According to my childhood friend, “When you can freely choose what you want to eat for lunch, you feel like you’ve stepped up a little,” apparently.

Well, that is true. After becoming a high school student, being able to request what goes into my lunch box or buy bread at the school store did make me feel just a little more grown-up.

Now then, as for my childhood friend Sakura Ayuri, who’s sort of an adult and sort of not and it’s hard to tell…

“It’s lunch! Everyone, gatherrr up!”

“W-wow~”

“Oh, Hina is eating with a different group today so she says she’s not coming.”

“…So much for everyone gathering!”

Lunch break.

Like always, Ayu came over noisily with her things in hand to the seats where me and Hojo Sumire-san sit.

Sumire-san sits behind me, so at lunch, it’s basically become the usual routine for Ayu and Hina to come over to our seats like this.

“Man~ as expected of Hina-chan, our strong-communication-skills, super-cute beauty~ she’s on a different level from gloomy otaku’s like us, totally different level.”

“I get me, but you two are gloomy?”

“Hey, could you not lump me and Sumire-san in with you?”

“Huh?”

“Huh, what do you mean ‘huh’?”

She’s rude right out of the gate in so many ways.

“Well, I mean… I’m basically… by society standards, I guess I’m kind of special… like, an anime and manga otaku, maybe?”

“…Yeah.”

“And Sumire-chan is… a novel otaku?”

“I-I’m not really at the level where I can call myself an otaku…”

“That’s what otakus always say.”

“So true… and Gin-chan is a game otaku.”

“I’m not at the level where I’d call myself that either.”

“That’s what otakus always say!”

Ayu called it out at the top of her lungs with a smug, got-you face. No, it’s because you keep cutting into my game time…

“So, did you have some business with Hina or something?”

“Today I bought something that could be like dessert in addition to my lunch, so I thought we could share… well, if Hina-chan isn’t here, let’s split it three ways.”

“Huh…”

“I thought so, you stopped by the convenience store on the way to school for once…”

While we talked, three lunch boxes, each different, were set on the desk.

By the way, Ayu leans toward being a light eater. Even so, she apparently wants to eat a lot of things, so she often uses sharing as an excuse like this and asks me and Hina to eat too.

“If you went out of your way to ask, it’s probably not a normal dessert… what did you buy?”

“This! Strawberry jam bread!”

“That’s just bread.”

“Well it’s sweet, so dessert… dessert, maybe?”

Thump, she placed the strawberry jam bread right in the middle of the desk.

It was a normal size, not especially big or small, but yeah, it might be a bit much for Ayu to eat on top of a lunch box.

“When I woke up this morning, I realized I haven’t eaten anything strawberry-flavored lately, you know? And once I thought that, I started craving it.”

“At the convenience store… weren’t there strawberry-flavored snacks and stuff?”

“I figured jam has a stronger strawberry feeling! And it’s reasonably cheap!”

“O-oh… I see…”

I get it if the reason is that convenience store sweets are expensive and it’s scary to leave them at room temperature until lunch, but still.

“Then you should’ve just not brought a lunch and made the bread your lunch.”

“They say, ‘Strike while the iron is hot,’ right? I got the idea when I left home and happened to pass by the convenience store.”

“Even if you got the idea, buying immediately on autopilot is not it.”

I don’t think whoever came up with that proverb meant you should act without thinking.

Anyway, it’s lunch time now. Even if it’s sweet bread, this is still kind of the dessert slot, so we should put it aside for now and start by eating our own lunches.

Pop.

“…Also, isn’t there no need to force yourself to eat it at lunch? You could take it home and eat it later, or make it tomorrow’s lunch.”

“W-what! That’s so mean, Gin-chan! My mouth is already a strawberry-jam-dessert mouth right now!?”

“Then tell me what you’re about to put in your mouth.”

“…A rice ball.”

“That doesn’t match at all.”

Even whether jam bread counts as dessert is questionable, and the pairing is just awful. Even a hungry teenage boy would probably think a little more than this.

“I can’t help it! I only found out what’s in my lunch just now!”

“You can usually assume lunch means rice. Do you think your mom is the type to pack sandwiches?”

“…Not at all!”

“Exactly. If you’d just bought candy, I would’ve happily taken some, you idiot.”

My lunch is rice too. Ayu chose this on her own, but why would I be the one forced to eat something with such a bad pairing?

“So you don’t want to eat it, Gin-chan?”

“Well, my lunch is rice too.”

“You have to eat lots if you want to grow bigger!”

“Yeah, eat a lot, Ayuri-san, who’s smaller than me.”

“…We have P.E. after this, I don’t want my stomach totally stuffed…”

“You’re beyond hopeless… if you can’t finish it now, why not eat it as an after-school snack?”

“Well… yeah, that’s true…”

If she’s insisting it’s dessert, that timing would actually fit better.

Though with Ayu, if she does that, I can already imagine her getting scolded at home for saying, “I can’t eat that much dinner!”

Anyway, either because she realized from my attitude that she couldn’t make me eat my share, or because she accepted my point, Ayu made a thinking face and then…

“Hmm… yeah. I’ll set this bread aside for now and think about what to do after school.”

She stopped trying to force herself to eat it. Well, if she really insisted, I could’ve eaten it, but if it comes down to stuffing herself uncomfortably, that’s better.

“Yeah, do that.”

“Okay, I’ll take it back for now… huh, where did it go?”

“What, it was right in the middle—”

Rip.

“Huh.”

“Huh?”

We heard the sound of a bag being opened. The two of us turned toward the sound and… it was Sumire-san opening Ayu’s jam bread.

“Sumire-chan?”

“…My lunch today was sandwiches, so… I thought I’d just take it first without worrying about pairings.”

“…W-well, if you weren’t listening to us, it can’t be helped.”

“I was listening, though…”

“You listened and still opened it!?”

Oh no, she’s more hardcore than I thought.

“If you’re both listening, do you want to hear the three reasons I opened it?”

“There are that many? I want to hear, I want to hear.”

“Then I’ll start with the first. I’m the type who takes what I can get, and I’m also the type who saves the best for last, so I wanted to eat my egg sandwich at the end…”

“Ah, that can’t be helped.”

Ayu was the one who said, “Let’s split it between the three of us!” anyway. Once she put it in the middle, when each person eats their share is up to them.

“Second… we haven’t known each other long, but Ayuri-san, you’re a light eater… right?”

“…You could say that.”

“So when I saw it turning into a situation where you wouldn’t eat it, I thought, ‘It might be funny if I open it and force you into having to eat it right now.’”

“That’s your reason!? You don’t have to do something like Gin-chan does!?”

That shocked even me. In such a short time, she read Ayu well enough to know she’d react in an entertaining way, and she actually went through with it. Is Sumire-san an amazing person?

“And the third reason is…”

“Third is?”

“…”

And she’s got a good sense of fun too. I thought her first impression was a shy type, but she’s actually pretty entertaining.

“…Do you want to hear it?”

“What!? Yes, tell me, tell me!”

“…Um, watching you and Ginoko-san banter so comfortably… I got jealous.”

“Ah… no way, that’s so cute!!”

Ayu is getting way too excited. And she’s way too easy. Did she forget in two seconds that this girl’s mischievousness just caused a problem?

“Ayu, Ayu.”

“Sumire-chan is so cute… huh, what is it, Gin-chan?”

“Eat the remaining two-thirds. Do your best.”

“Huh? Ah.”

With Sumire-san tearing off her portion, the jam bread was now two-thirds left. Since it’s jam inside, taking it home like this would definitely be a disaster for her bag, which meant she’d have no choice but to eat it right here.

“…You really won’t eat it, Gin-chan?”

“Hmm… honestly, if you said you really, really wanted me to, I might’ve eaten some.”

“…The way you’re saying that means…”

“After hearing Sumire-san’s second reason… I absolutely don’t want to! So good luuuck.”

“Gin-chan!!”

It’s not even that big, and two-thirds versus one-third doesn’t really change much, does it?

If this makes her stop bringing food under the excuse of sharing just because she wants to eat a bunch of things, that’s a win.

And so, Ayu, now without any allies, tearfully stuffed the bread she bought herself into her small stomach.

…And as for P.E. after that, seeing Ayu clutching her stomach and looking like she was suffering, me and Sumire-san both apologized, thinking we might’ve gone a bit too far.

We did at least warn her not to buy things she can’t finish herself, though.