Chapter 72 – Real Cooking

Returning home after an eventful shopping trip, Takei and Akari were ready to make a delicious dinner together.

Since Takei's level of cooking wasn't as good as Akari's, he was relegated to the easier tasks such as cutting and transporting.

They both put on their aprons and tied it for each other.

She looks like a real housewife...

Takei didn't need to imagine Akari as a housewife, since she was already looking like one in front of him.

"Fufufu, what are you looking at?"

Akari looked at Takei with a glint of expectation in her eyes.

She knew exactly what he was thinking, but Akari wanted to tease him a bit.

"Nothing."

Takei briskly denied the obvious tease, and continued tying her apron.

Once they were finished with making sure that their attire was up to par, they began on preparing the ingredients.

Akari would make sure that the noodles were properly boiled and the meat was correctly prepared to be turned into meatballs.

On the other hand, Takei's task was to cut and clean the vegetables and also to begin the pureeing process for the tomato sauce.

As the two got to work on their individual tasks, some idle chatter was made.

"How was school today? Any girls hitting on you?"

"As if."

Takei denied her boisterous claim that he was a playboy. There was no way someone like him would attract any girls.

"Mou... this part of you is good, yet bad at the same time..."

Akari was feeling conflicted about Takei's denseness, but she couldn't do anything about it.

In response to her complaint, Takei decided to change subjects.

"A lot of the chatter at school has finally stopped. Not many people are talking about us anymore."

After the reveal that Takei and Akari were good friends, the school was abuzz with rumors for a very long time.

Only now have the rumors slowly started to dissipate after time was given.

"It doesn't really matter though? It's nice, but I don't care about what other people think. I will choose my own friends."

As expected of the goddess, she was untroubled by what other people thought and only stuck to her ideals.

Takei thought that was an admirable spirit to have, but he believed that it would be too energy consuming to always have an iron wall up around him.

"Anyways, I feel like school is becoming more bearable for me. It's not as monotonous and boring anymore."

Indeed, Takei's life had been a nonstop endless slideshow of scenes that were moving by in a flash.

Nothing had really mattered to him, including school.

He wasn't really absorbing any of the information that he was taught, Takei was just merely regurgitating the information right back out.

Not to mention that he had no friends to hang out with either.

It was truly a pitiful high school life that lacked the rose-colored descriptions that many sources of media depicted it as.

Luckily for him, Akari entered his life and changed everything.

Slowly, the color in his life returned and he finally began to enjoy things again.

School was no longer a place of torment for him, rather it was a place that he felt at peace in. Even though some of the classes were boring, they were tolerable in the grand scheme of things.

Next, Takei finished removing the tops of the tomatoes and placed them into the blender. Akari had told him specifically beforehand which spices to use and how much of it to use.

Using the knowledge given to him, Takei started the blending process and let the tomatoes turn into a semi-paste before dropping in the spices.

A few minutes of blending later, Takei unscrewed the blender top and smiled victoriously at his creation.

Simply, the tomato puree looked perfect. He took a sampling spoon and tasted the puree. Confirming that it tasted amazing, Takei turned to Akari to tell her that he had succeeded.

However, he stopped midway.

Akari was molding the meat into a ball shape and placing it into the baking tray. She was a bit dirty from cutting and cooking.

Nevertheless, Takei felt a strong feeling of attraction towards the person in front of him.

He slowly walked behind her, as if in a trance.

"Takei?"

Akari had noticed that his shadow had gotten considerably closer and was about to turn around, until two large hands wrapped around her waist from behind.

"Takei?!"

The normally restrained Takei seemed to have broken out of his restraints and given in to his urges.

He leaned his chin on Akari's shoulder and whispered into her ears.

"Don't turn around."

"..."

Akari wanted to turn around and confirm if Takei was blushing or not, but he quickly prohibited her from doing it.

Squeezing tighter around her waist, Takei refused to separate from her.

It seemed that Akari felt the same, since she put her own hands over his and tightly gripped them as well.

Lingering in each other's warmth, they both refused to let go.

All of a sudden, Takei's senses returned to normal.

As whimsical as that feeling of desire was, Takei's innate stubbornness brought him back to reality.

Realizing what kind of situation that he was in, Takei let go of Akari and dropped to the ground in a dogeza position.

"I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over for me..."

He felt truly horrible that he had touched Akari without her permission.

It was an appropriate reaction, just for the wrong person.

"I don't mind, rather you should have hugged me longer..."

Akari wanted the warm and tender feeling in her heart to last longer, so she wished for Takei to be more selfish.

Realizing that Akari was being dead serious, Takei's expression grew more stiff.

He was already recoiling from the shame that he felt from remembering his actions from a minute ago, not to add the increasing embarrassment from seeing Akari's satisfied expression.

As a result of this situation, the dinner was eaten in a deafening silence with one party being extremely rigid, while the other party basked in the afterglow.

---

Akari's Final Affection Meter: 30 -> 33%

They're acting like newlyweds cooking for the first time... Wait, how are they not even dating yet?!

Serious-san: It's due to my interference, mwhaha!