After Being Dumped With the Insult, “You’re So Clingy!” and Finding Her in Despair, I Kept Encouraging My Beautiful Classmate and as a Result, That Beautiful Girl Started Directing Her Heavy Emotions Toward Me Instead, but Since I Like Emotionally Heavy Girls, It’s No Problem - 15

Chapter 15: Going Grocery Shopping Date with Jujoji

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A little past ten, we headed out to the nearby supermarket to buy groceries just as planned. After grabbing my wallet and making sure I had locked the door to my room, I ran down the apartment stairs and met up with Jujoji, who had been waiting downstairs.

“Since we’re going out anyway, I’ll make your favorite dish for dinner tonight, Kokonoe-kun ♪ What would you like?”

As we walked toward the supermarket, she asked me that.

“My favorite food, huh…”

Being asked that so suddenly… Honestly, there were too many to choose from. Ramen, gyoza, fried rice, sushi, Napolitan pasta, hamburg steak, steak… I liked most of the typical foods boys tended to enjoy.

“…Curry, I guess?”

After agonizing over it, I finally answered. Curry was great. Rice, meat, vegetables. You could get all the nutrients in a balanced way, it kept well, and there were endless variations, so you rarely got tired of it. It could truly be called the ultimate dish. On the other hand, it was a bit of a hassle to make…

So after saying it, I felt a little regret. Since she was the one cooking for me, I felt bad making her prepare something that took so much effort. However, she accepted it without the slightest hint of displeasure.

“Curry? Very well. I’ll treat you to the secret curry recipe of the Jujoji household.”

“Is that okay? I made it once a long time ago, and I remember it being pretty troublesome…”

“It takes time, but once you’ve memorized the method, it’s simple. It’s one of my specialties.”

“…I see. Oh, I’ll help too. I don’t have much experience cooking, but I can at least peel vegetables and cut meat.”

Since yesterday, I had been thinking about how to repay her for all the care she was giving me. Being the one who only received didn’t sit right with me. And one of the ideas I came up with was this: helping her. No matter how much she claimed to love taking care of others, fatigue would still build up. My goal was to ease her burden, even if only a little, by helping.

“That’s not allowed!”

But Jujoji crossed her arms in front of her chest to form an “X” and glared at me with narrowed eyes as she refused.

“‘A man should not enter the kitchen.’ The kitchen is my domain. Even if you are the owner of the apartment, Kokonoe-kun, I cannot allow you inside. Please just watch YouTube or something while you wait for the curry to be ready.”

“O-Okay.”

Overwhelmed by her intensity, I ended up accepting it.

“…Jujoji, you’re surprisingly old-fashioned, aren’t you?”

It had been a long time since gender equality had become widely advocated, and nowadays many women believed men should at least be able to cook. Girls who would go so far as to declare, “Don’t set foot in the kitchen!” were rare. Thinking that, I asked her lightly.

“Taking care of you is my reason for living. …Please don’t take that away from me.”

In response to my question, Jujoji lowered her eyes slightly and murmured dejectedly. It had been a mistake to ask so casually. After she said that much, I couldn’t argue back. If I wanted to heal her wounded heart as quickly as possible, it was probably best to let her do as she pleased. Still, this was a problem. It didn’t seem like she would accept my help. In that case, I decided to put another plan into motion and asked her something else.

“Then what about you, Jujoji? What kind of food do you like?”

“Me? Hmm… cream puffs, I suppose?”

“Oh? I guess girls really do like sweets.”

She answered my question with a blank, slightly puzzled expression.

…Now I knew what she liked. My other plan was to treat her to her favorite food or give it to her as a present. It might be cliché, but it was the classic way to repay someone. I pictured a map of the area in my head and searched my memory for a place nearby that had good cream puffs.

…Come to think of it, I remembered Musashi mentioning once that “the cream puffs at a newly opened pastry shop have been going viral among girls lately.”

After we finished grocery shopping, I would take her there. I wouldn’t feel satisfied unless I repaid what I had received.

“It’s such nice weather today.”

“Yeah, it is.”

We walked side by side along an asphalt road with peeling paint. The sunlight, hinting at the arrival of summer, shone down on us. Since the day she had her heart broken—the day it poured rain—it hadn’t rained even once, despite it being the rainy season. The weather forecast had even been saying, “Could the rainy season already be ending at this rate?”

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After walking for about ten minutes, we reached the bustling area where the supermarket was located. Since it was a holiday, there were lots of people around.

“Hey, isn’t that girl super cute?” 

“Huh? Which one? Oh, you’re right. But she’s got a boyfriend. Too bad.”

I heard two guys who looked like students mutter that as they passed by us. It was obvious they were talking about Jujoji. It was only natural that Jujoji was cute… but still. I wasn’t her boyfriend, yet it seemed that from other people’s perspective, that was how we looked.

A boy and a girl going out together.

…Now that I thought about it, could this possibly count as a “date”? If so, that would mean I was on a date with Jujoji, the “Number One Girl Guys Want as a Girlfriend.” Up until now, I hadn’t thought much of it. But the moment I became conscious of the word “date,” nervousness suddenly welled up inside me.

“…Is something wrong?”

“N-No. It’s nothing.”

“Hm? I see.”

When I stared at Jujoji a little too long, she noticed my gaze and turned to look at me with a puzzled expression. I hurriedly covered it up and pretended to stay calm. …The fact that my heart had skipped a beat at her lovely face would remain a secret.

…This was just “grocery shopping,” not a “date.” I was only cooperating to help heal the wounds in her heart. By convincing myself of that, I somehow managed to keep my inner peace.

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