CH 139

The next day, I go to school with Shi-chan as usual.

We parted as we entered the classroom and went to our respective seats.

After we sit down, I play with my phone and Shi-chan is surrounded by her classmates, which has become a familiar scene for me since I got my new seat.

And speaking of familiarity, this was followed by…

“Good morning, Ichijo-kun.”

As I was playing with my phone, Nishikida-san, who came to school later, greeted me in the morning.

I looked up at her voice and replied.

“Good morning, Nishikida-san.”

And then I see her with my own eyes.

Yesterday, I was surprised by the sudden change in her appearance, but today she is back to her original appearance, wearing her braids and glasses as before.

Seeing Nishikida back to her old self, I was a little surprised and couldn’t help but mention it to her.

“Huh? Nishikida-san, you put your glasses back on.”

I was surprised to see her expression, as if she did not expect me to say such a thing to her.

“—Yes, I still thought it didn’t make sense anymore.”

Then Nishikida-san replied in a meaningful way.

I didn’t quite understand what it meant, but it seemed that in Nishikita-san’s mind, there was no longer any reason to dress as she did yesterday.

It is not that Nishikida-san is unattractive, but she seems to be keeping a lid on herself, and I was a little concerned about that and thought it was a waste of opportunity.

However, I did not — no, I could not tell her that.

Even Nishikida is not an idiot.

It would be impolite for me, a stranger, to speak as if I know what is happening, since she is the one who has thought about such things.

Even if I said what I did with the best of intentions, it would be meaningless if I hurt the other person.

So I didn’t say anything to her, but simply replied, “I see.”

However, I guess she understood my thoughts, because in response to my curt reply, Nishikida-san smiled and murmured a small “thank you”.

And when class started again today, Nishikida-san was back to her usual self.

But I am sure it is not my imagination that the expression on her face that I saw from the side during the class seemed somewhat refreshed.

And then it was lunchtime.

We went to our usual seats in the cafeteria and ate our lunch together again today.

Shimizu-san’s bento was as usual a loving wife’s bento, and the percentage of pink was increasing day by day.

For Takayuki, who belongs to the basketball club, the large bento box was filled with rice, and a large pink heart symbol was drawn on the rice, which made quite an impact.

I honestly thought it was amazing to see such a lunch box filled with so much love, but then I decided to open the lid of Shi-chan’s lunch box, which was also filled with love, physically.

Today’s bento was nothing out of the ordinary, just the same as usual.

No, it still has the usual heart symbol on it.

However, Shi-chan’s bento today was still different.

I involuntarily looked back at Shi-chan, and there she was, smiling with a smug look on her face.

Takayuki and Shimizu-san, who were watching us, seemed to have no idea why I was surprised or why Shi-chan had a smug look on her face, and both of them looked at me with puzzled eyes, wondering what was going on.

Well, that’s understandable.

It was just an ordinary looking bento, so there was no way they could understand why I was surprised.

Well, even if it looks normal, it still has “I LOVE YOU” drawn on it with nori seaweed.

Yes, that was yesterday on the way home.

I took Shi-chan to a certain café on the way home, as I had promised, and we were talking while eating sweets together.

Shi-chan suddenly took out a piece of paper and a notebook from her bag and asked me a question.

“I have a question for you, Takkun!”

“Hmm? A game? Alright.”

“Then–de-den! Now the first question! Which do you like better: 1, deep-fried food, or 2, stuffed bell peppers?”

“Hmmm, fried tofu is good, but I’m in the mood for 2, stuffed bell peppers.”

The game was a two-choice quiz, which was probably a psychological test or something.

I answered each of Shi-chan’s questions honestly, one by one.

Shi-chan was so happy that she wrote down the answers in her notebook.

After the third question, I had a pretty good idea what to expect.

I knew that all the questions up to this point were about food, and that she was probably talking about the side dishes in the bento boxes.

So, when I was done with all the questions, I talked to Shi-chan.

“–Is this what I can expect tomorrow?”

“Well, you see, the person who answers all the questions correctly on the quiz needs to be rewarded.”

“I knew that was a quiz after all.”

“You knew? Well the title is “Which is Takkun’s Favorite Food!”

Since the quiz is about my favorite food, it was a given that I would answer all the questions correctly.

Of course, Shi-chan knew this, too, and we laughed together at how silly the quiz was.

Thus, today’s bento was filled with all of my favorite side dishes, thanks to all of the questions I answered correctly in yesterday’s quiz.

To be honest, I was worried about how far the heart marks and other physical expressions of affection would escalate, but Shi-chan showed her love in a different way.

“Thank you, Shi-chan. This lunch box is like a dream come true for me.”

“Hehehe, I’m glad to hear that! Please enjoy it.”

When I expressed my gratitude, Shi-chan smiled happily at me.

And so today, I enjoyed my lunch box filled with my favorite foods and full of love.

And seeing us, Shimizu-san seemed to have finally realized why and said, “I see, I didn’t know there was such a thing. I guess I can’t compete with Shion-chan after all.” She smiled as if she had given up, and the recently started bento battle ended with Shi-chan’s victory.