CHAPTER 3
Likes and Dislikes
“…Ughhh, don’t tell me these things are mixed into the dish…”
Saya was sitting across from me, glaring hatefully at her lunch special, which was the same as mine. For no reason other than the price, we had both chosen the most inexpensive option, but apparently, she had found something disagreeable about it.
“You don’t like mushrooms?” I asked, peering at her plate.
She had carefully removed the mushrooms from her pasta. Saya glared daggers at the limp pieces of fungi separated from the rest of her meal.
“I hate them! I mean, they grow off of trees! Which means that these things are trees, right?! I don’t make a habit of eating trees, plus they have an awful slimy texture, and worst of all, they have this strange shape! It’s vile. I should be asking you how you manage to stomach them. It makes no sense!” she claimed, puffing out her cheeks.
I saw now that she had built up an irrational hatred of mushrooms.
“But you can’t become a witch if you’re picky. If you want to become an apprentice, you have to endure eating foods you hate.”
“…Seriously?”
“Seriously.” I stabbed each and every one of the mushrooms on the plate in front of me with my fork, moving them to her plate. “Consider this part of your training. Eat up.”
“Um, hang on…”
“You can do it.”
I put on a show of eating my very desolate pasta free of all mushrooms.
“Aaaah…this is hell.”
Gazing at her pasta, covered in two portions’ worth of mushrooms, Saya lost all hope.
It was several days later.
“Um, I’ll have the carbonara, please.” Saya no longer ordered the daily special. “What will you have, Elaina?”
“What is the lunch special?” I asked.
The server who had come to take our orders answered, “It’s a mushroom cream pasta.”
“Urk…that’s the same as last time.”
I glanced sidelong at Saya, who was making a sour face, looking at the server. “All right, could I have that without mushrooms?”
The server made a face like he wanted to say “Isn’t that just creamy pasta?” but only nodded and repeated our orders back to us before leaving.
“……” Saya spoke after a little while. “Elaina, do you not like mushrooms?”
She was wearing a puzzled expression.
“Correct. I hate them. They grow off of trees, and I hate the texture and the shape and everything about them. I hate them so much that I’d like to completely disavow their existence.”
“……And you were so preachy the other day. Geez…”
She looked sulky, and then I answered her with a sly grin. “Did I say anything about witches being picky?”
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