Miku, Cheer Up!

That night, the Nakano family.

Nino put on her pajamas and walked downstairs.

She suddenly thought of something and hesitantly looked towards Miku, who was still sitting in the corner of the sofa playing with her phone.

"By the way, Miku, why did you come home late tonight? Didn't you leave early because you didn't have any class matters?"

Miku paused for a moment and calmly replied, "I went to the student council. There were a lot of people today. I helped Shinichi."

"I see." Nino didn't hesitate. She walked towards the kitchen and casually said, "He's serious. If there's a lot going on, he'll call us. The number of people in the class is several times more than the student council."

"He doesn't want to bother a lot of people. Besides, you have your own business." Miku lowered her head, trying not to let her mind wander and maintain a stable mentality.

Shortly after, Nino came out of the kitchen holding a glass of hot milk in her hand and sat next to Miku.

"Phew, I'm so tired... Even though I love cooking, if they hand over all the menu designs to me, aren't they going too far?"

"It means the whole class trusts you."

Miku replied lightly, seemingly not paying attention to her words at all.

"Huh, I'm not happy at all."

Nino sipped the hot milk and placed it on the table next to Miku's green tea.

She wasn't interested in continuing the conversation, so she took out her phone and started swiping, fully immersed in the era of technological indifference.

But if there was someone with her, even if she wasn't paying attention to others, she could still feel the different temperature from the phone, which is why Nino would sit here instead of going straight to her room.

The living room was as quiet as the night outside.

With one hand on her knee and the other rubbing the screen, Nino, browsing Facebook, suddenly sighed.

"The stick can be inserted into your mouth, so you don't have to worry about it breaking."

"?!"

Miku trembled in fear and almost fell off the sofa.

Nino was also surprised, she quickly stopped the magic show video and stared at her in wonder.

"What are you doing? Is your phone out of battery?"

"...No, it's nothing. I just saw a scary picture suddenly."

Miku combed her long hair to hide her flushed face from Nino, slowly crawled back to the sofa, and resumed reading the instructions on her phone.

"Is that so?" Nino looked her up and down, "Strange... forget it."

She returned her attention to the screen.

Shortly after, Nino clicked her tongue again and commented angrily:

"It looks as tough as an iron rod. How can people eat it? That woman is really pitiful."

"?!"

This time, Miku tried hard to restrain herself from jumping, but her phone accidentally slipped from her hand and rolled onto the floor.

Hearing the sound, Nino shifted her gaze again, stopping the reality show of the actress trying to bite a French toast. With a "what's wrong with you" expression, she looked at Miku, whose body was slightly stiff.

"What's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?"

"...Maybe." Miku replied faintly, turning away from Nino and picking up her phone. Her head always bowed, hiding her flushed face with her long hair.

Some things were so deep that when she remembered them, she would feel like experiencing them again.

Miku pursed her lips and pressed her palm against her still sore chin, but found that her fingers naturally curled into a cylindrical shape, and she lifted her chin twice out of habit.

She froze again, her eyes widened in disbelief, and the skin hidden under her hair was tinted with a subtle dark red.

(It's clear only once, why...)

"Miku?"

A familiar voice sounded, and Miku returned to reality. To avoid Nino's increasingly curious gaze, she placed her phone aside.

"...Don't worry, I might have done a lot of official work today and I feel a little tired."

"Take care of yourself! Your physique hasn't been too good from the start..." Nino pulled back her hand that wanted to investigate, with a displeased expression on her face, "Isn't that guy dizzy from doing something? The last person who wants to push you is him, but he actually asks for your help like this..."

Her head felt hot and dizzy. Without much thought, Miku instinctively wanted to defend him.

"Yes, it's a relationship I'm not good at yet! Shinichi indeed asked me not to overdo it, but I think I can do better..."

"Why are you working so hard?" Nino looked puzzled.

"...Anyway, this is a very important task."

"How foolish..." Nino concealed her concern and said somewhat impatiently, "It's not like you're exaggerating your abilities. No matter how much you want to help him, can't you think about whether your body can handle it first? If you damage your body, no matter how good you are, the points are still zero!"

"I, of course, know!" Miku became dissatisfied, her cheeks slightly puffed, and she replied softly, "My body can handle it. Although it looks scary, as long as Shinichi is gentler, I won't easily break."

"Isn't that guy gentle enough just by giving you his own business?"

"Even though I'm full, I still want it!"

"So the problem is also with you. No matter how much you have to do, can't you wait until tomorrow to make some arrangements? You have to finish it today."

"In that case, can that thing still be arranged to be divided into several parts tomorrow..." Miku covered her mouth, confusion in her eyes, and she wanted to call someone to ask if this was the issue.

"That thing? What nonsense are you talking about?" Nino finally realized something was amiss. It felt like their conversation wasn't on the same wavelength at all, yet they could still smoothly chat.

Miku shook her head. "The things he does with him for the first time" left a deep impression on her. Not to mention temporarily forgetting it, she could easily associate it with anything she saw or heard now.

She had even just read blogs of experienced people hoping to learn techniques and movements that could make someone happier.

To calm herself and prevent Nino from realizing that she was only half a step away from adult actions, Miku sipped her tea to calm herself and reached for the tea cup.

"Ah, wait a minute..."

Once the liquid entered her mouth, she felt something strange and immediately looked at the contents of the cup.

Nino's voice sounded late this time too.

"That's my hot milk... Your green tea is next to it."

As Nino went to take the tea cup, she saw Miku's expression becoming increasingly strange, with a slight distortion at the corner of her mouth.

"What's wrong? Don't you like milk?"

Nino still remembered that no matter how poor their family was when they were young, their mother would tell them to drink a full glass of milk every day. They had been drinking like this since they were young, so they could have a good figure that made Fumino jealous now.

Therefore, Miku couldn't possibly hate milk... But why was her expression so strange now?

"No, it's not that I don't like it... Sorry, I need to go to the bathroom."

Closing her small mouth still tainted with white spots, Miku lowered her head and hurried to the toilet, leaving Nino staring at her back with a confused expression, muttering to herself in the living room.

"Maybe she has lactose intolerance... No, this didn't happen suddenly."

△

Miku washed her face and brushed her teeth in the toilet. After the refreshing taste of toothpaste returned to her mouth, she finally looked better.

"Memory is still vivid..."

Seeing herself in the mirror with the lingering red hue on her cheeks, she smiled awkwardly, but she didn't feel disgusted at all.

Her heart still beat fast, like when she left the student council room with Shinichi after everything was done.

When her head was hot, she could do anything. Once she calmed down, she would wonder how she could be so brave at that moment. Miku even considered it a challenge.

Is this what they call being a wise role model?

"As long as I can make Shinichi happy... Well, to impress him next time, I have to quickly learn more skills!"

With hopeful enthusiasm and struggle for the future, Miku reached out to herself with a determined smile in the mirror.

"Miku, cheer up!"

Nakano Miku, 17 years old.

Starting from today, never forget her initial intentions and keep moving forward.