He had skipped breakfast, so some lunch was very much desired by Kouji. Given the growls from Teru's stomach, it was the same for her. Himwari, on the other hand, was a lot more reserved compared to them.
"I see you two are really hungry." She commented on how much food was stacked on Teru's plate. Even Kouji had more than he normally would order. Meanwhile, she had her proper portions set about in her usual way. All her utensils placed right where they were meant to be for an easy dining experience.
"You really don't gotta be a stick in the mud." Teru said as she started to dig in. "I doubt he cares about how clean you are."
"For you to insinuate that I changed myself because of him." Himawari took major offense to this.
"Look, I don't really mind the banter." Kouji spoke up. "But it's a bit much when I'm sitting right in the middle." Indeed, it should come as no surprise that he would be seated between them. After all, not one person would simply allow the other to be close to him without challenge. He was getting really annoyed. At this rate, he'd be more likely to renounce wanting anyone to date and just live on as an eternal bachelor if this was the trouble brought by the whole situation.
"Oh it has nothing to do with you." Said Himawari, which was kind of a lie. "It's personal. Listen, there's nothing wrong with having some table manners when you're eating with people. Am I the only person that feels this way?"
"Maybe if it's an important dinner." Kouji chimed in. "But, we're all friends here. It's not really necessary for the formalities. Besides, if you act all strict, then we can't have any fun."
"Fun? Like what? Umph!" She asked, and got her answer in the form of a spoonful of Kouji's food.
"Like that." He lauged at her, as the girl hastily chewed the unwelcomed bite.
"W-whatever." She muttered once she was finished. She put a hand over her mouth to try and hide the tiny grin she had from getting to share some food with Kouji. "You should probably ask for consent before you decide to give me a mouthful."
"Well, I think it's pretty fun to see you like that." He was relentless in trying to get her to blush. Meanwhile, Teru was watching this with dread in her eyes. He was acting so causal with that girl. She could only wonder what they had been through before she ran into them in this food court.
This wasn't lost on Himawari, who could look at her while she was looking at Kouji. Now was the time for her to strike and get back at the girl for what happened earlier.
"Oh Kouji." She turned an 180 on her mood in this act. "If you're going to feed me, then it's only fair that you try out some of my food." She picked up some noodles with her chopsticks and brought it up to his face.
"Sure." He agreed and accepted her gift. "Yummy! Wow, you really know how to pick your meals." He complimented Himawari.
All the while, Teru was distraught by what she was seeing. Her toes curled at the sight of this. There was no way she could've already lost, she thought. No, it wasn't over yet. But unless she did something about this, it was going to be the end for her.
She slammed a hand on the table, breaking up the cute little talk from the other two. Well, she got their attention, as Kouji swung his head back to see what she wanted. Too bad that saying what she want to was not an easy task for the girl.
"I want…" She tried, but her mouth was unwilling to form the word.
"Oh, is there a problem here?" Himawari mocked the other girl's failure to speak up. "Surely there's nothing wrong with this, right?"
"Could you… Give me…" Her body didn't want her to say what her mind wanted to say. Well, her mind kind of didn't want to ask for it either.
"Give you what?" Kouji asked. Her face contorted from the emotional pain going on inside her body. She just had to let it out somehow.
"I want you to feed me!" She yelled a lot louder than she was hoping to do. Teru immediately realized her blunder and covered her mouth. The girl's eyes darted back and forth to see if anyone enjoying their lunch heard her.
If they did, then no one seemed to care enough to look at her.
"I mean, I'd like a bite too." She quietly muttered, looking down to try and hide her deep red face.
"You do?" He didn't expect it coming from her. She seemed the type to not want to do something like that in public, which is why he didn't ask. "Sure, here you go." He got up some food onto his spoon for Teru.
"…" She was silent as she eyed his offer. A part of her wanted to change her mind, but it was too late to wuss out now. No… Teru thought for a moment that she is no coward. It was time for her to put her money where her mouth is. Or in this case, Kouji's food. "A-ahhh." She said, as he gave her the bite to eat.
"Well, how is it?" Himawari turned her head back to her own food to try and not concern herself about this.
"Wow, this is really good!" Teru responded with mouth full. It was a lot more pleasing than she was expecting. "Can't believe I didn't get this instead."
"If you think that's good, maybe you should try some of Himawari's." Kouji suggested.
"No!" It was denied in unison by both girls. Obviously they only wanted his meat.
"All right then." He returned to his food, a lot less enthused now. "I wonder where the others are?" Kouji pondered while finishing his meal.
"Who cares about them?" Himawari asked. She believed that the only ones that mattered were already here.
"Yeah, we might as well just hang out around here." Teru backed up her rival on that point. "This isn't really our type of deal, but I'm sure there's something to do."
"Well, if we don't know where to go, then maybe the people that want to be here do." Still, he'd like to find the rest of the girls if that was possible. So Kouji formulated a plan, which was to bandwagon on wherever the otaku went. Most of them had no clue what to do in this event. Perhaps they had the same idea? "Looks like a lot of people are interested in whatever going's on over there." He pointed over to a crowd that didn't look too different than the one that swarmed Himawari.
"Seems good to me." Teru took care of the rest of her food and got up from her seat. Himawari wasn't into it, but there was little chance for her outnumbered 2-1.
Together, they all went towards what everyone was surrounding. It looked like some people were cosplaying in the middle of it. While this brought back bad memories for Himawari, the other two were quite impressed by the detail to the craft. They certainly weren't the only two either.
"Wow, how were you able to create such a costume?" That accent, there was no way some normal Japanese person just said that to one of these cosplayers. "I never knew that one could make a fictional person come to life."
"Hmm? Anastasia, is that you?" Her ears piqued in response to Kouji's voice.
"Aha!" She yelled out, pushing out the people in this crowd. Not a difficult feat to pull considering the normal person here. "I have been looking around for you all day." She jumped into his arms, much to the chagrin of the other girls.
"Great..." Himawari and Teru said in unenthusiastic voices.