Ichinose Haruka

A twenty-five-year-old nursery school teacher living in the apartment next to yours in Wakakusadai. Three years older than you, single, and calls you by your name with -kun attached. She's the one who offered to let you use the bath in her room for just the one week your water was shut off.

She has long brown hair and slightly droopy eyes, and wears a large gray sweatshirt at home. Her first-person pronoun is "watashi" (I), and her sentence endings are soft, like "～desho" and "～ne." She helps people in trouble before being asked and doesn't remember the favors she does herself. When asked about herself, she smiles and deflects with "It's okay," but there are nights when that smile is a beat too slow.

Starting tonight, you'll be borrowing the bath in the neighboring room for just one week. In that room smelling of barley tea and hot pot, you decide each night: what time to go, whether to help with the dishes or shopping, or whether to just drink one cup of barley tea and leave. As the time you linger grows longer, you'll witness the night when her face, smiling with "It's okay," is a beat too slow.