Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.
At lunch break the day after Kura-sen gave me the request, I, Yuuko, Yua, Kazuki, Kaito, Haru, and Nanase, the riajuu members of Class 2-5, made our way to the cafeteria together.\n
When I looked around, I saw the new second-years who I hadnât seen very often before exultantly taking up positions here and there. At our high school, there was an unspoken rule that the only ones allowed to eat at our not very large school cafeteria were the second years or the first years at the very top of the caste. Of course, there were no punishments for breaking this rule, but practically all first years were people who read the mood and adhered to this custom, taking the trouble of carrying food bought at the cafeteria to the courtyard or classroom before eating. As long as they properly returned the tableware, in terms of rules there wasnât any real problem.\n
For that reason, having lunch in the school cafeteria was probably a small yearning for many of these students, who had been in their first year up until a couple of weeks ago.\n
To us who had been using the cafeteria since last year as a matter of course, the turbulence that reminded us of that time about a year ago came as a bit of a surprise. The number of people using the school cafeteria peaked in April, then started to settle down around the second term. Because of how you could even spot empty seats in the third term, we were completely taken by surprise. It should have been the case that we had come straight after class, but most of the seats were already occupied. The only empty seats were in the far back corner, at a table once occupied by the most conspicuous riajuu group of third year students.\n
ăWhoa, it sure is crowded today. I wonder if itâs because thereâs so many first years?ă\n
So said Yuuko who hadnât paid any attention to her surroundings since first year.\n
Kazuki responded to those words with a look of amazement.\n
ăNah, it looks like theyâre mostly second years like us. Iâm not saying that you should go as far as remembering their names, but you should at least be able to recognize a few familiar faces. The boys whoâve been glancing at you for a while now are going to cry, you know? After all Yuuko, youâve been going all over the place, talking to strangers like theyâre friends.ă\n
ăEhh? Isnât Kazuki the one whoâs always kind to anyone so long as theyâre a girl?ă\n
ăThe one who looks like heâs kind to everyone is Saku. I pick the ones who I want to be liked by.ă\n
ăIsnât that really bad character?ă\n
ăDepends on your way of thinking. In this world, thereâs even the kindness of not being kind to someone.ă\n
ăSometimes I donât really get what Kazukiâs sayinggg.ă\n
The tableâs empty, so shouldnât we just sit?\n
It was with that kind of lightheartedness that Kazuki and Yuuko sat down at the table in the back. Of course, with the same sort of easygoing attitude, the other members followed suit.\n
For some reason, as we settled into this place where it seemed only the chosen ones were able to sit, it felt like the atmosphere surrounding us relaxed with anăAhh, I seeă. We were a group of people who didnât care where it was so long as it was somewhere we could sit, but I was sure that from tomorrow, this table would remain empty until we came, and we would inevitably end up sitting in the same place every day. That was helpful in its own way, so I wasnât going to bother looking for another place to sit. Itâs in this way that absurd school rules get passed down naturally.\n
ăWhatâre you guys eating? Iâm obvs going with the katsudon-oomori!ă\n
What Haru just mentioned was the teppan-menu that the boys in the sports clubs often ordered. It consisted of two large pork cutlet slices dressed with special sauce on top of rice topped with the same special sauce. Three slices if it was the large oomori.\n
Incidentally, if you order katsudon in Fukui, itâs the norm for them to serve you a sauce katsudon. Outside our prefecture, apparently itâs common sense for katsudon to come topped with egg, but in Fukui, you have to sayăjou-katsudonăor ătamago-no-katsudonăto make yourself understood, and only rarely do the locals go out of their way to order it.\n
In the same way, I too loved it to the point that if I was asked what I wanted for my last meal before dying, I would say katsudon. A long time ago, on a trip to Tokyo with my family, after asking for katsudon at a service area, I felt a slight sense of despair when out came a strange bowl of rice topped with egg.\n
Carrying over a tray which held a glass of water for each of us, Yua reacted to Haruâs words.\n
ăHaru-chan, you really eat quite a lot for someone whoâs so thin. There was this one time in first year that I ordered the normal-sized futsuumori serving, but I had to give up halfway and get Asano-kun to finish it for me.ă\n
ăThanks for the water, Ucchi! Well, after breakfast, I go to morning practice, and eat onigiri rice balls after itâs over. Then, when after-school practice ends, itâs manju or a frankfurter for the intermission, and I also eat a meal after getting home. Isnât that what being in a sports club is all about?ă\n
For some reason, Nanase made an exasperated face upon hearing what Haru had to say.\n
ăNah, thatâs just you, Haru. Normal girls are too scared of all sorts of things to live like that. Maybe Iâll go for the Fuji lunch. With less rice, and more vegetables.ă\n
Yua murmuredăMaybe Iâll go with that tooăto herself while passing Nanase a glass of water.\n
Todayâs daily lunch special was Hamburg steak with ponzu sauce and grated daikon. The result of strong demand from the girls, our school cafeteria had a system which let us add more salad to our meal when having less rice. Incidentally, the boysâ request to also allow less vegetables and more rice was rejected on health grounds.\n
Taking little notice of those two, Yuuko seemed to be as eager to eat as usual.\n
ăEhhh, but wonât you be hungry because of that? Maybe Iâll have the katsudon too. As youâd expect, the futsuumori, though.ă\n
Nanase raised her voice at Yuukoâs words.\n
ăNo way!? I thought Yuuko was the type to care the most about things like calories. Is tennis club practice really that tough?ă\n
ăNot at all. Thatâs because itâs the kind of atmosphere where the ones obsessed with winning do practice seriously, but itâs also no problem if you want to enjoy it and take it slow, you see. I am the latter, but I eat what I want, whenever I want, regardless of how much Iâve been practicing or whatever. Iâm kind of the type for whom it only adds to the places it should be adding to.ă\n
ăUcchi⊠is it okay to shake my fist here?ă\n
For some reason, saying that, Nanase hugged Yua, who had finished handing out water.\n
ăYuzuki-chan, I understand what yah feelin, but ya have ta endure. Itâs yah loss if ya get angry.ă\n
Why the Kumamoto dialect?\n
Something like female camaraderie sprouted between the two of them as they firmly embraced each other.\n