"Let's see, I need mackerel... some beef, carrots, and potatoes... some cucumber... what else...?" Rui wondered aloud, counting the number of ingredients on her fingers as she stepped inside the store and started going through the aisles to find what she needed to make dinner. It was going to be a simple and traditional type of meal that consisted of saba shioyaki, nikujaga, sunomono, miso soup, and genmai.

Meanwhile, Katsuki was not far behind her and had grabbed a basket to do a little shopping himself- Mitsuki having called him to ask him to stop by the market to grab a few things for dinner.

'Mom said we needed enoki mushrooms, beef, shungiku, and negi.' he thought, going over the short list in his head.

He grabbed the enoki, shungiku, and negi, then made his way to the meat aisle. As he reached for the last package of beef, someone else did as well, and when he looked down at the person, his heart began pounding in his chest when he saw that it was Rui.

"Oh, um... sorry..." Rui said, withdrawing her hand. "You go ahead and take it..."

Katsuki watched her a moment, then noticed the other ingredients that she had in her basket. "You take it. You need beef for nikujaga. Mom's making sukiyaki, so I'll just grab pork."

Rui was surprised as he handed her the beef. "A-Are you sure..?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks..." She wanted to say something more, but Katsuki had already turned away and went down to the pork section for his last ingredient. Sighing, she made her way to the cashier's stand to check out. 'He seems... in a better mood right now... maybe I should wait for him and we can walk home together...?'

Katsuki grabbed a package of pork and went to check out, finding Rui waiting just outside of the store. 'What's she doing..?' He grabbed his bags and headed out the doors, stopping in front of Rui as she looked up at the sound of the doors dinging.

"I, um..." Rui cleared his throat and tucked her hair behind her ear, nervously. "I thought we could walk together, since we, uh... live across from each other..." She looked up at him timidly. "W-We don't have to talk or anything... if you don't want to..."

Katsuki studied her a moment, then gestured for her to follow him - taking the lead without a word as Rui hurried to catch up to him. They walked for several blocks in silence and it wasn't until they reached their street that a word was spoken by either of them.

"See you later." Katsuki said, making his way towards his house.

"Katsuki, wait..."

He stopped and glanced back at Rui, seeing her hesitation. "What is it?"

"I..." Rui looked over at him as he stood a few yards away. She wanted so desperately to fix things between them, but she was still too afraid that she'd mess it all up and she didn't want to take his focus away from exams. She sighed and averted her gaze. "It's nothing... never mind..." She started to walk towards her apartment building, stopping briefly to add, "Good luck tomorrow," before she hurried up the stairs and to her apartment.

Katsuki stood there, watching her disappear down the hall of her floor, and he sighed as he turned away to cross the street to his house. He opened the door, kicked off his shoes, took the groceries into the kitchen, and started emptying the bags.

"Thanks, Katsuki." Mitsuki said, turning to him. She noticed a change in his usual demeanor, though, and set aside the knife she was using. "Hey, you alright? What's wrong?"

Katsuki just shrugged, not wanting to talk about what was going through his head. "It's nothing. I'll be in my room."

Mitsuki watched him leave the kitchen and followed him to the foot of the stairs.

"Is Katsuki alright?" her husband, Masaru, asked.

"I don't know."

While Rui and Shota had dinner and talked about how the week had been going, Katsuki sat with his family for dinner. He couldn't help his curiosity as to what Rui could have been trying to say earlier and his parents watched him as he pushed around his food- their own concern for their son growing.

'Why can't she just say what's on her mind for once? Why is she so cautious?' he wondered as he helped clear the table after dinner and wash the dishes.

"Katsuki, can we talk?"

"About what?"

Mitsuki sidled up to her son as he set aside the last dish to dry. "About whatever is bothering you."

"It's nothing, Mom."

"It's not nothing, son, your father and I can see something is on your mind." Mitsuki leaned in a bit. "Is it about Rui?"

Katsuki didn't want to answer, but he knew that his mother would have her answer regardless.

"What happened, Katsuki?"

"Can we not talk about this?"

"Fine, if you won't talk to me, then you need to talk to Rui and fix things between you two. Before she leaves town again."

"There's nothing to say, she's already made up her mind."

"I don't care, you're going over there right now and you're going to talk to her." She handed him a plate laden with dorayaki that she had made too much of earlier that morning. "Take these over to her and talk to her."

"I don't even know which apartment is hers!"

"Unit 314. Now, take these and go."

"Ugh, fine, whatever."

Katsuki yanked the plate out of his mother's hands, earning himself a smack across the back of his head, and slid on his shoes before leaving the house- letting the door slam behind him.

He walked across the street and made his way towards Rui's building, climbing the flights of stairs to the third floor and searched along the hallway for unit 314. When he reached it, he raised his hand to knock and hesitated for a few moments before finally giving in and rapping on the hard wooden door. As he waited, part of him told him to just walk away and tell his mother she wasn't home while the other part of him screamed at him to stay and talk to her. Finally, after an agonizing minute or so, the door opened and he looked down.

"Oh, Katsuki. What are you doing here..?"

"My mom made too much dorayaki and asked me to bring you the extras." He handed her the plate, relieved to see a smile- as small as it may have been.

"That's sweet of her." Rui took the plate and could smell the sweet honey Mitsuki used in the recipe. "I'll be sure to thank her and bring the plate back over later." She glanced up at him, seeing the same hesitation she had been feeling for days. "Is... there something else you needed..?"

Katsuki sighed. "Ya, actually... could we talk?"