Katsumi was in a familiar place. Where was this place again? Ah, right. School.
Katsumi was in a corridor at dusk. He recognized this one. He didn't go through it much, but he knew it had several club rooms on both sides.
Katsumi moved through the corridor at a leisurely pace. He was carrying a stack of books. The teacher had picked him out to help return them to the staff room after remedial lessons.
Katsumi suddenly stopped. He heard something. Humming?
On a whim, he decided to investigate. Katsumi placed the stack of books on the floor, then traced the source of the sound. The Cooking Club room.
The door was slightly ajar. Through a gap, he could see someone cooking. He got closer and peered in.
There she was, with her tangled black hair, cooking with a facial expression that could only be described as bliss. Katsumi knew her. She was in the same class as him. Kimoto Mari. In this setting, she looked… beautiful. Katsumi stood there, seemingly entranced.
Then, she spotted Katsumi. She let out a yelp, and dropped the bowl of batter she was mixing. Katsumi instinctively rushed into the room to help her clean up.
After a few moments of wiping, she looked at Katsumi tearfully.
"I'm sorry you had to see something so unsightly."
Katsumi tried to speak normally, but his voice still came out slightly weird. A side effect of his antisocial nature.
"What, uh, do you mean by that?"
"I suppose a plain girl like me who isn't cute or girly at all shouldn't be making a fool of myself cooking. I'm not even worthy of cooking alongside the rest of the cooking club. They're right, I am kind of useless..."
She glanced at Katsumi.
"Ah! Sorry for whining! I'm really sorry, I just do it out of force of habit. Please forgive me!"
They had finished wiping the floor and stood up at this point.
Katsumi's voice caught in his throat, but after a moment to compose himself he finally managed to utter a sentence.
"You, uh, really shouldn't belittle yourself. I don't know too much about girls, but um, to me, Kimoto-san is plenty cute!"
Then, a moment later, the weight of what the h*ll he had just said hit him.
He took one last look at Kimoto, turned and ran like the wind.
Katsumi could feel his face flushing. Why had he gone and said something stupid like that?
But just before he ran, he had had one good look at Mari's face.
Ah, so that's what the blush of a goddess looks like.
---
As he ran, he had a feeling he was forgetting something important, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.