Date Her Instead Vol. 1

Chapter Seventeen: Wife Material

"Are you serious Naomi-senpai?" Rina Takano asked with a fair amount of doubt in her voice. "Of course I'm serious!" Naomi replied with vigor. "This is the perfect opportunity! Even Miss Yuki-nin agreed when I brought it up to her!" "But isn't this for the best clubs in the area? I think my skills might be good enough, but I don't know about everyone else," Michi said. "Well, there's only one way to find out. That's why..."

"...we're entering the Knife and Pan cooking competition!"

It was that proud declaration that had greeted all of the cooking club members that Wednesday afternoon. Naturally, all of the other girls were fairly shocked when their president had told them they'd be entering one of the highest ranking high school cooking competitions in the area.

"I don't know about this..." Kanako mumbled. "I bet it will be loads of fun!" Saki said happily. "Geez Saki, you don't know anything do you?" Rina scolded her. "The only one of us that would stand a chance at winning would be Naomi-senpai!" The complaints and debate continued on like this for a time. Naomi kept trying to make her case, but everyone else seemed to disagree. However, it was a bit of a moot point, as it was soon revealed that the club had already been signed up.

The room fell into silence. "...I guess we don't have a choice do we?" Michi said. "Maybe it will all work out," Mayu said, trying to encourage the group. "Well, it's not like we're doing this to be famous or anything..." Rina muttered. Slowly but surely, the other girls began to come around. It wasn't as if they were all entirely against competing. After all, winning trophies and gathering achievements is part of the duty of a club and those accolades help to sustain it in the long run. When they started thinking about it like that, and taking into account a person's innate desire to show off their skills, the discussion quickly shifted from "should the club compete or not?" to "what are each of us going to make?"

Overall, the Knife and Pan contest was a team competition, but each member of the club had to cook their own dish. Then, the four members with the best scores would have their scores added up, creating a team score.

As the members of the cooking club began talking about what they wanted to make, Kanako was left on her own as she continued to process the idea of her competing. Cooking was something she had always enjoyed, but that was it. It was for her own contentment, not competition. "Will I still have fun in an environment like that?" she wondered.

"Hey Kana-chan!" Saki called out. "What're you gonna make?" Kanako was caught off guard. "What will I make?" she repeated in her head. "Um... M-Maybe I'll just go with something simple," Kanako answered with a weak smile. "You weren't listening at all were you?" Rina shot at Kanako. "What do you mean?" Kanako asked, confused. "There are certain dishes that aren't allowed. Practically every single one you can think of that could be classified as easy is on that list!" Rina explained. "Whaaat?!" Kanako cried. "Now I'm really worried..." "It's okay Kana-chan!" Saki said, reaching up to pat her head. "Somehow, Saki doing this just kinda makes me feel worse..."

The meeting continued on. Naomi told everyone that she'd need their official recipe submissions by the end of the month. No changes would be allowed. After that, the rest of the time went by like normal. That day's focus was on creating your own pasta. While the others took their time in putting together their ingredients, Kanako found herself simply grabbing whatever was nearby. She wasn't focused at all. Instead, she was lost in her thoughts, wondering what she was going to do about the competition and worrying that it might have some sort of negative effect on her enjoyment of culinary arts.

She was absentmindedly cutting up some chicken as noodles boiled, then moved on to spices. One by one she went down the line, throwing in a spoonful of each as the chicken was tossed into a frying pan. Then she poured in a liquid and kept mixing it. It wasn't long before a very odd smell began to rise from where she was.