Another normal day for me. Alarm rings, I wake up but today the sky was clear so I decided to give my legs some work today. Maybe because of the rain yesterday, it was kinda chilling today. I opened my phone and used my fitness tracking app to record my performance. I use that data to improve myself. Well, its not like I am aiming to be an athlete in some major sports or something but to me its more like a mental thing. Seeing the results of your hard work makes everyone happy and I am no exception.

As the kms started to add up, my breathing started to go out of control and my legs began to stiffen up. A proper response from the body who hasn’t exercised for a month. I looked at my phone and found out that I had run about 5 kms in 25 mins. It was just about to be 5 in the morning but the darkness was already gone. Summer things, I guess. Just as I opened my door, I saw Uyehara coming out. I initially thought that she was jogging herself but her attire said otherwise. It was pretty weird to go out this early so I called her out…

“Good morning, Uyehara- senpai. Pretty early to be going out, don’t you think?”

“Ahh, Good morning. It could be said the same about you too. Why are you up this early?”

“For me…its just jogging. Got nothing else to do after all.”

“Hmm…pretty admirable of you. I am just going to get some fish. I try to get the fresh ones so I go to the market early.”

“You can cook, Senpai!? Wow, I get a seizure every time I see the ingredients. Its pretty amazing of you.”

“Its nothing special. Even you can do it if you try. Hehe, I can cook for you if you want…”

“Really!? It would help me a lot. I am living alone after all. But won’t it be a bother to your parents?”

“I was just joking but looks like you really need my help. Don’t worry about my parents. They are always busy working so they rarely come home. Today is no exception.”

“If you were just joking then its ok. I don’t want to trouble you. I can always get something to eat from the store after all.”

“Now that I know about your situation, I will cook for you. You will get sick if you don’t balance your diet.”

“But…”

“No buts. But in exchange, help me carry the stuff. This will be the price for my cooking.”

“If that’s the case then I am fine with it. But can you wait a bit? I need to change my clothes.”

“Ok, make it quick.”

I rushed into my house, washed my face and wiped my body with a wet towel. I wore a T-shirt and shorts that was laying on my bed and went out. I tried my best but it took me about 10 min to get ready.

“Sorry to make you wait, Uyehara-senpai. It took me longer than I thought it would.”

“No problem, let’s go…”

It took about 30 mins to reach the fish market. It was a part of a shopping district which looked pretty retro. There were a lot of mishmash of shops all aligned by a pathway. She got her fish and I thought the shopping was over but nope. She went around shops after shops buying ingredients. I asked her the reason for it but she simply replied by “Well, while I have the chance lets stock up.” As I followed her, I noticed that she was pretty familiar with the district and was well liked. She was super casual with the people there. I was kinda amazed by the brightness in her personality. The bags were a little heavy but as a man, it would be damn pathetic to admit the fact and accept help so I endured. She looked like she noticed me and asked me to hand her one of the bags. I denied her request but she kept nagging me so I tried to start up a conversation…

“Umm…Uyehara-senpai, which club are you a part of? Apparently, every student has to be a part of a club as a school rule, so I was kinda curious which club you joined?”

Is it just me or did that sound like a phrase a stalker would say. The fuck am I on about?

“Ahh…now that you mention it, I didn’t tell you about it, did I? I am a member of the basketball club. What about you?”

“Huh…it’s pretty surprising. Mine isn’t set in stone but I will probably join the literature club as a ghost member. Apparently, there’s only one member in it so it wouldn’t be too awkward for me as I am new here. I heard that he is also a ghost member so I get the room all for myself which is cool.”

“Are you serious!? You, joining a literature club!?”

She looked pretty shocked at my decision. Maybe, that room’s cursed or something. If that’s the case, I am straight yeeting out of that club…

“Umm…is something wrong with my decision? Don’t tell me that, the club’s infamous for some shady reason or something.”

“Hahah…its nothing like that. I just found your decision pretty strange. But to think that you would be afraid of ghosts…phff…”

“N-no, I am not scared of ghosts or anything like that. I really don’t wanna join any club tbh. But as it is mandatory in this school, I would rather choose something that wouldn’t make me stand out.”

“Well, our school is somewhat of a powerhouse in terms of extracurricular activities. So, to maintain that status, our school has made it mandatory to join clubs to keep the participants up. I don’t really get their logic but the results don’t lie.”

“Hmm…so is the school’s basketball team good?”

“Yeah, both the boys as well as the girl’s team are rock solid. Especially the boys, they are one of the favorites to win the inter high basketball tournament.”

“That means that you are pretty good at basketball then. It’s pretty amazing. Well, I can’t play basketball though…”

“What happened!? Injuries?”

“Yeah, something like that…” I answered but I was a bit confused. I said it referring my no experience in basketball but looks like she took it in another way. Well, it’s convenient for me.

“Are you alright now? You can always talk to me if anything is troubling you. It’s not good to keep your feelings bottled up.”

She looked extremely worried when she said those words. It was pretty obvious that she cared for me. I thought of explaining my situation but retracted myself thinking it would worry her more. I thought of words to reassure her worries but to no avail. So, I decided to speak from my heart…

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I am alright now so there’s no need for you to worry. But thank you, Uyehara-senpai. You are a pretty nice person.” I said as I smiled.

“If you say so then I am glad.”

She returned to her usual self, smiling and giggly. It looks like I was able to reassure her. We reached home and went our ways. She notified me that she would come by my house in about 15 min. I took a short shower and by the time I put on my clothes, I heard the doorbell. I rushed downstairs and opened the door. She was standing there wearing an apron over her white one piece, which looked pretty good on her. She came in and started fluttering around my house like a little bird which I found pretty cute.

“Ohh! So, this is your house. I thought it would be pretty messy for a guy just moving in but its cleaner than I thought. Good job.”

“Well, I tried my best. I tend to feel pretty uncomfortable seeing messy stuff so I prioritized clearing the mess first. There are still some card boxes left to unbox but other than that, it’s pretty neat,”

“hahaha…didn’t know you were a clean freak. Well, leaving that aside, can you tell me where your cooking utensils are? I can’t see them in the kitchen.”

“Oh, about the utensils, I think hmm…ahh got them, it was in this card box that I haven’t opened yet. *opens the box* Here you go.”

“Woah, they are brand new. Now just sit in the living room and wait for a while. I will cook you a delicious meal.”

“I will feel bad if you do all the work, can’t I help you with something? What dish are you thinking of cooking, senpai?”

“I got some lobsters and shrimps on sale today, had some rice home…so a seafood paella.”

“Ohh…but won’t it take a while to prepare?”

“Well, we have around three hours to work with before school, so its ok.” She said as she put up a thumps up sigh.

“If that’s the case then I am fine with it but I want to help you at least. Is there anything that a novice can help you with?”

“Hmm…I don’t think there is anything you can do other than cleaning the sea stuff and rinsing the rice.”

I was pretty disappointed at myself being trash at cooking but it just didn’t set right with me making her do all the work. Her tone was tilting towards ‘nope, you are of no need here.’ But when she started talking of things I could do, I immediately agreed to do it. Basically, I was grasping on straws here.

“I will do it.”

We started cooking. Well, I said ‘we’ but after I finished my stuff which took less than 5 minutes, I was just looking at her cooking and handing her stuff she needed. I felt kinda embarrassed being useless but it was quite a spectacle looking at her. She was precise with handling the ingredients. It was pretty amazing looking at various ingredients turning into a dish. I was so engrossed with the cooking aspect that I forgot that I was standing next to a knockout babe. I started to become conscious of her again when I bumped into her while trying to hand her the knife. She abruptly turned around, causing to bump into each other. I caught her by the arms as she lost her balance, leaning onto me. Well, it was all good and stuff but the shit started when her ample chest touched my abdomen. The soft feeling made me freak out causing the knife to slip out of my hands. She realized my reactions and backed off immediately. There was a brief moment of silence between the two of us who were reddened with embarrassment which was pretty awkward. I broke the silence by apologizing to her…

“It was my bad, sorry…”

“I-I don’t mind at all, it was actually my bad for turning around so suddenly…”

The conversation ended starting another length of awkward silence. It lasted for about 30 sec when she broke the silence…

“I-I will get the knife that slipped from your hand. You go sit on the living room and wait the preparation is almost complete. The only thing left now is to wait a while for it to be cooked.”

She rushed to pick up the knife. She bent over lazily to pick it up but it caused another accident. Her one piece was small enough to make her black panties flash in the open while bent. I caught a good peek at it making me red-faced. She picked up the knife and turned around but I was too ashamed to look at her directly. She gave a puzzled look at first but suddenly started blushing hard when she realized what she had done while covering her lower half with her hands. She gave me a sheepish grin while quickly turning over to the stove. I just meekly went over to the living room and turned to my phone to escape the situation. But it wasn’t over yet. After a while, she too came to the living room and sat right next to me…

“Umm, senpai. Are you done?”

“Oh, yeah. The only thing left is to let it cook for a while.”

“I see.”

The silence went for a while. I peeked at her but she was pitch red. My first thought was that she was just embarrassed about the incident earlier but I was wrong and she was sick and forcing herself to do all this. It would be pretty bad if it was the case so I asked her if she was fine. She replied positively which was assuring. As I prepared for another round of awkward silence, she meekly looked at me and started a conversation.

“Umm…did you see?”

She was being vague with the question but I understood it right away. I tried to answer it as straight as I could but failed miserably…

“N-no, I didn’t.”

Ohh shit! It showed on my face. She definitely knows that I am lying.

“You perv.”

“I am extremely sorry.”

*phone rings*

“It’s been 15 minutes already. Come, the food’s ready.”

“Ok, I will come.”

The whole paella was served on the dining table which looked extremely pleasing to the eyes. As I sat on the table, the aroma from the paella roused my hunger and I actually started watering. She realized me being dumb and gave a quick smirk. When she started serving me the dish, I looked at her in her attire and couldn’t help myself from imagining us as husband and wife preparing for the first meal of the day. I retorted myself for thinking dumb stuff and started eating. I took a big spoon of paella and chomped it and of course it was delicious. (Typically, I would explain the taste but got a poor man’s palate so can’t explain the experience of dishes) I was so focused on eating that I failed to realize that she was staring at me…

“Umm, is something wrong?”

“Is it good?”

“Yeah, its extremely delicious. You are incredible at cooking.” I answered with a big smile.

“I see.” She said as he started eating her part.

After we finished our meal, she started to wash the dishes but I insisted to do at least that much. She was persistent at first but realized that it was almost time for school and went home. I finished the dishes and prepared to go to school. I told her before leaving, not to wait for me if I was late but I had a strange hunch that she was waiting for me. I opened the door and as I expected she was waiting for me.

“Senpai, I told you not to wait for me earlier. Now you will also be late with me.”

“Its okay. Its kinda refreshing to be late once in a while. I thought you would be lonely going school so I waited for you. Be grateful.” She answered pumping her chest.

“Haa…Senpai, please don’t act proud breaking the school rules. Punctuality is one pf the most important school rules.”

“Huh…never thought you would be one of those uptight types. Leaving this subject aside, weren’t you gonna decide on the club and join it?

“Oh yeah! Now that you mention it, I forgot to submit my actual club registration form to my teacher. Maybe I will visit the club as well, see what it’s about.”

“So, you are set on joining the literature club then?”

“Yeah, probably. The teacher also recommended it to me and its not like I have interest joining some other club anyway. So, it works out for me.”

“Well, if you are ok with it then I am happy.”

“Speaking of clubs, the work with the club you were talking about yesterday, wasn’t it about basketball practice?”

“Yeah…our club president had arranged a scrimmage match with a good basketball team in central Tokyo next week so we were practicing for it.”

“Wait, then you skipped club today? Isn’t it bad news?”

“Huhuhu…you really don’t know anything, do you? Club activities are meant to be skipped.” She answered with a smug face.

“Please don’t make it sound cool, Senpai. Won’t your president be angry with you?”

“Well, its not like I am completely skipping practice. Our basketball practice starts after school activities normally but we are preparing extra as we are going to scrims. Also, it’s pretty uncomfortable to be sweaty during school hours so most don’t tend to go in the morning anyway. So, I am safe.”

“Hahaha…you are funny, Uyehara-senpai.”

“I don’t like being called by my last name. Call me Seira.”

“B-But…”

“No buts…Call me by my first name or I will be upset with you.” She stated as she started pouting.

It was quite embarrassing for me but couldn’t get myself to refuse her after seeing her cute pouting face.

“Ok, S-Seira-senpai”

“No senpai. Seira, just Seira.”

“Seira…”

“Good job, Eiji.”

My heart skipped a beat when I heard my name come out of her mouth. We reached school but there was no one outside as the classes had already begun. We bid goodbyes and I rushed for my classroom. It was uncomfortable being that guy who enters the classroom late but it was not as uncomfortable as yesterday. I quickly sat to my seat and found out that the seat next to mine was vacant. It was the seat of that girl who helped me yesterday. Maybe she was absent today. I hoped to at least thank her for helping me yesterday but can’t do when she ain’t here now, can we?

*bells rings*

The lunch break started. I bought some bread from the cafeteria and decided to visit my club during the break. My brother told me that it was in the old building on the third floor but I wasn’t sure on exactly where it was. I asked some teachers on the way and they helped me give directions. The club room was on the far left of the third floor so it was easy to identify. I went towards the room checked if it was the actual room. On the top of the door it said literature club, so I entered it expecting it to be empty. But to my surprise, there was someone in the room, reading a book beside the window. A silver haired beauty…

End