It was night, and I was on the inside of the convenience store, there was a new Real Time message from Kawamoto.

What is your dinner?

I raised my eyebrow. That was a rather weird thing to be your first message.

I messaged back. Curry.

Her reply was immediate. Same as me!

“Huh.”

I turned off my phone and strolled around the cabinets to grab two yogurts for both of me and my sister, Rin. And saw a familiar figure wearing my school uniform stood at the front of convenience store food section. Now that I thought about this, she was hanging around in the same shopping area, so I guessed her house must be nearby?

Nonchalantly I gently poked her on the shoulder while hoping she wouldn’t freak out or something like that.

Kawamoto turned her head mechanically to my direction, ending up staring at my face.

“...”

“...”

And here came our usual staring /greeting.

“....O-oh... i-it’s Na-natsume.”

Kawamoto was the one who broke the silence this time while trying to hide something on her back.

“An astute observation.” I said. “So... curry, right?”

I took a peek over her shoulder, indeed it was curry.

“...Th-this b-brand ta-tastes g-good.”

But I didn’t say it taste bad nor care enough about it.

“Sounds good. I guess I’ll just go back to my curry.”

Yeah, it wasn’t my problem for what she ate as her dinner. I turned around to look at the cashier and immediately felt someone was poking me.

“U-um... W-what d-d-do yo-you use i-in yo-yours?”

I turned around again, like a spinning top and looked down at two options; Katsu-curry or Normal-looking curry. I didn't really know anything about this kind of food though. I looked at Kawamoto, she looked emptily back at me.

“You know... I'm going to make you a one-time-only, super extra special dinner offer. So why don’t you just check it by yourself?”

I said something completely out of character... at least in front of her I never acted like that. But there was no harm for inviting her, I guessed.

She looked hesitant for a while, yeah... you should be, we barely knew each other. You never knew what some weirdo with an agenda would do if you accepted their invitation to their house.

But she nodded.

“S-Sounds deli-delicious.” She said. “T-to w-w-what do I owe this h-honor o-of be-be-being invited?"

That was pretty surprising considering it was coming out from her... was she trying to keep up with my act?

“Eh, you stood there looking really lost and sad so I thought you could use some company."

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Ah, I blurted my mind out, that was probably the worst reason imaginable. But I guessed I just kinda feeling sorry for her huh.

Guh... whatever, let’s just going with this play.

“So how about it? You're probably really lonely and would eat that convenience curry all alone, otherwise.”

Argh... my mouth... stopped making this worse.

“E-eeh...”

She kinda gave me a weak, almost complicated like smile.

“I’m kidding...”

And now I saw shadow was casted on her face.

“Y-yeah... I gu-guess I-I t-take Gol-golden c-c-c-curry for m-m-my din-dinner.”

Said Kawamoto, her voice gradually became flatter and quieter with each words.

“Oh? So you don’t want to come?”

Did I just hurt her feeling?

Kawamoto tilted her head. “B-but y-you s-s-said you’re j-j-just kidding.”

“It’s about the other part.” I pinched my glabella as I said that.

“I’m serious about the whole inviting you though.”

Great, now I looked like someone who was trying at his best chasing after her.

She stopped moving for a while, muttering something to herself... I wondered if she also stuttered when she muttered like that. After a few seconds or maybe minutes, she looked into my eyes. “Su-sure I w-will h-have your d-din-dinner offer. With pleasure.”

Maybe she just let the issue slid from her mind and decided to act nice... at least we could leave that awkward conversation behind.

Anyway, with Kawamoto joining our dinner, I took another yogurt. Hey, couldn’t eat curry without yogurt right? At least that was how it went on my family.

We made our way to the register and the line, thankfully, was almost nonexistent. It was not long before I’d paid for our yogurt, and were out the door, leaving the cashier that was giving us this warm smile and shouting off. “Ah, the spring of youth.” From his aura.

Hardly wanting to bring any awkward conversation up, I remained silent as we quietly continue to walk down the quiet road, the quiet tapping of our shoes against the sidewalk were all that could be heard. My paces carefully slowed to remain beside her. Compared to my usual walking pace, hers was quite a bit slower... I guessed back when we were in that ‘forest’ I didn’t pay much attention to her huh. Before I knew it, I'd relaxed so much that a loud yawn escaped before I could control it, it spread like a wild fire to Kawamoto and to the office worker that on his way home.

Arriving at your normal two story house, that matches other house in this area, I put the key in and turned the knob.

“I’m home.” I said.

Immediately walking to the dining room. I saw Rin lazily sitting on the couch, watching TV while scratching her belly. “...Where do you buy that yogurt? Hongkong? Mars?”

Yeah... seemed like I really took a lot longer than your usual 5 minutes walk. “Ah, I’ve brought a friend by the way.”

Rin turned her head, facing toward us. “...Girlfriend?”

Kawamoto flinched a little bit when Rin said that.

“Nope~ just a friend from my class.”

Rin had turned her gaze towards Kawamoto, completely studying her.

“What kind of man bring his friend to a dinner on their third day at school?”

Like brother, like sister... seemed like my family or maybe just us had the problem to blurt something out from our mind... Though, the awkward silence lasted only for a few seconds until Rin decided to shrug it off.

“...Let’s just eat our dinner.” I said then moving out to set our food. While Rin was preparing the plate.

“Are you waiting for me to feed you? Watching it won’t fill your stomach, you know.”

I was beckoning Kawamoto to just sit and join us. I seat myself directly facing Rin and Kawamoto joined me on my side.

“E...erm...y-your p-p-parent?”

Kawamoto said while glancing around the house. Meanwhile, I saw for a moment that Rin made some kind of mischievous grin when she heard Kawamoto’s stutter.

“They’re in a far away place.”

...Rin wasn’t wrong but there was a more proper way to put it though... then again, it seemed she did that on purpose.

“O-oh... s-s-sorry.” Said Kawamoto, trying to hide her grimace... urgh, now I should clear this up.

“Whatever you’re thinking about, it’s wrong. Both of our parent and four of our grandparent are still alive and kicking in our village.” I said.

Conversation died off as I immediately set about the business of feeding myself. Taking a few bites, I glanced up and noticed... no... I was distracted from my act by the sight of Kawamoto tearing into her plate as if it had insulted her ancestors.

“You seem pretty hungry.”

Kawamoto looked up, mouth half full, and swallowed before nodding.

I,!myself at least thinking she should at least show some modesty... maybe... I didn’t know... I did feel happy knowing someone gulping my cooking like that... a little bit modesty maybe?

But once again, she might not be the shy type of girl that I thought she was.