#7
Tuesday
Currently, Amai was teaching Taro how to properly knead the dough for some sort of mini apple pie recipe. As it turns out, it took a lot of effort and physical strength, which Taro seemed to be significantly lacking in. He looked over to Amai, who was patiently waiting with a smile. Her ball of dough was smooth and already sitting covered in a lightly buttered bowl.
She gave him an encouraging nod and he continued, using all his strength to properly roll out the dough. This was in the dining part of the cooking club. In the actual kitchen part, the other members were quietly talking with each other. Everything seemed fine up until Ajia returned back from the bathroom.
“Seiyo.” Ajia calls, her voice quiet although that didn’t ever signify if she was angry or not. “Did you put hot sauce in my rice mixture?” She asks, glaring up at him.
The blonde presses his lips into a tight line. “...it was just a drop. A-And it wasn’t on purpose! I was just… being sloppy, I’m sorry.”
“And why did you mix it in?” Ajia follows up, her nails almost digging into her own hips as she scowls at him.
“Because I thought you wouldn’t notice..” Seiyo replies sheepishly, hanging his head a bit to avoid Ajia’s gaze.
Ajia brings a hand to her head with a sigh and retrieves the bowl with her mixture. “Seiyo, it’s orange.” She says through gritted teeth.
Shoku clears his throat, still smiling. “Come on, now, we’ve got snacks to finish.” He says, his tone almost warning.
“Right..” Ajia sighs, turning her back to Seiyo, although still clearly irritated. The blonde looks guilty, but turns back to his own snacks anyway.
Taro exhales quietly, thankful that the back and forth hadn’t escalated. Amai nudges him slightly and whispers. “Sorry about that. They argue often.”
“It’s no problem.” Taro smiles at her. “I’ve heard some of their arguments in the hall.”
Amai giggles quietly. “You poor thing.” She looks back down to her finished crusts as she’s putting them in place. “I adore them, but that’s certainly one thing I don’t miss, hehe.”
Just as Amai finished saying that, Kenko came over. “Hey, Amai. I wanted to talk about the sale.” He says, folding his arms after wiping them on his apron.
“Yeah? Do you have all of your treats planned out?” Amai asks, wiping her hands as well and grabbing the bowl of apple pie filling near her.
“We all have at least three choices ready for the picking. But, uh…” Kenko hums, pulling a hand up to his chin. “Actually, that’s what I wanted to tell you about. We have everything planned out and we’ve got enough ingredients, but we might not have enough hands.” He explains.
“Ah..” Amai pauses in thought, almost spilling the filling. “I… didn’t think of that. A bake sale is a really big upgrade from last year after all…” She mutters in thought.
As Amai’s thinking, Shoku walks over with his tray in hand, smiling at her. “We could always grab some more volunteers. If it turns out that a whole bake sale is too much work, then we could even ask some students experienced with cooking to help out.” He adds on, “We could even open the club for those interested in joining for the week to try to get more folks to join.”
Amai smiles, clearly pleased with Shoku’s ideas. “All wonderful ideas! As a matter of fact, before you all get knee-deep in your cooking, why don’t you all go grab some helping hands to make your process quicker?” She calls to the rest of the club.
“Ooh, Kokona will love to help!” Saki says, immediately abandoning her tray of treats in order to run to the Drama Club.
Kenko sighs at her immediate leave and pushes the tray closer to the middle of the counter so that it didn’t fall off. “I’ll see if Himari or any of the other girls want to help. I heard they’re quite fond of baking.” He says with a calm smile, walking the opposite way from Saki.
Eventually, everyone but Amai and Taro left to go grab new recruits. Amai made sure to tell her club to gather everyone into the Home Ec room since it had more room than the Cooking Club. Shoku would take the reigns with the club for now while Amai tended to Taro.
“So, Taro.” Amai starts, slipping the mini pies into the oven. “On the topic of baking, do you have any lunch with you?” She asks, brushing off some loose flour from her apron.
Taro’s eyes widen a fraction and he groans. “God, apparently not.” He sighs, frowning. “I honestly think that Monday is just the day of the week that I forget my lunch. It might be written in stone somewhere.”
Amai giggles, raising a hand up to her mouth as she did so. “It’s a shame to hear that that’s a habit, hehe. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it, though.”
With a light scoff, Taro comments. “Yeah, well, that’s what my sister told me in grade school. The only difference is my mom can’t give me a smack over the head whenever I actually do forget.”
“Well, I’m sure Osana will do it for you.” Amai said as she looked to her list of treats. After a moment of silence, Amai realizes that that might have been an iffy topic to bring up for Taro. “Ah. I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place to say that.”
Taro smiles. “Don’t worry about it. At the end of the day we are still friends. And honestly, I feel like that’s a pretty good page to leave that chapter on.” He says, nodding to himself.
Amai hums in satisfaction. She brings the note over to their table and smiles along with him. “I’m impressed to hear that. It’s refreshing to see someone who takes something like that so well! Someone mature like you is destined to attract another lovely lady soon!” She assures him.
With a blush, Taro chuckles a bit. “Th..Thanks, Amai. That actually means a lot coming from you.” He says, a bit embarassed at the praise. “Ah, so… what’s next on the list, then?”
“Well, our apple pie bites are in the oven right now, so our next treat should be…” Amai looks to the next option on the list. “Ah, brownie bites. These are actually Shoku’s favorite.” She rolls up her sleeve and flexes her arm with a cute smile and wink. “We’d better make him proud, then!”
__
Amise sighs, she and Ayano walking towards the Home Ec room. She glanced at Ayano, who was gripping the bow of her uniform tightly in her hand with an evidently enraged expression on her face. “You really oughta fix your face. Shoku’s sweet, but doesn’t exactly appreciate those who ruin the mood of the event.”
Ayano turns her glare to Amise, who doesn’t seemed very phased by it. “They were practically flirting.” She growls, only illiciting another sigh from Amise.
“Is that right?” Amise hums, before muttering. “You’re awfully impressionable, aren’t you?” She asks, a bit too quiet for Ayano to hear. The slightly shorter girl was too upset to be curious, anyway, though.
Amise clears her throat, hinting to Ayano to fix her face before they entered the Home Ec room. Ayano sighs, letting her face fall to its normal lack of expression after a moment. The two enter, and Shoku turns and smiles at them.
“There you are, Amise! And Ayano! I’m glad to see that you’re visiting us as well!” He says, beaming as he holds a hand to the crowd of students that littered the room. He points to each of the four counters and explains, “There are four main stations. All of them either making sweet treats, healthy treats, western-style treats and japanese treats.”
Saki had obviously gathered together her friends and boyfriend, her counter consisting of Kokona, Riku and Daku. Kokona already had a bunch of experience in the cooking club since she attended the club last year, so both she and Saki were teaching the other two what they knew.
Kenko’s counter had Himari, Sukubi and surprisingly Scilla, who was usually alone. For a moment, Ayano wondered why Sukubi would be at the ‘healthy treats’ coutner but it’s likely that they promised him something sweet if he worked on something healthier.
Ajia’s counter is where she, Osana, Kyuji and of course Raibaru were working. Ayano recalled learning that Osana and Kyuji both were incredibly interested in Cooking, so they likely saw this as an opportunity to sharpen their skills.
“I’ll be taking Uekiya, Otohiko and Kokoro back to the Cooking Club for the extra space.” Shoku said. “You two can go ahead and pick whichever station you like best, or come to the Cooking Club with me. Our station will have varied treats. Maybe a mix of all four.” He claims with a shrug, leading his few to the Cooking Club.
Seiyo’s counter held Hana, along with Cassian and Frankie, who were both transfer students from America. Ayano supposed in that case it made sense for them to stick with his treats.
Ayano immediately trailed to follow him, but Amise hung onto her sleeve. “Nooot so fast.” She says, her voice hushed. “That’s not a good idea for you, Ayano.”
Tearing her arm away, Ayano frowns. “Why not?”
“Because you might faint. Again.” Amise responds, putting a hand on her hip.
“...I.. I had a conversation with him yesterday.” Ayano mumbled, not needing to know that Amise assumed she would faint again if Taro came too close to her.
Amise gave her a shocked but doubtful look. “Really? As in a normal, back and forth conversation?” She asked, tilting her head to the side. “No light-headedness with full words?”
Ayano shut her mouth, avoiding Amise’s gaze. Reluctantly, she quietly specified. “He talked to me.”
Sighing, Amise nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I expected.” She stands in front of Ayano and holds her hand to the Home Ec room. “You stay here and socialize. I’ll make sure that they don’t spontaneously make out in front of five other people.” She says, her sarcasm not much helping Ayano’s anxiety.
Reluctantly once more, Ayano sighs and walks back into the Home Ec room. Immediately as she did, Kenko turned to face her. “Hey, Ayano. Are you any good with knives?” He asks, smiling calmly at her.
“Uh.. yes, I think so.” Ayano replies approaching the counter he was stationed at.
“Great.” Kenko sighs in relief. “Sukubi is better at mixing and decorating and Himari is making trips to the Gardening Club for us. And Scilla…” He looked over to the silent boy, who spun a pair of scissors on the counter top with a curious expression. “...I think he prefers scissors over knives. Which isn’t going to work.”
Ayano nods in understanding. “Don’t worry. I can take care of anything that requires a knife.” She says as Kenko smiles and slides a cutting board with several vegetables over to her.
He then turns to Scilla and hands the glasses-wearing boy a handful of green onions. “Here, if you can make little rings with these up until the white part, you’ll have been a big help. You can use the scissors for this.”
“Oh.” Scilla pauses, taking the onions and sliding the scissors down until Kenko nods at the size. “Okay.”
Ayano immediately went to cutting the vegetables one by one. She did have to learn to cook for herself, and her mother taught her all about knifework in the kitchen. In only a couple of minutes, Ayano had just about finished cutting all of the vegetables on the board. She took the ends of them and tossed them into the bucket next to her counter that would apparently be used for compost for the Gardening Club later.
“Gosh, you’re done already, Yan-Chan?” Kokona calls, looking amazed at the neatly cut vegetables on her board. “That’s super impressive!” She says, forgetting to stir for a moment but starting again as Riku turned down the fire.
Kenko smiles. “It really is. You can come back and chop off some more veggies when Himari comes back with the next bunch. For now, though, you can help with one of the other stations if you want.” He offers, pleased with Ayano’s help as he takes her place and begins sorting the cut vegetables.
Ayano looks around briefly, before seeing Kokona’s excited grin aimed her way. With an inward sigh, Ayano walks over. “Do you all need help over here?”
Kokona nods excitedly and Daku speaks up. “We need help to keep Saki from eating all of the ingredients.” He says, taking away the ‘tasting spoon’, as Saki had labeled it, away from her before she continued eating the caramel.
“I only had, like, two spoonfuls! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Saki huffed, although the twiddling of her hair made it quite clear that her first statement was a lie.
Daku smiled briefly, “You’re being obvious about it. Maybe if you can sneak someone without anyone else noticing I’ll stay quiet.” He says, which was enough to give Saki hope of getting away with her crimes.
Kokona rolls her eyes. “Way to give her false hope. Now I’m never going to keep my eye off of her!” She claims.
Riku shook his head with a smile before looking to Ayano. “We’re making chocolate-coated caramel candies, I believe.” He explains briefly, before turning to the others. “Saki and Daku are working on making the caramel and Kokona and I are working on the chocolate.”
“If you could coat the molds in chocolate, that’d be super helpful, Yan-Chan!” Saki directs, passing her three different candy molds.
Ayano nods in understanding. “I’ll handle it.” She says, moving to her own corner to work as the others chatted amongst themselves. Occassionally, they would ask her something, but she would answer quickly in order to let them know that she was busy. Thankfully, they took the hint with no grudge.
__
“Ah, crap.” Taro attempts to brush some flour off of his uniform, but just ends up spreading it more. “..uh…” He gives Amai an unsure look.
“Aw, I should’ve thought to get you an apron! Gosh, I’m so sorry about that, Taro.” Amai frowns, looking around for a spare. “I’m sure we’ve got one around here somewhere from last year..”
As Amai looks around, Shoku walks over and slips off his own apron. “The last one we used was the spare for Toga. How well do you like pink, Taro?” He asks.
Taro chuckles, looking a bit embarrassed. “Well, it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice. Is there anything else you have available?” He asks, his attention being drawn to Shoku as the taller male handed Taro his own apron.
“You can use mine until we’re able to offer you a spare. Pink might be my… third favorite color, personally.” Shoku comments as Taro takes the offered apron.
“Thanks a lot, Shoku.” Taro smiles, slipping off his jacket and putting the apron on over his button-up. “I’m going to toss this into the washer.” He says, briefly waving bye before he leaves for the Home Ec room.
A few seconds pass after he leaves, and Kokoro quietly speaks up. “..on Taro?” She mumbled to Amai. Shoku immediately turns his head to her, having heard her question due to being closer to the pink-themed girl. He looked shocked, and turned back to Amai, curious as well.
“What was that, Kokoro?” Amai asks with a polite smile.
Kokoro pouts her lips a little shyly, carefully patting the sifter with her palm to make powder sugar rain lightly atop the cooled off brownies beneath her. “I…I just asked if you had a crush on Taro.”
“Oh, my.” Uekiya holds a hand up to her mouth gracefully, looking shocked but not surprised at the typical question of Kokoro’s.
Amai giggles lightly. “I know you love that sort of drama, Kokoro, but I’ve known him for less than a week. I don’t think much if anything could bloom in such a short amount of time, hehe.”
Shoku exhales silently, visibly relieved to hear that as he got back to work on his own batch of brownies. Uekiya giggles a bit at the expression that Amai thankfully hadn’t noticed, and Shoku blushes a bit in embarrassment.
“Hm.” Kokoro pouts her lips again, this time in thought. “Okay. Sorry.” She mumbles, avoiding Amai’s gaze shyly.
After a longer moment, Kokoro’s phone rings and she immediately puts down the sifter to wash off her hands. “Be right back.” She says, louder than her previous muttering as she dashes out of the room to answer it.
From what Amise could assume, she asked Amai that to see if she and the other girls could do anything regarding those rumours. Since Amai had denied any feelings with a straight smile as always, there was no doubt that she had no feelings for Taro. So, the bullies had to think of another way to spin a rumour. If Amise knew anything about them, Kokoro was probably going to ask Taro next while he’s on his way back.
“U-Uh, Amise…” Otohiko steps closer to her subtly as he quietly calls for her. He shows her his hand, which had a small cut on it. “..I, uh… some blood got in the mix bowl. I-I cut my hand but I didn’t realize I was bleeding at all. Do you.. think Amai and Shoku will be mad if they find out?” He asks, looking down at the bowl in his hands with a frown.
Amise smiles, “Don’t worry about it. I can take care of it. You should just go wash your hands for now.” She says, low so that none of the other chattering folks could hear her.
Otohiko nods thankfully and quietly leaves the room. After he does, Amise quickly makes a small cut on her hand with a nearby knife. “Oops!” She says, looking into the mix bowl. “Oh, god, that’s no good. Amai?” She calls.
The brunette quickly walks over, noticing the blood in the mixing bowl. “Oh, gosh. Are you hurt? Is the cut deep at all?” She asks, grabbing a nearby towel for Amise.
“Well, it doesn’t hurt much. I didn’t even realize I was bleeding, honestly.” Amise says, holding out her hand and allowing Amai to wipe the cut briefly.
Shoku steps behind them and dumps out the mixture before washing out the bowl. “We have enough ingredients and treats ready for lunch time. This bowl really doesn’t make much of a dent in the rest of what we have prepared.” He explains casually.
“I’m glad to hear that.” Amise sighs in relief as Amai tosses the towel into a nearby clothing bin. “I’m sorry if this inconveniences you, though.” She says, holding her cut hand.
Amai smiles. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Accidents happen! You should go to the Home Ec room and wrap that up. Ask the nurse for some bandages if you need to.” Her smile then falters a bit as she crosses her arms. “Ah, but, you probably don’t want to do any kneading with those hands now. If the wound isn’t covered properly, it could get more blood in the pastries or get unecessary material in your wound.”
Amise nods. “Got it. I’ll go get this cleaned up, then.” She says, walking out into the hallway. As she turns the corner, Taro spots her and waves.
“Hey, Amise. You’re friends with, uh..” He pauses in thought, not recalling Ayano’s name for a moment. “..uh, Yan..Chan? Is… Is that her name?”
“Ayano. Aishi.” Amise replies, smiling at him. “I’d say so. Why do you ask?”
Taro clears his throat, looking a bit unsure of his next statement. Regardless, he does end up spitting it out. “Uh, so… Do you know if… if she doesn’t like me? I mean… um..” He raises a hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it nervously. “It’s not- not like I think she’s a bad person or anything. I’m just… worried that I might have done something to disturb her?”
Amise frowns, lifting a hand to her chin. “I don’t recall you doing anything to her. Do you?”
“No, I don’t. It’s just… when I’m in her general area she gets incredibly quiet. Just now I walked into the Home Ec room and she was having a conversation with someone. But she noticed me immediately and went radio silent! I wasn’t even near her.” Taro explains with a frown, looking anxious at the thought of somehow getting someone to dislike him.
“Oh…” Amise hums in thought, before smiling and letting her hands rest by her side again. “I don’t think that she dislikes you. She’s just generally very… hard to talk to. She especially can’t stand close proximity.” Raising a hand to her chin again in thought, Amise continues. “I recall bumping into her once, and she practically ran from me! I think she’s just not used to human contact. Which is…”
Taro frowns, more so in pity than distress, though. “..sad.” He sighs. “Gosh, and I’ve bumped into her twice already. That’s embarassing.” He shakes his head, looking ashamed of himself. “I hope I haven’t single-handedly made her dislike by bumping into her. She seems like a nice girl!”
Amise chuckles lightly. “She can be. All you have to do is give her time.” She explains. “And… maybe let her be the one to approach. It’s easier to converse with her when she’s the one who initiates the conversation.”
Taro sighs, but smiles hopefully. “Got it. Thanks, Amise.” He nods to her and heads on back to the Cooking Club.
Taro was very impressionable. He’s always tried his best to see the bright side in everything, so it wasn’t hard for Amise to change how he views someone as strange as Ayano. Amise has yet to get a thank you, but perhaps Ayano will appreciate the work she’s doing for her.
__
“You good, girl?” Frankie, or fully, Francesca, bumps her hip into Ayano’s, likely harder than she intended. “You went suuuper quiet just now.” She says, coating the jalapenos that Ayano had sliced in some buttermilk and then dropping them into a flour mixture.
Ayano hums quietly, noticing that Taro had left. “..yes. I was just thinking.” She replies, continuing to slice through other ingredients.
Frankie nods quietly in response, although her tapping foot indicated that she wanted to say something. “...uh, so..” She pauses, deciding how to word what she wanted to say. “You know, I recently joined the Martial Arts club. And… I was sorta complaining to them while we were training about a problem I had. And then they were saying about how you did a big fat favor for, like… all of them, and how reliable you were to them. So..” Frankie hesitates with an awkward frown, “..uh, do you think you can help me with something?”
Ayano figured that that was coming up, regardless of the amount of time it took for Frankie to finally spit it out. “It depends, but I’m open to trying.” She says casually, dropping the rest of the cut up chicken into the bowl of buttermilk.
Frankie smiles. “Good stuff! So…” She hums in thought, slowly putting her thoughts together. “..okay, so, there’s like, this dark-haired bitch who keeps harassing me. And has been harassing me since last Monday.”
“...right.” Ayano nods, pulling her lips into a straight line at Frankie’s wording.
“It’s, uh… ugh, who is that girl from 1-1..?” Frankie snaps her fingers together in thought.
Cassian, who shared a class with Frankie, spoke up. “That little short, black-haired punk?” He asks, looking offended.
“Yeah!” Frankie nods, shocked that someone else could identify the student.
“That’s Lori!” Hana speaks up, turning to Ayano. “She’s basically on parr with the delinquents with how little she obeys the staff and student council.”
Ayano turns to wash her hands and calls back. “So, why hasn’t this girl been suspended or expelled, yet?”
Hana shrugs. “Who knows. The guidance counselor might have a soft spot for the delinquent types.” She claims, before continuing. “I heard that Lori is super infamous for starting fights outside of the school for the smallest shit! Like, one time I think that one of the students bumped into her on the way outside of the school and she only rocked their shit!”
Cassian cringes. “Yeah, no, that was me.” He sighs at the memory. “You wouldn’t believe what she said to me..!”
Cassian and Hana were pretty infamous for being problematic on their own, mainly towards each other by arguing. Only when it came to gossiping and trash-talking other students they’d actually talk like normal human beings.
Ayano and Frankie tuned them out and continued on with their conversation. “Yeah, but on that note, I’m having some serious trouble with her. Literally several times, I’d have to book it home so that she didn’t drop kick me.” Frankie rants, sighing in dread at having to do it again today. “I’m not really sure what her problem is with me, but she doesn’t bother talking to me about it or anything. She just pops up and starts throwing hands!”
Ayano crossed her arms, lifting an eyebrow in thought. “So, do you want me to fight her?” She asked. Despite how violent Lori seemed, Ayano was sure that she could put the girl in her place.
Frankie frowns at the suggestion. “Ah, I dunno. Despite how small she is, she’s, like, hella strong. I’d like for you to get her to leave me alone, but I’m not sure if I want you to get three black eyes in the process. Y’know?”
“I think I can hold her off while you head home at the very least. But constantly fighting someone every day before I get home might be exhausting.” Ayano claims. Her mind wanders to if Taro were to ever see her fighting. He’d probably think of her as some violent brute. “...or embarrassing.” She mumbles.
“Well, I guess I’ll be vague, then.” Frankie crosses her arms. “Get Lori off of my back for good whenever you can.” She says briefly. “Please. Getting jumped every day after school is obviously not fun.” Frankie holds out her arm, which had a bunch of bandages and bruises peeking out from beneath them.
Ayano nods. Doing something like this for Frankie, who not only was pretty popular but very well-liked could do wonders for Ayano’s reputation. Not to mention that Frankie herself would make an incredibly ally- or “friend”, Ayano should say. She’d be very useful if Ayano ever really needed it.
Seiyo speaks up, having finished a big batch of fried goods. “Frankie, try one of these.” He says, offering her the basket.
The fried jalapenos seemed to catch Frankie’s attention and she popped one into her mouth. She furrowed her eyebrows in thought before looking at the bowl that held their flower mixture. “Okay, outside of salt and pepper what did you add in here?” She asks, taking one of the chicken tenders and trying that, too.
“Uhh, paprika… garlic powder, onion powder… I think that’s about it.” Seiyo said, shrugging.
Frankie shakes her head. “Yeah, no, I see the problem. So all of those are fantastic, but it only adds so much flavor to the breading.” She says, walking over to the fridge and pulling the jalapenos back out. “So, first and foremost. Jalapeno juice in the buttermilk every time. There should be no exceptions. Even if you’re frying jalapenos. Maybe even some lemon shavings if you really want that zesty flavor.”
“Cassie’s feeling the zest at all times.” Hana snickered, earning an unamused expression from blonde in question.
“Oh, shut up. With that palm tree ponytail.” Cassie hisses back. “Maybe if you grew up with four sisters you’d have a better taste in fashion.” He snaps at her, earning a small snicker from Frankie before she continued with lecturing Seiyo.
Ayano finished her part at Seiyo’s station, so she moved on to Ajia’s table, which held her last pair of rivals and the one who relieved her from that stress.
“Do you need any help over here?” Ayano offers, folding her hands together in front of her with a neutral frown.
As Osana looks up to her in slight surprise, Ayano feels some… uncomfortable feeling in her chest. Was this the first time she’d bother to socialize with Osana? Or attempt to? Did she ever talk to her or did she just plague her mind for the entirety of last week? Regardless, there was a horrible feeling of… nervousness at Osana’s regular friendly gaze.
Osana didn’t know anything about what happened last week. She had no idea how many plans Info-Chan had walked Ayano through that could have taken her life. That fact was… chilling to Ayano. There was no reason for Ayano to hate Osana any more than holding a slight vendetta against her, but for some reason she hated looking at her. What right did she have to stand here in front of her when she was the cause of all of her stress last week?
In Ayano’s mind, Osana was already dead to her. Maybe her being alive instead of rotting in a garbage bag reminded Ayano of looking at… a ghost?
“No, we’re alright.” Ajia insists, continuing to neatly fold the sushi rolls she was making without looking up at Ayano. “The work you’ve done is impressive. You should enjoy the rest of your time before classes.”
Ayano nods in understanding. “...right. I will, then.” She says, before walking out of the Home Ec room. She could wait outside the Cooking Club and watch Amai’s behavior. Maybe throw a rock at a window if she tried something stupid.
Before Ayano could get too far down the hall, an irritatingly familiar voice called out to her. “Hey! Uh- A-Ayano!” Osana called, somewhat awkwardly walking over to her. “...hi. Um..”
Ayano lifts an eyebrow at the orange-haired girl. A bit surprised and even more uncomfortable that Osana had bothered approaching her. When Ayano didn’t respond, Osana’s face went a bit pink in embarrassment.
“Uh, so.. I just wanted to talk to you about Taro?” Osana brushes a fringe of her bangs behind her ear in slight nervousness as she continued. “I don’t know if you know this, but Amise told me that you have had feelings for Taro for a long time and were working up your courage to confessing to him some day.”
Ayano nods silently, and Osana nods as well, glad that she’d given some form of response. “So, Taro and I have been… friends for a long time. I’m not saying this because I feel like I own him or anything, but since you seem so talented and responsible, I just wanted to say that I’m glad that Taro… might fall into good hands.”
Osana smiles even thought Ayano didn’t respond to that and continues. “I was in a similar situation, but… the moron never showed interest in me, hehe. I guess I feel like we’re in similar shoes? You seem more… confident than me, so you probably don’t need my emotional support or anything, but… good luck! You’ll need it with that guy.” She says, seeming content with how she’d worded that.
Despite Ayano’s initial shock at the rant of Osana’s, she slowly looked away, feeling conflicted. “...thank you. I… appreciate your support.” She says, her hands held awkwardly at her sides. “Um. Good luck with Kyuji.”
“Hehe, thanks!” Osana beams, putting her hands on her hips. “I think we’re doing well so far!” She says, seeming happy with the ending of the conversation. “I’m gonna get back to that food, though. Talk to you later?” She waves, going back into the Home Ec room.
Surprisingly, Raibaru hadn’t bothered following her out. That could have been the perfect chance to stab her and drag her someplace else if Osana was still a concern of Ayano’s anymore.
Ayano frowns. She didn’t like that Osana was so… social. How could she even be so happy without Taro as a love interest in her life anymore? That just goes to show. She never needed Taro like Ayano did.
Ayano turns around, slowly walking down the hall again.
Yes, that’s right. Even now, her pathetic rivals prove to Ayano that she’s the only one worthy of his love and attention.
__
Ayano didn’t get any tasks done on Tuesday. But she did manage to chat with a number of people. Apparently, Ayano was better at knife work than she thought she was. That’s what all of her other peers said at least.
Nothing thankfully happened with Amai and Taro. It seemed that all they really had to talk about was the cooking lessons. But still, such close proximity could… ruin Taro’s view on Ayano. Amai may begin to look more appealing.
Ayano still had three more days left before Amai would apparently follow in Osana’s footsteps and try to confess on Friday. Everything would work out in her favor, surely. And with a better reputation, Ayano’s plans would be flawless.
She would make sure of it.