When Honoka casually opened her app at the bowling alley, she found this message:

“Is Honoka’s boyfriend really that handsome?”

A chilling message. Honoka felt shivers running down her spine. Her mother, who had caught a glimpse of Rinta, was posing this question. Judging by the wording, it seemed like her mother hadn’t gotten a clear look from a distance.

Casually scanning the bowling alley, Honoka spotted her mother sitting on a bench right next to the reception counter. There was some distance between them, making it difficult to see clearly.

—She couldn’t let Mom get close to Hirarin.

That’s what Honoka thought.

“Hey Honoka. Who should go first?”

“Oh, um… please go ahead, Hirarin.”

“Alright, got it.”

Even though she had come to have fun with Rinta, she was too concerned about her mother to focus on bowling. Honoka felt disappointed as she watched Rinta prepare to bowl.

Rinta looked quite composed as he held the ball and eyed the pins. His bowling form was smooth and cool, and Honoka couldn’t help but stare in admiration.

—CRASH!

The ball Rinta threw knocked down all pins in one shot.

“Whoa…? A-a strike right away? Wow, you’re good, Hirarin!”

“Yeah. Not bad for not having played in a while.”

Rinta smiled refreshingly while making a victory pose.

“You’re really athletic, Hirarin… Come to think of it, didn’t you say you used to play soccer?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Well, I was always decent at physical education, haha.”

—No, ‘haha’ didn’t cut it. She was shocked. You’re so cool, Hirarin!

Honoka shouted in her mind but didn’t say it out loud. That’s because it would be a bit frustrating to show she was already attracted to him when he was the one who was supposed to be falling for her.

Glancing at her smartphone, Honoka noticed another message from her mother. Feeling nervous about what question her mother might be asking now, she opened the message.

“Hmm, so Rinta is good at bowling! He’s pretty cool!”

And what’s more, there was even a “GOOD!” sticker attached. It seemed that Rinta had appeared impressive to her mother’s eyes as well, which made Honoka feel somewhat relieved.

However—

“Stop sending me evaluations of Rinta! It’s making me so self-conscious!”

Honoka quickly typed and sent this message to her mother.

“What are you doing? It’s your turn now.”

“Oh, right. Alright then, I’ll show you what I’ve got. Believe it or not, I’m actually good at bowling.”

“Oh really? I’m looking forward to it.”

Honoka actually had some confidence in her bowling skills. She usually scored quite well among the girls, and took pride in being fairly good at bowling.

However—

By the end of the first game, Honoka’s performance was terrible. She kept throwing gutter balls and missing, with her score not even reaching 50. Being too conscious of her mother’s gaze, she was too tense to show her true ability. And there was no denying she was also anxious to impress Rinta.

“Hey, Honoka. Don’t look so down. It’s just bowling.”

“No, I’m not feeling down or anything…”

Even while saying this, Honoka sat slumped in her seat with a gloomy, tired expression.

Her mother hadn’t sent any more messages since earlier. But she remained seated on the bench by the reception desk, pretending to observe the entire venue while actually watching Honoka and Rinta the whole time. So Honoka couldn’t enjoy bowling because she was conscious of her mother’s gaze, and she felt embarrassed because she couldn’t achieve a good score.

“Sigh. I’m usually pretty decent at bowling. Guess today’s just not my day.”

Honoka offered this excuse to Rinta with a forced smile, but she was clearly disappointed, with a strained expression and slumped shoulders. Seeing Honoka like this, Rinta, standing beside her, spoke up.

“Let’s take a break. I’ll go buy some drinks. What would you like, Honoka?”

“You’re buying for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Anything is fine. I’ll leave it to you, Hirarin. But something warm would be nice.”

“Got it.”

With that, Rinta took his wallet and left the lane to look for a vending machine.

“Oh no!”

Honoka inadvertently exclaimed in a small voice. Rinta was heading toward the vending machine right next to the bench where her mother was sitting.

—Mom would get a close-up look at Hirarin’s face…

But it would be too unnatural to call out to Rinta now or to chase after him. There was nothing she could do anymore.

As Rinta bought drinks from the vending machine, Honoka’s mother wasn’t directly facing him, but she was surely observing him under her sunglasses. Unaware of this, Rinta, not seeming to notice Honoka’s mother, bought drinks for both of them and returned to where Honoka was waiting at the lane.

“Here, Honoka. I bought hot cocoa. Is that okay?”

“Oh, yes. I was actually craving something sweet. Thank you.”

Honoka took the cocoa from Rinta and popped open the lid.

“I figured. You looked a bit tired. I thought you might be stressed having to go on this fake date with your mother watching. You’ve had a tense look on your face since we got here.”

“Oh… you noticed?”

“Yeah. I can tell that much. That’s why I got you warm, sweet cocoa—to help you relax a bit.”

“Hirarin…”

—What thoughtfulness.

Although Rinta hadn’t said anything special until now, Honoka realized he had been watching over her the whole time. Honoka’s eyes almost welled up with emotion. Partly to hide this, she took a big sip of the cocoa in her hand.

The sweet and slightly bitter taste of cocoa spreading in her mouth felt like it was seeping into her entire body more than usual.