Kitchen Encounter (Tsukasa Eishi x OC)

Chapter 5: The First Seat

Two weeks after, I was fully adjusted to school. The teacher that embarrassed me in class is no longer my teacher because she got fired and I gained a new friend.

He just wasn't a normal friend. Why's that exactly? I found out that he was actually famous. And the reason? He's the seventh seat of the elite ten.

"Ishhiki? Don't you have a shokugeki tomorrow? Why aren't you preparing? Too confident because you're the seventh seat?" I rolled my eyes.

"What? No! I just finished planting this pineapple. I'm sure in a few days, a seedling will grow! And the shokugeki? I've already got a plan." He happily said showing me a pot with soil in it.

"Seriously? By the way, I found out you've been skipping class! Must be nice to be allowed to," I said in a dreamy tone.

"Hmm? I never thought about it like that. I simply wanted to nourish my farming skills. Nothing wrong with that. It's still a part of cooking," he cooly replied.

We were walking towards the council room because I offered to help him with paperworks when he suddenly stopped and looked at a flyer.

"What's that?" I asked curiously.

"This?" he pointed at a flyer. "It's the spring selections. You know how there's an autumn election for first years? There's one for each year. Autumn for the first year, spring for the second, and winter for the third. It's just not as big and grand as the autumn elections."

"Really? Can you join? Being an elite and all." Should I join?

"Yep. That's another thing about it. The second and third year elites are allowed to enter their elections. They're just separated from everyone because the elites for each year are to compete against each other. Plus we're given harder tasks to make it fair for the other students. But, I'm not sure yet if I'm joining. I'm busy enough because we manage all the three selections. But, you should definitely give it a try! This year's judges are the top three elites. It'll be good to know who your brother hangouts all the time with than you, heh?" He laughed in the end.

"Hehe, real funny. I don't even know how to join." I dragged him away so that we can go ahead to the council room.

"Ohh. Well, all you have to do is sign up for the elections. Erina will be tasting your dish that you will present to her in a given day. From there, she'll give comments to the other elites about your dish and we'll choose 30 students," Isshiki explained.

"That seems to be a bit bias," I commented opening the door to the council room.

"What? Why?" He put his finger in his chin after putting down his plant near the window with sunlight.

"Erina, you know? I haven't met Yukihira and Erina but based on your comments she seems biased to him because he's "a second-rated chef."

My friend laughed and faced me. "May be she is, may be she isn't. Give her a chance."

"Meh. Who knows if she'll reminds me of my mother who goes around boasting about her clients and always bosses me around. I'd lose my wits if that happens here too, Isshiki!"

"You're overreacting!" He handed me papers that I looked at. Good thing they look easy enough. The only problem is that there's a mountain of them.

"Sorry. We're busy because of the camp and upcoming elections." He rubbed his neck nervously, smiling cheekily at me.

"Woah! Who's the new shot? Your girlfriend?" I turned around and faced who I think is the eight seat that Isshiki talked to me about, Kuga Terunori.