At the very beginning, after agreeing to pretend to be Shizuka Hiratsuka's girlfriend, Kotomi Izumi had not planned to tell Megumi Kato and the others.
There were many reasons, but the main one was simple—she did not want to explain. Explaining would be too troublesome.
With someone easygoing like Yui Yuigahama or Mashiro Shiina, explaining would not be too difficult.
But if it were Megumi Kato...
Forget explaining—Kotomi did not even dare to test the waters. She was afraid that one wrong move would mean instant death.
Ever since experiencing a "knife ending" once, Kotomi's survival instinct in front of Megumi had skyrocketed. She behaved like a virtuous, obedient little wife.
Megumi Kato was extremely pleased about this, feeling that Kotomi had finally become well-behaved.
Originally, Kotomi had intended not to tell anyone about pretending to be Shizuka's girlfriend.
After all, if you can avoid explaining, then don't explain.
But now that Saori Funamoto had stirred things up, Kotomi had no choice but to tell Yui Yuigahama and Yukino Yukinoshita.
Rather than letting the two of them overthink and imagine all sorts of scenarios, it was better to tell them directly: in a while, I will pretend to be Shizuka Hiratsuka's girlfriend to help her deal with her parents' pressure to marry.
There were two possible ways to explain it.
The first:
"Shizuka Hiratsuka and I are indeed dating. I'm sorry—I'm two-timing... three-timing."
The second:
"My relationship with Shizuka Hiratsuka is pure. We're teacher and friend. It's just that in a while, I need to pretend to be her girlfriend to help her deal with her parents' marriage pressure. Don't worry—I would never let a fake relationship become real."
Even thinking with one's toes, it was obvious which explanation to choose.
The second one was the simplest and safest.
After telling both Yukino Yukinoshita and Yui Yuigahama everything about the fake-girlfriend arrangement, the effect appeared quickly.
At the very least, Yui stopped crying.
Though judging from the slight crease between her brows, she still seemed to be harboring a bit of emotion.
Which was perfectly normal.
Even if Kotomi and Shizuka were not truly dating, the mere thought of her girlfriend pretending to be in love with another woman—how could Yui possibly not feel jealous?
Of course, despite the jealousy, Yui kept reassuring herself in her heart:
It's not Kotomi's fault. It's not like she wanted to pretend to be someone's girlfriend in the first place. She must have been too kind. When Shizuka made the request, her heart softened and she agreed.
And Kotomi said she would never let it become real. Kotomi has never lied to me before, so I have to trust her.
I once watched a TV drama with a similar plot. Usually, something like this would be hidden. But Kotomi didn't hide anything from me. She told me honestly.
Hehe... Kotomi loves me so much. She's so good to me~
Just a second ago, she had been drowning in jealousy.
After a round of self-generated imagination, although a faint sourness still lingered, her heart now carried a sweetness like honeyed water.
If Yukino Yukinoshita knew what Yui was thinking right now, she would definitely scold her in exasperation:
"You're just finding joy in suffering!"
"But Kotomi," Yukino suddenly asked, "when Hiratsuka-sensei asked you for help, did you agree without even thinking?"
Even she did not quite know why she asked. The question simply slipped out.
Kotomi's little ears twitched.
She immediately recognized it as a fatal question.
If she answered yes, Yukino would definitely follow up with:
"You agreed so readily. Were you secretly looking forward to pretending to be Shizuka Hiratsuka's girlfriend?"
And then things would become troublesome again.
What is wrong with this Yukino today? Why does she keep trying to trip me up?
Kotomi's lips twitched slightly.
For a moment, she had the urge to pin Yukino to the ground and kiss her for a full hour just to see whether she would still keep sabotaging her.
"I originally wanted to refuse," Kotomi began casually, "but before I could even think of how to reject her, Shizuka told me that she and her parents would be having dinner in Ginza. If I agreed to pretend to be her girlfriend, I could order whatever I wanted—anything, as much as I wanted.
She even specifically told me that since her parents would be paying, I should just focus on the expensive dishes.
The moment I heard that, I nodded immediately. Nothing else behind it—I just wanted to eat my fill in Ginza."
Kotomi made up the excuse on the spot.
Although fabricated, she tailored it perfectly to fit her persona.
When people thought of Izumi Kotomi, what traits came to mind first?
She had many unforgettable characteristics.
One of them was undoubtedly being a foodie.
Anyone who had eaten with her would have an extremely deep impression of her appetite. She loved to eat—and she ate a lot.
Kotomi agreeing just to eat her fill in Ginza...
It sounded entirely reasonable.
Sure enough, the excuse was convincing.
As soon as Yui Yuigahama and Yukino Yukinoshita heard it, they immediately understood why Kotomi had agreed to pretend to be Shizuka's girlfriend.
At that moment, they both silently offered condolences to Shizuka's parents' wallet.
With Kotomi's appetite, eating her fill in Ginza—no matter how stuffed that wallet was beforehand, it might very well deflate after one meal.
"That reason really does suit you," Yukino sighed helplessly.
"Right? Shizuka's standard for me was to focus on the expensive dishes," Kotomi said cheerfully.
Of course, she was only joking.
When the time actually came to meet Shizuka's parents for dinner in Ginza, even if she were the one ordering, Kotomi would never deliberately choose the most expensive items. At most, she would order two dishes and keep the price within a reasonable range.
Nor was she foolish enough to truly try to eat until she burst in Ginza.
After all, she was still waiting to marry cute Shizuka and bring her home.
Even if it was a bit early to think that way, Shizuka's parents were practically her future in-laws.
For her first meeting with them, Kotomi naturally wanted to leave a good impression.
Halfway through talking with Yukino, Kotomi suddenly realized Yui had gone quiet.
She turned to look at the girl sitting beside her.
Yui Yuigahama was holding her phone, tapping away on the calculator app, rapidly calculating numbers.
"Yui, what are you calculating? What's one plus one?" Kotomi leaned her head over curiously.
"I'm calculating how many cakes I'd have to sell to treat you to a full meal in Ginza... Kotomi, how much does it cost to eat in Ginza?"
Yui spoke softly.
As she did, she subconsciously lowered her head. There was a faint but unmistakable trace of inferiority in her tone.
She had never eaten in Ginza.
She had never even been there.
She only knew it was a bustling district where everything was expensive.
Naturally, she had no idea how much a meal would cost.
Just now, she had searched for it on her browser.
When she saw one of the prices, her heart had nearly leapt out of her chest.
Even so, she took a deep breath and stubbornly began calculating how many cakes she would need to sell to save enough money to treat Kotomi to a meal in Ginza.
It is said that in ancient times, the area now known as Ginza was once part of the sea.
Four hundred years ago, Tokugawa Ieyasu reclaimed land from the ocean. After centuries of transformation and development, Ginza became what it is today.
Now, Ginza is known as one of the most expensive places in Asia. It symbolizes Japan's prosperity, famous for its high-end shopping districts and gathering luxury brands from all over the world.
Mount Fuji, Kyoto, and Ginza represent Japan's nature, history, and modernity—the three iconic symbols of the country.
Ginza in Japan stands alongside the Champs-Élysées in Paris and Fifth Avenue in New York as one of the world's three great centers of prosperity.
Restaurants operating in Ginza cannot necessarily be said to be extraordinarily delicious.
But they are certainly extraordinarily expensive.
Not only the food—drinks and service charges are just as costly.
Kotomi Izumi glanced at the number Yui Yuigahama had calculated on the calculator and subconsciously opened her mouth, wanting to point something out.
But after thinking for a moment, she decided against it.
After all, she never truly intended to make Yui treat her to a meal in Ginza.
Yui's calculation method was not wrong.
But the initial number she had used was incorrect.
The price she had seen online for a Ginza restaurant was indeed very expensive—for Yui.
However, Kotomi could tell at a glance that it was not the actual cost required for a proper meal in Ginza.
"Yui, stop calculating for now. Let me borrow your phone."
Without waiting for Yui's response, Kotomi took the phone from her hands.
When it came to cooking, doing housework, or baking cakes, Yui moved quickly. One look and you could tell she was the kind of virtuous girl who knew how to run a household and cook well.
But in daily life, her reactions were often a bit slow.
So sometimes, after finishing her sentence, Kotomi would simply act without waiting for Yui's response—just like now.
Yui never deleted her browsing history or search records.
She felt there was nothing to hide. Keeping them made it convenient to revisit the pages later.
Unlike Kotomi.
Every time before exiting the browser, she made sure to delete all browsing and search history. Even her bookmarks were locked behind a password.
Opening the browsing history, Kotomi quickly found the article Yui had just read:
"How much do restaurants in Ginza cost? How much does it take to eat your fill in Ginza?"
The moment she opened it, Kotomi understood why Yui had miscalculated.
The only reason this could be called an "answer article" was because it had been posted on a well-known Q&A website.
That website had started to deteriorate five years ago.
There were endless bragging-style responses like, "Thanks for the invite. I'm in Antarctica. Just got off the plane and currently dancing with an ostrich." Or disguised advertisements posing as answers.
Or restaurant and product reviews written by people who understood absolutely nothing, confidently making things up because they assumed few readers would know better.
The article Yui had read was exactly that—something wearing the shell of an answer while being nothing more than random nonsense.
It was not even promotional content.
After all, among all the posts written by that blogger, the highest view count was only three hundred.
What restaurant owner in Ginza would be foolish enough to hire such an unpopular blogger for promotion?
Anyone who could open a restaurant in Ginza was no fool.
The price mentioned in the article for "a meal in Ginza" would, in an actual Ginza restaurant, barely cover about fifteen percent of the service charge.
It was nowhere near enough for a full meal.
Yet even that fabricated, far-below-reality number had shocked Yui.
When she saw it, she had thought in alarm:
It costs that much just to eat one meal in Ginza? Then how many cakes and desserts would I have to sell to save enough to treat Kotomi to a meal there—and let her eat her fill?
After closing the browser, Kotomi deleted the number Yui had calculated.
"Kotomi, why did you erase it? I was almost done calculating..." Yui pouted slightly, confused.
She had no idea that the amount which had made her heart pound and forced her to painstakingly calculate cake sales would, in Ginza, barely count as a fifteen-percent service fee.
Forget a full meal—even in the upscale restaurants Kotomi frequented, that amount would seem stingy as a tip.
Kotomi did not tell her the truth.
She simply smiled.
"Most restaurants in Ginza have a strong business atmosphere. In simple terms, they look refined and cost a lot, but the taste isn't particularly stunning. Just decent. Most people don't go there to fill their stomachs—they go to entertain clients."
As she spoke, she pinched Yui's soft cheek lightly.
"If you want to treat me to a meal, how about when we get back, we go to the market together and you cook for me? I've been to Ginza restaurants before. There's nothing especially amazing there. It's not even as good as that oden curry fried noodles you made for me last time."
"R-Really?"
The moment Kotomi praised her cooking, Yui's face turned bright red with embarrassment and happiness.
After learning that Kotomi liked oden, Yui had specifically asked her mother to teach her how to make oden curry fried noodles.
"So delicious that I even dreamed about it," Kotomi continued. "Though the fried noodles were great, I still prefer pan-fried dumplings with fried rice. How about we replace the noodles with fried rice—make oden curry fried rice instead? And when we buy meat, let's get extra minced pork and make pork-and-mushroom dumplings. I'll handle wrapping and boiling them, and you can do the pan-frying."
Technically, dumplings could be pan-fried directly after wrapping.
But Kotomi liked to boil them first, let them cool slightly, and then fry them.
She shrugged.
"It's kind of embarrassing. Even though I'm good at cooking, I've never learned how to properly pan-fry dumplings. I always burn them. Last time I made a batch for Aimi Izumi, I messed up the heat. They didn't look very appetizing. I don't know what she was thinking—she kept saying they tasted awful while finishing every single one."
"I know how to pan-fry dumplings. Next time you're free, come to my house. I'll teach you," Yukino Yukinoshita said calmly.
She had always heard that Kotomi was skilled in the kitchen. Now that she learned Kotomi could not fry dumplings properly, Yukino could not help but smile inwardly.
And she took the opportunity to invite her over.
The moment Yukino invited Kotomi home, Yui quickly interjected:
"I can fry dumplings too!"
Even though Yukino was her best friend, hearing her invite Kotomi over—no matter that it was just to teach dumpling frying—made Yui feel uneasy.
She could not quite describe it.
She just did not want Kotomi going alone to Yukino's house.
Watching Yui Yuigahama and Yukino Yukinoshita argue about whose dumplings tasted better, Kotomi's lips curved into a meaningful smile.
She picked up the teapot, poured herself a full cup, and leisurely took a sip.
At last, she had smoothly shifted the topic away from "What exactly is your relationship with Shizuka Hiratsuka?" and "pretending to be a girlfriend"...
And onto the far safer question of whose dumplings were tastier.
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