"Would you like an octodog?"
Taro glanced up at the soft voice, greeted with a sweet smile he just couldn't bring himself to return. "Yes, thanks."
She offered the plate and he took one of the few ones left. Judging by the size of the plate she'd already given a lot away.
"Mind if I sit here?" the girl asked and he nodded wordlessly, eating as slowly as something so small would allow.
She held up the plate with one hand over her head and sat at the fountain next to him, smoothing out her skirt before putting the plate on her legs. Instead of saying anything to him she just adjusted her bandanna and nibbled at the octodogs.
"No offence," Taro began, gaining her full attention immediately, "but why are you sitting here?"
"You looked sad," she said simply. "As a club president it's my duty to look after the other students."
"But I'm not in your club," Taro said. He wasn't in any club.
"So?" the girl said. "By the way, did you like the octodogs? A member of the cooking club suggested making them. She was so excited as well, this is the recipe she used when making them with her family."
The warm way she spoke about her club members reminded Taro of a mother and she definitely looked the part with the apron and cute - something he'd only admit rather bashfully in his head - brown haircut.
"They were good," he said and she brightened immediately.
"She'll be so happy to hear that... Ah sorry, I forgot my name." She laughed softly at her forgetfulness. "I'm Amai Odayaka."
"Taro Yamada," he introduced himself, quickly putting the name to the face.
She hummed softly, looking as if she'd realised something but starting speaking again before Taro could ask.
"Good to meet you, Yamada. I hope to see you here again later," she said happily, standing up with the same careful grace and walked away with a wave, only stopping to offer the last remaining octodog to a boy entering the courtyard.
"Yamada, I have another recipe for you to try."
Taro glanced up from his book to be greeted by a plate a octodogs.
"Are they different from last time?" he asked. They didn't look any different.
"Yep. Kokona and I were experimenting with the ingredients and this batch turned out nice," Odayaka said.
Kokona? He vaguely recognised it as the first name of one of his classmates but they hadn't really interacted too much. "What happened to the batches that weren't as nice?"
She smiled and suddenly that kind smile didn't seem as kind anymore. "We haven't decided yet."
Taro made a note to not get on either girl's bad side lest he want a plate of bad octodogs and grabbed one of the good ones. He blinked, eating it in a single bite.
"Sweet?" he stated.
"Does it taste good?" she asked, looking slightly nervous.
He nodded quickly, grabbing another one to reassure her. "They're great."
"I'm glad you're looking happier," she said, smiling softly.
He knew she probably didn't mean anything bad by it but just that one sentence made Taro's mood deflate. He was happier, even though just days ago his best friend had been found dead and the killer hadn't been caught.
"Yamada..." Odayaka murmured, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I had a lot of family issues come up last week and couldn't make it but rumours spread fast in this school." Her voice sounded sad, almost choked up, by just trying to comfort him. "I'm sorry if this is out of line but from what I heard about miss Najimi she would want you to be happy. Even if it takes you weeks, months, years, I don't think she'd want you to never move on, okay?"
He nodded slowly but still stood up. "I- I gotta go now. I'll see you later, okay?"
"I'll be waiting," she said, still smiling warmly as he left.
"Odayaka."
Odayaka looked up at the greeting and smiled widely. "It looks like I got here first today."
"But this time you have no food," he pointed out as he sat down and surprisingly her cheeks flushed pink.
"I'm sorry, do you want me to make some?" she asked and he quickly shook his head.
"No, it's fine. Besides, it would take too long and we wouldn't be able to spend time together," Taro said.
"Really? That makes me happy," she said softly, turning her gaze to her lap instead of at him.
Neither of them brought up the other day's conversation. Although Taro's heart still ached whenever he was reminded of Osana - the small things hurt the most: similar hair, clothing, even similar keychains - being around Odayaka made him happier, even if only by a little.
"Have you and Kokona made anything new?" he asked and she grimaced.
"We... tried. Saki's officially now banned us from experimenting with the octodogs." She giggled and Taro was too scared to ask what could've happened to make someone else order around the club president.
"There's always the other food," he offered.
"Another member suggested that too but I think we should just stick to actual recipes for a while. Besides, if Saki caught wind of that plan we would've had to face her wrath and I don't think anyone's ready to try that," she said but despite that she had an almost loving smile on her face. Taro felt almost jealous of how homely their club sounded.
"Do you think... I could join?" he asked.
"Join the club?" she asked and at her nod she smiled wistfully. "Can you wait until next week? I might have a surprise for you on Friday and I'd to give that to you first."
"A surprise?" he echoed.
She nodded. "I haven't quite decided yet but if I do then I'll make sure to tell you."
That already left him curious but Friday was still two days away. He brushed away his impatience by continuing to talk with Odayaka while she excitedly talked about the different foods she planned to cook.
Taro glanced yet again at the crumpled note in his hand. Messy handwriting on a blue-outlined piece of paper had asked him to meet by the cherry tree over ten minutes ago but even though he'd even arrived early the person still hadn't showed up.
It was Friday, the day Amai - it still felt weird calling her by her first name after just a week but they'd grown so close it felt equally weird to be not calling her that - had said she might show him something but she'd never brought it up again so he'd just assumed the surprise didn't work out. According to Kokona who'd he had run into on his way to the tree Amai had gone towards the lockers earlier than usual and hadn't been seen since so he could only assume she'd gone home early.
Just like the mystery note writer, Taro thought. He supposed it must've been a prank but did they have to make him wait around so late? He'd already told his parents he was going to be home late but he knew as soon as he got home he'd be greeted by disapproving stares. The note had already caused him to lose half an hour of homework time.
He shoved the note as deep as he could in his pocket and sighed loudly. What a waste of time.
"What a waste a time." Just like this fic ayyy.
But hey, I wonder what happened to the mystery note writer *finger guns*
More proof I can't write happy YanSim fics. I suppose you could consider this one a prequel to "Big Brother?" and by that I mean shameless plug, please read that one too if you haven't already to feed my ego. I realised partway through this that I had no idea what I was doing since Amai's not out yet, meaning her publicly canon personality right now is "sweet cooking girl who was nice to senpai when he was sad", but I hope this was still alright. I debated naming this "Sweetness and Lightning" because of the anime but didn't wanna risk someone getting upset so I shortened it. I also debated on whether or not to keep that last scene or just scrap it and make a different end but I ended up keeping it because... I like to suffer? Idk why I kept it. If it seems dodgy tell me and I'll try to improve when I write my next one.