The rest of the day passed by rather uneventfully. Teruhashi's thought patterns were normal but with a levity he had not observed before. She determined it was best to leave the topic alone for the rest of the day, as she couldn't afford another slip up of her persona and she wanted time for both of them to process it.

Nendou couldn't stop talking about how yummy the lunch was during class and got reprimanded by the teacher. Saiko was gloating because everybody understood the good food, apparently still sore about the lack of appreciation for his billion yen paintings. Kaidou had grown bored and started doodling while muttering something about how retribution was upon them as if he had forgotten he almost died a few days ago. Kuboyasu was outwardly diligent as always, but inside he was cursing himself for enjoying Saiko's food as much as he did. Luckily for Mera, the Saiko family knew only excess so for the first time in a long time she had actually been full and had enough to take home to her siblings. Yumehara thought about how nice it was to sit close to Kaidou and listen to him interact with Kuboyasu. They had exchanged a few words thanks to Kaidou being around friends, so she was very happy about that. Hairo spoke calmly and had gone back to his cheerful demeanor as he had spent a special moment with his friends and classmates.

Akechi had returned to his regularly scheduled programming of thinking a mile a minute. Saiki gleaned that Akechi had figured out that he left with Teruhashi unfortunately but he seemed not to care and moved onto other topics. Aiura wondered where all her popularity went. It seemed she did not figure out that she had switched places with Teruhashi. Toritsuka complained about the "sausage fest" that had prevented him from getting to Teruhashi. Thankfully Aiura had not seen Toritsuka, otherwise she might have figured out what was going on.

Another side effect of the food was that everyone save Teruhashi and himself were very sleepy and thus did not do much to prevent his escape. As the last period ended he packed everything and left, hoping to avoid any more trouble.

"See you soon, Saiki-kun."

He could hear a warm smile in her voice.

Sure.
_

Teruhashi lay on her bed staring at her ceiling, attempting fruitlessly to unstrap herself from the unending emotional rollercoaster that is interacting with Kusuo Saiki. It was funny to think that she had more interaction with him in the last few days than she had in the rest of the years she had known him. How many times had she schemed to perfectly insert herself into his Christmas plans? 2? 3? Of course he seemed uninterested, but he still let her stick around. Nothing they had done together could have prepared her for what was going on now, much less how completely her carefully crafted persona would shatter. At least it was only in front of someone who had been reading her mind since the day they met.

She had finally shown her true colors, but had she overdone it? It was only fair, she attempted to convince herself. She had been pulled back like a slingshot. It was only natural that she would fly farther past what she even thought herself capable of. However, that might have been a bit too real. She likened it to someone dumping all of their emotional baggage on a first date. She buried her face into her hands, plunging her vision into the darkness swaddling her self doubt. She suddenly felt a shooting pain in her stomach.

Oh, right. I didn't have lunch at school today.

Luckily, she had some natto that had just finished fermenting, so she went to extract it from the fridge and into her mouth. She still had some rice left over from yesterday's breakfast, so she heated that up with a wet paper towel over the top to help reintroduce some moisture, combined everything in a bowl, and topped it with some soy sauce and mustard. She mindlessly chewed on it, but was interrupted by her brother before she could do any meaningful thinking.

"Oh, Kokomi, it's so nice to see you! You're always so diligent with eating healthy meals to keep your perfect figure! You truly are the most wonderful person, always thinking of other people!" Makoto intruded. She reflexively brightened her aura and donned the mask. As she looked up, she noticed his reserved demeanor, more akin the one he used on set. He clasped his hands behind his back, closed his eyes, and leaned forward into her personal space, causing her to recoil.

"Thank you so much, onii-chan! I always try to put my best foot forward so I can bring the gift of myself to as many people as possible!" She smiled sweetly as she looked up at him, matching his expression.

Her stomach turned as she spoke. It seemed like it had never crossed his mind that she didn't eat the way she did only for other people. She also couldn't believe she managed to convince him that only the finest food graced her palate even as some of the most mundane was in front of her. However, she had tried so hard to keep this act up that she wondered if she really did do this for herself at all. She really wanted to enjoy what she ate more often and the past few days had made her much more aware of that.

"You really are the perfect woman, Kokomi! Maybe one day you'll be able to give yourself to your family forever when I get the vermin to stop pestering you!" he said as he raised his finger with a hint of venom injected into "vermin".

She immediately regretted her first response. She didn't hate him, but having to put up her persona around essentially the only family she had was certainly vexatious. She yelled at him a lot, but sometimes yelling wouldn't work so she had to use the persona instead. Luckily, he took her rebuffs in stride. Also what was this about "giving" herself forever? Had she already not given enough?

"Onii-chan, for this part of my ritual to become the woman that you can be proud of, I need to be alone!" she said, smiling with all of the saccharine charm she could muster.

"But Kokomi you don't need to do anything else, you will always be Miss Right for me!" Makoto's eyes jerked open, revealing a hungry look. A string of drool hanging out of his mouth wouldn't be out of place here.

Persistent, are we? she thought. Suddenly, an inspiration came to her in the nick of time.

"I need to do my Angel Meditation™ now, and I can't get into my zen mode with you in the room so please allow me this selfish act!"

She closed her eyes, bowed her head and clapped her hands in front of her face.

How disgusting is it that I have to grovel to be left alone?

"Ok, Kokomi, if you insist! I shall anxiously await your return!"

Makoto slithered out of the room as wriggly as a tentacle, like Professor Iguchi but with none of the good intentions. She knew he would be in the room next to wherever she was, listening to her. It made her profoundly uncomfortable but at least she didn't have to talk to him. She finished her natto in silence and then walked back up into her bedroom, of course with a second set of footsteps uncomfortably close behind her. She made sure to lock her door.

Now back to the Angel Meditation™. Eating had helped quiet her racing thoughts, so now she needed to dive right into figuring out where to go from here.

Am I forcing him to do something against his will? Why do I even care this much? Sure, god may be on my side but what's the point if he doesn't want me anyway? Perhaps it's a manifestation of the sunk cost fallacy but I'd like to give it a try. Worrying about it won't help.

Now how would she choose her 1 on 1 time? She wanted to help him feel safe, comfortable, and normal. She could throw a softball. How about lunch? She had just thought about how much she had wanted to enjoy what she ate so lunch seemed like a good idea. Going to a sweets shop was good, but she figured time would be better spent where they could actually talk and not feel any pressure to leave quickly. A sweets shop was a low hanging fruit, she wanted to at least attempt to be more original though her current idea was anything but. How about yakiniku? It was very normal, enjoyable, low pressure, and private. There were plenty of places that had booths as well so she could at least try to protect their privacy. Also, yakiniku was more popular around dinner where they lived so they could minimize the amount of people they came into contact with.

This is totally a date, she thought, smiling evilly.

Normally she would have been tripping over herself about getting any kind of time with him, but for some reason her confidence did not fail her now. The stripping of all pretense was something she had never before experienced so her emotional baseline was unknown. She hoped she wouldn't be caught off guard again. She thought about making it less date-like and more importantly private but all of her other ideas felt even more intimate than just lunch. She knew of a few places within walking distance as she had several suitors try to drag her into them. She did a quick search to figure out whether or not any candidates had acceptable booths and found 2 that did. She chose the one closest to his house. Saturday would be most preferable for lunch.

She felt her nerves flare up and her heart start to beat faster. Despite how exhausting it was to be Kokomi Teruhashi, she would never deny she liked the attention. It made her feel powerful and in control. Getting special treatment was very amusing to her. If she hadn't been who she was, then she never would have been able to sink her talons into the world's most powerful psychic. Somehow at this point more than ever, all the effort and strife was worth it. Part of this was a game to her and she knew he felt the same way. He had gone on and on about "beating" her so after all this initial awkwardness blew over, maybe they could…

She banished the thought. She acted like she had a 100% chance of success, but she had barely gotten out of the starting gate. She was happy the confidence was starting to come back because she was not about to let this guy push her around. As usual he made her forget she was Kokomi Teruhashi, but her pride would not allow this aspect of her to disappear. After all, he was still a guy and no guy could resist her charm. Some people could, but they weren't worth the effort. He had resisted up until now, but once Kokomi Teruhashi has you in her sights you can never escape. She chortled at her self-important attitude. He must have heard when she pondered after Aiura had told her that he liked people that were true to themselves, so she was simply doing what he asked.

You're not getting away from me this time, Kusuo Saiki.