Chapter 26: The Ice Lady and Sudden Test

“You’ve decided to hang it here? It looks great.”

 

On Saturday, the day after the ball game, I greeted Fuyuka when she rang the intercom on the appointed time, and she gave me a little compliment.

As a gesture of sarcasm, I placed the brooch on top of my shoe box, where it would be easily visible, but as expected, she had no intention of taking it home.

“Can I really take something this valuable? Even if I had it, it would be just a waste.”

“It’s the same for me. I think the best use I can make of it is to give it to you as a token of my appreciation.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll gladly take it.”

“…Of course, it has nothing to do with the legend regarding romantic success.”

“I know. Don’t worry, I’m not that self-conscious.”

Asahi was definitely not a man who mistakenly thinks that he was liked just because he was being treated kindly.

He didn’t think Fuyuka liked him in the slightest, so now that he had cooled down, he thinks that it’s useless to be conscious of it.

Fuyuka, too, seemed to have cooled down after a night of sleep. She’s not blushing or raising her voice, but simply finished the conversation and went into the living room.

“The table seems quite messy today.”

“My bad, I couldn’t clean up in time.”

“I don’t mind it. It looks like you’ve been studying hard, and that’s admirable.”

“Well, thanks a lot. It was worth it to prep for the study session with Himuro-sensei.”

“S-sensei? Please stop calling me that. It’s not a big of a deal…”

“You think so? I think it’s a pretty good fit.”

“…If you don’t stop, I’ll call you Kagami-sensei too.”

“Uh, I don’t like the sound of that… But I guess it’s better than being called a chef.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked. She gave me a suspicious look, but I didn’t think it was worth the trouble to talk about.

After finishing the conversation, Fuyuka didn’t pursue it any further and turned her attention to something else.

“…Only this book doesn’t have anything to do with studying. Is it a cookbook?”

“Yeah, that’s for you to use later.”

Fuyuka spotted several recipe books that were clearly of a different genre than just simply designed notebooks or reference books.

The cover was colorful and the pages were filled with mouth-watering dishes.

A recipe book was a textbook in cooking, and there was only one way to use it, but Fuyuka tilted her head, it didn’t seem to make much sense to her.

“You mean we’re going to use this book to learn how to cook?”

“Well, that sounds about right. Anyway, open it up to page eight.”

“Page eight, it seems it’s about curry.”

“That’s what you’ll be making today.”

“…Eh?”

“I’ll have you make curry for today.”

Apparently she didn’t hear it, so I told her the same thing clearly again, and the recipe book slowly slipped out of Fuyuka’s hands.

Then she pondered for a couple of times, “I’ll make the curry…” and finally understood the situation.

After Fuyuha kept mumbling, her round eyes widened, reminiscent of last night, as she closed in on Asahi.

“I didn’t hear anything about this!”

 

“Well yeah, cause I didn’t say it.”

 

“I thought you were going to teach me how to cook?!”

“Of course I’ll teach you, but first you need to see how good you are, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Well then, get started. The ingredients are in the kitchen.”

It may be a little pushy, but Asahi was aware of what he was saying and doing, so he stands tall and proud.

There was no point in teaching advanced techniques to beginners, and vice versa.

Fuyuka must first determine what she was weak at and what she needs to be taught.

“Am I really the one who will be cooking?”

“You are. It’s not like you can’t cook at all, right?”

“…You are quite mean, you know?”

“That’s disheartening. I’m pretty kind, you know?”

“I don’t think so,” she said with a cold stare and a perfectly honest opinion, but Asahi was really showing kindness in this matter.

It might be mean that it turned out to be a sudden test, but the dish I asked to make was something that was quite suitable for beginners.

Above all, Fuyuka had bought the ingredients for the curry when we met at the supermarket before, so she must have made it at least once before.

‘Well, I’m still worried about a lot of things, though.’

She went to the kitchen reluctantly, and with the ingredients in front of her, Fuyuka finally made up her mind and picked up the knife. 

That simple action seemed quite dangerous, and since she should have washed the vegetables first, Asahi desperately suppressed the urge to interfere.