TSIINGAC Chapter 1

I happened to see her in town during spring break between my freshman and sophomore year of high school.

That day I had gone shopping downtown and was walking my usual path toward home in the evening.

Instead of taking the regular street from the nearest station, I walked home along a narrow pedestrian-only promenade along the banks of a small river.

From there, I cross a narrow pedestrian bridge and walk along a residential street for a while to my house.

That is my usual way home.

I like this route because there are few pedestrians on the street, and I can enjoy the view of the trees planted along the promenade and the shining surface of the river.

When I reached the bridge, I saw a girl about my age standing in the middle of the bridge.

She was leaning her elbows on the bridge railing and staring at the sunset sky.

The place is not so crowded to begin with, so even the mere presence of a person there is enough to make me think, “Whoa!” But it was a beautiful girl, so I stopped in my tracks.

When I looked up at the bridge from the riverside promenade, the girl seemed completely oblivious to me and just stared single-mindedly at the sky, which was tinged with a madder red hue.

“Oh… that’s…”

The reddish face, illuminated by the setting sun, is certainly one I recognize.

Haruno Hinata was in the same class as me in the first year of high school.

She is the most… beautiful girl in the same grade, or even the most beautiful girl in the school, and is a celebrity in our school, called “School Idol” by everyone.

I have heard that she wants to be a real idol in the future, not just a school idol.

And most people would say, “I bet. She’s beautiful enough to make it happen.” Her beauty is so outstanding at the school.

She has beautiful double eyes with long eyelashes and a clear nose.

Her face is small and cozy, with a flowing jawline.

Her beautiful chestnut-colored hair, which flutters silently in the wind.

Furthermore, her face, illuminated by the setting sun, was so beautiful that I could hardly believe it was from this world, even fantastical.

I involuntarily gulped and gazed at Haruno Hinata.

At school, I talk to a few people I’m close with, but I’m not good at being friendly with anyone… or it’s too much trouble.

I don’t think I’m a shy person, but it’s not in my nature to be affectionate.

She, on the other hand, is very popular because she is very sociable with everyone, has top grades, is an all-around athlete, sings and plays the piano very well, and is very popular.

The feeling of Takamine flower is so strong that even though we’re in the same class, I don’t feel like we live in the same world.

So, even though I haven’t talked to her for a year, her beautiful appearance is still burned into my mind.

But…

The beauty I see in her now is the same as I have seen many times before.

However, the expression on her face filled my heart with an indescribable sense of discomfort.

Her eyebrows are furrowed, and her mouth is set in a tight line.

She even seems to be slightly distressed.

Whenever I see her at school, she never fails to smile in a way that brightens up the world around her when she interacts with others.

Even when she is alone or taking a class seriously, she has a calm and soft face, with a neat and gentle smile.

I have never seen such a pained… or distressed look in the year we have been in class together.

“Could it be…”

I wonder if she’s planning to throw himself into the river.

That thought suddenly crossed my mind, and just as I was about to run toward the bridge…

Haruno turned around and walked with steady steps to the other side of the bridge.

I was relieved to see that she had not committed suicide.

Well, when I thought about it, I could see no reason for someone so gifted to commit suicide, and she didn’t seem to have that tragic a look on her face.

But I saw her at school, and she really lived up to the name of “Idol,” and she always had a smile on her face…

I stood there for a while, thinking about Haruno Hinata, but then I came back to myself.

“Oh, no. If I don’t get home soon, my mom is going to yell at me!”

I have been working part-time once a week as an instructor at my mother’s cooking school since about three months ago, during the winter break of my first year of high school.

Today was the day I started that part-time job, and I promised my mother that I would be home in time for the “trial course” that started at 5:00 pm.

Today’s course is for very beginners, and it is a trial course before officially entering the cooking class.

After the trial, if they like it, they will be officially enrolled in the class.

I looked at my phone and saw that it was already 20 minutes before the class started.

I had to hurry home.

Well, there was no point in thinking about Haruno.

She and I live in different worlds.

I don’t have a chance to talk to her anyway, and it’s like seeing a TV idol on the street by chance.

Even if that idol has a problem, it’s no use for me, an ordinary person, to worry about it.

─ ─ Thinking this, I hurried home.

 

Arriving home, I opened the front door and went inside.

Then, in my room on the second floor, I changed into my cooking class instructor’s clothes.

I put on a white top and bottom outfit like a Western cook, called a cook’s coat, and do my hair.

Normally, my hair is always shaggy and my bangs are so long that I can’t see my eyes because it’s too much trouble.

However, my mother told me that cleanliness is important for a cooking class instructor, so I make sure to keep my hair neatly coiffed with a hairdressing product and my bangs up only when I am teaching.

I finished my preparations and went downstairs.

Then headed for the room for the cooking class.

My mother’s cooking class is held in a room that has been converted from part of the detached house.

The classroom is just below my room, and there is an entrance door for students to enter from the street, but there is also a door to enter the classroom directly from home.

I took one deep breath just before that door.

I like cooking, and I don’t mind teaching others how to cook.

However, most of the students are women, and it is very uncomfortable for me to be alone among them.

Many women like to talk, and it’s impossible for me to keep the conversation going.

Three months after I started my part-time teaching job, that has not changed at all.

So I take a deep breath to calm down and open the door to the cooking class.

“Hey, Yuya! You’re late!”

My mother, wearing an apron, wrinkled her brow and glared at me when she saw me.

She was waving a clipboard in her hand.

“Sorry, sorry.”

My mother’s eyes aren’t that serious, so she doesn’t seem to be furious.

Looking around the classroom, I see the usual scene.

Unlike a large cooking school, this is a cozy room with only five or six students at a time at most.

In the front is the kitchen table for the instructor.

Above it, a large mirror is mounted on the ceiling at an angle so that the students can see the instructor’s hands clearly.

In the center of the room is a large rectangular cooking table for the students to prepare food.

It has two sinks for washing dishes.

Next to the cooking table stood my mother with a clipboard and a mechanical pencil in her hands.

─ ─ Four students today?

My mother shouted at me, and all the students turned their heads in my direction.

Among them…

Haruno Hinata’s figure was there.