Chapter Text
Grudgingly, Chisaki admitted that she had neglected watching her diet in recent days. She would usually cook for the three of them, but there were occasions when Grandpa Kihara showed his hand. He made a big haul early one day and the prize he fetched home was a few pounds of fresh marlin. He asked Tsumugu and Chisaki to run an errand to Saya Mart for some vegetables and shellfish and when they stepped back inside the house, a wonderful aroma of grilled fish welcomed their return. That evening, Chisaki sat down to a scrumptious dinner and ate to her heart's content.
Later, as Chisaki was entering the bath, shedding off her long-sleeved top, denim shorts, and thigh highs, she felt a slight straining around her chest when she unclasped her bra. She ignored it, though, only to find the following morning that she had to suck in her breath a tiny bit in order to hitch the hook to the nearest eye. And yet, she persisted on ignoring that nagging feeling.
"Chisaki! We're running late!" Tsumugu yelled from downstairs.
"Coming!" Chisaki snatched up her school bag, pummeling out of her room, pounding down the stairs, and pushing through the front door where Tsumugu was expecting her with his bag slung over his shoulder.
That day, they had Home Economics and the recipe was chocolate rice krispies, which was met by the girls with keen interest, but earned a dreaded groan from the boys, because they would rather skip out on the baking and preferred jumping to the taste-testing instead. By coincidence, Chisaki and Tsumugu were in the same group when they were divided equally and the two of them worked astonishingly well as a team. The chocolate rice krispies turned out perfect and Chisaki was fairly proud of their finished product, which proved true as she sampled, in her opinion, a modest few.
However, after that episode, Chisaki often felt short of breath, like a weight was crushing her lungs. It was not mere chance was it, that she could only find relief when she had finally unfastened the clasps of her bra? Chisaki studied the girl in the reflection. She was tall and big-boned, not willowy, and...Chisaki winced at the flab or blob, she would describe more, of skin she had clamped in between her thumb and forefinger.
"No, it must be baby fat," Chisaki might have convinced herself, the operative word being might. She was eating rather healthily. Somewhere, in the eddies of her mind, she tried to make an inventory of exactly how many pieces of rice krispies she consumed in Home Economics, the strawberry parfait and chocolate fudge sundae she enjoyed with her girl friends during a sweets binge not too long ago, the bag of assorted candies and potato crunch she alternatively popped into her mouth one after another during cram nights, and, not to mention, there were also the full meals she had been eating when Grandpa Kihara was in the mood to prepare dinner, which, as of late, was becoming more often. She could no longer ignore that nagging feeling anymore. Her biggest dilemma, of course, was regarding the changes in her upper region.
During dinner, Tsumugu noticed that she only seemed to be eating a much smaller portion than usual. Her reason was she did not have much of an appetite. Then, at school, she approached her two closest female classmates – Kaori Akiyoshi and Yuu Seiki.
"Can you help me do some shopping?" Chisaki opened up.
They both perked up their eyebrows in surprise. Yuu asked, "In the city?" To which, Chisaki nodded.
Kaori said, dubious, "Why not ask Tsumugu to accompany you? Not that we're not okay with the invitation, but you guys are already living under the same roof. You do stuff together."
Something about the way Kaori worded it induced Chisaki to blush. She blushed even harder for what she was about to whisper to Kaori and Yuu, beckoning them to come hither, "They're too snug now."
At first, Kaori and Yuu stared uncomprehendingly at her. Chisaki's next move was to lower her gaze to her chest and look back up at her classmates' unblinking faces.
"Eeh! Oh, that!" squealed Yuu in an excited whisper, but Kaori could not help bursting out, volume a tad overloud, "Oh, oh! What's your cup si–"
"Ssshh!" hissed Chisaki, signing the 'quiet' gesture and flailing her hands desperately. At this point, the whole class must have overheard them as she could feel their eyes pricking her back, Tsumugu's included, and she was so ashamed she buried her tomato-red face in her hands.