[Hypnosis Mic] Cooking Together

Momiji Nabe

He thought about it for a minute. He almost took him up on the offer. But… he was calming down, now. “That’s alright.”

“Okay. If you change your mind, please let me know.” Doppo went back to eating, but the others weren’t quite there yet.

Riou audibly took a deep breath, in and out. “I’m sorry, Yamada-kun. Please eat how you prefer to.”

“Um, it’s okay,” Saburo said, even though it wasn’t, really. He noticed Doppo was already grabbing some of the thinly sliced meat, so he followed. Riou did, too.

Dice was, amazingly, the last one to get back to eating. “I guess Doppo-san can be kinda cool when he wants to, huh?” he said as he reached for a piece of venison that definitely wasn’t cooked all the way though yet.

Doppo flushed at the praise and lowered his head, mumbling “n-not really.” If Saburo hadn’t seen it himself, he never would’ve thought Doppo had it in him to tell Riou off like that.

Saburo continued eating, gradually figuring out that Dice had been right, and all the greens really did just taste like the broth they’d soaked in, and he probably shouldn’t have been so picky in the first place. Hm.

The four of them readily finished up the hot pot, with just a bit of broth left behind. Dice bothered Riou about dessert, but he managed to fall asleep on the floor before anything could get made. Saburo was thankful for that -- he was totally stuffed, and really, really tired. He took the opportunity to ask Doppo to take him home.

Doppo apologized profusely on Dice’s behalf, insisting that “he never does this” and then “he’s really only like this sometimes” and then “it’s just when there’s a lot of meat” and then “well, maybe he’s made a habit of it, but please don’t judge him too harshly for not being able to see you off himself, anyways.”

They walked back through the forest, sun just starting to go below the horizon, making it tricky to see the ground under the brush. Luckily, Doppo seemed to know a route that had far fewer traps. Doppo’s guidance was a far cry from the way Dice had pulled and yanked Saburo along that afternoon.

“Thanks for earlier,” Saburo said.

Doppo brushed it off. “I-it was nothing. Busujima-san wasn’t thinking. And Arisugawa-kun shouldn’t have brought you here in the first place. I’m sorry for not taking you home as soon as you showed up.”

“It’s okay. The hot pot was pretty good. And I don’t think Arisugawa-san even knows what the word consequences means.”

Doppo snickered before stopping himself and apologizing. To who?

When they arrived back in Ikebukuro, it was shortly after dark. Ichiro greeted them, coolly stating that he’d just been starting to worry (though Jiro behind him shaking his head at that suggested a somewhat different story). Doppo explained the situation and apologized repeatedly. Since Saburo was okay, though, Ichiro just thanked him, and asked Saburo, “was the meal any good, at least? I’ve heard Riou-san’s food is killer, in the literal sense.”

“Huh?” Saburo gave a quizzical look. “It was a pretty normal hot pot.”

“Well,” Doppo said, “the broth was made with stink bugs.”

“Stink bugs?”