Chapter 28: Dinner Party

“Youna, are you ready to head out now?” A woman’s voice called upstairs. The young girl had already changed into her public clothes, but she had been a little distracted with a few things. That namely being the Mintendo Switch hooked up to her TV.

“I’ll be right down.” She responded, turning off her game. This was to be a nice simple night out with the family enjoying a wonderful dinner at her favorite restaurant.

“I can’t believe this will be your last Summer break in high school.” Her mom glowed with pride as her daughter came down the steps. “My little girl is really grown up now.”

“Mom, I haven’t been a little girl for a long time.” Depending on the definition, Youna hadn’t become a ‘big’ girl in terms of size compared to her peers. She still maintained the same height from her junior high years. Which placed her with only 154 centimeters to her name.

“You said that when you turned 18.” Her dad recalled the moment like it was yesterday. “You told us that you didn’t want a cake because you’re an adult now, but you’ll always be that sweet little girl to us.”

“Okay, but don’t say that type of stuff when we’re eating.” She was nervous about what they might say to strangers. Though it was unlikely that they were to converse with the local patrons. Not at the establishment they were heading to, since it was usually not very busy at this time. So hopefully there wouldn’t be any people for her to worry about.

And so they were off. The family walked together, since the location wasn’t far from their home. Being Summer, the sun was still up, but working its way down to setting. The light shone on the buildings and trees, casting its warm colors atop them. Sounds of animals filled the immediate area, mostly of birds and cicadas. Though there were also the barks of dogs and meows of cats to go along with it.

“It’s really beautiful today.” Her mom commented. “You know, if you didn’t spend so much time cooped up in your room, you’d enjoy it a lot too.” She told Youna.

“I’m fine.” She replied. “It’s not like I enjoy going outdoors that much.” Though the reason she didn’t leave her room was simply because she didn’t have a good reason to go out to the public that often. What would she do? It wasn’t like she had many friends she could hang out with, or places where she could socialize with people on hobbies. The only person she even had contact with outside of family was Ishi, and there was no way she could just call him up from the blue and ask him to hang out. What would they even do?

Oh well, at least she could enjoy some of her favorite foods tonight in celebration to one of her last days of Summer break. It was always a challenge to eat here, since the girl could hardly ever make up her mind onto what would be good in the moment. Perhaps she might even spoil herself and get two for the occasion.

They sat down at their table and looked over the menu. Youna was more than prepared to ask for both a large udon bowl, and a bowl of gyudon. Those were easily her top two favorites.

“My, you’re hungry tonight, aren’t you?” Her mother teased. “It’s a good thing that the prices here are fairly low. Or else we’d be bankrupt in no time.” Their laughter only served to make her feel a tiny bit self-conscious about the meal. After all, it was a lot of food for a girl her size. At least it was fine since nobody else she knew was here to see it…

That is, until the bell above the door rang. It signaled the arrival of customers, and this group of people contained someone she really didn’t want to see right now.

“Ah, Ms. Hanada. Fancy seeing you here.” It was Ishi, along with his family. His mother had cheerfully greeted her mom as the pair exchanged hugs. Without even a second’s hesitation, his parents sat themselves at the same table as her family’s.

“I guess that’s where we’ll be sitting.” Ishi quipped to himself. Leave it to his parents to not allow anyone to enjoy some quiet dinner to themselves. Without saying much else, he sat himself across from Youna. His parents obviously sat themselves where they did to force him to do so. Meanwhile, someone that she had never met sat next to them, on the side of the table.

“Hi, I’m Koto.” The younger boy greeted himself to Youna. “And you are?”

“Um, Youna Hanada.” She responded in a formal manner to this stranger. “I didn’t think that Ishi had any siblings.”

“I’m his cousin.” He answered.

“Yeah, and he’s going to be going to school with us from now on.” Ishi continued. “Don’t worry about seeing him too much, he’s only a first year.”

“And how do you two know each other?”

“Youna’s a classmate of mine.” He responded. “She’s also the class rep.” There was something missing in his sentence that stressed her out. It was the fact that he only referred to her simply only as a classmate.

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“We’re also friends…” She meekly spoke up, turning her head away from them as if trying to make neither of them hear it. Despite wanting them both aware of it.

“Yeah, that too.”

“But that was pretty obvious.” Koto chuckled. “Ishi doesn’t like saying the word friend that much. So if he calls you by name, then he must really like you.” She understood now, and felt rather stupid for saying it out loud the way she did. Now the girl was worried she might’ve sounded like she was upset with the way he talked.

“Let’s get our meals ordered before we continue chatting.” Ishi dug his face into the menu as an excuse to discontinue their talking. He wasn’t planning on anyone that he knew being here, but it could have been worse. Youna was definitely the one he’d want to be with if he had to be forced to hang out with anyone.

“I assume that you’ll just end up getting the usual.” His dad said in the background.

“Yeah, I’m just going to get the udon and gyudon bowls.” He answered. It was also his favorite, which Youna was aware of from their long history with each other. Him saying this reminded her of her order as well, which then gave her some anxiety. Especially now that her family’s food had arrived.

“And I believe you had the both the large udon and gyudon.” The server’s words sounded really loud in her ears. Now she was feeling really self-conscious with Ishi being right in front of her. It looked weird if someone like her had just a large meal.

“I think you made a mistake.” She couldn’t maintain eye contact to anyone as she responded. “I only ordered the udon.”

“Don’t worry about her.” Her mom had to ruin her poor attempt. “She’s just a little shy because a cute boy’s sitting in front of her.”

“Mom!” She was feeling a little shaky with how open her mom was with speaking her feelings. “Okay, just slide the other bowl here then…” She then quietly whispered to admit the truth about her food.

“...Thank you for the kind words, Mrs. Hanada.” Ishi said as the food was being placed in front of everyone. His mom bragged about how she had instill in him some respect of taking a compliment. Youna didn’t realize that was how he could be. She never took him to be the type to appreciate someone mentioning his looks. “And Youna, there’s nothing wrong with all that food. They’re your favorites, aren’t they?”

“R-right.” She replied. “I’m surprised you remember it.”

“There’s not a lot that I forget about.” He responded. “I think you’ve mentioned that back during our first year in high school.”

“My, you two have known each other that long?” His dad teased. “I didn’t realize that you had a secret girlfriend.” His words had no effect on Ishi, who knew the truth anyway. There didn’t seem to be anything that could get this boy flustered.

“Well, the two of us have known each other since junior high.” Youna remembered the day when they met. Which wasn’t anything special in her mind, since they were sitting next to each other as a result of their family names. Of course she wasn’t all that different back then to how she was now. That being the girl who didn’t know how to start any conversations. So they didn’t speak to the other for months after classes started.

The first words spoken were by him, who simply asked her about a pen that dropped under her desk. Then that would be in until the two of them had to work together on a class project because of their seating arrangement.

“That’s really cute.” Youna’s dad gushed about the circumstances. “It’s like the two of you are childhood friends.”

“I wouldn’t call it that.” He didn’t like the idea, since that just fueled the thought that he was some weirdo on a television show. Not to mention that he would’ve thought that someone he grew up with would’ve had a little bit more of a presence in his life. Well at least in terms of walking to school with him. That’s how it worked, right? “But that’s not the first time we met each other.”

No it wasn’t. He certainly remembered an encounter with her that was a lot longer ago. All the way back to when they were a lot younger.

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