{“Our Lunchtime”}

The café I entered just before noon was comfortably uncrowded.

I took a seat in the corner of the counter and ordered the caramelized apple pancakes, which were the shop’s signature dish, along with an iced coffee.

When visiting a place for the first time, it’s always a safe bet to follow the recommended dishes, especially if you’re scouting it out for a future date.

If there’s any downside to living together, it’s the lack of time for this kind of reconnaissance. Ever since we started living together, I’ve spent almost every weekend with her. Sure, I had part-time work or club activities, but other than that, we went out together. The places we went were familiar spots like the mall or the area near the station, which was always fun and made me happy. But sometimes, I also wanted to surprise her with a new place and hear her say, “I didn’t know about this place!”

So, when I have free time, I visit places like this. If I find a good one, I’ll bring her next time. That’s part of the joy of living together, don’t you think?

My third class starts at 1 PM. I checked my watch and saw that it was 11:45 AM.

When I checked my phone, there was a message from Miu:
“I’m on break now. Today’s lunch is a croquette bento.”

The timestamp was just a few moments ago. It seemed like she was on the early lunch shift today.

At her workplace, lunch is divided into three shifts: 11:30, 12:30, and 1:30. She once told me that while the early shift is fine, being on the late shift makes her so hungry she feels like she might pass out. Even though she works in the office, the irresistible smell of the bentos from the kitchen still reaches her. It must be tough to be hungry and surrounded by those aromas.

Given that it was a croquette bento, I figured today’s lunch was probably one of the staff meals.

I smiled a bit and quickly typed a reply:
“I’m about to have lunch too. Thinking of having pancakes.”

Maybe it’s a bit too cute for a guy to have pancakes alone.

Just as I finished sending the message and felt a little embarrassed, her reply came back almost immediately:
“Pancakes for lunch sounds great. I wish we had a pancake bento!”

Along with her message was a picture of her untouched croquette bento. The golden-brown croquette looked perfectly fried, and the fluffy potato salad beside it seemed delicious. The rice was covered in seaweed, and I guessed there was probably some bonito flakes underneath. It looked tasty enough to me.

I decided to take a picture of my pancakes when they arrived and send it to her.

As I was thinking that, I saw the waiter bringing over my pancakes.

Compared to the past, Miu’s messages have become much easier to read.

Back in high school, when we had just exchanged contact info, her messages were so hard to read—like she didn’t know what paragraphs or punctuation were. She used to send me long, dense messages in one go. She once told me that she’s slow at typing and takes a long time to think about her replies, so she prefers to send them all at once after she gets home.

I used to enjoy carefully deciphering those long, messy messages from her. I’d even read them over again later, knowing how much time she had spent crafting them for me. That was when I still had a crush on her.

Now, since we live together, I don’t get those long messages anymore. We save our conversations for when we’re at home together. We still exchange short messages like today, but they feel more like casual chats as if we’re already side by side.

It’s not that I prefer one over the other—I just love Miu as she is. But sometimes, I do miss those long messages.

The pancakes arrived, and I took several pictures from different angles.

The two thick layers of pancakes were topped with thinly sliced caramelized apples and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The presentation was perfect, and I sent the picture to Miu:
“I’m about to dig in. If it’s good, let’s come here together next time.”

I saw that she read the message right away, and I picked up my knife and fork.

The pancakes were soft and fluffy, and when I cut into them, the knife went through without resistance. The crispy caramelized top contrasted nicely with the airy texture of the pancakes. They were a bit sweet, but the tartness of the apples balanced it out well. Pancakes with fruit are always the best, I thought to myself.

When I had eaten about half, I checked my phone, but there was no reply from her yet.

Her break probably wasn’t over, but she might have had to head back early or was chatting with her coworkers. I felt a bit lonely but reassured myself that she was probably just busy.

The soufflé pancakes were light and fluffy, and before I knew it, they were gone.

As I sipped my iced coffee, thinking about how I could try making something like this at home, my phone buzzed again.

It was a message from her:
“The pancake picture looks so delicious! I can tell it’s amazing just from the photo. Tell me what it tasted like! I want to go there with you sometime. But our bento is really good too, so I’d love for you to try it one day. There’s a little park near my work. How about we have lunch there together sometime? I’ve been thinking about it but never said it out loud. I took so long to reply because I was daydreaming about it. Sorry, it’s been a while since I sent a message like this, and I realize now it’s still hard to read!”

Her message was dense and without any line breaks, just like in the old days.

It was hard to read.

But it was so nostalgic, so characteristic of Miu, that before I knew it, a smile had naturally spread across my face. I carefully read her message over and over again. Doing that made the difficulty of reading it disappear, and this long reply, which must have been a pain to type, became a message that made me happier than anything else.

Even though her lunch break is much shorter than mine, with her small hands, she probably fumbled her way through typing it—though with a bit more ease than she used to. Even when we see each other every day, there are still things left unsaid or forgotten. Sometimes, putting things into words helps us remember or convey things we hadn’t before.

I could really feel how much she was thinking about me, even when we weren’t together.

If that’s the case, I’ll respond in a way that shows I’ve been thinking about her too.

Before I leave the café in time for my third class, I’ll send her a detailed review of how delicious the pancakes were and mention that I was scouting the place out for our next visit together. Maybe I’ll mimic her style and make it a really long message. She might think it’s hard to read at first, but if she takes the time to go through it, I’m sure my feelings will get across.

Even when we’re apart, we’re always thinking of each other.

Just like when we first exchanged contact information, even if there’s a frustrating distance between us, we’re still connected.