"Why aren't you eating dinner?" Taira Sakurako feigned ignorance. She had a natural buff for acting clueless, doubling the credibility of her act.

"Not in the mood to eat." Fushimi Roku turned over, with his back to Taira Sakurako, lying on his side on the tatami.

"What's wrong? Weren't you quite happy this morning?" Taira Sakurako asked.

Upon hearing this, Fushimi Roku suddenly sat up. He was in a stage of overthinking and suspicion. When he heard Taira Sakurako's question, he immediately thought of what she had said at noon, 'What if Tamako suddenly regains her senses? Once she realizes you're a lousy boyfriend, you're done for...'

"Did Tamako say something to you?" Fushimi Roku asked suspiciously.

So, the signs of a breakup were there all along, and he just hadn't noticed.

"Say what?" Taira Sakurako found it baffling, not knowing why Fushimi Roku suddenly pointed the finger at her.

"Didn't Tamako tell you she was planning to break up?" Fushimi Roku sat up and pressed on, "Of course, I don't really care about this kind of thing. Romantic relationships aren't a necessity in life. Even if we break up, we can still be friends. My life doesn't fall apart without her..."

He rambled a lot and then asked again, "Did Tamako ever mention wanting to break up?"

Taira Sakurako thought carefully and said, "Not at all."

The smarter the person, the easier it is for them to doubt. Fushimi Roku squinted and questioned, "Then why did you pause for a few seconds?"

Taira Sakurako felt that if this guy went through a breakup, it might not be good: "Because I was recalling."

Fushimi Roku tried to win Taira Sakurako over: "Think carefully, she broke up with me without taking you. This means you're not family to her, and eventually, you'll still need to live with me. I suggest you better tell me the truth and don't side with outsiders at this point."

Taira Sakurako finally understood what was going on: "Did Tamako break up with you? She never mentioned it to me."

Fushimi Roku wanted to judge from Taira Sakurako's micro-expressions to see if she was lying, but unfortunately, Taira Sakurako was a poker face, and it was physiological facial paralysis without any expressions at all. Looking was in vain; he was utterly at a loss.

"Are you sure?" Fushimi Roku was still a bit unwilling: "Get your camcorder out, and let me check the old videos."

"Alright."

Taira Sakurako also knew this wasn't the time to be stingy. She went back to her room to get the camcorder and a small box of memory cards for Fushimi Roku to go through.

Fushimi Roku began watching from the daily logs of a week ago at seven times speed, with Taira Sakurako inside the footage moving comically around the room like teleporting.

Whenever Minamoto Tamako appeared in the frame, Fushimi Roku would immediately slow it down to two times speed to hear Minamoto Tamako complain that 'Mr. Deer didn't do the dishes again,' 'I haven't used the stamp today,' 'Writing reports is so tiring'... There were also many positive things like 'We're going back to Hokkaido soon,' 'Mr. Deer is actually pretty good-looking, I can show him off a bit,' 'Unagi rice is really delicious'...

Fushimi Roku stared blankly at the recording, with the cold light from the screen reflected on his face.

After over four hours, he finished all the footage, and Minamoto Tamako indeed hadn't mentioned wanting to break up—but she did complain about his various shortcomings.

Fushimi Roku had never cared about his shortcomings, nor had he ever paid attention to Minamoto Tamako's troubles.

For instance, when it came to household chores, Fushimi Roku always outsourced them to Minamoto Tamako and Taira Sakurako. Most of the time, it was actually Minamoto Tamako doing them.

She would come home exhausted after a day of work, and the first thing she did upon entering was not lie on the couch to rest but to clean the shoe cabinet and the entranceway dust.

This wasn't all. She had to sweep the floor, mop, organize the coffee table, clean the dishwashing area, deal with kitchen waste, and clean the toilets every now and then or clear hair from the pipes...

Taira Sakurako recorded it all.

Sometimes, Minamoto Tamako would sit on a small stool, bent over sorting trash for one or two hours straight. When she stood up, she'd hold her waist, stretching her arms with an audible snap of her bones;

Sometimes, Minamoto Tamako would wear rubber gloves, holding a toilet brush, bending over to scrub the urine stains with no disdain for dirtiness or exhaustion, using cleaner to make the toilet shine;

Other times, Minamoto Tamako would pull out clothes washed by the machine and scrub the collars and stains again herself, chatting with Taira Sakurako complaining, 'Why does the team leader have to serve the team members...'

Occasionally, Taira Sakurako would help out, like dusting, moving boxes, or sorting garbage, and the two would sit side by side in front of the camera, busy with their hands.

After watching, Fushimi Roku felt a block in his chest.

No matter how much he sighed, it didn't relieve it even a bit. His heart felt like a stone was pressing on it, beating with extra weight.

"See," Taira Sakurako said, "She really didn't mention breaking up."

Fushimi Roku didn't reply, finding the remark a bit harsh. He put down the camcorder, lying on his back on the tatami in silence.

Taira Sakurako put away the camcorder and memory cards, inserted the card again, set the camcorder in the corner, aimed it at Fushimi Roku, secretly pressed record, then went back to Fushimi Roku, asking, "Did she really tell you she wanted to break up? It wasn't just an outburst?"

"Turn it off," Fushimi Roku said.

Her little trick exposed, Taira Sakurako had no choice but to obediently turn off the camcorder. She planned to rely on banknotes to record later, so she returned next to Fushimi Roku, repeating her question from earlier.

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