No one knew exactly what was being wagered, but inside bets were moving like hotcakes. Beloved kitchen cutlery, dorm room swaps, restaurant franchises, and even expulsions from the academy were being put up for collateral as rumors and whispering gossip spread like wildfire through Tōtsuki Academy's halls.

"Hey! Did you read the new TōhSpo!"

"Omigod, Takano, I just heard the news! I can't believe it's finally happening!"

"Girl! I can't believe it's taking place this afternoon."

"Ugh! I knowwww, I'm so sick I'm missing this for Professor Sano's exam. It's gonna be the Shokugeki of the year!"

"Helluva way to end the school year. But what a strange mashup. I thought they were friends."

"Bro, you know what they say. Dicks before chicks."

"I...don't think that's what that means..."

It was true; no one knew why two of Tōtsuki's most random, albeit elite, chefs would be facing off in the most shocking Shokugeki showdown at the academy in a very long time. Nobody knew who was bold enough to be the school's top news and gossip newspaper's inside source against The Ten. Despite at least ten variations of what led to the challenge circulating the gossip mill, since the information came from Tōtsuki's most credible news source, they unanimously blamed him because of who the challengers were. Even the residents of the Polar Star Dormitory.

"This is a messy love triangle Yukihira's got going on. My man!" Diago cackled, holding a newspaper in his hands.

"Told you so!" Shōji snickered, slapping his best friend's back too hard. Shun snatched the paper from the brawling boys' hands and brought it to the rest of the group.

"Stop fighting in my room, you neanderthals! Anyway, this is odd. I thought they were friends." Zenji adjusted his circle frames and bore into the front-page article. Yuki peered over his shoulder. Ryōko sighed and stroked a tearful Yuki's back. "And it's front-page news! How?! How did this nosy reporter even find out before us?!"

"Who knows when it comes to the Ten," she said, soothing her weeping friend.

Nobody knew exactly why it was happening, but it was breaking news by sunrise, and everyone wanted front-row seats since it was happening the very same day. t

"Is this really where all our tuition has gone? We're supposed to be the rocks that polish this bird shit? Hey- oh no, you don't! Back of the line, pal! I've been here for four hours!"

And everyone had something to say, the middle schoolers touring the high school buildings for the new school year.

"Wow, the Number One Seat really has the God Tongue and the Tenth Seat battling over him? I thought he was one of the good guys."

"I know. What a pig."

"Who would've thought Yukihira-senpai would have those two hotties wrapped around his finger, heh?"

"I agree. It's kinda hot."

Even his friends disapproved.

"Dammit, Yukihira! I chose him as my rival, but he is not who he made us believe."

"Poor Tadokoro-san! Director Nakiri is a formidable foe. It's not even a fair fight," Isami somberly admitted. Ikumi wrapped her arms around his and scoffed, "Those two queens need to stand up! He's not even worth it. No boy willing to let this fight go down is. Trust me. Been there, done that." She looked at her boyfriend, and they shared an understanding smile before Isami placed a small kiss on her forehead. She blushed and snuggled into his arm.

-8-

Gritting his teeth to play it cool, Soma slammed his locker shut and walked down the hallway. The whispers were too loud to ignore, but he'd left his headphones atop his bed. He shoved his fists in his pants pockets, irritated at himself that he agreed with all the whispers and that he actually felt deserving of all the passing scowls. He looked like the biggest jerk on campus (and Eizan was still a student).

This was a dumb food war with a devastatingly predictable result. He loved everything Megumi made. Her food warmed his soul and made him feel like he was eating love in a bowl.
But Erina was in a league of her own. The results of the BLUE humbled him enough to admit it. He would be chasing her in the kitchen for the rest of his life.
And he couldn't think of anything more exciting to look forward to.

But it should've never come to this.

Soma maintained a relaxed gait and carefree smirk as he walked past the huddles of gossiping teens, but inside he was a ball of frustration. Why would Tadokoro demand such a death sentence? It wasn't like her to do something this rash — at least, not without him egging her on first. Sure, he was a good catch, but not enough for her to bet her entire culinary career over. And against the most gifted chef to ever come through Tōtsuki, at that. It was an insane risk. Even as a second-year, Erina was a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen, not to mention the academy's director. Megumi was not ready to compete with one of the gourmet world's top chefs.

Soma hated drama, making him angry that he was at the center of this mess. He didn't want to choose between them, even if he knew that inevitably, he absolutely would. That made his stomach churn; he wasn't used to this kind of conflict and did not like being pushed into a tight corner between his rock and his safe space. This wasn't an ordinary food war; this was his real life. But how does a guy even begin to fix the tension between his sorta-kinda-might-as-well-be girlfriend and his first best friend at Tōtsuki?

A group of first-years shamelessly leaned their bodies—but not their scowls—away from Soma like he was deathly contagious.

"I can't believe Tadokoro-senpai is finally staking her claim over that arrogant asshole," a short girl with heavy bangs and a loud whisper said to the boy beside her as he passed. Usually, Soma wouldn't give a fuck about the rumors and stories at his expense; trust him, he'd gotten highly comfortable ignoring public opinion in his time at Tōtsuki. But he hated how his two favorite girls were dragged through the mud.

"She's actually embarrassing herself, I fear. Because you know how possessive the Ice Queen is over Yukihira—not that I blame her, he's hot." Her long-haired twin replied, shifting his weight to watch Soma walk by. Okay, just one of his favorite girls was being dragged.

He walked to class, for the first time glad to be in cooking lectures for the next three hours, sheltered from the halls of gossip. Unfortunately for him, even tenured professors were discussing it, focusing on him, making it even more unbearable to pay attention in class.

"Attention! Attention, class!" Chapelle-sensei shouted to bring the second-year class back to order. "While I, for one, believe thiz food war iz an utter disgrace to the illustrious reputation of ze Council of Ten, Tōtsuki Academy, and ze integrity of both chefs involved, I will assign twenty-five extra credit points to your final grade for any recette reviews from ze match on ze level of a gourmet food critic."

So Soma left.
He could find better ways to distract himself from the drama surrounding him than to sit front-row and listen to his professors publicly shame him. But he couldn't deny his instructor's mocking truth: this was a bad look for The Ten. He and Tadokoro were well-known seated members on the Elite Ten. Erina had already surpassed the level he'd spent his entire first year at Tōtsuki coveting and fighting for. She was the school's director, for crying out loud!

Yeah. This was a really, really bad look.

-8-

At first, he didn't even know what was going on. Erina scoffed so hard he thought she was choking when he found out there had even been tension between them. Apart from his assumed responsibility as the First Seat was meant to carry, Soma didn't always pick up on what was happening between the Ten members unless it was blatantly affecting him. Then he just took action (because he hated complaining about problems when he could solve them).

So it goes without saying he did not want this food war to occur. At all. He even begged for it to be called off. He didn't want anyone to think he had sanctioned it as the First Seat, nor as a loyal friend to both girls. In fact, Soma wanted to scream down the hallway so badly that he was the first one against the Shokugeki.

He'd attempted to reason with Megumi the night before, confident she would be the more inclined of the two girls to listen to him. He knew that through the past year and change at the academy, their friendship had deepened to the point where they could trust the other's vulnerability. He figured she would be his most rational first line of defense, especially since she was the one who called the challenge, and Erina was ignoring his calls and texts.

But she refused to change her mind.

—

Soma knocked on Megumi's door at half-past midnight; his pits were sweating from anxious urgency, but he was also ready and willing to bargain whatever was needed to get her to call the whole madness off. He was positive he could talk some sense into her.

"Tadokoro, why are you doing this?" He asked when she opened the door. He noted that she hadn't invited him as usual as she stood in the doorway.

"I just have to, Soma-kun," she petered out. Her timidity and determination confused Soma so much that he thought he would combust.

"But, why?! What is there to prove?" Soma heard his voice rising in desperate frustration to understand whatever point he was clearly missing. Megumi raised her head and looked squarely at him.

"To prove I will not be bullied out of my feelings for you."

His lungs deflated at her confession. It made no sense. It felt like petty high school drama because it was. They were such great friends; why would she think fighting like this would improve their relationship? But he knew he couldn't ask that. He needed to fix this mess, not make it worse. Scrambling to find another argument, he stressed that her education at Tōtsuki was on the line, shaking as he was already feeling the bitter regret of missing her if she got expelled in his bones.

"Listen, Megumi, Mitsuhara gave me the inside scoop that news of the challenge breaks at sunrise. Call it off, please, I beg you. It's not too late."

"I know..." Megumi could see the pressure was mounting on her best friend. She could hear the fear thickening his tongue as he begged her to reconsider. She could tell this was wearing him down, but—

"So, get some rest, Soma-kun. You look exhausted."

The door timidly shut in his face.

—

Now, he was being cast as the villain of this twisted love triangle.

It sickened Soma to think his peers would believe he was an asshole enough even to think this was a fair fight, let alone the best way to handle an unnecessary entanglement. They knew nothing of how much it had been eating away at him since he found out because he still didn't fully understand how he found himself in this mess in the first place.

Contrary to popular belief, Soma knew that Megumi had feelings for him for a while. It wasn't hard to pick up on; Megumi was too innocent to be deceitful, even for someone as emotionally obtuse as he was, but he could read her like an old family recipe.

It just didn't matter to him. They worked so well in the kitchen and made such a reliable team. More importantly, though, he valued the fuck out of their friendship, and he wasn't going to throw it away over her crush. He figured she'd get over it in time...he hoped. Tadokoro could read him without a single word on his part and knew just how to comfort him when he thought he was doing an incredible job hiding behind his mask. She never let him fight alone, and he loved that she was as loyal as him. So since Megumi never made her true feelings known to him...until she did...he accepted the unspoken truth and respected her silence, too. All that mattered to him was that they were there for each other, and she was his best friend, simply as he was. Her friendship was already more than he felt worthy of.

Besides, by the time Megumi told him how she felt, Erina had his whole heart.

-8-

Walking down the halls again, Soma could no longer ignore the people sneering at him. It made him furious. All he could do was shove his tight fists back into his pockets and not let them know he felt like shit. The insults and glowers he knew he couldn't respond or react to was making the Totsuki halls longer than necessary. Suddenly, as Soma turned the corner to the Elite Ten wing, a stiff shoulder bump made him stumble into the wall as some random asshole walked past him, scoffing.

"Move out the way, fuckboi—oops, I mean, First Seat." The asshole was a fiery-red second-year with a nasty attitude named Kusunoki Rentarō. He turned to his posse of oddballs. "I can't believe that pathetic dumb hick finally girl thinks she can win against the Joan of Arc. And for that prick—"

Now that? Soma refused to ignore. He'd never even spoken to this guy with devil eyes, but Soma knew he hung out with Eizan, so he had to be bad news. But before the heckler knew what had happened, Soma pinned him against a locker, preparing to punch the trembling boy in the gut.

But that would not have boded well explaining to the academy director/his not-quite-girlfriend.

Speaking of the princess…

"Yukihira?"

Erina emerged from the corner hall Soma was about to turn on, shocked to see him, which annoyed him for a reason he could not place. Wordlessly, Soma let the shaking boy go and turned to face his crush, with whom he was starting to feel upset. But standing there staring at her, he knew his love for her was unwavering.

Still, he walked past her.
But not before gently linking their pinkies and leading her into her Director's Suite.

Soma swung Erina's office door open and slammed it shut with more force than he had intended. That probably scared her, so he was glad Old Man Senzaemon and Hisako were nowhere to be found. He needed to talk to her as just them. He needed to be angry, honestly.

"Would you like some tea?" Erina casually asked like nothing was amiss. "Hisako brewed a fresh pot of medicinal tea before she headed out. She said it's dandelion root, hibiscus, and cardamom to help calm—" Erina hopped back and let out a tiny squeak. Soma suddenly grabbed her by her arms and wrapped her in his. She would've slapped the taste out his mouth if his stare weren't so intense and his hold so strong. Erina realized at that moment that she had sorely underestimated Soma's strength because of his goofiness without even thinking about it.

If Soma weren't so focused and full of adrenaline, he would have stopped to notice how she managed to look like a cute little bunny when she was caught off guard. But his heart rate slowed when he smelled a whiff of her sweet, calming shampoo as her hair whipped through the air and across his face.

"Yu-Yukihira? A-are you alright?" At first, Erina was too startled to be angry that he'd just accosted her in the Director's office; it was a place of business, for crying out loud. But now she was getting scared, and her mounting concern made her lose patience. "Why were you pinning that poor second-year to a locker?" He didn't respond; he calmly released his hold, let his hands trace her torso, and settled on the small of her back.

"Yukihira! You better say something!" She tried to match the force he used on the door to slam his hands, but her voice hitched, preventing her from yelling at him. "Hh-h'I'm...t-talking t-" Before she could finish her sentence, he pressed his lips against hers firmly and softly kissed her lips apart, forcing her to gasp from the sensation. Her brain fumbled for a word of protest, but all that came out of her mouth was a yearning moan, the parting of her lips and her shaky breath granting his tongue entry.

At some head-spinning point, Erina stopped breathing. The kiss was chaotic, sloppy, and intense. As their tongues intertwined, their lips pressed, and their teeth clicked against each other, Erina became too dizzy to keep herself up. On cue, Soma pulled her closer, pressing his hands into her back and their waists against each other. Her knees felt like water beneath her. Soma lifted her by the core into his arms and walked over to the domineering director's chair, never breaking their kiss.

Erina's eyes flew open when he sat her in the chair without him. "Soma?" She gasped for air, blushing from surprise. Her amethyst eyes glistened from the sudden passion of the last few minutes. That's when she noticed Soma was kneeling between her opened legs (when did that happen?), his rough, calloused fingers entangled in her lengthy, golden tresses, pulling her face down into his as if he were asking her to pour out every drop of water from within her to quench his thirst.

It was all so heady for her. She tried to remember to breathe and to be present, but her heart was beating too fast for her to remain an active participant. She felt like she was being spirited away to the wildest romance isekai.

And it felt like ecstasy.

But he still hadn't answered her. So, while Erina really wished she didn't have to because she really didn't want to, she slowly pulled back from the kiss. Cusping and brushing her crush's cheeks like a sweet, fuzzy peach in her hands, she stopped and stared into his boyishly charming face. Even with such a stern look on his face, Erina couldn't look away. He was too beautiful to ignore.

Soma loved the sight from his vantage point, too. He was obsessed with the magenta dots at the bottom that danced and twirled when she turned bashful. He kept his eyes locked on them for a long while. The commotion that previously disrupted the office had quieted to nothing, and the silence settled into a comforting atmosphere. Damn, he loved being alone with her and wished they could remain frozen in time and space like they were, but he knew she was awaiting an explanation for his actions.

"Nakiri, do you like me?" The question was weighty, almost angry. But it was also uncertain, like he genuinely didn't know how much he made her heart beat, how hugging him made her eyes sweat, nor how often his scent made her lungs faint.

And that broke Erina's heart. That, after all they'd been through, she still managed to give him reasons to doubt.

"H-huh?" She could barely calm her breathing to hear him, but she did, and still, she couldn't find the words to answer his question correctly. How she wished she had been more patient with his cluelessness minutes ago.

"Do you like me?" He repeated like a tape recorder. Erina's blush returned but for a different reason than before.

"Yukihira-kun…" she whispered. Soma shook his head and softly smiled. He was annoyed but no longer angry. From the moment he met her, he knew Erina was a tough nut to crack. Though that never bothered him, he didn't realize that included experiencing conflicting feelings simultaneously, fighting for center stage in his heart.

"Nakiri," he quietly responded with a cute smirk that Erina couldn't resist, so she shied away.
But his fingertips guided her chin back to his nose, and he gently pulled it down until their lips were barely apart. "Do you want to be with me?" He paused and scanned her striking features. She really was the most beautiful person he'd ever laid eyes on. "Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

Erina tried her hardest to access that with part of her brain where she kept her incisive comebacks. That section of her brain that was once borderline abusive when she first met. She tried to unleash that sharp-bladed tongue that used to cut his plebeian arrogance down to its tiniest bits quickly.

But she couldn't reach it. They had locked eyes in silence and made no movements, and Erina could not think about a single thing. They stayed frozen in time, unwilling, unable to break away.
Finally, Soma took a long, exhausted sigh. "Don't worry about it, Nakiri. My bad. I shouldn't have asked you that. This is all my fault."

That snapped her out of it. "What is?"

Soma immediately sensed when the strict Erina he was used to returned. His heart began racing again. It was now or never. "This mess between you and Megumi, the Shokugeki for my heart. It's all my fault."

Erina's face screwed up. He had sincerely lost his mind. She swiveled her grandfather's chair—no—her chair to face her desk. She scribbled on a stack of paperwork like she'd always been working and calmly replied, "Don't flatter yourself, peasant." It was nothing close to her flirting when they argued about, well, anything. Those four words rang in Soma's ears like she rejected his food the first time. The words that left her lips sounded like nothing between them had ever changed since that first day.

The problem was, everything had. That kiss they just shared proved it. "I…I'm not?" Soma queried. His head cocked to the side in disbelief.

"You must be to think any of this is about you, Yukihira. This Shokugeki is about the principle of the matter, nothing more, nothing less. I know Tadokoro and I are not as close as the two of you, but I've acknowledged her unassuming country cooking and kind gestures. More importantly, I've never disapproved of your friendship—ah, I'm still talking—even when I was skeptical. And look at where we are now. It seems like I was right all along. Nakiri Erina was right to distrust the people in her life once again. Shocker." She put her pen down and picked up the netsuke paperweight pinning down the rest of the paperwork. Entirely concentrated on the tiny crossed-knives sculpture, Erina asked, "Do you know what paranoia proven true is called?"

Soma shuffled in place, confused and honestly too scared to speak.

"Speak!"

"Fear?"

"Wrong. Intuition. And my intuition never lies." Then her voice grew callous, bone-chilling in Soma's body. "But—even amid my suspicions—I have never been anything but kind and respectful to her. Kinder than I am to anyone, including you, because I pitied her timidity and thought she was harmless. And she means so much to you. I put my pride aside for another girl because of how much she means to you." She scoffed in spite. "Did you come here to ask me not to accept her challenge? If so, I'm sure you already know it's too late. How she approached us…how she approached me with this bullshit challenge?! I will not ignore it. Not as director of this academy, not as the heir of the Nakiri family, and not as THEE God Tongue."

"But …why?" Soma asked, searching her face earnestly. "What will this prove, Erina? You already know deeply how I feel about you. Why—"

"Because she's trying to compete with me!"

"Huh?"

Erina huffed. Her reddening face swelled with her trademark intolerance. She took another one. Then another. And another, until she shouted at the top of her lungs, "At your New Year's Eve party! She stole our perfect moment!"

"Erina, you're rambling."

"Hello? The night of your confession to me—she ruined that one special moment of courage away from me. Our moment! She humiliated me!"

"Courage? Humiliated? Are you pranking me?"

"NO!" She spat, rising to her feet. Her chest was heaving, rising and falling underneath her pristinely white double-breasted chef's coat. Regaining her composure, she admitted, "I-I wanted to… I went to find you to tell you…." her voice trailed off in a rather meek way that was strange to him.

And adorable. He took a careful step toward her. "To tell me what?" The softness in his voice melted the last of her icy defenses.

"THAT I LOVE YOU, OKAY?!"

Soma crashed into her chair. Were his ears deceiving him? Did Erina confess her feelings to him? This was Nakiri-"I'll lie to myself and believe it with my whole chest if I have to"-Erina, right?

Two gold irises, wide as two full moons, scanned the pair of dewy warm purple orbs for a telltale that he was dreaming. Erina could feel her heart being slowly pulled in by the moons, deeper into the void of emotional vulnerability she only seemed capable of descending with him. "I was going to confess to you the very same thing that night," she pipped out before diverting her gaze. "Or maybe...I just like you," she bashfully mumbled. "A…lot." It was all too intimate to stay confident in. She didn't know when Soma had earned access to her most fragile self, but it made her blush from embarrassment.

Though her Shokugeki had been, it wasn't breaking news that intimacy was never something Erina was comfortable with. She felt ill-prepared to say these things now on the spot, having spent all her life emotionally impenetrable that she ended up imprisoned herself. Her therapist was helping her realize that her abusive and neglectful childhood was to blame, but she knew she needed this unruly and unpredictable boy in her life. The further she slipped into the void with him, the more she needed him to know how she truly felt— before she would do what she must to defend her name. Soma gently took her hands into his, placing the netsuke she'd been stress-rubbing on the table, and swept his thumbs back and forth across the back of her hands. He pulled her into his lap. His touch was soothing and electrifying under her itchy chef's uniform.

"I know you do," his breath brushed hotly against her ear. Erina turned to face him, astonished by the genuineness in his voice, and sank into his chest. "So, you don't need to do this. Don't have the Shokugeki, Erina. You have nothing to prove. Please. Call the Shokugeki off. For me."

"Soma…" It was now her turn to be gentle. She slid herself out of his embrace—a small part of her was sad that he didn't attempt to keep her there—and pulled back to create distance between them. When she realized he was serious, she got off his lap and cleared her office's open layout. Soma immediately stood to his feet, monitoring her as she walked away. Erina twisted the doorknob, her back to him. "That was never my call to make."

Carefully opening the door, she turned to face the boy she had never dreamt she could ever like. But as he stood tall and still as a boulder behind her grandfather's desk, she couldn't deny she loved him. He looked good standing there.

Worth fighting for.

"But I will not lose."

The door firmly shut behind her.

a/n: and we are back with chapter six! i'm shocked that it's been three weeks since my last update, but whew, chillay! this chapter, in particular, was a five-month-long work in progress, and it's been through so many iterations, but i'm satisfied with what you just finished reading. and if you haven't already realized it, this entire chapter was a flashback. in fact, there was even a flashback within the flashback. (you're welcome.) it was important to me to pull us back in time with our main couple because it's been a while since they've been together by themselves on the page, and i enjoy exploring their dynamic and writing about their intensity). enemies-to-lovers romances are only as satisfying as their passion. speaking of passion: i hope you enjoyed the physical and emotional rides because it's about to become a rollercoaster.

let me know what you think with a review! share, favorite, and follow to stay informed about updates, especially as we enter the downtime the end of the year brings.

-My pleasure! Hope you enjoyed!-

8.20withlove

disclaimer: it blows that i don't own the rights to SnS. but, what're you gonna do, y'know? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯