The cultural festival was now just around the corner.
Although school had already let out, the Hoshimori sisters, integral members of the Go-Home Club, should have been making their way back to the shrine, especially since Ayane would be eager to catch her essential evening drama, which aired promptly.
However, Ayane had been roped into drama rehearsal, leaving Shion alone in the classroom, where she sat lost in thought, gazing idly at the clear blue afternoon sky and the pure white birds soaring past, basking in the balmy sunlight.
The girl pulled out her phone, swiping instinctively to open Instagram.
At the very top of her feed was a message from Shigure.
Shigure had taken the last day or two off, yet Shion had already messaged her about their class’s maid café for the cultural festival.
In return, she had received a flurry of adorable, embarrassed-looking stickers.
Yet, it felt less like embarrassment and more like social annihilation.
Shion shook her head, trying to banish the image of herself in a maid uniform from her mind, especially the heart-cutout one Ayane had picked out.
Bored, the girl slumped onto her desk and began searching: ‘How to make a delicious cup of coffee.’
She might have been coerced into the role of head maid, but a head maid who couldn’t even brew coffee would be an even greater social catastrophe.
Her head drooped onto the desk as she watched lines of text appear on her phone screen.
Terms like ‘grinding coffee beans,’ ‘filtering,’ ‘grinding’ again… they were all utterly foreign to her.
She understood absolutely nothing.
“Hoshimori-san!” A voice called out from beside her, and a vibrant splash of aquamarine appeared at the classroom’s back door.
Nanami, her face alight with a dazzling smile, waved a greeting to Shion.
With most of the other students having already left, Nanami confidently strode into the room.
“Hoshimori-san, are you heading to club activities? We could go together since it’s on the way, couldn’t we?”
“Who’s going with you? I’m in the Go-Home Club,” Shion snapped, feeling no need for formality with the boisterous, blue-haired girl who seemed equally adept at capsizing boats and speeding in cars.
“So, Go-Home Club members don’t participate in club activities, like, for instance, going home?” Nanami pressed on.
Shion shook her head.
“I’m waiting for my sister.
She’s at cultural festival rehearsal and will be a while.”
“What are you looking at? ‘How to make a delicious cup of coffee’?” Nanami leaned in close to Shion, scrutinizing her phone’s search screen.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Shion quickly turned off her screen.
“It’s rude to peek at someone else’s phone, you know.”
“We’ve already kissed, so what’s there to hide on your phone?” Nanami said with a laugh.
Shion’s face instantly flushed crimson.
‘Could she really just blurt out something like that so casually?’
“Don’t mention that! I’ll hit you, you know!”
“If you want to learn how to make coffee, I can teach you,” Nanami suddenly offered.
“Eh?!” Shion was utterly stunned.
“I’m in the Cooking Club, and I’m just about to head to club activities now.”
“What?!” Shion was even more dumbfounded.
Logically, Nanami’s boisterous and clumsy personality didn’t seem well-suited for cooking.
Heaven knew which steps she might skip, resulting in dishes vastly different from those pictured in cookbooks…
Yet, on second thought, while Rie was a gentle young lady, she couldn’t cook at all and was notoriously terrible at housework.
Hmm, Nanami cooking—it made perfect sense!
The Cooking Club itself wasn’t a large club, and with the cultural festival approaching, many classes needed to prepare food-related items.
Consequently, only two students were present in the clubroom today.
After greeting her two fellow club members, Nanami led Shion directly inside.
Despite not being a large club, it was fully equipped with all sorts of cooking tools and ingredients.
Several of the latest cooking machines adorned the tables, and the refrigerator was packed with ingredients.
“I brought this sea bream myself!” Nanami declared proudly, pointing to a large fish in the fridge.
“It’s absolutely delicious when sliced for sushi!”
“You didn’t just bring it because it wouldn’t sell, did you…?”
“Ah, you caught me…”
Nanami rummaged through the club’s refrigerator for a while before finally unearthing a can of coffee beans.
Though they had likely been refrigerated for some time, the packaging was covered in foreign script that Shion couldn’t decipher, and it didn’t even look like English.
This led Shion to believe the coffee beans were high-end, imported goods.
“Let’s try these first,” Nanami said, shaking the can of coffee beans in her hand.
With a forceful tug, she opened the lid and prepared to pour the beans directly into the coffee machine.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Shion snatched the can of coffee beans from Nanami’s hand.
“I’m worried you’ll spill them.
Besides, you haven’t even washed the coffee machine.”
“Huh? Does it need washing?”
Shion glared fiercely at Nanami.
“It’s a good thing I didn’t have dinner at your place that day, or would you not even wash the vegetables?”
“I-I was just kidding! I’m a veteran member of the Cooking Club!”
“Club recruitment only started half a month ago,” Shion retorted, her words merciless.
Once the coffee machine was prepared, Nanami retrieved the coffee beans again.
With Shion supervising her closely, Nanami carefully loaded the coffee beans into the machine.
Though they had likely been refrigerated for some time, the beans still carried the faint, fresh aroma of distant island fruits and foliage.
“Inoue-san, I’m about to start the coffee machine!” Before activating it, Nanami specifically called out to the girl still cooking on the other side of the clubroom.
The girl, addressed as Inoue-san, acknowledged her with a reply and then switched off her induction cooker.
Shion stared, utterly bewildered.
‘Why would starting a coffee machine require…’
As Shion pondered this, Nanami pressed the coffee machine’s switch.
The coffee machine roared to life with a tremendous din, its terrifying vibrations causing the table to tremble and the clubroom lights to flicker.
“Th-th-this… is it an earthquake…?” Shion exclaimed, staring at the terrifying commotion, almost wanting to dive under the table for cover.
Nanami grabbed Shion’s hand.
“It’s just that the coffee machine has a really high power output!”
Nanami’s hand was still remarkably strong and warm, feeling exactly as it had when she pulled Shion from the sea.
Held by Nanami, Shion gradually calmed down from her initial panic.
“D-don’t hold my hand like that! I’m not a child anymore,” Shion muttered, her face flushed, trying to pull her hand free from Nanami’s grip.
“What?! What did you say?!” Nanami shouted, her voice barely audible over the coffee machine’s booming grinding sound.
Not only that, but her grip tightened, as if she had no intention of letting Shion go.
‘Damn it! Kazama Nanami, are you deaf?! It was the same last time on her motorcycle; Shion had almost thrown up, and Nanami hadn’t heard a thing.’
“F-fine… you can hold it for a bit,” Shion mumbled, turning her face away.
“Then I won’t be shy.”
Shion turned her head, meeting Nanami’s mischievous grin.
“I-I-I… I’m going to flatten you, you hear me!!!”