"Juice!"
"Juice!"
"Juice!"
The children sat in a circle around the iron pot, eagerly awaiting the drinks Zong Mi had gone out to fetch, singing an utterly off-key, wildly casual, and thoroughly uneven "Juice Song."
The entire room was filled with the fragrance of meat and other foods. Besides the rich, savory stew of assorted wild game bubbling in the iron pot at the center, fruits and vegetables had been arranged in a circle around it.
Clearly, after deciding to celebrate, Zong Mi and Yu Ze had made another trip into the forest. Though they had not caught any large prey, they had gathered plenty of fruit and even found some of the forest's rare vegetables.
This meal could be called truly lavish.
It was absolutely the most abundant meal Chiba had had since waking up.
However, Chiba's expression was somewhat unnatural as he watched the scene. Though he was supposedly the guest of honor, he had curled up toward the back.
"Uh..."
At last, unable to bear it any longer, he spoke with an awkward smile. "Um... Yu Ze, is there something on my face?"
As he spoke, Chiba's eyes drifted slightly to the side, toward Yu Ze, who was staring at him with what seemed to be a probing look.
"No. Nothing. It's clean."
Yu Ze answered the awkward question quickly, directly, and casually, almost without thinking.
"Uh..."
That immediate, thoughtless answer made Chiba's mouth twitch. Then, still wearing that awkward smile, he asked, "Then... is there something you need, since you've been staring at me like that?"
"No."
Yu Ze's reply was just as immediate and unthinking.
"Uh..."
As soon as those blunt words came out, Chiba's already awkward smile became even more strained.
How could there possibly be nothing...
*You obviously have something to say! You