Soma sits at the round table in Elite Ten conference room with the rest of his fellow third-year members, sans Alice who's off going to an International Food Science Conference in Zurich. Headmistress Nakiri probably let her cousin off the hook, rather than dealing with the infamous Nakiri Alice tantrums when she doesn't get her way.
A part of Soma wishes he also found an excuse to avoid this meeting, but that would be irresponsible on his part and Nakiri's given Soma abundance of freedoms. It has to do with something related to having students directly involved with acquiring ingredients and interacting with distributors. He thinks – he's not really paying attention, he'll get it explained to him by Tadokoro or Takumi later, when it comes up again and he actually has to put whatever this is in motion. Soma's preoccupied with figuring out what to do for his next shokugeki – he's excited, it's with an alum from the 77th generation – it's first seat. Master Shinomiya told him about the guy, said it took him a couple tries to beat him. Soma got challenged to try and beat the guy in fewer tries, and hopefully he could do a one-time knock-out and surprise Shinomiya with his results.
"Thank you, Kurokiba-kun, I'll keep that in mind." Nakiri says, right when Soma is tuning back into the conversation. He finds Kurokiba standing by Erina, leaning in over her shoulder and gesturing at her laptop screen.
"No problem. Got to speak to them, they're pretty good for being new to the fish market." She doesn't seem any bothered – maybe cause Kurokiba's dating Nakiri Alice? Or whatever's going on with those two. Soma's actually not sure if Kurokiba and the other Nakiri are dating but the signs are all there, according to Yoshino anyway.
"To give the students a jumping off point after their negations creating a draft of a budget proposal format is my suggested course of action." Nakiri says after Kurokiba's returned to his seat and she brings up some charts onto the board. Instead of looking at said board he watches her and he even if he is starting to register more of what she's saying he's focused on how poised she is, honestly are they even the same age?
Soma and Nakiri share some classes again this year, he sees her at the dorm sometimes when she visits the girls, and of course they see each other whenever him and the rest of the Ten have their Shokugekis – she seems like usual. Prickly and harsh, and Soma has told her, even though she was the dean she's still the same old Nakiri – then she settles into her role as the head of the school and she just exudes this elegance and authority.
"These are some of the numbers and distributors that were pulled by our predecessors—" Her head turns to his side of the room and they make eye contact which tugs Soma's mouth into a smile. That just earns him a quickly averted gaze from Nakiri and a tucking of hair behind her ear. She clears her throat and clicks on her remote, changing the slide, "And as you can see here, these are results of the work of last year's council members." Okay then. Did Headmistress Nakiri slip?
"You want us to pull that off in this time frame?" Takumi says, his voice piping up from beside Soma in surprise. "That's triple the numbers that the average student body did—"
"Yes. The baseline for them is acquiring a relationship with a distributor and starting a channel, but for the Elite Ten the simple membership already gives you an advantage. This will be just like your summer our 2nd year."
Soma laughs, "Yeah with the abandoned shack?"
"What, think you can't handle it?" Nakiri's looking at him again – challenging glint in her eyes, unwavering. Was earlier a fluke?
Soma leans forward and grins, "Oh, hell no, I think I'm pretty personable – I mean those old men from first year hell camp told me I better call them when I'm running my own restaurant. I'll ace this."
"Is that when you accidentally stepped onto their bus, Soma-kun?" Megumi says with a giggle, from Takumi's other side. Soma drops his head onto table and pouts.
"Listen, all of those buses look the same. And all the nice grandmas and grandads wanted to give me stuff—"
"That's why you should be memorizing the bus numbers, Yukihira. You're lucky Nakiri-san had stayed behind too so you could get a ride back to the school!" Soma stares up at the Italian with his eyebrows raised. Takumi just shrugs at him. That clues Soma in the guy is doing it on purpose. So, him and Takumi definitely need to talk about this later.
"It was a small mistake; the buses should've double checked if all the students were there before leaving!" He sits back up, but before he can see if Nakiri cares about the memory Kurokiba cuts in from the other side of the room,
"Mistakes like that are going to cost you Yukihira, you'll lose that way."
"What's with you turning everything into a competition?" Hayama says with a sigh, finally speaking up.
"You're on Kurokiba – you afraid you'll lose Hayama?" This project is turning out to be much more interesting when Kurokiba puts it that way – it's good he didn't check out of it.
Nakiri clears her throat again, "While I encourage this enthusiasm, because not only is this required for graduation and opens more channels for Totsuki, I didn't finish explaining the requirements." Oh. All five of them turn to her and she presses her remote again. "Students must work in groups of 2-3 people, as these types of negotiations aren't typically done alone."
Soma deflates at the same time Hayama says, "From the Elite Ten pool for us right? Third years."
"Yes. Obviously." They all look at each other, and it easily falls in place who's going with who.
"Miss is going to want to be with me." Kurokiba says, and Soma snorts.
"Yeah, we know. You two are joined at the hip."
"Looks like I'll be taking you and Hayama down at once." Kurokiba, Soma and Hayama glance at Takumi and Megumi, the former with his arms crossed and the latter looking sheepish. Right, those two are dating. Sheesh. Soma's two best friends are both sabotaging him at the same time.
"What, you think I'm not going to challenge you as well Yukihira?" When Takumi puts it like that, it makes sense. But he wants to beat Hayama too!
"The same goes for me, Soma-kun," Megumi says with a firm nod.
"Augh—Nakiri why do we have to do pairs?" Nakiri waves her hand at him when the words leave Soma's mouth.
"No complaining, I would never hear the end of it from Kuga and Eizan if they find out I gave you guys that leeway." Those girls from before are wrong, she does not listen to his every whim.
When everyone clears out of the room Soma stays behind, walking over to the head of the table where Nakiri is working on her laptop, typing quickly. He slowly bends down, lowering until their heads are level. This is a little closer than Kurokiba was, right?
"What's your writing speed? 100 words per minute?" Soma murmurs right by her ear and Nakiri jolts halting her typing for a moment before going back to her work.
"Wh—Yukihira-kun I told you, I'm not going to change the requirements." She refuses to turn to him, and Soma chuckles – he can see the tips of her ears turn red. He thinks he might be getting some of pleasure out of seeing her react to him like this, a type of high.
"Aw man, even if I beg?"
"Since when did you beg to give yourself more work?" She says with a laugh, which Soma cranes his neck so he can see her face. Nakiri jerks back, her entire face fire engine red. "W-what are you doing?!"
"Just wanted to see your laugh, that's all. It's nice." The words slip from his mouth before he knows it, and Soma stands back up because wow, he really did just say that. Nakiri's whole body is frozen, back rigid. Well shit. Now his face is slightly heating up too so he turns for the door. "Just consider it yeah? It'll make it fun."
"I—what is up with you?!"
"Consider it!" Soma's already out of the room, calling through the opening as the door swings behind him.
The "No!" yelled behind him is the last thing he hears before the door shuts with a thud. He was just trying to test the 'Nakiri Nakiri has a crush on Yukihira Soma' theory for the first time and instead succeeded in putting himself in a slightly awkward situation. He's not fully sure if this enough to prove anything though. Soma runs his hand through his hair and hurries to the kitchen he reserved – he has a Shokugeki to prepare for. He should drop this.
For now.
it's chapter two! i did not use a beta...what's that...thanks for reading, hopefully there will be less of wait between this chapter and chapter three hahahaha... tell me ur thoughts in the reviews if you'd like! - rad
