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Disclaimer: I don't own Tokidoki Bosotto Roshiago de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san or any of its characters...

The day flew by so quickly as if the events that transpired had been one bad dream.

Alisa Kujou woke up about an hour earlier than everyone else and, to her great frustration, she wasn't able to fall asleep again despite numerous attempts.

With that, Alisa simply resorted to preparing breakfast earlier than usual, finishing in no time at all that once she was done, she finished a regular inspection on the harvested crops in the pantry as well.

One by one, the others woke up and headed downstairs for breakfast just as she was finished with her routine.

In a very bizarre scene, they headed to the kitchen without as much as acknowledging her and proceeded to set the table for themselves almost immediately.

However, Alisa already expected this, so she wasn't surprised at this turn of events.

She's not stupid… all that happened yesterday was still fresh in their minds, so it's obvious that they would steer clear of her the moment they see her… even her sister …

When everyone had gathered by the dining table to have breakfast, Alisa willingly made the choice to eat her meal at the lounge instead.

She was fine with how things are… she was aware of her own shortcomings… her own mistakes… this was going to happen one way or another…

"Alya," Masachika called out, bringing the girl back to reality and making her look up at him.

He stood before her with his plate in his hands and an awkward smile on his face.

"Can I sit here?"

The girl stared at him for a while, showing no visible reaction or any hint of emotion on her face, although she was actually caught off guard by his sudden question.

The seconds passed, and it almost seemed like another altercation was going to take place because of how quiet things were between them, which everyone else at the dining table noticed. They all had their eyes on the two — particularly Alisa — whom they watched very closely like a group of hawks.

Not wanting a repeat of yesterday, Chisaki was about to leave the table and prevent Alisa from doing anything bad before she could even get the chance, only for the girl to finally speak up.

"Do what you want," she looked away to hide her face from him, but Alisa voiced out her answer clearly.

The awkward smile on his face morphed into a normal one as he took his seat beside the girl, before he dug into his meal.

The rising tension at the table eventually dissipated after seeing this, and they went back to eating breakfast, except for Taniyama who kept a watchful glance on Alya for a little while longer.

There was nothing to worry about after all… perhaps for now.

"It's been a long time since we ate together like this," Masachika chuckled in amusement.

"Yes… it has…" Alisa thought to herself, all while wondering why he would even choose to be here when everyone else is right there at the table.

It's almost as if he just forgot about every bad thing she's done up until now…

"Well, fasten your seatbelt, because this is gonna be a long story," Yuki smirked as she sat on top of the counter, crossing her legs together.

"Just make sure you get to the point," he sighed.

She chuckled for a few moments, before a serious expression took over her features. "I think Alya-san doesn't hate you. Instead, I think it's more appropriate to say that she hates herself."

"What does that mean?"

"You already know how much you mean to her, right?"

"As crazy as it is to believe, yeah."

Truth be told, it was still hard for him to process the fact that Masha had given up on her own sister and stood idly by while Alya was at the mercy of everyone else. Was she truly angry with her sister's mistake or did she give up trying to defend her?

But more than anything, her actions proved Yuki's suspicions back then.

It wouldn't be surprising by now if Alya thinks that her older sister had left her as well, leaving her in a more miserable state than before.

"This is just my wild guess, but I think she's aware of what she did to you and blames herself."

Masachika frowned in confusion. "Huh…?"

"Alya-san may be angry with you because she thinks you betrayed her but deep down, she never intended to hurt you. I think Alya-san blames herself for what happened just as much as everyone does."

"What makes you think that? She had no problem stomping on my foot, you know?"

"It's pretty crazy to think that she would attack you out of nowhere, and for no reason. Something must have happened that made her lose it."

Yuki folded her arms and raised an eyebrow at him, while Masachika lowered his head in deep thought.

"Did you perhaps say something to her, Onii-chan?"

Several days passed, and things were slowly turning back to normal for the whole group.

After cooking breakfast, Alisa went on ahead and ate before everyone else, in order for her to proceed with her work for the day. The sooner she can be done with this, the sooner she can focus on other things.

It was time to harvest and plant another batch of food, having noticed that there were many fully-grown crops across the entire farm the other day.

And to do that, she would have to carry a big basket of crops all the way to the farm… which she was struggling to do.

Normally, she would carry this with Maria as the two worked together when it came to this job. However, it seemed like both sisters were actively avoiding one another lately, which was almost impossible to imagine because of their close bond.

Maria hasn't made an attempt to talk with her since that day , while Alisa simply pretended that nothing was wrong.

There was never a time before where the two were apart, figuratively and literally.

And because her sister wasn't around to help her this time, she couldn't lift the basket of crops effectively. It didn't help that they still had a massive surplus of food, so the extra crops made the basket heavier.

Stubborn as she was, Alisa didn't even think of carrying a manageable load and then making back-and-forth trips from the lodge to the farm. She wanted to be done as soon as possible instead.

"No!" she yelped, losing grip of one end of the basket just as she reached the front door.

"I got it!"

Her eyes widening at the voice, she turned her head to see Masachika rushing over just in time to keep the basket from falling and spilling its content.

"You could have just asked for my help, you know? It's my job to do this."

Alisa stared at him in complete shock that she didn't notice him taking the basket off her hands and setting it down.

"Just wait for me to finish my breakfast, I'll carry it with you. I won't take long, I promise."

Her eyes never left Masachika even after he walked away and went to the kitchen to fix himself a quick meal. He looked like he had just woken up, but he was ready to help her simply because she needed it.

Once again, it left the girl wondering why he was here and acting like she didn't try to destroy their relationship recently.

"She did react only after I talked about what she used to be like in school," he revealed.

"That's it! That's what made her angry, Masachika-kun," she exclaimed while pointing towards him. "What did you tell her exactly? You told me the general gist of it, but you never said anything specific."

"Uh… I just talked about the kind of person Alya was when we were still at school. How everyone looks up to her and admires her for being a great student council president."

"Then?"

"That's when she slapped me and went off on a tirade about you…" he scratched the back of his head as he felt a sense of awkwardness washing over him. "And then, uh… she stomped on my foot and said that she's only a normal person trying to survive, and that she wasn't a president of anything."

Yuki expected that she would get angrier with Alisa for her actions [so she internally prepared herself for it] after hearing her brother's entire explanation, but it was the complete opposite.

Instead, she sent him a deadpan look.

"Onii-chan, I love you, but you really didn't have a wise choice of words there. I can almost understand why she snapped at you."

"Don't remind me…" he groaned in displeasure.

Masachika had thought that appealing to Alya in that way would work, but he failed to account for the possibility that it would only remind her that they were nowhere near their goal of getting back to Japan.

It was a red flag for Alisa, who considered herself as the only individual who actively worked with the full intention of returning home as soon as possible.

The girl shrugged. "Well then, at least that explains why she lost her cool."

"It does, so now what? You said that Alya blames herself for it, even though she knew what she was doing?"

"She knew what she was doing, but not until after the whole thing was over," she confirmed.

"So she just snapped without being aware of it?"

"Positive. She only realized what she did afterwards, and felt nothing but shame for her actions."

"I see your point, but she didn't even want to apologize, remember?" he pointed out.

Knowing that Masachika brought up an important fact, Yuki thought about it for a moment, before a possible explanation struck her.

"Well, what if she didn't want to apologize, because she felt that she doesn't deserve forgiveness?"

While she has remained civil with everyone for almost a week now, Alisa had a strong feeling that they were still wary of her, as though they had a lingering suspicion that she would go back to being violent and impulsive.

They really don't trust her anymore, huh?

…well, Alisa expected this and if that was truly the case, she wouldn't be surprised.

She was aware that her actions can't be overlooked and if it means surviving every single day here with everyone having doubts and suspicions about her, the girl was prepared to face it.

Sooner or later, everyone will be back from their respective work, so she worked on their final meal of the day ahead of time.

After she was done, Alya grabbed the pot of hot vegetable soup and headed to the table so that she can set everything, only to freeze in place when she saw that Masachika was already there, doing exactly that.

The young man had just finished setting down eight different bowls along with utensils for each of them. When he noticed that Alya was there with the pot in her hands, Masachika waved his arm.

"Done with dinner? No worries, I already prepared the table for everyone. You can just place that here."

"Kuze-kun…" she whispered.

"It's the only way I can help because you keep on cooking without even telling me. We're supposed to work together, remember?"

Nothing came out of her mouth, simply because she was unable to say anything. Any attempt where she felt like talking went nowhere.

"I'll go tell everyone dinner's ready. Wait for us, Alya."

While her eyes followed him until he left the house, a tiny smile had unknowingly formed on her lips as realization dawned on her.

For the first time in a long time, Alya didn't feel like she was alone .

Maybe… just maybe…

"Doesn't deserve it?"

"Put it this way. If you did something so terrible to someone, would you expect forgiveness from that person?"

As he looked at his sister, his mind once again went back to the time when he chose to leave their family household.

Looking back at it, Yuki should hate him for it. It's true that they met again after only a year of being apart, but he still did something terrible to her. He would have understood if she did, and it'd be a deserving punishment for someone like him.

And yet, his little sister found it in herself to move past that and look to the future… even if that involved becoming, erghm… intimate with him and acting on her weird feelings for him.

"...not really."

"There you go," Yuki giggled. "Alya-san knows that she did something wrong, and she hates herself for it. It's not out of reach to say that she thinks you hate her too."

Masachika frowned. He could never hate Alya, and the mere thought of it was preposterous.

"Before the long discussion we had with her earlier, maybe she convinced herself that you hate her, and things would be better if she wasn't around."

"I don't hate her, but why would Alya even care if I do?" he asked. "It doesn't add up. If she feels that way, then why would she say all those harsh things? Was she putting on a mask?"

Yuki nodded, "That's right."

"What would she even gain from doing that? Acting tough, putting on a mask, and thinking she doesn't deserve forgiveness… it doesn't make sense."

"Once again, I think you underestimate how much Alya-san values you, Onii-chan."

Yuki got off the countertop, her arms still folded across her chest. She began to walk off and just as Masachika was about to follow her, she turned back to face him.

"On the outside, Alya-san is a determined and strong-willed individual. But deep down… she's burdened with a lot of fears and insecurities," she stated with a serious look.

"I know that already," Masachika narrowed his eyes.

"But do you know how much these things have weighed her down? Did Alya-san ever open up to you about her the things she's had to deal with?"

"She hasn't, but you don't know anything about her either."

"I don't. But I know that you made things easier for her, Onii-chan. She relied on you, and you were there for her when she needed you. Is it so hard for you to imagine that Alya-san was dependent on you this whole time?"

Like always, Masachika was the last of the whole group to use the bathroom for an evening shower, not that he minded it.

Upon stepping out of the bath, the lights around the house were already off, and the others were nowhere to be seen. No doubt they were already back in their rooms to get some rest.

However, along the way, he noticed Alisa was standing outside of her room. Looks like he had caught her at the right time, as she was just about to retire for the day.

"Good night, Alya."

Masachika didn't wait for any kind of response from her and continued on heading to his room, knowing that she wasn't going to say anything, anyway. However, he had gotten used to bidding her good night that he didn't really care.

"Good night… Masachika-kun."

Although her words came out as a soft whisper, the surroundings were so quiet that it enabled Masachika to hear what she said.

He turned back around with a surprised look on his face, but Alisa had already disappeared into her room and out of his sight.

"That's the first time she replied since that day…"

"You don't understand. I never got the feeling that she relied on me like that. If anything, she can do a lot of things on her own. All she needed was a little push in the right direction, and that's what I gave her."

"Of course you wouldn't, but before you came to her life, was Alya-san as open as she is now towards other people?" Yuki challenged.

"...no."

"Before she met you, did she have any interest in running for the student council?"

"...no."

"Even though she had Masha-san, did she show any kind of changes in her old personality before you?"

"...no."

"You see? Meeting you changed her life forever, and in her mind, she believed that hurting you is an unforgivable act. She hurt someone important to her and by being cruel to you even more, Alya-san was trying to punish herself."

"I'm having a really hard time trying to process all of this…" Masachika sighed.

"Alya-san thought that it would be the end for her, but that changed when you saved her from judgment. Even when she thought that she didn't deserve forgiveness, you were there for her."

Masachika frowned while he retreated into his thoughts. Is this really how Alya feels about all this? Or is this whole thing just a fragment of Yuki's crazy imagination?

"And now, in her eyes, you're the only one left who's standing by her side. Even after she thought that you chose someone else, you showed her kindness and compassion but on the other hand—"

"—everyone else doesn't trust her anymore."

"Exactly. And do you know what's going to happen when she only has one person left whom she can rely on, Masachika-kun?"

"She'll get attached to that person," he answered.

"Even more than that," she threw her arms wide open and wrapped them around his neck, surprising him. "Just the yearning for support and relief will make her mind go blank."

Yuki pulled herself towards him, their faces within inches of each other as their gazes met with such intensity that it could cut through glass.

"She'll completely devote her heart, body, and soul to that person… offering herself to him entirely."

After stepping inside her room, Alisa closed the door and leaned against it as a smile appeared on her face.

…the first visible smile she had in so long.

MINASAN, YONDE KURETE ARIGATŌ! AISHITEMAAAAASUUUUU! *starts playing air guitar*

-Lance