Takoyaki Party
“I’m coming in〜”
“I am coming in”
“Welcome”
“I am glad you came〜”
It is the weekend of the week that had the sports day, and I called Renya and Nishikida-san over for a takoyaki party.
“This is how it’s like huh”
“Come to think of it, I guess this is the first time Nishikida-san came to our house”
“Uh-huh. It’s a nice house huh”
“Kazu-kun did everything”
There is no way I could make Yae do the cleaning, so I decided on the room’s layout to my discretion. I took in suggestions from Yae as well as far as it goes, so it is not like everything is based on my preference though.
“Leaving that aside, I’m hungry; let’s quickly get to eating takoyaki!”
“Renya-kun, good grief……”
“I thought you would say that, so the preparations are done. All that is left is to grill it”
“As expected of Kazunari!”
It is already the time for it after all. Besides, Renya is not the only one who is starving.
“Let’s quickly get to it”
I passed the takoyaki pick1 to Yae, who is brimming with the desire to eat from her entire body, and went to take the takoyaki’s ingredients and the hotplate.
“Huh? Yae-chan is going to do it?”
“Leave it to me”
“But will you be alright?”
“I’ll be alright”
Nishikida-san is worried, perhaps because I passed the takoyaki pick to Yae huh. Perhaps Renya feels the same as well, in a soft voice
“Is it really alright to leave it to Nakamatsu-san?”
he ends up asking me, who returned. Well, I will not do something like this nor neither will I let her do it for anything other than takoyaki either. But since it is takoyaki.
“Both of you, it is alright to leave it to Yae. I guarantee”
“It’s probably alright if Kazunari says so”
“Uh-huh, I can rest easy if Oohata-kun says so”
“It doesn’t sit well with me”
Yae is looking disgruntled, but it is inevitable that they think that way of you after all. How incapable of cooking do you think you are.
“Just recently, Yae asked me to leave it to her and when I did “you can’t go any further” moga moga”
I tried to talk about Yae’s cooking(tragedy) that happened just recently to Renya and Nishikida-san since it is a rare occasion, but she ended up holding onto my mouth and stopped me. I felt her strong determination going, ‘don’t say it no matter what’, so I shall stop saying it.
“Hey, stop flirting and hurry up with itー”
“Like I said, we are not flirting”
As I brush off Renya’s jab, we start making the takoyaki. I throw in the batter after lacing it with a fair bit of oil. The ingredients are the octopus, red pickled ginger, and green onion. And then my role is over after pouring in the batter again.
“Nn, nn, nn……”
Along with her soft voice, Yae is flipping the takoyaki with the takoyaki pick. Both Renya and Nishikida-san are surprised at how outstanding her performance is. I do not know why either, but Yae is strangely good at flipping takoyaki.
The task of flipping finished with Yae’s brilliant performance, and the takoyaki will be done after a few more minutes of grilling. Sprinkling some seaweed and bonito flakes over the sauce……
“Now then, shall we eat”
“”””Itadakimasu!””””
Firstly, one mouth……it is piping hot but it sure is delicious huh. It is a satisfactory result.
“Hott……but deliciouss!!”
“It’s really delicious! The octopus is springy as well”
“Yum yum”
The octopus is obviously going to be good since Kinuta-san selected it. It looks like I was right to cut them big as well huh.
In the end, the four of us ate more than fifty pieces of takoyaki. Especially Renya and Yae, they ate a tremendous amount. I really wonder how they can eat that much.
“Haaーthat filled me up good”
“Oohata-kun sure is good at cooking huhー”
“Thank you. Come to think of it, the tests are coming up soon huh”
“Ugeh”
Renya’s blissful look from having a filled stomach became sour the instant he heard the five-letter word, ‘tests’.
“Stop talking about the tests! All when I was finally immersed in happiness!”
“No, it is fine to stay immersed, isn’t it. They are just the tests after all”
“Uh-huh. Tests are no big deal”
“Gufuuu”
“Both of you are saying it, knowing full well of it, aren’t you……I think so too though”
“Committee Chairperson, you’re not helping!”
I feel bad for Renya since everybody here besides Renya is smart. Especially Nishikida-san, she is at the level where she can compete for the top three.
“So has Renya been studying properly?”
“……”
“Then we will wrap it up here for today”
“Wait, don’t abandon me!”
Renya grabs my arm tightly with no signs of releasing. No, I was just acting, but how bad is it.
“It cannot be helped. I guess you will come to our house to study after school during the test week”
“Can I!?”
“It is easier to do it at home than in school after all. Yae is fine with it as well, right?”
“Uh-huh”
He is saying ‘God’ softly, but that is blowing it out of proportion. If I am ‘God’ for something of this extent, I wonder what I will be if I helped him study for his university entrance exams.
“Mutsumi, will you join us too?”
“Is it fine for me to join too?”
“Uh-huh”
Oh, Yae invited Nishikida-san just as I thought of inviting her as well. As I thought, it looks like the two of them get along well, and it brings a smile to my heart. Besides, I can leave looking after Renya to Nishikida-san to a certain extent as well if she comes.
“Well then, during the test week, let us do our best with the increase of Renya’s academic ability as our goal. Ey, ey, oh2ー”
“Ohー”
“Ohー?”
“I’m counting on you……”
Despite doing it out of nowhere, Yae-chan went with it, and Nishikida-san was unexpectedly good at going along. And then while looking at Renya’s prostrating figure, I smile to myself. As I thought, it sure is fun to spend time with everybody huh.
