One moment, he was Crazy Ollie—twenty-eight years old, legendary rockstar, five-continent tour under his belt. The next, he's Oliver Crayle, a seventeen-year-old nobody waking up in a cramped high school uniform with a classroom full of strangers staring at him.
No band. No stage. No explanation.
Just a window seat, a sleepy coastal town, and hands that still remember every note he's ever played.
Determined to chase the music that got left behind in his old life, Oliver can't go five minutes
Crazy Ollie's School Rom-Com Operation! - A fateful bento, with a deadly taste
The morning light streaming through the classroom window was still a little cold.
The wind blowing in from the sea lifted the curtains softly. Sagami Bay was calm again today, white waves glittering far in the distance.
Kureijii Orii sat down at his desk and immediately propped his cheek on his hand, gazing outside. His blazing red hair swayed in the wind, falling over his eyes. His golden pupils were fixed on something far away. The fact that the black-haired girl—Sakura—had heard his unfinished new song in the music room yesterday didn't seem to linger in his mind at all.
(*Today, I'll play the continuation of that song.*)
A new melody had been flowing through his head since morning. His fingertips unconsciously tapped the edge of the desk. The sound of the rhythm echoed faintly through the quiet classroom.
In the seat next to him, Sakura was frozen stiff, like she was dead.
"......"
The moment she almost made eye contact with Orii, she flinched violently and hurriedly looked down. Her waist-length black hair flowed smoothly, revealing the nape of her white neck. Even the tips of her ears were bright red, like a sunset.
(*Since I heard that piano yesterday... I'm done for.*)
Sakura gripped her skirt tightly on her lap. Her fingertips had gone white. Her heart was so loud she thought Orii might hear it.
The man from her dreams. The man who had appeared almost every night since she was a child, strumming a guitar and singing in a raspy shout. Yesterday, that figure had turned into certainty.
That melody was the sound she had heard countless times in her dreams.
(*As I thought, Orii-san is... my destined...*)
Sakura pressed her lips together. She couldn't lift her face. Instead, she opened the textbook in front of her. Not a single character entered her head.
"Oi."
Suddenly, Orii called out to her. A low, slightly hoarse, rock-like voice.
"E-eep...!?"
Sakura let out a strange sound. She jerked her head up, and Orii's golden eyes were looking straight at her. Something deep in her chest went *thump*. She nearly stopped breathing. Heat spread across her entire face.
"Your textbook's upside down."
Orii gestured with his chin toward her hands.
Sakura looked at her own hands. The open book was her modern literature textbook. It was indeed upside down. Class hadn't even been going for ten minutes—when had that happened...?
"O-oh, um, this is... i-it's not what it looks like! I-I'm just, so devoted to my studies that... um, there's this health method where reading upside down makes you smarter, you see..."
"Upside down makes you smarter? That's rock."
Orii nodded with a straight face. He didn't look like he was joking. He genuinely seemed amused by the "upside-down health method."
"U-um, Orii-san..."
"What."
"...Y-yesterday, that song... it was truly wonderful."
Her voice trembled. It was so faint it sounded like a mosquito's buzz—pitiful even to herself. But this was all she could manage. Right now, even looking at Orii's face properly while talking was too much for her heart.
"Yeah. It's not finished yet. The lyrics just won't come together, no matter what I do."
Orii turned his gaze back to the window. Looking at the sea, he tapped the desk with his fingers—*ton, ton*.
Sakura stole a glance at his profile.
Bathed in the morning light, Orii's silhouette glowed softly. His red hair sparkled, his golden eyes reflected the light of the sea, and for just a moment, he wore the exact same face as the man in her dreams.
(*Ah. It really is him.*)
Sakura clasped her hands tightly in front of her chest. If someone placed a hand on her chest right now, they'd feel her heart raging like an explosion. The corners of her eyes grew hot. She was happy, yet on the verge of tears. She was happy, yet it hurt.
Sakura had known the true nature of this tangled, messy emotion for a long time.
"...Hehe."
A smile slipped out before she could stop it.
Orii, oblivious, gazed at the sea with the expression of someone watching boats.
Morning classes ended. The moment the bell rang, Sakura shot up like a rocket.
"Orii-san! Would you... would you like to have lunch together...?!"
Her voice cracked. But she mustered her courage. She had woken up at five in the morning for this day.
Orii slowly looked at Sakura. He looked sleepy.
"Don't mind."
"Th-then... um, actually, I made a bento... um... i-if you'd like, would you eat it...?"
Sakura looked down as she pulled a wrapped bundle from her lunch bag. A cherry-blossom-pink *furoshiki*. Inside was a two-tiered *juubako*. When she opened the lid, it was so colorful it looked like a bento from a high-end restaurant.
—In appearance, at least.
The rice was arranged beautifully. Pink *sakura denbu*. The tamagoyaki was fluffy and golden. The sausages were cut into octopus shapes, with black sesame seeds for eyes. Carrots cut like flowers. Blanched spinach. The karaage was fried crisp and glistening. Every detail was visually perfect.
"W... wow. You could open a shop, couldn't you?"
"N-no, not at all...! I-I made it for you, Orii-san, every day, with all my heart... um, I-I hope it suits your taste..."
Sakura looked like she was about to cry from anticipation and anxiety. At five in the morning, in the still-dark kitchen, while her family slept, she had quietly lit the stove. Fighting the terror that she might have mistaken sugar for salt, she had cooked with trembling hands, wanting the man from her dreams to say "delicious."
Orii snapped his disposable chopsticks apart.
"Thanks for the food."
Without a moment's hesitation, he popped the tamagoyaki into his mouth.
*Chew chew.*
Sakura stared at Orii's face, her heart about to leap out of her chest.
"........................Not bad."
In just three seconds, Orii said that. Then he put a piece of karaage in his mouth. *Chew chew.*
"Not bad."
He ate the rice. Ate the sakura denbu. Ate the spinach. Ate the sausage. Orii continued eating the bento like a machine, without blinking once.
"...Eh?"
Sakura's mouth fell open.
(*Delicious? He said delicious just now...? I actually made it properly...?*)
"O-Orii-san...! It's really delicious...?!"
"I said it's not bad, didn't I? I mean, this level of seasoning is normal."
Orii answered nonchalantly. Normal? This bento? Sakura felt heat welling up behind her eyelids.
(*Normal... normal flavor... I made something with a normal flavor...!*)
Sakura's chest swelled with emotion. Tears faintly welled at the corners of her eyes. In her mind, Orii's "not bad" had become synonymous with "the most delicious in the world."
"...It's fate, after all. I knew it—I believed that you, Orii-san, would understand my cooking...!"
Sakura pressed her hands together and gazed up at Orii with glistening eyes.
"Taste doesn't really matter to me, but... well, it's not bad."
Orii said just that and resumed eating the bento.
At that moment, from the back of the classroom, she heard snickering laughter.
"Hey, Sakura brought that killer bento again."
"Stop it, you're making me lose my appetite."
"But that transfer student's eating it like it's nothing. What's wrong with his taste buds?"
Sakura's shoulders twitched.
But she decided to keep smiling in front of Orii. He had said "not bad," after all. Today, no matter what anyone said, her heart wouldn't break.
"Oi, you lot."
Orii, chopsticks still in hand, slowly turned to look at the group behind him.
His golden eyes flashed sharply.
That alone made the classroom air turn cold. Glared at by Orii, the trio stopped laughing instantly.
"...It's nothing."
The male students hastily averted their eyes.
Orii turned back to his bento as if nothing had happened.
"Don't make a racket while someone's eating. It makes the food taste bad."
Sakura's heart went *thump* again.
(*Just now, Orii-san... defended me...?*)
Her whole body felt light with joy. Her heart was screaming painfully.
"Orii-san, um... I'll make bento for you tomorrow, and the day after, and every day... Will you... eat with me...?"
Orii answered curtly.
"If I didn't plan on coming, I wouldn't have come in the first place."
Wh—what a cool response—!
Sakura's face flushed bright red. She replayed Orii's words a hundred times in her head.
"...! Yes...! Yes, of course...!!"
She loved him.
She loved everything about him.
The man from her dreams existed in reality. And he was right here, eating her bento.
(*As I thought, this meeting is fate...!*)
Sakura did a victory pose in her mind, over and over.
＊＊＊
As lunch break neared its end, the atmosphere in the classroom shifted again.
"Hey, give me a bite of that."
The male student who had been laughing at Sakura earlier pointed at her bento box with a smirk. Whether he was drawn in by its beautiful appearance, or simply continuing the teasing, was unclear.
"Yeah, do it, do it. You try it too."
As his friends egged him on, Male Student A ignored Sakura's protest of "Um... I'd rather you didn't..." and picked up a piece of tamagoyaki with his chopsticks.
"Sakura-chan's homemade bento, thanks for the meal~"
*Chomp.*
The next instant, Male Student A's movements stopped.
"................................................!!!!!"
He rolled his eyes back and threw his head back.
*SLAM!!!*
He kicked his chair aside and collapsed onto the floor, flat on his back. Foam bubbled from his mouth. His fingertips twitched as if convulsing.
"Uwaaaaaah!?"
"Hey, Takashi!? What the hell happened!?"
The classroom erupted into screams and shouts.
"I-industrial waste...!? The taste is rampaging in my mouth... *guh*...! Save... no, help me...!!"
Male Student A writhed on the floor, foaming at the mouth. Eyes wide open, he stretched a trembling hand toward the ceiling.
"Someone get the nurse! Call a teacher!!"
Several classmates rushed out into the hallway in a panic.
Sakura, pale as a sheet, crouched down beside the fallen student.
"I-I'm so sorry...! I've done it again...! Quickly, water...! Or would milk be better...!?"
Sakura looked around frantically, tears welling in her eyes.
(*I knew it—my cooking really wasn't edible...!*)
She had been so happy just moments ago. Her bento had claimed another victim. The classroom was in chaos. Everyone was looking at her like she was a murderer...
(*Orii-san must surely despise me now...*)
Sakura, holding back tears, turned toward Orii.
Orii was putting the last piece of the bento into his mouth, chewing.
*Chew chew.*
*Gulp.*
"...What's that guy doing? Sleeping on the floor at lunchtime—that's a rock performance."
He said it nonchalantly.
"N-no, that's not it! He ate my tamagoyaki and collapsed...! I'm sorry, it's all my fault...!"
"Hah? Why are you apologizing? He just decided to rock out on the floor on his own."
Orii looked down at the fallen student with a puzzled expression.
"Besides, diving to the floor from one bite—that's an amazing reaction. Maybe he's got talent for comedy. Oi, do it again."
"*Guh*...! I-I can't...! I'm dying...!!"
"Is that so. Too bad."
Orii said it like he was genuinely disappointed.
The commotion in the classroom stopped for a moment.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
"...Hey, is this guy seriously fine after that taste?"
"No, more importantly, 'do it again'...?"
"His senses are completely broken..."
The classmates began looking at Orii like he was a monster.
But Sakura was different.
(*Orii-san... said my cooking was delicious. He ate all of it properly. And he said it wasn't my fault about the boy who collapsed...*)
Sakura clenched her fists in front of her chest. Heat welled up behind her eyes.
"...Thank you, Orii-san. I'll... I'll try even harder with my cooking... so that you'll say it's delicious every day..."
"Your cooking's fine as it is, isn't it? At least, it suits my tongue."
Orii casually held out the empty bento box to Sakura.
"Thanks for the meal. Make it a bigger portion tomorrow. And two more pieces of tamagoyaki."
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