CH 35

After retreating to the kitchen, I begin to prepare the food that has been ordered. All of them are dishes that have been added to the menu since I started working here as a part-timer.

Ayako-san is always adding new dishes to the menu, taking advantage of the fact that I can cook anything she wants.

During bar hours, she even tries to get me to make snacks.

“Thank you for your patience.”

After I finished cooking, I brought the food and drinks to Suika’s table.

It was supposed to be Ayako san who was supposed to carry the food, but for some reason, I couldn’t find her. I guess I’ll have to talk to her later.

“Oh~~~~, this looks so good!

“Did you make this, Arase-kun?”

“Oh, well, yes ……”

“Oh, boyfriend kun made this?! He can even make pancakes!”

“I told you he’s not my boyfriend.”

“Yes, that’s right, Natsu! Someone like Suika should not be with Arase-kun!”

“Tahaha I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I just remembered what happened before!”

The previous incident must have been when I took Suika to the infirmary on a piggyback ride.

The girl sitting next to Suika, called Natsu – Okai Natsumi, is a sophomore and the same age as Suika. Like Suika, she belongs to the girls’ basketball club.

For goodness sake, I wish she would stop treating me as her boyfriend. I don’t mind, but I don’t think Suika would have a good feeling about it.

“I mean, come on, let’s eat!”

“I’m starving after all the club activities!”

“Arase-kun made these pancakes, so I have high expectations!”

This is why I don’t like it when guys from the same school come over. I don’t like it when people have strange expectations of me. It’s ordinary.

“Well, …… it looks normal……”

“I know, right?”

And the two boys sitting in front of Suika and the others …… probably from the men’s basketball team, but they don’t seem to have a good impression of me.

I don’t want to be expected to do too much, but I also don’t want to have a half-hearted reaction from the person who made it. I think it’s a pain in the ass for me.

Well, it doesn’t matter.

“Well, take your time.”

I went back to the kitchen.

When I returned to the kitchen, the phone in my pocket vibrated.

I took out my phone to see who it was and saw “Kurase” on the screen.

◆

My legs were feeling much better, and I had returned to club activities.

After club activities, Natsu and I were talking about stopping somewhere to go home when Kosaka and Machida from the men’s basketball team approached us.

Today, two sides of the gym were available for practice in the afternoon, and one side was scheduled to be used by the girls and the other by the boys.

So, since the end of club activities also coincided with the end of the day, we decided to go somewhere together.

Even though the boys and girls are separated, they are still classmates who play the same ball game. They are not bad friends. Sometimes, like today, they go out somewhere after club activities, and they often talk at school. Or rather, Machida is in the same class.

When we were talking about where to go, we decided to go to a café that had recently become very popular.

I had no idea that Arase-kun was working there. ……

I was not the only one surprised.

As for Natsu, when she sees Arase-kun, she always teases him about his previous relationship and says he’s my boyfriend.

I was fine with it, but I knew that Arase-kun wouldn’t want to be with me, and I felt sorry for him if he had to repeat it so many times.

So I had to repeatedly warn her, and it went on until the food was brought to us.

Each time, for some reason, Machida got grumpier and grumpier, and I wondered what was wrong with him.

Regardless, the pancakes that came …… looked quite delicious, as expected.

He has been working on something in the kitchen, so I’m sure Arase-kun who took my order must have made them.

Wait a minute? Are you saying that all the other dishes on this menu are made by Arase-kun?

If so, that’s pretty amazing. And I’m kind of excited about it. Because the curry I had the other day was really good. It already tastes good just by looking at it!

“Itadakimasu!”

“Mmm~! Yum! This is so good!”

“Oh, really? Suika will eat it too!……!!!”

And me and Natsu were instantly captivated by those pancakes.

We were speechless

“I-Itadakimasu”

“Maasu”

After that, Machida and the others also took a bite of the cutlet sandwiches they ordered.

Machida’s eyes immediately widened as he pushed the cutlet sandwich deeper into his mouth.

“Well, that’s about right. ……”

“Yeah, that’s about right. ……”

What is it with you and your weird pride? You were eating so deliciously …….

I would have always wanted to give him a tweak if it were me, but that’s not what I’m doing right now.

The pancakes are waiting for me!

Natsu and I devoured the pancakes with all our hearts.

“Ah, it’s really delicious …….”

“I know what you mean~~. I feel like I’m living for this.”

Natsu and I sighed.

“But it’s really not good to be able to make something this delicious, is it?”

“Yes. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. Suika and the other girls can’t compete with him.”

“Maybe I want him for my boyfriend.”

“Eh!?”

I was so surprised to hear Natsu say something so outrageous that I unintentionally missed my pancake.

“Because it would be so great to live together and have him cook for me every day!”

“L-Living together? …… Suika and the others are still in high school. It’s too soon to tell.”

“Well, yes. Still, I don’t think it’s just men who are happy to eat their girlfriend’s home-cooked food. I want to enjoy it. If possible, I want to make it for the rest of my life and I want to linger.”

“You’re leaking …… self-defeating desires, ……. I understand how you feel.”

At first I thought that was a nice thing to say, and then this happened. But Natsu is right, I would be happy if I could eat a delicious home-cooked meal like Arase-kun makes every day. I’m confident that if I don’t …… exercise, I’ll definitely gain weight.

“That’s an exaggeration. That’s how much ……”

“I know. Isn’t it gross that men can make pancakes?”

However, Kosaka and Machida didn’t seem to find it amusing that I and Natsu were raving about Arase-kun’s cooking.

“Haa. That’s why boys are like this. It’s better to be able to cook than not to be able to cook.”

“That’s right. It’s better to be able to cook than not to be able to cook at all.”

“No, I’m sure that part-time worker is making this kind of food to attract girls. I can see it from the same guy’s point of view.”

You seem to be very hostile to Arase-kun. ……

Men are so arrogant.

It is true that there may be men like that, as Kosaka said, but Arase-kun is somehow different. It was the same with the curry, but I don’t know if it was a movement that was ingrained in his body. something that was natural for him to do on a regular basis.

I ate the rest of the pancakes while watching Arase-kun in the kitchen.

“Ah, so full.”

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

“Ah, ……, my parents are calling me. I’m going to go to the outside.”

We had just finished eating all the pancakes and drinking the drinks that came with the set.

Then Natsu and Kosaka got up from their seats. The table was now just Machida and me.

“Hey.”

I was about to play with my phone when Machida called out to me.

“What’s wrong?”

“No,……I was just wondering if you’re close with that guy,…….”

“That guy?”

Who is that guy?

I don’t know who Machida is talking about.

“That’s him. That part-timer. The transfer student. ……”

“Oh, Arase-kun?”

“That’s right. Why do you call him by his first name? You don’t call me that…….”

“Why do I have to call you something other than Machida? And I call everyone by their first names except you”

“H-hee. Does that mean I am special?”

…… special? What?

I don’t know what you’re talking about for a second. The men’s basketball team is uniformly called them by their last name. ……

“Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“………… So you get along with that guy?”

How far would you go to say we are good friends?

Suddenly remembering the time he gave me a piggyback ride, I shake my head.

But usually, when we pass by each other, we talk a little.

“Hmmm, well, maybe just an occasional chat?”

“What, really?”

“Muu? What are you talking about?”

For some reason, Machida snickered. I’m a little annoyed by that.

I don’t know what Machida is thinking.

He’s popular with the girls in my class, you know. He’s athletic and good-looking! I don’t know what to think. I don’t really care about that.

“So you’d rather have a guy who can cook too?”

“Eh? That’s a matter of course. Suika can’t cook.”

“Gosh ……, well, you certainly don’t seem to be able to cook.”

“Shut up! But if such a person is my boyfriend, I would like to ask him to teach me how to do it.”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t long for something like that. I would like to cook for him.

Well, I’ve never had a boyfriend before, so I’m just kind of hoping.

“Haha, women like Takimoto can’t have boyfriends!”

“Mu!? Suika knows that very well.”

But that doesn’t mean that it’s not annoying to be told what you already know.

“I don’t want to be around boys like Machida and the male basketball team either.”

“What?!”

That’s exactly what a calm person like Arase-kun is …….

I saw Arase kunworking on something in the kitchen.

After all, it’s cool for a guy to be able to cook.

No, no, no, what am I thinking?

I’m not planning to have a boyfriend for the time being.

It’s not because I can’t. It’s because I’ve decided to live for basketball! The ball is my lover!

“…………”

“What’s up?”

“Nothing. ……”

Machida was in a bad mood again. Is he not feeling good today?

As we were talking, Natsu and the others came back to the restaurant.

We then moved on to the checkout.

I wondered where the manager who was there at the beginning had gone.

“I’ll take care of it here.”

As I was about to take out my wallet, for some reason Machida started to say something like that.

We had no intention of being bought a drink at all, so naturally we tried to pay for our own drinks.

Even so, Machida placed the money on the tray roughly before we could pay for it.

In the end, we agreed to let Machida pay for the night and return the money by buying a drink or doing something else the next time we went out.

Otherwise, we would have stayed there forever.

Despite this agony, Arase-kun did not care about Machida’s attitude. The bill was paid without incident.

—It was delicious! I’ll be back for more!

Just as I was about to say how I felt.

“T-The food was just average. I could cook this well.”

With this remark, he left.

I really don’t know what happened to him.

“I’m sorry, Arase-kun. He seemed to be in a bad mood.”

“…………”

“Arase-kun?”

“No, I have no problem with that. Suika should walk with Okai-san behind the one I just saw. Also, you should be careful walking “up”.”

“Eh? Okay.”

I left the restaurant with Natsu, not quite understanding what he meant.

The sun was setting.

I had to tell my mother I didn’t want dinner.

“That restaurant wasn’t very good.”

“Yeah.”

Kosaka and Machida, walking in front of me again, were talking about Arase-kun.

“He’s talking like that again.”

“Even though the food was good. It seems he didn’t like the fact that we praised Ito-kun.”

“Ah, come to think of it, Ito-kun might have said something about that earlier. I think it was……”

“Up there?”

“That’s cold!”

“That’s the worst. ……”

While Natsu and I were talking, we heard a scream from in front of us.

A bird flew away.

“Ugh. ……”

“Poor thing.”

Much to our dismay, Machida and the others had been dropped by the bird’s droppings.

It’s …… a coincidence, right? The question deepened in my mind again.