Coward

It was April, the surroundings of the Sakura Pavilion were as calm and peaceful as ever.

　　No sooner had Shinichi arrived than Miku rushed over with her school bag on her shoulder, her hands resting on her thighs which were tightly wrapped in black stockings, and panting heavily.

　　"Hah... hah... hah... sorry, I'm late..."

　　"Don't worry, I'm only minutes away. You have to stand up and rest for a bit, don't just sit down after running."

　　Shinichi stopped her from sitting on the chair, and opened his lunch box.

　　Miku followed his words, while leaning on the pillar of the cold pavilion to catch her breath, she asked hesitantly, "Shinichi just arrived too?"

　　"Yeah, I just had a chat with Fuutarou in class, and it took a long time."

　　"Uesugi?" Miku asked, "What are you talking about?"

　　Picking up chopsticks, Shinichi answered without lifting his head: "Talking about your business."

　　"My business?"

　　Miku blushed, she remembered her previous conversation with Ichika. Her expression became a little uncomfortable, looked down and said quietly.

　　"A person like me, what is there to talk about..."

　　"Why are you so insecure?" Shinichi thought of complimenting her for her cute smile, then said: "A statue can be described in such an eloquent and very beautiful way, let alone a living human? You can say more than Fuutarou. "

　　Confused for a moment, Miku was a little reluctant.

　　"... Can it only be compared to the very bottom?"

　　"This means you still have a lot of room for improvement."

　　Miku wasn't angry, instead laughed: "Shinichi, you really don't know how to compliment people."

　　"That's because I'm not praising you, I'm just comforting you out of politeness." Shinichi decided to eat the bento.

　　After her breathing calmed down, Miku sat across from Shinichi, she also took out a rice ball and a drink from her school bag.

　　"Here's the promised matcha soda."

　　"Okay thank you." Shinichi took it and opened it without hesitation. he gulped it down with a relaxed expression on his face.

　　"Puha... It tastes really good! The bitter taste of matcha and the sweetness of the syrup are compressed by the carbon dioxide, and as it explodes."

　　Miku also drank, then nodded slightly.

　　"Everyone says this taste weird, so do Ichika, Nino, and the meat monster Itsuki... Only Shinichi like me thinks this is delicious."

　　"Something different from others, although the pressure will be great, but when you find a like-minded partner, you will be happier."

　　Shinichi said, but subconsciously connected Itsuki and the word fleshy monster in his mind.

　　Thinking about it this way, Itsuki's face seemed a bit rounder than the other four's. Not too much baby fat, better to say round.

　　"Partner..." Miku muttered that word, looking at Shinichi while rotating the bottle with her finger, "En, that's how it is."

　　So, those feelings must be an illusion, she admits something is wrong...

　　Feeling relaxed, Miku also felt that her heart which had been beating faster since she came here had stabilized, and she felt much more at ease.

　　"Okay, let's eat first. After the meal, if you have any questions about your homework, just ask, and I'll try my best to answer you."

　　Seeing that Miku was only playing with drinks and not eating, Shinichi kindly reminded her, then concentrated on eating the bento.

　　However, because it was the first time having lunch with a girl in such close proximity and in such a beautiful and romantic place. He was a little nervous and couldn't think of any topics to ease his embarrassment.

　　He thought that Miku's reserved personality didn't want to chat while eating, and the two remained silent until the end of the meal, but he didn't expect that when Miku slowly took a bite of the rice ball, she would take the initiative to bring up the topic.

　　"Shinichi, do you know why I'm late today?"

Shinichi stopped eating: "Why?"

　　Miku said seriously "I'm being followed!"

　　Shinichi stopped what he was doing, his gaze turned cold, and he glanced at the crossroads that Miku had just entered.

　　"You texted me 45 seconds after class, and got here 15 minutes later, so Fuutarou wasn't suspected, he was still chatting with me just now."

　　"Is it someone else? It is not easy for students to be noticed when they are mixed in the crowd. As an adult, if it's too conspicuous to follow you for more than 10 minutes, is that a stalker? Tsk, I didn't expect such a bad incident to happen at Suchi'in Academy..."

　　Miku stared in surprise as Shinichi analyzed and after a few seconds of reacting, she quickly waved her hand to explain.

　　"I didn't explain it! It's Nino, she's the one who followed me."

　　Shinichi took back his cellphone, and deleted the message he was about to send to the school's security department.

　　"Don't use such a misunderstanding. Seeing how serious you are, I thought there was a stalker at school."

　　"I didn't know you would worry so much about me…" Miku whispered even more, and hurriedly ate the rice ball, covering her face with her hands to hide her blush.

　　Seeing her appearance, Shinichi decided to be frank: "Actually I'm not worried about you, I just don't want suspicious people to appear in this school."

　　Miku paused while eating, then glared at him angrily: "As a partner, you're not worried about me being followed by a stalker?"

　　"Uh, you can't say that..." Shinichi was afraid that he would be misunderstood when he said that he was worried, and he didn't know what "reason" to explain to Miku. In the end, he could only lower his head and pretend to be innocent.

　　Watching him flee like an ostrich, Miku pursed her lips in obvious displeasure, and reached out to take her drink.

　　"Don't give it to the evil-hearted Shinichi."

　　"Then... You're going to throw it away?" Shinichi asked.

　　Miku became expressionless: "Shinichi, guilty, punished, seppuku immediately!"

　　"What is this?!" Shinichi was thinking whether there is a reason to calm his emotions, he suddenly saw a grain of white rice hanging from the corner of Miku's mouth.

　　Immediately a flash of inspiration, and it seemed that the soul of the light novel protagonist entered him. Shinichi leaned forward, stretched out his hand unconsciously, touched Miku's face, and wanted to release the grain of rice and put it back into his mouth.

　　At this time, his hand made a 180 degree turn, pointed at the corner of his mouth and said quietly.

　　"Wipe your face, you are not a child, food sticks to your face."

　　"...Eh?" Miku tried to understand what had just happened.

　　Before she could react, Shinichi's hand circled in front of her cheek.

　　Once Miku understood, she took off the rice and handed it to him.

　　"You want to eat?"

　　Shinichi was completely unable to understand her train of thought, and couldn't tell what she was thinking from the expression on her small face, but this didn't stop him from moaning.

　　"I have my own, so I don't have to eat it off your face!"

　　"Oh..." Miku nodded, then put rice grains into her mouth, and hummed softly, "If you want to eat, I won't give it to you, evil-hearted Shinichi."

　　Shinichi: "😐"

　　Why are girls so complicated? He didn't understand the point of doing this at all!

　　He was speechless, he just wanted to finish his meal as soon as possible, teach his homework as agreed, and then return to class quickly. Chatting with girls makes people doubt whether their emotional intelligence has passed.

　　And Shinichi started eating faster, didn't notice that Miku was touching her cheek secretly, didn't know what she was thinking and her cheeks were blushing.

　　The obviously steady heartbeat began to speed up again.