Life In The Reverse World

Coming back to his senses, he looked around and realized he was standing with Ayaka on a wide lawn. Beneath cherry trees scattered like stars, picnic blankets covered the ground, occupied by couples on dates and groups sharing meals.

By May, cherry blossom season in Japan was already nearing its end. Most people were taking advantage of Golden Week to gather in major parks with family, friends, or girlfriends.

Hanami(flower watching) picnics could be considered a spring tradition.

“Uh… where are we?”

“Kitanomaru Park!”

Ayaka pulled a picnic blanket out of her light-blue square WN ZANDL bag, shook it open, and spread it on the spot.

“You didn’t seriously spend the entire walk… thinking about what happened earlier, did you?!”

Even though she’d been the one to initiate the kiss, remembering it afterward still made her unbearably shy.

Humans were strange creatures, often doing things in the heat of the moment that even they couldn’t believe afterward.

“Mm… I was just savoring the lemon flavor from back then.”

He thought to himself that she’d even eaten breath mints before leaving, this girl was way too cunning.

Ayaka must have planned it all along, catching him completely off guard.

“You actually said it out loud… Harutaki, you’re seriously gross…”

She shot him a look of disgust, then seemed to think of something. The drooping corners of her mouth curled into a faint smile.

“Harutaki, don’t tell me that was your first kiss? It’s fine, I get it, virgin boys are all like that, ”

Like you’re so experienced!

“Then what about you, Ayaka? Wasn’t it your first?”

He cut straight through her mockery and tossed the question back, just like she’d done to him on the Ferris wheel.

“I, I, I mean of course it was my first…!”

Ayaka immediately snapped back like a startled cat, but quickly noticed the strange looks people nearby were giving her. Her face flushed bright red in an instant.

Right now, Ayaka really wanted to slap herself hard,

And give that baka aniki a couple of punches too!

What the heck, asking a girl something like that, so indecent.

Grumbling nonstop about Harutaki in her heart, she pulled out a bento box from her square bag and placed it in the center of the red-and-white checkered picnic blanket.

“Huh? Are we eating lunch?”

Seeing the puzzled look on Harutaki’s face, she couldn’t help but let out a small sigh.

You’re only realizing it now?

“Of course we’re eating.”

“But it’s only a bit past eleven, right…?”

Harutaki took out his phone and checked the time.

“11:21. Eating lunch now feels kind of early, and— ” After hesitating a moment, he continued, “-- shouldn’t a date be at a Western restaurant, a café, or a nicer place?”

That wasn’t wrong…

“Why not a picnic? Look around, lots of people have already started eating!”

Of course she knew about restaurants, cafés, places with a nice atmosphere and reasonable prices. But… this was their date, hers, Hoshikawa Ayaka’s, with him. Being a little selfish was okay, right?

Like brother and sister.

Like a long-time couple.

Like a close-knit family,

Sitting beneath cherry trees in full spring bloom, pink and white petals drifting down, leaning against each other with cups in hand, feeding each other…

Even if only as family, she’d always wanted to experience a hanami picnic like in the dramas.

Still, she thought guiltily: sorry, Chiaki and Fuyuno.

She’d sacrificed so much before, so wasn’t it only fair for her to claim Harutaki a bit more now?

……

Creak.

Rubbing her stomach, Fuyuno opened the fridge to look for something to eat, and immediately spotted the bento box placed in the most obvious spot.

Standing on tiptoe with some effort, she carried it to the kitchen counter and curiously lifted the lid,

“Oh no… zako Harutaki is definitely about to get devoured by Aya-nee…”

Looking at the unprecedentedly exquisite dishes inside the box, and thinking about how her sister Ayaka had gone out with big brother Harutaki, her mind instantly ran wild with highly plausible developments.

“Chiaki, lunch is ready!”

After microwaving Ayaka’s carefully prepared deluxe bento, she stuffed food into her mouth in a foul mood, indignantly complaining in her heart about Ayaka sneaking a bite first.

She’d made her move first!

The one to take zako Harutaki’s first time should’ve been her!

The one to corrupt zako Harutaki had to be Hoshikawa Fuyuno!

Otherwise… the joy she’d feel when her revenge plan succeeded would be greatly diminished…

Still, seeing that the dishes looked fairly ordinary, she felt a bit relieved. If there’d been red bean rice, she’d have stormed out immediately to sabotage those two “lovebirds.”

“Mmgh…”

It’s so good!

For the first time in years, she was eating something Ayaka had made that was this delicious.

Ayaka’s cooking clearly wasn’t bad, so why had it always just been curry and udon before?

…

Like emerald jade, a vivid green wakame salad; classic, adorable octopus sausages; four triangular rice balls wrapped in nori; diced beef lightly charred on the outside, yet showing a faint pink at the cut; golden-fried shrimp tempura and okra tempura arranged upright side by side; and tamagoyaki with a slightly wrinkled surface, laid over two rolls of darker-colored inari tofu, all drizzled with a deep-hued sauce, whether teriyaki or soy sauce, it was hard to tell…

“This one is…?”

Harutaki swallowed, suppressing his instinct to dig in, wanting to treat this lunch bento, so carefully prepared by his sister Ayaka, with proper seriousness.

Just as high-end restaurants, even Michelin-starred ones, introduced each dish when serving it, he believed that understanding and savoring the food attentively was a form of respect toward the cook.

“Chilled tofu.”

“And this?”

“Pickled daikon.”

“And this is… salt-pickled cucumber?”

“Mhm… there’s also minced onion inside.”

As she spoke, Ayaka gripped both sides of the bento box and lifted it up, separating it into two layers.

“I was worried you’d eat like a bottomless pit and still not be full, so there’s beef bowl rice underneath too.”

“Ohhh, that thoughtfulness really is you, Ayaka. But worrying about me not being full is enough, the ‘bottomless pit’ part was unnecessary.”

He smiled on the surface, but inwardly he felt even more troubled,

Thinking back, even the dishes she’d made for everyone before had been delicious, yet this bento was on a completely different level. The weight of feeling packed into it was something he wasn’t sure he could bear.

“By the way, what about Chiaki and Fuyuno…?”

“I left the leftover trimmings in the fridge for them.”

“Leftover trimmings” sounded a bit too pitiful, he almost laughed the moment he heard it.

Chiaki really had it rough. As for Fuyuno…?

Wouldn’t she be overjoyed, happily eating the scraps from the bento made for her trashy big brother?

“Here, chopsticks, and miso soup too.”

Ayaka took out a pair of chopsticks from a fabric pouch shaped like a sword scabbard and handed them over. Then she pulled out a thermos from her square bag, the kind whose lid could double as a small bowl. Very practical.

But that was when he noticed something off.

“Chopsticks… there’s only one pair?”

Don’t tell me you forgot them!

With how carefully the bento had been prepared, he absolutely didn’t believe she’d “accidentally” brought only one set of utensils.

This was practically Sima Zhao’s intentions, plain for all to see.

(The ulterior motive is so blatant that anyone can see it.)

“Th-this is part of date practice!”

She stammered out an excuse, but her flustered expression had zero persuasive power.

“Idiot Harutaki… anyway, remember this! When you buy drinks, you should only keep one straw. When you buy desserts, just one fork. That way you can get closer to a girl by feeding each other!”

Really? He didn’t buy it.

“I think you’d just get called a creepy pervert.”

He weakly complained about Ayaka’s dating advice. Even though he’d had plenty of playful moments with Nogami before, the nature of it was still different.

That said, he couldn’t help recalling that noon, Nogami feeding him with a look of utter disgust. The strange pleasure he’d felt then really was… subtle.

“Even though you really are a pervert and a lewd creep who tells gross jokes all the time… I, I won’t dislike you…”

I wasn’t asking how you felt!

This time, he didn’t even bother to complain. His sister Ayaka had completely devoured the “practice date” premise along with everything else.

“Fine.”

Holding the chopsticks, he pressed his palms together with her out of habit.

“‘Let’s eat.’”

“Here, Ayaka, you take the first bite. It’s your carefully prepared cooking, after all.”

As he spoke, he picked up a piece of pickled daikon and brought it to her lips.

“It’s for you…”

“I’d rather eat it with a beautiful girl’s saliva.”

Seeing her hesitate, he teased her with a joking tone, and immediately received an embarrassed, furious glare in return.

“Disgusting.”

Though she said that, Ayaka leaned forward and stuffed the daikon chunk, along with the front end of the chopsticks, straight into her mouth.

Wasn’t she supposed to carefully bite the radish off?

Just as Harutaki froze in surprise, Ayaka swiftly snatched the wooden chopsticks away, scooted over beside him, leaned against his shoulder, and picked up the second piece of daikon, offering it to him.

“Hmph. Now it’s your turn.”

“I’ll eat it, I’ll eat it…”

Using the same pair of chopsticks with his sister wasn’t a big deal, he comforted himself as he bit into the daikon.

Crunch, crunch.

Cool, sour, crisp, bursting with juice, an excellent appetizer.

“Next is tamagoyaki and inari.”

The moment she finished speaking, Ayaka took advantage of still having the chopsticks, quickly ate one piece of tamagoyaki herself, then picked up the remaining piece and brought it to his mouth.

“You can do that?!”

“Tch, idiot Harutaki. Didn’t see that coming, did you?”

Cheating like that, what a devious girl.

“Mmm… it probably tastes even better fresh off the pan.”

Cheating or not, he put on a reluctantly annoyed face and ate the tamagoyaki to make Ayaka happy.

Soft and fluffy, with a faint soy sauce aroma, but,

“Salty tamagoyaki? Ayaka, you’ve betrayed Kantō.”

“Well, you said before at breakfast that you preferred savory scrambled eggs…”

That casual complaint from his sister made his heart skip a beat.

Not only was she cheating during the feeding, now she was saying something like this to land a critical hit?!

Too much. He had to admit that if there were HP bars like in a game, that single blow had probably shaved off more than half his health.

“I didn’t expect you to remember that so clearly…”

Honestly, in his memories, only his parents were that attentive and considerate.

A girlfriend? Remembering to prepare a birthday surprise was already considered pretty good.

“I didn’t deliberately memorize it. A cook just has to pay attention to the customer’s tastes.”

Please don’t say such textbook tsundere lines, it’s too cute!

After that flurry of punches from Ayaka, he felt like another third of his HP had vanished. Two or three more hits like that, and he’d be completely KO’d.

“I get it, I get it. Anyway, let’s focus on eating for now.”

While he did enjoy seeing Nogami’s shy reactions when she was teased, most of the time he avoided exposing or joking at her expense. He was generally opposed to deriving pleasure from “tormenting” girls.

After all, he wasn’t someone with Nogami’s nasty, bullying personality.

And so, under the cherry blossom trees, watching petals drift down from time to time, the brother and sister shared the luxurious bento bite by bite until it was gone.

During lunch, the conspicuous pairing of a handsome guy and a beautiful girl easily drew plenty of attention. There was admiration, but also jealousy, and even an awkward scene where a guy stared at Ayaka for too long and got scolded by his girlfriend.

As for Harutaki, when he noticed boys sneaking glances their way, he simply lifted his arm and pulled Ayaka into an embrace, making her flush red as she complained for a good while. Still… imagining those guys being force-fed “public displays of affection,” grinding their molars in envy and jealousy, gave him double the pleasure.

“Right now, I’m Chiyoda’s number-one devoted romantic.”

“Tch. You’re obviously a scumbag, how dare you call yourself devoted…”

That made a certain image pop into his head,

Him with Shihou and Nogami in his arms, one holding a bowl of soup, the other feeding him with chopsticks…

This was bad. At that point, it wouldn’t just be the spectators grinding their molars, this “scumbag” would probably get his molars knocked out for real.

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