After that, first through fourth periods went by without incident. Morning classes finally wrapped up and it was lunch break.
It was my first day back, and I was already exhausted. By third period I had been counting down the minutes to lunch — needless to say.
“Okay. Usual spot, I guess.”
I’m a loner, so naturally I don’t have anyone to eat with. As a result, I generally spend lunch break somewhere outside the classroom. I used to eat alone in the classroom, openly, but the pitying looks I caught got too much to bear.
I grabbed the bread and juice I’d bought at the convenience store that morning, stood up, and headed for the courtyard. Eat lunch in the courtyard, then kill the rest of the break reading LNs in the library — that’s the usual flow.
“Yeah, this is the spot.”
It’s a hidden gem: nice scenery, almost no foot traffic. To borrow the words of the protagonist of a certain “youth rom-com is a lie” LN I used to read — this place is, for me, the best place.
I sat down on a low step and was just unwrapping the bread when I heard footsteps approaching slowly. I looked up — and there was Riona, holding a lunch box and a small bag with chopsticks in it.
“Ryouya. What are you doing all the way over here?”
“Oh, hey Riona. As you can see — eating alone.”
“Right. You’re a loner, so there’s no one to eat with.”
“And once again, you have casually delivered a critical hit to my soul. Cease and desist.”
The bigger question was why was Riona here in the first place? Could’ve just been a coincidence. While I was puzzling over it, Riona casually sat down next to me.
”…Uh, Riona-san? What are you up to?”
“Decided to have lunch here too.”
“Riona, you’ve got like a million people in your class you could eat with.”
I don’t know Riona’s exact social position in her class, but she’s almost certainly top-tier, same as Reona. Which means there’s zero benefit in her eating lunch with me.
If anything, being spotted with me — Mob Character B, dead last in the school caste — would actively hurt her standing.
“I’ve decided. And Nee-chan will be here soon too.”
“Wait — Reona’s coming too?!”
“Mm. She’s on her way.”
Riona said all this while tapping at her phone. As far as I knew Reona always ate with her usual classroom group — was it really okay for her to bail?
Then again, the class queen Reona deciding something is the class queen Reona deciding something. Hard to picture anyone pushing back. While I was thinking that, Reona arrived.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s eat.”
“Reona — Riona — you guys seriously want to eat here?”
“Of course.”
“Already decided.”
Reona was beaming and Riona was wearing her usual cool, unreadable expression. Yeah, no amount of objection is going to change anything.
Well, it’s not a high-traffic area, so the chances of getting seen are slim. I gave up and went back to opening my bread — and Reona stopped me.
“Oh — I made a lunch for you, Ryouya-kun, so you don’t need that bread.”
“What—!?”
“Nee-chan and I worked hard on it.”
I had assumed Riona had bumped into me by total coincidence and impulsively called Reona to make a three-person lunch happen. But if my lunch was already prepared, clearly that wasn’t it.
It looked very much like the two of them had been planning to eat with me from the start. Which raised an even bigger question: I’d never told anyone where I was eating lunch — how the hell did they know to come to this exact spot?
No matter how I turned it over, no answer came; if anything the mystery thickened.
“You’re really surprised, huh? That happy? Anyway, try it.”
“It tastes good. I guarantee it.”
”…Thanks.”
Lots of things felt off, but for the moment I accepted the lunch box from Reona. I lifted the lid, and inside were a hamburger steak, a rolled omelet, fried chicken, broccoli, and white rice. A simple-looking lunch, but it looked delicious. I started with a bite of the omelet.
“This is unbelievably good.”
“Right? I told you — it’s our masterpiece.”
“Nee-chan and I worked on it all morning.”
The omelet itself looked like a normal omelet, but the taste was startlingly good. Reona and Riona had the same dishes in their own lunch boxes. I worked my way through the rest.
“Yeah, everything’s amazing. …Just the ketchup on the hamburger steak has, like, an unusual taste to it — what’s up with that?”
“Ah, that’s because we added a hidden ingredient to the ketchup. Sorry — maybe it didn’t agree with you.”
“Sorry about that.”
“What’s the hidden ingredient?”
“That’s a family secret, so I can’t tell you.”
It had a faintly metallic, almost iron-like taste, and the mystery was bugging me, but they would not budge. The one hint they did offer was that “love is involved,” which only deepened my confusion. Filing it away.
The three of us chatted easily, and the box was empty before I knew it. I figured I’d wash the chopsticks and box and return them, so I went to take them.
“Oh, Riona and I will wash the chopsticks and box. You don’t need to bother, Ryouya-kun.”
“You guys made the food and you want to handle the dishes? That’s way too much.”
“It’s fine. We’re doing it.”
“If you insist that much, I’ll take you up on it.”
Why they were going so far out of their way I had no idea, but pressing further felt pointless, so I let it go.