Chapter 174

“Anna.”

“Yeah?”

After finishing my somewhat busy day, I was in our room.

Sitting blankly on the bed for a moment, Ria called out to me.

I nearly got up from my spot. Lately, when Ria called me like that, it was basically an invitation to come to her bed.

Realizing a beat too late that I was responding to her call, I felt a bit offended.

This wasn’t some kind of competition or anything. Ria was just being friendly with me.

But even if it wasn’t a competition, it was still a little pride-hurt to feel myself drawn to Ria more than she was to me.

I sat back down with a haughty demeanor and gave Ria a somewhat sulky look, but she wasn’t even looking my way.

Her gaze was glued to her phone.

“Is there something you want?”

“Something I want?”

I blinked at her words.

“No, I mean…”

After a rare moment of contemplation, Ria said,

“Just. It’s Christmas.”

Oh, right. Christmas.

Even among friends, exchanging gifts wasn’t out of the question.

I fiddled around with the friendship ring on my right hand. The ring had been used several times already. Without me consciously doing anything, Saint Power had slowly accumulated in the ring, activating each time I needed strength.

It wasn’t just for that practical purpose, though.

Ria also wore this ring on her finger.

At the time, I accepted it as a simple friendship ring, but thinking back, such a ring was essentially one that only ‘one person’ could wear. I mean, I could put friendship rings on all my other nine fingers, but then it would defeat the purpose of having such a ring.

Two people share a ring that exists as only one pair in the world. No matter how you slice it, I couldn’t ignore that significance.

I’d think of it as having ‘other meanings,’ but still…

“Anna?”

“Oh, yes.”

Ria called me again, pulling me out of my woolgathering, and I jumped in surprise to reply. Looking back, my face felt a bit flushed.

“So… you need something, right?”

“Or something you want.”

Still not giving me eye contact, Ria continued to stare at her phone while speaking.

“……”

I fell into thought for a moment.

Something I wanted.

Actually, I didn’t have anything specific.

The best part about living as a nun was not having to worry about clothes. I had a set outfit to wear anyway.

Shoes were almost the same. I did embellish in other ways, but technically, that shouldn’t be allowed either.

So no, it wasn’t about clothes or shoes.

A gaming console? A computer? If this were my past life, I’d probably be craving them, but I had spent way too long without those.

Manga or anime was a bit of an ambiguous hobby to maintain here as well. Watching movies with Ria almost every day filled that niche a bit, too.

Something I wanted.

I didn’t want any ‘thing,’ but there was a ‘person’ I wanted.

But asking her to go out with me as a Christmas gift would be way too shameless, wouldn’t it? I mean, getting confessed to by a same-sex friend while hanging out together on Christmas?

That would definitely be a memory to cherish for a lifetime, in many different ways.

In the end, I couldn’t come up with anything I wanted. No matter how hard I thought, nothing seemed ‘appropriate.’

“What about you, Ria?”

So, I sort of stammered out the question to Ria.

“Huh?”

Ria looked at me as if she hadn’t expected that question at all.

“Don’t you have something you want for Christmas?”

“……”

Ria’s eyes flickered slightly.

It seemed she hadn’t really thought of anything either.

After pondering for a while, Ria said,

“Let’s just go have dinner at a nice place.”

“That’s too much for Christmas, right? We have to work too.”

“Oh, right. Then, any time after that works.”

Ria said that with a hint of disappointment.

Somehow, Ria looked cute saying that, and I couldn’t help but smile a bit.

“…Let’s get some sleep.”

After a big yawn, Ria put her phone on the nightstand and said.

While saying to sleep, though, she was holding a tablet.

Then she looked at me and patted the spot next to her.

With a smile on her lips, it seemed she thought I’d go right there.

Should I just try not going?

That thought crossed my mind for a moment, but I got up from my spot.

I didn’t want to refuse the time pressed together with someone I liked. It felt like if I refused once, Ria wouldn’t make such an offer again.

Ria cared about me that much.

If I said I didn’t want it, she probably wouldn’t do it anymore after that.

But that was something I didn’t want.

If I could, I’d want to stay close to her like this even after winter passed. In fact, I’d been waiting for Ria to say something like that.

How would Ria react if she knew what I was thinking?

Even if it was just a mundane action without feelings, once a reason was attached, it would turn into an ‘action filled with feelings’ from then on.

So I decided to drop it.

I thought to myself as I settled next to Ria.

Ria placed her hand on my shoulder again.

I leaned towards Ria, trying my best to hide my emotions.

As always, tonight didn’t seem like it would be cold at all.

*

A few days later.

“……”

Ria turned her eyes away, uncomfortable under the direct gaze that was fixated on her.

Over the past few months, Ria had been pondering her identity quite a bit. Of course, it wasn’t anything too serious. Ria didn’t hold any major prejudices toward it from the start.

If she liked it, that was good, and if she didn’t, that was bad. That was how Ria viewed sexuality.

So it was easy for her to conclude that she didn’t like every woman in the world. Just as she couldn’t like every man either.

In that sense, being stared at so intently by someone who wasn’t Anna felt a bit awkward.

Especially when, in some ways, that person seemed like they could see right through Ria’s heart.

Her hair color was the same. The eye color was a bit different, and the overall atmosphere felt somewhat different. She was probably a few years older than Ria.

Ria didn’t particularly believe in ‘parallel universes,’ but if the two were placed side by side, it wouldn’t be strange to call them sisters.

Marry’s Anna was staring fixedly at Ria, making her uncomfortable yet again.

“Ria, are you… still?”

“……What about you?”

Ria answered the question with a hint of spite.

Far away, there were two Annas. Marry’s Anna seemed very interested in Ria’s Anna. The two didn’t even remotely resemble each other in personality, yet it seemed the Anna over there looked at Ria’s Anna by projecting her own self from a ‘parallel world.’

“Hmm.”

“Hmm?”

Ria reacted to the string of silence with a frown.

“You once told me something like that, didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry, but that was something I said because I couldn’t express it.”

“So is the situation different now?”

“Isn’t it?”

It was different.

Ria rolled her eyes.

“But still, isn’t it pointless to ask me ‘are you still’ when you’re in the same situation?”

“……”

At Ria’s words, Marry stopped sweeping and looked up.

“I asked because it’s still.”

“……Huh?”

“So, isn’t it natural that you both treat each other that way?”

“Isn’t it?”

Ria tilted her head in confusion.

“Are you saying it’s not?”

“……I’m just not.”

“Not really?”

“Let’s see…”

Marry spoke while staring off into the distance.

“I spent years thinking I liked someone who couldn’t express herself. If I ever woke up again, I’d imagine all the things I’d want to say for years. Therefore, it’s such a joy that we can finally see and look at each other.”

“Was it a joy?”

“It was too good, it was a problem.”

“……”

“I love this much, but what if they don’t love me back as much? Have you ever thought about that?”

Now?

Every morning, that Anna was giving Marry all sorts of things to eat.

But soon, Ria recalled that just because Anna and Marry were always stuck together didn’t mean they were inseparable.

“So you want to ask me for advice?”

Ria asked incredulously.

“Is that a no?”

“Of course, it won’t help much.”

“You’re so clingy normally!”

Ria had nothing to say to that.

True enough.

In reality, Ria was much clingier than what others perceived. If Anna had even a slight bit of common sense—like the other Anna, who had a bit more common sense—she would have probably gotten tired of Ria long ago.

For Ria, it was a tightrope walk.

“No, it’s not that much.”

Ria murmured as she started moving the broom again. Marry looked at Ria intently.

Then soon, she began to move the broom as well, following Ria.

Ria thought this conversation wouldn’t be the end of it.

“Hey!?”

From afar, Anna shouted. It was Ria’s Anna.

Marry’s Anna seemed to be chuckling, as if she found something amusing.

…..

It certainly didn’t seem like an easy first impression. If anything, if one had to choose the more sinister one, Ria’s Anna would be it.

Would Marry not do anything in the meantime, thinking everything would work out?

Ria let out a long breath, thinking it was a bit envious in a way.