Chapter 12
Lunch and Sana’s Misgivings
And so, the month changed and it became May.
Sana and I officially entered into the home economics club, and Hiiragi-chan officially became the advisor for the club.In order for Ii-san to deepen her friendship with the two of them, she had invited the siblings to have lunch with her in the home economics cla.s.sroom where she always was.
By the way, my bentou today was the same as Sana’s for the first time in a long time. That’s because I can’t very well have Hiiragi-chan make me a bentou and feed it to me in a situation like this.
As we were waiting, we caught sight of Ii-san, who we were waiting for. Sana called out with her voice.
“Kanchan! h.e.l.lo~”
Kanchan? Aah, she means Ii-san. More importantly, when did they get so close?
As usual, Ii-san kept her usual politeness by standing up and giving a slight bow.
“h.e.l.lo.”
Her quiet voice was also normal.
As they were having lunch together, a conversation about that games that Sana had been playing, and the ways in which she cleared them, began. I was the only one left out and it felt a little lonely. Hm. Kanchan… does it mean that Kanchan…?
I somehow had the impression that I heard that name before from the Sana ten years in the future. They knew each other from their company as she was her senior and that they had come from the same high school…
“Ah, so that’s what it was!”
“Nii-san, please don’t let out such a loud voice so suddenly.”
I didn’t know anything about Ii-san. Last time, I had graduated from high school without knowing who she was.
Neither should she have had any point of contact with Sana during high school. Both
Sana and I were, as far as I could tell, loners in high school and didn’t really know very many uppercla.s.smen or undercla.s.smen.
However, Ii-san was the Kanchan that Sana had met at the company that she had joined…
“So this is what destiny is.”
“h.e.l.lo, are you okay? You’ve just been muttering to yourself for a little while now.”
Sana was looking at me suspiciously, but there’s nothing she needs to concern herself with. I held onto Ii-san’s small hands.
“!! W-what is it…?”
“Ii-san. I leave Sana to you. She has a bad mouth, is pretty shy, and has a flat chest, but she’s not a bad person.”
“??”
“What are you doing, Nii-san? Stop it. And having a flat chest has nothing to do with this!”
In order to force me to sit down, Sana pulled on my belt.
“Don’t you see that Kanchan is surprised and troubled?”
Ah. It’s true. Her cheeks were dyed red and she had stiffened up.
“It’s because Nii-san suddenly grabbed her hand.”
“No… well, I’m sorry for that.”
As an older brother, I had to give a greeting to the person that would be looking after my younger sister in the future. All I was doing was acting on adult common sense.
“Everyone’s here, right?”
Hiiragi-chan, who walked in us, called out while smiling. She seemed to want to shorten the distance between herself and the club members that had entered. No matter how sharp Sana is, there still hasn’t been anything to point out that Hiiragi-chan likes me…
“Sensei, are you going to be eating two bentous?”
“Ah, this?”
Wait, she brought it!? The bentou with only touaage in it!
Even though I told her that today was a day where everyone was going to eat together, so there wasn’t a need for it.
it. No matter how you think of it, me eating Hiiragi-chan’s homemade bentou in front of these two people is completely out of the question.
“What are you thinking!”
Perhaps it was because I was making an upset face, Hiiragi-chan went “Ah,” and made a face that seemed to show that she had noticed her mistake. Sana was gazing suspiciously at the bentou wrapped in a blue handkerchief.
“Ummm, you see. I made a mistake, so I was wondering if we could eat it all together…”
Made a mistake and made more? Are you my mother!? It felt like the time when my mother had made me a bentou even though I had told her that we were ending school in the morning.
“Hiiragi-sensei’s homemade food? Uwah, I’m looking forward to it.”
Do your best, me. I have to put give it my all in following through. Bububu, my phone vibrated, and a text from Sana arrived. What is it? We were right in front of each other, and yet she was sending a text.
[This, this is the I can cook appeal! Nii-san, don’t get tricked!]
Even if you say not to be deceived, if she’s good at cooking then isn’t it completely fine. More importantly, you can’t even make a proper fried egg.
Try some if you would like, Hiiragi-chan said that as she laid out the touaage bentou on the desk. Well, since only touaage is inside, she could make an excuse like, “I got overly excited and ended up frying way too much. Tehe ☆,” and pa.s.s it off like that.
Pakari, the bentou lid opened. Rice and side dishes, a bentou designed to have good balance was placed before them.
Why!?
Why are you doing it perfectly normal today!
Hiiragi-chan made a face
a face that was like, ah, this is bad. The side dishes, no matter how you thought of it, were ones that boys would like, touaage, hamburger, omelette, and so on and so forth were put inside. It was completely brown colored.
This is bad. Sana was looking at the bentou with cold eyes. Then, she looked down and seemed to be doing something with her hand.
Bububu. A text came.
[She definitely made that for Sei-kun! No matter how you think about it, that has to be it! This is a dirty trick from a girl’s handbook. It’s definitely an appeal to show that she is a girl that can do housework.]
She found out…
“T-today, I had various ingredients left over you see… so, I ended up putting my all into making another bentou. Normally, I hold back a little more, right?”
Right… right? Don’t ask me! Yeah, that’s right. If I said that, then they’ll know that we usually eat lunch together. That’s such bad cooperation!
At that time, Ii-san smoothly stretched out her chopsticks and ate some of Hiiragi-chan’s touaage from the bento.
“… It’s good. Schan, sensei’s bentou is really good.”
Nice one, Ii-san!
“Is that so? If Kanchan says so, then…”
Sana also ate one. Howaah, her expression melted. Didn’t this girl just tell me to not be fooled…?
“Sanchan, how is it?”
“… Yeah… it’s good… S-sana can also make it if it’s just this much.”
You liar, stop lying. What are you trying to compete with?
Seeing the Sana look like she was trying to pick a fight, Hiiragi-chan smiled and laughed. Sanadkun as well, Hiiragi-chan said as she held out her bentou to me while I was eating my own. Yeah. It’s good as usual.
In the end, the girls were all fullwere all full from eating their own bentous, and I was left with eating the whole thing.
That night, I was waiting as usual for a call from Hiiragi-chan—at 8:30 it came. Of course, it was for the sake of reflection.
“Sensei, that was a bit scary, so be careful from now on, alright?”
“It’s not Sensei, it’s Haruksan when we’re alone, right? …But, I’m reflecting on that already. I as well, thought that it was bad.”
Yeah, we were barely able to make it through today.
“Also, Sana seems to suspect that Sensei likes me…”
“Kya ♪! She found out ♪!”
She seemed to be having fun.
“Well, she isn’t wrong… but, if she found out it would be bad. Since she’s shy though, she seems to be on guard towards you, Haruksan.”
“Shy? I don’t think it’s like that, though?It seemed like it was like, there’s a person trying to steal my beloved brother away from me so I need to keep my distance from her kind of reaction though?”
Beloved brother…
I’m pretty sure Hiiragi-chan was just being a little bit too aggressive. Though, I believe the reason probably is just shyness. Even if it’s Hiiragi-chan who was the same gender that’s how she would probably see it.
“Sanchan, she’s so cute. Her pretty face, her compet.i.tiveness in trying to compete with me, who seemed to be trying to take Seiji-kun away. It’s all so cute.”
It’s cute? Coming from Hiiragi-chan who was so much older in age, it seems that she sees her as a little sister.
“Well then, good night. See you tomorrow at school.”
The sound of a kiss came through the phone.
Yeah…
This might be the first time ever since I was born that I was looking forward to going to school the next day.