Chapter 9 Kitchen Aono and Homeroom Teacher's Wrath

Kitchen Aono and Homeroom Teacher’s Wrath

We made it out of the school and walked to my house, which was a ten-minute walk away.

Not far from the school, we took a short break to catch our breath.

“Ha-ha-ha. Are you okay?”

“Yes. As you can see, it’s hard to keep up with a man running at full speed.”

She slowly let go of the hand she was holding.

“It’s amazing that you can keep up with me.”

She’s smart and athletic, as they say. I have heard that she has been invited by several clubs to join theirs, but she has turned them all down. She has asked to join their team occasionally, which makes her a great ace for their team.

“No, but thank you for saying that.”

Our uniforms are getting dry from the sun. That’s good.

Then we unconsciously fixed each other’s messy hair.

“Then let’s go.”

“But, Senpai. You’re teasing me a little too much… Either you’re hopeless at explaining things, or you’re doing it on purpose. I don’t know.”

She puffed her cheeks slightly and complained.

“Maybe the first.”

That’s a lie. She’ll get the wrong idea if I choose the second.

“Liar.”

Of course, she didn’t believe me.

On the way, we laughed and joked with each other.

Well, after all that laughing, we arrived at our destination. We talked like old friends. Maybe it was because we had crossed the line of death together.

Kitchen Aono.

My parents’ house and a Western-style restaurant.

My father was a chef. He trained in a famous hotel and saved enough money to open his own restaurant in this area. He fell in love with my mother, who worked at the front desk of the hotel, and they opened a Western-style restaurant together.

My father prefers to cook home-style dishes rather than formal ones, and the restaurant’s specialties are simple dishes such as “omelet rice,” “hamburgers,” and “beef stew.”

Before he died of illness, he gave his secret recipe to my brother, who graduated from culinary school and now runs our restaurant. My mother helps him as a bookkeeper and waitress.

“I’m home.”

It was not yet 12 o’clock, so the restaurant was not crowded. This is an office district, so it gets pretty crowded around noon.

“Oh, welcome back. You’re back early.”

Mom greets me with a surprised look. People call her the “poster girl” because regardless of her age, she still looks pretty young. She looks like she is in her twenties, about half her real age. She is a waitress, so her hair is short and she wears light makeup.

“Hey, welcome back.”

I hear my brother’s voice from the back of the kitchen.

“I left early because I wasn’t feeling well. Then one of my juniors left early too, so I invited her to lunch.”

“Oh, really? Did you skip class? You’ve started doing that too. That’s okay. It’s going to get crowded soon, so use the rest area in the back. No, you don’t usually bring friends, so I’ll buy you a drink.”

Maybe my mom understood my story pretty well. I’ve been in a pretty bad state these past few days, so I guess she believes me.

“Ichijo-san. It’s okay.”

I called my junior who was waiting outside. Then she came in, looking a little nervous.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Ai Ichijo, and I’m Aono-senpai’s junior. Senpai has always helped me… I apologize for the sudden visit today.”

I was impressed by his formal speaking style, she’s like a different person.

My brother came out of the kitchen to greet Ichijo-san, but when he saw her, he froze in silence.

“Oh my, oh my….”

Both of them were probably surprised that I brought a pretty girl with me. Miyuki is a pretty girl as well, but….

Well, maybe my mother and my brother realized that I had broken up with Miyuki. Maybe they’ve found out since my birthday.

“Ah, um….”

Ichijo-san was nervous because they were silent for a while.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect Eiji to bring such a beautiful girl… Sorry for the dirty place. Take your time. Eat whatever you want.”

Miyuki’s PoV

Punishment for damaging property. The classroom was in an uproar when Sensei mentioned this.

“I have said it clearly, you smart people should understand. It’s about Aono’s desk.”

Eiji came out of the teacher’s mouth. My heart starts to race.

How much does he know? Maybe everything….

I was scared. I heard the sound of everything I had built being destroyed.

“I still don’t know who did it. But at least I know something happened because of the faint writing on the desk and Aono’s condition. Look, the desk that someone scribbled on is school property. It’s a public school, so I think the desk is public property, bought with your parents’ taxes. You broke it. That’s a crime. You studied in junior high school, right? That’s a crime.”

I was not directly involved in the scribbling. Still, I couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat.

“The culprit might say. “It was just a whim,” or “It was Aono’s fault.” But no matter what the reason, no one is allowed to write slanderous and libelous words on someone else’s desk. There’s no way you could make a death threat to a celebrity or YouTuber online, get arrested, and then make the same excuse and be forgiven, right?”

“…”

Takayanagi-sensei seems unmotivated, but his lessons are very easy to understand. I can tell that he studies a lot and has a good understanding of what’s popular among high school students, so his jokes are funny. But this is the first time he has shown fear as an adult. He’s usually a nice person, but when he gets angry, he becomes very scary. It’s the same thing. He gives us easy-to-understand examples to convey his anger.

“This is something that the culprit will have to pay for, for the rest of his life. Why don’t you understand that? We teachers will take this case seriously. Remember that!”