With the winners and losers determined, Saito smoothly wrapped up the situation and returned to his seat. However, he couldn’t find the lunchbox he had brought.
“Let’s eat together today, Saito.”
“Sure, but wait a moment. My lunch is…”
As he looked around, searching for it, Lily approached, inviting him to eat lunch together.
It was unusual, considering that Lily had been eating with Shuri and Minaka recently.
It’s a rare opportunity.
“As much as I’d love to eat together, I can’t seem to find my bento.”
“Well, I have it with me, so no worries. Let’s go to the rooftop already?”
“Oh, really? Don’t surprise me like that. I thought I’d skipped lunch today.”
“Hehe, I wanted to see you in a hurry. Were you anxious?”
“I was freaking out, you idiot.”
Panicking about not having a bento, Saito breathed a sigh of relief when Lily mentioned having one.
It seemed she deliberately hid it to tease him.
While complaining about her mischievous antics, the two headed to the rooftop.
Despite being a popular space for students during lunch, it was surprisingly empty today.
Probably because everyone was gathered in the classrooms, curious about the showdown between Mizuki and Koyuki.
Saito and Lily sat in a shaded area that is usually not available.
“Here, this is for you, Saito.”
“Huh, this? Isn’t this not my bento? What’s going on?”
Today, with the lunch break being noisy, Saito’s stomach, fueled by strange calories, was growling.
As he opened the bento he received from Lily, he froze.
The contents were different from what he expected.
It was supposed to be leftover vegetable stir-fry and imitation crab meat from yesterday morning.
However, the bento in his hands contained rolled omelet and hamburg steak. There were also coleslaw, octopus-shaped sausages, and apples, making it vividly colorful.
This wasn’t Saito’s bento.
“Haha, Saito, you really react well. It’s worth surprising you.”
Confused, Saito looked at Lily, who couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
After a good laugh, she began explaining the story behind preparing the bento.
“Yesterday, we started talking about cooking with Shuri-chan and Minaka-chan. When they heard I was good at cooking, they insisted on trying my food. But, I haven’t cooked much lately, so I wasn’t confident. That’s when I remembered. I remembered that there’s a convenient guinea pig… person who can taste my cooking.”
“Hey, Lily. You can rephrase that, it sounds terrible either way.”
In summary, Lily wanted Saito, her childhood friend, to taste her cooking because she was worried about serving it to her friends.
Despite the ominous mention of a guinea pig, Saito knew there probably wouldn’t be anything weird in it if she intended to share it with friends.
Even though he understood that, dealing with this childhood friend of his, he couldn’t be sure what she might have done.
Gulp.
Unconsciously, Saito made a swallowing sound, and with determination, he took a bite of his favorite hamburg steak.
“…Delicious.”
The hamburg steak was, by all accounts, delicious.
The feedback after trying it was simple – it was just delicious. There were no extravagant or bizarre ingredients, just a well-prepared hamburg steak with a hint of the meat’s sweetness.
If he had to rate it, it would be a perfect five out of five.
The best of the best, Excellent execution.
Expressing his genuine thoughts, Saito made Lily’s face light up with joy.
(What? Why is she smiling like that?)
However, to Saito at that moment, she seemed happy but also somewhat ambiguous.
Despite knowing she was genuinely pleased, there was something more to it.
Feeling uneasy about what might be hidden, Saito cautiously continued eating the bento.
The coleslaw had a pleasant acidity, and the rolled omelet, prepared in the style Saito liked, felt like eating homemade tamagoyaki. The octopus-shaped sausages and apples were cut into bite-sized pieces, showing Lily’s thoughtfulness in different areas.
“…Thanks for the meal. It was really delicious. You can even share this with Yakumo and the others.”
“Yes, you’re welcome. I was a bit worried you might say it doesn’t taste good.”
As an overall review, it was extremely delicious – a perfect ten out of ten.
Satisfied with the meal, Saito assured Lily that it could be shared with their friends. Lily breathed a sigh of relief and happily smiled.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
(Hmm?)
At that moment, Saito felt a sudden discomfort behind him.
He instinctively turned around, but there was no one there.
Saito shook his head, thinking it might be his imagination.
“Why did you suddenly turn around like that?”
“Oh, I felt like someone was watching us. Well, maybe it was just my imagination.”
“Could it be Akashi-kun?”
Perhaps it seemed unnatural to Lily when Saito suddenly turned around without any warning and she asked him what’s wrong.
Without any intention to deceive, Saito honestly admitted that he felt like someone was watching him. Without hesitation, he immediately mentioned the name of his friend, who had recently messed up.
“No, that guy should be in the photography club room today, called by the club president.”
However, he quickly denied that.
While Kai can be unpredictable and occasionally lose track of where he is, today his whereabouts are clear.
It seems today is the day for developing photos, and Kai was complaining about being summoned by the club president, so there’s no doubt about it.
“Well, then, a ghost?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, if that’s the case, it would become a mysterious existence like ghosts, but in reality, there’s no way such things exist.
Saito and Lily exchanged glances and smiled.
“Hey, by the way, what happened to the bento I brought? “
“I have it right here. I was planning to bring it out once Saito finished eating.”
“I see. Alright, hand it over. Honestly, eating just one bento is never enough for me. If I eat that, today might actually be satisfying for once.”
“I made quite a bit, considering Saito’s usual portion. Here you go. Well, it’s true that a single bento might be a bit insufficient for someone like Saito.”
“Yeah, yeah, I asked to make it bigger. I don’t have a large bento box at home, so I reluctantly buy bread or nikuman from the convenience store on the way back to fill my stomach.”
The conversation shifted from the topic of someone watching them to the discussion of bentos.
When Saito asked Lily to return the bento hidden by her, he was delighted to finally have a satisfying meal after a long time, while Lily was a bit hesitant, wondering if there was still room in his stomach.
However, recalling the amount of rice Saito used to eat on weekends, Lily quickly understood.
In reality, Saito confessed that he had been eating out to satisfy his hunger.
“……”
Upon hearing this, Lily slightly opened her mouth, as if about to say something, but the words didn’t come out, dissipating in the wind.
(What was she trying to say?)
Saito felt puzzled by his childhood friend’s mysterious behavior, but it was impossible to know what she was trying to say with just that.
Abandoning the thought, Saito started eating the second bento.
“Your bento is tastier. Let me eat again, even if I’m a guinea pig.”
“~!?”
And then, Saito realized that Lily’s homemade bento suited his taste better than the ones prepared by his mother, Yabana, over the years.
It was a mystery why Lily’s cooking was closer to his preference than what Yabana, who had been cooking for him for years, would make.
So, after trying it, Saito genuinely thought so.
Therefore, when Saito conveyed that to her, this childhood friend covered her face with both hands.
Seeing a bit of her skin turning red through the gaps in her fingers, it was clear she was embarrassed.
While thinking it’s a bit exaggerated to be praised for a lunch box, Saito took a bite of the vegetable stir-fry.
Without knowing that his words had hit Lily’s heart cleanly, Saito expressed his feelings.
The next day.
“Here, another bento.”
“Huh, really!? You’re giving me one again today!? Thanks!”
On the way to school, as usual, Saito met Lily on the station platform and received a handbag with a bento from her.
“I have more requests than I thought I would have,. Until I make all of them, be the guinea pig for us.”
“If I can eat your food, anything’s fine. What’s on the menu today?”
“Fried chicken and sweet and sour pork. The rest is almost the same as yesterday.”
“What are these dishes that understand a man’s heart? Are either Yakumo or Minaka definitely a guy from a past life?”
Although he was declared a guinea pig naturally, Saito didn’t mind at all, as long as he could eat the bento.
After hearing the contents of today’s bento from Lily and expressing how delicious it looked, Saito was overjoyed like a child.
Thus, Saito and Lily’s relationship began, where he would receive a bento from her every day for taste testing.
“Saito-kun, can we play rock-paper-scissors today too?”
However, as with good things, there are also bad things.
Upon arriving at school, Saito found Mizuki and Koyuki again in a fierce battle over lunch with Haruki.
Thinking about what they were doing, Saito ignored them and welcomed the next break.
When Haruki asked Saito to play rock-paper-scissors today too, Saito was taken aback.
“Huh? Didn’t I tell you to decide properly yesterday?”
“Yeah, but the pressure from those two is incredible. I don’t know what they’ll do if I refuse. So please, Saito-kun, can you be the referee for rock-paper-scissors to decide who I’ll have lunch with?”
Despite having firmly instructed him to decide yesterday, Saito asked why he didn’t choose a partner, and Haruki explained the overwhelming pressure he received from the two.
“I don’t want to. You should play rock-paper-scissors yourself.”
“Well, it seems insincere to decide it randomly. Come on, please.”
“You’re serious in a weird way, dude.”
“Saito-kun, you’re my only hope!”
“Ugh, just for today.”
“Thank you!”
Even though Saito thought he should decide properly even if he was being threatened,
Haruki didn’t give up.
He hugged Saito’s leg and pleaded with a serious face.
Feeling sorry for Haruki, Saito reluctantly agreed to be the referee for today’s lunchtime rock-paper-scissors, and from then on, he became the one in charge of Haruki’s harem rock-paper-scissors.
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