Kono Monogatari O Kimi Ni Sasagu - Volume 1 Chapter 1.6

Just that gesture made Yuto gasp.

“…Don’t tell me you fell on purpose. Now that I think about it, your stumble was suspicious—”

Kotoha silently stared at Yuto with a piercing gaze.

Defeated by her strange intensity, Yuto closed his mouth.

I can’t win—what a humiliation, to be bested by a younger girl.

“Here, take this.”

Kotoha used the bento box lid as a plate and offered some of her side dishes.

“Huh?”

Why is everything she does so sudden?

He couldn’t understand what the girl in front of him was thinking at all.

“It’s a thank you. For helping me when I fell into the rice field. I was kind of moved. You’re unexpectedly a gentleman.”

“I’d feel bad if you drowned.”

“Don’t make me fertilizer for a rice field. But if that happened, I’d haunt you.”

Despite her words, Kotoha smiled.

“Well, just eat. Only eating bread from the school store is bad for you. Managing a writer’s health is part of an editor’s job.”

“Never seen an editor do that…”

About to finish his sentence, Yuto stopped.

Close call. I tend to let my guard down around Kotoha.

“I’ll gratefully accept.”

“Please do.”

Rolled omelet, octopus-shaped sausage, spinach ohitashi, simmered potatoes.

“It’s delicious…”

For Yuto, who skipped breakfast, ate bread for lunch, and had convenience store bentos for dinner, it was the taste of homemade food after a long time.

“Right?”

Kotoha watched Yuto with a triumphant smile.

“I made it.”

Against his better judgment, he found himself captivated by her innocent smile.

This is bad, Yuto thought.

Not the food.

The situation where he was being tamed.

“I’m telling you, no matter how good it is, I won’t write a novel.”

“Of course, I’m not trying to bribe you with food. I meant what I said earlier. Though managing your health might be an exaggeration, I can’t stand watching you eat like that. I’ll make lunch for you every day from now on. If it’s not too much trouble, shall I also make breakfast and dinner?”

“That would be too much trouble, so please don’t…”

“What? Isn’t it every high school boy’s dream to have a younger girl come over and cook meals for him?”

“Not if the girl is someone as dangerous as you…”

“Calling me dangerous is rude. Well, breakfast and dinner might be too much, but lunch is okay, right?”

“Wait, hold on.”

Yuto recalled Kotoha’s earlier question and his own response.

“Wait, does that mean… Isn’t that cheating?”

“Don’t hesitate. I’ll bring your lunch from tomorrow, so you don’t need to buy bread.”

Kotoha smiled brightly. Yuto’s mouth twitched, and he was at a loss for words. Various objections came to mind, but none seemed strong enough to counter her overwhelming determination. It wasn’t because he wanted more of her homemade food.

Seriously, who is this girl?

As they ate lunch, Yuto and Kotoha chatted about trivial school matters.

About how studying became harder after entering high school, about how the slope in front of the school was too steep—mostly Kotoha talked, and Yuto made occasional comments or retorts.

One thing left an impression on Yuto.

Kotoha was good at finding the positive side of things.

“Studying has gotten harder since we started high school, but it gives us more opportunities to learn new things. We’d never read a physics textbook for fun, would we?”

“The slope in front of the school is really steep. It’s hot, and we get sweaty. But don’t you feel happy when you look back from the top and see the vast landscape? The cool wind feels refreshing too.”

When she put it that way, even the classes he attended out of obligation and the mundane scenery he was used to seemed a bit special.

She was a type of person Yuto hadn’t encountered much before.

Maybe—he thought.

If the world were full of people like her, his present might have been a little different.

***

It’s been a week since Yuto met the girl named Kotoha Natsume.

“Hey, Natsume, what do you really want?”

On the way back from school, Yuto looked at Kotoha’s face, illuminated by the setting sun, on the bridge.

A clear river flowed gently about five meters below the bridge. The sound of the flowing water somehow suited her.

Kotoha looked at Yuto and tilted her head.

“What do you mean? I’ve been saying it from the start.”

That meant she wanted Yuto to write a novel, and she wanted to practice being an editor.

“But all you’ve been doing is making bento and walking to and from school with me.”

Over the past week, Kotoha had made bento for Yuto every day as she declared. She also waited in front of Yuto’s apartment in the morning and picked him up from his classroom after school.

However, she never once urged Yuto to write a novel, instead talking about school events and books she had recently read.

“Isn’t it nice, like a caring girlfriend?”

“No, it’s creepy.”

“You mean mysterious.”

“That’s way too positive.”

Kotoha quickened her pace, turned around to face Yuto, and stopped. They both halted.

“I just wanted to get to know you better, Senpai.”

Yuto was stunned by her words, feeling his heart skip a beat. Seeing his reaction, Kotoha grinned.

“And I hoped you might be swayed.”

“That’s your true intention, isn’t it…”

“Hehe.”

It wasn’t funny. Given the current situation, it seemed like things were going exactly as Kotoha planned. She hadn’t pressured him, only made bento and accompanied him to and from school, making it hard to reject her.

Recently, Yuto had gotten used to it and found himself looking forward to her bento before noon. Walking to and from school with Kotoha by his side no longer felt strange at all.

This can’t go on, Yuto decided.

“…Can you stop this already?”

“Senpai?”

“Like I said before, no matter what, I won’t write a novel.”