Himawari stands in her entryway the next morning, nearly ready to head out to attend the cake shop's grand opening ceremony. She slips a pair of plain black flats over her short white socks, looking down and checking herself over as she does so. She's wearing a tiffany-blue, white collared blouse adorned with a black bow, and a white, high-waisted skirt that ends down beneath her knees.
Good enough, she thinks to herself, sighing.
"Alright, I'm about to head out. Are you sure you can't come, Kaede?" Himawari bends down as her tiny six-year-old sister Kaede pitter-patters up to her. Kaede's gentle, sparkling eyes turn up to meet her older sister's.
"I'm sorry Onee-chan. Mari-chan and I were planning to go to the park today with her cousin..." Tiny tears form in the corners of Kade's eyes as she speaks, and Himawari's heart aches for her. She pulls out a handkerchief and gently wipes Kaede's tears away.
"Ah, you two are going with Funami-san? No, there's no reason to apologize! I just felt bad for leaving you behind, but it sounds like you have a fun day planned. I'll be sure to pick up something nice for all of you from the cake shop." Himawari beams at her sister, who smiles back sweetly.
"Are you sure, Onee-chan?"
"Of course," Himawari straightens up, "anything in particular you would like?"
"Hmmmm..." Kaede wrings her hands in front of her as she ponders the question. "I know Mari-chan likes uni. Do they make uni cake?"
"Uh...uni cake?" Himawari smiles, wincing. "Hmmm, I don't believe so, but I'll see if maybe I can find one that looks like an uni. Don't tell her though, I'm not sure if a cake like that exists so I don't want to get her hopes up." Himawari turns to the door and sighs. "Well, I'd better head out."
"Are you going with Sakurako-onee-chan?" Kaede asks. Himawari, still facing away towards the door, narrows her eyes in thought.
"Well...I think that's what was decided...on her part, mostly. I guess I assumed I would head over to her house first, though chances are she isn't even ready yet, even though I know she would've had enough time to get ready..." Himawari sighs again and turns back to Kaede with a faint smile and tired eyes. "Yeah, I suppose that's how it will end up." Himawari takes a step towards the door but jumps as it suddenly wooshes open, revealing a smug Sakurako standing behind it, one hand on the door and the other on her hip.
"Himawari! Trying to leave without me, I see!" Sakurako, grinning in some delusional triumph, steps into the house and slides the door closed behind her as she turns to Kaede. "Sorry, Kaede, but I can't hide how deceitful and unreliable your sister is. It's truly a shame that you had to find out this way."
"Sakurako?!" Himawari's wide, surprised eyes darken in annoyance. "Deceitful? I was heading to your house, though I was sure you either would've forgotten completely or I'd find you lazing about."
"Eh? You're the one bad with remembering things. And the one bad with mornings. Now hurry up, I can't wait around for you all day!" Sakurako pats Kaede's head and waits by the door, stretching her arms behind her and rocking back and forth on her heels.
"If you're so worried about it, then just go by yourself for once," Himawari says, glaring off to the side.
"Hm? But I want to go with you," Sakurako replies casually, sliding the door open. Himawari's face flushes for an instant and she looks down at her shoes.
"G...guess it can't be helped." Himawari offers a slight bow to Kaede, who bows back deeply, her little hands clasped in front of her. "Be safe Kaede, I'm heading out!"
"See you! Bye-bye, Sakurako-onee-chan! Come back safe everyone!" Kaede calls out to them and they nod to her, smiling. Himawari steps out behind Sakurako, closing the door behind them.
"Hurry up, all the good stuff will be gone at this rate!" Sakurako says giddily as she starts charging ahead, her eyes bright with excitement.
"What exactly do you imagine a cake shop opening to be like?" Himawari asks as she starts walking.
"Hmmm..." Sakurako puts her hand on her chin and furrows her brow, slowing down to match Himawari's pace. She's thinking about this harder than she thinks about her homework, Himawari thinks to herself bitterly. Sakurako's face suddenly bursts out into a satisfied grin.
"Yeah, just like that!" Sakurako looks over to the bewildered Himawari.
"J...just like what? You didn't say anything!"
"I didn't? Oh well, no use dwelling on the past. Now move those bazongas, we're going to miss the opening shots!"
The opening...what on Earth did she imagine just now? Himawari ignores the quip about her breasts and instead ponders the unknowable depths of Sakurako's imagination as the two continue on, side-by-side, Sakurako slowly edging the pace up bit by bit and Himawari subconsciously obliging while vague pictures of cake cannons drift through her mind. Suddenly, Sakurako lets out an excited whoop, snapping Himawari out of her baffled reverie.
"There it is!" Sakurako exclaims as she zips forwards.
"Hey, Sakurako, wait!" Himawari tries to speed up, finding herself out of breath almost immediately while Sakurako bounds ahead effortlessly. Himawari spots a pink tiled roof rising above the other side of the convenience store on their right. As she rounds the corner, her breath escapes her in a quick 'oh!' of amazement.
The store sits back from the sidewalk about 5 meters or so, cradled between the convenience store they had been walking by on the right and an unfamiliar apartment complex on the left. Stained-glass stepping stones of bright pink elephants, honey-yellow tigers and deep blue gorillas form a walkway from the sidewalk up to the front door. The bright pink roof glistens like cake frosting in the morning light. The white, crystal-handled double-door facing the street is flanked on either side by shop windows stretching from barely off the ground to barely under the roof. In each window stand the sprawling, elaborate multi-tiered tables from the fliers, each table laying out a staggering variety of cakes. The many hues of the frostings and toppings sparkle in the light of the sun outside and the powerful overhead lamps inside. Outside, holding the doors open, two employees dressed in sky-blue, lacy pouf dresses and wearing glittering silver nametags manage the bustling line of excited, chattering sweets-lovers, guiding them into the shop. The sight of it all stuns Himawari who, for a second, forgets where she is.
"Um, excuse me, are you all right?" A voice behind Himawari pulls her back to the present. She turns to the high school girls behind her, bowing in apology.
"Oh! I'm sorry, please excuse m-" Himawari starts, but stops in surprise as Sakurako pulls her forwards by her hand.
"Geez Himawari, wait until after the cake to space out! Get in line with me already!" Sakurako tugs her in close and the two stand side-by-side in line, arms touching.
"Um...Sakurako...?" Himawari starts to pull her hand away, but Sakurako clenches it tighter for a second.
"Huh? GUH!" Sakurako exclaims with eyes wide, releasing Himawari's hand and reeling back. "I um, you, you're just...so scatterbrained these days. I didn't want you to forget what you were doing and wander off again, or I'd lose my place in line." Sakurako crosses her arms in front of her chest and becomes enamored with anything and everything in the opposite direction of Himawari's face.
"You keep saying I have poor memory, when you're the one who can barely retain a thing," Himawari grumbles in a low voice, just loud enough for Sakurako to hear.
"I remember no such thing!" Sakurako boasts proudly.
Himawari rolls her eyes, but her annoyance washes away as the line progresses to the door.
"Welcome, I hope you enjoy your visit!" The two employees manning the main doors hold them open for Sakurako and Himawari, bowing and welcoming them in. Inside, Himawari pauses in amazement at the sights around her as Sakurako zips off again in excitement. The inside of the shop makes the ostentatious exterior dull by comparison. Glass displays filled with more cakes and pastries than she's ever seen surround Himawari. She walks as if hypnotized to a display filled with lacy-frosting-topped masterpieces, each and every detail crafted with immaculate precision, a glistening moistness permeating every millimeter of every slice. She hears the voices of the guests around her marveling in appreciation and debating between all the different slices they want to try. She steps up to the display Sakurako had charged off to and turns towards her.
"Hey Sakur-" Himawari starts, but cuts herself off when she sees Sakurako's face pressed up against the glass, drooling in anticipation.
"I never knew sweets could look so good...I need a slice of all the things!" Sakurako waves her hand frantically for a clerk, jumping in place. "Hey, hey, hey, help, I need!"
"...I make you sweets all the time you know," Himawari mutters before continuing in a louder voice, "and could you please stop acting so childish in front of so many people?"
"I'll take a slice of that, and one of that...and one of that one please!" Sakurako ignores her and orders from the smiling clerk. Himawari sighs, wondering if Sakurako even checked the prices before ordering. Himawari spots a red-velvet cake covered in thick, smooth white frosting and topped with tiny peanut butter cups, crispy chocolate wafers and chocolate-covered toffee candies cut to show the light-brown toffee within.
200 yen for a slice isn't the worst, I suppose... Himawari thinks to herself, when she hears a familiar voice behind her.
"Furutani-kun, I'm glad you and your friend could make it today." Himawari turns to see Kobe-san, the cake shop's owner she had met outside Yui's apartment, beaming down at her, resplendent in an elaborate red and black ballroom gown, the side-knot in her hair tied with the same white-laced, plaid cloth as before.
"Kobe-san! Thank you," Himawari bows and blushes thinking of her simple casual clothes, but a quick glance around the shop reminds her that only the staff appear to be wearing anything beyond typical shopping attire. "This place...it's like...well..." Himawari struggles to come up with the right words, but Kobe-san finishes for her.
"Like walking into a sweet dream?" Kobe-san gazes around the shop as the excited clamor of the enamored guests rises, with more and more stepping up to the displays to place their orders. She looks back to Himawari, whose mouth is hanging open in wonder, and giggles. "I felt the same walking in, Furutani-kun. It still doesn't feel quite real, to be honest."
"I know what you mean!" Himawari hears the crowd around her and feels the bright lights reflecting off the soft pastels and sharp neons of the cakes, a warm rush of excitement shooting through her. I never knew...She clutches her hand in front of her chest, losing herself in a sudden rush of emotion. I never knew it could be like this...I always thought baking was fun, but seeing it like this, hearing so many people get so excited about it. This feeling...
"I hope you find something you like! We'll meet again, I'm sure," Kobe-san smiles and Himawari bows, but as Kobe-san turns to go, something powerful rises in Himawari's chest.
"K-Kobe-san, I...um..." Himawari stammers. Kobe-san turns back around, a gentle smile on her lips, and Himawari presses on. "I...I know you're probably very busy and, and I know we don't know each other very well, but...I..." Himawari's eyes feel glued to the ground as she wrings her hands in front of her. "Well...maybe...never mind, please excuse me."
"You know," Kobe-san says in a soft voice, bending down slightly, "I was wondering the other day, when you mentioned that you had been baking with your friend, if perhaps you would be interested in a little tutoring. In baking, that is."
"I...ye-...b-but I couldn't possibly, you're a skilled professional and a shop owner, and I wouldn't want to impose on your time. I also don't think I could afford such tutoring, though I do appreciate the offer..." Himawari's face flushes as her hands clench at her sides. I say that, but...The feeling in her chest burns brighter, a vulnerable flame. I think...I think that's what I want. What I really, really want, so bad it hurts to even think that it could ever...
She looks up at Kobe-san for a split-second then closes her eyes, tiny tears wetting their corners. She forces a smile, bowing. To even think it could happen...of course...of course it couldn't.
Why would something good happen to me?
She sees a memory of Sakurako, after school one day, accepting the cookies Himawari had baked and packaged for her. Sakurako had immediately laughed at her, saying that Himawari must have tried giving them to her crush first and gotten rejected.
If nothing I do is appreciated... could it be that nothing I do is worth appreciating?
Kobe-san smiles and straightens up before taking a small step forwards and bending down again.
"Furutani-kun, there wouldn't be a charge. I think..." Kobe-san stands straight and looks up to the ceiling, the warm bright white of the LED lamps shining down and illuminating her face. Her long, elegant eyelashes, her tiny, delicate nose, her wide, childlike smile adorned with the deep red of her lipstick, her blue, somehow catlike eyes set like sapphires in her ivory skin and glinting in the dreamlike spectrum of the shop, all combine into a clashing, vibrant juxtaposition between woman and girl.
Kobe-san continues, her voice clear and cheery like a happy child's.
"I think it'd be fun! Fun and just...well, a lot of fun! So...would you let me?" Kobe-san beams down at Himawari, whose chest is nearly ready to burst with the storm of joy surging through her.
"Yes, yes! I um...I mean," Himawari tries to reel herself in, but her heart beats wildly and her body feels a charge like lightning. "Please, yes, I would love to bake with you!"
Kobe-san grins and Himawari thinks of Sakurako, though she doesn't know why.
The rest of the shop's opening feels like a hazy, hardly remembered dream to Himawari, who keeps checking her phone to make sure Kobe-san's contact info was really in there and that she hadn't hallucinated getting it. Kobe-san had even suggested they start the tutoring Monday after school, a suggestion Himawari had eagerly agreed with.
She and Sakurako leave the shop, a warm, buzzing sensation purring through Himawari's body. In the crook of her left arm is the bag containing the four cake slices she had bought in a daze, each one packed in its own small plastic container: for Yui, who had accompanied Mari and Kaede to the park, a slice of chocolate cake, the chocolate frosting on top molded to look like blooming roses and sprinkled with toasted coconut shavings; for Mari, a slice of a fig-topped cake covered in a milky white goat-cheese buttercream, as the sliced figs reminded Himawari vaguely of uni; for Kaede, a slice of raspberry-topped white cake coated in dappled-pink frosting; and for herself, one slice of the red velvet cake she had been gazing at when Kobe-san had approached her.
She's vaguely aware of Sakurako yapping about her haul next to her, but visions of baking with Kobe-san and giving people home-baked treats made with skills taught to her by a master keep blocking out Sakurako's white noise.
Maybe...if I can make something really incredible...she glances at Sakurako, who is muttering to herself about the difficulties of picking which slice to eat first tonight, and her jaw clenches. Maybe I can make a new friend, one who appreciates what I do.
Maybe, I can be free of her at last...
A teensy twinge of tightness grips her chest weakly for a blink, and is gone.
She really does bother me...
Himawari continues home and daydreams about making sweets as Sakurako's exasperated grumbling fades into the backdrop.