Can I brag about my very devoted wife to you?

Lunches and commitments

After about twenty minutes of walking along the forest road, admiring the trees and wild flowers, we came to a lake.

As we walked, Riko kept smiling at me, telling me how much fun she was having. Riko was just too cute, and I had to be careful not to make a face showing I was in love with her. I didn’t know why she looked so happy just walking side by side with me, but…

Artificial grass was planted along the lakeside, and people spread out their sheets to have lunch while sunbathing.

“Riko, why don’t we have lunch here too?”

“Yeah! There’s a hot snack wagon over there, I’ll go get some!”

“Oh, Riko, wait! Well, actually… I made you lunch…”

“Eh?”

“I’ve never made this before, so I’m not sure if it’ll taste good…”

“Did Minato-kun make this for me…?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Handmade by Minato-kun… …”

She gasped for breath and tears welled up in her eyes.

“Whoa!? Riko! I’m sorry, you didn’t like it that much, right!?”

“No, no…! I was so moved…! I’m sorry for scaring you. I’m so happy. Thank you…!”

Riko smiled at me as she wiped the tears from her eyes. I was at a loss for words, and could only nod back silently.

I didn’t expect her to be this happy, and if I opened my mouth now, my voice would tremble.

I wanted to do something for Riko. With that in mind, I tried something new and unfamiliar, and I’m glad I took on the challenge. I woke up at three this morning, and although it took me over three hours to make a decent lunch, I’m glad I didn’t give up.

I opened my backpack with a fuzzy feeling and took out my lunch box from inside. I opened the lid in front of Riko, who was looking at the lunch box with excited eyes.

“Ah!? Oh no…”

All the ingredients were on the right side of the box, crushed and in a messy state. I was so shocked that I couldn’t think straight.

I can’t let Riko eat the food in this state.

“Minato-kun…”

“Sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll go get something at the wagon…!”

“Wait. It’s fine, I can eat this.”

I was about to run off with my wallet, but Riko gently grabbed my arm and held me back.

“But…”

“Here, watch this.”

Riko smiled as if to reassure me and then grabbed her chopsticks. Then she carefully fixed the contents of the lunchbox in front of me, leaving me stunned.

“See? It’s right back to your delicious lunch!”

It was as if Riko had cast a spell on it, and the bento was back to its normal state. If you were to look closely, you could see that the omelet was slightly discolored by the juice from the stew, and the tomatoes are crushed and broken, but I decided to accept it. Because if I rejected this lunch, I’d also be denying her compassion and effort into fixing this.

” It’s hard to carry a lunch box, isn’t it? I often make this mistake too.”

Riko finished her sentence with an “hehe” and displayed her cute antics. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness in my heart because I knew that everything she did was out of consideration for my heart.

“Minato-kun, can I eat my lunch?”

“Ah, yeah…”

“Yay! I’ll take it then.”

Riko clasped her hands together and bowed her head lightly, then extended her chopsticks to the most awkwardly looking omelet. Riko brought the omelet to her mouth, meeting my gaze as I watched nervously.

“Mmmh…! It’s sweet and delicious…!”

Riko squinted her eyes happily and held her own cheeks.

“Here, here, Minato-kun, why don’t you try some?”

“Sure…, but Riko? Um, why are you offering me an egg that you grabbed with your chopsticks?”

“It’s about time that Minato-kun learns that I like to give him an ‘ahhh’.”

“Eeehhh!?”

“So here you go, yes, ahh.”

“No, not in front of people…?”

“Is it no good?”

When someone asks you a question with a cute face, how can you say no? And it’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s every boy’s dream to have the girl he likes give him an “ahhhh” during a date.

It’s funny. I’m supposed to make Riko happy, but once again, I’m the only one being made happy.

It was beginning to dawn on me that the plan I’d been working on for days and nights was completely useless.