Sweet Dreams

This is the First Seat?

Thunder rumbled outside the window, providing percussion to the angry, lashing melody of the rain. Asuka was sitting in a classroom, half asleep, gazing out the window. Her ever-present earbuds were in, hidden by her waist-long hair. Lectures were usually boring, and Asuka didn't particularly enjoy this one, so her usual routine was to pretend (if she felt like putting in some effort) to pay attention to the teacher droning on and on.

French cooking techniques. Unless they were cooking that day, the class was just a big bore for Asuka. She had soaked up all this information ages ago.

Stifling a yawn, she barely registered the teacher announcing that there would be a special visitor that day.

"You might have been wondering why I asked all of you to come dressed in your chef uniforms. Today we have been graciously allowed to host a special visitor for today's class. He was my star pupil when he was in his first year, and his specialty is French cooking. I trust that you will treat him with utmost respect."

The entire class gasped as they saw who it was. Something interesting seemed to be happening, so Asuka discreetly pulled out her earbuds and sat up.

"Allow me to introduce you to Tsukasa Eishi, first seat of the Elite Ten."

Maybe this class will finally get interesting...

Murmurs were heard through the classroom, and quite a few giggles could be heard from several girls as they whispered conspiratorially to their friends.

"Ooh, that hair, it looks so soft and silky! Don't you think, Mizuki??"

"Of course! Oh, I could just melt in his eyes forever."

Asuka inwardly cringed in disgust when she heard the two sigh in unison, undoubtedly making heart eyes at the chef.

The fabled first seat tripped his way into the room, dropping some supplies and ended up falling on his face while trying to pick it up.

The entire class stared quizzically at him, not sure if the person at the front of the room really was the first seat.

Did the teacher make a mistake or something when he was introducing this kid? Isn't the first seat supposed to give off a more...powerful vibe?

"Oh, u-uh, hi! I'm Tsukasa Eishi. I've been asked to teach this class for today. U-uh, for what I've prepared for today's lesson, I'll need a helper. Er, a sous chef of sorts, I guess. Any volunteers?" he said after picking himself up from the floor.

Everyone took a big step back, all shuffling away from his offer. Still caught off guard, Asuka was now suddenly at the front of the group.

Oh, shit.

Normally, Asuka never volunteered to do anything in class. She never raised her hand to answer questions, and she was the type of girl who would always quietly do whatever was asked of her. Cooking in front of the class? Nope. Never. Avoiding situations like these were always made easy, as long as she stayed at the back. That way, no one would remember that she was there.

It wasn't so easy to weasel her way out of this one.

Asuka swore that she could feel a giant heated spotlight land on her, from the way all the gazes in the room burned into her.

Tsukasa's looked crestfallen when he saw almost the entire class step away. He scanned the students, when his eyes landed on her.

Please don't ask me to, please don't ask me to, please-

"Oh, would you like to help me out today?" he asked hopefully, almost begging her to say yes. His pale lilac eyes pleaded for her to accept.

"Uh, I..."