Gimai Seikatsu - Days With My Step Sister

4th of September (Friday) – Ayase Saki

The bell rang, signaling the end of 4th period, and the atmosphere inside the classroom changed to something more relaxed and listless.

"Food time!"

Looking at the girl who raised a war cry, I could only shrug my shoulders. How can she have so much energy every single day? Well, to each their own.

"Lunch, lunch~"

She sounds like she's dancing… Wait, she actually is? While I was waiting for the girl—Narasaka Maaya—to approach me, I realized that several other classmates were following after her.

"Ayase-san, I'll be going to the cafeteria, so you can use this."

"Thanks."

The girl sitting next to me grabbed her wallet and walked out of the classroom. After seeing her off, I pushed her desk next to mine and took my lunch out of my bag.

"Sorry that there are so many people today, Saki!"

"I'm fine."

With this, I've secured Maaya's desk. She walked towards me with her lunch dangling from her hand. But what about the group of four to five boys and girls behind her? What about their desks? While I was confused, they simply called out to the people close to them, securing more desks. Around half of our classmates would usually eat at the cafeteria, or eat in their respective classrooms. If a seat is open, as long as you don't use it without consent, there usually isn't any trouble. I personally am of the faction that finds eating with someone else a chore if I'm forced to go through something bothersome like that.

Even so, I don't let it show on my face. The reason for this is simply because some of the people eating with me are those who were part of the group I went to the pool during summer break with, or those who have started talking to me more frequently lately. Shortly afterwards, several desks were arranged into somewhat of a circle. Time to dig in.

"I wonder what's today's side dish?"

"Hey, Maaya, why are you looking at my lunch?"

"Ohh! Rolled omelet!"

"And why are you reaching for them with your chopsticks?"

"Half! Give me half!"

"Fine, geez."

I split my rolled omelet in half with my chopsticks and put it into Maaya's lunch box. She put a piece of fried food in mine, probably as a repayment.

"Isn't that a bit too big for an equal exchange?"

"It's fine, totally fine~ Ah, Yumicchi, your salmon looks great, too!"

"If you share some of the Narasaka Household's secret fried food with me…"

"Exchange established!"

I see. So that fried food is a special recipe from her family. Feeling curious, I took a bite of the piece she offered me. When I bit into the inner part, I tasted juicy and soft chicken that melted away inside of my mouth. It wasn't very fatty, either, so I didn't have to chew so much.

"Delicious…"

"Right, right? Narasaka-san's fried food is just genius."

"What's genius about fried food?" Maaya faked a serious expression, which caused the people around us to burst out in laughter.

Even I found myself smiling.

"Maaya, did you fry this twice?"

"Mnom?"

"There's no need to talk with your mouth full. Just let me know later."

"Mmnom." With her mouth full of fried chicken, she shook her head vertically.

For crying out loud, everybody started laughing again. At first I thought that building friendships with random people was a waste of time, and decided to only stick with Maaya, but now I was consciously moving towards constructing new relationships. After a brief interval of only eating, the conversation continued. Honestly, I'm lost a lot of times when listening to their conversations, and I just can't muster up any interest. Even so, while acting like I was enjoying myself, I started to truly feel that way. I guess a human's heart is all too simple to influence. Is there any name for this phenomenon, I wonder?

"Hey, everyone—"

With these words asking for everyone's attention, I raised my head.

"Why don't we go somewhere again this month?"

The person who spoke up was… Um, who was it again?

"Ohhh, nice idea, Shinjou. Where are we going? And when?"

"Maybe karaoke? On Sunday when we all have time."

Oh yeah, he's Shinjou. Everybody else agreed to his proposition, saying stuff like 'Sounds nice' or 'It's been a while after all' and so on.

"What about you, Saki?" Maaya practically invited me, but I hesitated.

Usually, I'd decline, saying I have to study or work, but…

"Um…"

"Do you have a shift at work? Or is it studying this time?" Maaya seemed to have guessed my thoughts, and offered me an escape route.

"I don't have a shift on the 27th. Usually, I study on days when I don't have any work, but…"

"Oh? Well, Saki-chan does study passionately. But what should we do then? Hmmm."

"Oh, yeah. What about a study session, then?" Shinjou-kun said while glancing at me for some reason.

"Ah! But where?"

"The library?"

"Maybe at my place?" Maaya said.

The others got noisy. I guess that makes sense. If everybody present came we'd be like… six people? But I do know that her living room could fit that many people. She also added that her parents were taking her younger brothers out on that day. She looked at me, curling up her arms like a beckoning cat, inviting me. I guess if I want to create new relationships, this would be the best place to start, huh? If I start interacting with more people besides Asamura-kun, I might forget about these forbidden feelings I have for him.

Upon returning home, I started preparing for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. Oh yeah, I might as well make some fried food. I could even use some for tomorrow's lunch box. With that thought in mind, I opened up the freezer, taking out some chicken. I recalled Maaya's fried food that I ate today. She probably fried it twice. Once at a low temperature, and then again at a high temperature. Usually, that would take longer than I was willing to spend, but I guess I should challenge it today. It's not like I have any shifts at work today.

For dinner, I grilled some sliced and dried horse mackerel, and made some eggplants, fried food, and miso soup. As a finishing touch, I added some sesame oil, switching up the taste for today. While I was working on dinner, Step-dad came home. Right after, he turned on the switch for the bath. While waiting for the water to warm up, he ate dinner with me.

"Oh, this miso soup tastes a bit different from usual, no?"

"Is it weird?"

"Not at all. It's delicious. I'm sure Yuuta will be happy, to."

His words came out of nowhere, but I somehow managed to keep a poker face.

"Thanks… I'm glad to hear that."

"Akiko-san would sometimes use sesame oil as well. Is this an Ayase recipe by any chance?"

"…Something like that."

I think Mom taught me about using sesame oil to change the taste. After taking a bath, Step-dad immediately went to bed. I finished frying the fried food and wrote a note for Asamura-kun for when he's home from work. After I returned to my own room, I began studying for my classes tomorrow.

I blocked off any outside noise with my headphones and listened to some lo-fi hip-hop beats, opening up my textbook and notes. Since the teacher for tomorrow's math class asks questions by seat number, there's a good chance he'll ask me for a solution. With that in mind, I should work through the questions just to be safe. Even while doing so, I kept thinking about next Sunday, as well as what happened at the pool during summer break.

If I really wanted to keep my distance from him, it would be the best choice to not make food for him or leave him a note. However, for a brief moment, that sounded less like keeping my distance, and more like rejecting him, and I didn't really want to go that far. I didn't want to push him away. That would hurt even more now than when he was just a stranger. Is the reason I feel this way because of my responsibility as a part of his family, because I can't damage our give & take relationship, or because—?

Is this the shape my lingering feelings are taking? I don't completely understand it all, myself. In the end, I couldn't solve a single question.