Shoot, I dozed off. Eriko looked up from the desk she"d been resting her head upon.

It was already past eleven at night.

There was no way Rei would call her at this hour. So that would mean the pound cake was hers.

"Hmm."

If she knew it would come to this, she"d have presented it as she drank black tea with her family hours ago. Eating this before sleeping wasn"t especially healthy, anyways.

"That said."

As she stared at the cake in the box, she again questioned if it was actually for her.

She couldn"t shake that feeling that there was a mistake, and wondered if Yoshino-chan had eaten the truffles before Rei could notice. At which point there wasn"t much to be done. Come to think of it, that was easy to imagine.

"But there"s no way to know for sure."

She mumbled, as she flicked the box.

If she really wanted, she could ask Yoshino-chan tomorrow what she received from Rei. And if she"d received truffles&h.e.l.lip; well, nothing changes.

"&h.e.l.lip; Whatever."

No point in fussing over it now. She began to feel stupid for pondering over a cake alone, and decided to eat. At this rate, the fourteenth of February would end.

But a whole pound cake sprinkled with chocolate chips sat imposingly on her desk. She didn"t feel like making the trip to the kitchen to get a knife for cutting it, so she tore bits from it and popped it in her mouth.

"Itadakimasu."

The sweet chocolate chip pound cake was neither truffle nor bitter, but she felt it was better than what you could get at one of those Western confectionary stores.

This is what Yoshino-chan"s liking tastes like.

It was pretty good, so she just mumbled, "Hmm."