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The Polar Star Dormitory grocery group outing was a time when every month, all dorm students went out and shopped at their local market together. Fumio-san once said that, in addition to strengthening their bond as a team, it's a great time to share ideas, recipes, and refining how to shop on a budget, all areas where they can influence each other. This time around however, there were a few faces missing from the crowd.
Megumi, accompanied by Daigo, headed up to the dormitory last. She had forgotten a few items for herself and her dorm mate graciously volunteered to stay behind and keep her company, with the rest of the group making their way back to PSD. They walked up to the building, its beloved vined exterior in sight, their happy chatter suddenly silenced as soon as they entered.
Everyone in the grocery group watched Erina and Souma loudly bickering, their laundry hampers on either side of the arguing student pair. In contrast to his calm but defensive stance, Erina looked furious, red-faced and splotchy, animated and arms flailing in every direction, but always moved back to point at their laundry hampers.
Ryoko was the first to welcome her friends with a thoughtful look, munching away on shrimp chips. Megumi and Daigo stared at her at a complete loss. "We haven't been back that long," she explained. "Maybe no more than 10 minutes? But they were already at it. And how does Erinacchi still look elegant while raging?"
"Shouldn't we stop them?" Megumi couldn't make heads or tails of what Erina was loudly explaining to Souma. "I mean, Isshiki-senpai may want to uhm-"
"Sorry for the wait!" Satoshi breezed by, clad only in his familiar apron that is barely an outfit, holding up a plate of what looked like sushi. "Just a simple spicy tuna for us today, as we watch them exchange words that are just as spicy as our snack."
Zenji walked over to Daigo, white envelope in his hand. "You want to place a bet on the pool?"
"A pool for what?" Daigo stared at the envelope with thinly disguised distrust. Quite frankly, he was a little nervous of the response.
"A betting pool on who's gonna win. Just text me your bet and put your money in the white envelope."
“What?! A bet!? Do we even know what they’re fighting about?!”
An annoyed Yuki shushed everyone with a finger to her lips. "Can you keep it down?! I'm trying to listen for that exact thing, Daigo! So inconsiderate."
"For the last time," Souma sighed, "I wasn't trying to be rude. But we do have rules for the laundry stuff and I only took your clothes out."
Erina gritted her teeth together, her eyes flashing in annoyance. "I know you have rules. I know that! So why didn't you just wait for me to get them? I was on my way from my shower!"
"I couldn't find you. And see, you just told me you were taking a shower. So I was doing something helpful after all." Souma pauses and gives her a cheeky grin, golden eyes glowing with humor. "Unless… Did you want me to go in during your shower to tell you your laundry's done?"
"That's not what I meant!"
"Whatever. The other machine was still running and your machine was done, so I just took your clothes out. That's it, okay? I didn't see anything, you know... weird."
"Why would they be weird in the first place?!" Erina fumed, "What do you mean by that?!"
Their audience collectively winced. "Oh my god, Souma-kun, shut. Up," Yuki said through her mouthful of spicy tuna. Isshiki nodded his head in solemn agreement, sipping his cold sake from the well-used masu in his hand.
Souma squared his shoulders. Straight-forward it was, then. "Your underwear. I didn't see your underwear."
All sound seemed to disappear in a vacuum that materialized somewhere inside Polar Star. The sudden silence seemed to amplify the dulcet tones of the birds outside, their notes and trills so clear and loud as if they were singing from indoors instead. No one dared make a sound and a few even stopped breathing for a short while.
Erina’s face got even redder as she processed Souma’s words. Meanwhile, Souma tilted his head in question as he thought he could see steam coming out of her nose and ears. And did that look like electric currents running up and down her hair? "My weird clothes?” she repeated in a much quieter tone. Goodness, even her amethyst eyes seemed so dark. “You did not see my underwear?"
Souma had no idea how incensed she was at him at this point and so kept poking at her. “Okay, I did see something like a soft blue color, very strappy. I don’t understand how that can pass as ‘clothing’, it’s like a scrap of fabric...”
He had meant it as a joke, he really did. But he had little leverage and defense against the inexperience of youth and the innocence of his virginity. Or he could be just dense, which was statistically more likely. Erina moved towards him in a slow pace and once they were toe to toe, she reached up and pinched his cheeks. “Idiot. You idiot, you listen to me,” she growled. “How could you not see? I. Was. Washing. Only. My. Underwear. Today.”
He stared at the empty space in front of him, slack-jawed, after Erina picked up the hamper closest to her and marched towards her room, stomping her feet in furious embarrassment. After a beat, Souma shook his head and picked up his hamper, but stopped moving as soon as he saw what was in there. “Shit.” He hissed through his gritted teeth. “She has my stuff and this... This is definitely her – whoa.”
Nothing really kept Yukihira Souma down or feeling awkward for too long, so he speed-walked to Erina’s room with a grin on his face. She called him an idiot, huh? He’d see about that. Souma loftily opened the door, and he yelled over her indignant screech. “Hey! First of all, that’s my hamper with my actual clothes and not just underwear! And also, since I’m such an idiot even though I actually helped you, can you explain something? What is all of this, why do you have so many of that style?! Why are they in mesh bags, when did you learn how to do laundry like this?”
Their friends could only stare at Erina’s door as it closed quietly, in stark contrast to the room’s loud occupants. Did that just really happen? Megumi started breathing squeaky, shallow breaths sometime during the heated exchange (but definitely after the sound vacuum happened), while most everyone seemed to be frozen in the exact same spot.
“Well then,” Shun grumbled and took out his mobile phone. “We need to change the terms of the bet. How will she make him hurt and will he escape?”