The Beautiful Girl Who Asked Me to Pretend to Be Her Boyfriend Didn’t Want to Break up With Me for Some Reason - Chapter 2.1

I, Kuwazome Hakuto, was quite busy on weekday mornings.

As a habit, I woke up around six, went for a ten-minute run as a wake-up routine, took a shower, and then started preparing breakfast and lunch for school.

I ran to maintain my health, and on weekends, I did light weight training. If I had been part of a club, I would have had fewer opportunities to exercise.

I usually kept breakfast light. One reason was that I didn’t feel like eating heavy food in the morning, but also because it wasn’t just for me.

First, I prepared lunch boxes for two people, including Shirafuji Luna. This was something Shirafuji had asked me to do, relying on my cooking skills.

Most of the side dishes I packed in the lunch boxes came from the previous night’s dinner. By the way, last night’s dinner was ginger pork. I had also made sweet scrambled eggs flavored with sugar, added shredded cabbage and cherry tomatoes for color, and placed a pickled plum in the center of the white rice to finish.

I wanted you to understand that it was okay to keep the variety simple and quick.

After finishing the packing, I set the lunch boxes aside and moved on to preparing breakfast, which was also for two.

I toasted sliced bread until it was crispy, quickly made scrambled eggs in a frying pan, making sure they were fluffy without browning. After that, I re-oiled the pan and cooked the bacon until it was browned. While doing this, I boiled water and prepared instant corn soup powder in a cup.

After placing everything except the corn soup on the living room table, the intercom announced a visitor.

“Someone’s here.”

At that hour, there was only one person who visited.

I quickly opened the front door to avoid keeping her waiting, and there stood Shirafuji, a silver-haired girl in the uniform of Seimei High School. Her uniform fit perfectly, with no part of it out of place. Her long hair was completely neat, and she had a somewhat soft expression on her face.

“Good morning, Shirafuji.”

“Good morning, Hakuto.”

After our usual greetings, I invited her into the room.

“You have a spare key, so you could just come in.”

“It feels unsafe even for you, and I want you to welcome me.”

“The latter is the real reason, isn’t it?”

Although I thought it was a bit bothersome, I couldn’t bring myself to scold her since it was such a cute reason.

About a month after we started our fake relationship, Shirafuji began coming to my room to eat breakfast. She had already known my cooking skills since I had been feeding her dinner before.

I couldn’t imagine Shirafuji, who was not good at housework, having a proper breakfast.

It all started when she asked for help because a bug appeared.

When I entered her messy room to deal with it, I was surprised by how cluttered it was. It was hard to believe that this was the home of the perfect Shirafuji I knew from school.

Later, I learned that she was generally bad at housework. As a result, I had been cleaning her room about once a week. Since she had started spending most of her time in my room except for sleeping, her room hadn’t gotten messy anymore.

I cooked meals and cleaned…it felt more like I was a housekeeper than a boyfriend. In a way, I had gotten used to taking care of her. I just couldn’t overlook her leaving things scattered or not eating proper meals.

That aside, I didn’t mind that Shirafuji came over for breakfast. The only concern was that she had to wake up early. Even though her room was next to mine, I thought it would be tough for her since she wasn’t good at waking up early. However, contrary to my expectations, she visited my house with plenty of time to spare.

She sometimes overslept, but on those days, Shirafuji’s mood got a little worse. Each time that happened, I had to cheer her up, but I knew she wasn’t really angry, so it wasn’t that bad.

Even when Shirafuji was in a bad mood, she still wanted to hold hands, chat, or play with my hair, which felt like harmless mischief.

Because of this, classmates teased us with comments like, “You’re all lovey-dovey again,” and gave us jealous and envious looks, but I had long since given up on that. After all, showing this kind of relationship was part of the goal of our fake relationship.

After I put down my bag and took a breath with Shirafuji, I prepared the corn soup and headed to the living room.

“Looks delicious today too.”

“It’s just one of my usual dishes that you’ve eaten many times.”

“Even so!”

While keeping her composed face, Shirafuji’s voice carried a hint of happiness.

If she was happy with just one meal, I was grateful for that.

Once we were both seated, we said “Itadakimasu” together and started eating breakfast.

The toast made a satisfying crunch. The fluffy scrambled eggs and salty bacon blended perfectly. The warmth of the corn soup seeped into my sleepy body, bringing me comfort.

This was what breakfast should be. Cooking wasn’t just about putting in a lot of effort.

Shirafuji was quietly eating, but then she suddenly spoke as if she just remembered something.

“I said early rising is a necessary expense, but it’s still a bother.”

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it have been okay to wake up a little later? You had time to spare.”

“You didn’t want to be with me, then.”