After returning from Cyberia, I ate my dinner—hamburg steak—did my homework, watched my favorite streamer’s videos, and took a late-night bath.

All the while, my mind was completely occupied with thoughts of Tachibana Iori. I couldn’t taste the hamburg steak at all, and even my favorite streamer’s videos didn’t make me laugh today.

“…Haaaah…”

As I sank into the bath up to my shoulders, a sigh escaped me, bigger than I expected.

My mother always told me, “If you sigh, happiness will escape,” so I usually tried to avoid doing it. But today, I just couldn’t help it. By now, as a high schooler, I already knew that sometimes you sigh and still find happiness, and sometimes you don’t sigh and still end up miserable.

The sigh didn’t matter. The real issue was Tachibana Iori.

That said, I had already decided not to think about whether Tachibana Iori was a girl or a boy. Physically, she was definitely a girl. But mentally? I had no idea. In the end, I had concluded that I simply didn’t know. However, since Tachibana Iori had declared, “I’m a girl,” I found myself strangely convinced that it must be true.

So that left one question—why did she tell me? This was something worth considering. I had already ruled out the possibility that she was just messing with me. The way she had said it didn’t seem like a joke at all.

The word “confession” immediately brought another word to mind: “worry.”

Tachibana Iori was troubled about her gender. And she had decided to confide in me.

That made sense. If I ignored the fact that we weren’t close enough for her to share something so sensitive with me, nothing about it seemed particularly strange.

“…But was she really that troubled?”

Even as I said it, something felt off. I had never once thought Tachibana Iori seemed conflicted. That “Prince of Suzakura” persona of hers seemed entirely self-imposed. I couldn’t imagine she was sending me any kind of SOS.

…And come to think of it—

If Tachibana Iori was a girl, and her “Prince” persona was something she created, then why had she gone through the trouble of doing so?

Sure, it suited her almost ridiculously well. No actual boy could pull off the “Prince” title as well as she did.

But still, that didn’t mean she had to act like a guy.

My thoughts spun in circles. I had already hit this “why” countless times before, but as I reached it yet again, I suddenly came back to my senses. The bathwater had already gone lukewarm.

“…Thinking about it won’t change anything.”

In the end, only Tachibana Iori could understand her own feelings. The only thing I could do was be there for her if she ever needed help.

After all, I was her mentor.

◆

“Iori-sama is being mean to me because of you, Senpai!”

Yesterday, Ririmu Kobayashi had left in tears, but she seemed to have recovered enough to complain to me today. The moment she saw me, she hit me with those words.

“Is that so?”

Tachibana Iori was off today. Apparently, Suzakura High School students kept track of her shift schedule, and whenever she wasn’t working, the number of customers tended to drop. Even so, there were still regulars who had grown attached to the café. It looked like today would be a slow shift.

“It’s true! She’s super nice when it’s just the two of us!”

“I can believe that.”

Tachibana Iori was incredibly kind to girls. Up until now, I had never thought too deeply about it, assuming that was just how “Princes” were. But now, I found myself overanalyzing everything.

“Senpai, you better not get the wrong idea because of yesterday!”

Ririmu Kobayashi said while running a lint roller over her maid uniform. She was probably referring to how Tachibana Iori had leaned on me yesterday.

“Iori-sama is our ‘Prince of Suzakura,’ after all!”

…Maybe Tachibana Iori was lonely.

That thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Nobody, not a single person, thought of Tachibana Iori as a girl. She lived in a world where that was simply the reality.

“…I don’t know.”

“Huh?”

“Good morning, everyone. Let’s start the morning meeting.”

Just as I was about to say something I probably shouldn’t have, the manager emerged from the kitchen. A glance at the clock showed it was 4:55 PM—time for the morning briefing.

“Iori… is off today, huh? It’s gonna be slow, so take the time to train Ririmu properly.”

“Eek!?”

Ririmu Kobayashi paled. She was still a bit shaky with the register and expediting, so today would be a good opportunity to focus on those.

◆

As we stepped into the kitchen, the bell at the entrance rang.

“Ririmu, can you handle seating the customer?”

“I’ll do my best!”

Ririmu Kobayashi hurried off to greet the guest. Meanwhile, I quickly scanned the café to assess the situation. There were seven groups—looked like they had all finished eating. A wave of table clearing was probably coming soon.

“Ah! Iori-sama! You came to visit!?”

At Ririmu Kobayashi’s excited voice, I turned toward the entrance—

And there stood Tachibana Iori, still in her school uniform.