3 bar menu

Chapter 133 Part 1

The Night of That Day (1) ~Adolescent Heart~

As soon as the closing ceremony of the quiz championship was over, both schools were dismissed.

Some of Sairei’s executive committee members stayed behind for about 30 minutes for post-event clean-up, but the rest of the students promptly left the school.

While all the girls from Sairyou were working together to clean up the first ground, the boys, who were exempted from it, went ahead and took a break in the boys’ classrooms.

The reason was that the school camp, July’s boys-girls social event, was to start in an hour and a half, and the boys were in charge of meals.

Perhaps tired after getting too worked up since the morning, as one would expect, as soon as they returned to the classroom and plopped down on their desks, they were seized by sleepiness and slept for about an hour before they were woken up.

Thanks to this, they felt refreshed when they woke up.

After that, Yuu and the other first-year boys prepared dinner in the home economics kitchen in the administration building.

When it came to camping, curry rice was the staple menu.

The whole class shared the task of washing the rice, washing the vegetables, peeling and cutting them.

The second- and third-year boys must have gathered in the large kitchen of the school cafeteria and were performing the same tasks.

In other words, the 36 people there had to make curry rice for the first-year students and one third of the teachers and staff who had participated or helped out, or approximately 300 people.

Once the vegetables and meat were cooked, they would put the large pot on a trolley, take it downstairs using the elevator, carry it to the first grounds where the hearth had been set up, and then pour the roux in.

After putting the washed rice and water into a borrowed commercial rice cooker, it was brought to the grounds ahead of the others, so by now, the rice should be simmering.

Yuu volunteered to be the one to stir fry the thinly sliced ​​onions in a wok.

It was to make caramel-colored onions to be added to the curry.

Normally, you had to stir fry them for a long time to get the onions to a rich caramel color.

A method Yuu had learned about on the internet prior to his rebirth.

That was, if you stir fry them while adding a small amount of water after heating them in the microwave, they would be ready in five to ten minutes.

Be that as it might be, there were a lot of onions to stir fry, and Yuu, who was standing in front of the blazing gas stove in order to use the fire, was dripping with sweat, but he continued to single-mindedly shake the wok over and over again.

◇ ◇ ◇

「Phew, it’s finally done… My arms hurt, and I don’t want to look at onions anymore…」

「I totally agree. Even with my glasses on, the tears just won’t stop.」

「As for me, I’ve cut so many carrots that my hands have turned red.」

By the time the three large pots like those used in school lunches were put on fire, and the vegetables and meat started to simmer, Yuu was freed of his task.

The same seemed to be true for Rei and Masaya, who were apparently tasked with nothing but chopping the heaps of vegetables in the baskets.

「Setting things up on the grounds must be tough in its own way, but they’ve got the numbers over there, so they must be having it easier. Over here, we don’t have the experience of cooking meals for 300 people, after all…」

At Yuu’s words, Rei and Masaya nodded in agreement.

While it had now become commonplace for women to enter the workforce, it came with the trend of men, who took up no employment, taking on household chores, and many of them learned to cook from their teenage years.

That said, compared to cooking for a family, this was on a completely different level.

Even so, when it came to curry rice, the staple camping menu they had chosen, as long as they didn’t get the amount of water or roux wrong, they should be able to make it reasonably well.

As the large pots started to boil and the boy in charge began to skim off the scum with a ladle, the savory smell of simmering meat and vegetables wafted through the air.

◇ ◇ ◇

The needles on the clock were about to strike 7pm in ten minutes.

Even in July, when the days were particularly long, as expected, at such a time, the curtain of darkness began to come down, making it difficult to make out people’s faces. It was the so-called twilight.

When the center of the firewood, which was arranged in a square shape, was lit, the fire flickered at first, but gradually gained momentum and blazed up high.

In an instant, the girls in the surrounding area cheered.

By that time, the fragrant smell of curry had begun to waft through the grounds.

One large pot was enough for about 100 people.

At the edge of the grounds on the school building side, a total of nine large pots, three each for spicy, medium spicy, and mild, were lined up on the hearths set up in a row, simmering over low flame.

A thundering *gurgle* sound. A cute *kuuuu* sound.

Here and there, the sound of rumbling stomachs leaked out and murmurs of 「I’m hungry」 could be heard.

『Sorry to keep you waiting! The curry is ready, so please line up for the one that you like and have it served.』

The group of hungry girls dashed off to the curry pot that was to their liking.

「Say, for some reason, the line at our place is unusually long, don’t you think?」

「Well… perhaps everyone likes medium spicy curry?」

Masaya, who was helping out next to Yuu, said in a joking manner.

Several floodlights were set up to illuminate the location of the curry pots, and each had a board marked 『Spicy』, 『Medium Spicy』, or 『Mild』 hung up.

Dividing up the work, the boys from each year split into groups and were in charge of organizing the line, handing out spoons and deep paper plates, serving the rice, and finally serving the curry.

Behind Yuu, who had been asked to serve the curry, a board with 『Medium Spicy』 written in large letters was hung up, but the person in question was unaware that underneath it, 『1st year, Hirose Yuu』 was written in parentheses.

Compared to the spicy and mild pots on either side of it, the line there was more than twice as long.

Standing at the frontmost of the line were the members of the student council, including Sayaka, and the executive committee of the quiz championship, who had been replaced since the school camp began.

Most likely, it had turned out that way because they were near the headquarters tent.

It seemed that the girls were also unwilling to give up the opportunity to eat the curry served by Yuu.

As such, Sayaka, who was pushed by Riko and Eimi, was the first to arrive.

Perhaps she didn’t have much of an appetite today, she only had a small amount of rice on her paper plate, and when Yuu served the curry to go with it and handed the paper plate back to her, he noticed.

「You don’t look well…」

「Hm… Is, is that so?」

There, Eimi cut into the conversation from behind Sayaka.

「You see, after the closing ceremony was over and the Sairei students left, it seemed exhaustion suddenly caught up to her, and Saaya-senpai just sat where she was, no longer able to move. That’s why we asked her to not worry about the cleanup and just take some rest.」

「Yeah… I ended up causing trouble for everyone at the very end.」

When Yuu showed up at the headquarters after talking with Kate in the courtyard, it didn’t look like there was anything wrong with her.

However, it seemed that at that time, she was already at the very limit of her endurance.

「It’s okay. We all know you’ve been working hard all this time, after all, Sayaka.」

Riko also cut into the conversation from behind Eimi.

「Can’t we just leave the school camp to the executive committee and go home now?」

「But… L, look, we can’t afford not to eat the curry Yuu-kun made, after all! Besides…」

「Besides?」

「It’s exactly in times like this, that I want to be with Yuu-kun, or something…」

Yuu suddenly found Sayaka, who was looking down at the plate of curry, lovely.

He remembered that these past few days, they had both been busy and hadn’t had time to talk to each other at their leisure.

As such, he brought his mouth close to Sayaka’s ear and whispered.

「I’ll come and see you after today’s event is over. Let’s spend the night together.」

「Y, Yuu-kun…」

「Um… there’s a long queue behind us, so how about we get going now?」

At Eimi’s words, Yuu and Sayaka came back to their senses.

There was a longer line than when he saw it earlier.

In part because they were in the presence of boys who were in charge, no one was making a fuss.

Looking enviously at the scene of Yuu and the three members of the student council chatting, the girls at the front of the line seemed to be waiting patiently.

「Then, see you later.」

「See you later, Yuu-kun.」

「Mm, bye.」

After the three left in a hurry, Yuu apologized to the group of girls who arrived next – the members of the executive committee of the quiz championship – for making them wait, and praised them for their work during the day.

Thanks to that, they quickly regained their smiles.

In the line, not only were there girls from class 1-5, including Hiyama Youko, Aki Kazumi, and Aramaki Yoshie, whom he had gotten particularly close with among the first-year girls, there were also second- and third-year students who he had interacted with and spoken to during the quiz championship, and even some faces he had never seen before.

No matter who the other party was, Yuu would serve them curry in an amiable manner, even engaging in some conversation.

Therefore, compared to other lines, their line was pretty much never-ending.

Yuu devotedly served curry to dozens of people, and the contents of the pot rapidly decreased.

Eventually, it reached the level where the ladle would touch the bottom when scooping.

There was only enough left for about a dozen more people.

「Mm!」

A plate with a large serving of rice was thrust in front of Yuu, who had been looking down at the pot.

Without even needing to look up, Yuu caught sight of a familiar uniform of a white tank top and purple shorts.

Incidentally, the bulge of the chest, with 『Sairyou Academy』 embroidered on it, was as good as nonexistent.

「Oh? Isn’t that you, Hayakawa-senpai?」

「A large serving of curry, please!」

「Coming right up.」

As he stood face to face with her, he could tell that she was only about mid-150cm tall, small and skinny for a girl in this world.

However, typical athletic girls, due to the amount of exercise she did, it seemed that she was a big eater.

「Here you go, please hold it carefully.」

「Wow! Thank you!」

He served as much curry as he could, and then handed the plate back.

When handing the plate back, Yuu would deliberately touch their hands with his fingertips, and most of the girls would immediately notice, get red in the face, and show a happy reaction.

He did the same with Hayakawa-senpai, but as opposed to noticing, her eyes lit up at the sight of the large serving of curry, and without even looking at Yuu, she carefully took the plate and left.

She’s more attracted to food than sex appeal, huh. What an interesting senior.

As he continued to serve the curry with these thoughts in his mind, he didn’t notice that Hayakawa-senpai had stopped, turned around, and stared fixedly at him from a short distance away.

After that, he continued to serve curry to about a dozen people, and the pot was splendidly emptied.

They had no choice but to ask the girls who were still in line to go to another line.

「Now that I think of it, we’re hungry too.」

「Indeed.」

「My stomach’s been growling since a while ago~」

Looking to the side, some places still had lines in front of them, while some others didn’t, even though they still had some curry left in their pots.

It seemed that Yuu’s place was the first to run out of curry.

Since they’d finished their duties, Yuu’s group also thought about joining the other lines and getting their share of curry.