Chapter ten: Dreams
"Prez, we have finished cleaning up the trash in this area," a student council member reports to me.
"Great, now only the area by the pond needs to be cleaned and we will be finished," I say, checking off another item on my clipboard. To get ready for the snow, the student council and the beautification club decided to collaborate to clean the park. For people with rich upbringings, you would expect them to know how to throw trash away in the trash can instead of the ground. Thank goodness it wasn't very cold, I was able to just wear my white long sleeved shirt and skinny khakis.
I sigh, and start walking towards the pond. I stand on the dock, overseeing the other students collecting trash.
Suddenly, I feel a swift breeze right by my ear.
"ACK!" I shiver, and turn around to meet eyes with none other than Usui. How does this thing even find me?
"Hi, Ayuzawa," the stalker replies, a small grin growing on his face.
"Wipe that smirk off your face," I say, turning around to continue inspecting the volunteers around the pond, when I feel his forehead resting on my shoulder. I jolt at the sudden contact.
"What the-! Get off!" I yell, shaking my shoulders to shoo him away, but he stands his ground.
"You said you would come to the practice room at three o'clock, but it's four thirty right now, " he whines.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I'll be there once we finish up here," I stutter due to my choppy breathing.
I sigh in relief when he finally lifts his head from my shoulder, but my relief was only momentary. Just as I begin to walk away, I feel a hand capture mine, swiftly pulling me backwards and around into his embrace.
Flustered, I quickly push myself away from him, "What the heck are you doing, Usui!?" I scream, my face burning.
"I'm lonely," he simply replies, his arms still tightly secured around my waist.
"Then go find a rock or something to play with! I'm busy!" I say, desperately trying to free myself from his hold.
"I'd much rather play with Misa-chan," he says, his deep voice vibrating in my ears. With that, I finally escape from his embrace. But, I miscalculate the amount of strength I needed to break free and I find myself stumbling backwards into the pond.
I reach my arm out, desperately trying to grab hold onto something. My attempt proving ineffective, I brace myself for the impact and squeeze my eyes shut. But right as I'm about to make contact with the water, I'm finally able to grab onto something.
"Ayuzawa!" I hear Usui yell. I slowly open one of my eyes to see that the "object" that I had managed to grab was Usui's arm. Opening both of my eyes, they are drawn to the radiance that alluring his emerald orbs glow. Mine and his engage in a war to outshine the other's attractiveness. Mine are losing by a tremendous margin. Every time I try to blink away, my eyes are drawn to his like magnets. Unknowingly, they take my breath away.
I have never had the chance to study his eyes like this. Except for that time at the Christmas party...
Just then, I felt a pair of lips against mine. At first, I stood there frozen, confused because of the darkness, but reassured by his gentle touch. My body slowly melting under his control, I feel my eyes close. Suddenly, the lights flicker on, and Usui quickly breaks from the kiss before anyone sees.
At that thought, my body shakes violently from embarrassment.
"Ayuzawa...? Is everything okay?" Usui asks, beginning to pull me up. The scene floods my mind again after another glimpse at his eyes. Unconsciously, my grip on his forearm loosens and I fall into the pond.
Through the water and the sound of the water whizzing past my ears, I hear muffled calls and screams from all directions. I hold my breath and suppress the stinging pain in my eyes, preparing to rise back to the surface.
Just then, a body pushes through the water with blonde hair trailing behind him. His eyes aren't the gentle ones I had so intently stared into seconds ago, but are filled with panic and worry.
In one swift movement, Usui takes me in his arms and pushes the both of us out of the water.
I cough and gasp for air as soon as I feel the cold breeze on my soaking wet body. He gently sets me on the dock then pushes himself up.
"What the hell, Usui!" I scream, slowly standing up, trying to shake off the excess water on my clothes. Usui does the same. "Are you crazy!?"
"Quite frankly, yes," he chuckles.
I smack his arm, "This is not funny, you idiot. I'm not a child, I know how to fricking swim!"
"But Ayuzawa was is danger. So I had to save her."
"I wasn't in the least bit of danger. What, do you think I'm weak? Is that it?"
His face turns serious, "Don't jump to conclusions. I know you are perfectly capable of saving yourself."
"Then why did you do it!?"
"Why did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Why did you let go?"
I freeze, "Well...that's..."
"You could've drowned!"
"That's a total exaggeration. I just...uh...wanted to feel what the water was like! Yeah..." I laugh nervously.
Suddenly, he starts inching closer to me. I step backwards, accidentally catching a glimpse of his fiery eyes. He then grabs my arm, and pulls me dangerously close to him.
Even though we had just dived into that ice cold pond, my body was so hot that I was expecting myself to catch on fire.
He starts unbuttoning his dark gray plaid shirt, and swings it around to drape it over my body.
I shiver at the added coldness on my body, "What the heck, Usui! Are you trying to freeze me to death!?"
He looks up towards the sky, "Would you rather be cold or expose your body for all these people to see?"
Confused by what he meant, I look down at my shirt. To my horror, my dark red bra was showing right through my dripping wet white shirt. Of all days, why did it have to be today that I wore white!?
I quickly wrap the shirt around me tighter to cover my chest, "You pervert!"
He looks back down at me with a grin plastered on his face, his cheeks slightly flushed. Was he blushing? Do guys do that?
"I didn't think Prez would wear such bold colors," he smirks.
I slap him right across the face.
"Against Ayuzawa Misaki and Usui Takumi from Japan, we have Huang Jing-hai and Chang Wei-an from China!" The MC's voice resonates throughout the arena, mixing with the cheers and roaring applause.
As our names are called, Usui and I turn to look at our opponents and exchange friendly looks. Our attention immediately returns to the MC as he begins his explanation.
"This round, the contestants will create a savory turned sweet with the theme dream in mind. They will have two and a half hours to create their original dishes and will be judged on taste, originality, presentation, and technique. Contestants will be given a score out of ten for each category. The team with the highest overall score will advance to round three," the MC announces. "The time starts in three, two, one..."
Beep!
As planned, I rush to the ingredient area situated between our station and the opponents' station.
"Beef, pineapple, mango, chestnuts..." I hum to myself as I fill my basket with as many ingredients as possible. Right as I reach for the rice, a small hand beats me to it.
"Ah, sorry," the owner of the hand says in Japanese.
"It's fine," I reply, my heart melting at her sugary sweet voice, "Huang, was it?"
"Yes," the teenager replies, focused on collecting ingredients but smiling at the same time, "Ayuzawa, right?"
I nod, "Wow, your Japanese is very good," I praise.
"Is that boy your boyfriend?" She ignores my comment, giggling.
"H-huh?" I say, almost dropping the oranges I had just picked up.
"I see the way he looks at you," she winks, and proceeds to reach for the cucumbers at the top. Being taller than her, I grab her the vegetable.
"W-what way? He's just some smelly, old pervert," I laugh nervously.
"During the introduction time, he was looking at you the entire time!"
"Ayuzawa! What's taking you so long?" I hear Usui call from our station.
"Ah, got to go, nice meeting you!" I say, picking up my last ingredient and scurrying off back to the kitchen station.
From behind, I hear Jing-hai whispering something to her partner in Chinese and giggling. I had studied a bit of Chinese, and I managed to make out the phrase, "that poor guy."
I hastily make my way back to the kitchen station, Usui taking the basket out of my arms and onto the counter.
"I'll make the beef one," Usui says, while unloading some of the ingredients.
"Okay," I say, running back to the ingredient table to grab a mackerel. I begin to gut the fish, making a cut along it's belly so I can rip out the unwanted insides of the fish. After carefully removing the organs, I rinse the insides of the fish and begin to filet the fish. I expertly glide the knife against the fish, making sure it's bone-free, and slice it into three-inch-long strips, each about a third of an inch thick.
I sneak a peak at Usui, who is slicing the beef into shapes similar to my fish. I watch him as he wipes away the bead of sweat that had been rolling down his sharp, sharp jawline, mixing with his soft, golden locks...
I give myself a hard slap on the cheek, adding to the red in my cheeks that had appeared because of that alien,"Get a hold of yourself!" I yell under my breath. I contain my self, and resume my work. I grab an alphonso mango and begin skinning it with my paring knife. I think proceed to cut it into itty-bitty cubes. I throw those cubes into stainless steel bowl holding the fish strips.
After, I take a passion fruit and slice it open to reveal the sparkling, orange, jelly-like substance. I push the fruit through a strainer to get most of the seeds out. I next mix it with pectin and water and put all the ingredients into a sauce pan and bring it to a boil, stirring every so often.
I then move on to knead together butter, salt, flour, sugar, shortening, and water to make a pie dough. I gently roll it out and cut it into long strips. I check up on my passion fruit jelly, checking the consistency. After confirming that the jelly was thick enough, I remove jelly from the heat place it in the freezer.
In the mean time, I cut up oranges above the sink, removing the membrane from the segments.
"Ayuzawa," a husky voice suddenly sounds behind me. Startled, I drop the knife I am holding onto the ground. I jump back, making sure the sharp tool doesn't come in contact with my skin. I end up crashing into Usui who had been standing behind me.
"ACK! Usui!" I scream, quickly turning around after the sudden touch, gripping the metal counter top behind me. "What are you doing!?"
"I need to wash my hands," he says, holding up his hands to show me all the fruit juice sticking to his fingers and palms. At this point, I'm being extra careful not to look into his eyes. "Prez?" he calls, trying to catch my gaze with his emeralds, but I avoid him with all my might. That time from the Christmas party keeps replaying in my head, and that time at the park...
My face flushes pink, "W-what!?" I challenge, using all the confidence left in my soul, "What do you want!?"
"I need to wash my hands," he chuckles, "What, like what you see?"
"I-in your dreams," I smirk, and stepping aside to let him use the sink. Who does this guy think he is! Pull yourself together, Misaki, he's not worth getting mad over. It is anger that I'm feeling right now...right?
"Five! Four! Three! Two! One!" the MC counts down along with the large timer.
Usui and I quickly place the last of our creation onto the plate, and sigh as the timer marks the end of the round with a beep.
"We will now begin judging. Both teams, please bring your dishes to the judging table."
Uneasy, Usui and I roll our cart holding our food to the long table seating five judges. Look to my left, and Jinghai sends me a warm smile and a nod, and I return it.
"We will start with Team Usui and Ayuzawa. Please present your dishes," the MC signals.
Usui and I exchange nods, and Usui lifts the metal plate cover off the five plates with one swift motion, steam and a sweet and savory aroma escaping with it.
"We have made sweet and savory dessert kebabs over rice," I begin to explain as Usui and I each pass out the plates.
"The first kebab is a bulgogi beef kebab with mini marron creme mille crepes and pineapples and cantaloupe," Usui explains, and watches as the judges each slowly use their forks to slide off each component.
"The sweetness and warmth of the grilled fruit added to the beef somehow all work together nicely," one judge comments.
"The grilled mille crepe is crispy and the marron creme is very clean tasting, giving a nice balance to all these rich flavors," another comments.
"Thank you," Usui says.
"The second kebab is a mango mackerel kebab with passion fruit jelly filled pastries and oranges, please enjoy," I describe as I watch the judges dissecting my kebab.
My heart begins to beat out of my chest as I watch frowns grow on the judges' faces.
"The mackerel is very dry," a judge critiques, "the color on the outside is not very...pleasant," he picks at the charred bits of fish.
No. That can't be.I was watching the fish extremely closely...until...
I gently place my kebabs on the grill with tongs, hearing the sizzling of the food coming in contact with the burning metal rack. I hear the same sizzling coming from my left, as Usui also begins to grill his kebabs.
I watching the mackerel closely, making sure I don't cook it for too long to make sure the fish is as succulent as possible. I make sure to turn the kebabs at a 70 degree angle to allow it to form nice grill marks. After a while, I decide to flip the kebabs over, and luckily, the fish has wonderfully browned and had also shown nice criss-cross grill marks.
Estimating that the other side of the fish would take a while to finish cooking, I grab five white dishes and set them in front to get ready to plate. Satisfied with the set up, I reach for a towel that was set on the counter next to the grill. Though, once I had touched the cloth, a large hand had been trying to reach for the same object, and our hands collided.
Instinctively, my hand jerks back at the sudden contact and I look to my left to meet eyes with Usui. God damn it.
Once I looked into his eyes, I was instantly reminded of the time he had so boldly kissed me in front of everyone at the Christmas party (even though no one probably knew). And that extremely embarrassing white shirt incident at the park. Kill me now.
"A-ah, sorry..." I murmur as I finally break the fatal eye contact.
"You have something here," Usui says, still retaining the eye contact, motioning to the right side of his mouth.
"Where?" I say, touching my right cheek.
"No, no, here," he points to the left side of his mouth this time. I look at him, confused as I feel around my left cheek.
"Is it gone?" I ask, rubbing my left cheek. Suddenly, he carefully takes the damp wet towel in his hand, and cradles my right cheek in his large palm. I gulp, feeling my face get hotter by the millisecond. I try to look away as he quickly wipes the substance off of my mouth.
"Good," he says, and returns back to his work. I try to do the same, and grab my tongs with my shaky hands.
What the heck was that? That pervert...how dare he. Touching my cheek like that with his warm hand...
"Ayuzawa! Your fish is burning!" Usui yells, and I snap out of my reverie. Panicked, I quickly turn over my kebabs to reveal, to my horror, a blackened surface.
Shit.
"The judges have come to a consensus. We will now reveal the scores," the MC announces, directing our attention to the digital score board next to the judging table. "Huang and Chang. Technique, 6. Presentation, 8. Taste, 7. Originality, 7. Total score, 28."
I look over at the opposing team, though their faces are riddled with regret and dissatisfaction.
Applause and cheers fill the arena and I become jittery, knowing we will lose because of my stupid mistake. What the hell is wrong with me these days? I've never had problems focusing...
"Usui and Ayuzawa. Technique, 7. Presentation, 8. Taste, 6. Originality 8. Total score, 29."
What...?
"The winners are team Usui and Ayuzawa!"
WHAT!?
"Wait...I don't understand..." I mumble.
"Mistakes in the food industry are not acceptable. Though, as a high school student, your techniques are flawless and the idea you two came up with perfectly fit with the theme of 'Dream', we were all able to feel your passion of cooking in your dish, and that is where you topped the other team. Congratulations," one of the judges smiles and applauds.
"Give it up one more time for team Usui and Ayuzawa!" The MC yells, and the arena once more fills with applause and cheers.
"You did great!" Jinghai says.
"No, you guys deserved this more than we did, I'm so sorry," I apologize.
"Are you kidding me? You guys definitely won this one," Wei An assures.
"Maybe we will see each other again," Jinghai giggles, "and hopefully you two will be a couple by then."
"Over my dead body!"
Thank you so much for being patient. School work has really gotten to me these days, and this chapter turned out longer than I thought. Sorry if this chapter was boring and confusing, but I'm really excited about the next few chapters because this is where it gets interesting! Once again, I'm not a food expert so these dishes were really weird so I'm sorry if my ideas grossed you out xD I made the theme too hard for myself...
Thank you for reading!
Lin