At lunch break the day after Kura-sen gave me the request, I, Yuuko, Yua, Kazuki, Kaito, Haru, and Nanase, the riajuu members of Class 2-5, made our way to the cafeteria together.
When I looked around, I saw the new second-years who I hadn’t seen very often before exultantly taking up positions here and there. At our high school, there was an unspoken rule that the only ones allowed to eat at our not very large school cafeteria were the second years or the first years at the very top of the caste. Of course, there were no punishments for breaking this rule, but practically all first years were people who read the mood and adhered to this custom, taking the trouble of carrying food bought at the cafeteria to the courtyard or classroom before eating. As long as they properly returned the tableware, in terms of rules there wasn’t any real problem.
For that reason, having lunch in the school cafeteria was probably a small yearning for many of these students, who had been in their first year up until a couple of weeks ago.
To us who had been using the cafeteria since last year as a matter of course, the turbulence that reminded us of that time about a year ago came as a bit of a surprise. The number of people using the school cafeteria peaked in April, then started to settle down around the second term. Because of how you could even spot empty seats in the third term, we were completely taken by surprise. It should have been the case that we had come straight after class, but most of the seats were already occupied. The only empty seats were in the far back corner, at a table once occupied by the most conspicuous riajuu group of third year students.
「Whoa, it sure is crowded today. I wonder if it’s because there’s so many first years?」
So said Yuuko who hadn’t paid any attention to her surroundings since first year.
Kazuki responded to those words with a look of amazement.
「Nah, it looks like they’re mostly second years like us. I’m not saying that you should go as far as remembering their names, but you should at least be able to recognize a few familiar faces. The boys who’ve been glancing at you for a while now are going to cry, you know? After all Yuuko, you’ve been going all over the place, talking to strangers like they’re friends.」
「Ehh? Isn’t Kazuki the one who’s always kind to anyone so long as they’re a girl?」
「The one who looks like he’s kind to everyone is Saku. I pick the ones who I want to be liked by.」
「Isn’t that really bad character?」
「Depends on your way of thinking. In this world, there’s even the kindness of not being kind to someone.」
「Sometimes I don’t really get what Kazuki’s sayinggg.」
The table’s empty, so shouldn’t we just sit?
It was with that kind of lightheartedness that Kazuki and Yuuko sat down at the table in the back. Of course, with the same sort of easygoing attitude, the other members followed suit.
For some reason, as we settled into this place where it seemed only the chosen ones were able to sit, it felt like the atmosphere surrounding us relaxed with an「Ahh, I see」. We were a group of people who didn’t care where it was so long as it was somewhere we could sit, but I was sure that from tomorrow, this table would remain empty until we came, and we would inevitably end up sitting in the same place every day. That was helpful in its own way, so I wasn’t going to bother looking for another place to sit. It’s in this way that absurd school rules get passed down naturally.
「What’re you guys eating? I’m obvs going with the katsudon-oomori!」
What Haru just mentioned was the teppan-menu that the boys in the sports clubs often ordered. It consisted of two large pork cutlet slices dressed with special sauce on top of rice topped with the same special sauce. Three slices if it was the large oomori.
Incidentally, if you order katsudon in Fukui, it’s the norm for them to serve you a sauce katsudon. Outside our prefecture, apparently it’s common sense for katsudon to come topped with egg, but in Fukui, you have to say「jou-katsudon」or 「tamago-no-katsudon」to make yourself understood, and only rarely do the locals go out of their way to order it.
In the same way, I too loved it to the point that if I was asked what I wanted for my last meal before dying, I would say katsudon. A long time ago, on a trip to Tokyo with my family, after asking for katsudon at a service area, I felt a slight sense of despair when out came a strange bowl of rice topped with egg.
Carrying over a tray which held a glass of water for each of us, Yua reacted to Haru’s words.
「Haru-chan, you really eat quite a lot for someone who’s so thin. There was this one time in first year that I ordered the normal-sized futsuumori serving, but I had to give up halfway and get Asano-kun to finish it for me.」
「Thanks for the water, Ucchi! Well, after breakfast, I go to morning practice, and eat onigiri rice balls after it’s over. Then, when after-school practice ends, it’s manju or a frankfurter for the intermission, and I also eat a meal after getting home. Isn’t that what being in a sports club is all about?」
For some reason, Nanase made an exasperated face upon hearing what Haru had to say.
「Nah, that’s just you, Haru. Normal girls are too scared of all sorts of things to live like that. Maybe I’ll go for the Fuji lunch. With less rice, and more vegetables.」
Yua murmured「Maybe I’ll go with that too」to herself while passing Nanase a glass of water.
Today’s daily lunch special was Hamburg steak with ponzu sauce and grated daikon. The result of strong demand from the girls, our school cafeteria had a system which let us add more salad to our meal when having less rice. Incidentally, the boys’ request to also allow less vegetables and more rice was rejected on health grounds.
Taking little notice of those two, Yuuko seemed to be as eager to eat as usual.
「Ehhh, but won’t you be hungry because of that? Maybe I’ll have the katsudon too. As you’d expect, the futsuumori, though.」
Nanase raised her voice at Yuuko’s words.
「No way!? I thought Yuuko was the type to care the most about things like calories. Is tennis club practice really that tough?」
「Not at all. That’s because it’s the kind of atmosphere where the ones obsessed with winning do practice seriously, but it’s also no problem if you want to enjoy it and take it slow, you see. I am the latter, but I eat what I want, whenever I want, regardless of how much I’ve been practicing or whatever. I’m kind of the type for whom it only adds to the places it should be adding to.」
「Ucchi… is it okay to shake my fist here?」
For some reason, saying that, Nanase hugged Yua, who had finished handing out water.
「Yuzuki-chan, I understand what yah feelin, but ya have ta endure. It’s yah loss if ya get angry.」
Why the Kumamoto dialect?
Something like female camaraderie sprouted between the two of them as they firmly embraced each other.
learning... please hold... 