Curry

It was clenched.

His fist was clenched.

Miyama Saku had never seen someone so shameless.

"Do you think I have a good temper?"

"What does your temper have to do with me?"

Himeno Yuki hugged her backpack a little tighter and looked at him with perfect justification.

"I'm just standing here for a while. It's not like I'm bothering you."

"You're standing outside my room."

"The hallway is a public area."

Miyama Saku took a deep breath, pressed his keycard to the lock, and with a beep, the door opened.

He pushed the door open, entered the room, then turned to close it.

A hand slipped in, its five fingers spread wide as it barely held the door back.

"Himeno."

"Mm."

"You don't want that hand anymore?"

"Go ahead and slam it."

Miyama Saku obviously did not actually slam the door. He let go, and the door was pushed open again. Himeno Yuki smoothly squeezed inside as though she had rehearsed it, set down her bag, took out a pair of slippers, and surveyed the room in one fluid motion.

"Why do you have slippers in your bag?"

"These? I just bought them. If I'd known you had spare slippers in your room, I wouldn't have bought them. What a waste of points." She looked at the two neatly arranged pairs of slippers on the shoe rack. One pair had been bought by Shiina Hiyori when she first came to Miyama Saku's room after school started.

"But one pair is the wrong size, isn't it? And they don't look like something a guy would buy."

Miyama Saku ignored her, changed into his slippers, and went to the kitchen to put away the ingredients he had bought.

Himeno Yuki set her backpack on the table.

"Why is your room so clean?"

"Because I live alone."

"What do you mean?"

"It means you've seen it now, so you can leave."

Himeno Yuki ignored him and walked straight to the kitchenette. She came to his side and opened the shopping bag to look inside.

"Potatoes, onions, carrots, chicken thighs... Didn't you already have everything ready to make curry? You bought all the ingredients."

"You know perfectly well how much of that you stuffed in there yourself."

Himeno Yuki closed her eyes, as though seriously trying to recall exactly how many things she had put into the basket.

"I took the onions, you picked the potatoes, and I handed you the carrots." She counted on her fingers. "I chose the chicken thighs, and I took the curry roux too. I think that's all."

"So most of the ingredients for curry were picked by you."

Miyama Saku took the items out of the shopping bag one by one. He moved slowly, as if using the process to calm himself down.

When he took out the curry roux, he saw a yellow sale sticker on the box: buy two, get one free.

He looked up at her.

Without changing her expression, Himeno Yuki took out her phone and swiped twice. "Oh, that? I just grabbed it while I was there. You're going to eat it anyway, so keeping an extra box on hand isn't a loss."

"When did I say I was going to eat it?"

"My mistake. I'm the one who wants to eat it."

"Your home is on the sixth floor. The school has a cafeteria, and convenience stores sell microwave meals."

"None of those taste as good as your cooking."

"You've never eaten anything I've made."

"I'm about to, so I'm complimenting you in advance."

"Fine, I'll stop teasing you."

"Actually, I wanted to make curry as payment to thank you."

"I didn't do anything."

Himeno Yuki glanced at the red mark on Miyama Saku's neck. It had faded considerably by now, leaving only a very faint pink trace.

Her gaze lingered on the mark for a moment before quickly shifting away.

"Anyway, because of me, you got dragged into trouble for no reason." Himeno Yuki lowered her head and took the ingredients out of the shopping bag one at a time.

"Making you a meal will make me feel a little better."

"But why curry?"

"Because curry is the only thing I know how to make, and I need to use curry roux." Looking a little embarrassed, Himeno Yuki turned her head away and tried not to meet Miyama Saku's eyes.

"You used my points." Miyama Saku pulled the receipt from the shopping bag and waved it in front of her.

"Instead of calling it payment, why not just transfer me some points?"

"I don't have many points left. I spent too much last month, and this month I gave half of them to the class as a security deposit."

Himeno Yuki picked up an onion and peeled it with her head lowered, her voice muffled.

"Sigh."

Miyama Saku sighed, crumpled the receipt into a ball, and casually tossed it into the nearby trash can. Then he leaned against the counter and watched her peel the onion. She was very slow, tearing away the dry outer skin layer by layer.

"Fine. You cook. I'll go wash the rice."

Earlier today, while accompanying Hiyori to pick up books, she had told him that she needed to help tutor her classmates and would not be able to come to Miyama Saku's room for meals for a while. So he only made enough for Himeno and himself.

Miyama Saku pulled out a chair and sat down. They faced each other. Himeno Yuki pressed her palms together and said, "Let's eat," then scooped up a spoonful and put it in her mouth.

She chewed twice. Her expression was neither good nor bad as she calmly swallowed it, then scooped up another spoonful.

Miyama Saku took a bite as well and offered no comment.

They ate quietly for a while before Himeno Yuki suddenly put down her spoon.

"Is it not very good?"

"It's okay."

"Don't comfort me."

"I'm not comforting you." Miyama Saku picked up a piece of potato and put it in his mouth. "It's edible. Since it uses curry roux, the taste can't be that far off anyway."

Himeno Yuki watched as he finished all the curry in his bowl with an unchanged expression. There was still a small bowlful left in hers. She set down her spoon and nudged her bowl forward.

"You eat it. I'm full."

"You served that rice yourself, and you're not going to finish it?"

"I don't want any more."

"Wasting food is wrong. It's shameful."

"So help me finish what's left."

"Why should I deal with what you left behind?"

"I really can't eat anymore."

Miyama Saku looked at her for two seconds, pulled her bowl over, and finished it in two or three bites. Himeno Yuki rested her chin on her hand as she watched him eat, her expression somewhat complicated.

"I'm sorry."

"What are you trying to do now? You've apologized so many times today already."

"It's not about what happened in the library." She took a deep breath, as though trying to encourage herself.

"It's personal. I'm very sorry. I used you."

Miyama Saku silently watched her, leaning back in his chair as he waited to see what stunt she was trying to pull this time.

Himeno Yuki grew a little uncomfortable under his gaze. Her eyes shifted elsewhere and landed on the empty mug on the desk. After a long while, she continued.

"Because I didn't want to keep attending class gatherings with Ichinose and the others, I took on the task of tutoring you privately."

"Though I didn't really help with anything." Her voice was lower than before.

"Over the past two days, I could tell that your grades never needed my help in the first place. I know that perfectly well."

"If you don't want to go, just don't go. Why go through all these twists and turns to make yourself unhappy?"

"Because I don't actually dislike class gatherings. There are hardly any downsides to building closer relationships among classmates."

"But sometimes, I want some personal time of my own. The frequency of their gatherings is a little too high for me, and they always run very late. When they invite me, I feel bad refusing."

"Sometimes I make excuses to slip away halfway through or not attend at all."

"So you used me as an excuse."

"Mm. Since the start of school, you haven't attended any gatherings. You've turned down both boys and girls, so if I stayed with you, I wouldn't have to go either." She neither denied it nor made excuses for herself.

"I'm sorry."

"That's it?"

Himeno Yuki froze for a moment.

"What do you mean, that's it?"

"I thought you were going to say something serious."

"So I used you. It's not like I harmed you."

"You're not angry?"

"Why would I be angry?"

"Because I used you as a shield."

Miyama Saku thought of all the things that had happened before.

"It's not the first time, anyway."

"Oh, right. Go wash the dishes for me."