Summer has finally arrived.
“There has to be something weird about this.”
The good-looking immensely rich student president, Mizusaki-senpai, sat in his designated desk and glared at the intelligent-looking glasses-wearing vice student president, Tanaka-senpai.
She wasn’t affected by his glare at all and answered clearly, “There’s nothing weird going on at all.”
“No, it’s weird no matter how you look at it!” Mizusaki-senpai shouted. “Why do we have to give up on our summer vacations to read reports of each student committee!? We’re also working without breaks or any consideration that it’s test period right now, you know!? What the hell is with this schedule we have!!”
“It’s like this every year,” Tanaka-senpai explained. “The new student council will take over at the end of June. That’s why they have to read everyone’s reports within July or they won’t know how every committee is doing at the moment. Plus, once summer vacation is over, we’ll be busy with things like preparing for the Cultural Festival. In the first place, you can finish reading all the reports in one day. Saying you have to give up your summer is a complete exaggeration.”
I, Niimi Shiori, am currently submitting documents to the student council room.
It’s July now. Summer vacation will start for us students in the second half of this month. Before then, we have our semester exams and ball game tournament waiting for us.
A week before the semester exams was the exam preparation period where every club will take a break. Starting right today is this so-called exam preparation period, but like Mizusaki-senpai and Tanaka-senpai said, it has nothing to do with committee members or the student council. Naturally, I, a vice class rep, was working with menial tasks as usual.
“Even if it’s just one day, it’s my precious summer vacation, you know. I planned the trip around Europe I couldn’t take during GW for this summer too,” Mizusaki-senpai complained.
“It’s only one day, manage somehow and finish up the work. You’re our student president, aren’t you?”
Accountant Kaneshiro-senpai eventually hit his calculator, signalling the end of the two’s conversation with a thin smile on his good-looking face. Around them were the first years, secretary, general affairs manager, and assistant, trembling in fear.
Incidentally, I was drinking green tea, wondering if they could hurry up and press their seal on my application already.
Jeez. Here I am, using my precious lunchtime to be here.
“Tanaka-san, please tell every committee to submit their reports by after school on the day before the closing ceremony. I will make sure our student president, Homare, will confirm every report before summer vacation begins,” Kaneshiro-senpai said to Tanaka-senpai.
“I guess I have no other choice. I will compromise with that plan. If you have any questions, make sure to tell me on the closing ceremony day. As for all the other members besides the president, make sure you come to school on the first day of summer vacation. Understand?”
While all the other members answered Tanaka-senpai, Mizusaki-senpai kept his silence. Eventually, he glared at Kaneshiro-senpai with sharp eyes before he opened his mouth.
“Hey, Atsushi.”
Kaneshiro-senpai smiled brightly at the displeased Mizusaki-senpai. “You can, can’t you?”
“……Of course I can. Who the hell do you think I am?” Mizusaki-senpai retorted.
Now then, I wonder If I can approach them now.
“Mizusaki-senpai, could you please kindly stamp your seal on this application,” I asked. “I have cooking class next, so I don’t have much time anymore.”
Mizusaki-senpai turned to scowl at me next. “What is this?”
“It’s an application asking for permission to borrow the music room during summer vacation,” I explained, passing the document to him.
He ran his eyes up and down the document. “The second music room…? This combination here isn’t for a classical music club.”
“It’s an amateur band my classmates formed. They plan on holding a live concert at the auditorium during the Cultural Festival, so please come by to listen.”
“Hmm~” Mizusaki-senpai stamped the application before telling me arrogantly, “Tell them to prepare a seat for me.”
“I will tell them to prepare the grandest exclusive seat,” I replied.
Staying here too long will be a pain, so I quickly took the document back and got up. I thanked everyone before leaving the student council room and jogged back to my classroom.
When I reached Year 1, Class B, no one was around anymore. Naturally, Maria-jou who I was spying on was gone too. I gathered up my belongings the fastest I can and moved to the home economics room.
This spring I was told this world was a certain otome game by my cousin, Hibiya Kazuto.
My great dear cousin’s little sister in his past life loved that certain otome game. And, for whatever reason, my cousin reincarnated into that game’s world and became the heroine’s capture target. However, he didn’t want to be captured by the heroine, no matter what. As such, I was spying on the heroine to make sure my cousin doesn’t get captured.
My reason? Because it seemed fun.
The heroine of the game is Maria-jou, also known as Aikawa Maria. She, too, probably knew this world was an otome game and has approached the capture targets in various ways.
At the moment, the relationship between my cousin, Kazu-nii, and Maria-jou haven’t progressed much. However, we still can’t let our guard down yet. Thus I would nonchalantly check what she’s doing and where she’s going day after day.
“You’re just in time, Shiori-chan!”
I slid into the home economics room, and that was when Sasaki Yumi-chan called out to me. She was wearing an apron at the moment and the girl I was closest with in class. We were also in the same group for cooking class.
The boys of our group were Shibuya-kun, also our class rep, and Matsumoto-kun. Both of them had their aprons on as well.
In Seika Maria Secondary Academy, both the boys and girls will take home economics class together. This time we were to make a four member group of both genders and make whatever dessert we wanted today. Our topic didn’t specify western or eastern, but most groups chose western sweets. My group was the same too.
Incidentally, Maria-jou’s group included the reporting club member, Matsuri Kyouko-jou, young designer, Kamura-kun, and the swimming club member, Tsuchiya-kun. The said Kamura-kun and Tsuchiya-kun were capture targets.
I glanced at their group. The members surrounded Maria-jou and were chatting in a harmonious manner. It was definitely what you call an otome game atmosphere.
I put on my apron like everyone else. It was striped and a refreshing light blue colour, suitable for summer. The charm point of the apron were the dark blue lines here and there in the stripes.
Alrighty, the crucial part of today’s cooking class is the menu.
I obtained information that Maria-jou’s group was making pudding the other day. As for why they were making pudding — it was because it was Kazu-nii’s favourite dessert. Kazu-nii was also the homeroom teacher of our class, Class B. It looks like Maria-jou plans on offering her extra pudding to him.
It’ll be bad if some romance event happens because of her offering, so Kazu-nii told everyone yesterday morning the following: “If anyone’s making pudding in cooking class tomorrow, give some to me too~”
In other words, we believed if other girls gave pudding to Kazu-nii then Maria-jou wouldn’t be special anymore. Personally, I thought all Kazu-nii had to do was turn all offerings down. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple. Kazu-nii wasn’t the only teacher who gets these offerings. It was hard to turn down students with those teachers in mind. Plus, Kazu-nii really, really loves pudding.
Thanks to Kazu-nii, some groups suddenly changed their menu to pudding. That being said, my group planned on making crepes at first but also changed to pudding. Besides his remark in the morning, he actually directly requested me to make pudding the other day.
Though I told the members of my group I wanted to make pudding cause I found an interesting recipe and not because of some girlish reason like wanting to give pudding to Kazu-nii.
“And… What kind of pudding is it?” Yumi-chan asked, keen.
Iinchou and Matsumoto-kun also peered into my face.
Oh yeah, Matsumoto-kun is our classmate and good friends with Iinchou. His features were average and he was in the baseball club. His hair was in a crew cut.
Incidentally, these two were not Maria-jou’s capture targets.
I explained to everyone in my group about the pudding we were making today.
“It’s a three-layer pudding. And I was thinking we’ll make two patterns of it. The top layer will either be an orange or strawberry jelly and the middle will be milk pudding.” I took out bottles of orange and strawberry syrups I took from home.
“Wow! They’re really pretty,” Yumi-chan said with her eyes sparkling.
This is a relatively easy menu to make once we use gelatine, yet it will look good. It might be a little bit different to truly call this pudding… Still I always make custard pudding since Kazu-nii begs for it, so I’m starting to get sick of making it.
“But that’s only two layers. What’s the last layer?” Iinchou asked, tilting his head.
“The last layer is going to be soft adzuki-bean jelly, so it’ll be refreshing,” I answered.
“Isn’t this a combination of western and eastern sweets? ……Is it tasty?” Yumi-chan looked a little concerned when she asked this.
“You’ll have to look forward to it when you eat it,” I said instead.
Well, it actually is good. But I want them to try it out themselves.
“Niimi, you’re good at cooking, huh…” Matsumoto-kun mumbled.
I couldn’t help but smile wryly. “This isn’t what you call being good at cooking.”
I think making desserts and cooking are two different things.
“Now then, let’s get started.”
We smoothly made the puddings with the ingredients we prepared. All that was left to do was to wait for it to solidify in the fridge.
I gazed over to Maria-jou’s group.
They were making a basic custard pudding. As such, they will mix ingredients and then bake it in a microwave oven. It seems Kyouko-jou wasn’t good at cooking, so they all worked with Maria-jou as the centre. Designer-kun was dexterous, so he was able to support Maria-jou without a single issue. On the other hand, Tsuchiya-kun was completely useless.
There were multiple microwave ovens in the home economics room. However, most of the groups in our class wanted to use it, so they all had to wait in line. If they don’t cook smoothly, class might end before they’re even done.
Maybe it was because of that, Maria-jou moved in a big hurry. And when she took out the puddings from the oven, she touched the hot iron plate by accident.
“Hot!!” She let out a high-pitched scream.
At the same time, a loud, heavy sound echoed throughout the room. Her group’s pudding scattered across the floor, looking quite miserable.
But the small mercy is the puddings were just about done. They were solid enough that some properly stuck against the cups. Maria-jou was able to avoid the worst scenario where all the puddings were destroyed.
“A-Ah…! I-I’m sorry……!” She paled.
Even some puddings were saved, there were only enough to submit to the home economics teacher and for everyone in the group to try out once. The rest couldn’t be eaten. Maria-jou apologized to the members of her group. This was when Tsuchiya-shounen ran up to her.
“Who cares about that! Are you hurt!?” He raised his voice and roughly grabbed Maria-jou’s hand to place it at the sink. He twisted the tap as much as possible to get cold water out and have it running on Maria-jou’s hand.
“You didn’t… get a burn, right?” Tsuchiya-shounen was pale, like he was the one who got injured.
“N-No… I think I’m okay,” Maria-jou mumbled out softly with her face red as her hand was in Tsuchiya-shounen’s.
Meanwhile, Tsuchiya-shounen looked confused when he saw how Maria-jou was red to her ears and cast her eyes down. Eventually, he realized he was holding Maria-jou’s hand and quickly let go with a gasp.
“M-My bad. I wasn’t thinking……”
“N-No, don’t worry. You were just worried about me,” Maria-jou said.
They were both red as they awkwardly exchanged words.
The two of you, the water is still running, you know.
This was when Designer-kun popped his head from the side. “Ah, ah~ Your hand is so pretty, so it’s going to be a waste~ Want me to put a charm so you won’t get a scar?” He asked as he twisted the tab, stopping the water completely.
He then took Maria-jou’s hand into his and pressed his lips against the back of her hand. Everyone could hear the sounds of his lips.
If he was disinfecting her then never mind. What the heck did he mean by charm? Also, was that where Maria-jou burnt herself? And not her fingers? Either way, this was kind of a habit of Designer-kun. That being said, Maria-jou will be embarrassed if you kiss her like that.
Her cheeks flushed even more red. “I’m happy with your feelings but… could you let go? I have to clean up,” she said with a small voice.
Meanwhile, Kyouko-jou naturally didn’t forget to clean up. She collected the dropped pudding cups and put them back on top of the iron plate. After that she began cleaning up the scattered pudding that fell out of their cups onto the floor.
Naturally, the kind members of Class B wouldn’t let Kyouko-jou clean all by herself. And our group especially since we didn’t have to use the oven and had extra time.
Me and Yumi-chan came with cloths to wipe the floor together with Kyouko-jou. If we don’t clean up properly, the next people who’ll use the oven will be troubled. Plus, they also wouldn’t be able to finish class properly.
Kyouko-jou lined up the okay puddings on their kitchen counter once we finished cleaning. They came to a total number of five. She put one to the side to submit to the teacher before giving everyone in her group one.
“Alright, let’s eat,” Kyouko-jou said with a bright smile.
However, Maria-jou didn’t move to eat her pudding.
I see. She plans on offering her share to Kazu-nii.
“You’re not eating? Maria,” Kyouko-jou asked. Maria-jou’s eyebrows dropped like she was troubled. She told Kyouko-jou she wanted to give it to Kazu-nii since he’s always helping her.
Designer-kun then pointed at his pudding cup. “Then Maria-chan can eat my pudding with me. I’ll even go ‘ahh~’ and feed you.”
“What……!?” Tsuchiya-shounen’s complexion changed. He was already irritated with how Designer-kun kissed Maria-jou’s hand earlier. There’s no way he could stay calm if the two of them fed each other right in front of his eyes. “I don’t need this, so you eat it,” he said in the end and put his pudding in front of Maria-jou.
“But if I do then Tsukkun will…..”
Oi, Maria-jou, are you planning on eating the whole pudding all by yourself? How about obediently having one of the two go ‘ahh~’ and feed you personally with their spoon?
“But everyone made it together, so I want to eat together with everyone in the end,” Maria-jou said, hanging her head down with sadness.
Then why don’t you give up offering pudding to Kazu-nii?
“Then it can’t be helped. We can just do it this way,” Kyouko-jou butted in after looking for the right timing. “Maria’s going to share half of mine. You guys will each have your own. Maria’s the one who prepared the recipe and ingredients, so make sure you tell her how the pudding was after you finish. Of course, if you say it tastes bad or something, I’ll send you flying.” Kyouko-jou declared with a ‘hmph’.
Tsuchiya-shounen looked the other way. Designer-kun laughed lightly.
Yumi-chan and I were washing the cloths we used earlier and couldn’t help but exchange looks.
You’re amazing. Just wonderful, Kyouko-jou. It’s thanks to you Maria-jou managed to avoid decreasing both Tsuchiya-shounen and Designer-kun’s affection rates. Maria-jou should be more grateful to Kyouko-jou.
Alright, it seems all the groups have finished. It’ll be free time for us all after we submit our desserts to the home economics teacher.
As for the girls who plan on giving pudding to Kazu-nii, they were all heading off together right now.
“Hmm……” I mumbled under my breath.
Yumi-chan looked curiously at me. “What’s wrong, Shiori-chan?”
A thought suddenly came into my mind. There were other girls besides Maria-jou offering pudding to Kazu-nii.
My goal was to make sure Kazu-nii and Maria-jou weren’t alone together when she offers. With all those other girls, I get the feeling I don’t have to go out of my way to see Kazu-nii anymore. I watched the girls leave the home economics room one after another in a group.
Yumi-chan gazed at me with confusion. “Shiori-chan, you’re not going to go with them?”
“Yeah, I’m not going,” I confirmed.
“Eh!?” She let out a wild voice.
I don’t think she needs to get this surprised. In the first place, I never said a single word that I’ll be offering anything to Kazu-nii.
“Eh? Huh? Cause…… Shiori-chan, you suddenly wanted to change the menu to pudding so I was sure……”
“Eh?”
“H-Huh? I misunderstood? I really thought that, you know…..” Yumi-chan mumbled words before swallowing them down.
Well, yeah, I’m sure she’s thinking about how I might have changed the menu because of Kazu-nii’s remark. “More importantly, let’s eat our puddings,” I said to her with a light smile.
Just moments before, we submitted the two kinds of pudding we made to the teacher. We had a total of 16 left. We calculated so that each person gets two of each flavour. Even I feel we made a lot this time.
“Iinchou, Matsumoto-kun, are you going to bring it to someone? Or eat here?” When I asked, the two boys turned to look at each other.
“If you’re going to give me extras then my friends at club…… Ah, no, never mind. There’s too many of them to share,” Matsumoto-kun answered, shaking his head. It’s true that the baseball club probably had a great number of people.
“In that case, I’ll…..” Iinchou was about to tell us something, but suddenly the home economics room got noisy.
I could hear girls crying out with excitement. I wonder what was going on, so I cast my eyes to the door. Mizusaki-senpai and Kaneshiro-senpai were right there. And, unexpectedly, Tanaka-senpai was with the two as well.
“Yo, I thought there might be girls who’d want their student president to try out their sweets, so I came by,” Mizusaki-senpai declared with a smirk as he came in. The noises in the room grew even louder.
Meanwhile, Yumi-chan was shocked speechless at the sudden appearance of Kaneshiro-senpai who she admired.
They probably showed up because I mentioned I had cooking class next back in the student council room. Never mind Tanaka-senpai, I don’t owe anything to Mizusaki-senpai or Kaneshiro-senpai to have to share with them. But the other girls started to line up their extra desserts in front of the two. Yumi-chan panicked and started to copy them.
…Well, fine.
“Which will you like?” I asked, pointing at the orange pudding and strawberry pudding.
Mizusaki-senpai frowned. “Don’t I have a choice of taking both?” He asked.
“If you eat too much, your stomach will hurt. Plus, there are still many desserts from the other groups waiting for you,” I told him with disbelief.
Tanaka-senpai made a small laugh. “Which one do you recommend?” She asked.
“If I have to pick then the orange, I think. You will be able to enjoy both sourness and sweetness at the same time,” I answered.
“Then could I have one of the orange puddings?”
“Of course!”
My affection rate was highest for Tanaka-senpai within this trio. Meanwhile, Mizusaki-senpai took two orange puddings, handed one to Kaneshiro-senpai, and quickly started to feast on it.
Yumi-chan was brewing black tea she bought from home. Unfortunately, the home economics room didn’t have a tea set, so the cups we were using were normal mugs.
“It’s tea from tea bags but….. Umm, please enjoy,” Yumi-chan said to them with a small voice as she placed mugs in front of the three.
Come on, Yumi-chan. This is your chance to appeal yourself to Kaneshiro-senpai! Was what I thought in my head but it seems to be too difficult for the docile Yumi-chan.
By the time we prepared a warm welcoming for these three, I asked myself why did they even come here in the first place? I was puzzled. I can’t imagine them coming here just to taste-test everyone’s desserts. If they were, Tanaka-senpai would have stopped them long ago.
Also, what’s happening with their classes? Is it self-study right now?
“We’re sorry for showing up so suddenly. We planned on visiting Class B after school but the president complained…..” Tanaka-senpai began.
“He said if we left now, we’ll also get sweets at the same time,” Kaneshiro-senpai ended.
Mizusaki-senpai wasn’t affected one bit from the disgusted eyes from the two. Instead, he declared this with a nonchalant expression, “This is pretty good. Hey, hand me the other flavour too.”
Don’t joke~ With me~!
I wanted to shout, there isn’t any for you, at him. Unfortunately, Iinchou quickly handed the other flavour over to Mizusaki-senpai.
Grr, this bastard. On top of the orange pudding, he was now eating the new strawberry pudding with satisfaction on his face. Well, I do feel honoured that our pudding suited his celebrity tastes.
“By the way, what business do you have here today? We are still in the middle of class, so we would like to get it over with,” Iinchou asked them.
Kaneshiro-senpai was the one who answered him. “It’s regarding the schedule for the upcoming ball game tournament you submitted the other day. Your class was the only one with an error. I’m sure someone forgot to add it in, so we came to have you fill it out. Never mind the other subjects, I’m sure we won’t be as much of a bother if we came near the end of a cooking class. Luckily, we have self-study in this period too. We have to submit every class’ schedule to the academy today, so we need to get it done.”
An error~!?
Iinchou and I exchanged looks. We punctually prepared for the schedule for the ball game tournament in June. How could it be?
The two of us peered into the schedule Tanaka-senpai passed over to us. We tried to look too close that we bumped our heads together. Owie.
Putting that aside, I tried to confirm everything with great detail. Before we submitted it, the two of us had also looked it over together. Where can there be an error……. Huh?
This is weird. In the participation schedule, there was a new entry penned in right under tennis.
“Participation slot for a doubles tennis event?”
What the heck is this? I haven’t heard of this before.
Summer has finally arrived.
“There has to be something weird about this.”
The good-looking immensely rich student president, Mizusaki-senpai, sat in his designated desk and glared at the intelligent-looking glasses-wearing vice student president, Tanaka-senpai.
She wasn’t affected by his glare at all and answered clearly, “There’s nothing weird going on at all.”
“No, it’s weird no matter how you look at it!” Mizusaki-senpai shouted. “Why do we have to give up on our summer vacations to read reports of each student committee!? We’re also working without breaks or any consideration that it’s test period right now, you know!? What the hell is with this schedule we have!!”
“It’s like this every year,” Tanaka-senpai explained. “The new student council will take over at the end of June. That’s why they have to read everyone’s reports within July or they won’t know how every committee is doing at the moment. Plus, once summer vacation is over, we’ll be busy with things like preparing for the Cultural Festival. In the first place, you can finish reading all the reports in one day. Saying you have to give up your summer is a complete exaggeration.”
I, Niimi Shiori, am currently submitting documents to the student council room.
It’s July now. Summer vacation will start for us students in the second half of this month. Before then, we have our semester exams and ball game tournament waiting for us.
A week before the semester exams was the exam preparation period where every club will take a break. Starting right today is this so-called exam preparation period, but like Mizusaki-senpai and Tanaka-senpai said, it has nothing to do with committee members or the student council. Naturally, I, a vice class rep, was working with menial tasks as usual.
“Even if it’s just one day, it’s my precious summer vacation, you know. I planned the trip around Europe I couldn’t take during GW for this summer too,” Mizusaki-senpai complained.
“It’s only one day, manage somehow and finish up the work. You’re our student president, aren’t you?”
Accountant Kaneshiro-senpai eventually hit his calculator, signalling the end of the two’s conversation with a thin smile on his good-looking face. Around them were the first years, secretary, general affairs manager, and assistant, trembling in fear.
Incidentally, I was drinking green tea, wondering if they could hurry up and press their seal on my application already.
Jeez. Here I am, using my precious lunchtime to be here.
“Tanaka-san, please tell every committee to submit their reports by after school on the day before the closing ceremony. I will make sure our student president, Homare, will confirm every report before summer vacation begins,” Kaneshiro-senpai said to Tanaka-senpai.
“I guess I have no other choice. I will compromise with that plan. If you have any questions, make sure to tell me on the closing ceremony day. As for all the other members besides the president, make sure you come to school on the first day of summer vacation. Understand?”
While all the other members answered Tanaka-senpai, Mizusaki-senpai kept his silence. Eventually, he glared at Kaneshiro-senpai with sharp eyes before he opened his mouth.
“Hey, Atsushi.”
Kaneshiro-senpai smiled brightly at the displeased Mizusaki-senpai. “You can, can’t you?”
“……Of course I can. Who the hell do you think I am?” Mizusaki-senpai retorted.
Now then, I wonder If I can approach them now.
“Mizusaki-senpai, could you please kindly stamp your seal on this application,” I asked. “I have cooking class next, so I don’t have much time anymore.”
Mizusaki-senpai turned to scowl at me next. “What is this?”
“It’s an application asking for permission to borrow the music room during summer vacation,” I explained, passing the document to him.
He ran his eyes up and down the document. “The second music room…? This combination here isn’t for a classical music club.”
“It’s an amateur band my classmates formed. They plan on holding a live concert at the auditorium during the Cultural Festival, so please come by to listen.”
“Hmm~” Mizusaki-senpai stamped the application before telling me arrogantly, “Tell them to prepare a seat for me.”
“I will tell them to prepare the grandest exclusive seat,” I replied.
Staying here too long will be a pain, so I quickly took the document back and got up. I thanked everyone before leaving the student council room and jogged back to my classroom.
When I reached Year 1, Class B, no one was around anymore. Naturally, Maria-jou who I was spying on was gone too. I gathered up my belongings the fastest I can and moved to the home economics room.
This spring I was told this world was a certain otome game by my cousin, Hibiya Kazuto.
My great dear cousin’s little sister in his past life loved that certain otome game. And, for whatever reason, my cousin reincarnated into that game’s world and became the heroine’s capture target. However, he didn’t want to be captured by the heroine, no matter what. As such, I was spying on the heroine to make sure my cousin doesn’t get captured.
My reason? Because it seemed fun.
The heroine of the game is Maria-jou, also known as Aikawa Maria. She, too, probably knew this world was an otome game and has approached the capture targets in various ways.
At the moment, the relationship between my cousin, Kazu-nii, and Maria-jou haven’t progressed much. However, we still can’t let our guard down yet. Thus I would nonchalantly check what she’s doing and where she’s going day after day.
“You’re just in time, Shiori-chan!”
I slid into the home economics room, and that was when Sasaki Yumi-chan called out to me. She was wearing an apron at the moment and the girl I was closest with in class. We were also in the same group for cooking class.
The boys of our group were Shibuya-kun, also our class rep, and Matsumoto-kun. Both of them had their aprons on as well.
In Seika Maria Secondary Academy, both the boys and girls will take home economics class together. This time we were to make a four member group of both genders and make whatever dessert we wanted today. Our topic didn’t specify western or eastern, but most groups chose western sweets. My group was the same too.
Incidentally, Maria-jou’s group included the reporting club member, Matsuri Kyouko-jou, young designer, Kamura-kun, and the swimming club member, Tsuchiya-kun. The said Kamura-kun and Tsuchiya-kun were capture targets.
I glanced at their group. The members surrounded Maria-jou and were chatting in a harmonious manner. It was definitely what you call an otome game atmosphere.
I put on my apron like everyone else. It was striped and a refreshing light blue colour, suitable for summer. The charm point of the apron were the dark blue lines here and there in the stripes.
Alrighty, the crucial part of today’s cooking class is the menu.
I obtained information that Maria-jou’s group was making pudding the other day. As for why they were making pudding — it was because it was Kazu-nii’s favourite dessert. Kazu-nii was also the homeroom teacher of our class, Class B. It looks like Maria-jou plans on offering her extra pudding to him.
It’ll be bad if some romance event happens because of her offering, so Kazu-nii told everyone yesterday morning the following: “If anyone’s making pudding in cooking class tomorrow, give some to me too~”
In other words, we believed if other girls gave pudding to Kazu-nii then Maria-jou wouldn’t be special anymore. Personally, I thought all Kazu-nii had to do was turn all offerings down. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple. Kazu-nii wasn’t the only teacher who gets these offerings. It was hard to turn down students with those teachers in mind. Plus, Kazu-nii really, really loves pudding.
Thanks to Kazu-nii, some groups suddenly changed their menu to pudding. That being said, my group planned on making crepes at first but also changed to pudding. Besides his remark in the morning, he actually directly requested me to make pudding the other day.
Though I told the members of my group I wanted to make pudding cause I found an interesting recipe and not because of some girlish reason like wanting to give pudding to Kazu-nii.
“And… What kind of pudding is it?” Yumi-chan asked, keen.
Iinchou and Matsumoto-kun also peered into my face.
Oh yeah, Matsumoto-kun is our classmate and good friends with Iinchou. His features were average and he was in the baseball club. His hair was in a crew cut.
Incidentally, these two were not Maria-jou’s capture targets.
I explained to everyone in my group about the pudding we were making today.
“It’s a three-layer pudding. And I was thinking we’ll make two patterns of it. The top layer will either be an orange or strawberry jelly and the middle will be milk pudding.” I took out bottles of orange and strawberry syrups I took from home.
“Wow! They’re really pretty,” Yumi-chan said with her eyes sparkling.
This is a relatively easy menu to make once we use gelatine, yet it will look good. It might be a little bit different to truly call this pudding… Still I always make custard pudding since Kazu-nii begs for it, so I’m starting to get sick of making it.
“But that’s only two layers. What’s the last layer?” Iinchou asked, tilting his head.
“The last layer is going to be soft adzuki-bean jelly, so it’ll be refreshing,” I answered.
“Isn’t this a combination of western and eastern sweets? ……Is it tasty?” Yumi-chan looked a little concerned when she asked this.
“You’ll have to look forward to it when you eat it,” I said instead.
Well, it actually is good. But I want them to try it out themselves.
“Niimi, you’re good at cooking, huh…” Matsumoto-kun mumbled.
I couldn’t help but smile wryly. “This isn’t what you call being good at cooking.”
I think making desserts and cooking are two different things.
“Now then, let’s get started.”
We smoothly made the puddings with the ingredients we prepared. All that was left to do was to wait for it to solidify in the fridge.
I gazed over to Maria-jou’s group.
They were making a basic custard pudding. As such, they will mix ingredients and then bake it in a microwave oven. It seems Kyouko-jou wasn’t good at cooking, so they all worked with Maria-jou as the centre. Designer-kun was dexterous, so he was able to support Maria-jou without a single issue. On the other hand, Tsuchiya-kun was completely useless.
There were multiple microwave ovens in the home economics room. However, most of the groups in our class wanted to use it, so they all had to wait in line. If they don’t cook smoothly, class might end before they’re even done.
Maybe it was because of that, Maria-jou moved in a big hurry. And when she took out the puddings from the oven, she touched the hot iron plate by accident.
“Hot!!” She let out a high-pitched scream.
At the same time, a loud, heavy sound echoed throughout the room. Her group’s pudding scattered across the floor, looking quite miserable.
But the small mercy is the puddings were just about done. They were solid enough that some properly stuck against the cups. Maria-jou was able to avoid the worst scenario where all the puddings were destroyed.
“A-Ah…! I-I’m sorry……!” She paled.
Even some puddings were saved, there were only enough to submit to the home economics teacher and for everyone in the group to try out once. The rest couldn’t be eaten. Maria-jou apologized to the members of her group. This was when Tsuchiya-shounen ran up to her.
“Who cares about that! Are you hurt!?” He raised his voice and roughly grabbed Maria-jou’s hand to place it at the sink. He twisted the tap as much as possible to get cold water out and have it running on Maria-jou’s hand.
“You didn’t… get a burn, right?” Tsuchiya-shounen was pale, like he was the one who got injured.
“N-No… I think I’m okay,” Maria-jou mumbled out softly with her face red as her hand was in Tsuchiya-shounen’s.
Meanwhile, Tsuchiya-shounen looked confused when he saw how Maria-jou was red to her ears and cast her eyes down. Eventually, he realized he was holding Maria-jou’s hand and quickly let go with a gasp.
“M-My bad. I wasn’t thinking……”
“N-No, don’t worry. You were just worried about me,” Maria-jou said.
They were both red as they awkwardly exchanged words.
The two of you, the water is still running, you know.
This was when Designer-kun popped his head from the side. “Ah, ah~ Your hand is so pretty, so it’s going to be a waste~ Want me to put a charm so you won’t get a scar?” He asked as he twisted the tab, stopping the water completely.
He then took Maria-jou’s hand into his and pressed his lips against the back of her hand. Everyone could hear the sounds of his lips.
If he was disinfecting her then never mind. What the heck did he mean by charm? Also, was that where Maria-jou burnt herself? And not her fingers? Either way, this was kind of a habit of Designer-kun. That being said, Maria-jou will be embarrassed if you kiss her like that.
Her cheeks flushed even more red. “I’m happy with your feelings but… could you let go? I have to clean up,” she said with a small voice.
Meanwhile, Kyouko-jou naturally didn’t forget to clean up. She collected the dropped pudding cups and put them back on top of the iron plate. After that she began cleaning up the scattered pudding that fell out of their cups onto the floor.
Naturally, the kind members of Class B wouldn’t let Kyouko-jou clean all by herself. And our group especially since we didn’t have to use the oven and had extra time.
Me and Yumi-chan came with cloths to wipe the floor together with Kyouko-jou. If we don’t clean up properly, the next people who’ll use the oven will be troubled. Plus, they also wouldn’t be able to finish class properly.
Kyouko-jou lined up the okay puddings on their kitchen counter once we finished cleaning. They came to a total number of five. She put one to the side to submit to the teacher before giving everyone in her group one.
“Alright, let’s eat,” Kyouko-jou said with a bright smile.
However, Maria-jou didn’t move to eat her pudding.
I see. She plans on offering her share to Kazu-nii.
“You’re not eating? Maria,” Kyouko-jou asked. Maria-jou’s eyebrows dropped like she was troubled. She told Kyouko-jou she wanted to give it to Kazu-nii since he’s always helping her.
Designer-kun then pointed at his pudding cup. “Then Maria-chan can eat my pudding with me. I’ll even go ‘ahh~’ and feed you.”
“What……!?” Tsuchiya-shounen’s complexion changed. He was already irritated with how Designer-kun kissed Maria-jou’s hand earlier. There’s no way he could stay calm if the two of them fed each other right in front of his eyes. “I don’t need this, so you eat it,” he said in the end and put his pudding in front of Maria-jou.
“But if I do then Tsukkun will…..”
Oi, Maria-jou, are you planning on eating the whole pudding all by yourself? How about obediently having one of the two go ‘ahh~’ and feed you personally with their spoon?
“But everyone made it together, so I want to eat together with everyone in the end,” Maria-jou said, hanging her head down with sadness.
Then why don’t you give up offering pudding to Kazu-nii?
“Then it can’t be helped. We can just do it this way,” Kyouko-jou butted in after looking for the right timing. “Maria’s going to share half of mine. You guys will each have your own. Maria’s the one who prepared the recipe and ingredients, so make sure you tell her how the pudding was after you finish. Of course, if you say it tastes bad or something, I’ll send you flying.” Kyouko-jou declared with a ‘hmph’.
Tsuchiya-shounen looked the other way. Designer-kun laughed lightly.
Yumi-chan and I were washing the cloths we used earlier and couldn’t help but exchange looks.
You’re amazing. Just wonderful, Kyouko-jou. It’s thanks to you Maria-jou managed to avoid decreasing both Tsuchiya-shounen and Designer-kun’s affection rates. Maria-jou should be more grateful to Kyouko-jou.
Alright, it seems all the groups have finished. It’ll be free time for us all after we submit our desserts to the home economics teacher.
As for the girls who plan on giving pudding to Kazu-nii, they were all heading off together right now.
“Hmm……” I mumbled under my breath.
Yumi-chan looked curiously at me. “What’s wrong, Shiori-chan?”
A thought suddenly came into my mind. There were other girls besides Maria-jou offering pudding to Kazu-nii.
My goal was to make sure Kazu-nii and Maria-jou weren’t alone together when she offers. With all those other girls, I get the feeling I don’t have to go out of my way to see Kazu-nii anymore. I watched the girls leave the home economics room one after another in a group.
Yumi-chan gazed at me with confusion. “Shiori-chan, you’re not going to go with them?”
“Yeah, I’m not going,” I confirmed.
“Eh!?” She let out a wild voice.
I don’t think she needs to get this surprised. In the first place, I never said a single word that I’ll be offering anything to Kazu-nii.
“Eh? Huh? Cause…… Shiori-chan, you suddenly wanted to change the menu to pudding so I was sure……”
“Eh?”
“H-Huh? I misunderstood? I really thought that, you know…..” Yumi-chan mumbled words before swallowing them down.
Well, yeah, I’m sure she’s thinking about how I might have changed the menu because of Kazu-nii’s remark. “More importantly, let’s eat our puddings,” I said to her with a light smile.
Just moments before, we submitted the two kinds of pudding we made to the teacher. We had a total of 16 left. We calculated so that each person gets two of each flavour. Even I feel we made a lot this time.
“Iinchou, Matsumoto-kun, are you going to bring it to someone? Or eat here?” When I asked, the two boys turned to look at each other.
“If you’re going to give me extras then my friends at club…… Ah, no, never mind. There’s too many of them to share,” Matsumoto-kun answered, shaking his head. It’s true that the baseball club probably had a great number of people.
“In that case, I’ll…..” Iinchou was about to tell us something, but suddenly the home economics room got noisy.
I could hear girls crying out with excitement. I wonder what was going on, so I cast my eyes to the door. Mizusaki-senpai and Kaneshiro-senpai were right there. And, unexpectedly, Tanaka-senpai was with the two as well.
“Yo, I thought there might be girls who’d want their student president to try out their sweets, so I came by,” Mizusaki-senpai declared with a smirk as he came in. The noises in the room grew even louder.
Meanwhile, Yumi-chan was shocked speechless at the sudden appearance of Kaneshiro-senpai who she admired.
They probably showed up because I mentioned I had cooking class next back in the student council room. Never mind Tanaka-senpai, I don’t owe anything to Mizusaki-senpai or Kaneshiro-senpai to have to share with them. But the other girls started to line up their extra desserts in front of the two. Yumi-chan panicked and started to copy them.
…Well, fine.
“Which will you like?” I asked, pointing at the orange pudding and strawberry pudding.
Mizusaki-senpai frowned. “Don’t I have a choice of taking both?” He asked.
“If you eat too much, your stomach will hurt. Plus, there are still many desserts from the other groups waiting for you,” I told him with disbelief.
Tanaka-senpai made a small laugh. “Which one do you recommend?” She asked.
“If I have to pick then the orange, I think. You will be able to enjoy both sourness and sweetness at the same time,” I answered.
“Then could I have one of the orange puddings?”
“Of course!”
My affection rate was highest for Tanaka-senpai within this trio. Meanwhile, Mizusaki-senpai took two orange puddings, handed one to Kaneshiro-senpai, and quickly started to feast on it.
Yumi-chan was brewing black tea she bought from home. Unfortunately, the home economics room didn’t have a tea set, so the cups we were using were normal mugs.
“It’s tea from tea bags but….. Umm, please enjoy,” Yumi-chan said to them with a small voice as she placed mugs in front of the three.
Come on, Yumi-chan. This is your chance to appeal yourself to Kaneshiro-senpai! Was what I thought in my head but it seems to be too difficult for the docile Yumi-chan.
By the time we prepared a warm welcoming for these three, I asked myself why did they even come here in the first place? I was puzzled. I can’t imagine them coming here just to taste-test everyone’s desserts. If they were, Tanaka-senpai would have stopped them long ago.
Also, what’s happening with their classes? Is it self-study right now?
“We’re sorry for showing up so suddenly. We planned on visiting Class B after school but the president complained…..” Tanaka-senpai began.
“He said if we left now, we’ll also get sweets at the same time,” Kaneshiro-senpai ended.
Mizusaki-senpai wasn’t affected one bit from the disgusted eyes from the two. Instead, he declared this with a nonchalant expression, “This is pretty good. Hey, hand me the other flavour too.”
Don’t joke~ With me~!
I wanted to shout, there isn’t any for you, at him. Unfortunately, Iinchou quickly handed the other flavour over to Mizusaki-senpai.
Grr, this bastard. On top of the orange pudding, he was now eating the new strawberry pudding with satisfaction on his face. Well, I do feel honoured that our pudding suited his celebrity tastes.
“By the way, what business do you have here today? We are still in the middle of class, so we would like to get it over with,” Iinchou asked them.
Kaneshiro-senpai was the one who answered him. “It’s regarding the schedule for the upcoming ball game tournament you submitted the other day. Your class was the only one with an error. I’m sure someone forgot to add it in, so we came to have you fill it out. Never mind the other subjects, I’m sure we won’t be as much of a bother if we came near the end of a cooking class. Luckily, we have self-study in this period too. We have to submit every class’ schedule to the academy today, so we need to get it done.”
An error~!?
Iinchou and I exchanged looks. We punctually prepared for the schedule for the ball game tournament in June. How could it be?
The two of us peered into the schedule Tanaka-senpai passed over to us. We tried to look too close that we bumped our heads together. Owie.
Putting that aside, I tried to confirm everything with great detail. Before we submitted it, the two of us had also looked it over together. Where can there be an error……. Huh?
This is weird. In the participation schedule, there was a new entry penned in right under tennis.
“Participation slot for a doubles tennis event?”
What the heck is this? I haven’t heard of this before.
