Chapter 10: All Day

“I didn’t expect Miyu to cook dinner for me.”

“I did it because I thought Kazuya-kun would be tired after work.”

The way she just bluntly said that, the destructive power is too strong…I feel like I already know how newlyweds feel, even though I'm not even married yet…  

“I'm hungry, can I just eat now?”

“No you can’t.”

“Eh?”

No? Did you only make your portion because you thought I’d come home tired? You didn’t leave any for me? As expected, that would be rather harsh though… 

“Take a bath first. I already heated the water for you.”

“I’m hungry though?”

It's 19:00. I had a part-time job at 12:00, and I had to leave earlier than usual to ask a favor from the manager, so I ate lunch earlier than usual, so I'm pretty hungry…

“Just bear with it. If you don’t take a bath, you’ll catch a cold.”

“But—”

“There’s no ‘but’s, hurry up and get in.”

“Alright…” 

Somehow…Now she feels more like a mother than a wife… Well in my case, my mother died when I was very young, so I only know her from pictures, so I guess she felt more like my grandmother, but it would be rude to refer to a high school girl as a grandma.  

After that, I went to take a bath as Miyu told me to, but I wanted to eat curry as soon as possible, so I soaked in the water for a while, then quickly washed my head and body and got out of the bath.

“That was fast…” 

“That’s just how men’s baths are like.”

“I see…I’m reheating it so wait a bit.” 

“Okay.”

I approached the wall to lean against it to relax for a bit and found a futon that Miyu had probably bought for herself. I was tempted to lean on the futon, but I thought it would be a bad idea, so I leaned on the wall right next to the futon then Miyu called me right away.

“Kazuya-kun, thank you for waiting.”

“Ooh, it’s already done.”

Miyu brought me a plate of curry and I took it and put it on the desk. She also brought her own plate of curry and sat down in front of me. I thought about it yesterday, but I can’t calm down like this… Will I become used to this?

“Well then, itadakimasu.” [TLN: I shouldn’t need a TLN for this should I]

“Itadakimasu.”

The curry that Miyu made seemed to be delicious just by looking at it. The vegetables and meat were finely chopped into bite-sized pieces so that it was easy to eat, just like in a curry from a restaurant, and not like a lumpy curry that is usually served at home…Cutting them individually into these pieces must’ve taken a long time…Perhaps a person’s personality is shown in small details like these. With that in mind, I started eating Miyu’s curry.  

“What the heck…This is so good…”  

“Really?”

“You used store-bought roux for this, right?”

“Isn’t that obvious? I added some yogurt as a secret ingredient, so it might be a little smoother though.”

Yogurt in curry? How does that kind of thing go with curry? I've heard of sauces as a secret ingredient in curry, but yogurt was new to me. It was delicious, so there was no problem. After that, I just kept eating in silence because it was so delicious.

“That was delicious…” 

“If you liked it that much, I should have made more so you could have seconds.”

“Please do so next time!”

“Next time, huh… Alright.”

Miyu smiled as she said that. I don't know what tugged at her heartstrings, but it's good to see her smiling so happily. I don't know, it's strange that I talked to Miyu for the first time yesterday, but now I can talk to her so naturally…And also, Miyu’s attitude has been rather gentle since today morning…I wonder why?  

“That’s a promise then.”

“Well then, I’ll go take a bath.”

“O-okay.”

I didn't think anything of it because I was too busy yesterday, but when I think of a girl my age taking a bath at my house, it's like…you know? And even though I got out right away, the thought of Miyu soaking in the same water I was soaking in is…This isn’t good. Thinking more than this would be bad. Thinking like a boy right now would be bad. If I keep thinking about this, I’ll seriously break… 

“All right, let’s sleep!”

Tomorrow I have my part time job starting at five in the morning, so I need to go to bed early today. It's not that I don't want to think strange thoughts or anything like that. It's not that I can't sleep when I think about Miyu taking a bath right now, it's just that I hadn't slept at all today, and as soon as I lay down on the futon, I fell asleep.

“Huh, Kazuya-kun? Are you asleep already?”

“Kuu…” 

“…He’s really asleep. He went to his part time job immediately after bringing my luggage from my house didn’t he…Really, thank you for doing all this for me…”  

I was asleep, not having any way of knowing that Miyu was gently stroking my head after getting out of the bath.

“Kazuya-kun, good night.”

Saying that with a gentle smile, Miyu also went to sleep.

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