Chapter 37: I won’t let you.

Thirty minutes inside a car later, we arrived at the supermarket just before the camping site.

“I’ll go grab some garbage bags and today’s lunch. You can get tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast, as well as any other snacks you feel like munching on,” the boss advised before we split up.

Honestly, pasta just feels like the right choice here, I mused. Only after venturing further into the aisles would I be able to decide which type I’d like to prep. However, Yuki’s scampering left me worried, so I decided to follow her first. Sure, I didn’t want to pry too much into her life, as the teacher herself had mentioned, but if my hunch is correct…

“Yuki. This is the frozen food section,” I said somberly.

Her surprise was out of this world.

“Look, I’m not saying you can’t, but you don’t think I’ll settle for some rando frozen food, right?”

“Y, you don’t know the first thing about camping. T, there’s nothing wrong with putting convenience overall when you’re out in nature. Plus, it’s up to the individual to decide what is good and what is not for them.”

“Excuses, excuses. You’ll make the boss sad, you know? Besides, I wanna eat your cooking, too.”

“Me too,” another voice jumped into our conversation.

Woah, you scared me! Please don’t show up behind us without making so much as a sound, boss! At any rate, Yuki’s arguments were cut off and she had nowhere to run now.

“Boss, I’m not a good cook…” The reluctant girl tried to argue.

“Don’t worry. You can’t do it if you don’t try,” was her answer.

“Just figure out what you can do. Don’t mind it if you take a bit longer because of it,” I put in my own two cents, before turning away.

Better to get on with my own shopping now.
Basking in the glory of my—and boss’s—achievement, I left the frozen food section back to the entrance, until one corner caught my eye. Heaps of locally produced vegetables were arranged neatly and colorfully in lines. Not only were they nice to look at, but it was interesting due to the ever-changing nature of seasonal produce.

Ah, there are also wild vegetables here! Back where I live, the skylines aren’t pierced by mountains any longer, and nature had receded due to humankind’s development. Over here, however, the greenery still dominated and painted the land life-givingly.

I myself had only cooked tempura with wild veggies. Maybe pasta would go well with them as well, I theorized. Hmm, if I pepper some garlic and some wildies, it will turn out tasty for sure… Wait, do girls hate garlic due to its stink?

Meh.

After chucking the pasta, some wild veggies, and garlic onto my basket, a question suddenly came to mind. What would I do with the seasoning? Sure, I brought some cooking utensils and the like, but in hindsight, maybe I had to bring some spice as well.

I should ask the boss just in case.

“What should I do about the seasoning?”

“Ah, forgot to tell you. I’ll buy the oil, soy sauce, salt, and pepper myself. Thanks for reminding me, I’ll tell Yuki and the teacher too,” the boss scurried off with that.

Thus, all I needed to grab was some bacon and granulated soup stock to add to my dish. Putting that in the basket was the last I had to do for the evening meal. Though, bread and milk tea sounded nice for the other times of the day.

I returned to the car a bit later, having finished all my shopping in record time… No, there was one person who got there before me; Yuki.

“Oi, wasn’t that a bit too fast? You didn’t buy anything pre-made, did ya? Did you maybe forget about breakfast tomorrow or your drinks?”

“I bought proper ingredients for a proper meal. How could I possibly have forgotten anything? Am I that unreliable?”

“About that… Sorry. Stop with the glare.”

Apparently, it was a no-brainer. Well, since she went as far as she did, I’ll just drop the suspicion and look forward to it. Shortly thereafter, both the boss and the teacher had finished with their own groceries, and we were ready to go. All that remained was to get to the campsite.

For the first time in my life, I had set foot on a campsite. Boss’s eyes had a spark to them, and I’m sure mine had as well. Despite standing at the entrance, I couldn’t get a full view of the place. Nature sure is majestic, I thought as I stared into the vast expanse of green.

“I’ll wait in the car. You guys go through the reception.”

“Eh, I thought these things were for adults.”

“What are you on about? This is your club. I’m just here for supervising. What else am I supposed to do but that?”

I guess so. Maybe it’s a bad habit to go brain-dead and follow the adults so blindly. This is our club, after all. With a new lesson in mind, the three of us headed to the reception desk. After handing out the details there and paying the bill, we were briefed on the campsite’s how-to. The region was divided into sections, and you could choose wherever to set camp.

Then, we bought some firewood and scoured the campground for a good pitching spot for our tents, the teacher now with us. Since it was a holiday, we could see a few families here and there. Everyone agreed we should keep as much distance from everyone else as possible, so we ended up at a place near the creek, quite far from the reception area. I wondered, though, if being near water would mean having a lot of insects around.

“This place is perfect.”

“Sure is. Let’s set camp here.”

I, Yuki, and the teacher split up and began setting up the tents. Despite powering through the confusion of where to stick the poles, and having to face the pegs not fastening properly to the ground, we finished setting it all up with far fewer issues than expected.

Turning around to the others’ tents, I felt mine was the odd one out, shabby as it came. Sure, they were all the same size, but theirs were more modern, with the addition of the teacher’s one being the easiest to set up, apparently.

Well, I chose the cheapest one, so it can’t be helped.