Chapter 6: Its A Secret Family Recipe Passed Down Through Generations, So Well Keep It A Secret

After that, nothing particularly noteworthy happened, and I made it through all four morning classes without incident. At long last, the morning lessons came to an end, and lunchtime arrived.

Maybe it was because I hadn’t attended classes in a while, but I was so exhausted that I’d been eagerly looking forward to lunch since around third period. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait for it to arrive.

“Guess I’ll head to my usual spot.”

Since I was a loner, I naturally had no one to eat lunch with. That’s why I usually spent my lunch breaks outside the classroom. At first, I’d boldly eaten lunch alone right there in the classroom, but I eventually couldn’t stand the pitiful looks everyone kept giving me.

I picked up the bread and juice I’d bought at the convenience store that morning, stood up, and headed straight for the courtyard.

My usual routine was to eat lunch in the courtyard, then kill time by reading light novels in the library.

“Ahh, this place really is relaxing.”

Despite its beautiful scenery, hardly anyone ever came here. It was something of a hidden gem.

To borrow the words of the protagonist from a certain youth romantic comedy light novel I’d often read in the past, this place was undoubtedly my Best Place.

I sat down on one of the steps and was just about to open my bread when I heard someone’s footsteps slowly approaching.

When I looked up, I saw Riona standing there with a lunchbox and a bag containing chopsticks in her hands.

“Ryoya, what are you doing in a place like this?”

“Oh, it’s you, Riona. Can’t you tell? I’m eating lunch alone.”

“I see. Since you’re a loner, you don’t have anyone to eat with.”

“Could you stop casually landing critical hits on my mental health? Actually, make that devastating hits.”

More importantly, why was Riona here in the first place?

It was entirely possible that she’d just happened to be passing by.

While I was wondering about that, Riona sat down right beside me.

“…Um, Miss Riona? What exactly are you doing?”

“I decided to have lunch here too.”

“Come on, you must have plenty of people in your class you can eat with.”

I didn’t really know what Riona’s social standing was like in her class, but she was probably part of the upper echelons of the school hierarchy, just like Reona.

So there was absolutely no benefit to eating lunch with someone like me.

Actually, being seen together with someone at the absolute bottom of the school hierarchy like me might even be a disadvantage for her.

“I’ve already decided. Besides, Big Sis will be here soon.”

“Huh?! Reona’s coming too?!”

“Yeah. She’s already on her way.”

Riona said that while operating her smartphone.

If I remembered correctly, Reona usually ate lunch with the other members of her social group. Would it really be okay for her to leave them behind and come here?

Well, I couldn’t imagine anyone daring to object to a decision made by Reona, the undisputed queen of the class.

While I was thinking about that, Reona finally arrived.

“Sorry to keep you two waiting! Anyway, let’s get started.”

“Hey, are you two seriously planning to eat here?”

“Of course!”

“It’s already decided.”

Reona smiled brightly as she answered, while Riona maintained her usual cool expression.

Yeah… I had a feeling there was no point in arguing with either of them any further.

Well, this place didn’t get much foot traffic, so there wasn’t much chance of anyone seeing us. I decided to make the best of it and started opening my bread, but Reona stopped me.

“Oh, Ryoya-kun! We’ve prepared a lunchbox for you too, so you don’t need to eat that bread!”

“Huh?!”

“Big Sis and I worked really hard to make it.”

Until now, I’d assumed that Riona had happened to pass by, spontaneously decided to invite Reona, and the two of them had simply chosen to eat lunch with me on a whim.

But if that were the case, there was no way they’d already have a lunchbox prepared for me.

It could only mean that they’d intended to spend their lunch break with me from the very beginning.

Besides, I was pretty sure I’d never told anyone that I ate lunch here. So how had they even figured out where to find me?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with an answer. If anything, the whole situation only became more mysterious.

“Are you really that happy? Well, anyway, go ahead and try it!”

“I guarantee it’ll taste good.”

“…Thanks.”

There were plenty of things I wanted to ask, but for now, I accepted the lunchbox from Reona.

When I opened the lid, I was greeted by a hamburger steak, rolled omelet, fried chicken, broccoli, and white rice.

It was a simple lunch, but everything looked incredibly delicious.

For starters, I took a bite of the rolled omelet.

“This is ridiculously good!”

“Right?! It’s our pride and joy!”

“Big Sis and I worked hard on it this morning.”

The omelet looked perfectly ordinary, but its taste was surprisingly amazing.

Incidentally, Reona and Riona had the exact same side dishes in their own lunchboxes.

I continued reaching for one dish after another with my chopsticks.

“Wow, everything’s delicious… But why does the ketchup on the hamburger steak taste a little unusual?”

“Oh, that’s because we added a special secret ingredient to the ketchup. Maybe it just wasn’t to your taste.”

“Sorry about that.”

“By the way, what’s the secret ingredient?”

“It’s a secret family recipe passed down through generations, so we’ll keep it a secret.”

The sauce had tasted almost like iron, which only made me more curious about the secret ingredient. However, both of them stubbornly refused to tell me.

They did at least give me one hint: it had something to do with love.

Unfortunately, that only made it even harder to figure out. For now, I decided to stop thinking about it.

The three of us chatted for a while, and before I knew it, we’d finished eating everything.

I intended to wash the lunchboxes and chopsticks before returning them, so I tried to take them from the twins for the time being.

“Oh, don’t worry about the chopsticks and lunchboxes, Ryoya-kun! Riona and I will take responsibility for washing everything properly, so you don’t have to go out of your way.”

“I feel really bad making you do the washing up after you’ve already gone to the trouble of making lunch for me.”

“It’s fine. We’ll take care of it.”

“If you insist, then I guess I’ll take you up on your offer.”

I had no idea why the two of them were going so far for me, but I had a feeling that pressing them for an explanation wouldn’t accomplish anything.

So I decided to leave it at that.