Chapter 1

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Series: A Love That Lurks at the Dining Table

“What should I make?”

Walking through the shopping district on my way home from school, I could hear a light melody playing from the speakers and smell the freshly baked croquettes from the butcher’s and the fragrance of bran from the pickling shop.

The fresh smells were an indication that I had arrived in the shopping district. I stopped by some of the various stalls before remembering my original purpose and continuing on, all while pink petals floated in from between them.

It seems like the petals flew in from a cherry blossom tree behind the shopping district.

When I opened my hand, a refreshing breeze delivered cherry blossom petals to my palm. Around me, the shopkeepers were in a hurry to cover their products with a sheet to prevent the petals from getting in.

The people in the shopping district were struck with fascination at how the petals could have traveled so far. I passed those people and arrived at my destination: the greengrocer. Colorful, fresh vegetables were lined up in round wooden baskets along the roadside.

It was spring.

It is said that spring was the season of meetings and farewells, but to me, spring was the season for asparagus, turnips, bamboo shoots, shirasu fish, and cabbage.

Especially spring cabbage. Its freshness and sweetness were much different in spring than in other seasons. It’s tasty just by eating it shredded with some salt, but if you add in sesame oil, the flavor changes completely. Or you can add in chili oil to give it a spicy accent, and even in other seasons, the delicious flavoring becomes even more delicious just because it’s spring cabbage.

It really was a good season. I loved spring.

So I, Igarashi Mizuka, associated spring more with food than meetings or partings. I was definitely part of the “dangos over flowers” squad. Furthermore, I was a first year high school student who believed that in the case of dumplings, both wormwood dumplings with a grassy scent and mitarashi dumplings with plenty of honey were both delicious.

As I stood in front of the greengrocer considering what fresh vegetables to buy for the sake of making delicious food, an older man came out from the back with a warm smile and a basket and calculator in one hand.

“Good evening, sir.”

“Welcome, Mizuka-chan. Today the fresh turnips are on sale!”

I’ve been coming to this shop with my mom since I was small. I knew the owner of this greengrocer since I came here so often. And his daughter was only three years younger than me so I played with her often.

I looked towards the turnips like he suggested. The leaves were lush and the roots were shiny. I could tell how delicious they would be with just a look. “Then I’ll take some turnips and…” I looked towards the other vegetables when, “That’s right!” Suddenly he looked like he remembered something as he brought his hands together.

“I heard that you enrolled at Amatsu! That’s amazing!”

“Hehe, thank you very much! It’s because I finally finished the exams!”

“Amatsu” was short for Amatsugaoka High School. It was the high school I entered this spring.

It’s a famous school with a newly renovated campus (including a library that can compare to the national one) that encourages a free school spirit. It had many facilities other than just the usual school ones. There’s an astronomy observation room, a large theater room, and even an indoor athletics stadium.

But I wasn’t interested in any of that.

My parents and teacher recommended that I take the Amatsu exam. Anywhere was fine to me as long as I could make delicious food. I didn’t have any particular school-of-choice. I would have liked to attend a high school with a culinary program, but the only ones would have been hours away from home… In other words, they were in different prefectures.

I just wanted to make and eat delicious food, so I didn’t need to become a cook. So, I took the Amatsu exam like my homeroom teacher recommended. I really just went with the flow.

But, from the bottom of my heart, I was really glad to be accepted at this school. Because that meant the exams were over. I would have been fine with anywhere, but I was glad I got accepted. Because the exam period was very difficult for me.

Since it was a newly established school, the deviation value for the exam was really average for Amatsu. I had to study until the brink of death for it… Well, that’s an exaggeration, but I would have failed if I wasn’t so desperate. If I chose a school with a lower deviation value, knowing me, I would have just spent my time cooking food instead of studying. No matter what school I wanted to enter, I would have had to seriously study to get in.

So I sealed my cookbook away in the family safe so I couldn’t read it when I was studying. I bought supper, made snacks, and watched cooking videos so I could skip cooking and get to studying.

To put it simply, my heart was close to breaking.

I decided it for myself, but it was painful for someone who only thought of food.

It was so painful that I went to a section of the library and read a cookbook from cover to cover! I may have had my priorities backwards, but it was that difficult for me.

But now I have passed the exam and successfully enrolled, so I could say goodbye to those days of studying. Now I can fully enjoy cooking!

I will have to worry about university exams in about two years but for this year at least, I can focus on cooking and eating my favorite foods. I can decide what to eat for supper freely.

The vegetables lined up at the greengrocer’s were splendidly fresh, and while they would be delicious on their own, a platter of spring vegetable tempura also seemed delicious.

I could eat them with batter and salt but I also wanted to grab some soup stock, add soy sauce and sugar and make a tempura bowl! Should the side dishes be marinated in sweet and sour sauce? Boiled… Boiled turnips… But I could also make the tempura alone…

…No, for now I should just buy it and check with the fridge!

“Excuse me, I’ll take this and this please!”

I grabbed half a head of lush cabbage, turnips and an onion and handed the older man the money for it.

“Hahaha! You sure did worry about it for a while, Mizuka-chan!”

“I’m happy that I get to pick out the meals myself, but it’s difficult when I think about how I’m the only one that’s gonna eat it.”

“Right, you’ve been living alone since spring! Got it! Take some asparagus and potatoes! It’s on me!”

“Whoa! Thank you so much! I’ll make a salad and some stir fry then.”

That’s right. I wasn’t out buying something for my parents. I was simply buying ingredients for my own dinner.

Both of my parents were on a business trip overseas and I was currently living alone. At first it seemed like they were going to take me along too, but the business trip was decided right before the start of school. With the hellish undertaking I took to pass the exams, it didn’t feel fair for me to not even attend the school. So I stayed behind in Japan at our house, and my parents left just a week before the entrance ceremony.

There was a bit of trouble when someone from the water company came by the day they left, but I was able to see my parents off properly.

So now I was in charge of making three meals a day… Breakfast, a bento lunch for school, and dinner. I was able to cook and eat my favorite foods every day. I had never been so happy before.

Oh! The potatoes and asparagus also looked delicious! I wanted to hurry home so I could eat them…!

“Mizuka-chan!”

While I was planning on making a potato salad by steaming and peeling the potatoes and then adding mayonnaise, the owner’s daughter – Miya-chan – came running up to me, her ponytail swaying.

“Wow, it’s been a while. It’s nice to see you, Miya-chan.”

She was a middle school student that I saw when I went shopping sometimes. While high fiving me, she suddenly turned her gaze to the bag I was holding.

“Oh, is that another recipe book? You sure love cooking.”

“Yes, but this time I got a magazine. Look,” I said, and took out the contents of my bag to show Miya-chan. It was a fashion magazine with a cooking booklet attached as a bonus in the appendix.

“Oh! Wow! You bought this magazine? I couldn’t buy it!”

“Was this magazine sold out?”

“It’s ‘cause Yousuke is on the cover! Look.”

Miya-chan pointed to the cover and her father tilted his head after seeing the image.

“I feel like I’ve seen that young man’s face before.”

“Of course you have! I have a poster of him in my room! Wait, isn’t Yousuke an Amatsu student? Lucky you, Mizuka-chan! I’m jealous!”

“Yeah…?”

Like Miya-chan said, the one decorating the front cover was “Yousuke”, full name: Hino Yousuke-kun. My classmate.

I heard he was a model, but I only recognized him as someone who was always surrounded by girls. I could tell who he was since he was my classmate, but I only looked at the appendix of this magazine and didn’t glance at the cover at all.

“Then I’ll give it to you. But do you mind if I cut out the appendix?”

“No way, really!? Yay!”

“Is that really okay, Mizuka-chan?”

The store attendant looked at me with concern as I cut out the appendix.

“Yes! I only bought it for the recipe anyway.”

“I see. Thank you then.”

“Thanks, Mizuka-chan!”

“No problem. …Rather, thank you very much for the potatoes and asparagus!”

I left the greengrocer after handing Miya-chan the magazine. With a bag full of fresh asparagus and potatoes, I hurried down the street in good spirits.

◆

After I finished preparing it, I lined up my meal on the table one by one. I started dinner soon after I got home. The final menu for tonight was stir fried chicken breast with asparagus mustard, Western-style meat and potatoes, boiled turnips, and miso soup with eggs.

Puffy cooked rice was practically essential for a Japanese-style meal. I couldn’t use it for tomorrow’s breakfast or lunch or I would run out, but maybe I should cook rice for dinner tomorrow too.

…No, I shouldn’t be thinking about this now. The food I spent so much time on will get cold. I took my apron off, sat down, and clapped my hands together.

“Thank you for the meal.”

What should I start with? The main dish?

Parting my chopsticks, I started with the chicken breast and asparagus. The asparagus texture and fragrant gravy of the chicken breast filled my mouth. The mustard could be tasted with every bite and my chopsticks kept moving.

For the Western-style meat and potatoes, I used bacon for the meat and consomme for the soup stock. The ingredients were honey-colored potatoes, beautiful, vivid, sweet carrots and light-colored onions. I made plenty so I could eat more later or add cheese to make croquettes.

The boiled turnip was so soft that soup leaked out when I poked it with my chopsticks. The bonito and kelp were fragrant when I sipped the miso soup.

Dinner turned out well today too. I’m glad!

After gazing at the meal I finished to my satisfaction, I looked down. The seats that were always occupied until last month were now empty.

“It’s breakfast time for Mom and Dad right now…”

I’m still not used to it, even though it’s already been two weeks.

There were no plates or food on their table mats. I felt sad as I stared at it.

Normally Mom and Dad would smile at me and tell me how delicious it was.

I wanted to feed them both this meal too…

“I also want fried food. I want to eat some fried cod…”

My sadness morphed into my appetite.

Thinking about my parents made me sad so I should just think about food.

“Oh, I could try making fried cod without frying…”

I shook myself out of my fried cod thoughts. There’s food in front of me! I needed to eat it while it’s warm!

I picked up the chopsticks I had set down and resumed eating so it didn’t get cold.

◆◆◆

“Let’s go to the cafeteria, Mizuka-chan!”

“Sure.”

The next day, I took my bento out of my bag and followed my classmate, Meina-chan, into the hallway.

“I hope we can get a window seat today! The weather is nice!” Meina-chan commented as she walked. I nodded.

Her black hair up in two buns gave the impression of her being a firm person, but we quickly became friends soon after our student orientation.

I was worried about making friends when I entered high school, but I was reassured when our seats were next to each other and we could be in the same group.

Meina-chan prefered going to the cafeteria so we brought our bentos there and have been going to the cafeteria for the past week.

“That’s right, on a TV in front of the station, I saw that a store specializing in overseas cookware opened in the new mall.”

“Eh? Really?”

Overseas cookware… I was very interested! I wanted to go now!

“After I saw that on the TV, I thought that I had to tell you. ‘Cause you like cooking, right?”

“Yes! Thank you, Meina-chan!”

“You’re welcome. Um, there was a limited-edition skillet too? A small pan that they’re selling to commemorate their opening… What can that be used for?”

“That can be used as a container of sorts for things after baking.”

“I see! You’re just like a store clerk!”

We arrived at the cafeteria while talking. Students were lined up near the meal ticket machines in front of the door. Today’s lunch menu seemed to be Chinese cuisine. I went to enter the crowd, thinking about how delicious spring rolls would be, when Meina-chan stopped.

“I was wondering what the crowd was about. It’s Hino-kun again.”

She tilted her head at the nearby mountain of people. Following her line of sight, I could see that almost everyone in the crowd was a girl. They were gathered around someone like a barricade. And Hino-kun was sitting in the center of them.

“Will you accept the muffin I made for you during cooking class today, Yousuke-kun~?”

“Eh- no fair! I’ll give you one too! That cool?”

“I’m sorry. My agency says I can only accept store-bought foods and nothing handmade, so I can’t accept that.”

Hino-kun was eating sweet bread while being offered muffins from all sides. He had a mechanical look to him, like he was ordered to eat. He didn’t look like he enjoyed his food or found it delicious at all. Maybe he didn’t like eating.

…Maybe he was someone who didn’t feel happy when eating.

But it did seem difficult to eat while surrounded by so many people. No one could enjoy their food in that situation. He must just be that popular if Miya-chan said she couldn’t even buy his magazine.

As I was spacing out while staring at him, Hino-kun turned to me. Elated voices rose up from behind me.

“No way! He looked at me!”

“Look over here again!”

Thinking back, he’s always surrounded by people during the morning and the breaks between classes. Even going to the bathroom seemed difficult.

He really was that popular. I was a bit envious since there would be more opportunities to eat delicious food if I was popular, but it seemed to come with its own difficulties.

“There’s an empty spot over there. Let’s go.”

Meina-chan pointed to the quiet terrace seats. I turned my back to Hino-kun and his group and followed after her.

Today’s bento was leftover stir fry with mustard, boiled turnip, and omelet with sakura shrimp. Today I had one less side dish and less food than usual, but it was perfect because we had cooking class in the afternoon.

I followed Meina-chan while excited to be able to eat soon.

◆

After lunch, I left Meina-chan and headed down the hallway towards the bathroom.

Lunch break had ended and cooking class was about to begin. The lesson for today was baking muffins.

It was hard to juggle between meals and cooking class, whether it was in the morning or afternoon. So all the classes made the same food, consisting of sweets or light meals. I was just happy to have cooking class, but it must be tough on those who didn’t like sweet things.

Anyways, I was looking forward to cooking class.

I turned the corner in a good mood when suddenly I saw prints fluttering to the ground like the cherry blossoms I saw yesterday. But there were many people there yesterday, unlike right now.

A male student… Hino-kun, was standing there staring at the ground with a slightly shocked expression. Apparently the contents of the clear file in his hand fell out.

“Ah–“

When he saw me, he hurried to start picking up his prints. I also helped him gather them quickly.

The person I was talking about yesterday was right in front of me.

I felt strange. I’ve never spoken to Hino-kun before. And he could speak openly with anyone without pretending or drawing lines.

But he was always surrounded by cute and fashionable girls. Our male students seem to have likened his situation to the “Shogun’s harem” from ancient texts. They seemed to be jealous and I suddenly found myself thinking about how difficult that must be to deal with.

“I was spacing out, I’m sorry…!”

“No worries.”

The people around Hino-kun could probably be categorized into three types. Those who wanted to get close to him, those who were envious of him, and those like me who didn’t want to get involved.

Everything on his face seemed well proportioned. I heard that it’s “nice” to have a slender figure and a slightly mature atmosphere, but I wasn’t particularly interested in getting close to him.

If he was a pro chef with lots of cooking shows, I might have looked at him with envy. I might even have begged him to teach me his ways if I could work up the courage.

When I stared at him, I thought about how I was someone who was always thinking about cooking rather than on any crushes.

“Thank you, Igarashi-san. You really helped me. These are the important prints that the teacher asked me to collect…”

Today was no different. I wasn’t stricken with an attraction towards Hino-kun even though I was close to him.

Miya-chan said there was no one who wouldn’t fall in love with him after meeting him, but that sounded horrific. While thinking that, our hands touched, possibly because we were reaching for the same print.

He grabbed both my hand and the print.

“Um…”

With no sign of letting go, I looked up at Hino-kun’s deep black eyes behind his pale brown hair.

Somehow I felt like those eyes were approaching me, but I found that I couldn’t avert my gaze. Finally, he stood up with a cool, blank gaze and softly smiled.

“Thank you for picking up the prints. I’m sorry for wasting your precious time, Igarashi-san.”

“No… That’s not…”

When I handed over the prints, I could see him holding the notes that were collected today along with a thick bundle of prints.

Why didn’t he ask anyone to help him? The girls around him would surely work for his sake. Looking down the hallway, I could see no one other than us.

“Did you need help with carrying those notes…?”

I wasn’t proactively trying to get myself involved, but no matter how you looked at it, this was too much for one person to carry. I hesitatingly asked him, and he asked, “Are you sure?” with a look of concern.

“Yeah, it seems difficult, so if you’re okay with me…”

“Thanks, Igarashi-san. Then please help me until we reach the staff room.”

I nodded and accepted the prints from Hino-kun before we started walking towards the staff room. He walked next to me, saying, “You really saved me Igarashi-san.” That was when I realized the source of my vague discomfort.

Why did he know my name?

We never had a self-introduction in the classroom. In middle school, we would stand near the blackboard and declare our name and hobbies in front of everyone for every new class. There was no such thing in high school, so in my class I only knew the celebrity Hino-kun, my friend Meina-chan, and her childhood friend.

While I was confused, Hino-kun asked, “Igarashi-san, right?”

“Yes, I am Igarashi.”

“I’m glad. For a second I thought I made a mistake,” Hino-kun said with a relieved smile. Maybe he memorized the names of all his classmates.

“Um, do you remember all the names of our classmates?”

“No, I can’t even remember half yet. What about you?”

“Only the friends I talk with…”

“Sonomura-san, right?”

He said he only knew half, but he seemed to know more than that.

Yesterday Miya-chan said that he started acting in addition his modeling job and he was going to be in a drama in the fall.

He would be playing as a character in love with his senpai. There was apparently a “first kiss scene” too. Miya-chan was very jealous about it.

I didn’t know much about television, but he would have to memorize the whole script, so he must be quick at memorizing names from it.

“Yep. You’re good at memorizing things, Hino-kun.”

“That’s not the case at all. I’m rather forgetful and pretty bad at remembering names.”

He was being humble. His memory must be good if he remembered my name, who doesn’t even stand out like Meina-chan does.

But he would probably still be humble if I said that. There was still some distance until we got to the staff room. I didn’t want there to be a strange, awkward silence. While thinking of what to talk about, I thought his drama might be a good topic.

“I heard that your drama will be broadcast in the fall. That’s amazing.”

“Eh… Are you interested in it, Igarashi-san?”

“Well, um, a friend of mine is your fan. It’s amazing that you were able to star in it.”

“I see,” Hino-kun said and looked down. I felt a bit overwhelmed talking about the drama, but now I felt calmer.

“Even though I…”

I stopped after hearing him mutter something. He took two more steps before turning around and asking, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I said and hurriedly resumed walking.

Just then, Hino-kun sounded somehow artificial, with no inflection or emotions.

What did he mean by that? I had no idea.

“I’m glad I ran into you. I wouldn’t have been able to carry this without you. Thanks.”

“Eh… U-umm, no problem.”

We arrived at the staff room before I knew it. Hino-kun grabbed the prints I was holding and said, “Here is good” with a laugh.

“Thanks for today, Igarashi-san.”

“You’re welcome. Um… Good-bye, Hino-kun.”

“Yes, see you later.”

Feeling a chill from his voice, I looked up. But Hino-kun was softly smiling like before. There were no hints of sadness or darkness.

I left Hino-kun, still feeling a slight sense of unease.

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