CH ss - 5

3 o'clock Snack

Tick, tick, tick, the second hand of the wall clock in the corner of the room turned for some reason.

It was a house with a chimney, the same shape as a pigeon clock, with Pino standing at the left end, Ma-mero at the right end, and Squirrel peeking out of the window where the pigeons came out.

The second hand was dark pink and the numerals brown, but there was a large heart mark above the 12, 3, 9 and 6, which was also peach-coloured but not pale.

(She loves it.)

When Midori found out that there was no clock in this shabby flat, she sent it to us, but it soon became Saki’s favourite because of its lovely design.

She loves pink so much that I was a bit worried about her future, lest she end up wearing a peach-coloured suit and flashing her camera around.

“Mochugu. (Soon.)”

Saki had been lying down and staring at the second hand for a long time, but she couldn’t read the clock yet, so what was she waiting for?

“Umu!”

Saki’s voice made me look at my watch, it was about to be 3pm in 5 minutes.

My little angel’s brow wrinkled up a bit, so I was worried that something might be wrong, so I decided to call out to her.

“Saki, what’s wrong?”

“Mochugu…”

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, it’s snack time!”

“Oh, snack time…”

Jesus, I was worried, but I was glad there was nothing wrong with her.

I haven’t prepared any snacks! What should I do? ×3 (three times.)

Sumire had told me to take good care of myself as I would be modelling, so I thought I’d cut back on the sweets.

But that was my reason, and it had nothing to do with Saki.

If I were to tell her that there would be no snack today, she would be sure to cry.

(Um, is there anything in the fridge?)

“Snack? (What’s today’s snack?)”

“Let me see… haha.”

With my head working at full speed, I recalled the ingredients in the house.

I was thinking of making some shaved ice to eat when it got a bit hot, so I remembered I had some strawberry and melon syrup.

I had soda water in the fridge, so why don’t I make soda? But would Saki be happy with that?

It was not a snack, it was just juice.

(Oh, yes! Yuki brought some ice-cream when we had yakiniku, so let’s have some of that!)

Saki tilted her head, wondering why I didn’t answer right away.

And the expression on her face was beginning to look uneasy.

“Oyachu, nyai? (No snack?)”

“Yes!”

Trying to reassure her as much as possible, I quickly answered Saki’s questions.

“It’s cream soda today.”

“Cream soda?”

“Yes. Saki’s is strawberry-flavored!”

“Yes!”

“I did it.”

Technically, the drink was a strawberry soda and the ice cream was vanilla, so it was not all strawberry, but that wasn’t a big deal.

If you ate it, it was delicious, so the details were trivial.

“I’ll go and make it.”

“Ai!”

I went to the kitchen and prepared two soda glasses, put the strawberry syrup in one and the melon in the other, then poured the soda water over the top.

Then I put ice cream on top, opened the tins I had bought to preserve the food, decorated each cup with cherries and put a straw in it and I was done.

(Come to think of it, this vanilla is Hagen, isn’t it?)

It seemed a shame to use it for cream soda, but I was afraid I would get bogged down thinking about it, so I would leave it at that.

Yes, as long as it tasted good.

“It’s ready.”

“Oh, my goodness!”

“It’s a cream soda.”

“Umu?”

Saki was staring at the red liquid in front of her, wondering if it was the first time she had seen cream soda.

“Bad?”

“Huh? It’s not poisonous! Why not?”

“It’s squishy.”

“Oh, you’re having your first soda.”

“Why?”

Oh, I offered her a strawberry soda and she thought I was poisoning her.

I was sad to be suspected, so I scooped up the red liquid with a spoon and brought it to my mouth.

“Yeah, it’s good.”

“Really? Are you okay?”

“No, I’m fine. If you don’t want it, I’ll just eat it all.”

“No!”

Thinking I was going to eat the whole snack, Saki hurriedly scooped up the ice cream with a spoon and brought it straight to her mouth.

“It’s good!”

“Delicious.”

It was sweet, rich vanilla flavour that melted gently and coolly on the tongue.

With a glass of melon soda, I could eat as much as I liked, as the carbonation washed away the stickiness of the ice cream.

(I’ll have to exercise later.)

Saki kept eating her ice cream, but she got thirsty and sucked a straw for the first time.

She sucked in the strawberry soda with gusto and then blew the soda out of her mouth.

“Chu… chuwa!”

“Did you squeal?”

“It was chu-chu! (It was poison!)”

“That’s not what I said!”

Apparently, her first soda was too stimulating.

After this, Saki was able to take soda in her mouth little by little, but I was left with the scar of being suspected of poisoning her.

[ A/N – I’ll finish the SS episode next. ]