Part 2: Poisonous Appreciation

The sunlight reaches Ayumi's face. She raises her palm to block it from entering her eyes. "Ara…" The girl said the first word. Her body is back to normal. She's no longer transparent. "Was it just a dream?" She wonders after getting flashbacks about the trip she took last night. All that happened seems so real. It's clear in her head from Mayama's scent, sitting on the table while Nomiya is working and the warmth of Morita's embrace.

"Whether it's real or not, I'm thankful to him." She remembered how Morita stop her from doing something stupid. Ayumi smile and get up from her bed. She gets into the shower and freshens up. Later, she put on a black blouse with tiny white polka dots and a banana yellow knee length skirt. She let her hair down topping it up with a white head scarf. She put up a smile on her face ready to leave home to meet her friends. Most importantly, she had something special for a dear one.

Ayumi arrives at their usual meeting place, Hanamoto sensei's office with a big bento wrapped in a checkerboard scarf. "Ohayo!" she greeted Takemoto who is already there. "Where's Hanamoto sensei and Hagu-chan?" she ask when the two person is nowhere to be seen.

"Ohayo Yamada-san. Hanamoto sensei and Hagu-chan just went out to get breakfast." The younger college mate tells her.

"Hmm, that means I'm a little late." She mutters. "How about you Takemoto, have you take your breakfast?"

"Not yet. " He replies.

"Great! I made a special breakfast this morning, you can try some." Ayumi said enthusiastically. Takemoto's face turns green just by thinking about the possible ingredients inside Ayumi's bento.

"Umm, that was really nice of you but I..."

"Ohayo…" A voice echoes from the door. It was Mayama.

"Ohayo Mayama-san." Takemoto turns to him. "You come just in time. Yamada-san made breakfast, try a little." He gives Mayama a signal.

Mayama's eyes clouded with fear. Sweat trickles down his forehead. "I would love to, but I'm in a hurry." He makes up a quick excuse to escape from being poison by Ayumi's horrible cooking.

"Oh, that reminds me, I need to umm…change the light bulb!" Takemoto tries to save himself.

"Better get going Takemoto."

"You too, Mayama-san."

"Ano ne…" Ayumi crack her knuckles. She is well aware that the two guys are trying to run away. "I'm leaving, goodbye."

"Yamada…" Mayama step away from the door as Ayumi walks out. It was unexpected for her to leave without giving him a beating or two. She didn't even have a fierce expression like she always do when Mayama critics something about her.

The young lady walks out angrily leaving them alone. She knows that she's a terrible cook who always came up with absurd recipes such as chocolate curry, grapefruit fried rice and many more. She loves to cook but have no talent for it. "Mayama to Takemoto no baka..." Ayumi breathe out a heavy sigh. They hated the food she made, its not a secret to her. "Why can't they just tell me that." She feels disappointed. "If they tell it to my face, I'll stop. All they have to do is tell me the truth then I won't be bothering them anymore."

She leaves the college building and heads to Fujiwara Design. There is one person that can help her with something and that person is Miwako. "Hopefully she's not busy." She enters the elevator and pushes the button up.

Ayumi's long legs hesitate as she steps out from the elevator. "Maybe this is not a good idea."

"Yamada!" Ayumi jumps when her name is called. She turns around to see Nomiya is standing not very far holding paper sheets in his hands. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hello. I made extra breakfast but everyone already had theirs. It would be a waste to throw it away so I brought it here."

Nomiya gulped. Somehow the bento that she is holding freaks the hell out of him. Although he really likes the girl, he's not that willing to bear the taste of her cooking.

Ayumi recognizes the look on his face. She can read it clearly and it was totally expected. She didn't wait for him to give his respond and walk inside the office looking for Miwako. She found her on the couch with Leader, the dog.

"Can you help me with something Miwako-san?" She asks immediately after she sat down beside the more senior lady friend. "Can you teach me how to make the red bean rice balls?"

"Sure, but why do you want to learn out of sudden?"

"I want to make some for someone special." She answers.

"Don't tell me you're making it for that no-good-pain-in-the-neck Mayama?" Nomiya who had been eavesdropping from the beginning interrupts the ladies. Ayumi blushed in embarrassment when he said it out loud. Thank goodness there are only a few people in the office.

"Its none of your business and no, its not for Mayama!"

"Hoo…I bet this person that made you go through all these troubles is a guy, am I right?" Miwako push the frame of her glasses up her nose bridge. "Alright, I'll teach you." She gets up from the chair.

"Really? Arigato Miwako-san." Ayumi thank her.

"Who's side are you on?" Nomiya objected.

"No offense, I think you're moving too slow and the girl has changed her mind."

………………………………………………………………

Ayumi returns to the college around noon. It really took her time to come up with a good looking and edible red bean rice balls similar to Miwako's. It is still imperfect. The shape is not attractive and each one is not in the same size like the others. Without wasting any time, she searches for the person she wanted to give it too. Looking for him is not easy until she spotted him taking a nap on a bench under a shadowy tree. There is a cat sleeping on his chest.

"Morita." She wakes him up.

"Hmm…" He twitches and opens one of his eyes to take a peek at the person who called his name. The first thing he saw was her smile. Morita pick the cat up and places it down on his lap as he sits up. Ayumi takes her seat after putting down the bento between them on the bench.

"I made something for you, but its nothing special."

"Oh, food. Thanks!" Morita vigorously unwrap the bento and begin to gobble up on the snacks.

"I made those this morning so it must have tasted awful." She felt bad of letting him eat the breakfast she made and also the rice balls she just learned from Miwako.

"Nyum, nyum…" He ignores her and continues on eating. Out of the sudden, he choked for eating so fast. Ayumi hurriedly hand over a water bottle for him to drink. Morita manages to swallow down the food enable him to breath. "Look Ayu, people might hate your cooking but that doesn't mean they hate you."

She stunned when she heard the words came out from him. Morita looked at her. He could guess that's what Ayumi was worrying about. "Morita…"

"You seriously need to learn how to be a better cook or no one would marry you." He teases her.

"Morita no baka!" She shoves down the whole rice ball into his mouth. Morita smacks his chest to prevent himself choking for the second time. Ayumi gets up and starts walking away. "Arigato, Morita." She paused then turns to him after she was a few steps away. She gives him a smile and leaves the guy alone to enjoy his brunch.

Morita finally able to ingest the food by drinking some water. He watches her walking across the yard. A smirk spread across his face. "I might not be able to help you Kaoru, but at least I managed to save that girl." He changes his view to the blue sky once the shadow of the sorrow girl is unseen.

a/n: I am very unsatisfied by the way I'm writing this story . I'm well aware there are a lot of grammatical errors and the storyline is hard to understand because it was written in a rush. However, my main point here is to show the bond that Ayumi and Morita had. I think its very pure and selfless as well as very strong love in friendship. Hopefully I managed to bring that out. Please enjoy the story and give me positive feedbacks. I appreciate if its free from flames.