10 It's called sarcasm, silly

"Welcome back, Seki. Oh, Kasumi-san, you're here too."

As they opened the front door, Seki's dad greeted them.

"G-Good afternoon, Hiromata-san."

[A.N. - Eru is talking to the dad 'cause Hiromata is their surname.]

"There's four Hiromatas in this household, y'know. You can just call me by my first name, Tadashi."

"I-I see. I'll be in your care, Tadashi-san."

They went inside and Seki's mom was sitting down on the couch, reading a book. She was about to greet Seki but when she saw Eru, her face crumple slightly.

"We're back, mom."

Seki simply waved at his mom and brought all the ingredients they bought to the kitchen. Eru did a quick bow and followed Seki's trail.

"Why are you here again, Kasumi-kun?"

Suddenly, the mom spoke causing Eru to be startled.

"U-Um, I- Well..."

"I asked her to be here, mom. She told me she was bad at cooking so I begged her to let me teach her."

"I refuse. Please leave now."

"Mom, you can't just kick her out."

"Yes I can. I demand you to leave because this is my houth—"

...

She bit her tongue.

"Pft."

Watching such an embarrassing sight, Seki couldn't help but laugh at her mother's blunder. Naturally, her mom started fidgeting all over.

"F-Fine, since Seki insists, I'll let it slide this time. I'm going out for a smoke!"

"Mom, please, you love your body too much. Heck you don't even drink coffee, let alone smoke cigarettes."

"Sh-Shut up!"

She dashed out of the house pouting and blushing.

"Y-Your mom seems to be quite lively despite, huh."

"Yeah, she may seem grumpy but she's very kind. She's straightforward but not honest with herself. I think calling her a 'tsundere' in this situation isn't a stretch."

"I know, right? When we were younger, every time I compliment her, she smacks me right on the nose."

Suddenly, Tadashi joined in the conversation.

"She really pretty. I bet you had a lot of rivals back then, Tadashi-san."

"Yeah, yeah! A lot of guys surrounded him when we were in highschool and college."

"And from all those men, I'm still surprised mom chose you, dad."

"Oi, why can't you appreciate the charm of the man who gave birth to you?"

"When the heck did you give birth to me?"

Tadashi clicked his tongue and started walking away.

"Tch. I'll go follow your mom, you two better not do indecent things while we're gone."

"It's not like we can do anything since Seiji's here."

Seki pointed at his younger brother who was playing video games at the console. Tadashi nodded and left.

'D-Does that mean he WILL do indecent things if Seiji-kun wasn't here?! What is he planning? Am I in danger? No, Hiromata-kun wouldn't do such things. But still, a teenage boy's thirst for lust is incredibly high! What will I do if he makes a move? What do I do if I bear a child?! I'm not ready for such a heavy responsibility! I'll be so stressed that I won't be able to take care of the kid. Then he'll grow into one of those serial killers, or he'll be a gang member, or even worse, a guy that keeps insulting random animes and shows even though he only watches through pirating sites!"

Eru was exposed to such thoughts.

"Hiromata-kun, you and Tadashi-san seem to fight a lot."

Eru strikes a conversation to distract her from her incredibly morbid thoughts since she felt that if she continued to entertain them, she'll end up losing her mind.

"I wouldn't really, call it 'fighting'. I think it's more like 'childish quarreling' since all those arguments weren't inspired by hate but was simple teasing instead."

Seki responds nonchalantly as he prepared the utensils and ingredients in the kitchen.

"Anyway, we should start cooking or else you'll end up going home late, Kasumi-san."

"A-Alright. Where should we start, Hiromata-kun?"

"First, we let's cut the potatoes, carrots and onions."

As soon as Seki grabbed the knife, Eru walked a few distance back.

"Oi, I'm not a bloodthirsty psychopath, you know. Just because I cut myself doesn't mean I'll stab you."

Eru carefully approached him as if he was a rabid animal and Seki handed the knife to her.

"Have you ever handled a knife before, Kasumi-san?"

"Well, other than that time where we fought for our lives in elementary school, no, not really."

"I see, that's too ba— Wait, did I hear that right?"

"What do you mean?"

"The part when you literally mentioned about a real life 'The Purge' experience in your statement."

"Fufufu, how naive, Hiromata-kun. It's called sarcasm, silly!

Eru simply laughed.

"U-Uhm, Kasumi-san. Why do I feel like you just learned about the word 'sarcasm' quite recently."

"Eh? How did you know?"

"I don't think you get how to properly use it. But to save you from the embarrassment, I'm simply going to ignore your incredibly morbid statement."

Eru tilted her head slightly, unaware of the sentence she just said that would have scared off a number, if not all of the people around her.

They continued to prepare the curry step by step. Surprisingly, Eru managed to pull off on cutting the vegetables. She struggled a bit but with Seki's help, she was able to do it with no problems.

"I've already prepared the meat and other ingredients, Kasumi-san. Now it's time to put them all in a pot."

Seki handed all the ingredients to Eru and asked her to put them all inside the pot carefully. The broth and water was already inside it so she was hesitating on putting the ingredients inside. She grabbed the pot lid and held it in front of her, as if the lid was being used as a shield.

"K-Kasumi-san, it's not like you're frying anything. Simply putting the ingredients inside the pot won't make the hot broth and water splash on you so you can put down the lid."

"I-I see."

Eru struggled and hesitated a bit since she was afraid of injuring herself but with sheer willpower (and using Seki as a living meat shield from the non-existent splashing), she was able to pull it off. They continued to finish making the curry until it was finally done.

"Alright, we're done! I can't believe cooking can be this exhausting. And you're saying that you do this everyday, Hiromata-kun?!"

"Well, I don't really take fifteen minutes before putting a single ingredient inside the pot so it's a lot easier."

"Oi! Give the beginner some credit, will you?"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding."

As Eru pouted, a question suddenly popped into her head.

"So how does the curry taste?"

She approached Seki who was taking a small spoon of curry that they cooked.

"Pretty good"

He complimented as he gave a thumbs up to Eru who was celebrating quite merrily.

"Alright! Does that mean I will be able to cook really soon?"

"Nope!"

"Eh..."

Eru sighed in a dejected tone.

"You were surprisingly good handling the knife but it took you way too much time on the pot. If you do it for too long, it'll turn out pretty bad, y'know."

Seki continued to point out Eru's blunders. As she heard these things, she felt quite discouraged and sad.

"But..."

As she was slightly moping, Eru felt a hand touch her head.

"That's why I'm here to teach you, right?"

Seki smiled quite wholesomely as he continued patting her head.

With such a sight, Eru's cheeks were slightly, just a tad bit faint to be noticed, tainted red.