Chapter 9

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Series: A Love That Lurks at the Dining Table

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“Now then, today I would like to cover your view on love for the drama airing in the fall, Hino-san. My name is Usuike, and I’m a writer. I look forward to talking with you today.”

“Me too.”

Under the conference room lights, I smiled next to my manager. Sitting across from me was a magazine editor and the one who wrote this interview. I had a magazine interview today. After our greetings, the writer’s eyes sharpened.

“May I ask your type of girl…?”

For some reason, I couldn’t say my simple, prepared answer of “the cutest girl in the world”. Mizuka’s face came to my mind. But I felt like I shouldn’t say “cute” lightly, so I responded with a strained voice, “She has to have black hair, I guess.” The writer knew I had already been asked about my type dozens of times, so she didn’t seem to mind the change.

“Black hair…! If I put that in the magazine, then all the brown haired girls in the country would dye their hair black!”

“No way.”

“Is there anything else you like, like personality?”

“I’m attracted to calm… yet straightforward girls, especially when tasked with a large burden. Also she would need to be good at cooking. Since I’m not good at cooking, I’m just genuinely impressed by those who can.”

“Woah! Thanks for the useful information! I will be writing this entire interview, so please give me more details on this. …Thank you so much!”

“Don’t say it like that, Usuike-san.”

A person from the publisher rushed in, amusing my manager next to me. I was also slightly amused, but was mostly very out of place.

I was attracted to Mizuka’s smile. Her smile from that time. I shouldn’t have even known anything about her personality then. It was love at first sight. But why did I like her now?

“Next, when was your first love?”

“In middle school… around my third year.”

“Eh- that was recent! Then, what about the girl?”

“Someone from a different school. I feel in love at first sight… Well, we didn’t even talk then.”

“Eh!? If I write this, will our office go up in flames? Is this okay? …Wait? Does that mean you have experience with dating, Hino-san?”

“I don’t.”

“Wow! Eh!? What do I do!? Woah, I want to write! This is conpletely unexpected! The fans will definitely go crazy! Woah, I’m sweating so much.”

“Please calm down, Usuike-san.”

The writer grabbed her memo in excitement before the publisher silenced her. This time, the publisher questioned me.

“Now then, this drama portrays the character you play as someone drowning in unrequited love for his older childhood friend, the heroine, played by Takinaga Madoka. Please tell us about your worries and what you are focusing on for the performance.”

“That’s right. Since I’m new to acting, I am mostly careful about not dragging anyone down with basic mistakes. And since I have never had the experience of expressing my feelings to someone and having them rejected like Harui, the person I am playing, I’m trying to be aware of how he is feeling and what he wants to do. Harui’s feelings… in the end, are sad and heartbroken, but…”

The role I was playing was someone who had always been in love with his neighbor, who was an office worker. He kept his feelings to himself in order to not bother her and played the role of a devoted, innocent, younger brother-like character. But when she got hurt by a one-sided love herself, he finally confessed. It’s a form of semi-starring, since the heroine and her male peer were the two leads.

“Then will you think about the girl you fell in love with in middle school?”

“Haha. That would be kinda hard with someone whose name I didn’t even know.”

“Wah, that’s so nice… I’m jealous of the girl you fell in love with before!”

“Really? I thought it would be unpleasant to her.”

“What!? There’s no way! A girl’s dream is to be loved by a hot guy, right?”

“Hahaha.”

“And there’s no girl that wouldn’t fall in love with you too, Hino-san.”

There was. Her name was Igarashi Mizuka. She attended the same high school as me and was even in the same class. She makes me lunch every day but she doesn’t love me. She probably sees it like feeding a stray dog. But she was just as defenseless as she was nice… so confinement was also an option.

The words almost flowed out like a curse, but I laughed to hide it. She took it humbly and said, “Then, see you next time~” in an exaggerated way. The interview ended, with me still smiling the same smile from the beginning.

“Good work today. I’ll get the car now.”

“No need. I’m going to observe some people around town to study before going home.”

I refused my manager in the underground parking lot of the publisher building and started walking down the aisle that would take me above ground. It was just past lunch when the interview began, so now the sun had lowered enough that everything was dyed with the unique pink-orange color of the evening.

Going through the exit of the parking garage could attract a crowd and get in the way, so I went through the back entrance. When I was walking without a destination, I eventually came to a road lined with restaurants. The smells from the food they were preparing escaped from the exhaust vents.

Smelling the cooking scents of soy sauce and baked bread, I immediately wanted to see Mizuka. But then I felt bitter.

That time when Mizuka made me stewed food… I had been looking down on her before she made that declaration. I thought that if she just met with me, she would fall in love with me. But…

“I’ll work hard so you can get a lot of nutrition. So, um… I can’t really say it well and I might trouble you, but… I-I will do my best!”

When I saw Mizuka’s strong and straightforward kindness, I was attracted to her, but at the same time, I felt that she would never like me because of my nature. I had a feeling that she instinctively knew what kind of person I was, but the thought of her realizing it terrified me. I was terrified of her seeing me.

But I didn’t want to be away from Mizuka. I wanted to get close to her. I wanted her. And I would never give her to anyone.

Gripping my tight chest, I took out my phone. My fingers hesitated a little, but I navigated to Mizuka’s message page and tapped my keyboard.

“Are you free tomorrow?”

My hands started shaking from just typing out four words. I was glad to see it marked as read right away, but that was overlapped with nervousness.

“Could you come make dinner at my house?”

“Since it gets hot during summer vacation, I wanted you to come make dinner at my house soon”

“Is that okay?”

I was contacting Mizuka now. I was connected to her now. It wasn’t our first text, but my hands were sweating. Her moderate response of “okay” filled my chest.

“You also eat at home, right?”

“We always have separate dinners so I wanted to eat with you”

“Of course I’ll do the dishes!”

“I also have cookware do you don’t need to worry about that”

“Is that okay, Igarashi-san?”

“Yes?”

“No?”

I added a penguin stamp to calm myself. I sent too many messages. But if I sent it all together, wouldn’t that make it feel like I’m pressuring her? I was wandering through our past messages when a response from her came.

“If you’re fine with it, then I am too”

I sent a thank you stamp to show my gratitude. I traced my fingers over her response of, “I’m looking forward to tomorrow”, feeling an immense, relieved feeling.

“This is somewhat… painful…”

I felt like I couldn’t even sleep my phone, but I couldn’t not, so I put my phone in my pocket. When I looked up, the sky was gradually turning darker and a pale moon was floating in the sky.

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