Sure enough, at noon, Hinami came again with another bento.
"This is really too much trouble for you. You've already eaten, right?"
Having Hinami prepare every meal for him, Byakuya was starting to feel embarrassed.
"It's no trouble at all. I've already eaten."
Hinami smiled. "So what would Byakuya-niichan like for dinner? You can tell me now."
"Anything is fine. I'm not picky."
Byakuya said. "Or how about this—let me prepare dinner tonight. That way it's a bit more fair."
"Huh...?"
Byakuya's suggestion caught Hinami off guard.
"O-Okay."
Hinami agreed, but immediately felt a twinge of regret.
What she wanted wasn't "fairness" or anything like that—she wanted to capture Byakuya-niichan's heart through his stomach.
Now it seemed like things might not go according to plan...
But having already agreed, it would be awkward to suddenly take it back.
Hinami thought she could only take things one step at a time.
...
Around 5:30 PM, Byakuya had already gone to the supermarket to buy ingredients.
Selecting the ingredients took some time...
Close to 6 PM, Byakuya arrived at the Fueguchi home with his purchases.
"My goodness... you bought so many ingredients. Good thing we didn't prepare anything ourselves, or a lot would have gone to waste."
Seeing the large bag in Byakuya's hands, Ryouko was relieved.
"I forgot to tell you I would bring the ingredients myself."
Byakuya smiled apologetically.
"We should be the ones apologizing. Your time is so precious."
Ryouko said.
"It's not like that. I'm not busy every single day."
Byakuya immediately denied it.
Then he went into the kitchen to start preparing dinner.
"While he's cooking, hurry and go help Byakuya-niichan."
Ryouko whispered to Hinami.
"Mm!"
Hinami nodded earnestly.
She gently pushed open the kitchen door. "Byakuya-niichan, let me help."
"Sure, that'll speed things up."
Byakuya nodded.
From then on, Hinami helped with washing and cutting vegetables.
But in terms of knife skills, there was still a gap between Hinami and Byakuya.
For instance, when slicing the beef, Hinami couldn't achieve the thin, uniform slices that Byakuya could.
This was unavoidable—after all, Byakuya had the Rinnegan and years of cooking experience. An ordinary person simply couldn't compare.
Hinami noticed that her beef slices weren't as good and couldn't help worrying. Was she actually getting in Byakuya-niichan's way instead of helping?
The more she thought about it, the less she could concentrate, and she nearly cut her finger.
"Hinami, you can't be careless when using a kitchen knife. If you accidentally cut your finger, that would be terrible."
Byakuya had noticed Hinami's distraction and spoke softly to remind her, not wanting to startle her.
"Ah!"
Hinami snapped back to attention. "Sorry, I'll be more careful."
"...Are you worried about not cutting well enough?"
Byakuya had already guessed what was troubling her.
"Yes..."
Hinami nodded softly.
"It's fine. You'll get better with more practice."
Saying this, Byakuya placed his hand over Hinami's, intending to help her with the cutting.
His hand could almost completely envelop her small hand...