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Minako hadn't seen Shinjiro since Elizabeth did... whatever it was she did. Time travel? Resetting the timeline? All Minako knew was that one moment she'd been acting as a barrier against Nyx, as she had been for years, and suddenly she was waking up on the morning of April 9th, 2009. That night, when Yukari and Minako were attacked by Arcana Magician on the roof of the dormitory, Elizabeth appeared out of nowhere and left again almost as quickly, taking the Shadow with her. Ten minutes later, and five minutes ahead of schedule, the Dark Hour ended. It never came back.
Since then, Minako had been living a peaceful school life. She only had to skim her textbooks to remember whatever lesson they were on in class, since she'd basically used all of her free time to study the first time around, and making friends with her once-teammates was actually a lot easier. Before, she'd been worried that they wouldn't take her seriously as a leader if she got too close to them personally, that they wouldn't respect her if she wasn't charming or courageous enough. It was only near the end of their mission that Minako realized that her fears were unfounded, but by then it was too late to start new friendships. She was determined to do better this time. She had a second chance.
She'd assumed that without the Dark Hour to bring out their personas, Strega and Shinjiro wouldn't need to take suppressants anymore, but it was still a relief when she finally saw Shinjiro again. He was eating lunch with Akihiko at Hagakure Ramen one day when she and Junpei came in. Akihiko's back was towards the door, so she couldn't see her dormmate's face, but Shinjiro was almost smiling and looked... well, healthy. She didn't think she'd ever seen him when he wasn't exhausted.
Minako hadn't gotten to know Shinjiro at all - she'd barely gotten to know any of her teammates, and he was only an active member of SEES with her for a month - and she suddenly regretted it just as fiercely as she regretted not becoming friends with her other teammates. Every time Junpei made her laugh, every time Yukari invited her shopping or Akihiko started rambling about her training plan, all she could think was, I could have had this before. I wasted so much time.
Shinjiro chuckled at something Akihiko said. Relaxed and so much less careworn, he was... handsome.
"Mi-na-chan."
"Huh? Oh- two bowls of miso ramen, please."
"What're you looking at anyway?" Junpei asked as the cook began making their orders.
"Nothing," Minako replied, restraining the urge to move and block his view. It would only make him more curious - Junpei was nosier than a cat. Nosier than Igor, Minako thought, and had to cover up a snicker.
Luckily, Junpei didn't notice. "Oh man, is Akihiko-senpai actually here with someone? I was starting to think he didn't have any friends."
"Don't be mean," Minako ordered. She pushed him back into place so that he wasn't leaning awkwardly off the stool. "And don't be so obvious about being such a huge gossip."
"Kenji's worse than me." When Minako opened her mouth to offer a retort, Junpei continued on hurriedly, "Anyway, you know what I mean. I never see him talking to anyone other than Mitsuru-senpai. He's got a ton of chicks coming after him everyday- no, wait, do you think that guy is his boyfriend?"
She stared back. "What."
"It makes sense!" Junpei exclaimed. He was trying to stay quiet, but Minako knew from experience that he would start getting louder and louder until the whole restaurant could hear him. "Do you ever see him checking out Mitsuru-senpai or Yuka-tan? You don't, do you?"
"Are you so strapped for things to talk about that you're making stuff up?" Minako asked, hoping hard that neither of their senpai had heard them. "I might not care about that kind of thing," because she'd had a successive series of crushes on Akihiko, Saori, and Aigis in her previous life that had each been difficult to move past, "and you might not care about that kind of thing," because if he did care she wasn't afraid to shame him out of it, "but that kind of talk can ruin someone's reputation."
"Ah... yeah, I guess so," he admitted, settling down. Minako sighed quietly in relief. "I wasn't thinking, sorry."
"That's okay."
"Speaking of reputations, though... um, this is kind of hard to say..."
"If my reputation is being ruined by hanging out with you, I'll live," Minako said dryly.
He snorted and kicked her foot. "You sound like Yuka-tan. No, it's... there are these photos of you going around the school. Normal photos!" he added quickly, seeing the growing look of horror on her face. "Not, like, nudes!"
"Do I even want to know what you two are talking about?"
Minako had been so lost in searching her memory to see if this had happened last time - she didn't think so, but she also hadn't really talked much to Junpei before, so maybe it had and no one told her? - that she didn't notice Akihiko approaching. He still wore gloves constantly, despite that fact that the Dark Hour was over, and the occasional bandage on his face implied that he was still sparring on a regular basis. Mitsuru always sighed when he came home with an injury, despite the fact that they were always minor. On the other hand, maybe it was because the injuries were never serious that she let them pass without further comment.
Shinjiro was waiting behind Akihiko, looking impatient. "Hey Aki, I'm gonna head out."
"No, hold on, I want to introduce you." Akihiko looked back to them. "Guys, this is Aragaki Shinjiro. He's been my best friend since we were little, and we fought in the Dark Hour together."
Minako exclaimed, "Nice to meet you!" a little more enthusiastically than the situation warranted while Junpei gave a laidback, "What's up, man?"
Shinjiro narrowed his eyes at Akihiko and asked in a low tone, "These two know about all that?"
"Yeah," Akihiko said, unconsciously rubbing his fist with his left hand. "Arisato was there the night that weird woman showed up, and we found out later that Junpei had been awake for the Dark Hour. He just didn't know there were other people awake too."
"Yeah, it's too bad it didn't last longer!" Junpei said cheerfully. "I would've liked to- ow!" he yelped as Minako pinched his arm as viciously as she could through his jacket. "What the hell was that for!?"
"People were dying during the Dark Hour!" Minako hissed. She glared at Junpei, not wanting to see what Shinjiro's face must have looked like.
"I know that! You know I didn't mean it like-"
"Do you want me to start calling you 'Stupei' too? Because I will."
"No, I don't want that! I'm sorry!"
Minako turned back to her senpai and looked at each of them directly in turn as she repeated, "He's sorry, he didn't mean it."
"I just said that," Junpei muttered, rubbing his arm.
Akihiko sighed wearily. Minako only had a little sympathy - if that was the worst thing that happened to Akihiko that day, he couldn't have much to worry about. "Shinji, this is Arisato Minako and Iori Junpei. They live in the same dorm as me and Mitsuru."
Shinjiro eyed both of them skeptically. "You're not helping your case, Aki."
"Hey, Arisato's okay."
"What, but I'm not?" Junpei griped.
Thankfully, the cook interrupted by setting their bowls down in front of them. "Sorry for the wait, enjoy!"
Minako looked up at Shinjiro and told him, "Run, while there's a convenient pause in the conversation."
"That's the most sensible thing I've heard all day. See you, Aki."
"I'll walk you back to your crappy apartment," Akihiko said, following after Shinjiro. It sounded like more of a declaration than an offer.
Minako turned to her two steaming bowls of ramen and pulled apart her chopsticks. The broth smelled heavenly, and she only barely managed to mumble out a, "Thanks for the food," before she began stuffing her face.
"I don't know where you put it all," said Junpei, who was taking a slower approach to his single bowl.
"My blood is 95% percent ramen broth," she told him between swallowing and plucking more noodles from her bowl. "My veins are actually ramen noodles."
Junpei rolled his eyes. "I believe it. Hey, are you visiting that friend of yours when we're done?" She nodded. Sometimes she left from hanging out with her friends early to stop by the Velvet Room; she'd told everyone that she was visiting a chronically ill friend who couldn't leave her home. It was true enough that Elizabeth rarely left the Velvet Room, although the woman was one of the healthiest people that Minako had ever met. "Why don't you bring her some ramen? Nobody on Port Island delivers ramen as good as Hagakure's, so..." He shrugged.
"Thanks, that's really thoughtful." Elizabeth would enjoy the experience of tasting the ramen, even if she didn't actually like the ramen itself. Although Minako couldn't understand why anyone would hate Hagakure's ramen. Heck, even Mitsuru had proclaimed it was one of the best things she'd ever tasted.
"I'm a good guy like that," he bragged.
"As a reward, I won't call you Stupei," she promised.
"Thanks!"
"I'll just tell Yukari-chan about what you said to our senpai!"
"Wait- seriously!? That's even worse!"
In what Minako assumed was some sort of desperate attempt to restart the Dark Hour by bringing a large number of Persona users together, Ikutsuki managed to gather Aigis, Ken, Fuuka, and even Koromaru one-by-one and manipulate them into moving into the dorm. Aigis and Koromaru accepted their new home situation without question, while Fuuka was easily both the most confused and the most grateful to suddenly be surrounded by friendly people. Ken seemed to assume the move was due to the fact that the school had finally noticed that he had been living alone despite his age, but he also made no moves to speak to anyone in the dorm.
The dorm was usually quiet in the afternoon, and today was no exception. Minako usually filled up her afternoons with some kind of activity, but she'd been craving some quiet and went home as soon as school let out for the day. Even Koromaru and Aigis were absent, having gone out on a walk as soon as Aigis came home with Minako.
Having nothing to do and no one to talk to was relaxing for all of about half an hour. Ten minutes of that was reading a light novel that Junpei had forced on her before she had to put it down out of disgust over the main character, who was completely unlikable and had zero personality. She turned on the television instead and tried to watch a cooking show about the science of food, but after fifteen minutes of watching it and feeling guilty about being unproductive, the show ended and a reality show came on, which Minako found that she couldn't stand.
She stood up and turned off the TV. None of her friends would be home for a while, she didn't need to study, and she didn't want to go back out into the city. Minako usually made her lunch for the next day right before she went to sleep, but doing it early wouldn't hurt anything.
"Why are there bread crumbs in the flour jar?" Minako wondered aloud before she realized and sighed. "Oh, Fuuka-chan, seriously?" The flour bag wasn't where the bread crumbs usually were - That would have been too easy, Minako thought pessimistically - but she eventually found them in place of the honey. The honey itself seemed to be missing entirely.
The more Minako checked the cabinets, the more she realized how out of order they were from how she liked to keep them. She wasn't the only one who cooked, of course - Fuuka tried occasionally, although she'd been banned after a recent grease fire, and everyone made something for themselves occasionally. There was no real need to cook, since a number of local restaurants delivered and the Kirijo Group picked up the tab, but Minako enjoyed making her own food and was the only one in the dorm to do it consistently. As a result, the cabinets being disorganized was bothering her more than she might have anticipated.
By the time the front door opened again, every single dry-storage food item was out on the counters and the dining table while Minako made labels for the shelves with a marker and masking tape. "Welcome home," she called out without bothering to look up.
"Yeah, I'm back," Akihiko said. "Arisato, what are you doing?"
"Organizing my kitchen." She tore off a new strip of tape.
"Is all this really necessary?"
Minako carefully wrote in large handwriting, SEASONINGS. "Akihiko-senpai, are you aware that you had six different packets of opened protein powder in four different locations, one of which was behind the microwave?"
"Sorry," Akihiko said after a moment, while someone else chuckled quietly. "Organize away."
"Thank you, I will," she said, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear as she looked up. "Oh, hello Shinjiro-senpai." He still looked healthy, and his mouth was curved in a faint smile. Looking at him, a smile came to Minako's face unbidden.
"First names already?" Shinjiro asked, one eyebrow raised. Minako was careful not to twitch, and reminded herself that she'd only met him once before in this life. "Won't your boyfriend mind?"
Was that a trick question? "No?" Minako tried. "Do you mind?"
"Guess not. I'll just call you Arisato, if you don't care."
"Yeah, that's fine."
Akihiko raised himself to his toes a few times, obviously bored with their pleasantries. "Shinji's moving in," he said with a grin, as if he'd been struggling to hold in the news since they came in.
"Welcome," she told Shinjiro, grinning sincerely. Whatever Ikutsuki's motivations, she'd been glad to have most of her team under one roof again. She hadn't considered that Shinjiro would move back in, but now that he was, she felt strangely complete. These were the people she had given her life for, and this was the man who had given his life for Ken. They all belonged together, near her. Despite her warm feelings, she couldn't help the smile dropping slightly as she asked Akihiko, "Will Ikutsuki-senpai be coming by later?" He had for all the other move-ins, although the last time he'd only stayed long enough to drop Ken off.
"I don't think so. Mitsuru hasn't been able to get a hold of him since Amada moved in."
She considered saying something along the lines of, 'What a shame,' but didn't think she'd be able to convincingly fake the sentiment. She nodded instead.
"Dorm meeting at eight," Akihiko told her. "Come on, Shinji."
"You're always in such a damn rush," Shinjiro complained as he followed his friend.
Minako leaned against the counter and watched them walk toward the stairs until she couldn't see them anymore, then took an extra moment to bask in the flow of contentment she was feeling. She'd learned very quickly in her previous life that when something went well, you had to appreciate the good times before they turned bad.
Or maybe everything will be okay this time? Just thinking those words almost felt like she was jinxing herself. Minako quickly turned back to her work. Her new regime over the kitchen wasn't going to institute itself.
Dorm meetings always brought home to Minako how unfairly attractive her team was. In the privacy of her own mind, she had to admit that even the ones she was absolutely not attracted to were still aesthetically pleasing - Ken was an adorable, if somber, young boy, Yukari could probably get a job modeling if she felt like it, and even Junpei's earnest smile lit up his whole face. Before now, Minako might have pegged Shinjiro as the the least attractive of the bunch, but when he arrived for the meeting without his coat, long sleeves of his turtleneck pushed up, and his hat half-stuffed into one pocket of his jeans, she felt a familiar swooping sensation in her chest.
She groaned and hid her blushing face in her hands.
"Hey, you feeling okay?" Junpei asked from beside her. He bent down, trying to see her face, and bumped her shoulder with his own. "Oh, I get it. You didn't have any ramen today, did you?"
While not the problem, that was unfortunately true. "...No."
"I'm free tomorrow, want to get some after school? Bet you'll pack away an extra bowl to make up for today."
MInako unwillingly smiled into her palms. She managed to drop it before she took her hands away, although she still knocked her knee against Junpei's as she turned to him. "Yeah, sounds good."
"Awesome." He quirked a grin at her before going back to watching Yukari try to explain the purpose of makeup to Aigis. By the time the meeting started ten minutes later, Yukari had promised to make over Aigis, Fuuka, and Junpei, with Junpei trying desperately to get out of it.
"Do you not want to look pretty too, Junpei-san?" Aigis asked.
Mitsuru cleared her throat. "If I could-"
"HELL, NO," Junpei yelled.
The room froze in place as Mitsuru glared at Junpei. Minako couldn't even move enough to shiver, although she desperately wanted to. If she didn't know better, she'd think Mitsuru had summoned Penthesilea to drop the temperature of the room by ten degrees. With an icy calm that made Minako wonder if someone was about to die, Mitsuru asked, "Is there a problem, Iori?"
"No, ma'am!" Junpei yelped. "No! No problem!"
"Good." Everyone began to breathe again as Mitsuru changed her attention to the group as a whole. "The purpose of this meeting is to welcome Aragaki Shinjiro back to the dorm. He used to live with us several years ago, and after much convincing, he's finally decided to return. Everyone, please take a moment to introduce yourself."
The group worked its way around in a circle until it reached Akihiko, who rolled his eyes. "It's Shinji, he knows who I am."
"You're not exempt from group activities, Akihiko," Mitsuru said mildly.
They stared at each other for several seconds before Akihiko gave up, rolling his eyes again. "Sanada Akihiko."
Shinjiro barely managed to keep a straight face as he responded, "Nice to meet you, Sanada-san."
"You piece of-"
"Now that everyone has been introduced," Mitsuru interrupted.
Akihiko turned to her fiercely. "But you didn't-!"
"-does anyone have any announcements they'd like to make?"
"Seriously!?"
"I do!" Minako said, standing up and automatically straightening her skirt. Akihiko sat back on the couch with a huff and punched Shinjiro in the arm when he tried to condescendingly pat Akihiko's shoulder. "The kitchen cabinets have been reorganized and labeled. Please keep everything in its proper place."
Mitsuru nodded approvingly. "Excellent initiative, Arisato. Does anyone else have anything they'd like to add? Takeba?"
Yukari lowered her hand from where she'd tentatively raised it. "Is Ikutsuki-sensei going to be coming by? It's not like him to miss a new arrival."
Mitsuru pursed her lips slightly and gave a small exhale that could only barely be called a sigh. Minako wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't known the other girl for so long, but Mitsuru was definitely perturbed. "Ikutsuki-sensei is not returning my calls at the moment," she said smoothly. "However, since there are no current problems that can be considered SEES business, his oversight is unecessary."
"If you say so." Yukari looked relieved, obviously taking Mitsuru at her word. Minako didn't believe that Mitsuru wasn't worried, but since Minako also felt the strong urge to summon Thanatos every time she saw their 'advisor,' she wasn't going to worry too much about his whereabouts. Elizabeth said that the Dark Hour was over, and she had much more faith in Elizabeth's abilities than she did in the idea of Ikutsuki actually managing to succeed in one of his schemes.
"Anyone else?" asked Mitsuru. "No? Then our meeting is adjourned. Everyone, thank you for attending." As everyone shifted to leave, she turned to Shinjiro and asked him in a more quiet tone, "Have you moved in adequately? Do you need any help?"
"I'm fine, Aki gave me a hand. Hey, I actually have a question."
"Go ahead."
Minako had stood and was stretching when Shinjiro jerked a thumb at her and asked, "It's okay for two people in the same dorm to be dating?"
She lost her balance and had to take a quick step to the side to compensate. Unfortunately, Junpei's feet were there. She turned the tumble into a roll along the floor and popped back up with a small flourish. Aigis clapped politely while everyone else stared.
"Are you okay, Minako-chan?" Fuuka asked timidly.
"Holy crap," Junpei said, staring at Shinjiro. "Our new senpai's got game."
"What," Shinjiro said flatly.
"Aragaki," said Mitsuru, hesitating in an uncharacteristic loss for words. "There are no rules against dating someone in the dorm, but I do think there's a better time and place to ask someone on a date."
"What?" he repeated angrily, although a slight flush to his face made Minako think that he was just embarrassed. "No! I meant the two of them!"
"We're not dating," Junpei and Minako said in unison. There was no point in protesting it more vehemently - Shinjiro wasn't the first person to think they were going out, and probably wouldn't be the last. Still, there was no reason for Junpei to follow up with, "Did you just see her skirt flip up? Who the hell crushes a young man's dreams by wearing shorts under her skirt?"
Yukari shrieked, "Junpei, you gross idiot!" while Akihiko shrugged and said, "Sounds sensible to me."
"Junpei-san, please explain exactly how the wearing of shorts can disrupt a byproduct of REM sleep?"
"That's not what he meant, Aigis-san..."
"Ow! Yuka-tan!"
"Stop calling me that, Stupei!"
"Koro-chan, would you like to try this? I made it earlier today."
An unhappy whine.
"Yamagishi, you do recall that you're still banned from the kitchen for another week, don't you?"
Minako mouthed the word, 'Run,' at Shinjiro before following her own advice and slipping by her friends to get out. They both reached the door at the same time; the hallway was blissfully silent once the door was closed behind them. "We're a pretty lively bunch," Minako said cheerfully as they walked to the stairs together.
"That's one way to put it," Shinjiro muttered.
"Give us a chance! We'll grow on you."
"Like a fungus?" he asked dryly.
"Like truffles!"
He snorted, then turned away when she tried to see his smile. "You'll like it here," Minako declared. "I promise."
"Is that so? ...Isn't your room on the next floor up?"
"Huh?" Without noticing, Minako had followed him down to the second floor. "Oh, I'm heading to the kitchen, I still haven't made my lunch for tomorrow. Goodnight, Shinjiro-san. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, 'night."
She turned and continued down the stairs, but didn't hear him move until after she reached the bottom floor.
Once his footsteps had faded away and she was sure that she didn't hear anyone else coming down, Minako closed her eyes, leaned back against the wall, and held a hand over her pounding heart. It's just another stupid crush, she told herself. You can nip it in the bud like the other ones, nothing's going to come from it.
Igor had said that her emotional ties would give her strength, but she could definitely do without getting romantically attached, too.
Minako stared at her textbook, unable to focus on the numbers and letters on the pages. She was sitting at the table in the second floor's common area with the rest of her dorm's second-years for their weekly study session, but the dorm was stiflingly hot and her attention kept wandering. To her left, Fuuka was showing Yukari how to solve a math problem, but her normally pleasant voice was a quiet drone in Minako's ear.
"Minako-san, are you well?"
She sighed and rubbed her eyes. She really needed to get Aigis to be more casual with her, it made her uncomfortable when any of her friends were too polite. Maybe once they were done studying... maybe once she could think again...
"She doesn't look so great."
"Minako-san, please excuse me." Something cool and vaguely metallic tasting went into her mouth and under her tongue. Before Minako could think anything beyond, Did Aigis just stick her finger in my mouth? it was withdrawn. "Minako-san has a temperature of thirty-eight degrees celsius."
"Holy crap," Yukari said while Minako seriously debated grabbing Aigis's cool hand to press against her face. "You're really sick, Minako, you need to go to bed."
"I'm studying," Minako whined. She thumped her forehead against her textbook, then turned her head and pressed the side of her face against the page when she realized that it was cold.
Junpei snorted. "You don't even need to study, your grades are always perfect."
"I'm studying with friends."
There was a moment of silence, followed by Yukari saying in a curiously warm tone, "Geez. Hey, Aigis, give me a hand?"
"Of course."
Aigis pulled Minako to her feet gently, helped by Yukari pressing against Minako's back. Minako didn't actually need much prompting - Aigis felt even nicer than the book did - and she beamed at her mechanical friend once she was on her feet. "I'm so proud of you," she said, the words coming out despite a disconnect from her brain. "You're so careful and so nice. You're a better human than lots of humans."
"Wow, she's out of it," said Junpei from somewhere behind her, but most of Minako's attention was on Aigis's grateful smile and sincere, if quiet, thanks.
That was the last of what Minako remembered from that night. By the time that she woke up the next day, it was almost noon. Her skin was tacky with dried sweat, and she winced at the feeling as she pushed off her covers. Thankfully, her mind was clear again, and she was pretty sure she wasn't sick anymore.
Whoever put her to bed had removed her shoes, socks, hair tie, and bobby pins, but left her clothing on, making her think it had probably been Yukari. Junpei wouldn't have thought to make sure all the pins were out of her hair, Aigis would have just stripped her and put her in pajamas with a second thought, and Minako couldn't imagine Fuuka would feel comfortable touching her enough to do any of it if someone else was willing. She grabbed a towel and her bucket of bathing necessities and left her bedroom, intending to shower before she worried about anything else.
Shinjiro was in the hallway, nearly to her door when she came out of it. Minako was suddenly, acutely grateful that he had shown up before her shower as opposed to after, when she would have been heading back to her room in just a towel. "Hi," she said, very aware of her untidy appearance and messy hair. It felt weird to let someone else see her hair down, but she couldn't tie it up without looking awkward about it. She resolved to not think about it, and stood up a little straighter. "I thought everyone would be at school."
"Yeah." Shinjiro stared at her for a moment - why did he have to see her like that, she looked awful - and shook his head as if to clear it. "Yeah, I stayed home to keep an eye on you. I was just coming to check if you were awake. Feel any better?"
"Loads!" Her stomach growled as if to emphasize the point, and she tried to will the flush away from her face. "I'm hungry again and everything," she said. One of the things Minako had learned about being confident was that if she pretended hard enough that she didn't think something was embarrassing, other people would follow her lead.
"Huh. I'm making lunch for myself, I'll make some extra for you. Come down after your shower."
It had been two months since Shinjiro moved in and she'd seen him cooking a few times, but only in passing while she was coming home and heading upstairs. He seemed to avoid the kitchen when he knew anyone else might be there or in the living room. On one hand, if he cooked on a regular basis and cleaned up so well Minako wouldn't have known he'd been there if she hadn't seen him herself, he could probably make lunch for the two of them. On the other hand, Minako didn't trust any of the others except Ken to not burn down the kitchen while trying to boil water, and even Ken couldn't reach the stove dials without something to stand on.
Better safe than sorry, she decided. "You really don't have to-"
"Making a little more's not a problem," he interrupted. Well, hopefully she wouldn't cap off her experience getting sick by getting food poisoning too. "I'll get started." He looked at her for a few seconds longer, but turned around when Minako opened her mouth, about to ask if he needed anything else.
The shower was heavenly. She changed into clean clothes after reluctantly turning the hot water off and toweling herself down, having ducked back into her room for them after Shinjiro walked off, and thought that nothing had ever felt so good in her life as just being clean.
Her hair went up into its usual ponytail after she brushed it, despite still being wet, and she pinned the shorter strands into place and added her decorative pins despite planning on not going out for the rest of the day. When she was ready to go downstairs, something smelled wonderful and familiar. She nearly tripped over her own feet hurrying down to the first floor.
Minako must have looked crazy, running to the kitchen with wide eyes and damp hair, but she didn't care. "I smell ramen," she breathed.
"Yeah, I- hey!" he yelled when she tried to duck by him. He blocked her way with a wooden spoon, jerking it down just before it could hit her in the face.
Minako eyed him, then the simmering pot of broth just beyond her reach. "If I had a naginata..."
"What are you, a samurai's wife?" he griped. "Go sit down."
Reluctantly, she obeyed. Koromaru walked over and sat next to her chair, his tail thumping happily, so she stroked his head while waiting for her food.
It wasn't long before Shinjiro brought over her bowl, along with chopsticks and a soup spoon. "You're not going to wash your hands first?"
"Koromaru's clean," she said, which Koromaru agreed to with a cheerful bark. Shinjiro sighed and set everything down in front of her.
Minako breathed in the smell of the broth, then took another, longer breath. It smelled better than Hagakure's. She thanked him for the food, picked up her chopsticks, and ate her first bite of the ramen.
It tasted better than Hagakure's. She moaned, unable to decide whether she wanted to savor the taste that was already in her mouth or stuff more into her face.
"Y-you-!" Shinjiro stuttered. She couldn't spare any thought processes to wonder why he sounded so flustered; Minako was too busy trying to think of ways to force him to make ramen for every single meal for the rest of her life. "Don't make noises like that!"
"But it's so good!" She ate another bite, ignoring the weird noise that he made. "This is the best ramen that I've ever had. I am going to marry this ramen."
"You're ridiculous. And you're going to give yourself a stomachache, at that rate."
Minako worked her way through the bowl at a speed that might have set a national record. Normally she'd be craving a second bowl, but it was her first meal in over twelve hours and her stomach had contracted accordingly. "Amazing," she sighed happily, seriously considering hugging her empty bowl. "I didn't know you could cook like that!"
"It's not hard," he muttered before taking a bite of his own ramen.
"You'd think that, but I bet you've never seen Fuuka try to cook anything." She sat across from him as he ate, chattering about her life and friends, anything she could think of to try and put a smile on his face. She couldn't get more than a few smirks, but even that felt like a triumph.
After they cleaned the kitchen - and it was only because of her stubborn streak that Minako got Shinjiro to allow her to help at all - they settled in the living room together. Shinjiro almost managed to leave, but he stood around long enough for Minako to coax him into watching TV together.
"What if I have a relapse?" she asked, utterly insincere, and he snorted and sat down on the couch opposite from hers.
Minako turned on the cooking channel on the assumption that it was something that both she and Shinjiro wouldn't mind watching, or at least leaving on in the background while they talked. To her surprise, they both ended up engrossed in the program, probably not for the show's intended reason.
"This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard," Shinjiro snapped, slicing his hand through the air in a sharp gesture of distaste. "'We recommend this brand of olive oil,' like that shit isn't six thousand yen a bottle!"
"Those are matsutake mushrooms!" Minako said, pointing at the screen. "Even the imported ones are expensive! Hold on, I'm writing this down."
"Why?" Shinjiro asked as she went to get a pen and sheet of paper from the front desk.
"I want to see how much this 'simple dinner' costs by the time they're done making it."
When the program ended, Minako moved to sit next to Shinjiro so they could guess together how much the meal would be worth. "Forty-five thousand yen?"
"Fifty thousand, at least," said Shinjiro, staring at the list. "Who even has that kind of money?"
"Rich people."
The front door opened and Junpei sang out, "I'm home! Oh, hey guys. You finally making a move on our Mina-chan, senpai?"
"Idiot," Shinjiro growled, standing up suddenly. Minako thought she caught a blush on his face as he quickly strode to and up the stairs. Minako sighed and ran a hand over her hair, making sure everything that wasn't ponytail was still smooth.
"Looks like you're gonna have to be the one to make a move, huh?" Junpei fell back into the couch, taking the seat that Shinjiro had just vacated.
"Don't remind me," she groaned. "I thought if I just talked to him a little more, I could get over this stupid crush."
"Did it work?"
"No."
"Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry in the least. She swatted his arm; he kicked her foot in return. "Look, he's a guy. Guys are easy, sit in his lap or something."
Minako imagined it - if she'd just swung a leg over Shinjiro's lap earlier and knelt over him. She could have buried her hands in his soft hair, stroked her thumbs over his cheekbones, stared down into his beautiful, dark eyes...
She literally felt her face turning red as the blood rushed into it.
"Wow, are you actually thinking about it?" Junpei sounded far too amused, and any inappropriate thoughts Minako had were redirected towards trying to grab a throw pillow to hit him with without Junpei noticing. "Do I need to send you to your bedroom? Or better yet, his- oomph!"
It would have been hard to say that Shinjiro was avoiding her, since Minako rarely caught him alone in the first place unless she was trying. Still, there were a few days in which Minako couldn't catch him to talk at all, which made her suspicious.
That came crashing to a halt when Mitsuru approached Minako during her class lunch, as happy as Minako had ever seen her. "Are we having a meeting tonight?" Yukari asked as Mitsuru approached their desks.
"No. I just wanted to let Arisato know that I've had the kitchen stocked with the ingredients on your shopping list." As Minako tried to figure out what shopping list she meant, Mitsuru continued, "I hope it's not too bold, but I made sure there was enough delivered to make a meal for the entire dorm. Would Saturday be an acceptable day for our group dinner?"
"Sounds great," Minako said slowly.
Mistaking the reason for her apprehension, Mitsuru assured her, "Don't worry, I made sure everything went into its correctly labeled spot."
"Thank you?"
Yukari waited until Mitsuru was gone again to ask, "What's that about?"
With a growing sense of horror, Minako replied, "Oh shit."
Shinjiro was not in his classroom, and neither was Akihiko. One of their classmates, after making sure that Minako was not looking for the senior's beloved Akihiko, told her that Shinjiro usually spent his lunch breaks on the roof.
When Minako finally got to the roof, Shinjiro was the only one there. "We need to talk," she announced.
"Oh... kay?" he answered hesitantly as she walked toward him.
Minako sat down next to him on the bench, straddling the seat so that she could face him directly. "You're the only one who can help me. Please."
"Sure." When she kept staring at him, his worried expression drew in further, and he put a hand on her arm. "Of course, whatever you need. What is it?"
"Mitsuru-senpai found the list I wrote Monday, and she thought it was a shopping list. She wants me to make dinner for the whole dorm on Saturday."
They kept staring at each other, nearly breathing in each other's air. Just as Minako realized how close she was to him - how close she might be to kissing him - Shinjiro groaned and removed his warm hand from her arm. He covered his face with it, muttering something that sounded like, "For fuck's sake."
"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "You'll still help?"
"Yeah," he sighed, dropping his hand. "I'll help. You're telling me that Kirijo seriously spent hundreds of thousands of yen because she thought you wrote a shopping list?"
Minako shrugged. "Rich people."
They spent the rest of the lunch period figuring out who would make which portions of the dinner. Luckily, they wouldn't need to come up with any recipes since the cooking channel they'd been watching kept every recipe from the shows they ran on their website, but it would still take them a while to make everything.
The next day, Minako went to the roof again during lunch, bringing the printed recipes with her so they could finish going over labor and make any alterations they might need. Shinjiro contributed and chatted with her, taking her ideas about the food and adding to them, and by the time the warning bell rang to let the students know that class would begin again soon, he had been smiling softly at her for five minutes straight.
I'm not getting over this one, she thought despairingly as she trudged back to her classroom. This isn't going to go away on its own, he's going to have to actually reject me before I can spend a week eating ice cream with Elizabeth and trying to get over him.
It was a good thing that none of her teachers called on her in class for the rest of the day; Minako wasn't paying the least bit of attention to her lessons. She kept trying to think of a way that she could ask Shinjiro out in a way that made it very clear that she wanted to date him. Inviting him to Hagakure wouldn't work, she already went there with him occasionally. She went to movies with various friends all the time, male and female, so that wasn't a good idea either.
She kept thinking about it through the rest of the day, unintentionally and unknowingly worrying her friends. Minako avoided them after school and went to the Velvet Room instead, where Elizabeth was useless as far as suggestions went, but still managed to cheer her up.
"If all goes poorly, I will be your steadfast ally in making sure your body is filled with so many calories that they push out all thoughts of this handsome young man."
Minako snorted, earning a pleased smile from Elizabeth. "I'm not sure that that's how it works."
"No?" Elizabeth said, placing one delicate finger on her own chin thoughtfully. "I had been told that ice bean was brain food."
"Ice bean?" Minako repeated, hoping that this wasn't going to result in a request to pick up some weird flavor of ice cream for her to try.
"Bean? Dream?" Elizabeth tried, still looking thoughtful. "Franz Kafka? ...Something to that effect, anyway."
Minako actually laughed at that.
They spoke for a while about teenage courting rituals and Elizabeth purposefully flubbed a few more words to get Minako to laugh. The subject changed a few more times before Minako had to reluctantly excuse herself in order to get home so she could eat dinner and shower before she had to go to sleep.
Ken and Koromaru were the only ones in the living room when Minako arrived home. Koromaru barked quietly in greeting, distracting Ken from what looked like some kind of documentary on Phoenix Ranger Featherman R. "Welcome home, Minako-san. Are you feeling better?"
"I'm fine," she said, checking the clock before she signed in at the front desk. She'd made it back just barely before curfew. "Who said I wasn't feeling well?"
"Yukari-san and Junpei-san were talking about it. I don't think they wanted me to hear, but I can handle knowing that there's something wrong."
"I know that, Ken-kun." He didn't look satisfied with that, so she tried, "I've just been thinking about that big dinner I have to make tomorrow. Mitsuru-senpai might not mind the cost, but I'm concerned I'll mess up with the very expensive ingredients that she bought."
Ken relaxed a bit. It was difficult to treat him maturely when he was so young, and too many people condescended to him when they spoke to him. Minako tried to speak to him without treating him like a child, but he was still a child. It was a delicate balance. "I thought that was it," Ken said, satisfied. "Don't worry, Minako-san, I'm sure it'll be delicious."
"Thanks." He turned back to his documentary and Minako headed for the stairs. She was about to reach the second floor landing when she heard Yukari hissing something. She sounded honestly angry, which Minako had never heard her direct at anyone in this life, even Junpei.
"I didn't do anything," Shinjiro protested, his voice louder than hers.
Now that Minako was paying attention, she could make out Yukari's reply. "Bull! She was fine until she had lunch with you. When she came back, she was so distracted that she didn't even notice the teacher calling on her." Minako winced. "And then she forgot that we were planning on going shopping, and she never forgets that kind of thing! With anyone!" The wince never left her face. She'd have to buy Yukari coffee or something to make up for it...
"Where is she now?" Shinjiro asked, worry tingeing his voice.
"I don't know! It's curfew, she should have been back by now!"
That was definitely Minako's cue. She took the last step up onto the second floor and cleared her throat. Both of her friends looked grateful to see her. "I'm home," she tried.
"Minako!" Yukari exclaimed, rushing forward. "I was worried, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Minako promised. "Shinjiro-senpai didn't do anything. Can I... talk to him for a minute? Alone?"
"You're sure he didn't do anything?"
Shinjiro snapped, "Seriously, Takeba?"
"I'm sure, thanks."
"Okay. Well, I'll be in my room if you need me." Yukari threw one last suspicious look over her shoulder before she went upstairs.
"Are you okay?" Shinjiro asked once Yukari was gone. "Iori was pretty worried too, asked me if I knew what was up."
"I'm fine," Minako said, feeling like that was the only phrase she was going to say for the rest of the night. She walked up to him so she wouldn't need to raise her voice.
He looked down at her, hands at his sides. "Is it about the dinner? 'Cause I can handle that myself if you need me to."
"No, it's not the- I mean, I told Ken-kun it was, but..." She trailed off. Shinjiro looked so concerned for her, and he waited silently for her to finish. Minako had started off months ago thinking that he was handsome, but it turned out that he was also kind, an animal lover, a good cook, a caring friend, and when he looked at her, she felt like she was the only person in the entire world that he cared about at that moment. "I can't just sit in your lap," she blurted out.
"What?" he said, almost laughing.
Minako inhaled deeply, trying not think about the way it made her chest puff out and his eyes had twitched like he'd been about to glance down but stopped himself. "I was distracted all day because I wasn't sure how to ask you out on a date," she said. Own it, don't be embarrassed. "So I'm asking you directly. Please go on a date with me."
A few seconds passed between Shinjiro opening his mouth and his beginning to say, self-deprecatingly, "You don't want to-"
"I do," she interrupted. "I like you a lot. And I'd really like to-" Say it, get it out, own it! "-to sit closer to you on the sofa, and talk to you even more, and cook for each other, and I'd really like to kiss you-"
Shinjiro bent down and kissed her. A moment later, his hands came up to cup her face carefully. When he tried to back away and look into her eyes, Minako grabbed his shirt and tugged him back down into another kiss. Her other hand landed on his waist, which was warmer and firmer than it had any right to be.
Minako parted her mouth over his to make the kiss deeper, better, and he pulled away with a groan, far enough that they were still holding each other but she didn't try to start again. He pulled her into his arms instead, holding her close against his chest. She breathed in the smell of him, masculine and comforting.
His chin rested on the top of her head. "Of course I'll go out with you," he murmured. "God, you drive me crazy. I don't know why you'd bother with someone like me, but-"
"Don't talk about my boyfriend that way," she said into his chest, giddy with joy.
"I guess I shouldn't, huh?" he said softly, followed by a much louder, "Go away, Takeba!"
"Sorry!" Yukari squeaked from somewhere behind her. A series of quick footsteps told Minako that Yukari ran back upstairs again.
Shinjiro's hold loosened, although he kept rubbing Minako's lower back. "Let go."
"Don't want to," Minako said stubbornly. She was a little worried that the whole day would turn out to have been a really nice dream.
"We can't stay in the hall like this. Oh man, Aki's gonna give me such shit that you confessed before I did."
"We could go back to my room."
"M-moron!" Shinjiro stuttered, actually backing away.
"Or your... room...?" She trailed off as she saw that he was blushing fiercely.
"That's not the problem!"
Junpei was going to laugh so hard about this when she told him. Minako had managed to fall for a guy who didn't want to sleep with her first thing. From what Junpei and popular media told her, that was something of a rarity in teenage boys.
"Then I'll just go back to my room." He turned an even brighter shade of pink and his eyes widened. Emboldened by her success, Minako continued, "Go to bed. Think about you being in bed..."
"Dammit," Shinjiro groaned, his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides. He swooped in to press a firm, brief kiss against her lips before he fled into his bedroom and closed the door. He opened it again almost immediately. "Goodnight, Minako."
Minako was pretty sure that her smile had enough wattage to light the entirety of the island. "Goodnight!"
When Minako made it up to the third floor, after a brief dance of glee, Yukari was waiting for her with a thrilled grin. Yukari raised her hand and Minako high-fived it. "If you want to talk to another girl about any of this stuff instead of Junpei," she said, "let me know."
"I will, thanks."
Once back in her own room, Minako looked the door, then fell on her bed and kicked her legs wildly in happiness. Less than a year ago, she'd been desperately trying to hold back Nyx, and had thought she would be doing that forever. Now she had a life, friends, and even a boyfriend.
Minako wasn't naive enough to think that nothing could go wrong - even without magic or the supernatural, things could always go wrong - but she did think that as long as she had people she loved, people who loved her in return, she could face anything that the world might throw at her.