Hospitality Comes with a Soufflé 12
After an unproductive study session, Chika and the others said their goodbyes and left the Ichinose residence after saying to meet again later at school tomorrow.
“Today was unexpectedly fun. Invite me again if there’s another chance like this.”
Saying so, Shōhei quickly made his way home.
“Chika, I’m sorry.”
Miki suddenly apologized as the sight of her cheerful classmates walking away disappeared.
“What’s wrong, all of a sudden?”
“I might have made a mistake by letting Kikuchi know about you and Ichinose, Chika. I might have acted inconsiderately.”
“It’s totally fine. Kikuchi-san is good friends with Sōma-san, and he doesn’t seem like someone who would talk carelessly.”
In fact, Chika wasn’t worried at all.
It might be rude to Miki, but the person she most wanted to keep it from was Miki. Now that she knows, the relationship between Chika and Sōma doesn’t have to be kept as an absolute secret anymore.
Still, the thrill of having a secret relationship with Sōma, childish as it might be, made her wish things could stay this way a little longer.
As they walked home side by side in the dusk, Miki looked at her with probing eyes.
“Um, I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while… Do you like Ichinose, Chika?”
“Of course. Sōma-san is a very nice person.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
She answered immediately, but Miki shook her head as if to erase that answer.
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“Do you like him as the opposite sex?”
“Does that mean, are you asking if I want to date Sōma-san?”
The question caught her off guard.
Despite being a pair of high school girls, Chika couldn’t recall ever having a conversation about love with Miki, leading her to assume Miki wasn’t interested in such topics.
“Hmm, well…”
She pondered with her finger on her cheek.
“I don’t know.”
“Y-You don’t know?”
Miki’s eyes widened at the unexpected reply, but it was Chika’s honest feeling.
“After all, I think I’m still a child. I don’t know if my liking for Sōma-san is the ‘like’ of romance.”
Chika did like Sōma, just as she liked her parents and Miki. She was aware of the different ‘likes’ she felt for each of them.
When she thinks about Sōma, there’s a ticklish and slight tingling feeling deep in her chest. This is something she doesn’t feel for the others.
But then again, the ‘like’ she has for her parents and the ‘like’ for Miki are also different.
Chika has many kinds of ‘likes’. But because she’s a ‘child, ‘ Chika doesn’t understand which ‘likes’ come from romantic love and which come from platonic love.
“I just don’t understand it, this whole romance thing…”
She said, staring at the tips of her own feet.
“I’ve seen so many girls in love in manga and dramas. But that’s something that happens on the other side of the screen or in two dimensions, and it doesn’t overlap with me. It lacks reality like it’s something that happens in a distant foreign country.”
She feels like someone said that high school students are supposed to experience love, but she didn’t count herself among them because she still considered herself a ‘child’.
After hearing Chika’s thoughts, Miki wore a complicated expression, hesitating whether to speak or not, then finally opened her mouth.
“But Chika and Ichinose seem really close. It’s like you’re a couple straight out of a romance manga, always so lovey-dovey.”
“Lately, you’ve been saying that a lot about me and Sōma-san, Miki-chan.”
“But, it’s because you’re really doing things straight out of a rom-com manga. I never thought I’d get to see such things up close, so it made my heart race and took me by surprise.”
“I don’t mean to, but when I do those things, Sōma-san gets embarrassed and turns red, and he looks so cute. I just want to see Sōma-san like that.”
“What’s with that reason? It’s like you’re not from a normal rom-com but some special kind of manga.”
Miki showed an indescribable expression.
To that, Chika responded with a gentle smile.
“—But that’s not the only reason. It’s fun to be with Sōma-san, and he shows me all kinds of expressions that I’d never get to see in the classroom. That’s what I want to see.”
It wasn’t just about making him uncomfortable; she wanted to see all his expressions.
Angry face, smiling face, troubled face, blushing face, joyful face, serious face.
Seeing his various expressions made her feel like she had touched his inner self, and that made her happy.
That’s why she ends up wanting to do various things with him.
“That means――”
Miki starts to say something. But in the end, she decides not to say it. Instead,
“…no, as long as Chika is having fun, that’s what matters most. As your best friend, I’m a bit lonely, but I suppose I’ll enjoy watching the two of you interact in exchange for that. It’s really fun, like watching a scene from a manga. That much is okay, right?”
When Chika nodded slightly in response to the question, Miki smiled back contentedly and said ‘See you’, before leaving.
Normally, she would make sure to see Chika all the way home.
Left alone in the midst of the city at dusk, she found herself instinctively looking up at the sky.
In the sky that was beginning to darken, a slightly waning white moon shone forlornly all by itself.