My Childhood Friend, Who I Made a Promise To Spend the Future With, Dumped Me... But Ever Since I Started Dating a Beautiful Girl From School, My Childhood Friend Has Been Acting Strange - Episode 19

“This should be about right. The curry roux has melted nicely.”

Suzuki Toma, wearing an apron, was in the kitchen of his home. Inside the pot were ingredients like meat, carrots, onions, and potatoes. The curry roux had been added, and the liquid had turned a rich brown color. A delicious aroma wafted through the air, tickling Toma’s nostrils.

Just then, the rice cooker chimed. He had started cooking the rice about thirty minutes ago, and it seemed to be perfectly done now.

Opening the rice cooker, a cloud of steam rose, revealing the fluffy white rice inside. Toma mixed the rice with a rice paddle.

“Now, I just need to prepare the vegetables.”

Toma had bought some side dishes from the supermarket earlier. The Caesar salad and coleslaw he had been looking for were out of stock, and the only salad available in the prepared food section was potato salad. It seemed that the potato salad was the recommended item of the day, and the store hadn’t made many of the other salad options.

Toma liked potato salad well enough, but he thought it would be better with some added vegetables, so he had bought some lettuce from the produce section.

He placed a few torn lettuce leaves on a plate and scooped some potato salad on top.

“It looks like something you’d get at a restaurant,” he thought.

Lately, he had been cooking more often, and his plating skills had improved quite a bit.

In addition to the salad, he served the rice and curry on another plate and placed it on a tray.

“This should do it. Emi, it’s ready! Can you come get it?”

Toma called out to his younger sister, Emi, who was in the living room.

“Wow, it looks amazing! And it smells so good!”

“Right? I put a lot of effort into it, so dig in!”

“Thanks, big bro! I’ll take the tray to the living room. But I can’t carry both trays at once, so I’ll come back for the second one.”

Emi picked up the tray with the curry, potato salad, pickled radish, cucumber pickles, and a glass of water, and headed to the living room.

Toma decided to quickly wash the cooking utensils that were easy to clean. While he was doing that, Emi returned to the kitchen to take the second tray of food to the living room.

After finishing the dishes, Toma took off his apron, hung it on a nearby chair, and headed to the living room where Emi was waiting.

“Your seat is here, big bro.”

Toma’s seat was next to Emi, on her right. They usually sat across from each other, but today Emi wanted to sit side by side.

Toma sat down next to his sister, and they both said “Itadakimasu” before picking up their spoons and digging into the curry.

“Mmm, big bro, this curry you made is really good!”

Emi’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Well, it’s pretty standard, but still tasty. Not bad at all.”

Toma received a decent evaluation from his sister. It seemed that while it wasn’t anything extraordinary, Emi was happily eating the curry and rice.

“Big bro, you’ve been working hard on your cooking lately, huh?”

“Well, I had to make bento boxes for Suzuhara-san, so I guess my skills improved because of that.”

“By the way, have you let Kamiya-san try your bento yet?”

“Not yet. I’m planning to bring her one sometime this week, though.”

“I see.”

“I can’t really show her a poorly made bento, you know? I tried making one on Sunday, but I burned the tamagoyaki, and it turned out weird. You saw it, right? The one I made.”

“Yeah, that one was… well, a bit off. It was too salty.”

“I messed up the seasoning. I thought I was using sugar, but it turned out to be salt.”

“You really have to double-check that kind of thing. But today’s curry turned out great, and your seasoning has improved a lot. Why don’t you make a bento for Kamiya-san tonight? I’ll help you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I can’t let you give something weird to the person you’re dating. I’ll supervise.”

“Thanks.”

“Alright, let’s finish eating this curry and salad first.”

The combination of store-bought potato salad and the lettuce Toma had added received a positive response from Emi, who said it was delicious.

Earlier that day, Toma had witnessed an unpleasant side of his childhood friend at the supermarket, but Emi seemed to have moved on and didn’t appear to be bothered by it anymore. Toma felt guilty for having put his sister through a tough experience, but since Emi didn’t seem to mind, he decided not to bring it up and continued eating with her.

“By the way…”

“Hmm? What’s up?”

Emi, sitting next to him, started a new conversation.

“Earlier, I was watching some videos on a streaming site, and I heard that an old streamer who used to be active is making a comeback.”

“A comeback?”

“Yeah. I don’t know who it is, but apparently, it’s someone who used to be a VTuber or something? I don’t really know the details, though.”

“A streamer? A VTuber? Could it be… that person?”

Toma could only think of one person.

“Maybe. But I heard they set up an account on a social media app. So, there’s a rumor that this streamer might be coming back.”

“A rumor… but they really did set up an account on the app, huh?”

“Yeah. If you’re curious, why don’t you check it out?”

After hearing this from his sister, Toma, still in the middle of his meal, opened the social media app on his phone and used the search function to look it up.

“It’s real.”

“Did you find it?”

“Yeah, I think… this must be it.”

There was an account that was gaining attention on the app, and based on the information, Toma managed to find it. The account name was just “XXX,” and there were no new posts, making it seem suspicious, but it already had over ten thousand followers.

The VTuber Toma had supported was a mid-tier streamer who had suddenly retired, which had caused a lot of people to take notice of them.

“Maybe it’s really them!”

Emi peeked at Toma’s phone screen.

“Big bro, you used to watch a lot of VTuber streams, right? If it’s the person you supported, that’d be great.”

“Yeah. Well, I don’t know if they’ll really make a comeback, but I’ll wait and see.”

Toma wasn’t sure if it was really that person, but if there was a chance to reconnect, he wanted to take it. With that thought in mind, he decided to follow the account.