I eat lunch with Sumire.
Even though I call it a bento, I didn’t have time today, so my lunch is just two rice balls wrapped in plastic wrap.
Sumire is lining up a two-tier bento box on her desk.
It’s the usual bento brought from home. The contents are proper, with rolled omelet, fried chicken, spinach with sesame sauce, and so on.
Sumire tells me I can eat any of the side dishes I want.
Thinking she wouldn’t eat them anyway, I jumped the gun and took a cherry tomato. Meanwhile, she has been moving white rice topped with kelp into her mouth with one hand on her smartphone since a moment ago.
Her manners are bad. She doesn’t usually do things like that.
Plus, lately, I often see her messing with her smartphone. She looks really focused on it.
I roll up the plastic wrap into a small ball and ask her,
“Hey, what have you been looking at since a moment ago?”
“Just doing some research.”
“Huh? Into what?”
“Secret.”
Sumire answers without even really looking at my face.
It’s an attitude that makes me go “Huh?” I press on.
“Come on, just tell me.”
“Eh? What should I do~…?”
“If we’re dating, keeping secrets like that isn’t really great, you know?”
“Oh, I like that vibe. You’re coming on strong.”
What’s with that reply?
Whose perspective is that from?
“But doing it here is a bit embarrassing, or rather, it’s hard to say out loud. How about sending it on LINE?”
She’s making such a big deal out of it.
Still, sending things that are hard to say directly over LINE might actually be good.
It’s easier for me that way, too.
I take out my smartphone to check.
A message that Sumire supposedly sent has arrived.
“Yurie-cchi’s method”
“That is seriously something hard to say! What are you thinking? In the middle of the day at school. While eating!”
“I answered properly, but for some reason, I get yelled at unreasonably.”
“Of course, you get yelled at normally for that. What on earth are you researching?”
“Because you need knowledge for when an emergency happens, right?”
“When is an emergency?”
“You know. Like yesterday, when things suddenly got all intense and crazy?”
That is very hard to comment on.
I can’t say for sure that something like getting carried away by the momentum… won’t happen again, though I don’t really know.
“Anyway, stop it when we’re eating.”
“Yes, yes. Also, the thing I sent just now was a joke, okay? Gasp, oh no, Aoi-chan, don’t tell me you took it seriously?”
“…Hand over your smartphone for a second.”
“Eh, no thanks.”
Sumire puts her phone away inside her jacket to hide it.
Sometimes, a joke within a joke turns out to be true. Her way of running away right now is super suspicious.
“Hey, I’m going over to Aoi’s place today, okay?”
“…Why?”
“Why do you ask why? We’re dating, so there’s nothing weird about it.”
“No, why are you saying this out of nowhere?”
“Eh, what? Why is right now a bad time, if anything?”
I’m saying the flow of the conversation is weird.
But I won’t argue about it anymore. Sumire probably knows what she’s doing.
“Besides, nothing’s at my place, you know. You already know that.”
“That’s right. Aoi’s house has nothing and nobody there.”
“…What are you planning?”
Sumire didn’t answer.
She just quietly, gracefully, and demurely started bringing food to her mouth again.
After that, we both ate in silence.
If I don’t speak, Sumire doesn’t speak either. I felt like whoever said something careless would lose.
Sumire packs away her empty bento box.
I take a sip of the tea shared from Sumire’s water bottle. When I set the small cup down on the desk, our eyes met because she was looking at me as if she wanted to say something.
Without a word, she opens and closes her mouth like a fish.
“What? Are you a fish?”
“I am not.”
Ki-su (Kiss).
Sumire moved her mouth without making a sound.
She triggered her kiss right at the most unexpected timing.
“No, right now? No way, we’re in the classroom?”
「Once my appetite is satisfied, my desire to kiss kicks in…”
Such a high-maintenance girl. And she’s growing some weird new desires, too.
Sumire collects my cup, puts away her water bottle, and stands up from her seat.
“Come on, Aoi, let’s go.”
“Wh-Where?”
“You know where.”
Sumire gave a sneaky grin.
Not just a smile, but a full-on cheeky grin.