Volume 1 - CH 10

Kamiyama-san chooses crepes

Harusame-san says in front of a glass-fronted showcase lined with food samples.

“Which one shall I choose… the chocolate banana one over here is good, but the custard pudding one is also good… and Arai-san, have you decided?”

“I think I’ll have this one with strawberries in it topped with ice cream. Which one do you want, Kamiyama-san?”

The two of them were looking at the paper bag between them, and Kamiyama-san answered Arai-san’s question.

“The… the… crepe with azuki beans and green tea cream over here also looks delicious…! Doesn’t it?” 

The three girls (and one panel of magical girls) are seriously but happily choosing crepes.

I was watching their backs as I stepped back from the three of them.

This is in front of a small crepe shop near the nearest station to school.

There is no eating area, just a small window for taking orders and handing out goods. Inside, there is a single young female waitress. She is wearing a colorful apron and waiting for our order. Next to the small window is a glass showcase filled with colorful food samples.

The showcase is conveniently located near the nearest station to our school, and just a few minutes ago, it was packed with students on their way home from extracurricular activities.

But… that was before we came along.

The students who saw Kamiyama-san wearing a paper bag with a cute bear pattern that was different from the usual, and Harusame-san with a panel of magical girls in tow, and even talking endlessly to that panel, all went to the station at once.

Inside the crepe shop, a female waitress with a drawn-out sales smile is looking at us.

Sorry, crepe shop clerk.

As I was apologizing to the crepe shop clerk in my mind, the three students left the showcase. It seemed that they have decided on their order.

I talked to Arai-san, who was taking her wallet out of her bag.

“Have you decided what you want to order? Which one are you going to get?

“I’m going to have a strawberry crepe topped with ice cream. What are you going to order, Kominato-kun?”

Arai-san asked me about it, and, thinking about it, I realized that I haven’t had a crepe in years. I put my face close to the glass showcase and looked at them, but none of them seemed to ring a bell.

“Well, I’m not sure, so I’ll just go with the same one as someone else.”

Hearing this, Harusame-san opens her mouth in a bad mood.

“If you’re a man, you need to have initiative… you should at least decide what you want on the menu.”

“I’m going to have the same thing as you.”

“Oh, the same thing as me?”

For some reason, Harusame-san is in a panic.

“What’s so upsetting?”

“Because that means… we’re going to eat the same thing together, that means… an indirect kiss…? I’m not sure what you’re trying to achieve, but that’s just not cool!”

“No, that’s not… right.”

Harusame-san ran to the order window one step ahead of me, her face bright red, and finished her order quickly.

I was troubled and decided to ask Kamiyama-san, who was standing next to me.

“What did you order, Kamiyama-san? I’m thinking of ordering the same thing.”

Kamiyama-san’s body goes rigid. Sweat drips from her hair as it falls out of her bear-patterned paper bag, and the color of the asphalt beneath her feet changes rapidly.

“No, you don’t have to be so nervous… Just point at the menu and tell me what you chose.”

Kamiyama-san, stiff and tense, slowly bend her elbows vertically. Then, opening her feet shoulder-width apart, she took one deep breath.

“I got the one here… this one!“

With her face, or rather her paper bag, face down, Kamiyama-san vigorously pointed to one of the food samples lined up in the glass showcase at the front of the store.

At that moment.

(Thud!) With a sound, Kamiyama-san’s long white finger broke through the glass. The glass showcase cracks like a spider web centered on Kamiyama’s finger.

The shop clerk froze.

Arai-san remains motionless with a smile plastered on her face.

Harusame-san pretends she didn’t see it and converses with A-chan.

Kamiyama-san pulls out her finger stuck in the glass and nods dejectedly.

I approached the frozen waitress and apologetically placed my order.

“Excuse me, shop clerk… please give me the most expensive one in this store…”

The waitress came to her senses at my words and hurriedly began to make the crepes. Is it supposed to be this hard to order a single crepe?

From now on, I will decide on my order by myself. I promised myself to do so.