Hi everyone! This is the fifth chapter! Gah, I'm having an epic stomachache right now X(

Disclaimer: Konomi-sensei owns everything here but the OCs and romantic plot.

Sorry for bad English, grammatical error and/or typo.

Enjoy!

Ch5: A Box Warped in White

The next morning was very beautiful, especially after Tsubaki had her resolution. Doing her daily household tasks, she started working in the kitchen. She and Tsubasa lived separated from their parents. They moved to Osaka carrying out the family tradition, this way no one in their hometown knew about Tsubasa's living as a girl and also no one in Osaka knew his true identity. Since they had move into a small apartment, Tsubaki was in charge of preparing their meal, including bento. Usually she woke up at half past five in the morning, but today was different. She woke up a bit earlier and prepared more food than usual for some reasons.

After putting in some decoration made of cucumbers and carrots, she finished two boxes of bento in front of her. She smiled in content seeing her works. It had been a while since she worked so hard on bento.

"These look tasty," Tsubasa commented as he enter the kitchen and took a slice of rolled egg she cooked for breakfast. "What's with this unusual luxurious bento? Is there any celebration or something?"

"No, not really. I just accidentally woke up earlier today thus I have more time to cook." She replied. She closed the bentos then warped them in furoshiki clothes with different colors: the white one was her while the pink one was his.

He was about to note how her bento portion was about double from the usual, but she had already moved to a nearby table and prepared it for the breakfast. He shrugged as he decided to forget about it then helped her bringing rice bowls and chopsticks to the table.

"That's all for today." An almost bald teacher announced as the lunch break bell rang. He then took his thick English books from the table then walked outside leaving class 2-7, which was now full of euphoric atmosphere.

"Tsubasa-chan, let's eat bento outside." Tsubasa's seatmate offered. She stood up carrying her bento.

Tsubasa nodded and took his own bento. His seatmate then asked the other girls to join them. After about 4 or 5 more girls accepting the offer, they proceeded to the door. Tsubasa was about to exit the class when something caught his attention.

"Wow, it's rare to see you having bento." said one boy that stood near the door. His hair was highlighted in bright red; on his wrists, people could see some metal accessories.

A boy sat right in front of the first boy, calmly untied white furoshiki clothes that warped a bento in his hand. "My mother just accidentally woke up earlier today, so she had more time to cook me one." He explained nonchalantly.

"Hee, I didn't know that Zaizen Hikaru is a momma's boy." Another boy with blue-dyed locks teased.

"Shut up." Zaizen glared at his friends, who were now laughing at him.

The two boys in front of him weren't really affected with the glare; instead they started examining his bento. "Anyway, this looks like a hell of good bento."

Zaizen decided not to bother his friends' comments anymore, whatever they said, and started eating. The boys then bid goodbye to him as they were going to the cafeteria to buy some sandwiches. At that point, he finally looked up and watched his friends passed the exit door. There, he also saw Tsubasa, who seemed to had been watching him for a quite some time.

"Tsubasa-chan? What's wrong?" One of the girls asked as the saw Tsubasa standing still at the door.

Tsubasa quickly turned to her friends and shook his head. "Nothing. Shall we go now?" He then walked away with his friends. They talked about a lot of thing during the lunch time, but he couldn't follow them as a single question kept echoing in his head.

How could that Zaizen guy have his sister bento?

It was in the middle of afternoon practice. After asking for permission to the captain, Zaizen left the tennis club for a while and met a certain someone that was waiting for him in front of the club gate.

"Yo, Zaizen-kun," called Tsubaki. "Sorry for interrupting your practice again."

"No problem." He replied. He carried her bento box in his left hand while the other hand touched his nape. He then handed it to her.

How did he have her bento? Well, everything had happened in the morning.

[flashback]

It was 7:20 and Zaizen was walking sleepily to the tennis club for morning practice when he saw a familiar girl was standing near the tennis club entrance.

The short haired girl noticed him and greeted. "Morning, Zaizen-kun."

"Sup." He replied back casually despite she was older than him.

"Can we talk for a while?" Tsubaki asked.

He raised a brow. The last time they had had a talk hadn't ended well. Actually it had been very bad. They had a fight and he had almost smacked her right on the face. It wasn't a good thing to remember and now he felt rather uneasy of how he had been too short-tempered back then.

Anyway he could tell that she was somehow different from before.

"Sure."

"I..," she began. She became tense and her cheeks slowly turned pink. She looked down, didn't have enough courage to look right to his eyes. "I haven't properly thanked you for your help yesterday." She then bowed deeply, making her bangs cover most of her face.

That was unexpected. Even someone like him almost lost his words in surprised. "That was only because those guys were really annoying to see. I didn't really intend to-"

"I also said something very bad to you the other day. I'm really sorry about that." She continued.

It was very weird to have a girl bowing in front of him. He scratched his head, first he should make her stop. "Senpai, please straighten your back. Someone might see us."

She quickly stood back in proper position. He was right, someone might saw them. She would die in embarrassment if someone really did.

"Well, actually I don't really care about what happened back then. I also did bad thing to you so there's no need to apologize."

She looked up at him. A part of her was relief that he weren't angry at her while another part felt guilty because she had selfishly thought bad of him.

"Ah, speaking of which, I have something for you." She opened her bag and search for something. Once she found it, she took it out then offered it in front of him, a box warped in white, one of the bentos she had made earlier. "Here, as my apology for the bad thing I said to you."

He looked at her, then the neatly warped bento, then to her again. "Senpai, didn't I tell you that you don't need to apologize."

"Still, I want you to accept this. Please consider about it, at least it could save some of your allowance from buying lunch today." She said again.

He watched her closely for a while. How the heck she knew that he didn't have his own bento…

"Fine," he sighed and took the bento from her hand. "However, I don't buy you giving this only for apologizing, Senpai. There's something else, right?"

Zaizen Hikaru, he didn't bear his genius title for nothing. Well, anybody beside him would also felt suspicious if she insisted to give something.

"You see, actually I have a request…"

[end of flashback]

"So, how was it? The taste I mean." Tsubaki asked as she held the empty bento box tight onto her chest.

"There were some bitter parts of fish that I dislike." He answered monotonously.

"I see."

He could see her pulled a face. Resisting his chuckled, he turned back then said, "Make sure that next time you remove those parts."

She looked at his back in disbelief. He said next time; was that mean he didn't mind eating her cooking again? Her smile grew only by thinking of it.

"What's your favorite food then? I'll put it next time."

"Shiratama zenzai."

"Eeh? That's no way I can put it in bento box!"

From this point onward, there'll be some fluff. Not much though, because both of them are rather tsundere. Gosh, I think they'll end up as another silly couple.

What's her request to him? Well, we'll find out in the next chapter!

Thank you for your time reading. I hope you'll look forward to the next chapter. Don't forget to review! Concrits are always welcome :)

side note: I recently start writing another story in MAR (Marchen Awakens Romance / MAR-Heaven) fandom. Please read it in case you know that manga/anime. Thank you :D