At noon, inside the classroom, Tsushima Kagami took out his bento box. As soon as he opened the lid, he stared at it with a solemn expression. Then, as if a thought suddenly struck him, he turned around to look at Shimizu Nayotake seated at the desk behind him.
"Student Shimizu is eating melon bread again, I see."
Tsushima Kagami watched Shimizu Nayotake, who was sitting in her seat holding a pineapple bun with both hands like a hamster, taking small, nibbling bites.
"Do you want to taste the small sausages Shizuku made today?"
Just as Shimizu Nayotake nodded in response while holding her bun, she saw Tsushima Kagami already holding out an octopus-shaped sausage with his chopsticks while he asked.
She looked at the sausage in front of her eyes and unconsciously swallowed.
Then, she looked up at Tsushima Kagami.
Tsushima Kagami smiled and said, "Shizuku specially made extra; she saved them just for you."
"Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to finish them all myself."
As he spoke, Tsushima Kagami placed the sausage onto the lid of his bento box and set it down in front of Shimizu Nayotake.
Then, he turned around completely, placed his entire bento box on Shimizu Nayotake's desk, and sat down opposite her.
Recently, Tsushima Kagami had noticed that Shimizu Nayotake often settled for just a single melon bread for lunch. After he mentioned this to Yukinoshita Shizuku once, Shizuku started preparing extra food for Kagami to share with Shimizu.
At first, Shimizu Nayotake refused. However, under Tsushima Kagami's barrage of various excuses and shameless manipulative tactics, she eventually caved and accepted the food with a 'true fragrance' appreciation.
Shimizu Nayotake finally nodded. She picked up the sausage from the lid with her fingers and put it in her mouth. A trace of grease stained her lower lip, making her pale pink lips appear moist and full under the sunlight.
"Is it good?" Tsushima Kagami asked with a smile.
Shimizu Nayotake nodded while shyly wiping her mouth with a tissue. "Please thank Student Yukinoshita for me."
Tsushima Kagami laughed. "I will thank Shizuku for you, but at the same time, I must thank you."
After saying that, Tsushima Kagami picked out every single sausage from his bento box, piled them onto the lid, and pushed it toward Shimizu Nayotake.
"Actually, I don't like sausages. Since Student Shimizu loves them, please help me finish them all."
Shimizu Nayotake had just hesitantly nodded when she saw Tsushima Kagami picking more items from his bento to give to her.
With a smile, Tsushima Kagami transferred all the green peppers—which Shizuku had deliberately put in his bento this morning as revenge for him teasing her yesterday—over to Shimizu Nayotake.
"Your diet needs balance. You can't just eat meat; have some green peppers too."
"Shizuku says they replenish Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin B6."
After speaking, he proceeded to pick out the cherry tomatoes one by one.
"And these cherry tomatoes. Shizuku says eating them is good for the skin."
"Women should treat themselves a little better."
Finally, having offloaded everything he disliked onto Shimizu Nayotake, Tsushima Kagami contentedly picked up a chopstick-full of rice and enjoyed it with a bite of tonkatsu pork cutlet.
Opposite him, Shimizu Nayotake sat in a daze, clutching her melon bread. She stared blankly at the 'small mountain' of sausages, green peppers, and cherry tomatoes piled up in front of her.
She hesitated for a while before looking at Tsushima Kagami, who was eating with great relish, with a troubled expression.
"Sorry, Student Yukinoshita, I..."
"I don't like green peppers either..."
Tsushima Kagami acted as if he hadn't heard a thing. He calmly picked up his bento box, turned around, and prepared to return to his own desk to eat.
However, as he turned, he saw Ijichi Seika standing there. She had long blonde hair draped over her shoulders, a 'Bugles-shaped' cowlick atop her head, and was wearing the school's summer navy-collar sailor uniform.
"? Student Ijichi, have you returned to school?"
"How is Auntie Ijichi doing?"
"Well... I guess so."
"Mom has finally been discharged, too," Ijichi Seika replied, her finger twirling a lock of hair by her shoulder, seemingly absentmindedly. "Anyway, it's truly a cause for celebration that I wasn't expelled."
Tsushima Kagami took another bite of his pork cutlet and smiled.
Due to the previous car accident, Tsukuyomi Komoe had guaranteed the school that Ijichi Seika would return. However, because she needed to care for her mother and younger sister, she took a temporary leave of absence, which the school eventually approved.
"Eh, is there something else?" Tsushima Kagami asked, seeing Ijichi Seika still standing in front of him.
"Umm... this is a bento my mom made. She asked me to give it to you."
"Though I seem to have left the house a bit late," Ijichi Seika said, lifting the bento bag in her hand, then glancing at Tsushima Kagami, who had almost finished his own lunch.
Tsushima Kagami put down his bento and unceremoniously took the bag directly from Ijichi Seika's hand.
"A bento made by Auntie Ijichi?"
"I can eat it for dinner. I'll bring the box back to you at school tomorrow."
"Ah... o... okay."
Tsushima Kagami looked at Ijichi Seika, who seemed to have unfinished business, and asked again, "Anything else?"
Ijichi Seika looked at Tsushima Kagami, then looked past him at Shimizu Nayotake. Shimizu was holding a melon bread in one hand and a sausage in the other, taking bites from left and right, looking conflicted as the green peppers remained untouched on the lid.
"Umm..."
"I wanted to ask Student Shimizu to take me along for part-time work."
After school, inside the school's computer room.
Accompanied by Sayuri, Machida Sonoko, and Kosaka Akane, Tsushima Kagami began his daily 'lurking mission'.
Scanning the thread titles on the webpage, he immediately spotted one titled: "Has everyone read Xuanyayi-sensei's latest issue of 'Kairakuten'?"
Tsushima Kagami clicked on it to take a look.
[I took my pants off, and the result is dozens of pages without a single battle scene?]
[If you ask me, this... is...]
[Where is it trash? How does it suck?]
[If you ask me, this issue is god-tier!]
[How is this god-tier? Where is the godliness?]
[He drew the Blondie and the Housewife in an NTL story looking like Pure Love—isn't that god-tier?]
[But I came to see NTL; Pure Love isn't exciting!]
[This issue is satire.]
[Where is the satire?]
[I feel like this manga issue voiced the inner thoughts of people.]
[Where are the inner thoughts?]
[Indeed, this is simply me!]
[I'm convinced. How is Xuanyayi-sensei still peeping into my life!]
[But I feel it's very holy. The Blondie is blessed!]
[Where is it holy? The Blondie isn't blessed at all.]
[This issue is trash!]
[Sucks like thunder!]
Tsushima Kagami quickly scanned the comments, the corners of his mouth curling into a smile. Finally, he posted a reply at the end, browsed a few more responses, and then closed the webpage.
When the group returned to the Manga Research Club, they picked up the new issue of Comic Kairakuten lying on the table.
"I didn't expect the most common complaint to be that the plot resembles Pure Love," Sayuri said, recalling the comments online.
"I thought there would be a lot of people cursing Kagami-kun and WANI for fooling people with a general-audience style."
"True," Kosaka Akane added with a smile. "If you ignore the husband, it feels like a story about a college student pursuing an innocent young girl."
Machida Sonoko then asked with concern, "So, is the second part the plot where the male lead makes the female lead completely depraved and turns her into his plaything?"
"No spoilers. You'll know when the next issue goes on sale."
Seeing Tsushima Kagami's mysterious act, Machida Sonoko was curious but didn't press further. Suddenly thinking of something else, she looked at the group.
"By the way, final exams are coming up soon."
"Does everyone want to get together this weekend to study?"
____
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