Chapter 7: No Time for Sweets
"It sharpens hearing and weakens eyes.
It comes out to play when the daylight breaks.
It's a friend to thieves, yet it steals nothing.
This is my favorite part of the day.
When the sun sets, everything is for the taking.
So watch out, I'm here, it is rightfully mine for the taking."
This was the note that laid in the hands of many puzzled and perplexed guards in an empty room. It was more like a ransacked room because glass cases of artifacts were shattered, tables were overturned, curtains ripped, and exhibitions mauled. This room used to have been the Smithsonian rock and gem collection. But now…..every (shattered) glass case which held priceless stones, gems, rock minerals were gone.
One guard stepped forward to the room that laid in shambles. Stepping on glass fragments under his shoes gave miniscule cracking sounds. But it echoed in the empty room, it made each cracking sound more resonant, and so did the tension. The acoustics were impeccable though.
The guard reached down to his walky-talky, "notify Imonoyama-san at once," he said in a raspy voice.
Another guard, younger than the rest of them all, laid his back against the wall and immediately slouched down to the ground. He said in a whisper that only he could hear.
"We're going to lose our jobs."
"AH-HA! I got it now! Akira is this right?" I said, awaiting the master's approval.
Yukiko was busy prepping for the wedding, which was only a few days away. She also told me how Akira Ijyuin, is a marvelous chef, so I asked Akira if he could show me an easy recipe to bake! Akira gladly showed me the kitchen that he teaches home economics in.
Akira tasted a small morsel of my cake batter. He looked up at the ceiling, probably thinking how he should nicely spare my feelings.
"It's slightly too thin, add a little more flour to thicken it up, but not too much." Alright, time to do as the chef says, so I picked up the bag of flour and, literally, started pouring it into the bowl.
"W-wait, you need to use a measuring cup, a-and your adding way too much!" Akira shouted. Flour exploded in both of our faces. With white flour covering our dark hair, it looked like we were ghosts, and we came back to taunt the living chefs who dared not use measuring cups for cooking. We were perfectly lively undead examples of that.
"Yeah….Cooking isn't exactly a family forte thing at home, we kind of just wing it and see what happens." Akira giggled and seemed to laugh at what I just said, he either understood what I meant or maybe he thought I was a complete klutz. Then he said, "My moms are like the same way, they always try to cook, but it only ends in a disaster, so I do all the cooking at home." He started to help me mix the ingredients in my bowl, he trailed off lost in thought, then he said, "But they put so much love into everything they do, even if they mess up, their love always reaches me." Now I could see why Akira was such a great chef, he had a spark that many others didn't have, it wasn't the ingredients or tools that made him great. It was his love. The love that he wants to share with those that dive into what he creates. It was obvious in every bite of his dishes.
"It's a lot of fun though, making and cooking different types of food with my mom and dad. I wish I could bake more sweets though," I said with a pouty face. Akira looked at me in the eyes, and I could have sworn that his face lit up with an idea. "Yukiko wants me to make the desserts for her wedding, of course their going to have the traditional 3 tier wedding cake, but, they also want me to bake apples pies, I'll probably make apples tarts though."
"Mmmmh, sounds delicious." I said back with a smile. I also thought that would be perfect too. We baked the cake and let it cool off. I uncapped the icing, when Akira put on a mischievous smile. "Don't tell anyone, but sometimes," he walked over to the pantry, ducked down to the bottom shelf and grabbed a jar on the left, like he knew exactly where it was before even opening the pantry, "I like to spread it on cake, for myself," he uncapped a jar of 'crunchy-munchy peanut butter,' the site of any more crunchy-munchy peanuts made my stomach want to turn. But he spread it on his slice of cake, and it made him one happy duck. I smiled. "Do you want me to get you a glass of milk too?" he nodded his head, for he was unable to speak from the peanut butter.
"So…Melony….do you have any 'guilty pleasures' that you like?" I felt like he was trying to weasel an answer out of him, but he looked really happy and pleased at what he was doing, so I gave him an answer.
"I love taking a spoon full of vanilla ice cream and putting it on my apple pie." I said, a glanced away knowing that I emitted one dire detail.
"MUHMSGH!" he pointed his spoon at me, then gulped down a glass of milk. "That's not all, you looked away, what else is there?" he was really hyped up about this, but I was having fun either way.
Then I said absolutely as quickly as possible, "with a hand full of rainbow colored sprinkles and strawberry sauce," the last squeaked out of my mouth. Akira than mouthed everything I said to himself, he looked up, making a mental note. "I got it!" then started happily eating the rest of his peanut butter covered cake, humming to himself. "Got what?"
He was still happily eating his peanut butter covered cake, and occasionally giggling.
MANY MINUTES OF SNACKING LATER
We decided to share our treat with Suoh and Nokoru in the student council room. Akira was holding the cake and I was holding plates, napkins, and utensils. We were both wondering how they would like our peanut butter with strawberry sauce glazed cake, topped with rainbow sprinkles.
Once we got closer to the office, the thought of Nokoru reading my note crossed my mind. I hope he would just over look it. It was no big deal really, right? Suddenly, Suoh rapidly opened the doors. It didn't seem like he was expecting us, he almost slammed the door into my face (again.)
He had a serious look on his face, he looked straight at us, "Akira! Get in here now!" then he looked at me and saw my startled expression, "Melony, you should go, this matter is just for the chairman, Akira, and I." Suoh was interrupted when the chairman, Nokoru, placed his hand on Suoh's shoulder.
"No, Melony should hear this too," then Nokoru looked at me with solemn eyes, "I'm sorry that I've involved you in this, come in so I can explain everything."
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