Waifu Wars: A Food Wars Fanfic

Ch. 58 Friday Night Lights

Torrey had struggled to stay awake during Friday's review session, but towards the end, just as he was drifting off into an impromptu nap, something caught his ear.

"I can't make any guarantees about the material that will be covered on the exam, of course. But I'd be very surprised if stage one didn't involve fish of some sort...," said Azami, taking a moment to let this sink in.

"That concludes our final pre-exam review. If you've been attending these lectures, you won't have anything to worry about. Enjoy your last weekend as first-year students, and I wish you all the best next week in Hokkaido!"

Trying to reach Polaris as soon as possible to deliver the news, Torrey left his seat before Azami had even finished speaking. His effort was wasted however, because as soon as he reached the quad, he heard someone calling out to him. Turning around, he locked eyes with Akira Hayama.

The two hadn't spoken much, if at all, since becoming council members together after the battle royale. Even so, Torrey felt a sense of camaraderie with Hayama, resulting from that experience.

Even though he seems like the most unfriendly and least approachable guy at Totsuki, thought Torrey.

Hayama's sharp green eyes were difficult to read, but Torrey assumed that there was a good reason behind this encounter. After all, it wouldn't have been easy for Hayama to catch him in his haste to leave the lecture hall.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" said Torrey, realizing how stupid it sounded.

"Huh?" Hayama's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh, it's just...we never really talk. You seem like the too-cool-for-school type."

"Ah, I see."

Crickets chirped in the distance, a strange occurrence considering the time of year. A winter breeze swept through the quad, ruffling Hayama's neat white ponytail. Suddenly he laughed.

"Jun's always telling me to be more friendly toward my peers," he said, noticing Torrey's look of confusion. "I just can't seem to find the right way to go about it."

"I get that. I lucked out; for some reason, I haven't had to put much effort into making friends here."

"It seems that most of the students naturally gravitate to you."

"Yeah. They're probably just curious about Americans."

"Maybe that's true. Regardless of your nationality, it's clear that there's something different about you. I can smell it," said Hayama, tapping his nose.

"What?!" Torrey pulled up his collar, and gave it a quick sniff.

"Sorry. What I mean to say is, we both stick out from the crowd," said Hayama. "Given our similar situations, there's something that I've been meaning to ask you."

"Ask away."

"From what I understand, you joined Central well before the battle royale. What was your reason for doing that?"

"Hahaha. It's not because I agree with anything that Azami's doing, that's for sure," said Torrey, lowering his voice for this last part. Hayama didn't bat an eyelash.

"I didn't think so. Your cooking style has nothing in common with Azami's ideals for gourmet."

"...thanks? To actually answer your question, though, I was given a choice. You probably saw my loss against Nene Kinokuni, which got me expelled. Azami offered to re-instate me, if I joined his team."