Since I’ve Entered the World of Romantic Comedy Manga, I’ll Do My Best to Make the Heroine Who Doesn’t Stick With the Hero Happy.

Chapter 65: Success, From…

And twenty minutes later

Done! What do you think?

Its ordinary Kaarage.

Yeah, its fried properly.

I-Its really done..

It turned out to be just some ordinary fried chicken.

I was called in to test the dish for poison, so of course I ate it first.

..Yeah, Its good.

YOSHAAAA!

This time, it wasnt misshapen or burnt or like the hamburg steak, and it was just a simple delicious piece of fried chicken.

Eh? Really?

Fujise, who was only able to make dark matter in the manga, actually is able to cook by herself now?

It didnt make any sense that she could even make dark matter in the first place, so this is normal.

Yes it is. Rather, Its a mystery as to why it even turns out so bad.

I-It really is done.

Tojoin-san and Rinke were also surprised to see that it tasted like normal.

But Sei-chan was acting a little strange.

What kind of nonsense have I been going through then?

Sei-chan muttered in a small voice.

It was a murmur that wasnt intended for anyone else to hear, but I heard it since I was right next to her.

Sei-chan, who had been doing her best to teach Fujise, felt that all her effort was all for nothing and became depressed. 

From Sei-chans point of view, she, who had helped Fujise cook several times, didnt know that all she had to do was a very simple method of making her look at the recipe and follow it step by step.

The fact that she didnt realize she could have used this method must have been a shock to her health.

How was it Sei-chan?

A-Ahh, Yeah. It was delicious, Shiho.

Sei-chan said with a smile on her face, but looked a bit forced if Im honest.

I could only do it all thanks to you Sei-chan! It was because Sei-chan taught me that I could finally do it.

No, no, its all because Shiho worked so hard, I hardly did anything at all.

Sei-chan, whats wrong?

Hmm? What?

No, I mean, you looked kinda depressed.

Even if Sei-chan tried to hide from us, Fujise would still notice.

Im not depressed at all. Shiho. Its good, now you can make lunch for Shigemoto with no problems.

E-Eh, yeah thanks.

Fujise seems to have noticed as well, and is worried about Sei-chan too.

Why dont you make some egg rolls next time? Theyre often included as a side dish in lunch boxes, and I think theyd be really good.

Y-Yeah, I guess so. Its really delicious.

Why dont you try egg rolled soup too? It might be a little difficult though.

Im not sure if Rinke is aware of her mood though since she hasnt involved herself much with Sei-chan yet.

Theyve only met a couple of times and thats when we went to school together.

I wish I had a special frying pan for frying eggs, but I wonder if Fujise-san has this pan at home.

Ah, I think I saw it before

Its a little easier to make with this. Lets practice for now. Ill have to look up the recipe first.

Then, they started to cook again.

Sei-chan also tried to watch over her again from nearby, but Tojoin-san spoke as if she had an idea.

Shimada-san, theres probably a bento box in the next room, can you get it for me real quick? Im making lunch today, so it would be easier to have it in a lunch box.

Yeah, sure. Its the room next to here, right?

Yes, its the preparation room that stores all the utensils inside. Its in a high place, so you might need someones help.

I was about to ask why dont I just go myself?

But the idea was withdrawn after seeing Tojoin-sans face.

Tojoin-san seemed to glance at me with eyes that seem to be telling me something.

Apparently she noticed that something was wrong with Sei-chan too.

So I guess she wants me to have a talk with Sei-chan alone.

Surprisingly, Tojoin-san is pretty perceptive of people.

No, maybe its because its Sei-chan, the person she lost to for the first time in her life. Thats why she could immediately tell that something was wrong.

Got it, lets go Sei-chan.

Riding on Tojoin-sans kindness, I left the Kitchen with Sei-chan.

[ED: Cheerful Transition line here!]

I left the kitchen and went to the room next to it.

Like the kitchen, it was a very large room. But it didnt feel as spacious due to all the stuff placed here.

As it was a preparation room, there was a variety of cooking utensils and large equipment placed in here.

It was probably something that belonged to the kitchen but was moved here because of today.

Theres a bento box somewhere in here. Or so I was told, where is it?

I feel like its impossible to find it in this large room.

Do I have to look for the bento box in here? Tojoin could have at least told me where it was.

Yeah, Its going to be tough looking for it here.

Maybe Tojoin-san doesnt want us to find it after all.

Well, thats not what we really came here for anyways.

Well, if we cant find it after a short while, we can go and ask Tojoin-san about it.

Sei-chan.

Hmm? Whats up?

You seem depressed Are you okay?

!

I really wanted to word that sentence better, but I didnt know how to. So I just asked her straight.

Man, if I was the handsome main protagonist of a manga Actually, Its impossible for Yuuichi to do something like this.

Haah, Shiho noticed, but I guess Hisam-Tsukasa also noticed, huh.

Sei-chan said as if she gave up and let out a smile.

I mean, now that were alone, she suddenly called me Tsukasa, which makes me very nervous, so please stop.

I heard you mutter to yourself  So it was all pointless.

Uuu, so you heard me? Thats embarrassing.

I dont think it was pointless, Fujise was very happy about it.

Ah, yeah.

She doesnt seem to be convinced with that.

Sei-chan has a strong sense of responsibility so she must have been giving it her all to teach Fujise properly.

So she must have gotten depressed because she thought what she did was pointless.

But dont you think Fujise wouldnt be able to do it even if she followed the recipe normally?

Yeah, I guess. I think when I first started teaching Shiho, I was looking at the recipe as I went along. Maybe even then, I was verbally explaining things a bit too fast.

Sei-chan had tried using a recipe with Fujise before, but she didnt seem to pay much attention to it back then. 

In the beginning, she was holding the knife as if she wanted to stab someone, I had to try my best to fix that quirk of hers.

Y-Yeah.

What kind of way was she even holding the knife if it looked like she wanted to stab someone?

She was holding the knife backhandedly today, was there any way it was even worse than that?

Did she hold two in her hand and one in her mouth?

That would be a completely different manga in that case. [ED: Possibly a one piece reference? Refers to the character Zoro who fights like that if thats the case.]

Because of that, I didnt think she would be able to do it with just a recipe. Haah, what I did was really

Ah, Sei-chan self-destructed again.

When we were with everyone she tried to hide her depressive state, but now that its just the two of us, she isnt hiding her depressive and gloomy mode anymore.

In the manga, there would probably be a doyon sound effect on top of Sei-chans head.

It was a rare sight to see Sei-chan so depressed.

If your lovely girlfriend is depressed, its natural to cheer her up.

What you did wasnt meaningless, I think Fujise is grateful for that too.

She might thank me because she is kind, but I didnt teach her anything. I couldnt have even told her to just look at a recipe like Tsukasa said.

No, no. I didnt do anything noteworthy.

Well, I guess that means I was no more useful than that not-so-important thing.

Un, being depressed is surprisingly annoying!

She said that in a sarcastic tone, which is also a rare sight to see.

I havent seen this in the original manga.

I guess its a weakness that Im in love with her, but I find that part of hers cute too.

Ah sorry, I said something sarcastic. Im sorry.

No, its fine.

She seems to realise her words contained some thorns in it so she looked down and apologised.

As for me, I dont mind at all. Rather. Im happy to see Sei-chan act like that in front of me.

The air was heavier than ever.

It was really rare for Sei-chan to be so depressed.

Even in the original story, It was hard to see her so depressed at all.

If you do see it though It was heavily related to Fujises cooking. Fujises cooking skill never improved no matter how much she tried to do so.

Even then, it was the Im helpless kind of depression. 

Perhaps Sei-chan wanted to be useful to her best friend Fujise,

However, she was depressed because she wasnt that useful in the original story. But now shes more depressed over the fact that she made her do something useless all this while.

Right next to me. Sei-chan looked depressed at my earlier comment.

Im getting a little nervous trying to cheer up Sei-chan like this.

I put my right hand, which was trembling gently on Sei-chans head.

!

I dont care about what happened earlier. I think you really did your best Sei-chan.

Sei-chan looked up at me with surprise.

I stroked Sei-chans hair gently to hide my embarrassment as I continued.

If you hadnt taught Fujise the basics of cooking, todays dish would have been even more difficult to prepare, and I think that would have been a bigger problem than just following the recipe.

N-No, that

Fujise could only cook now because Sei-chan taught her the basics.

I continued to pat her, telling her what I thought in the process.

Ive only done this to Rinke but I think she would be happy with this too.

With my limited amount of experience, this was the only act of comfort I could think of.

But even now, Im still insanely nervous about actually doing it.

I mean, Sei-chans hair is so soft and silky, its just amazing. I dont have enough vocabulary to describe how good it is.

Although I pat Rinke roughly sometimes, there was no way I could do that right now.

Sei-chan looked at me with a surprised look on her face. Then quickly looked back down again.

Only the side of her face and ears were visible, but I could clearly see that her entire face was completely red.

Wait Could it be that Sei-chan doesnt like being stroked on the head? [TLN: You idiot.] [ED: Amazing.]

Not all girls like being stroked on the head after all.

Besides, I heard that a girls hair is like another strand of life to them, and Im sure she values her hair much more than me.

I TOUCHED HER HAIR WITHOUT HER PERMISSION!!

Ah, Uh, Im sorry Sei-chan.

Eh? Ah..?

I pulled my hand away from Sei-chan as the blood rushed to my face.

Im sorry for touching you out of the blue, But I really meant what I said earlier.

Ehh..? W-Well, Im sorry. I was a little surprised and didnt hear what you said back then.

Ah, Im saying that it was not a waste of time, because I think the success of this project was due to the fact that Sei-chan taught Fujise the basics of cooking.

O-Oh, Thank you.

Y-Youre welcome.

Oh no, the air got awkward now.

I made the mistake of patting her after all.

And Sei-chan was so surprised by it that she didnt seem to hear a word I said at all.

But Sei-chans mood is getting better and better. Wait, its getting better?

W-Well, shes no longer depressed, so I guess its all good.

If I didnt truly think about what I said, I dont think I would have been able to pull it off.

Well, I guess well have to look for that bento box now.

Y-Yeah, I guess so.

Sei-chan and I then began to search for our lunch boxes, although the atmosphere was a bit awkward in the process.