COTE: YEAR 2 REACTION

Chapter 4: A Mischievous Kouhai

By the time school was done for the day, I still hadn't heard back from Nanase.  Even if she were to say that everything was ready to go today, it's not like Horikita and I would be able to take action anyway.

There was still a more pressing issue that needed to be dealt with first.

And that was my arrangement with Amasawa to make her a home-cooked meal. As long as my cooking was up to snuff, it was an exceptional opportunity to get her to partner up with Sudō. That being said, it was by no means an easy task.

"Amasawa? Who's that?" Shinohara posed a question.

"A first year obviously!" Ike rhetorically said.

"Did the government skip stuff again?"

"Kiyopon! How come you never told us that you can cook!"

I asked myself the same question as Haruka. Having never held a kitchen knife in my hand before, I didn't know why I was roped into this.

Questions arose from everyone until Mashima-sensei calmed the horde down again before playing the video.

"Ufufu, a slice of life episode?" Sotomura muttered.

When I arrived at the entrance of Keyaki Mall ten minutes before the appointed time, it didn't seem that Amasawa had arrived yet. Instead of fiddling around with my cell phone or something, I just casually observed the students entering the mall from where I stood. The students, ranging from first-years to third-years, were happily chatting about this and that as they steadily flowed into the shopping centre.

Finally, just before the appointed time, Amasawa showed up.

"Perfectly done~ Ayanokōji-senpai~" As soon as we met up, she smiled broadly and nodded her head several times, as if she was satisfied with something.

A scarlet haired girl with twin tails sporting a mischievous look appeared on the screen.

"Another cute girl..." Ike said to the displeasure of Shinohara, who was rapidly losing faith in him.

"Oya, Oya! Don't you have a girlfriend, Ayanokouji!" Amikura wolf-whistled, "Being unfaithful to Karuizawa-san already?"

Kei's mood dipped as she glared at me, cracking her knuckles as if saying 'Why are you hanging out with cute girls all the time.'

"What are you talking about?"

"You waited at the meeting place before the girl showed up. Without doing anything excessive either~" She was surprisingly perceptive. Or, perhaps I should say that she had a solid understanding of my actions, no matter how trivial they might have seemed.

By 'excessive', she was probably referring to the fact that I wasn't messing with my phone or making a call.

"Is that a big deal...?" Sudou, who was clueless in decorum and courtliness, asked.

"Of course, he may be chatting with other girls for all we know," Azuma said.

Soon, I had to face Amasawa's test. In other words, I had to buckle down and cook something for her by hand. That being the case, the time I spent standing here could've been a good last-minute opportunity to look up recipes and take various other countermeasures. A good analogy is that it would've been no different from staring at the textbook right up until the chime of the bell on the day of a test. Of course, doing so in and of itself wouldn't have violated any of the rules Amasawa had put forth.

However, being on my phone like that might make me seem like somebody who wasn't confident in his cooking.

"Well then Ayanokōji-senpai, shall we go?" Amasawa spoke as soon as she joined up with me and the two of us entered the mall together.