Chapter 49 Shopping With The Cat

“Hey, are you okay with cocoa? I have some tea.”
“Yes, I’m fine. Thank you very much.”

When I thought about it, it was getting warmer and warmer as spring was approaching, so I think I made the wrong choice for a hot drink.
I’ve been thinking about strange things since a while ago, but Mashiro didn’t seem to mind and was enjoying her cocoa.

I sat down next to Mashiro and drank the tea I had bought to cool down my overheated brain.
I thought I was getting more stable with Mashiro lately, but since I left home, I’ve been experiencing a lot of irregularities, which made me somewhat anxious.

As I leaned my back against the bench to relax my body, I felt a glance from the side and turned my eyes to see Mashiro with a somewhat anxious look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”
“Ah, no, it’s…Are you tired, Satou-san?”
“No, not really…”

I’m tired, but that’s only because I’ve been thinking about a lot of unnecessary things.
It was not something that Mashiro needed to worry about, so I denied it with no time, but her worried expression remained unchanged.

“Then…I’m not making you feel weird, am I?”
“Eh, no. It’s…”
“I’m sorry if that’s the case. I’m sorry for making you go along with my selfishness.”

Mashiro held the cocoa she was drinking in one hand, and looked at her other hand — the hand that had been laying on top of my palm a moment ago.
The moment I saw her, I reflexively grabbed the hand that was out at me.

“No, no, no. Mashiro doesn’t need to apologize.”

It was undoubtedly me who said that I wanted to take a walk with Mashiro, that I wanted to go outside.
I’m here today because I want to do it all, and I want to do it right.
In order to make sure that my feelings are conveyed, I firmly put them into words and squeezed Mashiro’s hand tightly.

“S-Satou-san…?”
“If you don’t mind, would you like to go shopping with me?”
“Y-You want to go shopping?”
“Yeah. I was thinking of going out again after I get home today anyway. Why don’t you come with me?”

Mashiro was bewildered by the sudden hand-holding and the sudden invitation, but after looking into my eyes for a while, she nodded her head.
I smiled back and waited for Mashiro to finish her cocoa before we walked out of the park to the nearest supermarket.

“Do you always shop here?”
“Yeah, it’s just because it’s close.”

When I was living at home, my mother used to go to several supermarkets, telling me what was cheap and what specials were over there.
I don’t know if that’s the right way to go, but since we only have to walk, we almost always get our groceries at the closest supermarket to our house.

I couldn’t do the shopping while holding her hand, so I let go of Mashiro’s hand and picked up the basket instead.
She looked somewhat absent-minded, but when I started shopping, she seemed to be in a good mood as she trotted along beside me.

“Ah, Satou-san. That pumpkin might be better this way.”
“Eh, really?”

As I was adding ingredients to my shopping list, Mashiro gave me some advice.
The pumpkin I had just picked up was a quarter-sized pumpkin; I had been picking it out at random based on its appearance, but it seemed there was a point to be determined.

Before I put it in the basket, I tried to assess the one Mashiro pointed out and the one I chose.

“I can’t tell the difference at all…”
“There are many ways to tell the difference, but if it’s cut, you can tell by looking at the seeds.”

When I looked at it, I noticed that the color of the seeds was slightly different. Apparently, you can tell the good from the bad.
After that, I continued my shopping, getting advice on various things.

“If this is the case, I should have always shopped with Mashiro. You’re so knowledgeable, I can’t even keep my head up.”
“N-No, not at all. I was echoing more than half of what I know.”

Mashiro said this with a shy smile.
While I was interested in the fact that the word “echoing” was used, something else caught my attention.
I wondered what kind of person taught Mashiro all this knowledge about cooking and housework.

As I suspected, Mashiro could not have acquired these skills by herself.
In fact, there must have been someone who had taught her such knowledge in the past, because she used the word “echoing.”

“…Did someone teach you how to cook?”
“Yes, I did. He was perfect in everything, and I could call him my mentor.”

Since I hadn’t heard a lot about Mashiro’s past, I was quite nervous to ask her about it, but she didn’t seem to mind and just answered as if she was reminiscing about the past.

I don’t necessarily want to know what Mashiro’s life was like before she met me or anything like that right now.
Maybe it wasn’t always as peaceful as what I just heard.
But to keep turning away from it, to keep living with Mashiro, I feel like I’m running away from something much bigger and darker.

“So I should be grateful not only to Mashiro, but also to her mentor.”
“It’s okay. He’s a person like you, Satou-san.”
“…What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing.”

When I saw Mashiro laughing mischievously, the haze in my heart cleared up a little.
In no small part, the Mashiro of those days had a person near her, someone who could be there for her and be gentle with her. Just knowing that was a big step forward.

With this thought in mind, I continued my shopping, with Mashiro leading the way