Jealousy

Yun Lan ate quietly. He wasn't particularly quick, but he was focused. First he picked up a piece of chicken, then tried some tamagoyaki, treating the food in each lunchbox equally. The feeling of being so thoughtfully cared for wasn't unfamiliar to him, yet every time, it still loosened something deep inside him.

The midday breeze stirred the curtains, carrying the faint sounds of commotion from the distant sports field. Ichinose suddenly stopped eating, rested her chin in her hands, and gazed absently at Yun Lan as he chewed on a rice ball. Her voice was soft, as if she were talking to herself, or perhaps asking him something tenderly:

"Somehow... it feels like this isn't the first time we've eaten together like this." She tilted her head, her chestnut hair slipping over her shoulder. "We've only just started the school year, but this scene feels so familiar, as if it's happened many times before."

At her words, Yun Lan's chopsticks paused slightly in midair. He looked up and met her somewhat dazed, yet smiling gaze. Sunlight from outside glinted in her eyes. He swallowed his food and didn't answer right away, instead picking up the barley tea beside him and taking a sip.

Then he set down the cup, the corner of his mouth lifting into a faint smile that held far less calculation or distance than usual. His voice was just as soft, yet in the quiet classroom it sounded especially clear:

"Maybe..." He paused, his gaze passing over the two lunchboxes before returning to her face. "It's because we've long since gotten used to days like these."

The words were spoken casually, yet carried several layers of meaning. Perhaps they referred not just to the days they'd spent together since the start of the school year, but to everyday moments rooted deeper in their shared past—perhaps a distant summer afternoon filled with cicadas, or a simple celebratory meal after they'd overcome a challenge together. Time might have blurred those memories, but the "habit" and "understanding" they'd formed flowed naturally through every detail of their time together now, like breathing.

At his answer, Honami Ichinose first froze for a moment. Then her smile spread like ripples across a lake after a stone had been tossed in, growing brighter and warmer. She didn't ask, "What kind of days?" as if they both understood without needing to say it.

"Yeah," she said, picking up her chopsticks and lifting a cherry tomato. She didn't eat it right away, merely watching him with a smile. "I've long since gotten used to it."

"Gotten used" to the way you might suddenly fall into thought, "gotten used" to preparing meals for you, "gotten used" to sitting side by side like this, enjoying quiet moments that weren't awkward even when neither of us spoke.

In the classroom, the sunlight shifted imperceptibly, casting their shadows close together across the polished floor. The aroma of food, the warmth of the sun, the girl's gentle smile, and the boy's rare, relaxed posture all came together to weave a picture of an ordinary midday that was also precious beyond measure. To the few other students in the classroom, this might have been nothing more than proof that Yun Lan and Honami Ichinose were close. But to the two of them, it was a small, familiar haven that belonged only to them, one they'd found after weathering a complicated past and all its calculations.

Yun Lan continued eating his lunch. It tasted good. His calculations about points, the Student Council, and the island exam hadn't stopped, but at that moment, in the sunlit lunch hour beside a desk with two lunchboxes, the warmth of the food and the familiar "habit" seemed to put a barrier between him and those cold schemes.

Perhaps he couldn't promise anything about the future or sort out all his complicated feelings. But "being used to having you in my life"—that, for him, was already an undeniable fact, one that needed no calculation.

Honami Ichinose and Yun Lan hadn't made any effort to keep their conversation private, which meant that almost everyone in the classroom had no choice but to hear it.

I'm never eating lunch in the classroom again. Is this really lunch? It's more like getting force-fed dog food.

That was what most of the people who'd stayed in the classroom were thinking.

"Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I asked how my masters were doing. I'll send them a message later and ask how they are," Yun Lan said, gazing out the window.

"Were your masters men or women, Brother Lan?" Honami Ichinose asked curiously.

"It was an old man. Besides me, he had three junior sisters."

Honami Ichinose had been taking small bites of her tamagoyaki, a tender smile still on her face from their earlier conversation about "habits." But the moment Yun Lan finished talking about his "junior sisters," she stopped chewing.

Her blue eyes widened slightly as she stared straight at Yun Lan. Surprise showed clearly in them, along with another emotion that flashed by quickly but didn't quite go unnoticed. She set down her chopsticks, leaving the tamagoyaki untouched.

"Huh?" The short syllable ended on a rising note, full of surprise and... a hint of discontent at having their warm moment interrupted. "Brother Lan... you have junior sisters?" She repeated the words as if simply confirming what she'd heard, but her slightly puffed cheeks and the way she unconsciously pressed her lips together gave away more than that.

Her gaze swept over Yun Lan's face, searching for some sign that he was joking, but his expression seemed perfectly ordinary. That made the faint discomfort in her heart more pronounced. Senior sisters? Junior sisters? They sounded like very close relationships, and they were all involved in martial arts... Surely they had a lot in common. Though she shared a bond with him from the past, she seemed to know very little about this "other side" of him.

"How come you've never mentioned them before, Brother Lan?" she pressed, her voice still gentle, but now tinged with curiosity. Her fingers unconsciously toyed with the edge of her lunchbox, while her eyes stayed fixed on Yun Lan. "Are they impressive senior and junior sisters? Did you train martial arts with them? Where... are they now?" The questions came one after another. She seemed merely curious, but the slight downturn of her lips and her somewhat hurried tone clearly revealed a faint jealousy—one she might not even fully recognize herself.

It was as if she'd thought she was the only one who understood this special side of him and shared his hidden past, only to discover that he had other "kindred spirits" too—perhaps even women with whom he was close. She couldn't help feeling a little unsettled. Sunlight fell across the faint furrow in her brow, and the satisfaction she'd felt over sharing lunch seemed somewhat diminished by this unexpected revelation.

She watched Yun Lan, waiting for his answer. Curiosity and a hint of unease mingled in her eyes, along with the instinctive wariness any girl might feel when other close women appeared in the life of someone she cared about. For a moment, the afternoon classroom seemed to fall still, even the aroma of food suspended in the air. Only the faint chirping of cicadas outside remained, along with the small ripples quietly stirring in the girl's heart.