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"I didn't expect you to have such great cooking skills, Bocchi-chan."
Hitori Gotoh's lunch was incredibly lavish. In comparison, Kai's bento looked painfully plain and monotonous.
"Th-This... my mom made this."
Hitori awkwardly lowered her head.
Aside from playing the guitar, it seemed she genuinely didn't have a single other life skill. Thinking about it objectively, she really was just a completely useless paramecium.
"Well, that's still great. Look at me—I live alone, so the lunch I prep for myself is super basic."
Even though Kai actually possessed some decent cooking skills, who in their right mind wanted to wake up at the crack of dawn just to painstakingly prep a bento? Throwing some random ingredients together was more than enough to get by.
"Did your mom prepare your lunch too, Yukinoshita-san?"
Kai already knew Yukino's living situation perfectly well. He only asked the question to forcefully pry the conversation open.
"No, I live alone. I prepare all my meals myself."
Yukino's dining etiquette was incredibly elegant—clearly a habit drilled into her since childhood. She gracefully paused with her chopsticks mid-air before speaking.
"That's so amazing!"
Staring at the exquisitely prepared, perfectly balanced lunch spread out in front of Yukino, Hitori couldn't help but let out a genuine gasp of awe.
Living entirely alone and cooking all her own meals?
If Hitori tried doing that, she was absolutely certain she would starve to death within a week.
"It really is impressive."
Kai chimed in, nodding in agreement.
"I-It's really nothing that exaggerated. It's just basic life skills."
Being praised so directly by both of them made Yukino feel visibly uncomfortable. She nervously tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and averted her gaze.
She had practically never received such straightforward, unfiltered praise before, leaving her momentarily struggling to adapt.
"No, it's genuinely impressive. Just look at me—I live alone too, so why is there such a massive gap in our cooking abilities?"
After saying that, Kai let out an incredibly theatrical sigh, shooting Yukino a highly suggestive look.
"Give it up."
By this point, Yukino had already managed to regain her composure. Catching his loaded stare, she fired back in a perfectly flat, deadpan tone.
"Preparing a proper lunch for one person is already a massive hassle. I absolutely do not have the time or energy to prepare a second one."
Not to mention, the very idea of making a home-cooked lunch for a high school boy was just way too weird. Their relationship was absolutely nowhere near that level yet. This was literally only the second time they had ever spoken to each other.
"Ahaha! You saw right through me instantly. You really are amazing, Yukinoshita-san."
Kai laughed it off without a care in the world.
He was only throwing the joke out there to keep the atmosphere light and active, anyway.
"Kai-kun!"
She had almost defaulted back to calling him "Kai-senpai," but catching the look he shot her way, Hitori instantly corrected herself to his first name.
"You live completely alone, Kai-kun?"
"Yep!"
Kai nodded casually.
"My family's from out in the countryside, and we're not exactly rich. But since my grades were solid, I managed to test into Sobu High here in Tokyo all by myself. Until recently, I was grinding away at a part-time job just to cover my living expenses, so I didn't exactly have the luxury of time to practice my culinary skills. But I'm actually planning to pivot to a different way of making money soon, which should free up a lot more of my schedule."
Even though he could just farm cash endlessly by completing System quests...
Kai was still mulling over whether or not he should establish a legitimate, publicly acceptable cover for his income. Something like writing light novels or drawing manga.
"Eh!"
Hitori's surprised exclamation snapped Kai out of his thoughts.
"What's wrong?"
"I... I just think you're incredibly amazing, Kai-kun."
Kai had always projected an aura of absolute confidence, warmth, and easygoing charm. If he hadn't explicitly stated it himself, Hitori never would have guessed that he came from such a difficult background.
Even Yukino, sitting off to the side, found herself nodding in silent agreement. It genuinely was impressive.
"Haha, come on!"
He waved it off nonchalantly.
"Life is already hard enough as it is. If you can't even force a smile, doesn't that just make it infinitely worse? Besides, I firmly believe that since I managed to make it all the way to Tokyo, I'll definitely be able to carve out a solid place for myself here."
Kai spoke with absolute, unwavering certainty. Armed with Cursed Spirit Manipulation alone, establishing dominance in this world was virtually guaranteed.
"Mhm! Mhm!"
Hitori nodded furiously, backing him up without a shred of hesitation.
In her eyes, someone as incredibly capable and amazing as Kai could definitely accomplish absolutely anything he set his mind to.
"..."
Yukino Yukinoshita, on the other hand—born into the ultra-wealthy, incredibly influential Yukinoshita family of Chiba—was far less naive. In a place like Japan, where the class system was rigidly locked in place, the odds of a normal person successfully rewriting their destiny were practically absolute zero.
Unless you married into a powerful family or completely sold your soul as a corporate wage slave, you basically had zero chance.
However, Kai's radiating confidence and unshakeable optimism made it impossible for Yukino to say anything overly cynical to shoot him down. On the contrary, she actually found herself genuinely hoping that his sheer force of personality would carry him through.
"I'm sure you'll be able to do it."
She offered the sentiment in a quiet, incredibly soft voice.
The lunch went incredibly well, leaving everyone in high spirits. Yukino transitioned from her initial, stiff awkwardness to gradually relaxing her guard. She even managed to initiate a bit of small talk with Hitori Gotoh.
Faced with someone so endearingly clueless and hopelessly clumsy as Hitori, Yukino found it completely impossible to maintain her usual Ice Queen persona, nor could she bring herself to unleash her signature venomous tongue.
"It's getting late."
"I should head back to class first. Kai, Bocch—Gotoh-san!"
She had accidentally slipped up and used Hitori's nickname. Even though she corrected herself instantly, she still felt incredibly rude for addressing someone that way.
It was entirely Kai's fault for aggressively spamming the nickname; she had just absorbed it subconsciously.
With that thought in mind, Yukino shot Kai a harsh, freezing glare right before she turned to leave.
"..."
Kai just shrugged, completely unbothered. Honestly, he was incredibly excited to see exactly what this unyielding Ice Queen would look like once she finally melted down.
"You're already leaving??"
Watching Yukino walk away, Hitori couldn't hide her disappointment.
If possible, she really just wanted to hang out with her friends for a little while longer.
"If you don't mind, Bocchi-chan, I can stick around and keep you company for a bit."
"Really??"
"Of course. We're friends, aren't we?"
"Mhm! Mhm!"
Hearing Kai reaffirm their friendship made Hitori break into a massive, beaming smile.
Sitting right next to him, she happily swung her little legs back and forth over the edge of the roof.
"Hey, check that out."
Suddenly spotting something, Kai pointed down toward the small grove of trees situated just behind the school track. A guy and a girl were sneaking into the shade. From their vantage point up on the roof, they had an absolutely crystal-clear view of the entire scene.
"Check what out? What is it?"
Hitori leaned in closer, her curiosity piqued.
"They're... they're... k-k-k-kissing!!!"
Her eyes blew wide open in sheer, unadulterated panic.
This was literally her first time ever seeing people kiss in real life. Her entire face instantly ignited, turning a violently bright shade of crimson.
"They're just friends. Doing stuff like that is completely normal."
Seeing Hitori's hyper-exaggerated reaction, Kai let out a low chuckle and leaned in just a fraction closer to her.
"N-N-Normal??"
Is doing stuff like that really considered normal between friends?? Having literally never possessed a single friend in her entire life, Hitori was completely and utterly clueless about the mechanics of social relationships.
"Bocchi-chan... you and I are friends too, right?"
Kai suddenly dropped his voice to a soft, intimate whisper right next to her ear. The warm rush of his breath against her skin made Hitori's brain completely short-circuit. She felt incredibly dizzy, as if she had just chugged a bottle of heavy liquor.
"Mhm... mhm!"
She nodded purely on instinct.
"So... want to try it out?"
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