Miku's Thoughts

"You two have been waiting for a long time, please slow down."

After a while, the staff in white uniforms brought the plates.

"Thank you."

Naoki thanked it politely.

"A huge amount."

Seeing the volcanic beef piled up like a hill, Miku suddenly felt a little worried.

What should I do if I can't finish my food?

Would that be embarrassing?

"It's a lot less than the ramen Itsuki ate." Naoki took a pair of bamboo chopsticks, opened them, and gave them to Miku. He often eats out with Rin, and is used to taking care of others before eating, "Choppers."

"Itsuki is the king of eating, but I'm not."

Miku replied, picked up the chopsticks, then folded her arms, and whispered a pre-dinner statement: "Ittadakimasu."

Dinner officially started.

The restaurant's signature dish is the volcanic beef, which lives up to its name. At night, thin slices of beef are piled up to form a hill. The top is a liquid egg yolk that looks like a volcano, of course, there's no way a bowl full of beef, and the bottom is actually rice.

In addition, there was a bowl of miso soup, two small plates of condiments, mustard and cheese.

Naoki first used chopsticks to stir the beef over the 'volcano', then took the sliced beef mixed with the egg and put it in his mouth. The meat is very tender, the eggs are sticky, and the taste alone counteracts the fishy smell of the eggs. It tastes quite good, no wonder this food is very popular.

Miku took a piece of beef, lightly opened her pink lips and bit into it slightly, and as the aroma of cooking bloomed on the tip of her tongue, her face showed that the expression of a cat got dried fish.

Sure enough, you're a foodie too. You said that the five sisters are divided into five equals. It doesn't make sense that only Itsuki is a foodie. Now it seems that the foodie attributes of the four of you have been overshadowed by Itsuki's light!

Noticing Naoki's gaze, Miku immediately suppressed her expression and returned to her expressionless appearance. She stretched out her slender fingers to gently pinch the strands of hair that had fallen before her eyes behind her ears, revealing the round, beautiful auricles. Then she kicked Naoki lightly under the table and came furiously:

"Hurry up and eat."

Naoki quickly finished his meal, and even drank the miso soup, then poured a cup of tea and waited for Miku while drinking tea.

"Very fast." Miku widened her eyes.

"You are too slow." Naoki took a sip of his barley tea and replied, "If you show any enthusiasm for eating Itsuki's meat buns, you must have finished it."

"Itsuki again."

"Itsuki is politically correct."

"This is too much."

After Miku finished eating, the two of them left the restaurant after paying the bill, walked back to the door of the ramen restaurant, and looked inside together.

The eating competition is still ongoing, and the contestants have yet to decide on a winner or a loser. It was obvious to the naked eye that the huge bowls of ramen piled on top of each other had long since ceased to look the way they had before.

Itsuki sat in the crowd, from time to time she stretched out his middle finger and pushed the glasses at the bridge of his nose, without showing an expression of unbearable sadness. Obviously, the appetite is still there. Naoki had always felt there was only one real purpose for Itsuki to participate in the eating competition. —— That is eating a large bowl of ramen in an open and honest way.

Bonuses don't matter, and it's the happiest thing in the world to be able to eat a huge bowl of ramen openly and honestly.

...

The sky became completely dark.

After nightfall, the temperature dropped significantly. To avoid being caught by Itsuki, Naoki and Miku just stood on the corner and watched the ramen restaurant from afar.

A gust of cold wind blew, and Miku shivered slightly, slightly afraid of the cold.

Seeing Miku cold, with only three white fingertips remaining on her right hand, Naoki said casually, "Warm your hands."

"Eh?"

Miku raised her eyes and looked up. After blinking his eyes, a slight blush quickly emerged from his ears, secretly smearing all over his cheeks, she couldn't help but puff his cheeks: "Reckless Asakawa."

"What is wrong with me?" Naoki was confused.

"Warm hands..."

What is used for heating?

Miku immediately remembered the incident of being hugged by Naoki when she was avoiding the police. She doesn't have a pocket in his shirt, so he must want to use her hands to warm it up, right?

He actually asked seriously, how could such a thing be promised to you!

"Don't need something to warm your hands?"

"Don't want to."

Miku turned her face away.

"Just forget it." Naoki shrugged "I thought you'd like it."

"As..."

Her long eyelashes trembled slightly, and Miku only felt the temperature on her face rising rapidly, as if a fire was burning, her heart pounding in her chest, and a heartbeat clearly audible in her ears, and for a moment it was cold, the night became scorching hot.

(What is that reckless Asakawa talking about?)

(Are you confessing?)

(We've only known each other for a month, and suddenly saying something like that… This is really too reckless!)

Miku covered her chest with her right hand, but the memories in her mind started to appear. First met in the Sakura tree, he (Naoki) asked herself for contact information in the library, accidentally got lost, marshmallow, Gachapon samurai, playing games together. So it turns out that without realizing it, so many things happened.

"Then I bought it myself."

The voice in his ear woke Miku who had thought a thousand times.

"Hah?" Miku looked away in surprise and looked at Naoki blankly, "…What do you want to buy?"

"Of course I bought milk tea." Naoki heaved a sigh of relief. It was a cold April night, so he said of course, "There's a milk tea shop across the street. Buy a cup of milk tea, you can drink it and warm your hands."

Miku finally realized that she had misunderstood Naoki. His hobby just now was asking if she likes milk tea, not...

"Ugh-"

Miku puffed out her cheeks in embarrassment: "Stupid Asakawa!"

"Where am I stupid?"

"Just an idiot."

You five sisters don't even have passing grades, you are so shameless to say that other people are idiots, isn't your conscience hurt!

...

Naoki walked to the milk tea shop, turned around and saw Miku standing alone in the cold wind, holding her hands as if shaking, she couldn't help but sigh.

"Forget it, let's buy another one."

"Teachers are paid so much, I always feel ashamed."

Naoki bought two cups of milk tea, turned and walked back to Miku, and handed the milk tea in his hand to the girl: "Here, the shop is holding an event, buy one get one free."

Seeing the milk tea that was handed in front of her, an unspeakable warmth suddenly surged in Miku's heart, and the previous small worry disappeared immediately.

Miku reached out to take the milk tea, and held it in her palm.

Milk tea... so hot.

When the two finished drinking milk tea, the eating competition at the ramen restaurant finally ended.

Most people fail at challenges. After all, the eating competition is just a gimmick. If everyone could succeed in the challenge, the ramen restaurant would lose everything and close the business.

Among the more than a dozen passersby who participated in the challenge, only two won in the end, one was a stout middle-aged man, and the other was a glasses-wearing ahoge-haired girl.

Nakano Itsuki.

After a tragic fight, she manages to stand out from the crowd as a weak girl. Itsuki can proudly announce: From now on, I will not be a human!

"That big bowl was eaten."

Miku was taken aback.

"Very scary."

Itsuki is your own little sister, so suffice it to say that she's amazing right now!

"Itsuki will come out." Naoki looked at the girl who received the 30,000 yen challenge bonus at the ramen restaurant with a smile on it lips and a happy face, and reminded, "Let's hide, don't let Itsuki find out."

"En."

Miku nodded lightly, if Itsuki found out that he and Naoki were following, Itsuki would be displeased, no one likes to be followed, and she still participates in this kind of competition.

Naoki and Miku walked quietly to a corner with no one around. After a while, Itsuki, who had the label [King of Big Stomach Gold Medal] firmly attached, walked out of the ramen restaurant, walking quickly and in a good mood. The sadness of 'the girl leaned against the wall and walked away' made one wonder if she might have had another bowl.

"Itsuki is gone."

Naoki silently observed Itsuki from the corner of his eye, the ahoge had no anti-snooping sense, and walked away happily unconsciously.

"The direction should be to the train station." Naoki looked at Miku "Inquiry over, time to go home."

"Okay." Miku looked in the direction where Itsuki had disappeared, "Let's go home."

As long as Itsuki is not deceived by the middle-aged uncle, the eating competition… just keep it to heart, there's no need to say it.

In order to avoid meeting Itsuki on the way, the two took a detour, preparing to head to the next station to catch the train.

After walking for a while, Naoki suddenly noticed that Miku's speed was getting slower.

Seeing Miku frown slightly, Naoki couldn't help but ask, "Are you feeling unwell?"

Miku replied softly, "…My leg hurts a little."

The shoes on his feet weren't the ones she usually wore, but the new ones that Yotsuba had just bought. 'New shoes rub feet' is a common phenomenon. Usually Miku walks to the train station, takes the train, and goes home to play games, but today she found a strange Itsuki, and she walked a lot more than usual.

Actually, when she followed Itsuki, his heels were already sore, but Miku didn't say anything.

"It is very painful." Naoki said.

"???"

Naoki stopped walking "If it only hurt a little, you wouldn't say it at all."

Miku didn't need to argue, because what Naoki said was absolutely true.

Naoki reached out his hand to straighten his collar, and looked around. It just so happened that this was a residential area, and there wasn't even a convenience store around, so he couldn't even buy plaster.

There is no point in regretting, the important thing is to solve the problem.

Naoki quickly found the optimal solution.

"I will support you."

Miku raised her eyes in surprise: "Support me?"

"Stop talking, hurry up…" Naoki crouched down, "Otherwise you will take off your shoes and go alone."

"Don't want to."

If a girl took off her shoes and walked on the street barefoot, she would definitely be watched by others,.

"This is the only way to..."