Actually, the Hungry Gyaru Who Eats a Lot Was Being Cheated On, so I Decided to Win Her Heart (And Stomach) From Her Jerk Boyfriend - 7

Chapter 7: The Hungry Gyaru Holds a Strategy Meeting

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The next day after Kushina decided to break up with Yamachi. 

It was lunch break time and just like usual, I was eating my lunch on the emergency staircase of the third building when Kushina came running to me, looking clearly out of breath. 

“Suou-kun! Come join me for the strategy meeting!”

She shouted loudly while throwing the door open, which caused me to flinch. 

“…Don’t yell all of a sudden like that. It’s bad for my heart.”

“Ahahaha~ Sorry,sorry!~”

Kushina apologized while looking somewhat bashful. Then, she sat down next to me. Unlike yesterday, she had a plastic bag filled with several rice balls, which I assumed she had bought from the school cafeteria. Of course, she also had her usual lunchbox with her. 

“Did you give up on keeping the ‘small eater’ persona?”

“I guess so. I don’t need to force myself to fit Takashi’s tastes anymore after all.”

She said while peeling the plastic film off one of the rice balls. 

“Thank you for the food!”

She pressed her hands together before shoving the rice ball into her mouth. 

…It’s actually impressive how she can eat so gracefully with those nails.

I was impressed by her long sky-blue nails that were decorated with sparkling glitter while Kushina wore a blissful smile on her face as she ate beside me. 

“Rice balls with salmon is the best after all~”

“Ooh… Kushina, you’re a salmon person, huh?”

So she was the classic type. 

“Yeah, that’s right. Oh, but I also love meat onigiri too! What about you, Suou-kun?”

“I guess I’m the seaweed and spicy pickled mustard greens type. 

“How plain! But, it suits you though, so that’s good too!”

Kushina laughed out loud. I sighed, feeling relieved to see her laugh and then, I asked her. 

“By the way, you mentioned wanting me to join a strategy meeting earlier. What are we going to talk about though?”

Kushina hesitated for a moment. Her lips opened and closed a few times before she eventually answered. 

“U-Umm… It’s about… How should I break up with Takashi.”

She answered, looking significantly more meek within an instant. Hearing that, I tilted my head to the side. 

“…Can’t you just tell him straight away? That you’re breaking up with him because he’s cheating on you? That’s all you need to do, right?”

“Well… You’re right, but I don’t want to paint Takashi to be the bad guy if I could… Umm… It’s just… Without Takashi, I would probably still be a loner.”

I already had my suspicions beforehand, but Kushina really had a strong sense of duty, huh? She was the victim in this mess, but she was still trying to resolve things as peacefully as possible. From the way she was acting, it seemed she wouldn’t tell anyone that she broke up with Yamachi because Yamachi had been cheating on her. 

Goodness. What a selfless idiot. 

I understood she didn’t want to repay Yamachi’s kindness with evil, but… That didn’t change the fact that Yamachi was cheating on her. This and that was an entirely different matter altogether. 

“…Goodness. If you’re too soft-hearted, someone is going to take advantage of you, you know?”

“I-I’m not like this with just anyone though…!”

Kushina pouted, looking a bit defensive. 

Well, if she says so, then I guess there’s nothing we can do about it…

“But still, you need to learn to draw a line at some point. I can’t stand it if, in the end, you’re the only one who gets hurt.”

Actually, she already is. 

I hadn’t known Kushina for very long, but I could tell she was a genuinely kind-hearted person. Of course I didn’t want someone like her to be hurt. 

“…Sorry, I didn’t mean to lecture you. Anyway, back to the main topic. What are you planning to do for now?”

“Well… For now, I’m thinking of finding a place where I can talk to Takashi…”

“In that case, maybe you can invite him to a café or a park during the day.”

Having the conversation in public during the day seemed like the best option. If worse came to worst and she ended up arguing with Yamachi, at least Yamachi would’ve thought twice before he did something bad in public.

“And so… The tricky part is what kind of excuse you will use for wanting to break up with him, right?”

“Yes. Precisely. Like I said before, I don’t want to paint Takashi to be the bad guy.”

Why is she so softhearted…? 

It would’ve been much easier had he just told him everything straight. Although I didn’t understand Kushina’s way of thinking, for now, I decided to respect her wishes. 

“In that case… Maybe you can say you two have different values and not a great match or something. That seems to be your safest bet.”

In that way, no one would be the bad guy. It was a solid excuse for wanting to break up with someone. 

“I’m not sure about that… If I use that excuse, I’m pretty sure Takashi is going to convince me to keep dating him.”

“In that case, you just need to stand firm on your ground.”

“I don’t think I can stand firm at all…”

“Your determination is basically nonexistent. Oi, be serious.”

“I can’t help it! I really… I really liked him! Even now, I still can’t bring myself to hate him!”

She lowered her gaze as she spoke. Her voice was growing faint. I could tell just how much Kushina was still struggling with her feelings even after witnessing Yamachi’s affair with her own eyes. 

“But since he cheated on you, there’s no way you can keep dating him, right?”

“…Yeah.”

Kushina nodded firmly.

“Then you have no choice but to tough it out.”

“Grrr! Suou-kun, you meanie…!”

Kushina glared at me intensely as she stuffed her second rice ball into her mouth. However, her glare was far from terrifying. Rather than intimidating, she looked like a small animal instead, like a hamster. 

“It’s okay. It might hurt now, but one day, you will look back and realize breaking up with him was the right choice after all.”

“You think so…?”

“I think so.”

I met Kushina’s eyes and said with absolute certainty.

At the very least, this is the better option than having her suppress her own feelings forever. 

I thought to myself as I offered a container full of side dishes to her.

“If you want, you can have some of my side dishes today. I can’t give you all of it this time though.”

“Huh? Really?! I would love to! Yay!~”

In an instant, the dejected look on Kushina’s face disappeared, replaced by her bright smile. She happily accepted the container and used the chopsticks she pulled out from her lunch bag to pick up a piece of rolled egg. She popped it into her mouth and…

“Mmmh! So good! And it’s the sweet kind! Sweet rolled eggs are my favorite!”

“I like the sweet kind too. I guess we have that in common.”

“True. Our tastes in rice ball fillings are totally different though.”

She laughed as she said that. Her laughter was contagious, and I couldn’t help but smile too. But then, Kushina blinked in surprise at me. 

“…Hm? What is it?”

I asked and she stared at me thoughtfully for a moment before replying.

“I just noticed that Suou-kun smiles a lot when I’m eating.”

“Is that so…?”

“Yeah, you do. You were like that yesterday too. Now that I think about it, you had the same expression as you do now when I was eating that jumbo-sized ramen…”

“…Well, yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Well, I had a feeling I acted like that. I had always liked watching people enjoy their food with gusto, even more when it was the meal that I made. But still, being called out on it like this made me feel a bit embarrassed…

“…Wait, Suou-kun… are you… blushing?”

“I’m not.”

“No, no, you definitely are~”

Narrowing her eyes, Kushina grinned mischievously. That expression was oddly infuriating and for a second, I was tempted to snatch my container back from her. But since she didn’t say anything wrong, I decided not to make a big deal of it.

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T/N: Love makes you blind indeed… (っ- ‸ – ς)