7th Meal

Asahi Mahiru’s Friends

She is a freshman attending a private high school affiliated with Utatane University. She will be 16 years old this spring.

In general, she excels in five subjects: Japanese, mathematics, English, science, and social studies. She appears to be lacking in Home Economics.

Her favorite foods are delicious foods, and there is nothing she dislikes in particular.

On the other hand, she is a bit careless, and when she asked to live alone in the spring of the first year of junior high school, her parents were very opposed to the idea.

What was stated above was the rough profile of Asahi Mahiru.

She is a typical high school student who can be found anywhere. Despite the fact that she is a bit childish in comparison to other girls her age, many students find her pure side comforting.

Rather, she is a mascot-like girl who, simply by being present, makes the students feel at ease.

“Listen to this Hiyori-chan! I was invited by an Onii-san, who’s a college student, to come to his place after school today!”

“Buuugh!?”

—Then, one day at lunchtime. when such a bombshell statement came out of her mouth. her best friend since middle school, Kotsubaki Hiyori, almost spewed out the orange juice she was drinking because of it.

“A-Are you all right?” Worriedly asked by Mahiru. Hiyori then coughed for a while before slamming her desk and standing up to face her.

“W-W-What do you mean by that, Hima!? Are you really going to college students, I mean, a guy’s place!?”

“Ah, yep, That’s right?”

With a warm smile that was no different from her usual self, Mahiru nodded her head. However, this “Usual self” made Hiyori impatient.

“D-Did you have a college boyfriend!? I’ve never heard that from you!?”

She is probably one of the most popular girls in her class in terms of popularity among boys, and it would be a big scoop if she had found someone like that. Especially at Utatane High School, which is an integrated junior and senior high school, there would be more than a few boys who had been secretly in love with her during the three years of junior high school, not just in their current first-year high school class.

But even so, Hiyori, who had been taking it for granted that there was no way that the childish Mahiru could ever have a boyfriend, came up to her and asked her about it. Then Mahiru simply laughed and said, “N-No way, and it’s not like that~”

“There’s an Onii-san who lives to me next door, you know? Because of some things, I’ve been asked to teach me how to cook at his house.”

“How in the world did that happen…?”

Breathing a sigh of relief that she has not found a boyfriend or something. She then sits back in her chair and Hiyori continues to ask.

“I mean, who’s that college guy? What’s his name?”

“Name…? Oh, come to think of it, I’ve never heard it…”

“Haa!? You were going to go into the house of a man whose name you don’t even know! What would you do if he attacked you!?”

“I-It’s fine. He’s a kind Onii-san…and I’ve been in his place twice already.”

“You’ve already been there!? And did you just say twice!?”

This is more than just carelessness. It is outrageous for a high school girl to follow a stranger home, even more so for Mahiru who’s a good-looking girl. It would be more difficult to believe that the man had no malicious intentions.

“I’m not going to say anything bad about it, so don’t do it. You still want to have a beautiful body, don’t you?”

“I-It will be fine. I’m just asking him to teach me how to coo—”

“You’re so naive!”

“Uwa–!?”

Hiyori yelled as she crushed the box of orange juice, surprising Mahiru.

“What if he comes to you by force!? Isn’t it written in the Kojiki* that all men are wolves!?”

“Really!? S-Sorry, I’ve never read the Kojiki…”

“In any case, don’t do it! Going to a man’s house with a girl like you is like a duck carrying a leek and an earthenware pot on its back!*”

“B-But I’ve already made a promise…and Onii-san is a really nice guy…”

Perhaps not wanting to break a promise she made once, Mahiru, who would normally follow through with a promise if you ask him strongly enough, was insisting only today.

Or Is she really looking forward to what’s going to happen today? Thinking back, it seemed unusual for Mahiru to talk so happily about her after-school plans.

(Cooking, huh…Speaking of which, this girl, I’m sure…)

She remembers the food situation that she had heard about before.

“H-Hiyori-chan…?”

“…Well, I guess this can’t be help…”

Hiyori scratched the back of her head and proposed a compromise to Mahiru, who was looking up to her.

“I’ll go with you. If that’s okay with you, then you can do whatever you want.”