In the end, the girl didn’t move an inch until the lunch break and the only thing Chris got was a cramp in his legs, so the day finished without any gain relevant to the search.

And so, when the last day of the week came, they decided to go to another area.

It was a classroom different from any other inside the school. There were six sets of tables covered by a thin cloth over them. In one of the corners, one could see two sinks tables, wide enough for someone to wash their clothes, but its use was for another household function.

In another corner, there were two ovens, one of them clearly older than the other but that only meant it was still working since some of its stains were rather fresh. There was a balcony, separating one from the other, with a microwave on top of it, as well as some drawers in its bottom. Hanging from the wall, four gloves were being held by nails.

And in yet another corner, there laid two fridges, with a size enough to feed a family of five each. One of them had a label saying “MEAT/DAIRY P.” while the other said “VEGETABLES/FRUITS”. On its side, there was a cabinet saying “DOUGH/OTHERS”.

The last corner was the one that resembled a normal classroom the most. A blackboard hanging on the wall with “HOME ECONOMICS CLUB MEETING” written on it and a teacher’s table in front of it. It was right on the corner of where the door was.

And that same door was now opening slowly, enough for two eyes to look inside, moving back-and-forth like they were verifying the place with caution.

-Ok, it’s empty. Let’s go.

With a whisper like he wanted to keep a secret, the eyes disappeared and the door was opened without hesitation, clearing the way for the pair of people behind it to enter.

Seeing that the girl was inside, the boy closed the door and looked around the classroom, with a rather disappointed face afterward.

-How should I say this…

In his vision, there was nothing wrong with the place this club was using. They had everything they needed to complete their daily activities and he once remembered how the club was praised since most of the school events had food coming from them.

However, the reason for his expression at that moment was—

-It’s so normal…

The home economics club.

Chris knew about them from the flyers hanging on the mainboard of the school and the first week of school when the clubs were opened for the new students to see how their activities were before they chose something.

He had once entered this club with his friends since the first day of school was focused on the students knowing more about the campus and what it offered. This was one of the few clubs they had entered before going back home to play an online game together.

(They did have good food back then.)

Recalling the main reason they and many others took a glance inside this club, Chris walked towards the fridges. Opening them, all he saw was food in a large quantity, enough for them to leave not a single space open inside.

But that didn’t make the boy satisfied. He proceeded to open the cabinet, just to find it in a similar situation as the food. And so he did with the drawers from the balcony, the ones under the sink and even checked under the tables, however, all he had found was recipe books, kitchen supplies, and empty spaces.

The club was exactly like it seemed: normal.

-Hmm…

If Chris was honest with himself, this place was as he remembered it to be. There was nothing that he could recall that change inside, so he could now confirm something with it:

This place wasn’t like its counterpart from the game.

He thought about this possibility after yesterday’s search. Although the pool was something that was like an exact copy of it, the library wasn’t like the one from the game.

It all came from a conversation he had with Midna after she got up.

[][][][][]

-So you couldn’t find it either?

-Uhum. I tried to search for it but couldn’t found anything about it. And then, I grabbed that book and…and I…UWAAAAAAAAAA!

-I…see…

[][][][][]

That exchange left him disheartened.

After all, it was a secret passage to a secret place. It was such a cool thing to have. He had imagined using that as a secret base for them, somewhere they could chill without anyone disturbing them, and to spy on the whole school to learn more about what is happening.

The former was the real reason he wanted to find it, or that would be his answer in case someone asked.

(Well, only she knows about it, but…)

He didn’t want to say something childish and sound it weird in front of her.

(Still…I can’t find anything weird about this place.)

Thinking about it, Chris looked around one more time.

In the game, the home economics club was a place without much to do. Two tables divided the room by three lines with each of them enough to hold half a class of thirty with space to spare.

The most remarkable sight of the club was the food storage. There was a fridge for the small stuff, but most of the ingredients were placed in two other areas: the wardrobe-like storage, large enough to be called a separate room, and a giant freezer like the ones from a butcher house.

Inside of them were some items that would be relevant in some part of the story later on, but it was usually the place where the player could get ingredients for the basic recipes in the club.

Just like the library, this was also an area with training. On it, the player could make dishes for the heroines to eat and was one of the places that many would go since they would get an item from doing something, but there was a hidden feature as well.

If the player chose to spend some time inside, their character would learn something that made possible for many players to get the attention of the heroines faster than any other method.

After reading many recipe books and having some interactions with the heroines, the character would also learn something that would be of their tastes, making them surprised by how much he cared about them.

If, for example, one of them wasn’t eating healthy food or didn’t have time to eat a full meal, the player could choose a certain dish that would help her in that day, giving them more energy and a growing interest on them.

It helped that the game had some descriptions about the dishes the player could make, so even the most casual of them could link what the heroine needed and what they could make for her.

But none of that helped Chris now.

-Midna, did you find anything here?

The place was normal and nothing was added into it, at least from his perspective. Since she was from the game, there might be something that she could notice that he didn’t, but…

-Well…It’s normal…I guess? - With a confused look, she responded to him.

-I see.

(If she couldn’t find anything wrong with it, then that was it.)

There were some places that they could go like this club. For some reason in the game, even though the class was happening, there were some areas that the player could enter, and that was also true for Chris’ school at the moment.

All they needed to do was to find places from the game that matched with his school and they wouldn’t, in theory, be locked like the other classrooms.

With her response, there was nothing else to do there. Even in the game, this place was mostly used to bake sweets and nothing relevant to the plot.

But…the search wasn’t the only thing in Chris’ mind when they entered there.

-Well…since we do have some time, wanna make something?

[][][][][]

In the game, there were a massive amount of ingredients for the player to use for basic recipes in the club. Basically, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to have the same ingredient in stupid quantity in their inventory.

However, if one thought they could just give the same thing over and over for the heroine, they would soon learn how wrong they were. Basically, there would be a point where the heroine will say something along those lines for them:

Why do you keep giving me [dish name] over and over again? Just because I said I liked them, it’s not I want to have it ALL the time!

If a player got this message, that was the point to stop and rethink their stomach strategy. Otherwise…the meat in the freezer would gain another variety to display.

But that was only if someone continued to give them excessive amounts, like fifty or so of the same thing. Some players had a debate over this because of how out of the box this [Game Over] was but later they would receive an answer about it during a press conference when the staff said it was because it was a form to teach about not using excise amount of food and waste ingredients.

Luckily, nobody of them could see what was happening in that clubroom in that morning or they teachings would be for naught.

-Midna, it says two cups of dough!

-But what is wrong with this way though?

-You don’t mix salt with milk!

In one word: a mess. That was the definition of what one of the tables looked like. A liquid was falling down while the surroundings were messy by the many failed attempts of whatever she was making.

(Serious, what was I thinking?!)

He thought she could handle it alone after all the times in his house.

He gave the recipe for her to follow.

He would bring whatever she said.

At first, he though some ingredients were weird, but maybe it was only because of how the recipe was written, however, the moment she said for him to grab a spoon of meat, something was wrong.

-Please, read the words and not the pictures!

-But they had the same color, no?

-Ok, that is it!

Not holding this nonsense anymore, Chris took the place of Midna and looked at the recipe. Folding his sleeves, he said:

-Bring me two cups of flour, one cup of milk and two eggs.

-And where are them?

-In the fridge.

-Is this it?

-For Pete’s sake, read the labels!

[][][][][]

With a clack, the oven was closed and the inside was heated. The lone mold filled with the mixture was there and it would take about twenty minutes for it to get done.

In front of it, Chris and Midna were looking at their hand-crafted creation. Each of their dirty and wet clothes displayed how much effort they put into this easy-to-follow recipe.

While one of them was happy waiting for the time to pass, the other was quite angry about how the process was.

(Dammit, what is on with your mind?)

Sometimes she would be dependent and reliable; other times she was dumb and needed to be taken care of. If his friend Max saw this, he would point that gap of her.

(I really don’t understand what you think sometimes.)

Even after all that time together, she was still a mystery to him. There was nothing about her like this even in the game. A totally new character nobody knew of, he thought.

(Did someone else also found about that glitch?)

It would be too weird if he was the only one to found out about that glitch. With all the information he got from Max about the game, he knew somewhat about how large the fan base was.

(And…if someone did, would she still be here or…)

For some reason, that thought brought him a bad feeling he couldn’t explain. If she, by some chance, wasn’t at his side right now, would he--

-Hey…

-Hmm?

Her voice surprised him, stopping his thoughts from flowing.

-Why are we doing that?

-What?

-That.

With her finger, the girl pointed at the thing they were waiting for. He was so concentrated on his thoughts that Chris even forgot about it.

-Oh, that…well, it’s because…

-…Because?

(Crap, what to do now…)

With Midna staring innocently at him, Chris was lost for words. It wouldn’t be a problem to reveal if this was just a normal thing, but that wasn’t the case for the boy.

-Well…it’s because…I feel like doing it?

It was one of the worst lies he could make and his face didn’t help him hide this fact. Her stare became more and more powerful as if she could read him like a book, causing him to have even more pressure.

-Ok, if you say so.

But to his luck, she gave up and returned her sight to the oven. Like a heavyweight felt down from his shoulders, Chris sighed from relief.

(I did it somehow…)

Following her, he also waited silently for the time to pass.

[][][][][]

(I’m bored…)

Since then, around ten minutes had passed. He was the one who came up with the idea but doing nothing but waiting was killing Chris from the inside.

Even watching the threes outside shake from the wind was fun for him at some point, however, his enjoyment about that had already ended.

And to top it off, there was no topic for him to talk with Midna. Even if he did found something, he would be forced and in the end, would leave him with a bit awkward inside. He didn’t know why but that was just how things end up in those situations.

(No wait…oh right! That happened!)

-Say…

-Hmm?

Maybe because she also felt bored, her reaction to his word was almost instantaneous.

-How did you go on the tests?

Earlier this morning, they were handing down the exams from Tuesday and, as expected, many students were depressed about their scores. Due to that, most of the first and second period was to review the answers and help them understand what went wrong.

Since his teachers didn’t tell out-loud the results because of how some students would feel, even if it was the highest score of the class, having them all learning how to solve the mistakes was a nice excuse to help those in need.

Even if Chris didn’t get a good grade, it was enough for him to escape make-up classes but, compared to him, someone that didn’t have information about basic education would fall behind.

And seeing her reaction was enough for him to think he was right about it.

-Well…you see…that is…huh…

The girl was fidgeting as her eyes were moving around like she was searching for the right words but couldn’t find them.

-Was it that low…?

Looking at her like that, Chris had to ask the question or she wouldn’t stop.

-…Uhm... – With a nod, she confirmed him with embarrassment.

-Oh…

That was the only response he could think of to give her at that moment. He was happy that his score was enough to dodge the bullet, but when someone close to him got hit by it, it was hard to show that feeling, even more after seeing them trying so hard to study.

-Well…don’t be so hard on yourself.

-…

-I mean…it was your first time doing exams and those ones were pretty hard on their own…

-…

-Seriously, everyone was like you, so…

-…

(Crap, I messed up.)

The more he talked to her, the more depressed she felt. He even got an impression that she was smaller from how down she was. If only he could come up with something to--

-Oh, I know! How about I help you out next time?

-…Hmm?

-I know I’m not the greatest student around, but I’m pretty confident about my standard-ish grades!

It was the only thing he could think to cheer her up. Those exams were over and there was nothing they could now to prevent their outcomes.

Even though they studied together in that night, Chris was focused more on himself rather than the girl. Now that he knew more about the subjects when the next exams come by, they would be readier than before.

(Well, I would need to teach her at home, but at least that would also help me to review.)

-So? What do you say?

But his plan wouldn’t work unless she also agreed with it. If for some strange reason she responded that she doesn’t want to study anymore and be a delinquent, the boy honestly didn’t know what he would do.

-Yes! Please, help me out!

However, his non-sense worries were for naught since she easily agreed with him. She regained her cheerfulness, not having a trace left of her gloomy expression from before on her face.

(Yeah, she is better like this.)

Seeing she like this somehow made him happy, a strange feeling he couldn’t explain why.

But a noise made them stop whatever they had and their mood was ruined. Looking at the oven, the time went off and the dish was completed.

[][][][][]

It was small, enough to fit in the palm of someone. It had about the same size as a rug used for coffee in the morning, with a layer of paper around its base.

Covering the top of it, a brown-colored skin gave it the flavor of chocolate, combining together with its own vanilla flavor.

Amidst the messy table that surrounded the plate it was placed upon, there laid the so hard-worked cupcake they were working on.

-…Is that all? – She asked unimpressed.

-Well…it’s not like we needed more than one. – He responded.

-But…is that all?

A single cupcake. That was it. It wasn’t a whole set and they didn’t use the rest of the space the mold offered to them. After all that preparation, she looking surprised that was all they gained.

-You see…it’s not like we could use the club on our own…and we kinda used too many ingredients already, so…

-I get it.

Hearing the boy, Midna seemed to have accepted his explanation. While most of the things he said were true, the main reason wasn’t being told to her.

-So…how are we gonna do it then?

Now was the real question. The cupcake wasn’t large enough for both of them have a good sense of the taste. That means, if they share, they wouldn’t taste its full flavor.

But it was fine since it was all part of his plan.

-Actually…Midna, this cupcake is for—

And then, when he was about to tell her, there was a knock on the door.

-Hey, is someone here?

It was an adult voice, probably a teacher.

-I smell something burning. Miss Rosefield, is that you?

(But how?!)

Everyone was supposed to be still in the classroom. The only way for someone other than them to get out of it was when—

(Wait, it can’t be!)

Desperate, Chris looked at the clock hanging off the wall.

(Crap, its break time now!)

There was no denying the time he was seeing, but there was also no sound indicating they were on it.

(Are you kidding me…now, of all the times!)

There were times the alarm would have some sort of malfunction and wouldn’t ring. Usually, it was a funny scene when a teacher would come in the class, just to find out the other teacher was still inside giving their lecture, but now, it was a serious case for Chris.

-Weird…was this supposed to be open right now?

The knob was twisted but the teacher didn’t open. It was an opportunity he wouldn’t let pass.

-Midna, duck!

Whispering to her, the boy grabbed her hand and led her under the table. A thin cloth covered them, blocking the viewing from outside. There, they sat down at the side of each other.

-What the…who did this mess?!

They could hear the door creaking, followed by the echo of steps coming each time near them.

-Damn kids! Every damn time, I swear to God.

From the way he sounded, the teacher found out the trial-and-error they did on the table.

-Oh, this is such a waste. Well, the janitor is going to have a headache.

Under the table, they could see the shadow of his legs right at their front. He held his breath, hoping their location wouldn’t be found out. After looking at him, the girl did the same.

-Heh, I think somebody left it baking. Well, might as well.

Just like that, the teacher walked away. The steps became quieter to the point nobody he could barely hear him until the slam of the door being shut made him relieved.

The boy put his head through the cloth and slowly got up. He looked at his surroundings, confirming the teacher had really left and they were alone in the classroom.

(That was close one…)

If they got found out using the club without even being members while also skipping class, the following days of suspension wasn’t something Chris was looking forward to.

-Is it over? - Getting up, Midna stood at his side.

-Yeah.

They were safe for now, but this served as a lesson for Chris. He would need to check up the time from now on in case the alarm doesn’t ring when they were searching around the school.

-Anyway, as I was saying.

But that wasn’t the priority on his mind at that moment. Now that it came to this, he needed to spill out before anything else happens.

-This cupcake…here is…for…

However, something already happened. The cupcake that was once there was now gone. In frustration, Chris slammed the table.

(Son of a &$%@#!)

That teacher thought it was fine to just grab the cupcake since no one was around and have himself a nice snack to eat. It didn’t take three seconds for Chris to understand this.

-Dammit! Curse you…you…Argh! I don’t even know his name to curse him!

The club was on the first floor of the school, where some classes of the second and third had their classrooms. That teacher was someone Chris didn’t know and probably wouldn’t until next year.

Anyway, that cupcake was long gone. Even if he went there to get it from the person who stole it, it would be the same as saying they were using the club without permission. This time, it was truly a loss without a chance for a comeback.

-Chris…are you fine?

His rage towards someone unknown was easily dispersed as he heard a voice full of worries on his side. He saw Midna looking at him with concern.

(No good…)

Sighing in his mind, the boy managed to be calm down before speaking with her.

-Yeah, I’m fine…I just…lost my cool for a second.

-Are you sure?

-Seriously, don’t worry about it.

(Yeah…this isn’t to worry about, but I wonder why I…)

-Is it because of that sweet?

-…Yep.

-Why are you so mad about it? We could just make another one.

-That is not the point.

(We could just do it at home too, but…)

-…I wanted to give that one to you.

It was for that simple reason he chose to come here.

-I wanted to be a surprise, you know, after all you did for me, but everything was going too well to end in my way.

Even though it was something small, Chris felt it was laughable. Though he did finish the hardest part of it while also hiding his true intentions, he couldn’t deliver the gift to the girl that he li—

(…Huh? What was…that now?)

He got the impression he felt something about it. It was but a moment, only a second, but it grabbed his attention like a mosquito drawn by the light.

-Oh, you!

And then, something soft and moist was pressed against his cheek, making him leave his trance. The girl’s face started to retreat, showing him the best smile he had ever seen.

-It was I that was supposed to thank you.

After saying that, she stared happily at his eyes. Looking at the blue-and-red pair in front of him, he couldn’t turn away his sight from that gaze, only falling deeper and deeper into them.

-Well, I suppose we need to go back now.

Gracefully, the girl walked to the door as the boy could only follow her with his head.

-I will go ahead, ok? I will meet you there. See ya!

Just like that, she left the classroom, leaving Chris behind.

His face was hotter and redder than ever. It was so much that smoke could be seen rising from his ears.

His heartbeat was beating crazy like someone else was playing with it like an instrument.

One of his hands was where he had felt that sensation on his cheek, touching gently as if for him to feel it again.

-…Eh…Eh….EHHHHH!