Fujiwara Chika, who loves romance topics, actually doesn't understand love at all.
As she herself said, she is someone who completely cannot read the atmosphere.
In the original story, when the President and Kaguya officially announced their relationship, she was the only fool in the entire student council who hadn't realized it before then.
So, at this moment, Fujiwara Chika didn't notice the slight ambiguous atmosphere between the two of them.
She just tilted her head in confusion, her hand reaching for the garlic without hesitation.
All Fujiwara Chika was thinking about now was eating ramen to her heart's content.
The garlic provided by the ramen shop was unpeeled; such garlic is the freshest and tastes the best.
If peeled in advance, or sliced, the garlic would become dry and its texture would be much worse.
As for minced garlic?
That's for making dipping sauce when eating dumplings or similar dishes.
The two temporarily broke free from the joy of slurping noodles and entered a halftime break.
Tanaka Masao peeled garlic while secretly observing Fujiwara Chika.
She was humming a little tune, her suspended feet swinging back and forth, her eyes fixed on the garlic cloves in her hand, looking very focused and expectant.
That sudden heart-fluttering feeling gradually faded, making Tanaka Masao secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
I was almost captured; is this the power of a natural airhead, capable of inadvertently capturing someone's heart?
Perhaps due to a lack of concentration, Tanaka Masao's garlic peeling speed was a bit slow.
On the other side, Fujiwara Chika satisfactorily placed the peeled garlic into her bowl and saw Tanaka Masao's situation.
She shook her head, looking quite helpless.
"Oh, Junior Tanaka is just Junior Tanaka; his garlic-peeling skills aren't good. He needs to practice more."
Saying that, she split two of her own and handed them to Tanaka Masao.
"Here, these are for you."
Looking at Fujiwara Chika's outstretched hand, two pristine white garlic cloves rested in her palm, which was even whiter than them.
"Oh, thank you, Fujiwara-senpai."
Tanaka Masao didn't stand on ceremony, reaching out to take the garlic from her palm.
Garlic peeled by a beautiful girl herself, are you envious? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Audience: No... I'm not envious at all. It was so hot eating ramen just now, and when peeling garlic, it would definitely get sticky with sweat on her palm. Just thinking about it...
During the process of taking the garlic, Tanaka Masao's fingertips inevitably brushed Fujiwara Chika's palm slightly.
Fujiwara Chika, who withdrew her hand a little belatedly, tilted her head, and a thought suddenly popped into her mind.
Was that action just now a bit ambiguous?
She felt a little itchy in her palm where she had been touched, and a strange feeling in her heart.
She couldn't help but secretly glance at Tanaka Masao.
She found that he was lowering his head and eating noodles, feeling the spiciness in his mouth after taking a bite of garlic.
Maybe I'm overthinking it. Eat noodles, eat noodles.
The fleeting unusual feeling was quickly cast aside by Fujiwara Chika, and she focused on eating her noodles.
With the addition of garlic, the remaining bit of ramen was quickly devoured.
The two of them held up their bowls with both hands, tilting their heads back.
Gulp ~ Gulp ~
Their movements synchronized as they drank almost half a bowl of ramen soup in one go.
"Ha~"
Having drunk it all, the ramen bowls were placed heavily on the table.
"Thank you for the meal!"
"Another bowl."
Fujiwara Chika, looking satisfied, snapped out of her bliss, turned her head, and asked with a hint of confusion.
"Junior Tanaka, what did you just say? Another bowl?"
"That's right."
Tanaka Masao nodded and said to the ramen shop owner.
"Owner, another bowl of the same."
The owner nodded, simply saying, "Please wait."
Then he continued to make ramen; there were many people who could eat two or even three bowls of ramen, so he didn't feel the slightest bit strange.
Moreover, Tanaka Masao had eaten his ramen completely clean; he was someone who truly loved ramen.
For such people, the owner was happy to make ramen for him.
Watching the ramen shop owner make Tanaka Masao's second bowl of ramen, Fujiwara Chika touched her slightly bulging belly and said with a hint of envy.
"That's so nice, Junior Tanaka can eat a second serving. I'm already full and can't eat a second serving at all."
Tanaka Masao showed a smug smile.
"Heh heh, aren't you envious? I get to enjoy more delicious food."
"Tch, I'm not envious at all."
Fujiwara Chika picked up the water cup next to her and took a sip of clear water, the salty taste in her mouth from drinking ramen soup was greatly diluted.
"More food isn't necessarily better. As long as you enjoy the deliciousness and feel happy, that's good."
"Oh, by the way, I haven't asked Junior Tanaka what school he's from."
After eating ramen, Fujiwara Chika didn't choose to leave immediately but sat there chatting with Tanaka Masao.
Although it was their first meeting, they felt quite compatible, so she decided to make a friend.
"Oh, by the way, I heard Junior Tanaka say earlier that you're from Chiba. Do you come to Tokyo often?"
"Not often, but I've had some things lately, so I come almost every weekend."
"Oh, I see. Then, would you like to exchange contact information?"
Fujiwara Chika took out her phone and shook it.
The two of them had almost no overlapping social circles; their meeting was purely accidental, and they might not even meet again in the future.
Actually, even if they exchanged contact information, they might not contact each other, but at least there's a connection, right?
Tanaka Masao didn't hesitate and took out his phone.
"Sure."
When exchanging contact information for Line, the most popular social app in Japan, Fujiwara Chika inadvertently caught sight of the contacts in Tanaka Masao's phone.
She said with some surprise.
"Junior Tanaka has so many girls' contact details in his phone. Could it be that Junior Tanaka is actually a playboy?"
Tanaka Masao's phone had a total of six contacts.
His parents, Kashi, Yukinoshita Yukino, and the Sawamura mother and daughter.
Tanaka Masao pointed to himself and asked with a hint of confusion.
"Do I look like a playboy?"
Fujiwara Chika pinched her chin, thought seriously, and then shook her head.
"Not at all. Compared to a playboy, Junior Tanaka looks more like a typical otaku."
Tanaka Masao shrugged.
"There you go then."
While chatting with Tanaka Masao, Fujiwara Chika scrolled through his social media account and quickly discovered something.
"Is Junior Tanaka on a diet?"
Tanaka Masao glanced at Fujiwara Chika's phone; it showed a post he had made.
It was a photo he took after his morning exercise.
He had posted many similar photos to document his weight loss journey.
When he successfully lost weight in the future, he could look back at them and recall this difficult period.