Book 4: Chapter 13: 28th of September (Monday) – Asamura Yuuta
The rumbling sound of the A/C was a lot quieter than yesterday. It’s probably because of the temperature going down day by day, but by the time I actually notice the seasons changing, it always seems that it happens on one day. That Monday, my old man left the house earlier than usual. He still had a mountain’s worth of work waiting for him, so he left early without even eating breakfast. Akiko-san herself had yet to come home from work, which meant it was just Ayase-san and I. With high expectations, I opened up the rice cooker that morning and let out a voice of admiration.
“Woah, that looks delicious.”
A pleasant sweet scent drifted upwards, and I saw small yellow pearls swimming in the sea of white rice. Are these small yellow fragments possibly…?
“We’ll be having chestnut rice today.” Ayase-san turned around while warming up the miso soup.
“Chestnut… I see, it’s that season already.”
This was yet another small but significant change. These kinds of changes pile up, influencing your perception until you finally realize that the season has changed.
“I was thinking of eating breakfast together today. Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
Since it felt like Ayase-san had been avoiding me a lot lately, I was surprised to hear that response. However, I also felt the same, so I was more than happy to. Not to mention that there was something I wanted to talk about anyway. So we prepared everything for our first breakfast together after a long break and put our hands together.