Chapter 13 Final Part: Because, I love you Hori-san

POV Katsura

Suddenly, everything makes sense, a chance encounter into the life of Hori-san, but it feels like all my life I had been building up for this. I was never trained with pious nature, but suddenly I felt like thanking God, for giving me this wonderful life. All that torture, lying, manipulations were worth it.

I go back to chopping radishes, Hori san and the others sit behind me on the dining table playing a game of Uno. I take a sideways look at them. My family…

I chop the radishes and go for some carrots and onions, I carefully chop them into pieces and toss them in the pot, I break a few eggs and make a batter out of them for Souta's omelette rice.

I dice the chicken, carefully taking out the bones, for Yuuna san, Hori sans stew was probably the easiest to prepare. I decide to make a little bit of extra for everything for Yuriko san since I didn't know what she liked. I put up the stew and chicken on two different ovens and start up the rice cooker, filling it up with rice. I feel piercing gazes on my back and I look back. Hori san and the others are staring at me stopping their game.

"Nii-san, you look like the people on tv, when they are cooking" Yuuna says.

"Yeah, Zura, you are working like a professional cook, you know?"

I blush. "Well, its all thanks to my training, the least I could do is put it to some good use"

I walk up to the oven and remove the lids of the stews, to check how much they were cooked, they smelled really nice, Hori san and the others were almost drooling behind me. Precious...

"Nii-san, it smells delicious" Souta says excitedly

"Yeah" I nod. "I worked hard on it" I say.

After a while I was done. I serve it on the table, and I am impressed at my own handiwork. "It looks delicious" Hori san says.

I serve them their respective choices and myself take some of the stew I made for Hori san.

"Thanks for the food" we all pray.

The food was good. Everyone seemed to like it

"Nii-san its delicious" Souta says, gleefully, Yuuna nods in approval.

"Seriously, Zura, is there something you cant do?" Hori san asks exasperated.

I was liking the praises; I have been hardly praised in my life and now when the floodgates were open I liked it.

Suddenly, the doorbell rings. Everyone looks up from the food.

"It must be mom" Hori san says.

"I'll go check" I say getting up.

Sure, it is Yoriko san at the door. She is a bit surprised seeing me at the hour, but she is quick to hide it.

"Ah, Katsura kun, it's a pleasure to see you" she says, coming inside.

"Wow, something smells delicious, did you guys, order something" she says.

I blush. "I just tried my hand at cooking a bit" I say. By this time, Hori san and the others have come out to greet her.

"Mom" Souta exclaims running towards her and giving her a hug.

"Oh. Yuuna chan is here too" She says noticing her. "Your mother working late too?" She asks.

Yuuna gives a polite nod.

"Mom, would you like to eat first or take a bath" Hori san asks. Yoriko san thinks for a moment.

"A bath would be nice" she says thinking out loud. I had already prepped the tub, so I asked her to use that. Even if she was surprised about why I did that, she doesn't ask me anything about it.

While she is in, the doorbell rings again, this time its Yuuna's mother. She has the same bright red hair as her daughter, she would be pretty, but she had clear lines of overwork on her face, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She looked at me surprised for a moment. Quite natural, an unfamiliar person, she double checks the house to see if she had somehow mistaken, but then she spots Yuuna behind me. She looked relieved. Yuuna hugs her mother too. Just like Souta.

Hori san comes near the door, clearly to clean up all confusions. "He is my friend from school" she says naturally. Friend. Saves up a lot of explanation for now…

Yuuna's mother nods a hello at me. Suddenly a thought strikes my mind, a bit too imposing fior an outsider like me but I can't seem to help myself.

"Excuse me, sorry to impose, but would you like to join us for dinner ?" I ask.

"That's kind of you, but I think it's quite late, we should go home." She replies

"Then please wait a moment" I rush back in.

I take out some containers from the cupboards and pack some of the chicken in. I had made extras anyways. I pack it in a bag and hand it to her. "Please, take this, there is some food in it, I hope you like it" I say. I didn't want her cooking this late at night. She looks at me astonished for a moment. "What a nice fellow….. Thank you very much" she bows. Then they both turn away and leave, I could see Yuuna waving at me Souta and Hori san. We wave back. After they leave, I see Hori san staring at me *STARE*

"Did I do something wrong?" I ask, suddenly nervous. She shakes her head both ways. "You are really a nice person Zura" she says smiling.

"Where did that come from ?" I ask confused. She doesn't reply, but goes back inside, I follow her.