Konbini [Part 2]

"You wanna go check out now?"

"Not yet. I need to buy ingredients for today's dinner," she then grabbed my arm and pulled me with her. "Come on!" she excitedly said.

"Oh? Do you have anything in mind?"

"Hmm… I want to celebrate our first day here. How about katsudon? I bet you'd love it~."

In my absolute opinion, katsudon is the best food ever made. The best part of it is the tonkatsu: the juiciness of the pork meat inside and the crispy outer skin layer creates an immaculate dish. Just mentioning it made my mouth drool uncontrollably.

"You know me too well. Tell me the ingredients. I'll help you find them."

One by one, we put the ingredients into a shopping basket. There were so many ingredients that the once empty basket became full in a matter of minutes. We arrived at the rice section, but one question appeared in my mind.

"Saki, don't we need a rice cooker? It's essential but not needed right now. I'm trying to save as much money as possible."

"Points, you mean. Anyway, we don't need a rice cooker. I think I saw packets of instant rice earlier, so we can use that as an alternative!"

Rice is just essential for every meal. It is delicious and filling, and it pairs well with every food. I loved rice so much that my stomach was accustomed to eating it every meal. If I didn't eat rice during a meal, I would have a stomachache later.

"I remember those rice cost way more than regular rice, so we still need to buy a rice cooker in the future."

Well, the advantage of instant rice is the rapid cooking time. These packets take less than three minutes to be ready. All you need to do is to put the packet in a microwave and wait. However, instant rice is much more expensive due to the cost of the processing. Also, this quick cooking method can result in the rice's texture being less firm than regular rice, and the processing leads to loss of flavor. I was surprised that Saki, an experienced chef, would accept that.

"Of course! I just learned other methods of cooking rice not long ago though. I'm not confident enough to follow that yet," Saki sighed heavily. "It hurts my pride as a chef, but saving points comes first."

"Don't worry. I'll cover half the cost of the rice cooker. I have one condition, though."

"Nope! Not accepting it. I'm the one who cooks delicious meals here. You better pay or else I'm gonna starve you to death."

"Oh, really? Guess I have to stick with my trusted konbini food then. How unfortunate."

"You..! Where did you learn petty tricks like that? I won't fall for it."

"On my way to the noodle aisle."

I took a few steps heading to the aisle. I was playing tricks on her, of course, hoping Saki would take the bait. I knew it because she really cared about me, so she wouldn't let me eat one string of noodle that wasn't made by her hands.

I walked slowly while waiting for her reaction. "Fine!" she grabbed my arm so tightly that I almost shrieked. "I'll listen to your condition."

"There you go. My condition is simple, really. Get a score of 75 in Combat Prowess by next month."

"You think I can do it?" she asked with melancholy eyes.

"I know you will. I'll help."

"Yeah…Thanks."

She was still beating herself up due to her score not being as expected. She tried to hide her feelings by letting out a slight smile, but Saki was really bad at it. I hated seeing her hide her sadness and try to play it off. I felt guilty as well for bringing that topic up. I thought it was a way to motivate her more.

My eyes averted at the sight of a silent Saki. At times like this, I needed to come up with an idea to cheer her up. I rubbed my temple trying to brainstorm what should be said. We were still picking up ingredients but the silence was getting bigger. I didn't know what to do. I stared at her sulking face several times before getting caught.

"Hiryu-kun?"

"Believe in yourself."

What was I saying?

"Huh?" Saki was dumbfoundedly staring at me.

Motivating people wasn't my strength. I could see why my Leadership and Communication scores were low. Well, I had one last card to play that I was hesitant about. I would make a loss, but at least it would make her happy.

"What I'm saying is…I'll bring you to a fancy restaurant after you meet my condition. You could order whatever you want. On the house, how about that?"

"R-really? You promise?"

"Promise."

The heavy atmosphere was lifted off. Her complexion was returning to normal, so I sighed in relief. As long as her angelic smile was there, everything would be okay. At least, that was what I thought.

"Not enough," she whispered.

"What more could you want?"

"Nevermind, sorry."

She turned around and walked away slowly. "Ah, I'm getting played," I thought. I saw that cheeky smile when she turned away. She was getting back at me for the tricks I used earlier, and she was doubling down on it too. As expected from Saki, a master at manipulating emotions. I got no other choice but to concede.

"Fine. I'll buy you breakfast today."

"Yay! You're the best!" she finally smiled brightly.

My points were easily snatched by Saki just like that. I rubbed her head hard as some retaliation and walked to the register.

We started pulling out our groceries from our shopping basket to the checkout counter. The cashier looked at us intently as we kept taking out our endless groceries. He didn't say anything but his expressions were vivid.

"T-that would be 6,398 points."

"We'll split between us."

"Can't do that. You have to pay in full. If you want to split, transfer points to her later," he haggardly said.

He was frank in a sense. Probably it was early in the morning that people easily got grumpy. I turned around and saw a pretty long line, so I scanned the QR code fast and bounced out of there.