School Trip – Part 2
The accommodations that we had in the mountains was a fairly luxurious inn.
After becoming a working person and asking about various school trips, I realized that comparing it to trips overseas or to famous amus.e.m.e.nt parks, ours was pretty fun.
Well, for an innocent high school student, the style of the inn doesn"t really matter too much. Because I"m a middle aged man on the inside and I"m at the age where these types of subtle beauties can be understood, I can understand how great this inn is.
Once I placed my stuff inside the six-person room, I once again moved to the campgrounds.
"Everyone, we"re making curry together! Let"s give it your all!"
Yeah! The cla.s.s that Hiiragi-chan was in charge of all cheered and faced forward. Of course, other cla.s.ses besides us would also do the same thing. As Hiiragi-chan was explaining, Fujimoto turned to me and whispered.
"Hiiragi-chan in an ap.r.o.n. So cute."
"Yeah. Right?"
"Eh, why such a smug face."
It"s because I see it every week. However, the previous time when I made curry I ended up being a little clumsy and cut my hand. I"ll try not to touch the knife this time… Or so I thought, but since I ended up losing in rock paper scissors, I got stuck with cutting up the onions, carrots, and such.
"I guess I was bound by fate…"
"Why are you saying something that"s so Chuuni? Let"s hurry up and do it."
Fujimoto, who was also roped into doing the same thing, began the work. Just like the last time with the soccer, I will probably end up cutting myself again which will end in some sad memories…
"Sowa sowa, sowa sowa… Ah, your hand, ah, ah…!"
From the shadows of a pillar, Hiiragi-chan was concerned with my hand and began to panic. I wonder if this is really dangerous. I have, for better or worse, experienced cooking as I was living alone as a middle-aged man after all. It"s different from the time with soccer which I had no improvement in at all.
"Sanadkun. Be careful with your hands. The knife is dangerous."
"Sensei. I"m not that much of a child."
"Cat"s paw, a cat"s paw, okay!?" [1]
Nyah, Hiiragi-chan made her hand into that shape while hiding in the shadows of the pillar.
…. So cute.
"Nyah~"
She said it out loud!?
"Hiiragi-chan, what is she doing? Is she pretending to be a cat?"
"Yeah. She seem to be in to that kind of stuff."
"Really. It"s too cute."
I gave him a random response to which Fujimoto accepted it.
"T-there"s no need to put so much strength in it okay!? Let"s do it softly, alright?"
"Sensei, the two of us are alright, so you should go check up on the other people in the cla.s.s."
"Uuuu~"
"Sensei, you"re a little bit too overprotective."
"That"s not true~"
Puku, Hiiragi-chan inflates her cheeks. She made a face that said, "I"m super worried about Seiji-kun." Looking around, the other people in the cla.s.s seem to be progressing smoothly and there was no need for Hiiragi-chan to be worried anyone else.
"Adhesives, disinfectants, and bandages are all prepared!"
"Aaaaaaah!? M-my haaaaaaand, my golden left haaaaaaaaaand."
Fujimoto seemed to have cut his fingertips with the knife. Even if there was blood coming out, it was still only at the level of slight bleeding.
"Hiiragi-chan-senseeeeeeei, first aaaaaiiidddd!"
"Yeah. There"s a first aid kit over there, you know?"
The difference in att.i.tude! Such a huge difference in treatment from me!
"Meeedddiiicccc!"
"There"s no one like that here. Rather, aren"t you the one in charge of health-related problems?"
"Ah, that"s right…"
Fujimoto then left from the front lines. As I started to do Fujimoto"s work in place of him, Hiiragi-chan pulling up her sleeves.
"Mou, Hiiragi Haruka can"t just stand by and watch anymore."
Hiiragi-chan came in as a pinch-hitter, in place of Fujimoto. Fun. She snorted and then… sutotototototototototo, and began cutting the onions.
"""Ooooooohhh~"""
The surrounding students were all amazed after seeing how Hiiragi-chan was working.
"Sanadkun, you can just sit there and watch, okay?"
"I feel like the majority of the enjoyment I"m supposed to get from making curry was stolen…"
"Eeeeeh? Isn"t eating delicious curry most of the enjoyment?"
"Well, I guess, but…"
As we continued our exchange her working speed didn"t even drop. As expected, Hiiragi-chan is amazing.Somehow, this is as if a major league showed up to a place where kids were just having fun playing baseball.
"Looking at it once again, you almost seem like a mother with your hands. You do everything so quickly and precisely."
"I"m not a mother, I"m just a teacher."
Also, my girlfriend. Maybe we were thinking of the same thing, but Hiiragi-chan ended up going, mufufu and then grinning.
"Alright, it"s all done!"
I never even had the time to cut my hand, and everything was cut to the correct size.
"The rest is just stirring it and letting it cook, you can do it, right?"
Yes, after hearing the reply from everyone, Hiiragi-chan once again returned to the shadows of the pillar. Just like it was in the procedures, everyone in the group continued to cook, until the curry was finally done.
"Heeeeeeey, it"s baaaaaad."
Fujimoto came back with his left hand wrapped in bandages.
"Shut up, what"s with those bandages? Didn"t you only cut your fingertips?"
"Fu, if I unwrap these bandages even I don"t know what would happen…"
"It"s not like I really want to know. And, what is it?"
"Can"t you play along! You have to be a fake Sanada!"
"If they did play along, they would probably be the fake. Remember that."
From the side, Hiiragi-chan was looking over and said, "What happens if it were to be taken off…?" She was completely interested in it.
"Then, why were you making so much of a commotion?"
"The rice, the riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccceeeeeee…."
Hey hey hey. The curry has been made properly, but the rice wasn"t cooked properly!? I guess you could fail at making rice if you"re using camping tools…
"The rice! It"s been cooooooooked nicely!"
"So it"s been cooked!"
Uuuoooooh, the max-tensioned Fujimoto raised his fist in the air. The other people in the cla.s.s did the same thing and made a fist pump with all their might. T-they"re this happy about that…
Fujimoto used his hand wrapped in bandages to pick up the lid off the hot rice cooker. The bandages were there for picking up the hot lid!? Inside was some piping hot rice.
"Any cla.s.s that"s done can eat when they want to, okay?"
Following Hiiragi-chan"s instructions, everyone filled up their rice. Then, they lined up in front of Hiiragi-chan, who was stirring the curry, so that they could have it put on top of their rice. Once everyone took their seats, everyone went, "Itadakimasu," and began to eat.
"… You know? Sanada."
"Is something wrong?"
"Somehow, it seems like you"re the only one with more meat. I don"t even have a single piece."
"There"s no way—"
Ah. I am the only one with a lot of meat. Me too, me too, as everyone went down the line and noticed. Rather, I"m the only one with meat in it. I caught a glimpse of the criminal who was cutely going, hehepero.
Is this elementary school lunch? Giving the most to the person you like the most? Whether it was my fault, or goodwill towards me, I was 100% in love, so even if I wanted to be mad I couldn"t be. Kohon, I cleared my throat.
"Hey. The person that put in the curry was Hiiragi-chan, you know? Would our G.o.ddess ever do something so low like that?"
"""T-that"s true…"""
"Every once in a while something like this can happen."
As everyone looked at Hiiragi-chan, she smiled and waved her hand. Everyone calmed down as they waved back.
"If it looks like there isn"t any meat inside, it"s because your hearts have been dirtied. That"s why you can"t see it."
"""So that"s how it is…!"""
No, it"s completely wrong. However, it seems like everyone was convinced with that.
"Can Sensei also have a bit of the curry that this cla.s.s made?"
Please please, as we all invited the G.o.ddess to partake.
"Sensei, our… no, the curry that we made, how is it!?"
Fujimoto, the only thing you did was make a commotion after your hand was cut.
"Yeah. It"s good ♪"
Yeeeeeeeeaaaaah! Everyone made a fist pump.
"Sanadkun as well, come on."
Hiiragi-chan used her own spoon as she gave me a bite to eat.
"Yeah, it"s good. Rather, we"re all eating the same thing."
"That"s right ♡"
It was definitely on purpose Ah. I played along as I normally did and went aaaahhnn…
"""I-indirect kiss… with Hiiragi-chan…"""
Other than me, everyone else was whispering and fidgeting as if they had seen a moment that should not have been seen. Are these guys middle schoolers? Our, "It"s not…" talk show has already ended, okay? [2]
"Then, is it fine for Sensei as well?"
"Ah, yes."
I used my spoon to feed Hiiragi-chan some curry too.
"It"s so good ♪"
"""If we have Sanada"s spoon, we can have an indirect kiss with Hiiragi-chan."""
Thanks to the attention brought about by the spoon, no one paid no heed to the fact that we ended up feeding each other.
I don"t even need to say this but a war broke out over my spoon afterwards.
TL Note:
j.a.panese people liken the curled hand that you"re supposed to have when you"re cutting things with a knife to a cat"s paw. It"s supposed to help you not cutoff your fingers. I"m a little bit not sure of this line. "こちとら、『じゃないほう』もすでに終えてるんですけどねえええええええ？" But from what little research I"m able to do and understand, I believe it was supposed to be some sort of broadcasted show with celebrities. Someone please correct me if I"m wrong.