Things That Change, Things That Don’t

Three days after Nayuta’s discharge, she had gathered with Itsuki, Haruto, Miyako, and Chihiro at Itsuki’s apartment to celebrate her recovery.

The kotatsu table was filled with Chihiro’s cooking. The three adults sat around it enjoying beer, while Nayuta opted for a Calpico and Chihiro had his usual oolong tea. On the menu tonight was fried chicken, hamburg steak, spaghetti with mushrooms, and other classic, easy-on-the-palate foods Nayuta enjoyed. The beer was Vedett Extra Blond, a light, refreshing ale that went great with greasier foods. Chihiro was seated on the side facing the kitchen with Haruto facing him window-side. Miyako sat by the TV, and the spot in front of the bed was taken by Itsuki and Nayuta.

“Um, well, first, I’m sorry to make all of you worry about me,” Nayuta bashfully began. “I’m all better, though, as you can see.”

She was right. The color had returned to her face, and the slightly haggard look from before her hospitalization was gone.

Miyako, Haruto, and Chihiro all greeted her in unison—“Congrats on your discharge!” “Congratulations!” “Congrats!”

“Thank you,” Nayuta replied, bowing slightly as her cheeks reddened a bit. “Now, I also have an announcement for everybody. Itsuki and I have officially agreed to start a new relationship!”

She took Itsuki by the arm, joyfully fidgeting in embarrassment.

“Uh, yeah, we know,” laughed Miyako as she clapped her hands. Haruto and Chihiro joined her—the former out of courtesy, the latter with a slightly pained look on his face.

“Weh-heh-heh… Deh-heh-heh-heh…”

The somewhat tepid reaction was not enough to dampen Nayuta’s spirits. She smiled broadly at them. Itsuki, meanwhile, turned his head away from her a bit, blushing—but at least now he wasn’t swatting Nayuta’s arm away or yelling at her to let go.

Miyako looked at them, a bit forlorn. Haruto was the first to pick up on her emotions, and it saddened him as well. “Okay, well, let’s have a toast!” he said, trying to sound chipper.

“Good idea!” agreed Miyako.

“Okay, Kanikou, you’re the star of the evening, so you do the honors.”

“All right!”

Nayuta took her arm away from Itsuki and raised her glass full of Calpico. The others followed the gesture.

“Well, here’s to our marriage!”

“Wh-who said we were getting married?! We’re not, okay?! Not yet!” Itsuki interrupted, cheeks red. “Uh, here’s to Kanikou getting discharged! Cheers!”

“Nyaaaa…”

Nayuta gleefully clinked glasses with Itsuki, the other three chuckling as they joined in.

“Kahhh! I can’t believe how good your cooking is, Chihiro!”

Nayuta was now busy gleefully chomping her way through it all.

“Thank you very much,” an appreciative Chihiro replied. “But are you sure you can have all this so soon? I wanted the menu to have all your favorite stuff, but…”

None of the dishes on the table were exactly great for one’s digestion, which had Chihiro somewhat concerned.

“Oh, it’s fine! I’m perfectly back to normal health-wise, and I gotta eat a lot if I wanna keep my strength up! This whole thing really taught me about how important your stamina is!”

“Well, don’t forget to eat a lot of veggies, too.”

“Sure thing,” Nayuta eagerly replied, grabbing a celery stick and crunching right into it.

Itsuki recalled Chihiro’s concerns about becoming a third wheel if he continued his frequent visits. “…Keep cooking nutritious stuff for her, okay, Chihiro?”

“S-sure…”

Like a mother regarding her young child, Chihiro nodded as he watched Nayuta continue to stuff her face.

About four-fifths of the way into the food, Haruto spoke up.

“Hey, it’s been a while since all five of us were here together, huh? Wanna play a game?”

“Sounds good,” Itsuki agreed. The other three had no objection.

“What should we play?”

“Hmm…”

Haruto looked up at the room’s board-game shelf, thinking, before his eyes turned toward the bookshelves instead. They rested on a single heavy tome—Kojien, a volume published by Iwanami Shoten that’s considered the definitive dictionary of the Japanese language.

“How about a game of Tahoiya?”

“Ooh…”

“Hmm…”

The competitive fire was already lit in Itsuki’s and Nayuta’s eyes.

“Tahoiya?” Miyako asked, looking at the board-game shelf. “Um, which one is that?”

Haruto stood up and took the dictionary off the bookshelf, placing it on the table. The sixth edition of Kojien included approximately 240,000 words, the most among midsized Japanese dictionaries, which made it the kind of large, blunt weapon of a hardcover book you’d expect a good dictionary to be.

“The dictionary?” Miyako asked, confused.

“Yeah. This is what we use to play Tahoiya.”

As Haruto explained, Tahoiya is a game where players come up with pretend definitions for obscure words, then try to pick the actual definition from the fake entries. It is the Japanese-language version of a game that’s called Fictionary in English; the name “Tahoiya” (which means ‘a cabin used for boar hunting’) stuck in Japan after that word came up in an early-1990’s game show version. (Source: Wikipedia.)

The rules work like this:

You’re free, of course, to use a dictionary besides Kojien, but since the game requires obscure words your average person would never know, going with a definitive volume is always a good bet. In a way, it’s the perfect game for honing the skills any professional novelist needs: knowledge and imagination to guess the right meaning; creativity and writing skill to create definitions that’ll trip up other players; observation skill and intuition so you can figure out what kinds of definitions your competitors will come up with.

“Um,” Miyako said, somewhat irritated, “if this is a game that requires pretty much every skill a novelist needs, I don’t like my chances in it too much…”

“Good point.” Chihiro nodded.

“Okay,” Haruto replied, “then let’s have it so me, Itsuki, and Nayu get only one minute to write a definition. You two get all the time you want. How’s that?”

“All right. I think that’ll work.”

“I’m good with that.”

Miyako and Chihiro accepted the offer. Itsuki and Nayuta looked much less satisfied.

“One minute…?”

“…That’s pretty rough…”

“But I’m not gonna lose… I’m gonna show you the power of an anime-adapted novelist!”

“And I’m not gonna lose either, Itsuki.”

Haruto smiled warmly at the now-enthusiastic pair, and his fighting spirit burned within him as well. “Shall we begin, then? Let’s choose a picker.”

After a quick rock-paper-scissors round, Chihiro got the first shot at it. Ten chips (technically coins borrowed from another board game on the shelf) and answer slips were passed around to everyone, with five larger sheets labeled (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5) placed on the table—the board people placed their bets on.

“Um…”

Chihiro thumbed through the dictionary, deciding on a word.

“…I got it,” he finally said, all eyes upon him. “…Hirokimochii.”

“Uh…hirokimochii?”

Miyako looked lost already. Chihiro had pronounced it with flat intonation. Was it a noun? A verb? A native Japanese word or something from a foreign language? The three novelists, meanwhile, already had their pens in hand, confidence written across their faces.

“You know, I actually majored in hirokimochii in college. I know a ton about it.”

“Yeah, I can’t get enough of that hirokimochii feeling as I go into the bath.”

“I was a big fan of Hiroki Mochii’s work back in the day. I had all his books.”

“Huh? You all know it?” Miyako stared at them. “But you’re all saying different stuff…”

“Of course I do.”

“I totally love it.”

“He’s a household name!”

None of the trio knew what hirokimochii was, of course. They were just pretending in order to confuse the other players—a little off-the-board strategy, if you want to call it that, and another part of the fun.

The writers all had their definitions within a minute, while Miyako took over three before she handed her slip of paper to Chihiro. The picker shuffled the four slips with his own and numbered them.

“Okay, here we go. Number one: The feeling of being comfortable and carefree.”

“…That’s Nayu, isn’t it?” accused Miyako.

“Well, who knows?” Nayu deadpanned.

“Number two: A Russian composer.”

“Ooh, I could imagine a name like that from a foreign country!” Miyako said.

“There’s our first name,” chuckled Haruto.

“Way too simple,” Itsuki added.

“Huh?”

“Saying it’s a composer or philosopher or scientist from one country or another is a standard response in Tahoiya,” Haruto explained to Miyako. “You get a lot of place names and exotic dishes.”

“Ohh, I see…”

“Number three,” Chihiro continued, “A piece of mochi rice cake stretched out very far.”

“Wide mochi?” Itsuki couldn’t help but smile. “That’s ‘hiroi mochi’—the word itself. It’s hard to get ‘mochii’ from that.”

“Number four: An Italian school of thoughtful enlightenment.”

“That’s gotta be Prince Manwhore.”

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” Haruto said, brushing Nayuta off.

“And number five: An ancient Greek institution.”

“Schools of thought and institutions…” Itsuki pondered a moment. “We got some overlap. If both of those could’ve come from Haruto, does that mean one of them’s right…?”

“I’m sorry,” Miyako said. “Can you read them again?”

“Sure. Number one: The feeling of being comfortable and carefree. Number two: A Russian composer. Number three: A piece of mochi rice cake stretched out very far. Number four: An Italian school of thoughtful enlightenment. Number five: An ancient Greek institution.”

“Hmm.” “Uhhh…” “Nyaaaa…” “Oh man, I have no idea… They all sound kinda right…”

The four of them thought it over. (Feel free to join them right now, if you want.)

“…Okay, place your bets on the one you think is right, on three. One, two, three.”

All four players sprang into action. Up to three chips could be bet at once, but everyone went with just one this time—Itsuki on #4, Haruto on #1, Nayuta #4, and Miyako #2.

“All right. The correct answer is…number three, a piece of mochi rice stretched out.”

“Wh-wha—?!”

“No way…”

“Ee-hee-hee…” Chihiro chuckled bashfully. “I guess it’s what we refer to as noshi-mochi today, those flattened rectangles of mochi.”

“Yeah, but mochii? With a long ‘i’?’” Itsuki sounded unconvinced.

“Wow, the picker’s the only winner this round. Good job, Chihiro,” Haruto said, impressed.

Since nobody got it right, all four players gave Chihiro a chip, then passed out their bets to the other players.

“I’m number four,” Haruto announced, accepting his two chips.

“I’m number one.”

“And I’m number two.”

Nayuta and Itsuki each gained one chip for themselves.

“Itsuki,” Miyako asked, “didn’t you say number two was ‘too simple’ when he read it out?”

“Hmph. Psychological warfare is the name of the game.”

“Well, you sure tricked me, Itsuki…”

Itsuki gave his peeved friend a bold smile in reply.

Once the chips were passed around, the next turn began. Next up in the clockwise order was Itsuki, who stared intently at the Kojien.

“Okay, here’s the word… Resshingu.”

“R-resshingu?”

“Think it’s got to do with dressing?”

“I had some just the other day. Real mellow, with a lot of body. It goes well with ham, I think.”

“Ohh, that, huh? That was kind of a fad in class for a while. We played it so much, the teacher banned it.”

Miyako and Chihiro made their confusion clear to the room, while Nayuta and Haruto played dumb as they wrote down their would-be definitions. Once they were done, Itsuki collected the slips.

“Number one: When an animal’s hair bristles up and stands on end.”

“Oh, that sounds right!” exclaimed Miyako.

“Number two: A dramatist and critic from the German Enlightenment.”

“Another name!”

“Number three: The act of breaking in a piece of machinery.”

“Ohhh, that sounds right, too…” Miyako’s eyebrows shot downward.

“Yeah,” Haruto agreed. “There’s that ‘-ing’ suffix. It sounds kinda like a verb.”

“Number four: A low-class type of bedding.”

“…Bedding? Oh!”

This was a simple combination of retsu (low-class) and shingu (bedding).

“That sounds kind of farfetched to me.” Haruto laughed. “But this is the sort of thing that winds up being right a lot…”

“Number five: Salad dressing.”

“That’s almost refreshingly straightforward!”

“…You think that was Chihiro?”

Haruto laughed again, while Nayuta recalled what Chihiro said when Itsuki read out the word.

“It—it’s not me! I would try to come up with something better than that!”

“So…”

The three other players looked at Miyako. “Uh, no?” she replied, her face reddening as she stared off in another direction.

“You don’t have a time limit, Myaa,” Nayuta gently said. “You can take all the time you want to come up with something.”

Miyako hung her head. “Nghh… Yeah…”

“Okay, time to bet. One, two…”

The chips began to fly. Haruto put two on #1, Nayuta one on #2, Miyako one on #4, and Chihiro one on #3.

“Okay. The correct answer is…” Itsuki paused, apparently pained. “Number two, a dramatist and critic from the German Enlightenment. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, to be exact.”

“Whoo-hoo!” shouted Nayuta, the only correct player. “You wrote a person’s name for the last question, so I thought you’d go with a name for the correct answer this time.”

“Oof, you knew exactly what I was up to…”

Itsuki’s tactic here was to implant the thought in players’ minds that a “person name” definition was a cheap escape of a move, then actually choose a name-based word to keep them from picking it.

“Hee-hee-hee! I know exactly how your mind works, Itsuki. After all, I’m your girrrrrlfriend.”

“…!”

Having Nayuta sidle up to him with that honey-tinged voice made Itsuki blush, but again, he didn’t deny it now.

“Guys, can you make out on your own time?” Haruto curtly replied. Miyako and Chihiro nodded their agreement.

“Um, by the way, number one was Chihiro, number three was Haruto, and number four was Kanikou. Miyako’s was the salad dressing.”

“Aw, at least say my number, too!” Miyako protested.

Haruto and Chihiro exchanged smiles.

“I guess you and I were thinking along similar lines, Chihiro. We canceled each other out.”

“I guess so. I thought it was good, but…”

“Okay, I’m the next picker,” Nayuta said as she grabbed for the dictionary. “Mm… ‘Picker’ is fine, but being a ‘licker’ would be even better, ee-hee-hee…hee-hee-hee…nyeee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee…”

Something about her own pun made Nayuta start giggling excessively.

“It is way too early for that,” Itsuki protested, face a deep shade of red.

The word that Nayuta picked was:

“Sasekkusu.”

“S-sase…?! That doesn’t mean anything weird, does it? It’s got ‘sex’ right in it!” Miyako flailed.

“I dunno. You tell me.” Nayuta impishly smiled. “Maybe it means letting someone have sex with you, Myaa!”

“I—I wasn’t imagining that!” Miyako half shouted, blushing the whole way.

Once the responses were turned in, Nayuta began reading the definitions.

“Um, number one: A county in the western United Kingdom.”

“Place names show up a lot,” Haruto reminded the team.

“Number two: An American tire maker.”

“Sounds plausible,” Chihiro said.

“Number three: A British city.”

“More UK stuff!”

“Number four: A region in southeastern England.”

“Oh, now it’s England?!” Itsuki yelled. “That can’t be a coincidence!”

“Number five: The Latin word for ‘six.’”

“Ohh, I like that one,” mused Haruto.

“Can you repeat those real quick?” Chihiro asked.

“Number one, A county in the western United Kingdom. Number two, An American tire maker. Number three, A British city. Number four, A region in southeastern England. Number five, The Latin word for ‘six.’”

Nayuta grinned at the group of troubled players before her.

“Now place your bets. One, two…”

Itsuki placed one on #1, Haruto three on #4, Miyako one on #1, and Chihiro two on #4. Nayuta scrunched up her nose as she watched them.

“Well, the correct answer is number four.”

“Yes!”

“Nice!”

“That’s so mean.” Nayuta groaned. Not only did people get it right; Haruto and Chihiro both bet multiple chips on it, so she had to give up five chips.

“You know,” reflected Miyako, “now that I think of it, I think I’ve heard of the University of Sussex before. I wrote number three, so I figured it was one or four… How come none of you bet on three?”

“Ah, I just thought number three was written a little too simply to be a dictionary definition. I wrote number one—I’m borrowing a lot from Arthurian legend for my own series, so I did a lot of research on the UK a while back, and I’m pretty sure that name came up.”

Itsuki winced at Haruto. “And if it wasn’t number one, it had to be three or four for you, right? That’s how you could bet three chips on your pick. I was wavering between one and four myself, but…oof. I did number five, by the way.”

“Latin for ‘six?’ That sounds plausible, but the word is actually just ‘sex,’ so…”

“You knew?!”

Even if you didn’t know the meaning, you could always use your own knowledge to narrow down the options. This turn was in the bag for Haruto from the beginning.

The next picker was Haruto.

“All right. Here we go: Herutsuru.”

“Mmm… Again, no idea… Is that Japanese…?”

Miyako looked distressed—as she should, since her four chips put her firmly in last place. In order, the standings were: Chihiro (16), Haruto (13), Itsuki (9), Nayuta (8), and Miyako (4).

“Well,” Itsuki murmured, “I’m gonna have to get serious, or I’ll never make a comeback…”

“Same…,” Nayuta replied.

“That’s all of them… Okay, number one: A Polish doctor.”

“And our first name,” Itsuki said, scowling. “It does sound kinda like Pasteur…”

“Number two: A sauce made from flying fish.”

“Flying fish?”

“Yeah. It’s not unheard of to see them used in Japanese cuisine,” Chihiro explained to Miyako.

“Ooh, yeah, Japan has lots of fish sauces,” Itsuki added. “Shottsuru from Akita, for example. It’s good.”

“Number three: An Austrian journalist.”

“Another name… Hmm…,” Nayuta mused.

“If you ask me,” Itsuki whispered back, “you’re more likely to see a doctor in the dictionary than a journalist.”

“Number four: A type of traditional Norwegian cuisine.”

“And another cooking term,” Chihiro said, smiling. Having the highest stack of chips helped him relax a bit.

“Number five…” Haruto paused to chuckle a bit. “…Oh man. Number five: One of the tools of hell.”

“Pfft!”

“A hell-tool? That sounds like something a grade-schooler would add to his pretend role-playing game.” Nayuta laughed as she looked toward Miyako with sympathy. “Myaa, it’s not really sporting to throw the game just because you’re losing.”

“Why are you so sure I wrote that?!”

“…I didn’t think you’d do something so silly,” Chihiro added, also a bit disappointed.

“You too, Chihiro?! Again, why are you branding that as mine?!”

“All right,” Haruto said, ignoring Miyako’s protests. “Time to start betting. Number one, A Polish doctor. Number two, A sauce made from flying fish. Number three, An Austrian journalist. Number four, A type of traditional Norwegian cuisine. And number five, One of the tools of hell.”

The chips were cast. Itsuki put three on #2, Chihiro two on #1, Nayuta three on #3, and Miyako one on #1.

“The correct answer is…”

Haruto took a deep breath…

“Number three! Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl!”

“Wooo!”

“Nooo!”

Nayuta squealed as her big bet paid off, and Itsuki screamed as his did not.

“You got me,” Haruto sighed as he paid three chips to Nayuta, accepting one each from the other three players before announcing the other definitions.

“Number one was Nayu, number two Chihiro, Number four Miyako, and number five Itsuki.”

“Oh?”

Nayuta and Chihiro’s eyebrows perked up.

“Number five…”

“You wrote ‘the tools of hell,’ Itsuki?!”

Itsuki scrunched up his face. “…I was so focused on figuring out a way to come back that I ran out of time to think of an answer.”

“Aha! See? I told you it wasn’t me!” The rage was clear in Miyako’s voice.

Nayuta awkwardly averted her eyes. “Anyone can make mistakes.”

“Well, I believed in you. I knew you’d never give up until the end,” Chihiro warmly said, giving Miyako a soft smile.

Miyako just stared back at him.

This changed the standings to: Chihiro (16), Nayuta (14), Haruto (13), Itsuki (5), and Miyako (2).

“So between me, Nayu, and Chihiro, whoever wins in the last turn wins it all, huh…?”

“Um,” a concerned-looking Miyako said, “I’m the last picker, but I only have two chips… What if I don’t have enough to give out to people?”

“…Oh yeah, what does happen? Lemme check real quick.”

Haruto did a quick check on the rules of Tahoiya with his phone.

“Hmm… Wikipedia doesn’t have anything to say about that…but back in the ’90s game show version, if you ran out of chips, you could pawn things in your possession for more chips… Kind of a jokey thing.”

“Things in my possession?!”

“Ah, so I can get Myaa’s panties if I guess right this turn?”

Miyako blushed. “Why my panties, Nayu?!”

“If a college girl needs to pawn something, that’s the standard, isn’t it?”

“It is?!”

“I’ll want a photo, too, please.”

“……Miyako’s panties, huh?” Haruto nervously gulped. Now he was more into the competition than ever. “Nayu, Chihiro… I’m gonna do whatever it takes to win this.”

“What are you saying, Fuwa?!” Miyako cried.

“And I’m going to get Miyako’s panties… Photo included!”

“Why are you throwing down the gauntlet on this?” Itsuki groaned.

“Huh?” Chihiro turned to Haruto. “Um… wait, Fuwa, do you have a thing for…?”

“Yeah,” Haruto said, face a little red but voice resolute. “I love her. She said no, but…”

“F-Fuwa…!” Miyako grew even redder.

“W-wait, you do?!” Nayuta’s eyes opened wide, glancing alternately at Miyako, then Haruto. “…I had no idea Prince Manwhore already sank his poisoned fangs into Myaa…!”

“I didn’t, okay?! She turned me down!”

Nayuta’s face hardened as Miyako fell into more of a panic.

“…I could never allow Prince Manwhore to receive Myaa’s panties. This competition is mine.”

“I can’t afford to lose this, not even to you, Nayu. I need those panties…!”

“Ugh! Again, why am I pawning off my panties?!” Miyako shouted, but it fell on deaf ears.

“…Can we just get started?” Itsuki, who was out of the game and had no interest in Miyako’s panties, reminded them to keep things going.

Reluctantly, Miyako opened up the Kojien dictionary.

“Hmm… Let’s go with this.”

After a sizable amount of time, she gave them the word, betraying little confidence in her choice.

“Shahyoushin.”

“Oh, shahyoushin, huh? I had that a little while ago,” Itsuki casually offered.

Haruto and Nayuta, meanwhile, were in no mood for chitchat, eyes deadly serious as they thought up their definitions. Chihiro, a bit turned off by them both, contemplated his own path to victory.

The three of them were neck and neck. Sealing the deal involved both guessing the right meaning and extracting as many chips as possible from other players.

At long last…

“Okay, I’ll read them. One, A female Chinese writer.”

“A name?” Haruto said, lost in thought. “It does sound kinda Chinese…”

“Two, A needle used to keep artificial flowers in place.”

“Shin…or ‘needle’…”

“Do they use needles for that stuff?” a quizzical Chihiro asked.

“I dunno,” Haruto thoughtfully replied with a groan. “I dunno, but that makes it sound all the more likely…!”

“Um, three, The desire to obtain fortune without hardship.”

“Isn’t that shakoushin?” Haruto interjected.

“It could be another word with the same meaning,” Nayuta said, turning toward Itsuki. “If not, it sounds like someone who’s being a sore loser right now…”

Itsuki feigned great interest in the ceiling, innocently humming.

“Four, Medical evaluation using photographs.”

“Ohhh, shin meaning ‘evaluation’ here…”

“Hmm… That kind of jargon sounds real to me…”

Haruto and Nayuta sized each other up as they spoke.

“Five, A Buddhist term meaning a heart that has thrown off earthly bonds and has almost approached enlightenment.”

Chihiro raised his eyebrows, honestly impressed. “Oh, that sounds really plausible…!”

“Yeah,” replied Haruto. “If you told me that was a Buddhist thing, I’d totally believe it.”

Nayuta was less convinced. “Hmm, but don’t you think it’s too oddly specific?”

“I could narrow it down to a few things, but… Can you read them again, Miyako?”

“All right,” Miyako said to Haruto. “One, A female Chinese writer. Two, A needle used to keep artificial flowers in place. Three, The desire to obtain fortune without hardship. Four, Medical evaluation using photographs. Five, A Buddhist term meaning a heart that has thrown off earthly bonds and has almost approached enlightenment.”

“Hmm…”

“Okay, time for your bets. One, two…”

The four players laid down their chips—three on #1 for Itsuki, three on #2 for Haruto, three on #4 for Nayuta, and one on #5 for Chihiro.

“Split opinions,” a nervous-sounding Nayuta observed.

“Yeah… It’d be hilarious if it was number three after all this, but I’m sure it’s not.”

“Right… Now for the answers. First, the correct response was number one, the Chinese author [called Xie Bingxin in English].”

“Wha…?!”

“Nyaaaa!”

“Ahh…”

“Oh?”

Three of the players looked chagrined. Itsuki, the only correct guesser, was merely surprised.

“…Well, so much for pawning my panties, huh?” announced Miyako, visibly relieved as she accepted a chip from each of the three losers and paid three to Itsuki. This left her safely with two chips at the end of the game.

“Aww… Well, I didn’t get the panties, but the game isn’t over yet.”

“Nope. Who wrote the fake definitions?” Nayuta asked, hurrying Miyako along. Since neither of them seized any chips from Miyako, the battle would be decided on who guessed whose entries.

“Um, number two is Nayu, number three is Itsuki, number four is Chihiro, and number five is Fuwa.”

Based on this, everyone tabulated their scores.

First, since nobody guessed Itsuki’s answer, he finished with eight chips. Nayuta paid three chips to Chihiro and received three from Haruto, ending with thirteen. Haruto paid three to Nayuta and received one from Chihiro, ending with ten. Finally, Chihiro paid one chip to Haruto and received three from Nayuta, ending with seventeen.

“I won, huh?” Chihiro bashfully said.

“Congrats!” Itsuki said, joining the rest in a round of applause.

“Great job,” Miyako marveled. “You beat three published authors!”

“Oh, it was just luck,” he modestly replied. “They had a handicap, too.”

“Yeah.” Miyako smiled ruefully. “But I still totally blew it…”

“Ah…” Chihiro gave her an awkward look.

“I guess that means that you’re the best out of all of us at tricking people,” said Itsuki.

“Oh, no way,” a flustered Chihiro replied.

“Awww, Chihiro sure got me in the end, too… I’d hope for nothing less from my future brother-in-law…”

Chihiro attempted to deny this but stayed silent, realizing this future was actually kind of possible. The thought gave him mixed feelings.

“…You’d be my sister-in-law, Kani…?”

“Whoa, Chihiro! That’s not gonna be the future for a while!”

“Aww. Personally, I’d be happy to get married tomorrow.” Nayuta pouted, but her eyes were laughing at them.

“You’re going too fast! I just wanna enjoy the relationship we have right now—I mean… Ugh, forget it!”

There they all were—a reddened Itsuki; a happy-looking Nayuta; Miyako smiling with sadness in her eyes; and Haruto, looking at Miyako and sighing slightly. They had been hanging out here like always, eating and drinking and playing games—but something had also clearly changed. Something had changed, and all five of them realized it.