The Next Day

Soma hadn't intended on making plans with Erina when he went to her mansion... but here he was outside of kitchen 3C waiting for her to show him a French recipe.

He looked at a clock hanging in the hallway. It had already been thirty minutes since he arrived outside kitchen 3C.

Was calling her cute twice too much? Would she even show up today?

Soma wasn't ready to give up yet. He'd wait a little bit longer for her.

Finally, Erina arrived wearing her usual school uniform.

Soma found himself sighing with relief.

She showed up.

"Yukihira." Erina greeted him, blushing and glancing around the hall.

"Nakiri! I thought you weren't gonna show up!" Soma grinned.

Erina kept glancing around the hallway.

"Something wrong?" Soma asked her.

Before he could blink, Erina grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him into the kitchen.

"Woa!" Soma said. "What was that about?"

"Isn't obvious? I can't be seen hanging around the likes of you!" Erina said crossing her arms.

Soma paused a moment and then laughed.

Erina's face turned red. "What!? What's so funny?" She asked annoyed.

"You really are too much Nakiri." Soma patted her on the head, making her even more red in the face.

"..." Erina tried to say something but couldn't.

"Now shall we?" Soma gestured to one of the stove tops.

"I suppose so." Erina sighed, trying to sound annoyed still.

Soma watched as Erina cooked, hovering behind her.

She felt his eyes on her constantly.

Was he even paying attention to her cooking?

Erina found herself blushing, with each interaction she had with him.

She felt her heartbeating forcefully in her chest.

Why? Why was her heart doing this to her?

This was the first time they had hung out, just the two of them alone...in a school kitchen...after hours...

Erina blushed at the thought of it.

"Are you hot in that jacket?" Soma asked her, breaking her train of thought.

"What?" Erina blurted and looked at her blue school blazer.

"Your face keeps going red." Soma shrugged.

"Oh!" Erina forced an awkward laugh. "That's because... yeah! It's hot in here!" She removed her blue blazer and fully revealed her white button up blouse.

"I'm surprised you aren't wearing a pair of your chef robes." Soma said.

"Well... I didn't have enough time to change. I spent a lot of time just trying to dismiss Hisako... I didn't want her following me here obviously." Erina explained as she checked on the food in the oven.

"Oh! That's why you were late!" Soma nodded.

"Late? I never gave you an exact time! Be grateful I came at all Yukihira!" She got out a cutting board and began cutting some green onion.

"I am grateful." Soma replied. "Besides learning something new, I get to watch you cook. I like seeing how focused you are when you are cooking... you always look so determined. It's inspiring. You know? Sometimes I can be a little too casual, I know that... but we can't all be like you. So we gotta be like ourselves. Although, sometime I wish I had your sense of focus."

Erina was stopping cutting up the green onion. For once she didn't blush, but just stood there...mouth agape.

"Yukihira..."

"I think it's about time you call me Soma." Soma interrupted her.

"Huh?"

"Come on, I've technically known you the longest out of everyone here."

"But...but...sharing a first name implies..." Erina began to blush again and went back to cutting the green onion, this time faster and more rapidly.

"I can still call you Nakiri if you want..." Soma added. "And if you really want to, you can still call me Yukihira in public... but when it's just us, I'd prefer..."

"Are you assuming that we will be doing this again?" Erina asked chopping the onion harder and more nervously.

"Well, I hope so."

"Ouch!" Erina pulled her hand back away from the cutting board.

"What happened?" Soma asked.

"I-I cut myself..." Erina winced in pain.

"What? Let me see it." Soma reaches out for her hand, Erina backed away from him.

"Nakiri, seriously. You could be hurt." Soma said in a stern tone.

Erina reluctantly gave him her hand. He examined it.

Her thumb was sliced pretty bad and was bleeding.

"This is going to need stitches." He said. "We should go to the nurse..."

"What? N-no!" Erina said in a worried tone.

"If you are worried about being seen with me, the I don't have to go with you but you should go."

"No, that's not it!" Erina told him.

"It's not?" Soma sounded surprised, but happy.

"I haven't cut myself in...I don't know how long...I...I'm Erina Nakiri... I don't make mistakes like that! If I go to the nurse and have to get stitches word will surely get out about it and..."

"I think you are being a bit dramatic." Soma told her.

"Dramatic? I'm not being dramatic!" Erina raged.

"Okay, okay... you won't go to the nurse so... is there a first aid kit in here?" Soma asked her.

"Yes they always have them in classroom kitchens..." Erina and Soma looked around.

Soma saw the kit on the wall near the door. He grabbed the white plastic box and then turned off the oven. He gestured for Erina to sit down on a met stool at the center metal island. He sat down next to her.

Soma opened the first aid kit. "When I was little, I cut myself a lot."

"Of course you did." Erina scoffed.

"Mainly because I didn't like to listen to my dad." Soma ignored her and began to get out the supplies he'd need from the kit.

"I watched my dad sew up my fingers or palms a lot." He gestured for her to put her hand on the counter top.

Erina did so slowly.

Soma began by washing the cut with a small bottle of rubbing alcohol.

Erina winced.

Soma pulled out a small metal needle and some medical thread from the first aid kit.

"Wait, you are going to sew up my hand?" Erina looked scared and pulled her hand away.

"It'll be okay. I know what I'm doing." Soma reassured her.

She didn't look convinced.

"Besides, this way no one will find out you cut yourself." He added.

Erina sighed. "Okay." She re-presented her hand to him. "Just...be careful." Erina closed her eyes.

"I will." Soma said gently.

He rubbed some Neosporin-like gel on the wound, to numb it the best he could. Then he began to sew it up.

Erina winced, tears flooded her eyes.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"N-no it's okay." She opened her eyes as he neared the end.

"There." Soma finished. He wiped the finger one last time to make sure it was clean.

Erina looked at it.

"The stitches are ugly." She sighed.

"Well, it was the first time I had done them." Soma laughed.

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, I said dad did them on me... I never said..."

"Yukihira you jerk!" Erina went to hit him, but winced in pain.

"Take it easy, you don't want to tear those." He told her. "And like I said, call me Soma."

Erina settled down. "Fine."

She paused a moment.

"I suppose I should thank you...so uh...S-Soma..." She began.

The way she said his first name...why did she seem so nervous? Was it because of the pain?

"It's okay, you don't have to thank me. And you don't have to finish cooking today, you should get some rest. Go home and take some pain killers. We can do this another time." Soma told her.

"...Okay." Erina nodded, she stood up. She grabbed her blazer and went to the door then paused and turned to look at Soma, who was beginning to clean up. "H-hey..."

Soma stopped and looked at her. "What's up?"

"Would you... want to walk me back home?" Erina asked him.

Soma looked shocked.

"You know...because it's dark out!"

Erina quickly added, her face was bright red again. "What kind of boy would make a girl walk home by herself at night!? And an injured girl at that!"

Soma chuckled a bit. "You're right, you're right. Okay, I'll walk you home."

"Good!" Erina nodded.

"Let's go." He opened the door for her and the two left.

15 Minutes Later...

Erina and Soma arrived back at Erina's house.

"Well, here we are." Soma said.

Erina let out a sigh.

She didn't want Soma to leave...why!? Why didn't she want him to leave!?

"What's up?" Soma asked her, noticing the look on her face.

"I uh..." Erina paused at her front door.

Her face was slowly becoming red.

"Is there something you want to say?" Soma kept probing.

"Well Yukihira..."

"Soma."

"R-right S-Soma..." Erina's face was completely red.

Soma cocked his head, confused.

"I MEAN IT'S NOT LIKE YOU ARE DOING ANYTHING TONIGHT...RIGHT? SO WHY DON'T YOU JUST COME INSIDE FOR A BIT?" Erina buried her face in her hands.

Soma paused a moment and then laughed.

"If you wanted to hang out with me, you could have just asked." He opened her front door. "Well, lead the way."

WHAT HAD SHE DONE!?