Chapter 6 Cooking?

"How do you make pancakes?" Syoaron asked out of no where while we were having breakfast.

"What?" I wasn't sure I heard him correctly.

"How do you make pancakes and all those other things you make for breakfast?" Syoaron asked again.

Okay. Was there some girl he was really into and was trying to impress?

"Well, actually I use the pancake mix that needs watering."

"Oh. And how about those muffins and fruit salads you make every other morning?" You must be kidding me. This guy didn't know how to make a fruit salad nor muffins? (Hey I don't know how to make muffins either…I buy the instant ones where you just need to add egg, water and oil.)

"Do you like want to learn how to?" I offered.

"I guess I do. Can you teach me?" Today?

"Well…uh…" I couldn't believe he was asking me for help. "I…start my job today and I need to get going in about two hours. Maybe... some… other time?" I was getting nervous now.

He looked at me for a while. "Sure." He said and then left for work. I wouldn't mind helping him at all, but I did really have a job I needed to attend.

"This is the locker room and here is the key to your locker." Patty, a girl my age was showing me around the restaurant. She was pretty nice, so far.

"Thanks." I bowed and took the keys.

"Your uniform will always be hung here. Everyone's names are labeled on the top of the shelf so you don't get confused on which one is yours and which one isn't." I saw mine name and my uniform was there already too.

"Now, what you're job is suppose to be. Any time you see a customer come and sit at their table, you should always go there and asked them if there is any thing else you can help them with. Oh yeah and before you go remember to write down their table number and get them some water. Then when you are talking to them ask them also what they'll like for refreshment." I listened and nodded. "Remember the people who come here are those rich people so be careful with what you do or else they'll probably hurt you. That happened to me once. One time I accidentally spilled some water on this old woman and she slapped me. I was lucky I didn't get fire."

"That's sad. I'll be careful and I'll try to prevent that from happening." I gave her a smile.

"You should go and change now." I did as I was told. The uniform was quite nice, a simple outfit. It was a white blouse with black khaki pants. The shoes were black too.

"Hey Patty, what should I do now?"

"Line up with the other waitress and wait for any one else to enter the restaurant. If you are first then the next customer is yours to serve." Patty directed me to the front entrance of the restaurant and I stood in line with the other girls. I was the fourth one. And so I waited. Soon there was only one more girl in front of me. There were a lot of people who came into this restaurant. I guess it must be pretty popular.

"Good morning sir and ma'am, would there be anything you both would like to drink?" I asked the old couple I was to serve.

"I would like an ice tea and my wife here would like some coconut juice." I dotted down their orders onto my note pad.

"Are you ready to make your order yet?" They answered no so I went to the drink section and gave the people there the old couple's order of drinks. I delivered it to them as soon as I got the drinks.

"Are you guys ready to order now?"

My shift ended at three and tomorrow I'll get to work later on in the afternoon. My first day of work wasn't that boring. I didn't mess up yet. It was 3 and I had 2 more hours until Syoaron got home. I didn't know what else to do.

I opened the door to my emptied house. I hung my coat and decided to take a shower instead. A hard day at work deserves some refreshing. .

I stepped out of my bathroom after a good fifteen minutes. I turned back to close the door.

"Humph..." Oh shit! I looked up to see who I had bumped into. My eyes were about to fall out of its sockets. "I'm so sorry Syoaron! I've should of have looked at where I was going! I'm so sorry!" I yelled sorry over and over again bowing very fast at the same time too.

"You. Are. Weird." That was the only replied I got from Syoaron. I stopped my foolishness and looked up at him.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" I mean he did come home two hours early. And that was something I had never seen before.

"You're probably wondering why I came home so early huh?" He read my mind and said it with only a plain and somewhat mean expression.

"I guessed." I replied back not knowing what he wanted.

"I was hoping you can teach me how to cook dinner." Did I just hear Syoaron say he wanted to learn how to cook dinner too? He wanted to learn how to make breakfast and now dinner? What was next? Lunch?

"Y…Yeah sure..." I finally noticed he was still exactly a couple of inches away from me only. The same distance when I first bumped into him. I backed away a little and ended up hitting the bathroom door from behind. 'How stupid can I be?'

I turned and walked down the stairs blushing from my stupidity and Syoaron followed me as I walked into the kitchen.

"What's that for and what is it called?" Syoaron

"Oh that? That is called Oyster Soy Sauce. You need it to add some flavor to the vegetable. You don't want to just taste steam broccoli and cabbage right?" I gave him a smiled and then when I saw his serious face my smile turned weak. I turned my head back down to the cutting board as Syoaron put back down the sauce on the table.

As I cut up the vegetable I felt Syoaron's eyes on me. I tried to ignore him and continued on with what I was doing.

"Can…"

"Ah!" I jumped up and almost dropped the knife. I was so quiet and good at ignoring him while I worked that I forgot he was in the room too. I clamed down and looked up at him. He gave me a strange look.

"Can I cut the vegetable too?"

I nodded my head.

"Yeah…sure…" I handed over the knife.

I watched Syoaron as he slowly chop the vegetables in half as carefully as he could. He was pretty good I had to admit. I guess he was a visual learner.

I watched him for a couple more minutes.

"YAWNS" He looked over to me and I took a step back unconsciously. I didn't mean to put my yawning in such a bad way. I was just getting really tired of watching him cut so slowly and…it was too slow I couldn't hold in the tiredness anymore and accidentally yawned. That was just all. I didn't mean any disrespect.

"What do I do next?" Syoaron asked and I gave him a confused look wondering what he was talking about.

"Huh?" I was still as confused as ever. He pointed down to the forgotten cutting board and I could feel my temperature raising. Something was seriously wrong with me. I think I have short term memory.

"Oh that… You can get the biggest pan under the shelf and then we can start cooking." I directed him to the bottom shelves containing the pots and pans.

"Is this the one?" He came back from under the shelf a couple of seconds later.

"Yeah that's the one. Rinse it with water and then dry it off first before you add the oil." I gave him more directions.

I felt like a chef doing my own cooking show and cooking recipes that no one else knew about but myself.

"Stir it slowly and not so fast that you start tossing the vegetable around and out of the pan. Good… you are doing a great job." I commented Syoaron and so far into our cooking session he hadn't really said anything except for how to do this or that.

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"All right, let's serve dinner!" I was actually happy.

"That's it? That's all the cooking we are going to do today?" He looked disappointed.

"We've already made five different dishes. I pretty sure we aren't going to be able to eat anymore dishes. We can cook again tomorrow." I brought out the plates and set the table for dinner.

"I guess." Syoaron took the cups and utensils to the table.

"Thanks." Syoaron.

"Huh? Oh, it was nothing." I flashed him a smiled, but he looked down towards the table before he could even get a glance at my smile. I felt stupid standing there and smiling at someone who wasn't even paying attention to me.

Soon afterwards we both were at opposite ends and eating dinner with silence again upon us. After what had just happened between Syoaron and me, this speechless state became uncomfortable, but I didn't know what to say or do to break this uneasiness.

I mentally kicked myself.

"I work tomorrow at 3 pm, so I won't be home to cook dinner."

Syoaron's fork stopped half way to his mouth and he slowly looked up. "I guess I'll cook for myself then. I'll just cook the same thing. It doesn't seem that hard to forget the directions and recipes." He shrugged and went back to eating. I stared at him for a while before going back to my eating. I didn't know what to say next. Today was actually a day where I got alone with him and I couldn't even think of anything to say.

"Um…" Syoaron looked up at me again and his spoon now was half way to his month. "I was just wondering why you all of a suddenly wanted to learn how to cook? Is there some kind of girl that you are trying to impress?" Me and my big mouth.

Syoaron put his spoon down next to his plate and wiped his mouth. "Surprisingly, you talk too much." He said this and then stood up and probably went to his room.

"That's what I get for helping him?" I mumbled to myself. I threw my napkin on the table and started clearing the table.