After the near-special-play incident we resumed gift-hunting. Accessory shop. She picked something up.
”…Don’t tell me you want that.”
“It’s a yes from me.”
“Hard no by anyone.”
She’d picked up pair rings. Other accessories — fine. Cross-gender pair rings is not a gift-appropriate item.
“Aw — if I got this and we wore them together…”
“People will misunderstand. How would you explain it?”
“Hmm — we got married?”
“That’s gasoline on fire.”
(Would supercharge the misunderstanding — and my brother would find out, scenario escalates.)
“Kidding — about that.”
“Need it to not be a joke.”
“How about we started dating — I’ll allow that explanation.”
“You’re still planning to get the rings.”
(So the married line was the joke, not the pair rings.) She teased for a while; we resumed mall-walking. (For the record, she said she’d been tempted but it wasn’t quite time on the rings.)
“Oh — look. Fortune-telling.”
“Popular too.”
A fortune-telling booth in the mall had a line. Searching online, the booth was apparently highly accurate — drawing distant visitors.
“Want to do it?”
“Time’s fine — let’s.”
“Line up.”
We joined the queue. (Honestly Ayato and I don’t believe in this stuff. If gods existed I’d want to punch the one who handed me and Ayato such uneven specs. Even one parity in face, body, or brain would have been nice.)
(Kano and Suzuno love this stuff. Their daily morning vibe depends on horoscope.)
“Tarot — never done tarot.”
“Different kinds?”
“Yeah. The famous ones you’d know — astrology, palm reading.”
“Heard of those.”
(TV palm reading segments — I’ve seen.)
“Tarot is good for near-future, weaker for distant.”
“Near-future…”
(Near future — I need to give Kano an answer on her confession. She said she’d wait, but I can’t hold forever. The current comfortable status quo is unfair to her.)
Even though I don’t believe in fortune-telling, I need to sort my own answer clearly.
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Manuscript for the published version settled — back to updating, targeting ~3 times per week.