Soma never understood why his peers could not bear to be near Erina Nakiri without falling apart. It confused him whenever people made a big deal about how casual he was with her—including the culinary princess herself. But Soma was casual with everyone and could be comfortable around just about anyone, so getting along with the prima donna of Tohtsuki shouldn't be so difficult. So, when he paid no mind to her rude rich-girl attitude, she was pretty easy to get along with.

At least, that's what Soma hoped.

They stood about a hundred feet apart in an empty Tohtsuki Resort parking lot. As Soma took in her poised beauty, he found it a little hard to breathe. Since running into her (literally), and showing her his skills under pressure during the breakfast challenge, he noticed that Erina's little attitude spells no longer stung like they used to. Besides, right now standing in broad daylight, Erina Nakiri was stunning even with an annoyed look on her face. His legs moved on their own.

"Oi! Nakiri! Funny running into you here. Missed the bus, too?" Soma couldn't be afraid of her if he wanted to beat her in the kitchen, so he closed the distance between them and stood at her side.

"Do you seriously think I'd ride in a school chartered bus back to Tohtsuki, dummy?"

He shrugged and belched, "Well, it is your family's bus..."

"You're disgusting! And what did you just say?" She snapped.

"Just save that judgment call for the next time you taste my dish," he chuckled, impressed by how quickly her face soured.

"As if, Yukihira!" Erina rolled her eyes and turned around, her long hair whipping behind her.

"Heh- isn't it funny how the last time we were alone together it's because we were the first first-years to finish, but this time it's because we're the last to leave? Life, huh? Wild!"

"Do not make small-talk with me like we are friends," she said with her back still turned. "I am out of your league, Soma Yukihira."

Whenever she spoke down to him, Soma's belly heated up. It's not that it made him angry per se, but it kicked the deep competitive drive within him. Erina was just another rival to conquer at Tohtsuki. She was a first-year, just like him. So what if she was already on the Ten, had supernatural taste buds, the granddaughter of the academy's director with every connection in the culinary industry, and was the academy's heiress—so what?

So, yeah, of course, he was stunned to witness her talent up close; it was intimidating to see how skilled she was with a kitchen knife and an ingredient as basic as an egg, especially after Chef Dojima's stirring account of her life story in the bathhouse. Indeed, she was a culinary force of nature, but Soma was not one bit intimidated by her fire. In Soma's mind, they were equals. That's why he was so excited to see her work in real-time for the first time this past week. The four hundred and six miniature eggs benedicts Erina made during the training camp snatched the judges' souls and proved that she was on an entirely different level than all of them. Him, most of all.

But that didn't mean she was untouchable.

Erina must have realized that she had nowhere to go but back inside the hotel resort's lobby because she began walking but stopped and pulled out her phone. The front entrance was a football field away from where they stood, so there was no way anyone would notice them standing there stranded. She spun back around.

"Do not stare at me like that, you peasant!" She snarled after a beat of awkward silence. Soma hadn't even realized he'd become lost staring into her jewel-toned eyes until her voice shattered his eardrums like dropped plates.

Where others revealed their insecurities in her presence, Soma felt energized by the challenge she spurred within him. Yet, he could admit that he wanted to impress her.

He grabbed her hand. "Wanna figure out a way home...together?" His lowered register startled her, but she held his gaze...and his hand. Soma's heart did something close to diving off a cliff like a cannonball into his gut.

A minivan sped toward them. "Miss Erina, we received the call from your assistant!" An employee from the concierge service slid open the automatic door and rushed toward them. "Oh, it's two! Did you both miss the bus?" The woman looked between them, then down at their hands.

"Uh...y-yes," Erina spoke up, snatching her hand away and scowling at Soma. "I forgot something important in my room and needed to fetch it. I believe my car service is still on its way. But, this imbecile missed the bus."

Soma shrugged and faced the worried woman. She had to be in her mid-twenties but she looked their age, like another Tohtsuki student in her crisp work uniform and foggy glasses. If not for the fact that Soma remembered he ran into her at the hotel lobby earlier that week when he returned a deck of cards, he would've asked her if she missed the bus too.

"No worries, ma'am! I'll get you a resort car to take you both back to campus," she said like a soldier. She immediately whipped out her phone and sprinted back to the van.

"Oh, no! I will not be riding with him," Erina scoffed.

But the woman did not stop to hear as the automatic sliding door was manually slammed shut. "Step on it! We must get Miss Erina and that boy back to Tohtsuki. Pronto!"

Soma clapped his hand on her back and Erina cringed. "Would you look at that! Looks like we'll be heading back to Tohtsuki together after all!" Soma smiled with his fangs poking out.

Erina had yet to be dethroned from her lofty Tenth Seat, and Soma was ready to be the one to do it. Every step necessary to catch up to her, no matter how far she went, no matter how long it took him, he would scale. Soma was prepared to ascend them all to reach Erina Nakiri's summit. He knew it was only a matter of time before he won over Erina's taste buds. If Tohtsuki were the training ground and the battlefield, he would train til he bled to be good enough to challenge her.

Good enough to win against her.

Soma was beginning to enjoy this competitive rush she had awakened.

-8-

Soma watched the scenery zoom past the tinted window of the luxury town car. Between Erina adamantly insisting that her driver pick her up and the miscommunication with the resort concierge canceling the other car for Soma, the ride back to Tohtsuki was agonizingly awkward. He surveyed the leather interior. Seeing so much wealth up close so often was still jarring. The car doors had glossed wood paneling and gold handles, and Soma wondered if this limousine was the only available car in the fleet, or if this was just how Tohtsuki did everything. Then he realized—Soma, you silly goose!—this was only his experience because of who he was riding with.

"The Autumn Selection?"

Soma tried to nap while Erina took a phone call, but sleep had left his eyes halfway through her conversation. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but his interest was piqued. She had such serious conversations to only be fifteen years old. Erina abruptly ended the call.

"Why are you listening to my private conversations?"

"I mean..."

She cut him off, curt. "But, yes. The Fall Selection. However, based on your commoner, rush-to-the-very-last-second cooking style, Yukihira, you'll never be chosen. So don't even press your luck dreaming!"

Soma smirked at the news. Just like Tohtsuki not even allowing them a second to catch their breath before throwing them into another roaring furnace. But that just meant another opportunity to test himself and prove his worth. His insides bubbled with excitement. It sounded like it was another tournament (he was starting to notice Tohtsuki loved them), but he couldn't wait to learn more.

If only it hadn't bothered Soma that Erina was, once again, doubting his culinary skills. Even after he stole her customers with his fluffy omelet soufflé at the eleventh hour, she still didn't think he had what it took to be at the academy.

Well, that's rather annoying.

"Tell me more!" He didn't even have the time to agree with Erina's cynicism and doubt that he'd be in on the action. He was already revved up.

Soma laughed in her face with joy. Erina didn't like that, but after she explained their newest quest as first-years, Soma just couldn't resist! He was right to be thrilled. A festival of fine cuisine? Sign him up! Competing against the best first-years in Tohtsuki to be named the best in their class's generation, all in front of the entire academy? He was ready to show what he could do on a grand stage to come out on top.

"That's if you're one of the hundred selected." She was being negative, but he lived for the rush of live cooking. The pressure of performing drove him to be creative and discover a better version of himself. So what better way than to make good on his Opening Ceremony speech to Tohtsuki than to wipe the competition in a new season?

"Fun! Sounds like the perfect time to show what I've learned from my mistakes."

Erina scoffed at him and looked out her window, watching the green-cloaked mountains blur past them. "You truly are a poor fool. You know that, right, Yukihira? You seriously know nothing about the elite world you've fumbled into. For a chef, failure is unacceptable. Only exceptional dishes should grace the judges' table. This is no ordinary cooking competition. You will lose, Soma Yukihira, and I will laugh when I see you go." Her blasé tone confused Soma about what she truly meant.

He'd quickly learned that her sharp tongue stayed ready to attack. Lately, he'd been paying close attention to Erina Nakiri for some indiscernible reason and noticed that her smart mouth always seemed to be pointed at him. It annoyed him to no end because he was only trying to be her friend.

But Soma liked playing with fire. What kind of chef could be afraid of that element and call themselves a chef among chefs? So he leaned into the open flame that was Erina Nakiri and her impressively short fuse every chance he got.

"Uh oh, does that mean you'll be looking for me?" Soma said, flashing his trademark rascally grin. "I thought you just said I wouldn't be selected?" He knew he was egging her on, but eggs were their thing, no?

Her cheeks pinked. "S-S-Soma!" Erina looked about two seconds away from a volcanic eruption at his mere suggestion. He leaned back and waited with a smug look for the impending explosion.

Then she blinked, straightening up, and regained her diva demeanor. "As if, Yukihira!" Crossing her arms in a huff, she returned to her window.

It was a brief conversation, but as Soma turned to look out of his window, too, he couldn't stop smiling to himself. Here he was, in the same limo as the first girl who'd ever made it very clear she wanted nothing to do with him. She didn't even want him there at that moment, yet he still was there. Sitting side by side, once again.

Suddenly, she gasped.

Soma turned his head. "What?" Something had startled her.

She did a double take out her window. "Oh, um, nothing!"

She was curt but it was cute.

Later that night, as he sunk into the steaming hot bath at Polar Star dormitory, Soma promised himself that he'd win the Autumn Selection. That would prove to Erina that he was good enough to challenge her to their own Food War.

The long days at the Tohtsuki, enduring endless culinary challenges, longer classes to catch up on missed assignments, and even longer nights staying up late cooking, studying, or partying were beginning to take a toll on his sleep schedule and growing body. Good thing summer break was just around the corner because that's exactly what he needed. So, he needed to soak his weary bones and rest up for the next battle. Good thing they had the next day off.

"That's if you're one of the fifty selected."

He sunk deeper under the hot water, drowning out the vibrations from his phone.

He exited the bath and saw his phone lighting up with a new notification.

Sweat Meat
Sunday 11:23 PM

Plz forget about what happened at the celebration party.

11:33 PM

And stop calling me Sweet Meat!

Monday 1:00 AM

...have a gn...

Soma read it and shrugged. Better to do what he was told. He started typing.

Monday 1:01 AM

Ok, have a good night, Ni- I mean, IKUMI. ;)

Didn't mean he couldn't have a bit of fun poking at the ridiculousness of all this.

Meat Meat
Monday 1:01 AM

*Meat Meat liked "Ok, have a good night, Ni- I mean, IKUMI. ;)"

Girls his age were strange.

-8-

After their two run-ins at the training camp, something changed between them.

(Or, as Soma restlessly tossed and turned a few nights at the camp feeling... something had changed within him.)

After he sulked all night and the whole day after returning to his dorm room because Erina didn't attend the impromptu Polar Star house party to celebrate passing the training camp, he knew he needed to start paying attention to whatever this change was.

He couldn't put his finger on it, but suddenly, Soma looked for Erina around every corner on campus until summer break. For some odd reason, his brain scrambled searching for reasons to speak to her. Even stranger, she had become more willing to engage, and he was beginning to enjoy their banter. They would cross paths in the hallway and he'd find an excuse to trail her, walking her to her next class or meeting. It annoyed her secretary to no end, but Soma couldn't care less. He would say hey, she would call him an insult but she wouldn't tell him to go away. He would call her out on it with another cooking challenge. Of course, she would reject it, but that was Soma's favorite part of their new mercurial dance because he was impressed by how she never backed down. He liked how she'd double down on her superiority. Confidence seeped through her veins and that's what made her such a fierce competitor.

Erina Nakiri knew who she was and how gifted she was. That only put a battery in Soma's back to prove himself to her as a chef. So, if Erina Nakiri wouldn't back down whenever they spoke, he would stop at nothing, too. So he teased Erina. It felt natural like they'd been rivals since they were kids. It made him wish they had known each other as kids because he'd have had more time to prove her wrong about his cooking. That only felt right.

But today, something was off.

He caught up to her while she and Hisako were crossing the yard on some silly shit. Nothing major.

"Oi, Nakiri! What's up? Wanna battle me in a Food War?"

Erina never broke her stride; he wasn't expecting her to. She hurled a signature pompous insult at him. "Yukihira, you pissant! I don't have time for your incompetence."

But when he touched her shoulder and shook it off, it felt different. "Wait- Nakiri. Are you upset? We don't have to do it today-" It was almost undetectable.

Erina glanced over her shoulder and Soma noticed a small scowling pout before she snapped her head forward and walked away. "Leave me alone, Yukihira."

Never mind.

"Damn. Um, okay." He seemed to be on a losing streak with her. At least she was no longer cursing him out or fussing at him at every turn.

Girls his age were complicated.