Since the final score will be mailed to us later, once we confirmed the preliminary score ourselves, we were told to put our report card on the teacher’s desk.
Once I did that I quietly left the classroom with my luggage. I quickly put my shoes back in the shoebox at the entrance and then the moment I stepped out of the building, I heard a voice from behind me.
“Oi, wait there Seiya! There are no club activities today so let’s go home together!”
“…..Fuu, so it’s you Masato. I jumped a little when you suddenly called out to me you know. Alright, let’s go home together.”
“Nn? Ah, it’s not like that, I’m not the only one you know? See, we are all free so let’s walk home together.”
“Haa, Haa, I finally caught up! Hiura-kun disappeared from the classroom so suddenly! You were too fast alright! You made me and Reika rush out of the class you know!”
“Fuu, I managed to catch up…….leaving so early do you have some business later? Then it seems that we will have to postpone the takoyaki party, aren’t we……..”
Perhaps Eihashi-san was looking forward to the takoyaki party, she took out her schedule book with a visibly disappointed expression.
This is bad, the situation is not very bad but I can’t say that I sneaked out of the classroom to avoid talking about this. I mean, I never thought that they would be this forward about it……..
At that time, I saw Masato grinning at the edge of my vision. He understood me by instinct!? This is bad!
“Maybe Seiya was——”
“—-I just remembered that I left the takoyaki pan at my parents’ house so I was leaving early to buy a new one! See, even if we want to have a takoyaki party, we still don’t have the equipment right? Takoyaki needs to be round so I can’t substitute it with other kinds of pan you see.”
I immediately interrupted Masato who was probably trying to say that I was trying to ditch them.
“Since we are already here, how about I go buy the pan and Masato go buy the utensils and the ingredients! See, it’s a celebration since Eihashi-san got first place too! Well, for the time being, let’s walk!”
For the time being, I took revenge on Masato who tried to expose me. I am a man that will not go down without doing anything. I made the grilled ginger for you last time so I will have you forgive me with this…….
If we talk at the doorway we would stand out so I decided to start walking. The schedule changed. We will have the takoyaki party today.
“Wait, Hey, What!”
“Yup yup, sorry! It was supposed to be a secret surprise party but there’s no helping it since the cat is already out of the bag right? Rather, if you didn’t say it some of us might not be able to come so it was the right call you know?”
“Eh! If it’s a celebration for Reika then I have to buy something too! Is there anything we can buy as a shared gift?”
Masato is looking at me with a defeated expression on his face but if I decide to mind I feel like I will lose. I activated my trap the moment I was about to fall and thanks to that I managed to avoid falling too.
Rather than that, this is bad, I can’t find any excuse to not have Ichinose-san share the cost. It was my bad since I blurted it out myself but the excuse I used managed to exempt Eihashi-san from paying for this but Ichinose-san still has to pay for some of it.
But I won’t lessen what Masato has to buy for his share okay!
What do you need to buy to have a proper takoyaki? Sauce and Mayonnaise? No, I already have those at home……Ah, I see!
“When we talk about the Takoyaki Party then it has to be Russian Takoyaki right? So can you buy wasabi, mustard, and other edible things that can be used in a penalty game okay?
“Oh! That’s a good idea! Leave it to me! I will buy all the bad ones at the market!”
“Wa, please wait a minute! Hiura-san already hosts this at your place and you are going to pay for the equipment too…….I would feel bad if I don’t bring anything myself.”
“Even if you say that, we already assigned everything though…….Masato, do we miss anything?”
“For Russian Takoyaki, the pan and the ingredients should be enough right?……Honestly, I would like to say money but I will admit my defeat this time.”
Even if we put it as a celebration for Eihashi-san, it was originally a party to celebrate the fact that everyone’s rank has gone up so it seems that Eihashi-san feels guilty that she can’t bring anything to the table.
Even so, the condition for this party was that everyone’s rank would go up so it was depending on Eihashi-san getting the first place to have this party in the first place.
Besides, the reason why it became such a complicated situation as it is was that I was trying to dodge it.
With that in mind, I was thinking of trying to come up with something to ask Eihashi-san to prepare and one thing popped up in my mind.
“I have only two sets of tableware at my place so can I have Eihashi-san bring more tableware for us?……..it seems that you are living close to my place anyway……..”
“Ah, Yes! I understand. I will bring out the cute ones okay!”
“No, the normal one is fine……but I will leave that to you.”
“Hmm? Seiya, you know where Eihashi-san lives?”
“Yeah, when we decided to have a study session together, our way home was pretty much the same……..”
“Ahhh, it was that day wasn’t it! The day that I went to borrow a book!”
“That’s right, it seems that the mansion behind my place is Eihashi-san’s place you see.”
“Houu, so it seems that we can leave the tableware to her huh.”
With this, everyone’s roles are set. However, there is still one important thing left.
“So when will we have this party?”
“Eh? Weren’t we going to hold it today? You deliberately left early so that you can buy the pan, weren’t you? Or were you in a hurry because of something else?”
It seems that Masato is trying to have his revenge against my revenge. Seriously, I can’t let my guard down at all.”
“No, I was motivated but I didn’t ask if Masato or the two are free today right?”
“I’m fine with today! Or rather, since the club activities will resume tomorrow, it would be more convenient to have it today.”
“I am fine with today as well. It is an exam after-party so I don’t think that we should leave much time between it.”
So the vote is unanimous huh. Right, if I didn’t put on that condition, we would have a party on the final day of the test huh. It’s better to get this done as soon as possible.
……if a lot of time has passed then we won’t know why we have a party in the first place after all.
“Then let’s go, let’s walk together until we reach the mall.”
“Right, the mall is close by anyway, I’m sure they are selling the takoyaki pan and the ingredients there too.”
“Alright, since we will have a Russian Takoyaki I will sneak off with Reika to buy our ingredients so let’s split up into a boy and a girl group okay!”
“That’s right Akira-chan! Let’s look for something that will surprise them!”
Once we reached the mall, Ichinose-san and Eihashi-san got on the escalator and go upstairs where I and Masato went to the basement floor.