ERINA POV
I scrolled through his posts, bashfully smiling at everything I saw. I'd only recently come to realize it. My outrageous feelings for the rugged commoner whose name I don't dare disclose.
How had it come to this? I have no idea. When he initially transferred, only one word coursed through my mind: Hatred. I absolutely despised the boy, however, he always managed to appear in my thoughts since meeting him. The realization only hit me like a truck when we had won the Regiment De Cuisine, where it was he who forced me to win. Forced in a good way.
I had scrolled back four years and it was a picture of him wearing his school uniform with his friends. A rugged but cute look. His shirt was half tucked in with his tie loose on his neck. He held his blazer on his shoulders with one hand as the other was leaning against his dad's and, whilst quickly glancing at his arm, I noticed the headband wrapped around it. For the time I've known him, I don't believe I've ever seen him without it. His hair was scruffy, obviously unmanaged and definitely uncut, however, it suited his personality completely. What made up the picture completely was his grin. His grin dabbled into his creative and artistic personality - you just never know what's going to come out of it, just like his cooking. If I had an option on what to call his cooking name it would be The Artist. The reason being that a true artist has his own individuality and only presents original artwork by gaining inspiration from others and using it to form his own piece. That sums him up entirely.
The surroundings in the picture also defined him. Yukihira Diner. A place that I wish to visit. Unfortunately, my pride gets the better of me and I could not step foot inside the place.
While attempting to scroll once more on his Instagram, my fingers apparently did NOT listen to me and I liked the post. A post FOUR WHOLE YEARS into the past. What else would he gain from this other than the fact that I was stalking him?
AT THE POLAR STAR DORMITORY
"Nakiri Erina liked your post from four years ago?" A dazed red-headed boy muttered at the dinner table with the whole of the dormitory seated there, reading the notification from his phone.
Silence engulfed the table as they all turned to look at the boy.
"Eh?!"
"Why has she scrolled that far down in my Instagram?" The denseness clearly showed in his oblivious mutter.
"Man, you seriously only think about cooking and nothing else."
"How is he oblivious to such evidence?!"
"That's him for you!"
"She likes you, you idiot!"
BACK TO THE NAKIRI MANSION
How?! Why?! What have I done?! Erin kicked her feet in her bed and shoved her face into the pillow, literally throwing her phone across the room, to which her dearest cousin Alice heard (along with Hisako) and came running to the room.
Alice - before Erina could reach it - she picked up the opened phone and saw what Erina had just done, "You like him!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"You like him?" Hisako was bewildered at the sudden revelation - of course, it was apparent that the two had something for each other, but for it to have been shown like this was bizarre.
"Yes? No? Maybe? Probably? Alice~ what do I do?!" Both of the intruders were at a loss for words, they had never seen Nakiri Erina act like this let alone make a grave mistake as bad as this.
How has the Nakiri Erina, the newly appointed Headmaster of Totsuki Culinary made such a mistake?
"It's fine! It'll pass, surely that dimwit didn't even notice! Yeah, I'll delude myself with that!" She said, breathing heavily whilst Alice and Hisako just shook their heads in disbelief.
A couple of days passed and Erina had successfully avoided him since that fateful double tap yet it was evident that he didn't seem to enjoy the constant running away hence why, for the first time in a long time, he came to an Elite Ten meeting to which Erina thought that he quite frankly, wouldn't.
Unfortunately for Erina, he just couldn't keep his eyes off of her as she was rambling on about the Training Camp for the upcoming first years.
"Please stop staring at me." She finally let out in the middle of her speech about the training camp which caused everyone to glance between the two.
"I just wanna know why you're avoiding me, you know I can't make you try to say delicious if I don't even have the chance to cook." He truthfully said.
"I'm not avoiding you, besides, you can never make me say delicious because your food is the opposite of it."
"Not avoiding me? Everytime you see me you run away, I even thought that you'd run away when you saw me sitting in this room."
"Run away? I am Nakiri Erina, I don't simply run away from things." She defended.
"So then why are you running away from truthfully answering my question?"
"I'm not avoiding you!" She raised her voice.
"Is it because you don't wanna be around me? Or maybe you genuinely hate my cooking?" He went quiet for a couple of moments before saying the biggest shock of the day, "Or maybe it's the fact that you liked one of my Instagram posts from four years ago?"
Gasps echoed throughout the Elite Ten council meeting and everyone was shocked at the sudden revelation.
"I-!" Even Nakiri herself was speechless.
"Oh, so it's that?" A small smirk drew itself across his face, "You must've been scrolling for ages to get to that point Nakiri, eh?"
"I- uh-?! What-!" She stumbled across her words and that's when everyone confirmed the truthfulness of the revelation, "I do not like you!" She exasperated, causing everyone to gasp and quickly look back and forth between the two.
"Hm? I never mentioned anything about you liking me, Nakiri, where's this come from?" The smirk only grew bigger the more Erina was exposed.
"Shut up!!!" Her face had the word 'embarrassment' drawn all over it. She'd dug a ditch for herself and, unfortunately, couldn't get out.
"Sheesh Erina, calm down with the crude language~." He joked, leaning back in his chair, watching as the girl stood up, face bright red with her hands slammed down on the table.
What a productive meeting, right?
"Do not use my first name so carelessly you plebian!" She shouted.
"Switching the conversation, Instagram Stalker?"
"Oo~ he got you there cousin…" Alice commented, a bowl of popcorn miraculously appearing on her lap as she watched the exchange between the two.
"Alice, I am going to kick you out of the Nakiri Mansion."
"Erina, stop tryna change the conversation, just tell me you were avoiding me and we can be done with it." The boy said.
"I wasn't avoiding you!"
"Hm… admit you are avoiding and stalking or admit that you think my cooking is delicious."
Her cooking pride got the best of her and she flat-out responded in the most monotonous tone she could muster, "I admit that I was avoiding and stalking with you."
"Oo~ Erins got you there…" Alice commented once again, however this time, she gained an approval nod from Erina.
He feigned hurt, "Sheesh, is my cooking that bad?" He winced.
"Yes."
"Erina. Do a shokugeki with me." He abruptly said, "You win, you can do any one thing you want with me but if I win, you become my girlfriend. How's that sound?"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Didn't know he had it in him…"
Another wave of crimson red flushed her cheeks and she let out one final scream:
"I AM GOING TO MURDER YOU YUIKIHIRA SOMA!"