OreShura: Volume 4 Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Two Women in the Kitchen is Mayhem

We decided to make curry for dinner.

The hotel had already prepared potatoes, carrots, onions, and beef, but the guy who was supposed to make beef stew for us was seemed rather weird, so I felt making curry together a club might be better.

After Fuyuumi rummaged around the kitchen cupboard, she shrugged her shoulders:

"Nope. There's a lot of other seasonings, but there doesn't seem to be any curry roux."

"That sucks. Now what?"

"Oh, but there is some sauce for beef stew."

"……The hotel staff are really weird here."

In other words, since there wasn't any curry roux, we needed to go out and buy some.

"Two people should be enough for buying groceries. For the sake of fairness, shall we decide by rock-paper-scissors?"

Masuzu proposed this.

"Eita should stay behind though."

"Eh? Why?"

Masuzu pointed at the chandelier hanging from the living room ceiling:

"I tried turning on the switch earlier, but it didn't work. Can you find some lightbulbs to change it?"

So basically it was a man's work.

Fuyuumi landed cleanly on the ground with her apron on, and said:

"I'll stay behind to prepare the curry. You guys don't know how to cook anyways, right?"

Chiwa pouted with displeasure:

"Why do you get to do what you want? So unfair!"

"Oh, do you really dare?"

Chiwa had unconsciously raised her palm.

"Sorry! I just wanted to try saying that!"

"……You......"

Thus aside from Fuyuumi, the three of them played rock-paper-scissors, and Masuzu was the one left.

After Chiwa and Hime headed out, I opened the cupboard in the living room and started looking for lightbulbs. Masuzu and Fuyuumi were at the kitchen counter peeling vegetables.

"Natsukawa-san, can I ask you a question?"

"As long as I can answer it, you can."

With my back to them, I listened to their conversation I as looked through the lowest shelf in the cupboard for a lightbulb.

......Ah—it's too dark to see clearly.

It would have been fine if I could turn on the lights, but the hard part was that I was looking for that lightbulb.

"Was Natsukawa-san very troubled in April or May? After being confessed to so many times?"

"No? It wasn't troubling at all?"

"I saw you once when you were being confessed to behind the gym. Afterwards, you sighed."

I tried to grope around a little bit—no, this was all cleaning supplies.

I guess I'll look on the shelf above this one.

"Really? so what about it?"

"I'm sorry, but I also happened to heard the confession too, since your voices reached even the flower garden."

"......"

"He was really aggressive. I really hate those guys that fly into a rage after being rejected."

......

I was starting to feel there was a very serious conversation going on over there.

"If this stuff kept on happening repeatedly, wouldn't anyone start to hate being confessed to? It wouldn't be strange to want to date anyone random; it didn't even matter who. "

"……Ah."

"From this perspective, Kidou-kun was a very good choice. He's serious, not interested in girls, and has the best grades in the class. Even if you dated him, no one would think it was strange."

"…………Um, Fuyuumi-san?"

"What is it?"

"How much should I be peeling this potato?"

｢Ahhh!｣ This noise resounded from the kitchen.

Fuyuumi held a potato the size of a marble and shouted:

"Just just had to peel off the skin! Why did you have to peel it to the core?!"

"Oh, I see. No wonder why it felt so ｢endless｣."

"Enough! Forget about the potatoes. Just go peel the onions!"

"Understood."

Because they started cooking again, I returned to exploring the cupboard.

"Back to what we were talking about. Ever since you started going out with Kidou-kun, you haven't been confessed to, right?"

"Ah, sure."

"That's obvious, of course. There aren't boys shameless enough to want to approach girls that already have boyfriends, right?"

"Yeah."

"If you started going out with Kidou-kun for this reason—I may not be about to forgive you."

I couldn't help but turn and look back towards the kitchen, watching the silhouettes of their backs.

Since Masuzu and Fuyuumi were moving their hands unceasingly, they didn't look at each other's faces.

But what were the expressions on their faces?

"I don't really understand what you mean."

"I thought about it. If the relationship between you two is ｢fake｣ like Eita's aunt said, then I wondered what your motive might be."

"……Fuyuumi-san."

"Huh? I was in the middle of saying something?"

"Where should stop peeling this onion?"

Fuyuumi gave a startled cry, ｢Hya?!｣

She pinched only a tiny core of the onion that remained:

"You just had to peel the brown part off! Why did you have to peel it all the way to the core?"

"Oh, I see. No wonder why it felt so ｢endless｣."

"I heard that excuse already! Forget it, just go wash the rice! And don't use dish detergent!"

"Pfuhaha, who'd actually use dish detergent to wash rice?"

"That's because you're seriously always overdoing things—!"

Fuyuumi stomped so forcefully it seemed like she would break the floor.

Did Masuzu really come out on top?

......No, even so.

Fuyuumi's speculation had hit the core precisely.

Quite as expected from the devilish disciplinary committee member, her skills are entirely different than Chiwa's and Hime's.

"So what about it? Did I guess right?"

"In other words, how is it?"

"......Wait a minute, why'd you take out a whetstone?"

"Oh, I just wanted to polish each grain of rice with the upmost care."

"Even if you spend the entire night, you won't be able to polish it all! How long do you intend to play dumb?"

"Ah, ｢endlessly｣. "

"If you don't stop right now, this gentle Ai-chan is going to get angry soon—STOPPPPP!"

Ah, and that was it.

Probably because she got too tired of yelling, in the end Fuyuumi was left quietly preparing curry. This was Masuzu's, ｢playing-dumb victory｣.

I also finally found the light bulb, and proceeded to use a folding ladder to install it.

A fragrant smell came from the kitchen accompanied with the sound of cooking, and it was about time that Chiwa and Hime should be back.

"Anyways, Fuyuumi-san is really good at cooking."

Masuzu lined up five plates along the table.

"It's only okay. Ever since my mom passed away, it's been my responsibility to cook for my dad and little brother."

Fuyuumi hummed the song 'Tawny Vegetable~ ♪' as she turned off the stove.

"What about Natsukawa's family? Do you have any brothers and sisters?"

"Yes, a sister."

"Ah, do you get along?"

"Extremely poorly."

"…………O-Oh, I see."

Perhaps because she felt the atmosphere was very unusual, Fuyuumi did not ask any further.

"Well, our family's relationship is pretty good, since it's really hard to make friends transferring schools so much. Because of that, I've always played with my brother."

"Playing pretend-doctor?"

"Doctors……? no, we just played normal games."

"Haha, doctor games."

"I said it wasn't that!"

Just by looking at the way they talked, it seemed like they they were good friends from the same club.

But—what Fuyuumi said earlier made me very uneasy.

So we really have been doubted.

In order to make them recognize that that Masuzu and I really were ｢boyfriend and girlfriend｣, how should we go about it?

---

Notes

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