OVER THE BRIDGE.ㅤ| jjk

nine

NINE: WASABI

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"You want to... punch a zebra someday...?" Tsuki questioned in slight confusion.

"Yes! Those off-brand pandas with poor postures..." seeing Panda's face scrunched in disgust, told Tsuki to never mention a penguin in front of him.

The students were taking a break from their morning training, enjoying light refreshments bought from the vending machine.

"Oh! You were the one that made Maki's drink overflow!" Panda exclaimed while pointing a finger toward Tsuki.

"It was you?! And god I was already having a bad day that day." Maki hmphed in irritation.

"Oh uh... sorry Maki-kun... I uh, too had a rough start that day..." Tsuki took a sip of her lychee beverage, avoiding eye contact from those glassed black eyes.

"Well, it couldn't be helped I suppose. Anyways Tsuki-san, I was surprised by your physical reflexes. You were catching up quite well." hearing compliments from Maki must not have been many as Panda looked at Maki with a shocked, yet wounded expression.

"Oh, thanks. I guess self-defence classes in Korea did some help."

"And here goes Maki complimenting the new kid, hmph, as if she is better than me..." the two girls sweatdropped at the childish Panda at sight.

"Why did you learn self-defence?" Maki asked, ignoring the pouting panda.

"Oh uh, for complicated reasons..."

That was basically how the morning went, the three were getting to know each other whilst training at the field. To Tsuki's amusement, Panda was the sarcastic type. One of the best personality types in her opinion. Sarcasm is flavour. It is the hint of salt you need on homemade brownies. It is the shining necklace that dazzles up your outfit. It is the black lamp post that lights up dark streets. It is what makes things better. Dare say otherwise, you would get a distasteful expression from our lovely protagonist.

The two were fun to hang around. She was told that adding Okkotsu-kun and the slim boy, which was known to be 'Inumaki Toge' to the group, could be quite the party. I mean, two trolls, a ship and a big softie? Sounds like a pretty chaotic group to me. Just when the students were about to get up and train, two pretty boys were carrying bags of groceries back to the campus.

"Oi~ We got the groceries~" hearing the familiar voice from a far distance.

The trio turned their head to see Gojo waving at them with a bag full of ingredients. Standing up from their seated position, they went and helped them place down the food.

"Now, no one wants to continue training with an empty stomach? Who's turn is it to cook?" Gojo said with squinted eyes under the blindfold.

Panda shared a glance with the violet eye, seeing him huff under the high collar—he was helping a friend out. "Salmon."

"Oh, so it's you today, Toge?"

"Salmon." seeing Inumaki's glancing at Panda's, the bear has to repay him.

"Well then, even though something smells fishy... Toge is the best chef out of the other two. So I don't mind!" Gojo said with a cheeky smile. "Tsuki, would you mind helping Toge out? Since you didn't get to bond with him earlier and," Gojo leaning in to use a 'quieter' voice, "you're the best chef out of all of them."

Due to obvious reasons, Gojo made it audible enough for the other three to hear. "Oi! My attempted veggies weren't that bad!" "Bonito flakes!" "Why does Tsuki get all the compliments today..."

"Ok, but have you tasted her homemade mochis?! Like that edamame filling was so good—"

"Wait, when did you get to taste her food?" asked Maki.

"Oh, it was a week after her meeting with Yaga-"

"Guys! Inumaki-kun and I will go and prepare lunch ok?" feeling the slight annoyance creeping inside of her from the childish talking.

"Yeah." "Sure." "Salmon." "Ok."

"Ok..." Tsuki said as she gestured Inumaki to lead the way.

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Walking through the dorms, the probing question as to why Inumaki-kun would choose onigiri ingredients as his language, intrigued the young lady. Why choose onigiri ingredients? With his limited choices, it makes his chosen 'language' much harder to use.

"Inumaki-kun?" Tsuki called out.

Turning his head sideways, signaling he's listening.

"Why do you use onigiri ingredients?" he pointed to his throat with a rose eyebrow.

"Well, yes because of your cursed technique. But uh, onigiri ingredients?"

Seeing his eyes widen a bit, he took out his phone and started typing. Expecting some sort of short message, it showed an onigiri emoji with a '<3' next to it.

"Ohh. I guess turning your favourite food into your language is... reasonable." Tsuki responded as she saw Inumaki-kun smiling slightly under the purple collar.

"Salmon," he said in a cheerful tone.

Arriving at the kitchen room, they wasted no time stopping and started preparing the ingredients. And of course, they were doing onigiris. It's easy, quick and done. Fast enough to serve four hungry children and a large appetite of an adult. It is also fast enough to put a small prank, on a certain someone. Once the rice and chopped up filling were done, Inumaki beckoned to stop as he searched through the wooden cabinets. His eyes lit up when saw the specific condiment he was looking for—wasabi.

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Lunch was served on time, plates of food were placed neatly, or specifically, on the dining table. Being the nice person the two students are, they made some side dishes to not get grumpy complaints. The colour of white rice definitely brightened up the table, each rice ball had their filling topped on the triangles, well most of them at least. Serving a nice hot cup of tea on the side of seaweed wrapped gifts, it was now time for lunch.

As they started diving into the varied rice-filled, a little someone was going to have a little tingle in the nose. Mischievous glimpses the two chefs held, all together, the others were too distracted by the well made meal. Chatters of the youngsters blocked the undenying snickers that were resisting to be let out, all together as a furry friend reached out for some spicy tuna onigiri. I mean, accidents happen right? A big bite the black and white took, though it is to be expected by a... somewhat of a panda. Watching as the glup of rice dropped down through his throat, he was then to realize what else was in the filling—wasabi.

"Togee~!" oh how poor the panda was, yes he could handle spice but spicy tuna plus a spoonful of green horseradish? Not having the time to excuse himself off the table, he quickly chugged down his piping hot tea, oh what a mistake he has made. Going off to the kitchen to get himself some lukewarm water, the two were chuckling to their victory. Maki and Gojo just stared, "What kind of weakling are you, Panda?" Maki yelled across the room.

"And here I thought Yaga made a tough doll for once," Gojo joined in.

"Oh yeah?" Panda came back with a clean face, "Well then why don't you guys try it?"

And there goes the supposedly pleasant luncheon, turned into a wasabi-eating mess. All the four students, and their teacher got into this game of event—adding a shit ton of wasabi onto onigiris and shoving it into others mouths. Of course, it wasn't as chaotic as it sounded, just a load of spoons to clean.

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(word count: 1240)

hope you enjoyed this chapter!

I have a special announcement...a new book will be published after this one!

it is the inumaki x oc, 'pure smiles only'! teasers are on my profile!