Nozomi laughs, but it doesn't sound believable even to her own ears. "Don't be silly!" she responds, forcibly injecting chipperness into her tone. "It's just a song. I made Umi-chan write it because I thought it'd be funny, remember? Everyone knows it doesn't really have anything to do with us."

Just voicing the words feels like pulling teeth, and the edges of her mouth are starting to hurt from all this smiling. The corners of her eyes, too, have an odd strain tugging at them.