feel a bit painful. I'm glad that I managed to give Yume that phone though at least, that way when Reina does show up, I won't need to sit around and wait until the weekend to hear anything.
"...Then, how was Yume?"
"Hmm?"
"Did you two have fun?"
"Oh! Yeah, I actually bought her a phone since she didn't have one."
"Eh?"
"And while I was teaching her, she ended up teaching me what Google was."
I pull out my phone as I say this to show Midori what I meant in case she too wasn't aware of it. I completely missed it, so it's possible she did as well.
"Wait, you didn't know what google was?"
"Nope."
"...Pfft hehehehe."
I guess not.
"Oh! And she also taught me how to send pictures through text."
I then go into my chat history with Yume as I show Midori the picture Yume sent me of her two birds. I also showed her the picture of my stuffed bunny plushie.
"I've never really taken pictures before, but it's quite cool that you can do this."
"..."
"Midori?"
"Ah- nn. Yeah. That's- cool."
Is it just me or does Midori seem... Off? I wasn't really paying attention as I was scrolling though the texts and also messing around with google.
"Hey, are you sure you're f-"
"Mhmmm. I'm fine."
In the next instant, Midori shot me a bright smile, but I can't help but feel as though something was hidden beneath that smile. Whatever it is though, she doesn't seem to want to talk about it, so I'll just drop it for now.
However, now I have no idea what to talk about and it doesn't seem like Midori has anything to talk about. How has the atmosphere in this room gotten this heavy all of a sudden? This is all new to me, so I honestly have no idea how to fix this as my mouth remains shut.
"...Sorry."
"Huh?"
But Midori was the first one to break the silence with quite an unexpected apology. What is she even sorry for?
"I just... No, it's nothing."
"You know... Saying something like that only makes me more curious."
"Well, I was just thinking that maybe... Did you want to exchange pictures as well?"
I'm a bit confused as to why she's asking. Wait... Could it be that she doesn't know how to and felt jealous that Yume and I was able to do that?
"Sure."
"Really?"
"Of course. What did you want to send me?"
First things first, she'll need to take a picture before actually sending it, and looking around the room, there's plenty of cute things she could send. Her posters, her plushies, even just her bed in general. The colors in this room is a lot more colorful than mine.
"Uhm... Actually I was thinking that maybe... 'we' could- take a photo… together?"
"Sure?"
So she also wants me to take a photo? But before I could switch my phone to camera mode, Midori has slid her way next to me as she timidly brings her shoulder against my own before extending her phone in her hand out in front of us. What was displayed on her phone screen was the two of us. Wait... Is "this" what she meant when she said she wanted to take a photo together? I guess that makes more sense, but seeing Midori on the phone screen... She looks quite embarrassed now, with her face gradually growing redder and redder.
"I-Is this okay?"
"Nn..."
Oh god... Now it seems like her embarrassment is affecting me as even I can see that some color is growing on my cheeks too, and in the next moment, Midori wrapped her other arm around me before I see her face smiling softly in the camera. I too do the same, smiling just a bit as it seemed to help Midori smile a bit more in response.
"Then-"
A "click" sound comes from Midori's phone as she quickly pulls her phone back towards us. There displayed the two of us, arms wrapped around each other's sides. thankfully my face appears normal, but Midori's face is still quite flushed around her cheeks... Just like now.
"Hehehe~ That was a bit embarrassing."
"Was this your first time doing this?"
"Not really. I've got a lot of pics with Nicole."
She then scrolls through her pictures on her phone as I witness hundreds of pictures flying past, making it impossible to tell what any of them are until finally, she stopped at some pictures with her and Nicole.
Just like my picture with Midori, the pictures with her and Nicole are also quite similar. The pictures seemed to be taken from many different places, even an amusement park from the looks of it, but none of the pictures look like the one Midori took with me. In all these pictures, Midori is smiling much more, and her face isn't anywhere near as red as the picture she took with me. Maybe it's 'cause it was our first time doing this?
"You have quite a lot of pictures."
"Hehe. Yeah... Nicole sometimes drags me out to places and we take pictures together. She sends all these to me."
Ah~ So that explains it. And actually, not that she said that, I do see that Nicole is the one holding the phone in the pictures and not Midori. I guess this was the first time that Midori took a photo with someone? But before I could ask anything, Midori goes back to the photo we had just taken.
"U-uhm... Did you want this picture as well?"
"Nn. Yes please."
After messing around with our phones, I successfully receive the picture from Midori as she also shows me how to save the picture onto my phone as well. We stopped our little break there before going back to studying for another hour. Thanks to studying, Midori seems to be back to normal as we managed to get through roughly everything that should be in the exams.
"Hahh!~ Thank you, Luna."
"No problem."
"I just hope I can remember all of this for tomorrow."
"Wait... Tomorrow?"
"Yeah... Tomorrow's Monday. Our exams, remember?"
"Ah, I forgot, haha."
"...Seriously?"
"Nn."
"Pfft, hehehe."
I thought we had one more week... I guess this whole week I've been too focused on Reina that I must've completely forgot that a week had already passed. Huh...
"Midori, Luna~ Dinners ready!~"
Cutting us off from our laughter, we hear Midori's mom calling from a distance. I guess that wraps up today's study session.