GJ Bu Vol 1 Chapter 8

Chapter 8: This Ain’t Coffee

“This coffee is a little strange.”

Shion suddenly said.

“Eh? What’s wrong?”

The girl knew an awful lot about coffee and always drank from her personal thermos flask. Today, however, she was drinking it from a can.

“It tastes weird.”

Taking the can in her hands, the girl tilted her head.

One more time, she brought the can to her lips.

“Wait a minute!”

Kyouya said, halting her. He rushed to her side.

If this was some sort of prank it could be dangerous. There were also frequent reports on the news of incidents where agrochemicals were put in people’s drinks.

“Let me have a look.”

“Huh?”

“It’s alright.”

Using a decisive tone of voice, he took the can from Shion’s hands.

He took a sip and tried holding it in his mouth, completely prepared to spit it out immediately in the event he tasted something unusual.

“There’s nothing wrong with it.”

All he tasted was the completely normal, sweetened taste of canned coffee.

“No, it’s strange.”

“It is?”

“Isn’t it too sweet?”

“That’s how it’s supposed to be.”

“But it’s strange.”

Shion refused to agree with him.

“Try drinking it one more time.”

He gave the can back to Shion and gestured for her to drink.

“Okay.”

She brought the can to her mouth.

Just as she was about to touch it with her lips, her movement suddenly stopped.

“Ah…”

The girl stared at the mouth of the can.

She raised her eyes to face Kyouya.

Blinking several times in agitation, her n.o.ble and intellectual face was now tinged in the color of panic.

Kyouya was faced with eyes that looked like they had been traumatized by something.

“What happened?”

“No. I…”

Kyouya gazed intently at her as he waited for an answer. She broke eye contact with him and looked to the right, then to the left. He couldn’t make any sense of her reaction.

“I mean, isn’t that inappropriate?”

“What is? Anyway, there was nothing weird about the taste.”

“No, that’s not the point I was trying to make. Never mind, it was my mistake. There was no need for you to taste if for me. W-… What do I do now? There’s still some left.”

“Go ahead and drink it. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

“D-do I really have to?”

For some reason, the girl insisted on being stubborn.

But Kyouya understood, in a general sense, what was wrong. What the girl usually drank was the specially made Master’s Coffee. One of her older brothers was known as a “coffee master”, or so it seemed. He’d make her a thermos filled with delicious coffee; this girl who’d been drinking nothing but his authentic, tasty coffee couldn’t grasp that the canned stuff was even coffee, right?

It was true that they could probably be considered different beverages altogether.

Even Kyouya, who didn’t like coffee, could easily drink the canned one.

“It’s a waste to throw it away.”

“But still…”

“Alright, I’ll drink it then. Give it here.”

The girl handed it to him reluctantly.

She watched closely as Kyouya drank the coffee down; her face showed that she wanted to say something.

What could that be?

Feeling somewhat unusual, Kyouya finished the can.

However, he still couldn’t understand the meaning behind Shion’s look.

There was one thing he did understand, though.

He’d thought that the Game Genius was a cool, collected and mature woman, when really she had a lot of flaws too.

Still, Kyouya thought that this side of her might be cute, too.

“I can’t stand coffee. It’s too bitter. I like canned coffee better since it’s sweet.”

“You little kid.”

“For some reason, it really hurts hearing that from you, president.”