CH 9

Chapter 9: House Visit

It was finally Sunday. I was introduced to a newly built condominium located about a 7-minute walk from the nearest station. Sara lived here in a 1DK(One room apartment with dining and kitchen area.) on the 6th floor.

When I went inside the first thing I noticed was the small dining table and a white sofa. The sunlight coming through the large window from the light blue curtains gleamed off the well polished flooring.

It was a background I was familiar with from the game, but I’m now seeing it in person. If it follows the game the door in the back will lead to the bedroom. Besides the bed, there should be a bookshelf and a laptop in there.

“It’s a nice place.”

“Thank you. But there aren’t many things here. Oh, put your bag in the corner and take a seat.”

Sara went to the kitchen to prepare some tea. I put my bag on the sofa in spite of her words and took out study tools plus reference books I brought along.

We are going to use the textbook from Sara’s school, but I also got an easy to understand reference book from home, saying that it is necessary depending on the content and ease of use of the school’s textbook. Although honestly, it would have been the best if I had the teaching materials from the prep school I was used.

“Do you like tea?”

Sara chuckled a little saying that she didn’t make coffee because she isn’t good at it, so She was happy that I also liked tea, as I put the white mug down on the table, I said “It was good”

I remember asking for ice tea at the pancake shop last week. Did she remember that? Perhaps I’m just overthinking it.

“Thank you.”

“Would you like any sugar or milk?”

“No, I’ll drink it straight.”

Sara put only sugar into her drink and mixed it with a spoon. She made sure that the sugar on the bottom melted properly as she stirred. It’s kind of funny to see her looking into her mug with such a serious expression.

“Isn’t it difficult living alone? Doing housework and cooking must be a pain.”

As far as I know from the game, she is good at cooking, but it’s not hasslefree. If you are burdened with all the housework and are not used to school life, it becomes quite stressful. I am familiar with the life of living alone.

“Yeah, it’s tough. I have to do all the laundry, clean the toilet and the bath by myself. Looking back on it, I relied on my mother a lot. For cooking, let’s just say. . .I’m getting tired of convenience store food.”

“Eh? Do you not cook for yourself?”

“I’m just getting used to living alone, I should be studying. . .”

She had a self reliant image in the game, so I’d never expect her to have never cooked for herself.

You see her cooking in the second half of the game, so it should be around autumn or early winter, perhaps she is just busy until then.

I knew she’d be able to cook on her own if left alone. But when I hear that she is just eating convenience store lunch so much to the point she is getting sick of it. Well, my older woman senses are flaring up.

“I wish Sara would eat more healthily. How about I teach you a simple dish?”

I’m not a good cook either. Since I lived a self catering life to save money for Yuri. I valued a life of cheap, easy and quick dishes so I think I could teach some dishes suitable for beginners just beginning to live alone. By the way, I can’t make any elaborate dishes you’d see on social media.

“You can cook? Shiori-san is amazing. ”

“Wait, don’t expect too much. I can only make really simple dishes.”

“The simpler the better!”

I regretted seeing her look at me with reverence and shining eyes. I wonder if it’s okay if I teach such hassle free thrown together dishes to such a cute girl. Wouldn’t it be best to teach her recipes with high girl power? Acqua pazza, Bagna Cauda, and other fashionable western dishes! 

Maybe I can make that if I try, but When I was living alone I never even had avocados or brussels sprouts on my table.

As I thought, it will be too embarrassing, maybe I should back down. . . but my cute favorite character is looking at me with such high expectations.

“. . . .Let’s go shopping after we finished studying.”

“Okay!”

I prepared myself as she gave me a delightful smile.

I can’t cook fashionably, but at least I could give her delicious food.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sara’s academic ability was quite high. She explained that she is more of a humanities type of person, but she seems to understand highschool math much better than she previously declared.

As one would expect from a student from Tsubakigaoka. The very first question on the prepared print from school “Numbers and Formulas:” seemed to have been completed in the blink of an eye.

It was certainly something that didn’t require too much time, but if you work like that unattended it will soon be something that bite you in the butt. Students who aren’t good at math like Sara will be anxious if they can’t keep up at all.

“Math is hard at first glance, but when you go out with it, and think about it like a person, it becomes easier.”

“Eh, your personifying math?”

“It’s easier to imagine it as a person? For quadratic functions there are many people who freak out when suddenly shown unfamiliar symbols and formulas so they have to mentally prepare for each one, however if you become aware of what you are viewing, and focus on 1 at a time, it becomes pretty standard.”

If you wrote out an unfamiliar formulate like “y=f(x)” from the first line in basic math, it would be unavoidable to gently close the reference book and question life. I was also taken aback when I first saw such foreign words.

“So, let’s first get properly familiar with the basics and then proceed. These are the quadratic functions we should properly get along with. You should try to get a good understanding of their profile”

“Profile. . .”

“What is your birthday, your favorite food, your hobby? If you knew it, you’d get along well, right?”

“The favorite food of quadratic functions. . .?”

Sara dived into her reference book, she was no longer just repeating my words, and began reading the first page carefully. She had a troubled face with wrinkles between her eyebrows at first, but gradually she grew to have the facial expression of somebody who wanted to shout “ho ho ho”

“They are a better person than I expected?” It’s the first step to make you think more. If a teacher doesn’t remove the student’s belief that they aren’t good at something, then the pupil will have a lot of trouble learning in the future.

“. . . I think I understand what Shiori-san said.”

“Right? Mutual understanding is important for both humans and mathematics.”f

“Mutual. . ?”

You don’t comprehend it now, but I’m sure they will understand someday. And if you get along well, math will be fun.

“Then let’s go on to the next page. If you do your best for 45 minutes, we can take a break.”

“Okay.”

It was a nostalgic feeling to teach. It was the first time in a while, and I’ve talked more than usual. Honest students are adorable, and in this case, it just makes her even more cute.

The study session on that day went by smoothly, and we were able to finish preparing for next week’s class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After thinking long about what to make, I came to the conclusion that I would leave it up to Sara to pick. I wonder if it will be some mysterious western dish, I’m not sure if I could make it.

When asked, she immediately said “Shogayaki.” That’s a little. . .well quite surprising. It was an extreme opposite of a high girl power answer. Though this helps.

“I’d also like fried chicken, but if it’s fried chicken I can eat that at the school cafeteria. I can’t get Shogayaki at school, so I’d love it!”

“Ahh, I see.”

“I want to eat it with freshly cooked white rice and crisp cabbage. I want to eat salty sweet sauce Shogayaki, I want to eat it!”

Oh, this is a serious problem.

I didn’t have a reason to refuse, so I immediately understood what I had to do. We went to the neighborhood supermarket to buy some ingredients. By the way, the plan is to get enough seasoning and condiments to last her up to spring break, for when she is cooking for herself. 

“Well, then, let’s get started. First of all, let’s start with the sauce. For now, we will need soy sauce, Sake, Mirin, and Ginger paste. Sometimes I use sugar instead of mirin or I add grated onions. But for now we will use the sweetness of mirin.”

“Yes Sensei!”

She enthusiastically replied with “sensei”. She didn’t call me that when we were studying. Apparently for Sara, teaching her how to cook is more important than teaching her math.

“So, let’s soak the meat for a bit in the sauce we’ve prepared. This time we have shredded meat, but you can also use loin or ribs if you’d like.”

“Okay!”

“So, we’ll cut the onions and shred the cabbage. . . Wait, you said you didn’t cook at all, why is there a slicer for shredding?”

Well, it’s good because it’s convenient. Personally, I’d definitely prefer a knife to make thin cuts of cabbage, but with a slicer you’d get more crunchy cuts. Sara also said she wanted to eat crunchy cabbage, so probably a slicer is best.

“If you look closely, you have all kinds of pots and frying pans. Sara seems like the type that already has everything prepared.”

“. . .I just have a problem getting motivated.”

“Fufu, we’ll have to work on that. Okay, before we work on finely cutting the vegetable, we will leave it in ice water for about 5 minutes, so let’s work on the onions.”

“Yes!”

She gave a slight sullen face after I said the first part, but even though her expression was cute, it’s actually a bit troubling. I’ve thought about it on the train the other day, but she has reactions that make me want to tease her. I have to not overdo it, so she doesn’t hate me.

“S-Sara, wait! Watch how you hold that knife!!”

She took onions out of the bag, and was happily holding a knife to cut them, but the problem was how she held it. She held it like a kendo style, facing the onions on the cutting board. It was the appearance of a beautiful swordfighter. As if the enemy was onions from Awaji island.

So, Sara-san, what are you preparing to do? It’s startling to think about.

“Knife is basically an extension of your arm. . .Oh yeah no. You should show me first?”

“. . .Please.”

She must have realized I thought something was wrong. She obediently handed me the knife. . .I felt relief from the bottom of my heart when she let it go.

What was her cooking class like in middle school? Did she make sweets without using a kitchen knife? Or was she permanently in charge of making a salad, and torn lettuce? If it was the latter, someone else must have done all the work.

. . .I wanted to actually slice the onions into thinner slices, but this time I’ll cut them into wedges. For safety reasons.

“Well, now you try.”

“Okay!”

After showing her an example, I handed her the knife, the air was full of tension. Instead of the samurai like attitude I mentioned before, she held the knife the normal way. Her left hand diligently went into the cat paw form.

—- A few minutes later, she was able to safely cut the onions into wedges, but it was more scary than a horror movie. She is more clumsy than I imagined. The hand holding the knife trembled too much. I was struck with the fear that she’d cut her hand instead of an onion. It was so painful to watch. . .It was a miracle she finished unscathed!

I decided she should not to do any thin chops until she was a little better. . .Or maybe it’s best just to buy her a food processor. It doesn’t matter if you don’t do it yourself. You’d be done faster and the range of dishes you could cook would expand. But above all, it’s safe. Safety is important!

Stir fry the onions that have been miraculously cut with the seasoned meat and serve them on a plate with the cabbage that has been pulled from the ice and cut. For such a simple dish, she was thoroughly impressed with me.

“Waah, Shogayaki! I’m so happy!”

The road to getting this dish wasn’t the best, but the finished Shogayaki ended up being very delicious. The cut cabbage with the prepared meat that is entwined with the sweet and salted sauce that she requested was an amazing combo. Above all, it gave a constant appetizing fragrant. Complete with instant miso soup and rice.

It was encouraging to see Sara be so impressed with the plate before her.

After eating a bite of her long awaited Shogayaki, she closed her eyes and said “It’s delicious. . .!” The appearance of her chewing with a joyful smile was extremely healing.

I also ate my plate, it tasted well-glazed and was delectable. It was a recipe I’ve made many times in my previous life, but it makes the meal even more delicious when I see my favorite character enjoy my home made food.

“Let’s do our best cooking for ourselves. Shiori-san, can you teach me more dishes?”

“Yeah, as long as I’m able to. We can study cooking along with math.”

“Thank you!”

Ahh, she’s so cute. I want to protect this smile.

“Do you have any more questions about what I taught you today? Whether it’s math or cooking?”

She tilted her neck slightly and thought hard, ”Hmm” and then she put her chopsticks down and said “Oh there is one thing!”

“When is Shiori-san’s birthday? Also your favorite food, and hobbies!?”

She smiled and said “I haven’t heard them yet.”

Birthday, favorite food, hobby- – – -To get a profile so you can get along well.

My heart was singing when I understood what it meant.

“December 5th. My favorite food is oden. My hobby is. . .reading?”

My true hobby is Yuri. I’m not lying. I do read. It’s not that I didn’t read a book at all before my memories of my previous life returned.

“What about Sara?”

“Eh, me?”

“Yeah- – -Mutual understanding is important.”

When I asked what her favorite food was, she pointed to the Shogayaki, and like a flower blooming, grew a big smile.

If anything, this is just a normal human relationship, but sometimes it feels bad. I truly do want to know more about her.

Author Note: By the way, Sara’s birthday is July 7th. Her hobbies are gaming.