"Shintaro! Today I just met a girl named Mary!"
"That's cool."
"She lives in a house hidden in a forest!"
"That's cool."
"Why don't you meet her? She's a bit shy though."
"That's cool."
Seto pouted.
"Shintaro, are you even listening?"
"..."
Shintaro looked the other way.
"You can be mean sometimes..."
"Then what do you want, me to follow you and meet Maria?"
"Mary! And yes!" Seto was tugging on Shintaro's sleeve so they could go, but of course Shintaro didn't budge.
"What happened to your hoodie?"
Shintaro noticed that Seto wasn't wearing his white hoodie anymore.
"Uh, I gave it to her..."
He sighed, "Fine, let's go."
"Yay!"
*Knock, knock, knock*
Seto knocked on the door, but no one answered.
*Knock*
"H-Hold on just a min- waah!" a girl's voice could be heard inside... along with glass shattering, a can being knocked over, along with a giant *thump*.
"M-Mary?!" Seto opened the door to see that her tea was spilled, again, a can full of cloth and sewing needles and string, and there was a giant ball of fluff on the ground.
...
"I'm guessing the giant ball of fluff is Mary?" Shintaro pointed to the giant ball of fluff.
She raised her head high enough so they could see her pouting face, "I'm not a giant ball of flu- aagh!"
Mary noticed a stranger (Shintaro) and hid her face so that she looked like a giant ball of fluff again.
"Mary, calm down! Shintaro isn't as scary as he looks!" Seto kneeled down to Mary.
Do I look that scary?!... Then again people had told me that I had "rotten eyes"...
She raised her head again, "R-Really?"
"Yeah! See, Shintaro isn't afraid of red eyes, okay?!"
"If I remember correctly you had a similar reaction..." Shintaro looked the other way and thought for a moment.
"N-No I didn't!" Seto blushed from embarrassment since he was supposed to look like a brave boy to Mary.
"Yeah, even though Kano told you I was safe you still shied away."
"Shintaro!"
They heard a soft giggle.
When they turned their heads back to Mary she was sitting properly and laughing.
Seto smiled then soon began to laugh.
Shintaro made a slight smirk again.
Did I... ever smile this much?
"And that's what happened!" Seto told his adopted siblings the story.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Shintaro said, "Were you reading my mind?!"
Seto started to sweat and looked the other way, "J-Just a little..."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Kozakura Mary," Mary bowed her head as she introduced herself to Seto's adopted siblings.
"Nice to meet you, Mary," Ayano said with a smile.
These past two days... Ayano thought, were different then the other routes... oh well, at least Shintaro has a better bond with the members...
"Onee-chan, what's the Tanabata Festival?" Kido tugged at Ayano's sleeve.
"Tanabata is a star festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi. According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calender. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on July 7 of the Gregorian calender. The celebration is held at various days between July and August," Shintaro simply said.
"How about we all go there?" Ayano asked.
"Yeah! Shintaro you should bring you little sister too!" Seto said.
"Do I have to? Well, she's always busy with that idol schedule of hers..."
"An idol?!" Mary exclaimed.
"Then let's do it when she's free," Kido said.
"Hey, what's her name?" Kano asked.
"Momo, Kisaragi Momo," Shintaro said.
"Alright, let's do that!" Ayano cheered.