Comfort Zone

Chapter 3 - Sudden Shift

At school, everything seemed normal. Harumi left Suzuka alone. Suzuka did catch the kitsune stealing several glances at her, but wasn't sure if that was a new behaviour or simply one she'd never noticed before.

The school had the same layout as a usual human school, though with wider doorways and specialized desks for certain types of monsters. In Suzuka's year, there were about eighty other students.

Suzuka found a lunch box inside of her desk, undoubtedly left there by Harumi. It would be too coincidental otherwise.

At lunch, she investigated it. Half of it was filled with white rice sprinkled with seaweed, a pickled plum sitting in the center. The other dishes consisted of various vegetables and some fried and battered fish.

Suzuka had a mostly vegetarian diet, thanks to her parents being fairies. She viewed meat dishes as rare treats, but perhaps that would change if Harumi kept making her lunches.

A piece of paper had been taped to the underside of the lunch box's lid. On it, Harumi had written, "Do you want me to make you lunch again tomorrow?" with checkboxes for yes and no.

"Why so indirect?" Suzuka wondered, taking up a pair of chopsticks and digging in.

She supposed Harumi had mentioned being shy when it came to Suzuka. Harumi had been fine when they were alone, but perhaps the kitsune would be too embarrassed to talk with Suzuka in public. Or maybe she simply didn't want to draw attention from the other students.

Suzuka debated what to do. Naturally, with a short time to decide, she would prefer to interact with Harumi as much as possible in order to better determine how she felt about the kitsune. But, if she interacted with Harumi openly at school, then that opened the floodgates for all her other classmates to talk to her.

Well, people would definitely figure it out sooner or later. Many of the students had very good senses of smell.

Suzuka checked the box labelled 'yes,' then wrote, "You don't have to be secretive about it."

After class, Suzuka took the empty lunch box and walked up to Harumi. The kitsune's fox-like ears flicked. "Oh, hello, Youtomi."

"Thanks for making lunch for me," Suzuka said, setting the box down on the desk. She then leaned in and wrapped her arms around Harumi. "It was delicious."

"Eh?" Harumi placed her hands shyly and awkwardly on Suzuka's back. "Um, no problem, I'm glad you liked it."

Suzuka pulled away, a blush threatening to invade her cheeks. "I'll look forward to tomorrow's. See you around."

"Ah, have fun at practice!"

Suzuka gave a small wave, which Harumi bashfully returned.

Once Suzuka had left and walked a safe distance away, several girls all pounced at Harumi, demanding explanations.

"I was going to tell you all at the meeting," Harumi said, raising her hands defensively. "But, well, it's like this..."

She quickly recounted the recent developments.

"So, I have a bit of a head start, but consider the truce dissolved. From now, let the girl who makes her happiest win!"

Suzuka had no idea what strange events were occurring in the classroom. She obliviously went to the archery range for her extracurricular activities.

Partway through, Hikari, a lamia, approached Suzuka. She had long, slightly curly blonde hair and green eyes. Her tail started at her hips, the scales a brilliant blue. Her breasts were even bigger than Harumi's, her face a bit sharp.