Vol 2 Chapter 5 (2/2)

“‘Kay! Look forward to them!”

Kiris.h.i.+ma, arriving now belatedly, trudged into the living room while he pieced through the mail he’d picked up on the way. “I’m baaaack. Hiyo, Yuki-chan’s sent you a summer greeting card.”

“Really?! Oh wow, it’s got foreign stamps on it!” She pored over the postcard Kiris.h.i.+ma handed her with a serious expression. If Yokozawa recalled correctly, she’d mentioned to Hiyori that her family was going overseas for vacation. She’d probably fired off a postcard to Hiyori the moment she arrived.

“Well let’s dig in—we’re having chilled Chinese noodles tonight.” At the description of the evening’s menu, Hiyori raised both hands in joy.

“How’d you know, Oniichan?? I was just thinking earlier that I wanted to have this for dinner!”

“Well I wanted it myself; now, both of you go get washed up before we eat.”

“Yessir~”

After shuttling her off to the bathroom, Yokozawa set the table—there was pudding in the fridge for dessert, but he’d set that out after their meal.

“Woooow it looks delicious!” Hiyori voiced her excitement as she surveyed the meal. It made the effort all the more worthwhile with such an appreciative audience. Even six months ago, he never would’ve expected his rusty cooking skills to make a comeback underthese circ.u.mstances.

As she settled into her seat, Hiyori innocently asked, “So, what did you two get up to while I was gone?”

“…Just, busy with work.” Nothing that they’d done was anything they could possibly tell Hiyori about—but despite his smoothly delivered lie, Kiris.h.i.+ma dropped a bomb on them when he sauntered in from the living room behind her.

“We had a lot of fun, just the two of us.”

“…!”

He snapped a leg out to kick Kiris.h.i.+ma for his suggestive phrasing, but this didn’t seem to discourage him at all, and he continued purposefully, “What’re you blus.h.i.+ng for, Takafumi?”

“Cut. That. Out!” His face erupted into flame at being called by his given name for the first time. Even without glancing into a mirror, he knew he had to be beet red by now.

“Heeeey, did something happen while I was gone? C’mon, tell me!”

“It’s nothing—now just, eat up. Your noodles’ll get soggy.”

“Ah—Oniichan!” Ignoring her question, Yokozawa fled into the kitchen, and despite fanning himself fervently with his hands, his flushed face just would not cool down.