"Don't be in a daze, Tsuna! Takagi-san and I are going to the baking classroom first." Shouko stood up from her chair and shook someone who had been staring at the front door.
"Yeah."
Shouko saw him nod in response, then ignored him and left the classroom with Takagi behind her.
Tsuna watched Shouko and Takagi-san leave the classroom, chatting and laughing.
Stretching, he turned back to see Nishikata still staring at the front door where the two had disappeared. He waved his hand in front of his face.
"Nishikata, focus! They've gone far away."
He knew Nishikata liked Takagi, but he had no idea how much.
"Oh...oh!"
Tsuna waited for him to fully recover, and then they went to the baking classroom together.
After a week of getting along, he realized he only knew a few people in the class.
They were the two people in the back row and Ajitani Hifumi, the class president elected by the class on the second day of school.
What impressed him most were her long, light-blonde hair, tied in two drooping ponytails, with matching bangs, and her golden eyes.
At first glance, she looked lively yet adorable.
————————
Following the memorized map, the two of them took five or six minutes to reach the baking classroom on the second floor of Building 2.
Sunlight streamed in through the diamond-shaped grilles, casting honey-colored patches of light on the white marble countertops.
The walls were covered with hand-painted recipe cards, the yellowed brown paper held in place by magnets, swaying in the breeze like a flock of butterflies about to take flight.
Six vintage green enamel ovens were lined up by the window, the glass covered with years of caramel stains.
"Tsuna! Over here!" Before Tsuna could locate Shouko's location in the classroom, she waved to him from the long table on the far left.
He then looked below the countertops, where sixteen long maple tables were arranged in a crescent shape.
Each tabletop was inlaid with obsidian cooking boards, which, in the cold light, seemed to reflect the students' reflections.
Each countertop was furnished with a brass scale and an enamel measuring cup. Stainless steel whisks hung from an overhead iron rack, their clinking sounds like windchimes.
Tsuna and Nishikata stopped where Shouko and her companions were standing, puzzled. "From this distance away from the counter, will we be able to see Teacher Toi's demonstration?"
"Just put—"
"Knock... knock...!"
Before Shouko could finish her sentence, the bell drowned out her words.
"Knock, knock, knock..."
Everyone in the baking classroom heard a knock on the door and turned toward the source.
Tsuna looked in the direction of the sound, only to see a long-haired man in a flashy shirt leaning against the doorframe. That was their cooking teacher, Mr. Toi. He'd suspected he was gay, but that was just a guess...
"Alright, guys, let's talk after class. Cooking will be over in a blink of an eye." Mr. Toi walked slowly to the counter in the center of the classroom, paused, glanced at everyone, and finally returned his gaze to Tsuna.
"Everyone, form groups of two and bake the butter cookies according to the recipe we learned last week." Teacher Toi knocked on the workbench.
As soon as he finished speaking, the baking classroom was quickly filled with the chaotic sound of footsteps and students talking. Hearing this, Shouko walked over to Tsuna and stopped. "Tsuna, let's form a group of two."
Without caring whether he agreed or not, she pulled him to a long, empty table and stopped.
Tsuna let her pull him along. After they stopped at their seats, he asked in confusion, "Don't you want to go back to your classmate Takagi?"
He had originally planned to be in a group with Nishikata.
"Takagi and Ajitani are in a group." Shouko waved her hand casually.
"Knock, knock..."
Teacher Toi saw that everyone in the classroom had been divided into groups and was reluctant to quiet down. He knocked hard on the workbench. "Okay, now that we're divided into groups, quiet down. Now, each group has one person go to the locker to get the ingredients."
"Go ahead, Tsuna!" Shouko gently pushed Tsuna next to her.
"You really didn't hesitate at all." Tsuna raised his hand, pinched her face, and pulled it away before leaving his position.
---
He looked at the entire wall of walnut lockers at the front of the classroom, with frosted glass doors. Each compartment was labeled with the name of each ingredient.
Some of the labels still had icing residue clinging to the edges.
Following the butter cookie recipe that Teacher Toi had taught him last week, he quickly gathered the necessary ingredients and returned to their original positions.
After he gathered all the ingredients and returned to his seat, Shouko hesitated for a moment before cautiously asking,
"Tsuna, have you ever made cookies or anything like that?"
She'd originally wanted to ask Tsuna to help her, but considering what Takagi-kun had said about some boys having a strange competitive streak... and saying it out loud might even hurt him, she was more tactful.
As if guessing what she meant, Tsuna placed the weighed bag of cake flour on the table and said softly,
"I'll just help you. I'm not very good at this."
"Yeah!"
Teacher Toi, who was at the workbench, saw that they had almost finished their work. He clapped his hands and shouted, "Students, there are two brand new aprons in your desk drawers. You can take them home.
From now on, bring anything related to baking to school for your homework.
Of course, I'll remind you too."
He finished by tossing a flirtatious glance at the students whose eyes were fixed on him.
This gesture naturally gave some students goosebumps.
Hearing this, Shouko squatted down and pulled out two brand new green aprons wrapped in clear plastic bags from a drawer.
Seeing this, Tsuna reached out to take one without hesitation, but she dodged him and jokingly said,
"What for? Don't assistants even deserve aprons?"
"Let me help you tie it."
"That's not good, right? There are so many people here."
"They're not watching us. We're just minor characters in life, okay? And we're standing at the very edge, who would bother watching us?"
Shouko shook her head, placed one on the table, and began to unwrap the other.
Tsuna didn't say anything more. After all, Shouko wasn't afraid anymore, so he had nothing to fear.
Shouko walked behind him with the fully unfolded apron and tiptoed to put the top strap on him.
As she tiptoed, her hair brushed the back of his neck, and he instinctively winced.
Then, Shouko, overcome with mischievous humor, tied the two straps behind him into a knot, trying to suppress her laughter.
"Alright."
Shouko took two or three steps back, letting him spin in a circle. She admired how handsomely he looked in the apron and nodded with satisfaction.
"Okay, my turn then." Tsuna picked up the unopened apron on the table and approached Shouko.
"Isn't it a bit awkward? There are so many people here..." When it came to Shouko, she felt a little embarrassed.
"..." Tsuna was helpless, but he didn't stop moving.
"Turn around first, and I'll tie it on for you. Don't worry, you said it yourself, no one will notice us."
"Yeah." Shouko no longer resisted and quickly turned around.
She wanted to finish it quickly so no one would see her. And even if they did, it wouldn't matter. As Takagi-san said, it would be a declaration that Tsuna was taken.
That's right! That's it.
Tsuna put the apron on her easily, but when he was tying the knot at the back, he accidentally made a knot.
I hope that Shouko won't blame him when the time comes…
"Look, look!"
"Stop pushing! I'm watching."
"I can't believe these two people are so open and affectionate right in front of Teacher Toi."
"I'm jealous…"
(End of this chapter)
Astyr_Wisteria thanks for review and 2 Chapters done.
---