Lunchtime. It was the one period during school hours where students gather with friends from other classes, clubs and even their own classes to talk and eat.

I for one disliked the idea of mingling around during lunchtime. I preferred to keep to myself during lunch hours by sitting at my seat located in the corner of the classroom. Earphones on both my ears, connected to my phone that was conveniently placed on the table and with a book in my hands. That was how I, Kanjouu Yuusuke, would spend every day of my lunch period during school. Spending time alone gave a tranquil feeling and long-awaited peace.

However, that peace didn’t last long on this particular day.

As sudden and loud as a thunder strike, the door to my class was slammed open. It was loud to the point I could hear it personally despite my headphones. All eyes in the class naturally turned to the doors. Usually, in these cases, I would mind my own business and went on to read my book.

“Yo Yuu! Let’s eat!”

I guess there was no escaping this one. My long-awaited peace was disturbed by 2 girls that had opened the class's doors. A red-haired beauty holding a lunchbox in one arm and dragging yet another girl in the other.

“Hey Miyano, let me go!”

The one that was dragged around was not at all inferior to the red-haired girl. Donning purple hair herself, the two girls stood out in the class along with the loud sound they made.

As soon as the red-haired girl shouted my names, I could feel countless gazes from my classmates on me. Even if I wanted to pretend that I didn’t feel their piercing gazes, I could not possibly do so. I then decided the best course of action was to pretend that I did not hear them. Doing so, I continued my book, flipping yet another page and ignoring my surroundings.

Just as I thought that would settle it, the sound of my favorite singer disappeared and I felt that my headphones were yanked off.

“Hey Yuu, let’s eat!”

As if she knew that I was pretending. She gave off a cold smile and a slight twitch as she repeated the words.

“…why all of the sudden, Honoka?”

The red-haired girl was indeed Honoka, she approached me in the classroom and invited me for lunch, along with the purple-haired girl who was Honshou”

“Well, I thought we could eat as a club for a change.”

Hearing Honoka declare that, the class that was silent began to raise its volume. Countless whispering, murmurs that were discussing the ‘club’ that was mentioned as well as the occasional insults about myself sounded throughout the class.

“Alright…Let’s change the location.”

Wanting to get out of the classroom to avoid any more gossip, I suggested a change of locations, and within minutes, we were at our club room at the other building.

“So, explain to me why you guys came here for lunch?”

“Well, we needed a place that we could sit and relax, so what better place than here.”

“I-I-I came here to see y-y-you…”

“I wanted to avoid the attention.”

“Don’t be stingy Mitsuki-Sensei, I will give you some of my lunch.”

“M-M-Mine as well!”

“Oh, that’s just perfect, I hadn’t eaten yet and was feeling hungry, I will take this as compensation then.”

“Ah, my wiener!”

Although the noise here was comparable to the classroom, it didn’t contain the gazes and disdain from my classmates, this was the compromise that I would accept in order to find a place to eat my lunch.

Deciding to join in on the three of them eating lunch, I began to open my wrapped bento that I grabbed before coming here. As I opened it up and wanted to start eating, the room fell silent with a hint of curiosity in the air.

I turned around to see the three of them who were merrily talking up till now, staring intensely at my lunchbox contents.

“What a luxurious lunchbox…”

“Must be a girl or at least family”

“T-to think that Kanjouu-Kun would have a girl…”

“…”

The three of them had their own remarks on the contents of my lunch. It was a neatly packed lunch with the usual rice, topped with seaweed. Sides included egg rolls, takoyaki, karaage, and even some vegetables.

“I made it myself.”

“!”

The three who were staring all looked as if they had heard something impossible.

“Yuu…You cooked this…?”

“Hey, I got confidence in my own cooking skills at least. After all, to live alone, I had to learn how to cook.”

“Wait, you live alone? No way! In that huge of a house?”

“Well, there were circumstances.”

As Honoka was questioning me about my living conditions, Honshou swooped in with her chopsticks and took a piece of my Karaage and put it in her mouth.

“Ah.”

After her rash actions, she fell dead silent.

“Impossible.”

The rest of us who were watching her all wondered what she meant unti Mitsuki-Sensei broke the silence.

“What do you mean by that, Honshou-san.”

“I-t…”

“It?”

“It’s too…”

“It’s too…?”

“It’s too delicious! There’s no way you could have cooked it by yourself! I refused to accept it!”

“W-what…”

Hearing her loud disclamation, everyone was taken aback for a moment. It didn’t take long before Honoka and Mitsuki-Sensei each took their own share of my lunch and ate it.

“No way, It’s really good! You made this, Yuu?”

“I must say…I’m impressed Yuusuke.”

“I wish you guys would stop eating my lunch while complimenting me.”

“Ahaha, I will share mine with you.”

“Yuusuke-Kun, did you take cooking lessons or something?”

“No, I simply watched chefs from a young age and tried my hand at cooking.”

“And you got this good at it?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m good at cooking dishes, if anything, my specialty would be making desserts and sweets.”

“Desserts!”

“Sweets!”

Hearing those words, the eyes of the girls in the room began to shine brightly. They both looked at me with hopeful looks in their eyes. If it was only Honoka, I would understand. But to think Honshou who seemed that she would rather die than get along with me actually looked hopefully at me.

“…if you would like, I could make and bring some tomorrow?

“Please Do!”

As if they had planned this out from the start, the two girls grasped each other’s hands and said it in unison.

The Lunch continued on as they continued to eat my lunch and comment on it. Before long, the break was over and we were each making our way back to class.

“Huh…isn’t that kid the one from that day… and her….”

A red-haired guy who had a wild look was walking along the corridor when he saw me and the rest walking together. He looked as if he were eavesdropping and following us.

“Remember Yuu, tomorrow for sure!”

“I got it already, Honoka.”

As we continued to walk into our classroom, the guy at the back looked a little flushed on his cheeks.

“So…her name’s Honoka huh?”

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The next day, it was already after school and the members of the Keikenbu were gathered in the clubroom already. I was just arriving at the room after running an errand for my teacher. As I opened the door, I saw the two girls seated on the chairs and there was a long table all ready with plates, utensils and most of all, the anticipating eyes of the girls.

“Alright, I get it. Here you go.

As I said that to ease their excitement, I took out a box from the bag that I had brought today.

“I made a cheesecake today as I didn’t have much ingredients to work with so you would have to make do with that.”

Opening the box revealed the contents inside. It was a bright yellow and white cake that looked as if it were still bouncing. Despite it being a long while since bringing it from home, the cake was still surprisingly cold as it emits cold air when opened. This was because I had asked Kouda-sensei for permission to store these in the teacher’s fridge when I visited him this morning.

“Woah…”

Everyone including Mitsuki-Sensei let out a small sound of amazement at the spongy white cake in front of them. Mitsuki-Sensei saw the cold air that was emitted and looked as if he understood what I did.

“So that was I was smelling this morning…”

“ITADAKIMASU!”

In a flash, the girls had already divided the cake and were readying themselves to eat it. I simply watched the scene unfold before me as I took a chair and sat down myself.

“So sweet!”

“So soft…”

“Yet…so delicious!”

Watching them eat the cake I made had given me a little nostalgia whereby I first made cakes and asked Tsubasa to try it out for me. Hearing the reactions of the girls in front of me really reminded me of when my sister first ate the cakes. If she were here, she would definitely say something like

“So, my brother’s hidden baking talent has been discovered…”

That was the kind of person she was.

Honoka and Honshou were both munching on the cake without a care in the world. Especially Honshou, I would have expected her to be a little embarrassed showing this side of her to Mitsuki-Sensei, but could the power of cakes have changed her?

Mitsuki-Sensei, on the other hand, was eating his share of the cake at the corner of the room discreetly. I decided to take a slice and eat it myself.

As I raise my fork and sliced the cake, a small part was cut out rather easily. Putting it in my mouth had made me shiver a little due to the cold surface of the cake with a little cream still left on my lips. As I ate the cake, the flavor of the cheese came out strongly and enveloped my mouth, it was sweet yet not too sweet, fluffy yet not too soft. After gulping the cake down, I licked the rear ends of my lips and drank some water.

The girls in front of me had also subsequently finished theirs.

“Ahh. That was blissful.”

“I have to agree.”

“Glad that you liked it!”

“Yuu!”

Honoka had suddenly sat up and grabbed a hold of my hands.

“You have to make more for us sometime! And teach me how to make it someday!”

“…alright alright, I will.”

“A-Ahem. I hate to admit this, but the cake was delightful.”

“Thanks.”

Even Honshou was impressed enough that she would thank me, could this be the cake speaking? Or her hunger?

“Well, I’m impressed. I guess you weren’t lying when you said sweets and desserts were your specialties.”

Hearing the constant praise from them had no effect on me, I couldn’t get what was so delicious about the cake I had made except the fact that it was a cake. Although, not showing some kind of emotion would raise the suspicions of them and I had faked a smile before I knew it. Being able to fake a smile was a very useful skill taught to be by Kenji-sensei. He told me I could use it to get out of unwanted situations.

“So…are these your club activities?”

Mitsuki-Sensei had suddenly sprung the question on us. True, even I had been wondering as well. The club was created on a whim with no solid goal in mind, would the club activities be fine like this.

“That’s it!”

“Yuu, I know what we can do as a club!”

Hearing Honoka speak out to me in response to Mitsuki-Sensei’s question broke my fake smile.

“As the Keikenbu, we can experience and learn how to bake cakes as good as you! You could teach us!”

“Hoh, that sounds like a great idea Honoka-san”

“I-If Mitsuki-Sensei says so.”

“That’s settled! Our first club activities would be having Yuu teach us how to bake!”

“I don’t have a say in this?”

“Alright then, but first. It’s getting quite late, so you guys should head home and continue this tomorrow.”

“Alright, Yuu, Kagura. Let’s go home together.”

“Ah…actually, I needed to do something for Kouda-Sensei before I go, you guys head home first.”

“Hmm? Alright then, let’s go Kagura!”

“H-hey, don’t pull me!”

As the club dispersed, I made my way down to the main building where my classroom was located. I was tasked to go take something from the class and return it to Kouda-Sensei after school but I had forgotten about it.

As I was walking by, a hand appeared and grabbed my shoulder.

“Hey, we need to talk.”

Looking back, I saw the wild red-haired guy that was harassing Honoka on the day we first met.

“Sorry, I have something to do.”

“I said wait a minute!”

As I pulled away from his grab, he used his right hand to again grab my arms, but this time, harder. Maybe it was reflex, or maybe it was experience. Either way, in that single moment, I took a hold of his arm and had swung it behind him and pinned him on the wall.

“Ouch! It hurts damn it!”

Realizing what I had done, I quickly let go of him and apologized.

“You…you’re pretty strong.”

“Well, I guess.”

“Anyways, I wanted to ask.”

“W-w-what’s your relationship with Honoka-san”

As he stuttered to ask me a question, his face had turned a bright red, it could have been just the sunset but I determined it wasn’t.

“We are just friends in the same club.”

“Friends…you guys seem pretty close though”

“What’s that gonna do with you?”

“H-huh?”

Seeing him flinch at my remark, I had figured out the reason for his actions.

“You wouldn’t happen to…like Honoka would you?”

“Huh?! What are you talkzing about?!”

He bit his tongue…

“If you had liked her, why did you harass her on her first day?”

“H-h-harass her?”

“Weren’t you and 3 other guys ganging up on her at the alleyway last time?”

“T-t-that wasn’t the case! My buddies were just teasing me and wanted to make me confess to the girl!”

“Huh?”

After that, I heard him out. Turns out, he had seen Honoka before on the streets and had fell in love with her at first sight, and after finding out she transferred here, his friends teased him by trying to make him confess to her on the spot, thus leading to him ‘surrounding’ her.

All in all, it was a misunderstanding.

Even I, could not contain my surprise at the fact that it was a misunderstanding which the feeling was rather new to me after I regained it.

“So…what do you want to do?”

“I want to get closer to her of course…”

Seeing him blush and whisper despite his wild and menacing appearance that screams delinquent really made me wonder why he would dress up and act like one.

“I got an idea for you.”

“Huh?”

“Join our club, the Keikenbu.”

“Kei…kenbu?”

“It’s a new club we formed together, we are always looking for new members. And besides, isn’t this the best chance for you to get closer to her?”

“I see…”

“Not a bad idea, right?”

“I got it, I will join.”

“Alright then, see you tomorrow at the entrance to the club building, I will bring you there.”

“Heh, for the rumored school loser, you are an interesting fella.”

“Well, thanks for that.”

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