I Was Hired As A Tutor By A Cute Little Devilish Junior - Chapter 11 Childhood Friend

All of a sudden, I have a childhood friend who was the same age as me.
We lived in the same neighborhood, our parents were close, and we’ve been together since kindergarten.
A common, typical childhood friend.

We’ve known each other for so long that there was not much we didn’t know about each other.
We knew each other’s likes, dislikes, hobbies, specialties, and even the location of each other’s moles.

I don’t know much about other people, but if your childhood friends are of the opposite sex, you probably won’t have much to do with them by the time you enter middle school.
“They both go through puberty and become awkward and separate from each other.” It was a common occurrence, and I suppose it can’t be helped for certain people.

However, this was not the case with me and her, and we were still together in our second year of high school.
Of course, our parents were still friends, and every year we had a barbecue together.

My childhood friend’s name is Imai Satsuki.
She’s in the class next to me, and she’s a little different—

　＊　＊　＊

“Riku~. Let’s have lunch together~”

At the end of the fourth period, while my classmates were getting out their lunch, I was waiting alone in my seat, doing nothing, when she opened the classroom door.
She came to my seat, her beautiful natural brown hair swinging.

“Ah. What’s today’s side dish?”
“Eh? Riku’s side dish is always me, right?”
“I’m talking about lunch, you dummy.”
“Just kidding, just kidding. Today it’s Riku’s favorite fried chicken.”

The girl held up two lunch boxes and smiled.
The girl with the slightly perverted behavior was my childhood friend, Satsuki.
As usual, she borrowed my friend’s desk and took a seat in front of me.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t make your lunch last week. I was busy recruiting for club activities.”
“No, you always make it for me. Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not going to c-c*m, Riku.”
“It’s your head that’s indecent.”

Satsuki has been a member of the tennis club since middle school.
Although she said and did things like this, she was quite good at tennis and ranked high in the prefectural tournaments every year.

Apparently, the practice was quite hard, but even so, Satsuki made lunch for me once a week.
According to her, the club activities were off every Wednesday.
Since there was no morning practice and she had free time, she always made my lunch on that day.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t have Satsuki’s lunch last Wednesday because of the recruitment of new first-year students.
It seemed that Satsuki herself felt bad about that, so today’s lunch was quite gorgeous.

“Wow, didn’t it take a long time to make this?”
“Fufumm. I’ve been preparing it since yesterday! The only thing I did this morning was fried chicken and fried eggs.”
“It took a lot of time, didn’t it? Thank you very much.”
“Please enjoy~♪”

Unlike the brown Bentos my parents made, Satsuki’s Bentos were colorful, red, yellow, and green, with a perfect appearance and nutrition.
It was a lunch box that really took a lot of effort. I really want to start enjoying it.

“Itadakimasu.”

I placed my hands together and muttered, thanking everything in this world…but mainly Satsuki.
Using the cute chopsticks that came with the bento box, I ate the fried chicken that she made knowing that it was my favorite.

“Hmm, it’s good.”
“Ehehe. The secret ingredient is my holy water.”
“Ku-Pfft.”
[TLN: It’s a little R18, but it’s referring to the non-normal liquid that came from down there.]

I was so shocked by the statement that I scrambled to launch the fried food from my mouth.
The first fried tofu that took off with a bang was beautifully placed in Satsuki’s lunch box, and a major incident was avoided.

“Geez. What are you saying?”
“Ahahahaha! Riku’s reaction was too funny, the fried tofu blew up! It was a hole-in-one in my lunch box. Haa, haa, my stomach hurts…Kufufu.”
“You…”

After waiting for the cough to subside, I wiped my mouth with a handkerchief and sent the fried food that had crash-landed in Satsuki’s lunchbox back to my lunchbox.
It was a shame that the fried chicken was ruined.

“Ahaha, I’m sorry. The only secret ingredient is my love♡”
“Heh heh, how happy, how nice.”
“That’s terrible. So it was just a physical relationship after all!”
“I never had that kind of relationship with you.”
“No. How can you explain that we shared baths and beds?”
“I can explain it, it was when we were little.”

I’d like to correct her explanation just now.
I said she was a bit of a pervert, but that was a lie. This girl is a lascivious pervert.

“Don’t be stupid. Eat your lunch.”
“Yes.”

After urging Satsuki to do so, I also started eating my lunch.
I would make sure to eat the scrambled fried chicken from earlier. I’m sorry about earlier, fried chicken.

“By the way, how’s the tennis club these days? Have there been many new members?”
“Hmmm, I guess it’s not that bad. I think there are more than there were when I came last year.”
“I see. In Satsuki’s case, you’ve been working hard since first-year. From now on, you’ll be in a position to teach, do you think you can handle it?”
“Mmm. To be honest, I’m a little worried, but it’s something I have to do. I’ll do my best.”
“Good luck. I’m rooting for you.”
“Yeah!”

Satsuki replied to my words with a big smile on her face.
Earlier I had called her a pervert, but when she was playing tennis, she was really cool.

She had always been a hard worker, and I respected her for being kind and considerate of her juniors. Although I couldn’t respect her attitude towards me in general.
Well, her lunch is delicious.

“How’s Riku doing?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Normal life. I think you’re getting lonely now that I’m out of your class.”
“I guess so. Though it’s a little easier now that there’s no one to get upset with.”
“Hey!”

Satsuki placed her hands on her face and started crying.
She still cried badly, fake as usual. But she wasn’t the only one who lied.

“It’s a lie. I was lonely for a while.”
“Mou~. Riku is so cute.”
“Well, I’ve gotten to know my new classmates pretty well, so I’m okay now.”
“No way! I’m wetting my pillow every night with grief over Riku’s absence!”
“You’re drooling.”
“How did you know?”

Satsuki looked at me with a straight face and said…No, even if you look at me like that…
Also, don’t slobber all over yourself thinking about me. Poor pillow…

“I’m not going to have practice after school today, so why don’t we go home together? Riku.”
“Yeah, we didn’t have time after school last week, did we?”
“Yeah.”

Satsuki smiled happily. If it weren’t for her behavior, she would be just a cute childhood friend…
It was a shame, but in a way, it was a relief.

As we were talking, the chime was about to ring, signaling the end of the lunch break.
Satsuki hurriedly ate her lunch, waved at me, and went back to her classroom.

I waved back and put away my lunch box.
As I was putting back the desk where Satsuki had been sitting, the owner of the desk’s friend spoke to me.

“You and Imai get along well.”
“Is that so? Well, we’ve known each other a little too long.”
“Like that junior girl who came in the other day; you’re too popular, aren’t you?”
“I don’t think I’m popular with anyone.”

As for Shiina, I’m her tutor. Satsuki was just a childhood friend.
Both of them always behave in a seductive manner, but I was not too young to be fooled by that.

Satsuki only acted like that with me, but I was not sure about Shiina.
The other day, she said that I was the only one she acted like that to. But since I’ve never seen her in her daily life, I don’t know where this attitude came from.

Not absolutely, but there are more than a few people in the world who do not know what they are thinking.
I may have to teach Shiina about such things as a tutor as well as her studies.
I’ll start paying attention to it today.

…Hmm?

Wait. Shiina’s tutor…?
This meant that today, as usual, you would be heading to Shiina’s house alongside her…

—I think I may have made a few wrong choices.