It was strange. Even though Miyume had stopped giving much thought to what she wanted long ago, she found words spilling out of her mouth of their own volition, so quickly it felt more like she was merely a mouthpiece for someone else.

"I want to have fun. I want to be happy. I want to be free of constraints and judgement. People look at me like I'm not even here, like all they can see is themselves reflected in me. They're too caught up in their own belief that they know me that they never bother actually getting to know me."

The anger, frustration, misery, and disgust behind Miyume's words were unmistakable. When her thoughts began to stray back to Taue's casual comment about her being a moe-blob, she closed her eyes and simply focused on her breathing until she was able to speak calmly again.

"I'm sorry, Mirai. I didn't mean to dump this all on you so quickly."

Though she seemed to be standing a little taller now than she had before, she also looked more fragile and vulnerable somehow.

"It's been a long time since anybody's asked me what I wanted, I guess," she explained with a barely perceptible edge of shame in her voice.