Okay, so before you get mad at him, Soma would like the record to state that he had no idea this arc would get this messy.
It had to have been the hottest summer day on record. Soma flipped the thin covers off his overheated body, drenched in sweat. He felt stickier than his most recent squid and peanut oil concoction, which was impressively disgusting. If Erina Nakiri wanted to call any dish he prepared disgusting, he'd love to shove chopsticks full of it in her mouth. He turned to grab his phone.
Six o'clock.
He'd only been asleep for two hours, and the bags under his eyes could tell. Studying curry for the Fall Selection had been more grueling than expected, so his summer nights had been dedicated to nothing else. But he promised Isshiki that he'd help weed Isshiki Farms since the rest of the dorm was away for summer break. Soma groaned and side-eyed a ceiling tile before rolling to his side and slowly closing his eyes to catch a few more z's.
The clattering of that same ceiling tile jolted him to his feet. "Dammit, Isshiki! I'm up! I'm up!"
The quirky upperclassman's floating head bobbed spritely. "See you outside in five!"
Ten minutes later, Soma waved down two teenagers walking through the Polar Star dorm's front lawn. The day before, he'd run into Ikumi and Takumi at the grocery store –separately–and invited them since they were still in town and because, well, why not? The more, the merrier to pull up weeds and listen to Isshiki make every backbreaking task look like a day at the beach. He really could use a day at the beach.
But Soma hadn't expected Ikumi actually to show up.
"Meat-Meat! You came!" He hugged her, oblivious to how Ikumi melted, then became rigid in his embrace.
"You invited me, nimrod," the buxom pixie blonde replied. Soma laughed at her attitude. "I'm not rude to accept an invitation and then decline the invite by not showing up." She rolled her eyes, but it was apparent she wasn't genuinely annoyed.
"Mmm, you smell good!" Soma sniffed the air.
"Cut it out, you creep!" Ikumi tried to hide her blushing face. Takumi stepped forward valiantly to announce his presence.
"I'm here, too, Yukihira," he pouted.
"Huh? Oh yeah! Takumi, thanks for lending a hand, bro. I know Isshiki's gonna love the extra help." He patted the blond boy on the back so hard and walked away that he didn't notice Takumi's disappointment concealed by a sharp, "Ouch, Yukihira!"
"Isshiki is particular about how the soil is tilled, so he's going to talk your ears off for the next twenty minutes on how to do it properly."
The sun was beginning to set by the time they finished.
"Sorry, Isshiki, but I can't do another thing. I'm headed home, boys," Ikumi said, dusting the dirt off her gardening gloves before ripping them off.
"No need to apologize, Mito. You were such a great help. Hope you can come by sometime when everything ripens," Isshiki replied. Satoshi Isshiki was an endearingly charming young man, and Soma watched as Ikumi's hard exterior softened just by working with him all day.
"I'll walk you home," Soma looked at Ikumi and offered. Though she told him she was fine to walk alone multiple times, his mother would have his head if he knew he didn't raise a good person.
"I know how to get home, Yukihira. I'm not a little girl. I can take care of myself." Soma eyed Ikumi caressing the hilt of the butcher cleaver she kept holstered to her thigh, and a sweat bead dropped. He nodded but never left her side, so they went down the dorm's long driveway, mostly in silence.
"So…did you have fun?" Soma couldn't take the awkward tension anymore. It always seemed to appear with Tohtsuki girls.
"It was nice gardening…" Ikumi hesitated. "Isshiki is a menace with that hoe!"
"Isn't he?" Soma cackled. "You should've seen him when the spring cabbages came in. It looked like he was making love to the soil!"
"I do not like the image of that. The loincloth flapping in the breeze is enough for me," Ikumi giggled. The air between them lightened. As they went through the forest separating Polar Star dorm from the rest of the campus, the conversation flowed like no one was watching as Ikumi led the way. Soma chuckled, shaking his head.
"What?" Ikumi asked suspiciously.
"You know, you're not as tough as you like to act, Meat-Meat."
"It's not an act," she snippily replied. "And I told you not to call me that! Don't make me smack you upside your head."
"Wow, way to kill the mood," Soma teased back. "I'll never flirt with you again."
A sleek sports car sped past them. The dust clouded their vision as they trailed behind the tire tracks. The teens rounded the corner they'd heard the car screech onto. Soma wasn't sure if Ikumi was following the car, but when the sparkling facade of the Nakiri mansion came into view, it no longer mattered. As they walked by the mansion's grounds, a surprising rush of excitement spiked in him. Ikumi must've picked up on the spike in his energy because she made a throwaway comment and kept walking.
"Oh, yeah. That's Nakiri Mansion. Don't ever expect to come close to it, though."
This was his first time seeing Erina's home, and it looked majestic from the main road, lighting up the golden gated compound it was tucked into. Soma could only imagine what it looked like after a fresh snowfall.
First, he heard a flirty giggle. Then, a light laugh carried through the evening breeze. Then he heard that pretentious octave that tied his stomach in knots. He could only make out her silhouette from a distance, but he knew it was her; he could tell by the nasally sound of her voice. Then he saw the sports car. Even from afar, he knew it was a Maserati. Soma didn't know if she had just exited the sports car or was about to enter it, but by her posture, she was having a playful conversation with the driver, and whoever it was was seriously making her laugh. How he wished he had bionic ears to hear what she was saying.
When he felt his feet pounding the pavement, running down the long driveway leading to the Nakiri gates, he wondered if he'd lost his mind. He could hear Ikumi softly shouting, reprimanding him to come back. But his feet wouldn't stop moving forward. And they didn't stop until he reached the gate's security box.
"Soma!" Ikumi whisper-yelled as she ran to his side. Soma pushed the button.
"State your name and reason for entry."
"Uh, yeah, hi! I'm Soma Yukihira! Is Erina around?"
"Mistress Nakiri is not entertaining any more guests at this time," the bored security guard replied through the voice box.
"Why not? Tell her it's Soma!"
There was a long silence. Soma tried to stir up a conversation as they waited, but the look on Ikumi's face made him choose otherwise. The voice box buzzed.
"The gate is about to open, but that doesn't mean you are permitted entry. Understood?" The question was more of a command, so Soma rolled his eyes and groaned, "Fine."
The arched gates creaked open, and the same sports car flew through. It stopped right before him, the front-right tire barely missing his sneakers. The passenger side window rolled down, and Soma almost pissed himself.
"Yukihira? Mito, what are you doing here?" Erina looked at him, then at Ikumi, confused. But beautiful, so, so beautiful. It was his first time seeing her out of uniform, and if it weren't for the fact that she was still finer than an eyelash, Soma wouldn't have recognized her in that oversized acid-washed graphic tee and loose top bun. He ducked his head into her window to greet her…and to sneak a peek at the driver.
A sliver of white cornsilk hair leaned into view. "Hello, young man. Are you two lost? Do you first-years need a ride home?" The First Seat asked a bit too nicely.
Fuckkkkkkkk.
Eishi Tsukasa's saccharine top boy act made Soma's ass itch. (For fuck sake! What seventeen-year-old was driving a Maserati around Tokyo?!) Tsukasa looked, dressed, and sounded like the exact guy Erina would go for—the perfect culinary Ken doll. Suddenly, Soma felt overcome with a strange urge to lean in the car and sucker-punch the lover boy straight through the windshield, but Ikumi slid in front of him and Erina's door.
"Miss Erina," Ikumi stuttered. "Pardon our intrusion. Soma, here, was just walking me home."
"Oh?" Erina sounded jealous. But that could just be what Soma wanted to hear.
"Oh, not like that!" Ikumi stumbled over herself to explain. Her hands waved feverishly in front of Erina's suspicious expression passing between the two outside. Soma cut in.
"Yeah, not like you two, huh?" He really had to muster up the unbothered front he displayed and hoped Erina couldn't feel the heat coming from his chest when she hesitated to respond.
"Erina, we should be on our way. The concert starts in an hour," Eishi whispered to her, briefly eyeing Soma. Erina nodded and rolled up the window.
"Get home safely, Mito," Erina said.
"Enjoy your date, kids!" Soma waved them off. They sped off into the shadows, leaving Soma staring at their ghost like a fool.
"I can go on my own from here," Ikumi's stilted voice came behind him.
He didn't hear the disappointment dripping from her tongue, and she couldn't see him seething with jealousy.
a/n: it's the last day of my birthday month, so i had to give y'all something special to celebrate. and it's dedicated to the reviewer, Miya Vische ~ your patience has been rewarded (thx for taking the time to read and review!)
also, i know it's been feeling like this story feels like it's going at a snail's pace, but that's the allure of a slow burn. (i may switch it up with the start of this new arc, though.)
lastly, the next chapter will be posted in mid-September, so until then, please review, like, and share with someone you think would enjoy reading!
-You're Welcome!-
8.20withlove