law of equivalent exchange

Fourth period dragged on unbearably. The history teacher droned on about the Edo period, but only one thought kept circling through my head, pulsing in time with my growling stomach: Food.

I was hungry. Ravenous, actually. Yesterday, full of stress, had burned through every last calorie I had. I wondered what Mom had made today. Maybe crispy karaage chicken? Or my favorite, slightly sweet tamagoyaki omelet?

Finally, the long-awaited bell rang. The classroom sprang to life instantly, filling with happy chatter, the scrape of chairs, and the rustle of bags. I swallowed down a mouthful of saliva and dug into my bag. My hand found notebooks, a pencil case, a spare pen…

I felt around the bottom of the bag. Empty.

Cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I looked inside. My beautifully wrapped bento box, neatly folded in cloth, wasn’t there. My memory obligingly conjured up a picture from that morning: rushing around, the front door slamming shut, and the lunch box sitting peacefully behind on the kitchen table. I didn’t have any money to go to the cafeteria, either.

Life is pain.

I let out a groan and collapsed face-first onto my crossed arms, pressing my forehead against the cool surface of the desk. My stomach let out a pitiful, drawn-out sound, begging me to throw anything into it at all. I closed my eyes, deciding I’d just lie like this for five minutes, then go get some water from the fountain and drink myself sick.

“Open your mouth.”

I flinched. The voice came from right beside me, quiet, perfectly flat, devoid of any emotion. I slowly lifted my head and turned to the left.

Minami Rin was sitting half-turned toward me. In one hand she held her bento box; in the other, a pair of chopsticks. And right now, those chopsticks were extended toward me, pinched between them a small, perfectly fried sausage cut into the shape of a little octopus.

My brain, worn down by hunger, froze for a second, struggling to process the information.

She’s holding food. She’s holding it out to me. She said “open your mouth.”

Wait. What?! Is she trying to feed me?! With chopsticks?! In the middle of class?!

While I sat there with my eyes wide open, looking like a fish washed up on shore, the noise in the classroom started to die down. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my classmates, one by one, stop chewing and turn their heads toward us. A nervous whisper crept through the rows.

“Hey, are you seeing this?”

“Are they… dating?!”

“No way, look at her face… She’s definitely making him taste-test it first, in case it’s poisoned. Poor guy…”

Panic swept over me completely.

“U-um, Minami-san…” I waved my hands in front of my chest, trying to politely decline without actually shouting. “T-thank you, but I’m not hungry, really! You don’t have to!”

I tried to lean back, but she didn’t seem to hear my excuses at all. Rin didn’t even blink. She kept sitting there with a completely unreadable expression, and her hand with the octopus sausage kept advancing inexorably toward my face, until it froze an inch from my lips.

Her heavy, narrowed gaze from beneath her bangs pinned me straight to my chair. It was the look of someone who did not accept “no” for an answer.

My stomach growled traitorously, giving up the last of my resistance. Burning with shame, feeling the tips of my ears go red, I gave in. I parted my lips slightly, leaned forward, and carefully took the sausage off with my mouth.

It was incredibly delicious.

But before I’d even finished chewing, I saw something that nearly stopped my heart. Rin calmly speared a second sausage with those same chopsticks and popped it into her own mouth.

Those same chopsticks. The exact same ones.

That’s an indirect kiss! In front of the entire class!

My face flushed so hard it probably could’ve lit up the street at night. I sat there red as a tomato, bracing for something catastrophic to happen. For a normal high school girl, this would’ve been cause for wild embarrassment. But for Rin, it clearly meant absolutely nothing. Her expression didn’t even change.

Then she speared a piece of the omelet and held it out to me again.

“Ah,” she commanded, short and simple.

And I opened my mouth. I didn’t have a choice. And so it continued. A bite for me, a bite for her. Under the stunned, riveted stares of the entire class, Minami Rin coolly fed me half of her lunch. I chewed, silently cursing my own forgetfulness and praying the break would end as soon as possible.

When the bento was empty, Rin closed the box just as calmly, put her chopsticks away, and tucked the lunch back into her bag.

“T-thanks for the meal…” I mumbled, not daring to look up at her.

She glanced at me briefly with that heavy stare, then silently turned back to the window. No “you’re welcome,” no “sure thing.” Just silence.

The next day, I checked my bag three times. The bento was there. No more humiliating hand-feeding, no more indirect kisses, no more whispering behind my back. Today, I was going to be a normal high schooler, eating lunch at my desk.

The bell for break rang. I proudly pulled out my lunch box and was just about to lift the lid when, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a familiar movement.

I turned my head.

Minami Rin was sitting half-turned again, her hand extended toward me, an octopus sausage pinched between her chopsticks.

My eye twitched. Was she planning to feed me every single day now?! Had this become a habit for her?!

“Th-thank you so much, Minami-san,” I said with a nervous smile, tapping a finger on my lunch box lid. “But I didn’t forget my lunch today. So it’s fine! I’ll eat on my own!”

I opened the lid, showing off my perfect rice, chicken, and omelet, hoping that would make her put the chopsticks away.

But Rin didn’t budge. She lowered the hand with the sausage, set her chopsticks down on her desk, and then… leaned toward me slightly, parted her lips, and froze, watching me with that signature, unnerving stare of hers.

“Ah,” she said, quiet but distinct.

I blinked. Then blinked again.

I looked at her parted lips. Then at my open bento. Then back at her.

It started to dawn on me.

She was waiting for me to return the favor.

The law of equivalent exchange?! my inner voice screamed in panic.

Whispers started up again behind us. My classmates, apparently, were eagerly waiting for a sequel to yesterday’s show.

“Um…” I swallowed hard. My hand trembled slightly as I picked up my chopsticks.

She wasn’t backing down. She sat there with her mouth open, waiting for me to feed her. And I understood that if I didn’t do it, we’d be sitting like this until graduation.

With shaking hands, I speared the nicest-looking piece of omelet from my box, squeezed my eyes shut, and carefully placed it in her mouth.

Rin closed her mouth and chewed slowly. Her heavy gaze softened for just a moment.

“Delicious,” she stated in that same flat voice.

Then, as if nothing had happened, she turned away, picked up her own chopsticks, and began quietly eating her own bento.

I was left sitting there, holding my empty chopsticks in midair, staring blankly at the classroom board.