Golden Time:Volume5 Chapter2
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Golden Time 5: Chapter 2
Chapter 2
All things considered, this summer was definitely that.
To himself, he wondered if he hadn't been cursed... it was such an idiotic thing, but he had thought about just a little bit seriously.
Banri was standing by himself, sustaining himself against the dusty, rough handrail of the veranda, absentmindedly watching the road below.
It was getting on to seven in the evening, and though the sun had not yet set, the sky was dark blue with smelly, thick exhaust fumes. Covering the whole town, the sultry hot air spread around him without any wind, carrying to the ground the noise and dampness of a mid-summer's evening in Tokyo.
All of ten minutes ago there came a message from Kouko, "I'm coming up in a bit." Since then Banri had been like this, watching the base of the apartment building while waiting for his girlfriend to arrive.
Saying to himself 'she should be showing up any time now,' he rested his chin in his hand for moment. He realized too late that his skin was soaked with seat. When he tried to touch his nose, he found it greasy. The back of his neck, too, and all his hair was wet. Rats, he thought. If he was going to look like an idiot, then perhaps it would be a good idea if he took a quick shower to refresh himself. No matter what, even if he did nothing else, it was one day to take it easy.
Like this, the whole day long, Banri had had free time.
In truth, he should have met up with Kouko today before noon, and with nowhere else to go, they would probably have taken the train downtown. He wondered if by now they would have gone to eat dinner, tired of walking around.
There was a special summer vacation event with no entrance fee taking place today only at the botanical gardens, and Kouko seemed to want to go there. Banri had been eagerly setting up plans... searching on the internet for the best lunch shops nearby and checking for likely coffee shops to take their breaks in... between this and that, he had been looking forward to the two of them being together. Since all they did normally was lazily kill time in Banri's room or in the area nearby, he had said, "Let's go out on a date once in a while, like a couple."
Even so, since last night Kouko's relatives had suddenly arrived to pay them a visit, and she said the whole family had to give them a warm welcome. Kouko had apologized, saying "Sorry, the night will be okay so let's have dinner together, okay?"
If that's how it was, then it couldn't be helped, and Banri cheerfully adjusted today's schedule.
In the end, with it turning out he had nothing at all on his schedule until Kouko came, nor had he anything else to do, he found himself alone. He passed the whole day uselessly, a complete bum. Surfing the net, sleeping, waking, watching television, munching snacks, eating good-for-nothing leftovers for lunch and going to the convenience store without his wallet to cool off. Well, it might have been better to have done a bit of tidying and taking out the trash. But in the end, he just absentmindedly waited for his girlfriend to arrive.
"...I sure am a guy with time on his hands..."
If he'd thought back on it, what he found to do was a little pitiful: talking to himself. Even if nobody else pointed it out, he saw himself as a guy with time on his hands. He wondered if that was a good thing for a nineteen year old.
And it wasn't confined to just today. Even if the feeling that he was cursed with free time was just an idiotic suspicion, his schedule this summer, to Banri's point of view, had absolutely nothing in it.
Up to the day of the Awa Odori festival, it seemed to him his days had been filled up.
There were club practices, and after practice there were drinking parties. That's right, Hosshii-senpai and the fourth years were invited too, and would show up for us. They were all under so much stress they were losing weight, burnt out from job hunting, looking just like they'd been reduced to starving monks. Each of them was behaving suspiciously, and they made Banri and Kouko feel nervous.
Incidentally, as for the Omaken fourth years, none of them as yet had been extended tentative offers. They knew from the start, of course, that things would be getting difficult, and yet, the reality was nevertheless harsh. "Though I think a festival bum is needed in the Japanese economy, particularly now..." Hosshii-senpai murmured without energy.
At the end of the last period, they'd had a few more reports to do. Unable to avoid the language tests, they had studied unusually diligently. And after the tests were over, they had yet another drinking party they referred to as "The Launch."
Having finished with the above, there was that Awa Odori performance on the scorching street in Saitama. What with Kouko dying, and then the mysterious excitement forcibly bringing her back, one way or the other we finished the festival. Once it was all over, it was one really fun day. As for Banri, there was plenty of food and drink at the after-party, and it felt good, in the end he drank too much, ate too much, got thoroughly drunk, and he returned alone earlier than usual to his room.
It was clearly from around then.
From the very start, his summer schedule was "not much", but from what he could see, it had disappeared entirely.
The big thing should have been a three day, two night Omaken Club training camp, but the college seminar house they'd selected had suddenly closed down from equipment failures or somesuch, so as things were everything was cancelled.
They'd spoken with their seniors about rescheduling for another time, but they'd not heard back. Since there had probably been other clubs trying to use that seminar house and having the same painful experience, it appeared that college facilities would be difficult to obtain from here on out. As it was, it looked like there wouldn't be a training camp this summer.
In the meantime, he'd promised to go with Kouko to a fireworks display, but the pouring rain which had started a few days before put a stop to that. Kouko, having prepared a yukata for that day, and even made an appointment at the beauty parlor, was really disappointed.
There were still other fireworks out there, but Kouko seemed to have her heart set on this particular fireworks display. According to her, back when she was taking her entrance exams the crush on the buses heading towards the fireworks venue was so great you could die getting on the bus. She had sworn that the next year she would absolutely go there with somebody, as she was being jostled so hard her brains were being forced out her nose. When he tried to invite her to see a different fireworks display, Kouko's answer was a sigh. A sigh. Wasn't that such an indifferent answer, even between people who have barely started dating?
There were many little things already. Today's date was like that too. They had promised to go out and have some fun with Handsome and Two Dimensions, but between work problems and this and that, in the end there weren't any more spots available in the calendar. Though they'd signed up for a private movie showing, he'd forgotten to check his mailbox, and by the time he discovered the card notifying him they'd been selected the date had already passed.
Since this summer had truly been nothing but that sort of thing, Banri was just a breathing lump of meat.
With the long awaited summer vacation, he had the time so he could probably even get a part time job, but he didn't really want to return to the fight he'd had with Kouko. He'd gotten e-mails from Mother asking when he would come back home, but he really didn't feel like going home.
In any case he didn't even feel like he wanted to go home. The lump of meat in Tokyo would simply become a lump of meat in Shizuoka. More than anything, while finally setting it quietly at a distance, he was absolutely avoiding any accidental encounter with his past.
To Mother, he fired off an answer of "If I decide to, I'll call you back." If he went back, then Mother said he'd be helping Grandma with the tea crops, like he'd always done "before" every year, without getting paid... but he thought "really?" Without being paid: that part sounded suspicious to him. Even if it was true, the memories of how to help out as a tea farmer were entirely lost to him.
Nonetheless, from the periodic exams he'd had to receive in the hospital, he had had to return home at some times during summer vacation.
Twisting and singing to an appropriate tune "Can't do it now ♪ No free time♪" ...in spite of the abundant free time he had living here by himself, at that moment, he saw a single taxi coming towards him down the street.
The taxi stopped right below the veranda where Banri was, in front of the apartment building. When he saw the person who presently got out, Banri cried "Ah!" in a small voice.
That figure, purse in hand, standing there in the road. Long hair curled and wound around, it was without a doubt Kouko. Her long hair reached out so far and fluffy he couldn't see her face yet, but Banri had never seen a girl who cared for herself so well.
Looking up towards him it was Kouko, of course. Even from a distance, however many times he saw her he still couldn't quite get used to it: her skin as if glowing softly white, her lovely carefully arranged, in some ways almost like a doll. She was nearly the very image of perfection. There was no way to describe it in words.
When Kouko noticed Banri on the veranda, her mouth opened in a happy exclamation, and she broke out into a smile. She waved up to him.
Waving back at her, once he was sure Kouko's head had gone inside the entrance, Banri returned into his room kicking off his sandals. Tearing off two Bioré powder sheets and putting them together, he wiped himself down roughly, with all the fury of the gods, from the back of his neck, his armpits, his stomach, his bottom and even between his toes. He puffed 8x4 all over his body like a stormcloud, and as the cloud of dust so thick it was ready to explode settled lightly, he did one last check!
Garbage can set! No bad smells! So many weeks worth of ‘TV Brothers' scattered about, but whatever, set! Toilet set! Bathroom set too! Pants zipped up! The mirror, more or less, check! Eyes! Teeth! Nose! My bangs are a little out of whack, but there isn't much I can do from this point forward!
Ready, set, okay!
Leaping from his doorway as he was, wearing sandals, he parked himself right in front of the elevator. Even as he thought he looked just like a dog, Banri waited excitedly in that spot for the arrival of the elevator bringing up Kouko.
Wondering how many seconds it would be before the door opened, suddenly Banri felt ashamed to look so much like a dog. Indeed, he'd gotten so excited just because Kouko was coming! It wasn't the feeling that nothing else had happened today! He was obviously a man with time on his hands! A boring guy! He hadn't fallen that far, had he?
Thinking that the thick aroma of the Bioré he'd wiped his body down with was giving the lie to his looking like a dog, Banri decided at once to make light of it.
The elevator arriving, then waiting a beat for it to open,
"Guess who!?"
Suddenly bending over like some mischievous fairy,
"It's meee!"
Baah! Making as it were the "Cancer Deathmask" around his face with both hands, or perhaps looking like a shallow imitation of the "Oyama Amusement Park" spokesperson, he tried to step out in front of her with the funniest face he could manage.
Still keeping up his hopes of hearing her sweet, surprised voice crying ‘Kyaa～! No way～! Cut it out, Banri～!', Banri was sent flying, knocked down by a single punch...
Flying for what seemed to be an eternity,
"...!?"
Banri saw the face of the person who came out of the elevator.
"...!!"
"I felt like I had to punch you and send you flying, even if with just one fist," she said.
NANA-sempai, without makeup, her other hand holding tight to a bundle of mail still, stepped right over Banri, who was knocked flat on his unsightly butt, taking no further notice of him. With long heavy strides, she went into her own apartment. She slammed shut her door so hard it looked like she was trying to break the frame. So hard it seemed like a sonic boom. And then with an incredible noise, she set her lock.
Practically in a daze, Banri said "I'm sorry..." It was his fault. He'd tried playing a joke on somebody without even making sure who the other person was, so it was his fault. NANA-senpai, with her low blood pressure... and from lack of food and sleep was always so terribly irritable. To have done "It's me!" to such a person without having prepared them... he was sorry. Holding his cheeks, tears flowing as if he were bleeding, he repeated it over and over again desperately.
But in that case, where in the world did Kouko go...?
"Heey..."
When he turned in surprise, supporting herself with one hand on the wall by the stairwell landing, hair fluffed up full volume, the wildly combed hair of an eccentric, ...no, interesting, ...no! It was the very lovely, virtually perfect form of his lover there.
"Mon amour..."
She rolled her ‘r's.
Her lips half-open, her eyes half-closed as if under a spell. Already she had one hand wickedly placed on her hip. Her long, slim, proud, beautiful legs were crossed.
She wore an adult black no-sleeve blouse made of sexy see-through chiffon, a black high-waisted miniskirt, and of course shiny black high-heeled sandals. Her wavy hair spilled gorgeously down to around her hips, making her look like a princess. Even her hair-band today was of simple black satin. The dark brown color of her glossy hair shone beautifully.
The latest style of Chanel chain-bag hung diagonally from her posed shoulder, she placed at her feet an eco-bag with a famous store's logo on it. For some reason, Kouko was breathing heavily, her shoulders heaving up and down. But looking strangely happy,
"Were you surprised? You were, weren't you? Yes, I'm a surprising woman!"
Kouko showed him a perfect smile, both ends of her glossy wine-red lips upturned prettily. She proudly kept up her model-like pose before him, as it were beams of blinding light coming from her.
"You, you came up the steps...? In those shoes...?"
"I did? I dashed up!"
"Wh, why...?"
"Because this trick occurred to me! By chance I saw NANA-senpai checking her mailbox, and it came to me! That's right, I said to myself, let's give Banri a surprise! Ufu! You were surprised, weren't you? Weren't you!? That! Is The! Spice of Love!"
She was even saying it to a rhythm.
"Trick or not... surprised or not... because of that I ended up like this...?"
"It's all~ okay!"
Aha! Kouko, showing her white teeth while shrugging her shoulders like a foreigner, clicked her nine centimeter heels as she stepped up to Banri, who was still sitting on the floor.
"You said its okay, like it was the right thing to do..."
"I wasn't saying it was the right thing to do. I have good reasons, because now I'm going to make you some curry yakisoba!"
"Eh!?"
"You must have forgotten it all from the love tap NANA-senpai gave you! Didn't I promise to make it for you?"
Setting aside whether was a ‘love tap' from NANA-senpai or not,
"Are you kidding!? You were serious about that!? Hooray! Let's do this! I'm really glad!"
Banri was back on his feet really quickly. Kouko slung the tightly fastened ecobag from her shoulder and lending a hand to the unsteadily standing Banri,
"I'm so happy you're glad!"
In an excessively good mood, she declaimed loudly, as if she were an evil queen. And then,
"I've bought all the right things, and my preparations are already perfect! You may now anticipate!"
His smile reached all the way to his toes. Today's feeling of it being a slow nothing-to-do day was blown away in a single breath. If Banri were a dog, he thought, he'd be standing up begging and his tail would be wagging so fast it would lift him into the air like a helicopter.
Banri, do you like yakisoba? Me, I can make curry yakisoba! It isn't curry plus yakisoba, but rather curry-flavored yakisoba. It's quite delicious. Shall we make it the next time we eat at your place?
...She was undoubtedly remembering a similar conversation on some prior date. But he wasn't thinking about that today. With the sudden change of schedule, Kouko must have been too busy during the middle day. He thought it was more than anything an ordinary verbal promise. Banri probably forgot, somehow, part of their vast river of conversation.
"I can't believe you forgot."
As for Kouko, her long, wavy hair was gathered and twisted easily into a bun, as if by magic, by a single hair clip,
"I'm making good on my promise!"
She put on the apron she'd brought and looked back at him.
"Whoooaa～...!"
He couldn't help but let loose a roar like a rumble from the ground. He had a date for Kaga Kouko's home cooking.
Her apron, a very simple one tie-died in dark blue and brown, looked good against her skin, snow white though it was summer, and suited her surprisingly well. Today she's removed her watch and rings entirely, and didn't even have nails. Her fingernails were cut plain and short, and yet were still a pretty cherry-blossom pink.
Whether she noticed Banri's fascinated gaze or not, Kouko was smiling, mumbling slightly embarrassed, "apron...", and as if to be seen by Banri spread both her hands wide. Of course, she didn't say anything dumb like "Look, no strings!"
"Great! That's great! Seriously great! It suits you! It suits you to a tee! It looks incredible on you!"
With those thoughts, Banri's excitement skyrocketed. Thinking 'I'm going to appreciate this from every angle,' he began to shift around, keeping a low profile, Spiderman style. Good from the right! Good from the left! Good from the front! And good crosswise too! Good from every direction! That was his conclusion.
Though she was wearing only a smattering of her usual expensive, perfect makeup, she was the best, and wasn't such as that okay now and then? Wasn't she incredible? And when he thought being able to look her over like this was a 'boyfriend's privilege', didn't that make it all the better? The super express train of a man's heart was a non-stop service from the station of 'having that couple feeling' to the exploding dream of marriage.
Banri squirmed around for a while, enjoying himself appreciating her, then knelt down once more on his cushion. And then, not even caring if the cells of his palms died, he applauded her with all his might. Good! The best! Incredibly fine! Doing that over and over, of course, made Kouko bashful.
"Cut it out, you're exaggerating! Are you're teasing me?"
Even seeing her start to blush and squirm in embarrassment, that is once more the best! Move forward, move forward express train, the signal is turning green! Get moving!
"Teasing you? No way! Well, seriously, there's no way I could do that! Being able to see you in an apron, and being able to receive your home cooking, any curse I might have had has already been lifted from me! That really, really, really looks good on you!"
"Eehh... really? Is it really...? This apron is that good?"
"Yep! It's incredibly good! Wow, do you always wear that when you cook at home!?"
"Eh... ye, yes! We, well... yes... yes I do! Seems like... I do."
"Whoa, is that so!? You're even more, incredibly girlish! Wow, you got me really excited before I knew it! As one would expect of you, Kouko, the unpredictable woman! To think that you cooked in your home looking like that, with an apron on! I love it, love it!"
"...Ah, aha... ehe..."
"Well then! What should I do!? I'll help with anything!"
"Hey..."
"'Hey' what? I can't just sit here while you're the only one doing this and that. I mean, let's do this together. For me, making my cooking turn out good is a matter of practicing, now. Feels like, 'Young man, look to your cooking.'"
With an excess of energy, Banri stood. Floating in his excitement, he managed to stick his head inside the refrigerator.
"Oh, that's right, we have a little bit of veggies too. If they're okay to use, I'd like to use them. Onions, bean sprouts, and about a half bunch of carrots. Shall we make something soup-like, like Miso soup or something? How about salad?"
"..."
Kouko, for some reason having gone quiet, was staring at the standing Banri's face with a complicated look on her face. Her mouth was shaped into something like a smile, but in those eyes was a distinct shade of embarrassment and of impatience. Then, seeing something off to her side, his breath caught.
"Wha, what? What'd you do? I mean, what did you go and buy?"
In that moment, Kouko having suddenly frozen in place, he tried to open the ecobag with a supermarket logo that she'd brought with her, so that he might peek inside.
"...Whoooaah!?"
Whump! A dark shadow suddenly ran into him, a torpedo fired at him... no, it was Kouko's head.
Kouko, as voiceless as a bull, had, by the incredible force of her charge, done an excellent head slide into the space between Banri and the bag.
Blown away helplessly by what was left of her momentum, Banri sat there on the floor, shoved away and at a loss for words. Like the mermaid seated in a shell, he half-sat, sustained by one hand, looking around at everything blankly. Dazed, he couldn't help but sit there with his mouth half open. Tossed through the air twice in one day... that was quite enough physical energy inflicted on his body.
Directly in his line of sight, Kouko, as Kouko,
"...You, can't see this...!"
He fell back rolling, of course.
Shielding the eco-bag with her arms as if it were her very own child, she faced downwards, entirely collapsed, desperately shaking her head. Their eyes meeting, what was that nervous laugh? It was rather late to be hiding something with a faked laugh. Or rather, suddenly there was a slow ooze of grease on her face. Something gleamed suspiciously.
"Ho, honestly, what's wrong...!? What have I done!?"
Looking like a player who had slid head-first into home base as hard as he could, and was leaning against the catcher (Banri) while awaiting the umpire's call,
"I don't mind! I mean!"
Kouko's panties flashed brilliantly. Noticing her rear, even Banri couldn't help but look a second time in amazement. At his look, Kouko realized too, and slapped the back hem of her skirt down over her exposed white lace panties, her hand moving as if it were a sword.
"...You can't help me!"
She cried aloud.
While she pulled back the hair which had spilled lightly to her nose, she embraced the bag and arose. Slowly rising, putting some distance between herself and Banri,
"Because I'm the type who wants to concentrate of their cooking! I want to make it for you! I want it to be just me, to the very end! That's just the way a girl feels! So please! Sit down! Where you are! Okay!? Understood!? Understood, right!? Because I'd like you to understand!"
With what had been said up to now by the awful look on her face, gleaming from facial sweat and oils suddenly blown about, he had no choice but to nod. Without the will to issue a reply, and having been told to keep quiet, Banri sat down formally in front of the television, where Kouko had indicated.
"Phew... I'm glad I brought this after all...!"
But when he saw the black thing that Kouko pulled out of her Chanel bag,
"No no no, hey hey hey...!"
As you might expect, seated still, he shrank back. It was an eye-mask with the word "sleep" written on it with metal rhinestones.
"Just do as you're told!"
"No way! Why do you have to go this far!?"
"Listen to what I'm saying! Here, don't take this off until I'm done with what I'm doing, okay!?"
"Well, it is seriously strange!? Why is it like this!? Is it scary!?"
Without saying one thing nor the other, she placed the mask over his eyes and pressed down firmly on his hands before they could move to remove it.
"It's no such thing! Now, your hands in here! If you pull them out, game's over! No matter what!"
And with that, she shoved both his hands snugly into his back pockets. And then suddenly Kouko, in a low voice,
"...Banri, you know about that guy?"
She whispered menacingly.
"Wha, what guy!?"
"In a poor snowbound village two people, a certain middle-aged man and his mother lived in an ecologically sustainable fashion... His name had to be... Yo, Yoha? ...Yohya...? Umm, anyway, it was a story about an man like that."
"What man!?"
"He was Japanese. You know, that man, somehow...! He committed sexual relations with a huge bird!"
"Committed... that's..."
"But now, that wasn't what mattered. Such things weren't important, the sad truth is the man was a Peeping Tom."
"...The old man was peeking...!?"
"Yes, he was. He was peeking. The bird was like this, on the other side of the door, chirping and acting strangely. The man could not contain his curiosity, and in the end he committed the crime. Because of that, his strange but happy life together with the bird came to an end."
"...Are you, perhaps, telling me the story of the Crane Wife...? About 'peeking'?"
"...Simply put, yes. Yes I am. It's just like that. In short, umm, in a word,"
"You're telling me to not watch you while you're cooking...?"
"Yes!"
Wow, what an awful storyteller...
From vaguely embraced feeling before, now it stood out clearly with the light lost behind his eyelids. ...No wait, that's wrong. That's not it. He had to ask her why she was behaving strangely before she gave that awkward story.
I just want to know the reason why we went from "I'll cook for you!" to taking a direct hit from a torpedo, to this kneeling eyemask play. I mean, honestly, I want to stop playing like this.
"Anyway, being watched really makes me nervous! So please, won't you? Don't take it off until I'm done. Could you sit still there for me? Please, please, pleeease!"
Kouko's pleas were on the edge of desperation. Without being able to see, it was as if the hands together and kneeling Kouko's expression were being projected on his mind. Kouko was saying "please please please please" quickly, like a fast prayer repeated over and over again.
Unable to do anything else, though what had been said up to now was of uncertain meaning,
"...Understood. If you insist..."
"I'm glad you understand me! Absolutely! It's a deal! If you unfasten that and peek, you will be caught red handed! And just as the huge bird remembered the heated days she stubbornly slept with the old man, she spread her wings and to the far away northern lands, s'envoler..."
"You already said that..."
"Yes, now turn away. You're not allowed to move, okay!?"
Made to turn his back to the kitchen, Banri resumed kneeling precisely on the cushion.
There were signs of Kouko softly moving away, and finally, the sound of a heavy thump. He figured it was probably the bag he'd tried to look into and gotten torpedoed for doing so, being set next to the sink.
But, he'd been told to not look, and not move. He'd been told to sit as he was until she'd finished cooking, even.
Banri without a word, his body unmoving, tried as hard as he could to only move his face.
He thought, "I want to watch the television at least." From the position he was in, if he could shift the eye mask just a little, he'd be able to watch the television that had been left on. But if she saw him wrinkling the base of his nose and looking sidelong, "she's gonna get very, very mad!" he thought, and with the look a great demon trembling with fear, Banri tried for some time.
Then the eyemask slid up a little bit, and he could see downwards. All right, he thought. He couldn't see where Kouko was cooking, so if it was only this much he'd probably be forgiven. Opening and closing his mouth several times, he slid the eyemask up more and more, not using his hands, but only his facial muscles. He secured his field of vision.
What happened then was truly unexpected. Banri, who was honestly seated with his back to the kitchen, was placed before a full length mirror, and from the corner of the eyemask, saw Kouko from directly behind as she washed her hands in the sink.
Oh? I've seen her... he thought, but it was by chance, so it can't be helped.
Kouko, completely unaware she was being watched by Banri,
"Yeah, I'll do my best! I'll make some delicious Curry Yakisoba!"
She was in high spirits, the bun her hair was done up in swinging back and forth behind her head. The apron ribbon was tied behind her back in a pretty butterfly style. Banri accepted this chance with gratitude, and entered into a mode of quiet appreciation.
From the very start, it was a fundamentally impossible conversation. Even though his girlfriend was finally cooking food for him, there was no man in the world who could obediently keep his mouth shut and not watch. If there were, that guy would be beyond stoic in steering his ship, and beyond a doubt super abnormal.
"The carving knife, umm... this is it, right. In the collander, on the chopping board..."
Pulling out cookware in the small kitchen space that Banri had worked hard to put in order, Kouko arranged it along the edge of the sink. Perhaps it was the unfamiliar, ultra-narrow kitchen, or perhaps Kouko hands were awkward. But he couldn't tell her to be more careful.
"Umm... be careful so you don't cut your hands..."
He said in such a way as to show that he couldn't see anything.
"It's okay! The way I'm doing things today is be perfect!"
Kouko vigorously filled the sink with tap water.
"Well now, let's wash the vegetables!"
But it didn't look like she was pulling out vegetables. Not from the eco-bag, nor from the refrigerator. The water simply poured idly, wetting the empty collander basket.
"...?"
He wondered what in the world she was doing.
Unable to understand, without thinking about it, Banri moved the eye mask a little with his finger. Even with his field of vision wider, the mystery of Kouko's cryptic motions remained unresolved. Of course, Kouko, unaware that Banri was watching her,
"Well then, let's cut the vegetables and the meat!"
Suddenly, she turned off the water. Drawing the cutting board near to her, she assumed a posture from a textbook. Taking Banri's kitchen knife in her right hand,
"Hmm hmm ♪ Run run ♪ Ho-hoi, hey ♪"
Humming mixed with a tap tap tap tap tap... with a beautiful rhythm she started showing off her skill. But, what was she showing off?
She was just waving it.
Nothing on the cutting board, she was simply taking up a rhythm with the kitchen knife.
Hold on a second.
...Isn't that 'air' cooking!?
"..."
Realizing that, Banri without thinking tried to tear off the eye-mask and stand up. Are you a fool!? If he were to give that carefree back of your head a tsukkomi chop, nobody else here would know. ...So he was thinking.
That right hand, however, he was able to stop by force of will. In order that it not be noticed again, he stuffed it into his back pocket.
Having come this far, don't try to look, he told himself. He had a feeling what the result would be, and he was nearly scared of it, but he wanted to see how Kouko's air cooking would turn out.
From the corner of the eye mask, Banri continued watching that sad piece of work without saying anything as she continued her air cooking.
Well, wherever on the horizon you are flapping your wings toward, won't you show me where you are headed, Kaga Kouko...!?
"Okay now, the meat and vegetables are ready to cook now!"
Crash, placing the fry-pan on the burner, splashing in some actual salad oil... ah, so much, so much... she lit the flame. Bending over, she examined the flame's intensity carefully. She twisted the knob a bit to fine tune it. Before long the oil heated up and Kouko reached her hand into the mysterious eco-bag.
Clumsily holding her long cooking chopsticks sideways in her mouth, she carefully pulled out with her hands, so as to make no noise, a rather large tupperware, or something of that sort. Opening the lid with a pop, she tossed the contents into the fry-pan. Just like that.
To Banri's eyes, that, of course, looked like curry yakisoba, already made and chilled. Which is to say, it absolutely was.
"Well now, let's throw in the noodles! I'll season them too, and finish them off quickly like I always do!"
"..."
Already, all was in vain. Kneeling, his hands behind his back, with his half-slipped-off eye mask really looking the pervert, dejected, Banri hung his head. Drifting past his nose, the aroma of indeed delicious smelling curry powder, the smell of the rich sauce, the smell of pork grease, the home-made cooking style of his lovely girlfriend, even the live coverage of the clumsy hoax, just about everything up to now was entirely in vain.
Kouko vigorously stirred the sizzling yakisoba with her long chopsticks. To look at her, she gave off the impression that it was ordinary, about what any girl of these years, raised at home, might do. If he kept quiet, she would probably finish reheating it all just fine, and saying "It's done!" would bring it over and serve it to him on a plate.
After that, he had several options to choose from.
First option. Acting as he'd noticed nothing, saying "Ah, delicious! Thank you for the home cooking!"
Option two. While flashing a slightly meaningful grin, saying "It tastes just like ready made."
Option three. Stand up at once, slap her on the shoulder and say "Hey, Kaga! I saw it all!" ...No, that won't do. Just as in 'The Crane Wife,' because he been caught red handed peeking, the great bird would fly away entirely and it would all come to nothing. He shouldn't follow Yohyo's heart any further. Then,
"Here we go, I was able to make it at once! Ufu, I can hardly wait..."
Kouko turned his way with a smile. Through the mirror their gazes suddenly met.
Oh, Banri gasped. Not good. For her part, Kouko, still in the pose of looking back,
"Eep...!"
She gave a shrill cry, and in an instant her eyes were open really wide. She looked like her knees would give way. Dropping her long chopsticks, she grabbed them back from danger. Putting her hands on the stove, steadying herself, Kouko looked back at Banri, her face stiffening.
The slid-down eyemask could not be hidden. Banri couldn't say anything. Kouko, of course, could not either. As it was, the moment was frozen, time having stopped briefly in the Tada residence.
After a little bit,
"Ko...Kouko...!"
Banri finally managed to squeeze out his voice.
"..."
"...It's going to burn...!"
"..."
"...I mean it... the fry-pan! It's burning, burning...!"
Her joints creaking stiffly, Kouko finally turned back towards the fry-pan. She stirred the yakisoba once more with her long chopsticks, then suddenly turned off the flame and turned around again. Her smile looked like she'd copied it from somewhere and pasted it on.
"Were you watching?"
She sidled up to Banri. How about that gleaming, shining face? From that manufactured smile, it looked like any time now parts would be falling away. What in the world could he say? What in the world could he do about the mood here?
"...You've got it wrong. There's a misunderstanding. This isn't what you think."
As she drew closer to him, talking like she was giving him an excuse for sneaking behind his back, shaking her head and shuffling feet, there was already nothing he could say in return, no sort of words at all.
"...It was, my best... gag, that's what it was! Hey, were you surprised...!? You were surprised, weren't you!? Laugh! Laugh Banri! Let's see you laugh! Because, because this, because,"
Chanting "This is! The spice! Of love too!", ...her face deathly pale and gleaming, she used that particular rhythm for the second time today.
Aha... ahaha... ahahahaha... like from a broken bag full of laughter, Banri's worries burst out.
Fortunately, the curry yakisoba wasn't burnt, and was truly delicious. It was a little bit greasy and somewhat strongly flavored, but it was just perfect for Banri's tastes, and there was plenty for the bottomless stomach of the 19-year old young man.
It was too bad that it wasn't made by Kouko, but rather was something made for her by the maid in Kouko's house.
"I'm really sorry about today..."
Too all appearances dejected and hanging her head, Kouko murmured at him between sighs. How many times had she said she was sorry today? With this, today she was nothing but apologies, rubbing the side of her head against the top of Banri's shoulder. That way of acting was adorable, cat-like. Banri pressed his head against that head and inhaled the sweet flowery scent of Kouko's hair to his heart's content. A faint smell of curry yakisoba clung to her.
The two of them were on the way home, a little after nine in the evening.
Banri and Kouko walked slowly, hand in hand, down a quiet residential back street, not another soul in sight.
"It's okay, it's okay. Completely. It was fascinating, so..."
When he moved away from Kouko and examined the expression on her face, Kouko's white cheeks puffed out a little. And doing so, her lips came together and she frowned deeply.
"At first, I really did intend to make it myself. I went out and bought the ingredients as I should, and I meant to cook it properly. ...I mean..."
Her voice was that of a spoiled child.
"No way! I never thought you would see through me. I caught you red handed peeking at me! I mean, even though I told you so much. Why would that be?"
The intense look she gave him was absurd to the extreme.
<~~55% Completed~~>
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