Episode 16

“Hey! Aren’t we kinda abusing the eat all you can buffet coupons?” Angi pointed out that while the other AWU Alliance members turned their attention to her.

“Hm? What do you mean?” Veena, who sits across from Angi, asked after she took another bite of sushi.

“Do you honestly not know? We’ve been here for hours now. I mean, look at Shin, who’s practically emptying the food from the buffet!” Angi said as she facepalmed from embarrassment for her glutton of an upperclassman.

“Now, now, let’s enjoy and make the most of the coupons. I’m sure Sir Aaydan would want that.”

Ayumi stated, hoping for Angi to calm down.

“Angi does have a point. We’ve been here since the restaurant opened and that was about five hours ago.”

Shion said as she took a spoonful of rice with pork cutlets. Her long hair kept getting in the way of the food. She was bothered by it. She searched for a hair tie when she realized she had left none behind.

Suddenly, she flinched in surprise when-
“W-what do you think you’re doing?!”

She frantically asked the person beside her, who just outright touched her hair and began tying it into a ponytail.

“Shut it, will ya? Unless you want your hair to look like noodles, then be my guest. It’s so damn annoying. Good thing I carry a hair tie out of habit.”
Ze replied while still tying Shion’s hair into a ponytail.

Shion just froze there on the spot and waited for Ze to finish. She got reminded that Ze was long-haired not too long ago, according to Ayumi and Veena.

From the other side of the table, Bleex watched Shion and Ze silently and thought ‘So, Mad Satan can show kindness, eh’

Then, Ze caught Bleex’s gaze and shot him a death glare with a ‘What-are-ya-looking-at?!’ face
Bleex turned and broke eye contact and blurted out: “He’s still Mad Satan.”

“Shin, slow down and drink.” Eru reminded Shin with concern as she poured another glass of red iced tea for Shin
“Eru i-is r-r-right ,Shin.” Lucas, who sat across from Shin and Eru,  noticed that Shin almost ate the coffee jelly and onion rings.

“Shin, do y-y-you w-want more of t-these?” Lucas asked, picking up the empty plate since Shin took the rest of the onion rings to his plate.

Shin only nodded in response since his mouth was too full to say his reply.
“Let me come with you.”

Lucas was stunned when he heard the person who wanted to get food with him.”
“Ayumi?! No, no, it’s fine. I’ll carry the food just fine.”

Ayumi scrunched her eyebrows together since Lucas seemed to avoid her.
“Let me come too. I’m sure a gentleman like myself would love to help some damsels in distress”

Bleex blurted out as he stood up from his seat. Ayumi hit him on his shoulder saying she’s no damsel.
Lucas, on the other hand, just froze there and for some reason, his senses dulled and every sound was so echoing. Thoughts kept swirling in his mind:

‘Bleex said damsels.’
‘He said damselS.’
‘He knows.’

Ayumi pats Lucas’ shoulder, snapping him back to reality.
“Are you okay, Lucas?” Ayumi’s face was filled with worry and concern. She also noticed that Lucas’ shoulder isn’t as broad as she thought.

Lucas only nodded in response and followed his upperclassmen to the buffet table.

“Done.” Ze finally finished tying Shion’s hair.

To her pleasant surprise, Ze managed to do lovely braids while tying them into a ponytail
“Why- How do you even know to do ‘this’?”

Shion asked while checking out her hair with her pocket mirror.

“I have a little sister who keeps pestering me to learn it, that’s how. I mentioned her before, remember?” Ze replied with a proud smile and Shion hummed to agree

“I feel you.”

Everyone turned their heads to the person who just spoke.

“What do you mean? And you finally decide to talk instead of wolfing the whole damn place down.” Ze resisted to roll his eyes

“A sister who kept pestering you to learn hairstyles. I feel you with that sentiment.” Shin nonchalantly said, eyeing Lucas with Ayumi and Bleex from afar. He’s waiting patiently for food to come.

“You only know how it feels if you really have a sister, dumbass.” Ze shot back

“I do have one, bastard.” It Shin’s turn to resist rolling his eyes

“Have what?” Veena couldn’t help but intervene. It was too interesting to just listen to it.

“A sister.” Shin took a bite of chips, still eyeing his fellow club members to see if they were about to come back with the food.

“Who has what?” Angi took a bite of sushi, and it was the last piece left on the plate.

“Me, I have a sister.” Shin facepalms and Eru can only smile at her friends’ great disbelief that Shin has a sibling.

“Since when do you have-“Shion couldn’t finish her sentence since Shin probably had enough

“Yes! I have a sister, you numbskulls! Now, excuse me for nature calls.” Shin took his exit and bolted to the comfort room.

“What was that?” Veena, Shion, Angi, and Ze simultaneously ask, and Eru can only shrug at them.

From the other side of the restaurant. AWU Alliance isn’t the only one that got some coupons.

“Sheesh! For a man, don’t you think you eat like a princess? You barely ate anything! This is an eat all you can restaurant for Pete’s sake!” Iori Winters, the vice president of the Student Council stated as she smacked Jin’s back who’s beside her. He’s picking some carrots and peas out of the way from his food.

Apparently, the school nurse, Sir Aaydan, also gave coupons to his sweet little sister, Jie Astaroth. So Jie shared it with her fellow student council officers.

“Iori, cut him some slack. You know our president doesn’t eat much.” Dash Montefalco who is the auditor of the student council, tried to calm their vice president down.

“Well, good thing we have someone who is the exact opposite of our president. I wonder how many servings she has already wolfed down.” Jie said as she took a bite of the chocolate ice cream.

“Though, where is she?” Jin wondered as he flinched at Iori’s deathly glare
“She must be getting another serving and making the most of the coupons unlike a certain dumb goofball who just ate a freaking salad.” Iori sarcastically stated as she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and started to eat her miso ramen.

---

Lucas doesn’t know what his fellow club members' food preferences are so he grabbed all of each kind of food. Ayumi mostly filled her plate with sushi and sashimi and Bleex filled his plate with onion rings and chips. Lucas wishes he didn’t take long and Shin didn’t starve to death by waiting for him. He took a glance at their table. They are about to return to their table when-

“S-sorry-y! I-i wa-wasn’t looking!” Lucas bumped into someone while his gaze was on their table, luckily the food he was carrying didn’t fall, same goes for the person he bumped into. Ayumi and Bleex saw the whole thing and they thought it’s the first time they heard Lucas’ voice out loud.

“No, it’s fine. No worries.” The person Lucas bumped into calmly said and Lucas recognized the face

“S-shin?” Lucas blurted out

“Why didn’t you wait for us?” Bleex asked and he recognized ‘Shin’s’ face too

“We probably took a while picking out the food.” Ayumi said as she hurriedly went to their table and Bleex followed.

Lucas grabbed the person he bumped into to their table.

“What took you guys so long?” Veena said as she watched Ayumi, Lucas and Bleex placed the plates filled with all kinds of food on the table.

Eru recognized immediately the person Lucas bumped into

She pointed her finger at the person and uttered “Aren’t you?-“

---

“Jie, when I said to find our treasurer, I meant OUR TREASURER. Not her little brother.” Iori said as resist the urge to facepalm. Their treasurer was taking too long to come back so Iori told Jie to find her but Jie returned with a different person.