Springtime of Our Youths

Chapter 4

One for two thousand yen.

Touma stared at the prices, mouth agape. The guy doing the selling inside his modern-looking stall—probably a renovated motor home—gave him a strained smile. He probably got that a lot.

"Two...thousand...How is it that much? What ingredients could they possibly be using?"

"If they told people that, they'd go out of business. Oh, can I get two hot dogs?" requested Mikoto, making an order on her own in the meantime. Touma watched the clerk as he worked. Neither the bun nor the dog was especially large or anything. There also weren't any strange ingredients in it. He didn't want to say it, but it looked to him that if a person put one of these hot dogs next to one from another place, they'd barely be able to tell the difference. And from its small size, it felt more like a snack than a meal.

(She's gonna pay two thousand for that?)

Touma slumped as Mikoto indeed handed over the money in exchange for the two hot dogs

"H-hey, that money—"

"What are you so confused about? There are all sorts of different hot dogs, just like anything else. Stands in LA are basically shops where movie stars pull up in a limousine to order. Are you sure you're not just unfamiliar with how these things are priced?"

"No, I didn't mean that. I mean I'll pay for mine with my own money."

"Hah? No, don't worry about this little thing. I did promise that I'd pay today anyway so no point in getting out your wallet for it, right?" she answered plainly, causing a dry smile to cross Touma's face.

There were benches right nearby—maybe the hot dog guy had opened up here because there was a place to sit and eat. The sunlight overhead was blocked by the roof of streetside trees, so it looked nice and cool...but it was probably actually hot. The sweltering Kanto heat was real, and it had no mercy. To make it worse, there was a shrill sound, possibly from some building construction, floating to them from far away.

"Here's your hot dog."

Mikoto handed over his hot dog. He stared at it. Then he ate it. He didn't want to admit it, but it was good. More than that, though, he hated not knowing the difference between this hot dog and other ones.

"So Kamijou, you got any plans for summer vacation ?"

"Well I'd love to, but I am probably going to be busy with remedial classes, it's the same every year so I kinda got used to it."

"Remedial classes? Why would you need something like that, are you struggling at school or something"

"You could put it that way, it's just that a lot of things tend to fly over my head or I get up into trouble somehow or I'm out chasing for sales in order to survive which doesn't leave me a lot of time for studying"

"Maybe if you studied instead of going out at night saving damsels you wouldn't be stuck taking remedial classes," said Mikoto making both her and Touma laugh due to there being a lot of truth behind that statement since Touma did seem to get himself in a lot of trouble on his own rather than by mere circumstance

"Well that's the gist of what I'll be doing, what about you Misaka"

"As the third-ranked Level 5, it's my duty to represent Academy City abroad, which basically means I have to do demonstrations showing off my ability. Apparently, I'm considered the sanest of the level 5s so I'm basically the only one up for the job and I do get some extra spending money for my trouble. I'll be gone for the first week of July starting on the first."

"Travelling to other countries sounds exciting, sadly poor Kamijou here cannot afford himself such luxuries and I doubt that I'd be up for representing Academy City any time soon haha"

Mikoto chuckled lightly."I'm not going on vacation you idiot, I'm gonna have a schedule to keep but I hope I'll have enough time to do some sightseeing. Also, my dorm manager told me yesterday that'll be getting a new roommate soon so I'm gonna have to mentally prepare for that too"

"New roommate? What happened to your previous roommate"

"I don't really know myself, from what I've been told my former roommate was assigned to be roommates with a new girl from her clique and that a first-year student will take her place as my roommate"

"So your new roommate will be a full year behind you? I didn't that's possible, I hope things work out for you in the end though and that you two get along, being stuck living with someone you don't like would be a pain."

As he finished his sentence, Touma noticed that Mikoto had gotten some mustard on her nose, probably due to being a messy eater."Hey, you got some mustard on your nose, let me clean it up for you." Touma pulled out his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the mustard off Mikoto's nose.

"Thanks." said Mikoto while desperately trying to hide her blush, wanting to change the subject quickly she stood up and said, "Looks like we are both done eating and just standing around here would be boring, wanna go to the arcade?"

"Arcade huh? Didn't think a high-class girl like you would be interested in stuff like that. Thought you'd have more dignified hobbies."

"You wanna go or not?" Mikoto said slightly irritated by the boy's comment

"Ok ok, I didn't mean to insult you or anything. Let's go, what's the worse that can happen"