"Sayo-san!"

"Yes, Ako?"

"Um... could you help me with some homework? I don't understand it..."

"If you insist."

"Thank you!"

Sayo knew it was going to be a rough time, but not this rough. Ako genuinely understood nothing of the assignment. That was just chaos.

"Alright... try and do what I just did for question two."

They were only on question two and it had been almost an hour. This was going to be a long night. Sayo had other things she would have liked to be doing, but in the end this was probably more important. They couldn't have Ako failing school, after all.

"Hmm... like this?"

"Not exactly... but you got the right answer."

"I did? So can we move on?"

"I guess."

They continued on with the assignment. It was still going slow. However, it seemed Ako was finally starting to pick up what she needed to do. That made things start going a little faster.

"And... done!" Ako announced with a proud smile.

"Good. You understand it now?"

"Yep, thank you, Sayo-nee."

Sayo had to do a double take. What did Ako just call her? That was... unexpected. Maybe it had been a slip up?

It had definitely not been a slip up. Ako was still calling her that. Sayo had no idea how she was supposed to take it. No one ever really acted that way to her. It was always formal, not many people speaking in a casual tone with her.

It got her a lot of looks. It was not very wanted. But, at the same time, she didn't feel like telling Ako to stop. It was a bit different. She didn't mind it. Just the whole calling her that in public was a bit uncomfortable.

It also came with an bit of another uncalled for response. It seemed it was making someone jealous. Well, maybe even two people.

Sayo noticed that Tomoe would send her a side glance if Ako referred to her that way around her. Why was she acting like that? It wasn't like she was really doing much? Ako still pretty much treated her the same, just the formality was different.

"Ako's taking a bit more of a liking to you, it seems." Tomoe said to her one day.

"I don't know." Sayo shrugged, "Nothing's changed but how she refers to me."

"I doubt that."

"You make it sound like you're accusing me of stealing her from you."

Tomoe blinked in surprise, "U-um... I just... guess I'm not used to Ako seeing anyone else as a big sister but me..."

"I doubt she's replacing you. She still seems intimidated by me."

While Tomoe could be understood with her jealousy, Sayo didn't understand why Hina was that way.

"Hina, you've been pouting at me for a while now. What is it?" Sayo decided to confront her about it.

"You've stolen my chance of being Ako's role model."

"As if." Sayo rolled her eyes, "Honestly, I don't know if Tomoe would appreciate you being her role model."

"Meanie!" Hina stuck her tongue out at Sayo, "I can be a responsible role model for Ako."

"There's nothing stopping you."

"But Ako looks up to you a lot now!"

"And how many other people does she look up to? I'm nothing special. I don't even know why she calls me 'Sayo-nee' anyway."

"You're downplaying yourself." Hina pouted at her again.

"I still don't even know what to do. This is not a role I expected to gain."

"If you don't want it then I'll gladly take from you."

"Not a chance. I'm not giving it to you."

"Ooh, so you are defensive of your new role." Hina smiled and giggled.

Sayo sighed, "I am not. I just don't trust you with Ako."

"Hmmpf. I'll show you! Just you wait. I'll make Ako look up to me more than you!"

It was a playful challenge. One that Sayo definitely was not backing down from.

"Good luck with that."