Food Wars: The Fighter

Chapter 7: Loser and Eggs

After using the washroom, I noticed that Megumi and Soma were standing outside when I had gone out of the building.

"I'm back~!" I said as Megumi greeted me. Then, there were a ton of dings going off of someone's phone. Megumi had pulled out her phone when the buzzing had continuously gone off and figured it was her phone.

"UWA!! There's a bunch of messages from Yuki and the others!" Megumi freaked out when there were a lot of messages popping up.

"Really?" I asked and peered over her cellphone to see that her phone was filled with messages

"You both can return to the dorms. I'm going to take my time to return," Soma said

"Okay! I-I'll go on ahead then..." Megumi said, "Um, Soma-kun? Thank you so much. I'll never forget this favour!"

"Hurry up and go back. Everyone's worried," Soma said, waving it off with no issue. With Soma's response, I felt like something was off about him, and it was almost as if he wasn't happy with the result of the battle.

"I'm going to stay behind for a moment. I'll catch up later," I told Megumi as she nodded and left. Turning back to Soma, his expression was empty, and he was rather upset. Though I was about to say something, Soma quickly cut me off before I even got a chance to speak.

"I thought you were gonna leave with her Yamazaki," Soma said

"Well, I was going to, but you seemed to be upset. Thought I'd stay behind if you need to talk about it, Soma," I told him, but everything fell silent. "The good thing is that you tried, right...?"

Without a response, Soma slammed his fist against the cemented wall in frustration. It was clear that he was very bitter about the result of the battle. Letting out a huge sigh, Soma took a moment in silence before speaking up.

"Maybe if I have done better to help Tadakoro, we would've won, and you wouldn't have to intervene just to save our asses-"

"Regardless of what you would've done, it wouldn't make a difference. If I had just kept quiet and done nothing, you would've still lost either way, and the both of you would've been expelled by now. You're not going to get past me if you're going to do some stupid idea like that again. Aren't friends supposed to support each other as much as we can?" I interrupted him quickly.

"Weren't you the one who suggested the idea? Even so, I still lost...!" Soma bitterly said, and he was still clearly upset by the loss.

"You lost to Shinomiya senpai, and what does that tell you?  Soma, you still have time to improve. I heard from Isshiki senpai that you wanted to beat your dad, right...? You can take what you've learned from the battle and use it against him," I told him while barely maintaining eye contact with him.

"That sounds like something you've never gone through, something like that, have you?"

"W-well, no. Not really but-"

"Then who are you to speak?! You're not in any sort of place to speak if you can't understand," Soma raised his voice in aggression. With his sudden change of tone and the pent-up aggression, it scared me instantly, but then Soma spoke up again, "Sorry about that, Yamazaki...I didn't mean to freak you out like that,"

"No...It's fine, and it's not a big deal. The Shokugeki against Shinomiya should've taught you what you can do next time, right?"

Sighing at first, Soma placed his hand on my shoulder, which startled me when he did so, "You're right. But anyway, let's go back to the dorms. Everyone's going to get concerned that we're not back,"

"Sure, let's walk back. The breeze feels kinda nice," I said. But when I had suggested going on a walk, Soma lets out a cocky smirk.

"I'll race you back!" Soma said suddenly as he instantly ran right off