Sae Taniguchi was an 18-year-old girl. She had dark lavender hair and had tied it up in a ponytail. She had a pair of white-framed glasses to support her bad eyesight. She had a rather round face and a pair of pinchable cheeks to pair with it.
She had average height and a rather ample body. She wasn't necessarily a person you would consider 'round' or anything. In fact, she had a body many boys in the world hoped to get their hands on.
She had undoubtedly a bigger bust size compared to the rest of the Japanese population. She also had a shapely hip every man in the world could hope for. Besides, a woman with a large bust and hip size with a small waist doesn't exist in the real world.
She had short stumpy legs that didn't go very well with the rest of her body. She described herself to be out of proportion because compared to her lower body, she had a larger upper body. However, she had thighs that could crush a watermelon and the necks of her enemies…
Even though there was someone out there who would hope to be her next victim.
Sae was in a casual t-shirt and a pair of long pants. She was also carrying a sling bag filled with two lunch boxes. However, what the odd one out from her attire was the cat-ears hairband she had on her head. The reason being is that she was walking in the world's largest doujinshi fair, Comiket.
Sae was also into anime as a kid. She loved to watch shows about main characters with superpowers as they fight against evil. She was also very much into tokusatsu films as she enjoyed the transformation scenes and the battles. However, as much as she was a fan of the otaku culture, she wasn't a fan of crowds.
The only reason Sae was at Comiket was that she was about to meet a friend who happened to had a stall set up there. Sae was here to hand her homemade lunch box to that friend and leave before the crowd gets to her.
Now, you would think, why would a girl who wasn't into crowds go to such lengths just to hand over a single lunch box?
Because Sae Taniguchi's friend was her childhood friend and crush.
Sae Taniguchi was in love with her childhood friend for almost two years now. Despite knowing each other for so long, it was only recently that she realized she had more than just familiar love for him as she began to see him as someone of the opposite gender.
Sae knew her childhood friend would be busy manning the booth and couldn't leave his seat during lunchtime. So, Sae decided to prepare a lunch box for him just as a nice childhood friend would. However, she wasn't just here to hand in her lunch box to her childhood friend…
She was also here to confess to her childhood crush.
But she wasn't here to seal the deal. In fact, she was here to be rejected. She knew that her childhood friend would reject her as he wasn't in a position to date her. The reason was simple…
Her childhood friend was in a relationship with another girl.
Sae had always seen love as a bothersome emotion and a nuisance. She wanted to get rid of her feelings for her childhood friend and go back to just being friends. That way she could move on with her life and focus on her studies. She didn't want the love for her childhood friend to be a hindrance to her future. She didn't want the love for her childhood friend to stop her from achieving her goals and prevent her from making her family proud.
She was willing to toss away her own feelings for the sake of an unforeseeable future.
After squeezing through the intense crowd, she finally found the booth that her childhood friend was manning. He was sitting there with his friends who helped with his work. She was about to call out to him but was stopped by the sight of his childhood friend's emotion.
He was smiling. He was enjoying the moment as he laughed while being surrounded by his friends. He was having the time of his life. Even though she could still see the stack of books piling up on his table that showed that his work wasn't exactly selling well, he was still smiling.
Sae, who was prepared to be rejected didn't have the heart anymore to confess her feelings. She didn't want to ruin the moment he was having. She didn't want to ruin the mood for her own selfish reasons. She wasn't willing to see her childhood friend suffer from the emotion caused by rejecting someone he cared deeply about.
She realized that she was only caring about her own feelings and was almost about to cause misfortune to her favourite person. She didn't dare to do such a thing to the boy she was in love with. But because of that...
She learned that her emotions for her childhood friend were genuine.
Sae tossed her initial plan away and decided that it would be best to just hand her childhood friend her homemade lunch box.
"Nobuo!"
Sae called out to her childhood friend as she started running over to his booth. Nobuo who was still laughing from his friend's joke turned and saw her squeezing through the crowd. He immediately raised her hand and swung it side to side as if he was making sure Sae could reach her destination properly.
"Sae! You made it! Guys, this is my childhood friend, Sae Taniguchi."
Nobuo said as he introduced Sae to his friends. After sharing a few greetings, Sae took out one of the lunch boxes that she had prepared early in the morning and then handed it over to Nobuo.
"Here you go. It's my first time cooking for someone else outside of my family so I hope you don't have any toilet trips."
"Well, I hope so too," Nobuo said as he looked around the crowd-filled compound. "It's going to be hard going to one in this crowd. But thank you so much. I'm truly happy that you were willing to cook for me. I'm sure it'll taste good."
As they share a couple more laughs and small talks. Sae was ready to leave the building already.
"Well enjoy the meal. I'm getting out of here now. It's only been minutes and I'm already at my limit."
"I understand. Thanks for the meal, Sae. Regardless of the taste, I hope to have more of your home cooking again."
Nobuo said with a smile as he thanked Sae. Sae who now had her heart skipped a beat, quickly waved and left.
Sae quickly ran into a public bathroom nearby and hid in a urinary stall. She wasn't crying or showing any negative emotions on her face. In fact, she was smiling and blushing like a girl in heat and couldn't keep it in control.
She was happy that Nobuo introduced her to his friends as a childhood friend. She was happy that Nobuo received her lunch box and said it would taste good before even eating it. She was happy that Nobuo wanted to try her cooking again before even seeing how it looked like.
Sae couldn't keep her emotions in control and ended up jumping for joy. It wasn't long till she realized she was making a lot of noise. She stopped jumping and covered her mouth with her hands as soon as she found out.
However, Sae also realized that she had to remain her feelings for her childhood friend to herself. Sae may be glad that Nobuo was grateful for her actions…
But Sae hated herself for realizing once more that her feelings were genuine once again.
Sae left the bathroom with conflicting answers. She had to continue shouldering the burden of being in love as she kept them in her heart.
Sae got out of the Comiket compound and walked towards the train station. On the way, she was thinking about what her next move will be to get rid of her feelings for her childhood friend. And while she was thinking about that, she was also thinking about what to make for Nobuo's next lunch box.
END