Lying is a Sin, A Sin Hanagaki Takemichi Commits Too Often

I Can Teach You - The Sixteenth Promise

June 19th, 2017

After cleaning up and having breakfast with the couple, Takemichi had intended on going over to the bakery and doing some prep. But Emma and Hina were having none of that.

"Don't even try to say no Takemichi-kun! You are staying in bed, no ifs buts or maybes." Emma instructed, her arms crossed over her chest. Hina nodded in agreement from the kitchen table where she was marking stories her students had written.

"Emma-chan, I can't just lie in bed all day, it makes me feel worse," he whined.

"Well there is no way either of us are letting you go anywhere near the bakery. You need to rest," Hina said sternly.

He sighed and picked up the remote from the coffee table, "Movie marathon?"

June 20th, 2017

He was forgetting. And not in the way he thought he would. He thought- hoped he would forget about negative memories from his childhood in regards to his mother. He thought he'd just forget stupid things like what his favourite food was when he was seven. But rather, the past was the only thing clear in his mind- overly clear. Constant memories of his mother's treatment played like a movie in his mind that he was unable to escape.

He was forgetting the present, and that was scaring him. He was struggling to make even his most popular items at the bakery, a recipe was becoming the standard and he hated that. Because he made each dish specially with his own twist that no recipe could offer, and now he couldn't even remember his twist. He would stand with his hand on the doorknob for ten minutes trying to remember if he even had to leave at all.

Yesterday was nice, he supposed, spending all day just watching movies with Emma and Hina. It took his mind off everything, a good distraction even if the popcorn tasted like slime and his entire body aches from being squished in between the couple on the couch.

He sighed aggressively before walking out of the kitchen, the bakery was pretty empty this time of the day. He looked between Ran and Rindou before deciding.

"Rindou-kun, come into the kitchen with me. I'm going to teach you how to bake."

Rindou sputtered and Ran raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure that's a good idea? Why would we need to know how to bake if you're here?"

Because I won't always be here. "Well, hopefully if one of you knows how to bake, then eventually you two can work without my supervision."
"That's a good idea actually."

Rindou followed him out to the kitchen, he was not going to lie, he was very excited. When he was younger, and by younger, only a couple years old before he and Ran were abandoned at 8 and 10, he'd always help his mother bake in the kitchen. He was surprisingly skilled at cracking open eggs at a young age and loved to knead dough. It's been a very long time since then.

"We're just going to start with something basic, okay? Choc chip cookies are a classic, right?"

It was really nice, calming, Rindou thought, spending this time with Takemichi. He could understand why his boss chose to do such a thing as his job, baking was quite therapeutic. Takemichi was clear in his instructions, although he would constantly pause and think about the next step for a little while. Rindou just assumed it must be difficult to have so many recipes memorised, he wondered if he could ever do that. Honestly, he had been thinking about being serious and staying at the bakery to work. He wasn't sure what Ran thought, especially since his older brother got irritated with the customers a lot, but he really enjoyed working here at Hana. Takemichi was a good boss, paid well for such a job, obviously he didn't need the money, but Takemichi ran a very nice environment where customers could feel comfortable and enjoy their time at the bakery. There were always delicious smells around and Takemichi would let them take whatever was left over at the end of the day.

He's liked it so much that he's actually refused a few modelling opportunities just to do some more shifts at the bakery. He never really thought modelling was for him anyway, photographers would think it was cool how flexible he was and would make him do weird awkward positions, it wasn't fun. Constant flashing cameras, limited diets and clothes that sometimes showed more skin than he was comfortable with. With Takemichi, he could eat sweets without any judgement, in fact his boss would encourage Rindou and Ran to eat more since they were so lanky. Rindou had always been bigger than his brother in terms of body fat and muscle, so it was nice to have Takemichi still want him to eat so much even when he wasn't as lean as Ran.

"Hey Takemichi, I hope you can teach me all there is to know about baking. Working with you is really fun, I hope I can meet your expectations," he spoke, dusting his hands of the excess flour from his fourth batch of cookies.

Takemichi turned around from where he was standing at the oven, he nodded thoughtfully before smiling, "I promise you'll be more skilled than me when I'm done with you. I hope I can responsibly leave my duties to you."

Rindou smiled, but he couldn't help but wonder at the back of his mind that there might have been some ulterior meaning behind Takemichi's words.

.

Kazutora looked down at his phone in confusion, the name Tachibana Naoto appearing. He didn't even know he had his number. He was in a jittery mood, especially after telling Baji, who in return told Chifuyu, what he thought about Takemichi's mental state. His mind jumped to the worst conclusions at seeing Naoto calling him, what if he was about to tell him Takemichi just killed himself? Or tried to?!

"Hello!"

"Hanemiya-san? I hope I didn't startle you."

"N-no...is something the matter?" He asked nervously.

"No, nothing bad at all. I actually wanted your help with something, in regards to Takemichi."

"Help?"

"I'm sure you know it's his birthday at the start of next week, and I know how close you two are. I wanted to know if you could help me out with planning a surprise birthday party for him?"

Kazutora released a breath of relief after being reassured that nothing bad had happened to Takemichi. And a surprise party? He thought back to the one Mikey tried to plan for Takemichi's 18th and how everything just didn't go to plan, hopefully this time could be better. He would love to see a genuine smile on Takemichi's face again.

"Sure, I'd love to."