Teio had no idea where to run.

It was probably the first time Teio felt such gripping anxiety in all her life. Even struggling to thank McQueen back then didn't make her overthink this much. There was a very different sense of urgency, she thought, when the crises you faced came after you've grown up. Even when the problems were more or less the same.

Well, okay, not exactly more or less the same, maybe. There was a very real thing at stake this time around, and Teio's hands were tied.

Even Nature noticed that something was wrong. Which was impressive, since Teio was pretty sure she didn't particularly groan or anything. "Teio? What's wrong?"

The frigid air was making it clear that the weather forecasts had been true, and that it would continue to be so—no mere White Christmas this year, but something harsher. Shouldn't everyone be more worried about that? Why was the climate changing? What were the leaders of the world doing?

Instead, Teio was slumped over something as simple as a text message from her best friend.

Best friend, huh….

In fact, at this point, Teio was somewhat afraid of calling their relationship as such. She knew right away that something had changed since the moment they held the housewarming party, but she didn't expect the effects to reach so far. Wait, it's not even that far into the future yet. The heck was she thinking?

"Aargh…." Teio scratched her own head and groaned. "I dunno…."

Worst of all, Teio had no idea who to talk to this time. Back then, she could profess everything to Spe, and their outing was what led her to understanding what she had to do. Right now, the only person Teio could rely on was her own self, because she knew that one wrong move could end everything. What would happen if she tried to rely on somebody else?

How did it come to be this way?

Nature was clearly trying her best to cheer Teio up, because her housewife mode was in overdrive. She'd hogged the kitchen for only the Three Goddesses know how many hours now, and she'd been pumping out numerous honey-based sweets like a one-man factory. It was almost like she was desperately trying every trick in the book just to make Teio smile again.

"I'm not going to force you to tell me what happened," Nature said. "But when you feel like talking, I promise I'm all ears. So let me care about you, okay? We're—we're flatmates, after all."

Teio caught the little hesitation at the end of Nature's sentence, but her mind was too preoccupied at the moment to draw any conclusions in that regard.

Everything began when Teio realized that something was missing ever since she moved in with Nature, and around a month later, the answer was plenty clear: she no longer got to see McQueen face to face as often as they did. Back in her old apartment, McQueen would just come visit with an almost reckless abandon—so much so that Teio knew she'd troubled Dictus numerous times to help get McQueen back home safely.

But Teio realized McQueen was acting strangely distant during her housewarming—which was odd to begin with, since Teio was sure that nothing about McQueen's behavior in particular felt off—but her suspicions were confirmed after weeks passed.

McQueen had not come at all.

Conversely, she was very actively replying to Teio online. None of her chats got abandoned, not once. Her replies had also come a lot faster than they did in the past.

It was to the point that Teio even wondered if everything was okay with McQueen at work, because it almost seemed like McQueen spent virtually all of her time replying to Teio.

Much like her absence, that had never happened before. McQueen was almost always the busier between the two, and it wasn't like they particularly promised to reply quickly to each other, either. They knew the other had a life they had to live and keep afloat. They knew they couldn't intrude each other's spaces like that.

If anything, that very knowledge was the reason they never managed to actually talk about moving in together.

Everything peaked with McQueen's text, which came just last night, containing just a simple sentence: I do not want to lose you, Teio.

Where did that come from?

Why did she say that?

Why now?

Teio simply nodded to Nature, who spent the rest of her time there just hugging and patting Teio in silence. Teio decided to give Nature's sweets a try. It was delicious, but she was feeling a little too numb to fully enjoy the numerous sweets staring at her in the face.

Now what?

*

Scarlet's call came at Christmas night.

"Merry Christmas," she said.

"Merry Christmas," Teio said right back. "So, what happened with Vodka?"

"Wha—nothing happened with Vodka!" Scarlet quickly replied. "Even the person in question is here!"

"I am," Vodka's voice joined the conversation.

"So what's the occasion? Are we throwing a Christmas party?"

"With the heavy snowing? Best we can do is online," Scarlet said. "But never mind that, I'm calling about something else right now. Is Nature-san there?"

"No, she's," Teio looked around and heard Nature's soft hum from the bathroom, "bathing right now. What's up?"

"Good, I need to talk this out with you alone," Daiwa said. "Nature-san called us yesterday night."

"Oh? She did?"

"Well, not us directly. She went to call Tannhäuser-san, and she apparently directed her to us."

Huh. Now that's curious. "And why was that?"

"Because she needed someone from Team Spica to help," Scarlet said. "Suzuka-senpai clearly lives on a different time zone, Spe-senpai is busy studying to apply for her Master's, and Gold Ship-san is … well, I don't think she's had much free time as of late."

"Uh-huh," Teio responded. "So she went to you guys?"

"Yeah."

Teio was tempted to add, "Instead of McQueen?" but she refrained. "Alright, then. What did she want you to help her with?"

"You, Teio-san," Scarlet said. "She wanted us to help you."

"Eh?"

"She told us you've been out of sorts," Scarlet said. "And that you've been on edge for, like, a day now. What happened?"

Oh no. "N-nothing happened!"

"Really?"

"Really!"

"Really, really?"

"Really, really! If anything happened, you girls would know, right?"

There was silence on the other end for a while. "Senpai, even we can tell that you're under a lotta pressure right now," Vodka said. "It's clear as heck from your voice."

"Eeh? What pressure though?"

Teio laughed nervously, but Scarlet only sighed. "Senpai, if you can't tell us, that's okay," she said. "But do you think you can tell Nature-san?"

Teio had no reply for that. Could she? "I … honestly don't know."

"Force yourself to," Scarlet said commandingly. "Senpai, I don't know how we can help, but we want to. Truly. But if you can't tell us what's wrong, there's somebody there who also wanted to help you. If nothing else, she could at least share your burdens with you. I'm sure she'd be happy to."

"I can't trouble her more than I already have."

"Senpai," Vodka interjected. "She asked for it. That's what she literally told us."

"She what?"

"She told us to tell you that she wouldn't be troubled," Scarlet replied. "If anything, she said she'd be happy to. She really wanted to help you, Senpai. And … can't you at least trust your own flatmate?"

Trust, huh. Teio was sure she'd had this conversation with Nature before. She remembered feeling bad about Nature adjusting to her, and she remembered Nature telling her that she truly didn't mind.

She didn't know Nature would go this far, though.

"Alright, then," Teio said, with slight hesitation. "I'll … I'll talk to her."

"Good," Scarlet said. "Please be sure to, okay?"

"Okay."

"Yosh, that should be it, then," Scarlet said. "Once again, Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas."

The call was cut. Teio still couldn't make heads from tails, but then she heard the bathroom door open. Nature came into the room still wrapped in her towel, drying her hair. She beamed up a little when she saw Teio.

"Teio? What's up?"

Teio judged a little bit in her heart before deciding that, maybe, telling Nature wouldn't be such a bad idea, after all.