7 Coloured Bonds {Utapri Fanfic}

Chapter 6 - Eat-Off (2)

Time ticked by seconds before the start of the contest it was hard to imagine that the break period was still ongoing. I gulped nervously from picturing what was to come afterwards.

"Since no one has fully completed their meals yet, why doesn't each team combine it into one giiiant pile??" Ittoki suggested with a held up finger.

Tomochika agreed right away as she started pouring our portions in a single tray, "Ohhh, nice thinking! That has a higher chance of completion before the bell."

"Then I wanna add a bit of something as a topping to both~ I was saving them for later, buuut..." Natsuki happily bent downwards to uncover what looked like a batch of cute-shaped cookies.

Everyone's faces suddenly clouded over which slightly piqued my curiosity. Natsuki was glowing with excitement in utter polarity to the shifted atmosphere.

"Shinomiya-san, I don't think that's-"

"Oooh, good idea Shinomi. That will add a bit of 'fuel' to the fire." Ren cut off Tokiya's skepticism as he gave Natsuki a thumb of approval.

"Yaay! Off they go!" Natsuki beamed as he set the cookies - every last crumb, on both the plates of stacked food.

Apart from Ren, Tomochika and I, the rest continued to wear grave expressions as we all prepared to start. On Tomochika's signal to begin, everyone started right away, or to be precise Ren, Ittoki, Tomochika and Natsuki did... Masato, Nanami, and Tokiya were participating, but they were progressing pretty slow in comparison. To my confusion, none of them were touching the cookies. Only when Natsuki's face swapped with one of perplexity did they all have to start with the possibly dangerous cookies.

"Heh, about time, eh? Well, I say Hijirikawa should start with the honorous first bite, what do you say?" Ren gave a deep, sidelong look, clearly enjoying his high deride platform.

"I-Impossible! It should be Ittoki who gets the first bite - after all, his immunity to inedible snacks is far eminent than mine." Masato quickly gave the baton over to Ittoki, taking him by staggering surprise.

"E-Ehhhhh?! N-No, I think Tokiya should eat it! You all are in the same team after all!"

"Waah, nice idea! I've never seen Tokiya-kun enjoy any of my sweets, making this the perfect opportunity! Now, Tokiya-kun, say aaaah~" Natsuki wasted no time at all as he gleefully held the crisp-brown goody in front of Tokiya's mouth.

Tokiya's lips quivered up and down before being compressed tight. Natsuki's hand was already curving in his direction, and as quickly as Tokiya thinks, he leaned sideways. His smooth bypass of the incoming motion resulted in the cookie ending in none other than Ren's mouth while he was chuckling in delight - earning us all a strained choke.

Everyone was momentarily stunned at this turn of events before bursting out laughing, while Natsuki had question marks flying above his head at everyone's eruption for no apparent reason. 

"Hahaha! So karma really does exist!" Ittoki was the first to exclaim with a hand clutching his stomach as his shoulders shook with laughter.

"*cough* *cough* Well, I'll say that caught me off-guard... But it wasn't so bad, just got the usual Shinomi kick to it." Ren wiped his mouth, his cool returning across his features in a fraction of seconds.

"Waahh, I knew that you'd love my special cookie recipe! You'll never even guess what the secret ingredient is!" Natsuki brimmed with excitement as he cheerfully clapped his hands together in delight.

"I can't help but think that this will lead to some disaster, but what exactly was your secret ingredient...?" Tomochika decided to ask, clearly seeming hesitant to do so.