29 What Magic Did You Use?

"Yikess that guy really spiked over the block.." Haruto spoke out as he laid down lazily on his couch. It was the weekend and he was currently watching a stream of a national men's volleyball game between France and Japan.

"I guess it's normal since his whole torso basically is above the net when he jumps. I wonder what they eat to get that tall. " Haruto got up and walked to his kitchen as the game went on a break and he wanted a snack to munch on.

He opened his cabinet and saw there was nothing except some microwavable popcorn so he decided to make some.

*Bzzzt

As he went to grab the package he felt his phone vibrate and he took it out. He saw that it was a text message from Mahiru asking about the contents of his fridge.

[Is there still heavy cream and mushroom in the fridge? I plan to make some carbonara for dinner tonight.]

Haruto opened his fridge and looked around. He was unable to find the mushrooms or heavy cream that Mahiru was asking about.

[There doesn't seem to be any in the fridge]

[Hmm. I guess I should go buy some quickly since I have the rest of the stuff already.]

[Are you going now? if so I will also come since I also wanna stock up on some snacks.]

[Is that so.. I guess we can also try to stock up on ingredients for the next few days while we're there]

Haruto read the last message that was sent to him and quickly got ready to go buy some stuff. He put on some black joggers and a black sweater since it was a bit windier than usual in the afternoon. He went out and saw that Mahiru had come out at the same time.

The two of them quickly said their greetings and made their way towards the grocery store to buy the needed ingredients.

***

"This seems to be lighter than usual. Did we buy enough?"

"We just needed to stock up on some vegetables since we still have a lot of meat left. Also you're carrying a watermelon. What do you mean it's lighter than usual?"

The two neighbors started to walk back from the store while carrying some bags and they were talking as they were walking up the stairs. Mahiru gave a weird stare as she asked her question.

"The watermelon is something we don't usually get so it doesn't count. Speaking of the watermelon, I told you I can choose a good one." Haruto gave a gloating expression and raised up his chest.

Mahiru rolled her eyes and thought back to the store where Haruto wanted to get some watermelon since they were on sale. Mahiru agreed and began to look at the different colors of the melon to see which one was ripe.

Haruto stopped her and shook his head at her amateur knowledge. He began to slap different melons a few times and choose one that he said 'sounded good'. Mahiru couldn't believe his actions but eventually agreed due to his convincing.

They reached the door of his apartment and when he was about to turn the lock to go in, he heard a voice near him.

"It looks like I got to the right place. Right Haruto" Both Haruto and Mahiru who stood behind him looked towards the voice calling out and saw a girl with long black hair and matching eyes wearing glasses who smiled.

"Geh what are you doing here Akane."

"Hey, that's not a very nice way to greet your older sister, you know. You didn't tell me tha-"

Akane was going to ask why he didn't tell her he came to her school when she noticed the beautiful blonde haired girl that was peeking behind Haruto's back looking at her.

"Oho? Has living alone finally awakened your playboy side. Is the girl behind you your girlfriend?" Akane gave a grin while looking at Haruto.

"No well.. She's my neighbor and also.. someone that I'm close with I guess…" Haruto said while awkwardly scratching his cheek and turning his head away.

Mahiru's face was normal when she heard the first part of his answer but felt a bit sad inside realizing that she seemed to be just a neighbor to him but when she heard the last part, her mood was lifted. Akane saw this slight interaction and was intrigued by it.

'Has my brother made his way into a shoujo situation with this person..'

Akane was very curious now and her eyes gleamed since she loved to read shoujo manga the most and felt like her decision of a surprise visit was worth it.

"Let's go in first before anything else. I want to put these groceries away." Haruto quickly said and opened his door letting both girls in and hoped his sister wouldn't do anything too crazy.

***

"Shiina, how did you even meet with Haruto in the first place?" Akane said and glanced towards her brother who was in the kitchen putting the groceries away.

He wanted to join their talk but got rejected by Akane and surprisingly Mahiru as she was also curious about Haruto's sister who suddenly came to visit.

"At first I met him as my neighbor but we only started to really interact when he gave me an umbrella when I was in the rain." Mahiru explained and Akane glasses shined as she listened to her story.

"Now we usually have dinner together where we split the money between us."

"Thank you for the meal..."

After Mahiru finished her story Akane placed her hands together and closed her eyes saying her sentence. This confused Mahiru and Haruto came to lightly smack Akane on the head.

"Don't weird Shiina out with your sentences you idiot."

"I can't help it! What she told me just reeks of shoujo material. So have you raised any flags with her yet?" Akane defended herself and asked Haruto a question to which he just remained silent.

Akane saw his expression and kept it in her head.

"Umm Watanabe.." The two siblings heard a voice and turned their heads.

"Which one are you calling out Shiina? Both of us are Watanabe." Akane gently smiled which made Mahiru slightly falter.

"Akane you go to a different school from.. H-Haruto and I right since I have never seen you at school before." Mahiru asked while trying to keep a straight face but the red tint in her cheeks was hard to hide.

"Yes I go to a different school since it's closer to our house. The only reason this guy went to Karasuno was because of the volleyball team, can you believe it." Akane said while pointing to Haruto beside her.

"Yeah yeah it's still a smaller surprise compared to you joining the volleyball team at your school. You know when I first heard it I ran outside to see if the sky was falling apart."

Haruto retorted back and the two siblings bickered back and forth. Mahiru saw their interaction and chuckled a bit while having an envious look in her eyes.

"Akane, is it alright if I call you that? Will you be staying for dinner or would you be going sooner?" Mahiru asked this since it was around the time where she started to cook.

Akane looked at Haruto and he just shrugged his shoulders saying that it was fine but asked if Mahiru was able to cook for one more person. She said that she could and made her way into the kitchen to start cooking.

"So what kind of magic did you use to meet a person like her?" Akane asked Haruto as she watched Mahiru move around in the kitchen.

"I didn't use anything magic. Maybe I was just lucky."

"I call bull. Such a high spec girl coincidentally as your neighbor, there must be some kind of magic involved."

The both of them were silent as Haruto didn't know how to respond to her. After a while Akane faced Haruto and had a serious look on her face which made him a bit nervous as she usually never had this expression.

"I just hope you don't do anything you'll later regret not doing in the future, okay."

"What do you mean by that?.."

"Just be sure to not regret your actions, alright." Akane gave a gentle smile and chuckled while looking towards her little brother and glancing at Mahiru in the kitchen.

She hoped in her mind that the relationship between the two would progress smoothly in the future, giving her brother lots of happiness and maybe earning her a beautiful sister in law.

***

I hope you enjoyed. Peacu.