To Spill Out (Pt 1)
Translator: chibiPotato
TLC: Krrizis &
Editor: Shirani
First Published on Ainushi
"Hey, let"s stop eating lunch together."
On the roof during lunch break, Kiuchi said with furrowed brows as she handed me my lunchbox.
"Why??"
I took the lunchbox from Kiuchi, and opened the lid. As promised, it had fried shrimps with tartar sauce. No doubt a golden combination.
"Tachibankun, are you interested in me??"
Coming at me with a troubled face, isn"t Kiuchi misunderstanding something?
I freaking hate guys who spew nonsense when I"m hungry.
"Give me a break."
Although I say there are delicious looking shrimps in front of me, I can"t have partner like Kiuchi.
I dipped the fried shrimp in some tartar sauce and put it in my mouth.
De-li-cious. Today"s Kiuchi is annoying as h.e.l.l, but her cooking is excellent as usual.
"Right. I, for one, am not interested in you too and I"m the sort that drags along her broken heart."
Her cooking skill may be exceptional, but as expected, I can"t understand what she wants to say. Kiuchi is being annoying.
On top of that, that "think nothing of me" way of speaking is irritating.
This person finally got to enjoy fried shrimp, you know.
"In the first place, I don"t have the courage to go out with someone from the workplace. After getting dumped, I absolutely won"t be able to work together with them. It"s awkward and everyone would gossip about it."
Kiuchi"s meaningless talk continued.
Come to think of it, why is she already talking of breaking up as a prerequisite?? This woman.
To begin with, what the h.e.l.l is she talking about?
"Kiuchi-san, where is this conversation about not eating lunch together going??"
While stuffing my face with shrimp, I brought Kiuchi back to the original conversation.
"It"s becoming a rumour. That I"m trying to snag you with my lunch boxes."
Kiuchi frowned in disapproval.
… Stupid. That is soo stupid.
"Just let them say what they want."
"What are you saying!? Won"t you be thought of as "a man caught by a middle aged woman who was thrown away by her boyfriend", given the rumour that I"m trying to catch you with my lunch boxes!? Doesn"t that just mean "An inferior woman acquired an inferior man"!??"
Kiuchi shook both of my arms while I was enjoying the bliss of the fried shrimp.
It"s difficult to eat.
Also, Kiuchi, you"re too insecure of yourself. You"re lowering yourself too much. I bet that"s why she was dumped, this woman.
"… But I don"t want to stop eating your lunch boxes."
I finally found a good source of amus.e.m.e.nt; to have it disappear is absolutely inconceivable.
"I"m happy that Tachibankun eats my lunch box, so I will keep making them. But, I will not eat with you."
"Nope, you can"t do that."
"Isn"t it fine even if I don"t? If you really want to, we can LINE."
It look like Kiuchi doesn"t want rumours no matter what.
But, that is a no.
Because I want to talk with Kiuchi.
"But it"s pretty fun to chat with you, Kiuchi-san while eating your lunch box."
I noticed Kiuchi reddened a bit at the words I"d said casually.
"……… I enjoy it too. But still, healing the pain of a broken heart with someone of the opposite s.e.x is no good. When I"m around you, I can forget the painful memories…"
Kiuchi fidgeted a bit shyly.
… What are you saying, Kiuchi??
"… Why are you saying stuffs like you"re in love with me?? Stuff like "Thank you for letting me forget"… Gross. Super disturbing."
"Whaat!?? Are you nuts!?? How did you even come up with that idea!?? It"s you we"re talking about, that"s gross. I"m going to vomit."
Kiuchi"s face redden even further. Well, the way I said it was bad.
What"s more, Kiuchi said "omae" to me.* She also gagged.
"… Listen here, I"m in the midst of eating right now. Kiuchi-san, were you raised poorly??"
Even so, isn"t she a woman? Still. She was dumped by a guy, but she"s pretty much still a woman. Use more ladylike words.
"…… That"s why I don"t want a rich brat like you. Pointlessly delicate."
Kiuchi turned away whilst taunting me.
That"s not the problem, Kiuchi.
It"s a matter of table manners.
Even if she"s good at cooking, the rest is like this. That"s why she got dumped, that Kiuchi.
…… Well, I like that she doesn"t take it to heart.
"Whatever. But, what time should I go to the apartment tomorrow to help with the move??"
That"s right, tomorrow is the day Kiuchi moves out.
The day when both Kiuchi and I are off from work.
The day when I can eat Kiuchi"s freshly made food.
"The electronics and furniture I ordered are scheduled to arrive at noon, I was thinking of going to buy stuff like dishes before that… so around 10?? Can you wake up?? Ah, but I can do the shopping alone so it"s fine if you come in the afternoon."
Is that what she said… Well, that is no good. Because,
"Oi. You"re not making lunch?"
Even though I was looking forward to Kiuchi"s food, it looks like I won"t be able to eat it.
"Huh?? Isn"t it dinner?"
But, it looks like Kiuchi thought of making dinner.
I had decided to eat lunch, help out and then head home but… this is also favourable.
"What are you saying?? Isn"t it lunch and dinner?"
I laughed jokingly when,
"… Somehow, what Tachibankun said sounds erotic."
Kiuchi narrowed her eyes and looked at me.
This woman, is she frustrated after getting dumped??
As expected, this woman is gross.
"Are you being h.o.r.n.y because you"re lonely, you dirty old woman."
Perhaps "old woman" was excessive… I was starting to feel a bit regretful after saying it,
"…… I wonder if I was young and pretty I wouldn"t have gotten dumped. …No, I would have been dumped either way."
Kiuchi"s expression went dark for a moment, but then she forcefully laughed.
I bet the boyfriend"s cheating partner was a girl younger than Kiuchi.
"Why do you think that?? Kiuchi-san may be gross and erotic, but you"re good at cooking and easy to talk to, you have lots of good points. What "I was naturally dumped" sort of rubbish are you on about??"
Certainly, Kiuchi was no special kind of beauty, and her b.o.o.bs aren"t big either.
But, she"s not bad looking and she"s not fat either.
As far as I can judge, she"s not a bad woman.
"… Is that supposed to be a praise?? Aren"t you making fun of me??"
I started worrying a bit whether Kiuchi was happy or upset.
"I"m neither praising nor making fun of you. I"m just stating the facts."
"… Is that so. I"m going to leave now. Lunch break is over."
Kiuchi got up with a troubled expression and took the lunchbox I had emptied.
"Kiuchi-san, next time cream croquette."
I made the next request to Kiuchi.
"… You"ve made a laborious request again. I won"t put things like crab in it, ok!!"
"Even if you don"t put in stuff like that, your cream croquette, it would still be delicious. I want to eat a lot of it so please make lots!!"
On top of requesting the menu, I also made an order for the quant.i.ty,
"Sure!!"
Kiuchi nodded grinning broadly.
Kiuchi is gross, erotic, good at cooking, and easy to talk to… such an idiot.
Even though she says this or that, she"s going to make cream croquettes and eat them with me as usual.
That too, is Kiuchi"s good point.
——- The day Kiuchi moved.
Because Kiuchi had said "I want to buy kitchen appliances", we decided on a large kitchenware speciality shop as the meeting point.
Kiuchi who was unyielding when it came to money was, as expected, also unyielding when it came to time. Even though I came five minutes earlier than the meeting time, she was already standing in front of the entrance.
Was it because of her casual clothes? Kiuchi looked a bit different than usual.
She"s always wearing a suit at the shop, that"s why her current appearance is somewhat refreshing.
She was wearing natural styled pants, nothing too enthusiastic. That"s so like Kiuchi.
But, the "not too enthusiastic" style was bothering me. I wonder if I wasn"t worth being "enthusiastic" for. …I guess I wasn"t worth it. I was also dressed in my usual clothes.
When I turned towards the entrance, Kiuchi spotted me and waved her hand.
"Tachibankun!! … "s casual clothes, it"s my first time seeing you in them. You"re still young, huh. So fashionable. It looks cool!! … Sorry. I"m dressed like this… Should I walk slightly apart from you?"
Even though we finally got together, why does she want to move away from me with that apologetic manner. You"re walking towards the edge, Kiuchi.
"Why should we walk separately?? In a big store like this, we"ll lose each other."
I grabbed Kiuchi"s arm and pulled her towards me.
"… I mean, someone as cool as you walking with me would be unpleasant"
Kiuchi hung her head with an "It would have been better if I came alone" look.
Why is she so hung up about her image.
"Why would it be unpleasant?? Well, if you came here wearing a party dress or something I would have walked away from you, but this is fine"
I thought Kiuchi had pretty good sense.
Her outfit isn"t unfashionable, but neither was it too fashionable. She had a reasonably natural appearance.
"That"s right, isn"t it!! I look normal, right!! I don"t look unfashionable, right!??"
Kiuchi asked for confirmation in a rea.s.suring manner.
"Yeah. I rather like Kiuchi-san"s outfit."
When I said that Kiuchi"s face blushed in happiness.
Kiuchi"s speech and behavior once again made no sense to me, but I thought Kiuchi looked a bit cute with her red face.
"We can buy plates and chopsticks at the 100-yen shop… right now let"s go look for a frying pan and a saucepan."
Kiuchi finally changed her mind and pulled my clothes along "here and there".
All the frying pans that looked the same to me, seemed to appear different to Kiuchi as she said "this is too light" or "this is hard to use" and started her hunt.
… I had no idea what was going on.
And because Kiuchi couldn"t make up her mind quickly, I felt bored.
"… I"m going to go look at the tableware."
If it was tableware, then I know the difference. When I was about to head to the tableware section,
"It"s fine. I can buy that from the 100-yen shop."
Kiuchi pulled the cuff of my clothes again saying "it"s fine not to go there."
They"re not particularly expensive clothes so it"s fine, but they"re going to stretch.
"But, you need to enjoy food with your eyes as well, don"t you?? So wouldn"t it be better to use something like that??"
Kiuchi"s "don"t let go" hand dropped down.
Instead of uttering a sound, Kiuchi let out a sigh. "Fuu".
… This feels awkward. Oi.
"The 100-yen shop is fine. Also, the food I make isn"t refined enough that it has to be put on a luxurious plate."
"Listen here, I can"t understand the differences in things like frying pan or saucepan so, putting it bluntly, it"s boring. I"ll just have a look so let me go to the tableware section."
There was no way a big man could move when pushed by a woman. I didn"t move a step as I really didn"t want to go to the saucepan section.
With this, Kiuchi looked like a mother scolding a child who had walked into a toy shop,
"I"ll just look!! I won"t buy anything!!"
I said in a pleading manner.
… How are you going to handle this, Kiuchi?
But, for the time being I"m bored so that"s why,
She replied compliantly.
Since I"d gotten Kiuchi"s permission, I went alone to the tableware section.
Fancy, chic, cool, cute, there were various types of things. As I thought, this is more fun than looking at saucepans.
A simple tableware set, but with trendy patterns in some places, caught my attention.
You definitely can"t buy this at a 100-yen shop.
… I"ll buy this as a congratulatory gift for moving in.
Even though Kiuchi"s food would taste good in any dish, if it was put on this it would look really good.
Having decided to buy this set, I started looking for the shop attendant when,
Holding a frying pan and a saucepan, Kiuchi came looking for me at the tableware section.
By the way, I also intended to pay for the stuffs Kiuchi was holding onto.
"You didn"t forget to buy anything?? Everything"s good to go??"
Kiuchi, seemed like she was doing okay but not really, so I was just checking.
"Yeah. I haven"t forgotten anything. … I have!! Knives!! I can"t buy knives from the 100-yen shop as well!!"
Kiuchi made a "Hah" face that I"d often seen in mangas. … What, it"s a little funny.
Or I should say, why did you forget the knives, Kiuchi, when you love cooking so much.
"I"ll take the saucepan and the rest to the cash register so Kiuchi-san, you can go look for the knives."
I held up my hands and said "pa.s.s the saucepan and the frying pan".
"Ok. Sorry. Thanks."
Kiuchi entrusted her things to me and ran off to the knives section with a pitter-patter sound.
Although she"s unable to choose between various things, despite taking a long time to make a decision, Kiuchi who was concerned about me getting bored hurriedly went to choose the knives. While thinking "she"s a good person after all" I watched her back disappear then I moved towards the register to deposit the frying pan, saucepan, and the tableware set.
… However, it would have been better if we came here in my car.
The tableware set was awfully big.
While regretting coming here by train, I headed to where Kiuchi was in the section where the knives were displayed.
There were chopping boards and spatulas displayed as well besides the knives that Kiuchi was checking out.
"Wouldn"t it be better to buy these here too rather than from the 100-yen shop?? These will probably last longer."
I pointed towards the spatulas.
"… Well, that"s true."
Without even looking over there, Kiuchi was puzzling over the knives she held in both her hands.
Speaking of which, a woman holding blades in both hands is rather terrifying.
Kiuchi"s reply was ambiguous that"s why, without asking her opinion, I grabbed a spatula and a cutting board and placed them under my arm.
"Ok!! Let"s get this one. Then, shall we go to the register?"
Finally deciding which knife to buy, while muttering "there"s nothing else I"m forgetting to buy" Kiuchi began walking in front of me.
I don"t understand her preferences. She didn"t even notice the fact that I had decided to buy the spatula and the cutting board.
When we reached the register,
"Please add this to the frying pan and the saucepan deposited earlier."
Kiuchi handed the knives to the shop attendant.
"Ah, and this too. That and the tableware set as well. Ah, all together please."
I handed over the spatula and the cutting board too along with my credit card to the shop attendant.
"What?? This. Eh?? Wait a minute. Why are you paying?? Please don’t process it first."