Chapter 253: Eat First, Bathe First, or... Wa~ta~shi~?
Two weeks before the cultural festival.
After the first meeting of the Cultural Festival Executive Committee ended.
Sakurai Saki left the meeting room.
The process... how should he put it?
Sakurai Saki felt completely out of place. At first, he thought Ishigami Yuu would have a hard time adapting, but in the end, the one who couldn't adapt turned out to be himself.
Sakurai even doubted whether he had already fallen behind the times. It wasn't that he deliberately kept his distance to avoid participating in discussions, but the topics they talked about were of no interest to him. From the very start, he only joined to slack off, so this didn't bother him much.
As for Ishigami Yuu, in order to win the favor of that senpai, he seemed to have prepared everything thoroughly, like a male bird in mating season, spreading its radiant wings to attract a female, spinning in place, and then dancing a ballet.
Ishigami: ⎛⎝( ` ᢍ ´ )⎠⎞ᵐᵘʰᵃʰᵃ
Sakurai Saki recalled the video that Hayasaka Ai had shared with him last night before going to bed.
That bird seemed to be called Paradise Bird.
Those beautiful male birds existed solely to attract females. Humans in this aspect seemed to be the opposite? No, not entirely—male birds don't care about the appearance of females, but women will consider the appearance of men... aside from that, also their abilities. Of course, the opposite is also true too.
With such idle thoughts in mind, Sakurai Saki followed behind Iino Miko, the two of them preparing to head to the neighborhood association to report about the need for a bonfire.
This time, accompanying them was Onodera Rei, who was quite close to Miko, and also joined the Cultural Festival Executive Committee this time.
The group made a round through the nearby neighborhood. Since Iino Miko usually spent her free time helping with some volunteer work, the atmosphere unexpectedly turned out very relaxed. In fact, for several years now the neighborhood association had not agreed to let Shuchiin hold evening activities, not granting the school permission for nighttime events, and yet this time they gave their approval.
Even though they agreed, they still had to arrange a fire drill. Miko took Sakurai Saki and Onodera Rei around in a big loop, handing out notices to nearly every household.
"Yeah, I know, just wait at home for me." Sakurai Saki held the flyer in his left hand, his right hand holding the phone.
"What should we eat tonight? The weather's cold lately, let's have sukiyaki hotpot. The ingredients should be in the fridge, and as for the pot, I left it in the storage cabinet next to the balcony."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be done after passing out the last of these."
The voice of Hayasaka Ai on the phone was both steady and gentle, her pace neither too fast nor too slow. The two girls walking with him could hear it clearly.
"Is that a call from Hayasaka-senpai?" Iino Miko asked.
"Umu. She's asking me what to eat tonight."
"Sakurai-senpai really is dating Hayasaka-senpai, huh." Onodera Rei sighed with a strange tone.
Sakurai Saki hung up the phone and put it in his pocket.
"Me dating Hayasaka is nothing unusual, right?"
"... How should I put it, back when I was still in middle school, I spent half a year hearing nonstop rumors about senpai. At first, I even thought Chika-chan would win." Onodera Rei was on 'Team Chika.'
"Don't turn other people's love lives into betting games, you really are... I've got nothing to say." Sakurai Saki sighed.
Even kids in middle school already knew about his relationship? Yare yare...
"Actually, at first I even thought it was Shiro-Saku..." Onodera Rei muttered.
"What?"
Sakurai: (·•᷄ࡇ•᷅ )
Onodera: Σ(°△° ꪱꪱꪱ)
"Nothing!!" Onodera Rei's voice suddenly shot up.
The passersby around all turned to look. She faced them with a smile carrying an apologetic air.
'I accidentally spoke too loudly.'
Sakurai Saki had actually heard her, but he didn't really care. A straight body doesn't fear a crooked shadow—his sexual orientation was perfectly normal.
"What's Shiro-Saku?" Iino Miko suddenly asked.
"Isn't it that President Shirogane and Sakurai-senpai have a pretty good relationship?" Onodera Rei didn't dare say it straight out, but when she saw Miko's confused expression, she understood that Miko wasn't a fujoshi. Miko seemed to have no idea about these things at all.
"How should I put it, in the first half of the year at Shuchiin there were always rumors spreading~ saying that Sakurai-senpai was hesitating between two beautiful maidens. Aiya, should I even be saying this?"
"You only ask me whether you should say it after you've already said it?"
"Under the promotion of the media club, and of course, the middle school media club too, that news spread wider and wider, and in the end it turned into a battle between factions!" Onodera Rei spoke in a tone as if terrified: "Team Chika-Saku, Team Haya-Saku, and also Team Shiro-Saku, and then Team Shino-Saku rose up as a new power. That really was a bloody and stormy battle!"
Sakurai Saki listened to those rumors about himself, but felt no sense of involvement at all. Those rumors were completely groundless, he had no idea how they could have been blown so far out of proportion.
"But in the end, Miko, you already know, Hayasaka-senpai won the victory, and the others all suffered miserable defeat." Onodera Rei, like a historian, narrated the entire story.
She always had a knack for telling stories.
"So amazing." Iino Miko said that, but her tone carried no trace of emotion.
Her "so amazing" wasn't amazing at all.
"Alright, alright, let's drop this subject here, we still have a lot of flyers to hand out."
"Senpai, do you want to head back first?"
"No way, how could I leave two girls behind by themselves?"
"Senpai is really gentle."
Miko: (⸝⸝ ♡﹏♡⸝⸝)
...
After that, the three of them spent another hour delivering the remaining flyers to the households that hadn't received them.
By the time the three parted ways, it was already near evening.
Returning to the front of his house, Sakurai Saki gently knocked a few times. Since he had a committee meeting after school today, he had given his house key to Hayasaka Ai.
And he hadn't brought a spare key with him. If Ai-chan didn't open the door, he really wouldn't be able to get in.
He waited about ten seconds.
The door opened.
The beautiful blonde girl in an apron bent slightly, her tone playful:
"Darling, do you want to eat first, bathe first, or… wa~ta~shi~?"
Hayasaka: ❀.(*,,•̀ ᴗ -,,*)❀
Just as Hayasaka Ai finished speaking, she noticed that Sakurai Saki was holding up his phone toward her, recording.
"What are you doing?" She tilted her head, her small face full of doubt.
So bewildered it was a bit cute.
"Recording my girlfriend's adorable moment."
"..."
Hayasaka: ( ˶o˶˶o˶) !!
In just a few seconds, Hayasaka Ai's face turned bright red. Sakurai Saki turned his head to look toward the horizon, where the sunset was shining, its color nearly the same.
"It's fine, I'll just watch it a few times before bed."
"You're not allowed to show it to anyone else, not even to other girls."
"Got it, got it." Sakurai Saki casually replied.
Who would show their girlfriend's cute video to others? Something so precious, of course, had to be kept for himself alone.
Stepping inside, Sakurai Saki changed his shoes, while Hayasaka Ai went to cook.
Her sukiyaki hotpot had already been simmering for a while, but not too long—it would probably take quite some more time. Preparing the ingredients was truly troublesome, and Ai-chan had already spent a lot of time dealing with them.
Hayasaka Ai could cook, but only at a level of average tastiness.
She had received formal training, but usually at the Shinomiya household, she rarely had the chance to cook. Only during cooking classes at school could she get hands-on practice making a few dishes.
Half an hour later.
At the dining table.
"How does it taste?" Hayasaka Ai looked toward Sakurai Saki with a bit of expectation in her eyes.
"It's delicious, I want to eat it for a lifetime."
Sakurai: (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
Hayasaka: (ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ)♡
"That line is way too cheesy~." Hayasaka Ai complained with her mouth, but the faint smile tugging at her lips couldn't be hidden.
"I think something like, 'I want to drink your miso soup for a lifetime'—that kind of confession is really romantic."
"Use that line next time, okay?"
"Tomorrow morning's breakfast, look forward to it."
"That's way too fast!"