I Was Hired As A Tutor By A Cute Little Devilish Junior - Chapter 10 Dinner

“I’m home~”
“Sorry for intruding.”

After shopping at the supermarket, I immediately headed to Shiina’s house.
I placed Shiina’s swollen eco-bag on the dining table and put the items I had bought into the refrigerator.

Shiina seemed to have a particular way of storing food in the refrigerator, and I could only help her carry the eco-bag at most.
In hindsight, I probably should have noticed Shiina’s housewifery skills when she was able to keep the cupboards and refrigerator so tidy.

“Let’s study as usual for now.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”

My stomach was already beginning to feel hungry, probably because I was looking forward to the Mapo Tofu Shiina was making.
Perhaps it was because of this that I could not concentrate on Shiina’s studies.

Halfway through, I froze staring blankly at Shiina’s face, and was even berated by her blushing face.
I guess I was looking forward to it more than I should have been.

When the eraser started to look like tofu, my hunger had reached its limit.
The only thing that told me this was the pitiful whimpering of my stomach.

“Fufu, you are a glutton after all, Senpai.”
“For once I can’t say anything.”
“Can’t help then, so I’ll make you dinner a little early.”
“Thank you.”

Shiina started preparing dinner for us at a time when the sun has yet to set.
She stood in the kitchen wearing a cute apron with some kind of character on it.
The combination of glasses and apron was not so bad, and I followed her with my eyes.

I had asked her if I could help her, but she politely declined.
She said it was nice of me, but she wanted to treat me.

I had no choice but to sit down on the sofa (which I don’t usually sit on), and I turned on the TV.
There was nothing in particular that I wanted to watch, so I turned on a news program that happened to be on.

As I was listening to the news (which I was not particularly interested in), I heard Shiina humming from the kitchen.
I turned down the volume of the TV a little, as the sounds of her happy singing and the clattering of the food were much more pleasing to my ears.

By the time the weather report on the news program started, the delicious aroma started to drift in, stimulating my nose and stomach along with the humming.
My stomach rumbled once more, and the saliva in my mouth increased a little.

“S-Speaking of which, Senpai, don’t you need to contact your family or something? About dinner?
“Ah, right. Thanks, I’ll call them now.”

I was so preoccupied with Shiina’s cooking that I completely forgot. I have to tell Mom that I don’t need dinner tonight.

I took out my cell phone and sent a text message to my mom.
The reply came immediately. The sender of the text was my sister.
I wondered why my sister was the first to reply. I opened the mail, wondering why my sister was the first.

“Nii-san, I heard that you don’t need dinner, is that true? I’m a little worried because you’ve been coming home late lately. What time do you think you’ll be home today?”

It was a polite message, just fitting of her. I looked at it and let my cheeks relax a little, then wrote a reply.
I wrote a brief reply telling her not to worry and that I would be back by around eight o’clock.

At this rate, I would have to pamper her to the hilt when I get home or she would be pouting.
I would probably be stuck with her for the first thirty minutes after I got home.

She’s now a junior high school student, and I’d like to see her grow apart from me. But, I couldn’t help but indulge her, so it was my fault.

“It’s almost ready, Senpai~”
“Yeah, got it.”

I replied to Shiina’s voice from the kitchen and went to her.

“I’m not good at cooking, but if you want to help me prepare something, let me know.”
“Hmm, thank you very much♪ Then can you get me a cup and chopsticks?”
“Sure.”

Shiina was in the final stages of preparing the food, and was putting it on plates.
Glancing at it, I took out a cup from the shelf and chopsticks from the drawer.

As I did so, I grabbed a dish towel and returned to the table.
After cleaning the table lightly with the cloth, I put down the cup and chopsticks.

Placement of the cup and chopsticks meant that the place where Shiina and I would sit would be decided.
After a bit of deliberation, I decided that we should sit across from each other.
At least for dinner, we didn’t have to sit next to each other. As expected, it would be difficult to eat in many ways.

“This one’s all set.”
“This one’s just about done, too!”

I was told by Shiina to wait for a moment, so I sat down first.
Then Shiina took off her apron and brought me a large plate.
I looked at it and said.

“This is delicious.”
“Senpai, you haven’t eaten it yet. Taste it thoroughly and then tell me what you think.”
“No, sorry. I misspoke, it just looks really delicious, that was rude of me.”
“Fufu, what’s that? Are you sure it’s good?”
“Of course it is. I can tell just by the way it looks and smells, and it’s Shiina’s cooking after all.”
“I’ve never cooked for Senpai before. What’s with that confidence?”

Shiina laughed happily at my passionate speech in front of the freshly made mapo tofu.
We both muttered “Itadakimasu” together, just like we did when we ate out the other day.

I quickly scooped up the mapo tofu with a spoon and brought it to my mouth.
Shiina watched me with a slightly nervous look on her face.

I lightly mashed the tofu in my mouth with my tongue.
With that, it easily melted in my mouth, filling my taste buds with the subtle spiciness and the delicious flavor of the tofu.

In the end, all that came back from my throat as I tasted it was a single word with no elaborateness at all.

“It’s good…”
“Really?”
“It’s really good. I’ve never had mapo tofu this good.”
“I see. Then I’m glad♪”

Shiina smiled happily and began to eat her own meal.
After that, the two of us ate dinner, talking about various trivial things and laughing at each other while watching TV.

“Thank you for the meal.”
“Fufu, it’s fine.”

I finished the meal without leaving a single grain of rice and took the dishes to the sink.
As it was, Shiina and I finished cleaning up as usual.

“I’d like to thank you for today, Shiina. It was really delicious.”
“You’re welcome. It was the first time for me to have someone else eat my food, so I was happy to hear what you thought. Thank you very much♪”
“I’m glad I could help you. As I said when we dropped by the supermarket, I think Shiina would make a good wife. I would eat this kind of food every day if it were served to me.”
“Y-You’re talking like that again! You’re not going to be able to get anything if you hit on me.”
“It’s not that I’m hitting on you or asking for anything in return. Actually, I received a lot in return today.”
“G-Goodness. Senpai has been tutoring me, and I promised to do something in return, didn’t I? Is there anything you want me to do for you?”
“Something I want…not really.”

I thought about it for a while, but I couldn’t think of anything.
In fact, teaching Shiina how to study was good for me.

The difficulty of teaching someone else how to study, combined with the fact that it was a great review, means that I was probably learning more than she was.

In that sense, I couldn’t find anything that I want her to do.
The only thing I want from Shiina now was to reflect on her recent excessive skinship.

“Right…So can I ask one thing of you?”
“W-We can’t do anything naughty yet!”
“No, I won’t. And what do you mean, ‘not yet’? That’s not what I mean.”
“It’s not that?”

What else is there? Shiina looked as if to say that.
Hey, come on, I’ll send you flying.

While talking lightly in my mind, I firmly put into words what had just occurred to me.
It was surprisingly difficult, and it took me a while to get it out of my mouth.

“Umm. If it’s okay with you, Shiina. …If there is another chance, can I have dinner with you again?”
“Eh.”

Shiina froze with a dumbfounded expression.
I was still embarrassed to put it into words, and I felt my own ears burning.
Shiina quickly turned her face down and said.

“Murakami-senpai, I knew it…”
“Knew it?”

When I asked her back, Shiina shook her head and quickly grabbed my hand.
She looked up and her expression changed to a mischievous smile.

“Well, I’ll make you eat my cooking again sometime♪”
“You are still acting like that, with that attitude.”
“Are you unhappy?”
“No. I’m looking forward to the next one.”
“Yes♡”

Shiina then smiled again. It was a cute and dazzling one.