Chapter 150: Eating Dog Food and Gathering Material
Inside the cafe, Utaha sat opposite the two, picked up the coffee a waiter had brought, took a sip, and said with a smile, "I didn't expect to run into you two here."
Eriri also looked at the Jump magazine Utaha had placed beside her, a bit surprised, and asked, "You bought it too?"
"Of course." Utaha picked up the Jump magazine, opened it, and said, "You two, one is my colleague from the same Bunko, and the other is my business partner. It's only right that I buy a copy to support you. Besides, this place isn't far from my house, so it's quite convenient to come over. It's just that the newly arrived batches of Jump always sell out very quickly, so I have to get up early to buy one."
Hearing Utaha say this, Eriri couldn't help but feel a little touched, and at the same time, a sense of apology welled up in her heart.
After Kaede saw Utaha standing outside and told her he had forgotten someone, Eriri instantly understood the meaning behind it once she saw Utaha.
They hadn't invited her to their housewarming party… In fact, they only remembered her when they saw her again today.
Fortunately, Utaha was currently engrossed in reading and didn't notice the expressions on Kaede and Eriri's faces.
After slowly finishing it in ten minutes, Utaha closed the magazine, a satisfied expression on her face, and said, "A very good manga. As expected of Asakura-kun's script."
"Hey! What about me?!"
Eriri listened, indignantly saying, "What about my drawing skills? I put in a lot of effort too!"
Utaha rested her chin on her hand, a clear look of confusion on her face, and said, "Hmm? Is that so? But I think the main credit still goes to the script."
"Ah ah ah ah! You!"
Kaede also laughed at this point, patting Eriri's head and saying, "Alright, Eriri, can't you see Kasumigaoka-senpai is just teasing you?"
"You're one to talk! Weren't you the same before?"
"Cough..."
Kaede's gaze became evasive; he had dug his own grave.
Seeing that she had won a round, Eriri showed a satisfied smile, but after glancing at Utaha opposite her, she became hesitant again.
She tugged on Kaede's sleeve, then, under Utaha's puzzled expression, leaned into Kaede's ear and whispered, "Kaede-kun, what should we do? We forgot to tell her. If she finds out that she's the only one who wasn't informed or invited by us, wouldn't that be really bad?"
Kaede nodded, then, under Utaha's even stranger expression, whispered back into Eriri's ear, "It's actually not hard to solve. We just need to make her think we were the first ones to tell her."
Oh, right, we can do that!
Eriri instantly understood and stopped worrying.
"Then, Kaede-kun, what do you say? Should we just invite her to visit today? Look, she even specifically bought Jump to support us. She definitely didn't know we were here; she's not just putting on an act."
"Alright, Eriri, you decide."
With her decision made, Eriri, sitting upright again, looked at Utaha, thought for a moment, and said, "Um, Kasumigaoka, are you busy today?"
Utaha didn't understand why Eriri asked this, but still replied, "Me? No, I'm not busy. The weather has been so hot these past few days, I haven't gone anywhere. I've just been writing at home. Why?"
Eriri opened her mouth, finding it difficult to say such a thing herself, so she bumped her boyfriend beside her, leaving it to him to speak.
Kaede immediately understood, knowing that Eriri was too shy to say it, so he took over and said, "It's like this, a few days ago, Eriri and I bought an apartment and moved in together. If Senior has time today, since we've run into each other, would you like to come over for a visit?"
"...Eh? Wait a minute."
Although Utaha was very smart, she couldn't react to everything, such as the current situation.
With an expression of utter bewilderment that Eriri had never seen before, Utaha raised her hand and said, "Um, wait, wait, let me process this. Asakura-kun just said that you two moved in together?"
Kaede nodded, "Yes."
Eriri followed suit, making the same gesture.
Utaha saw that her ears were indeed not playing tricks on her, and she hadn't misunderstood. She raised her hand to cover her chest, took several deep breaths, and then said, "Am I out of touch with the times? You two are already living together?"
Eriri explained with a blush, "Mainly, mainly because of the manga. Now that it's summer vacation, it's fine, but once school starts, running back and forth won't give us enough time for the serialization. Dropping out of school is absolutely out of the question, so this solution came about!"
"Never mind your reasons, I'm only interested in the result."
Crossing her arms and leaning back on the sofa cushion, Utaha looked at the two in front of her and said thoughtfully, "So, you've already been living together for several days? And you're indeed inviting me to visit?"
Both nodded simultaneously.
Utaha began to think.
This matter was indeed a very good point for gathering material. She had been buried in writing these past few days and was just lacking some inspiration, and now it was delivered right to her doorstep.
But at the same time, Utaha had a premonition, which was that she would be forced to eat a lot of 'dog food' again.
Sigh, what else could she do? Who told her, a girl who had never been in love, to insist on writing youth romance novels, bringing trouble upon herself.
Although she was somewhat resistant to eating 'dog food,' Utaha finally agreed. "Alright, then I'll shamelessly intrude."
After sitting in the cafe for a while, chatting about the manga, and finishing their coffee, the three left together, preparing to head to Kaede and Eriri's apartment.
However, before going back, there was one more thing to do: grocery shopping.
Under Utaha's guidance, the two went directly to a nearby large supermarket. After shopping, they took a taxi straight back.
As they walked, Eriri said with a smile, "Last night we ate out, so there are no groceries at home. If we're going to host you, we have to buy some good stuff."
"So, Asakura-kun is cooking?"
"Why don't you think it would be me?!"
Utaha looked at Eriri as if it were obvious. "Because Eriri, you don't know how to cook, do you?"
"Ha? Let me tell you, I'm not who I used to be!"
The competitive Eriri looked at Kaede and said, "Kaede-kun, today's lunch is up to me. I'm going to make this woman bow down to my cooking skills!"
Eriri, for once, had such a strong competitive spirit.