Chapter 32: Picnic

I did a taste test before plating and I think It turned out better than I expected. I made a pesto pasta which I've liked ever since I was a kid. It would really make me happy whenever my dad would cook it for us. I started plating and it looked really well. Yukino was reading my novel draft sitting by the chair close to my desk. 

"Lunch's up Yukino." 

"Already? I'm still reading." Yukino pouted.

"You can read it some other time." 

Yukino made her way to the table by the kitchen and I served her the food. 

"You'll be missing out on life if you won't be able to taste my pesto pasta. So eat lots okay?" 

Yukino nodded and tasted the dish.

"You're good! I think you're even better than me." 

"Heh? That's surprising." 

"Why? Haven't you tasted it before serving." 

"I meant your reaction." 

"What of it?" 

"You're always so competitive, so you, admitting a loss this easy seems too good to be true." 

"Just accept my compliment you idiot!" 

We enjoyed the lunch I prepared and Yukino insisted on doing the dishes, so I decided to prepare since we will be meeting the group an hour from now. 

"Are you wearing only that?" Asked Yukino.

"Why? Isn't this how I usually dress?" 

"Let me fix you. So.. What do we have here"

Yukino started looking into my wardrobe bringing out lots of clothes and placing them by the bed. She instructed me to try different clothes.

After a few minutes of trial and error- "There! You look good!" 

I ended up wearing gray trousers, a black oversized tee and a pair of sneakers. 

"There! Now put on this watch and the necklace I gave you." Yukino tied my hair back with a ponytail. "Now look in the mirror"

I followed her instructions and looked in the mirror and I was kind of surprised to see myself this way. For the first time in a while I thought that I looked fashionable. Like a different person. 

"Let's go and meet them." Said Yukino.

We went out of the apartment cleaning up before doing so. I handed her the helmet and we made our way to Inokashira Park using my motorcycle. 

"Do I really look okay?" Asked I.

"What? Can't hear you." 

"I SAID, DO I REALLY LOOK OKAY?" 

"Just trust me, caveman boyfriend!" 

W-what? A caveman? Isn't that an insult to her as well. Dating a caveman like me.

We arrived a little earlier than the others. I went out for a quick smoke as Yukino stood beside me the whole time.

"Do you think you'll be able to quit smoking?" 

"Do you want me to?" 

"Of course I do, it's bad for your health after all." 

"I'll try to, but it won't be easy so wait for a while." 

"Sure!" Yukino smiled at me.

Yukino sprayed her perfume on me to remove the smell of the cigarette sticking onto me. A few minutes later, the others arrived. 

"So Yukino is the one who will make you show up on time huh? I should've known." Said Shin. 

As they got closer and closer to us, the others started staring at me awkwardly looking surprised. 

"Who in the world are you?" Asked Haruto as the others nodded.

"Stop it!" Said I.

"I'm guessing that dating Yukino really is the best for you huh? It seems like your best parts are being drawn out by this lovely lady beside you." 

"O c'mon Shin, you know Aoi has the potential to be this good looking. Otherwise I wouldn't have fallen for him." Said Yukino as a joke while I was there, blushing from embarrassment as I was the main attraction of the group. 

"So? Let's find a good picnic spot then." Said Arata. And we went on our way.

I purposely cooked a lot of the pasta so that we could bring some and let the others taste it as well. The others also brought a basket which I assumed had food in it. I'm rather confident about Shin's cooking but what's bugging me is Arata, Kaito, and Haruto's cooking. I should probably set my expectations lower to not disappoint myself later.

We decided to have a picnic in the grass fields surrounded by trees placing a picnic blanket before sitting down. Too bad that we visited the place in January, the cherry blossoms during April would have been a real sight to see.

As we sat down and opened our baskets, the aroma of different dishes started to show. Shin's basket was filled with a sushi platter which looked really good. The others were surprised but I wasn't. I already knew that she's a good cook after all. Next up was Hina's basket, it was a variety of sandwiches that looked really delicious. It was well presented that it looked like it was glistening. 

And here comes the main event, the basket of the three who looked so identical, and it satisfied me that my expectations weren't let down. What's inside their baskets indeed surprised the girls, but in a way different from Hina and Shin. Their baskets contained Onigiri, a poorly made ones at that. 

"Are you guys serious?" Said Shin with a disgusted face that I found funny. 

"W-w-what?! We made this with love and effort! We spent all morning working on this!" Said the leader Haruto while Arata and Kaito nodded in agreement.

"C'mon Shin, praise their efforts haha" Said Yukino as we all laughed except for the three. 

Yukino opened our basket and boasted about my pasta as if she was the one who made it. The others were in awe.

"You're like newlyweds. Cooking together already." Said Hina. 

I'm just glad that this whole setup wasn't awkward. Knowing that I asked Hina out a while ago, she's actually cool about this whole thing. 

We started eating as we talked about random stuff. We finished all the food except for the large Onigirs the three made. They weren't particularly unpleasant taste wise but they were too heavy to eat in one sitting. We sat for a while and decided to pack up. 

"Should we go boating then?" Said Yukino, really excited about it.