Izuocha's Love Stories

46 - IZUKU'S BAKERY (CHAPTER 1-2)

By oldacco1

CHAPTER ONE 

Every Monday, without exception, Midoriya Izuku would wake up at five in the morning, shower, and eat breakfast before five-thirty, which is when the ingredients would arrive, it was a small sacrifice compared to the quality of the arriving product. These ingredients were the best around, and Izuku's mother had driven a hard bargain for them to be delivered every day. Now that he had taken over, it was his responsibility to receive them early in the morning, or they would end up someplace else, and he would have nothing for the rest of the week unless he paid extra for them to come around again the next day.

When they arrived, he would pay the delivery people, telling them to come back again the following week. It was a tough job getting all of the different bags of yeast, flour, sugar, salt, and butter inside, but his mom had been able to do it, so he had to do it as well. He would then bring all of the ingredients together at the appropriate temperature of anywhere between sixty-five and eighty degrees Fahrenheit. He ended up with many large pieces of dough that he would then need to knead. This step, he did it caringly, as if he were touching a child. His mother had always told him to knead the dough gently, as it would increase the quality and taste of the bread, neither of them knew why, but it seemed to work, so they just kept doing it.

After that, he would put the kneaded balls of dough in buttered bowls, he had preferred to use butter instead of oil, he claimed it had better taste that way, but it was actually the overall way he made the bread that had made the taste better, he just did every step caringly, putting one-hundred percent of himself into it. Then he placed a plastic sheet over each individual ball of dough and let the dough rise thanks to the yeast.

This would take about an hour, so he had time to start making coffee. He'd make it in large amounts, as he thought the people who came early in the morning would appreciate a hot cup before they started their day. His mother hadn't done this, he had started to do this on his own when he first started working there alone, back when his mother fell ill. He would look at the faces of the people coming in early in the morning, most of them looked like they could use a cup, so he started serving it completely free with every bread purchase.

When he was done, the hour had already gone by, he went back to the dough and knead it a few more times before letting it rise again. Thirty minutes would go by before it was all ready to be put in the oven. He set aside a third or so of the dough so that he could sell it later. He would probably sell it right then if he baked it, but decided to leave some for the people who couldn't go in the morning. He would put the other two-thirds of dough in different groups because they wouldn't fit all at once in the oven, he left every batch there for fifteen minutes before it reached its desired color, a golden-brown crust that Izuku adored to look at for some reason. He took it out and placed the next batch into the oven, putting the already-done bread into baskets on his store's shelves.

It was at this time when the store's first customers would be coming in, around seven thirty. He would greet them all with a smile and would offer them his recently baked bread, serving a cup of coffee to those who looked that they needed it. His bread would be completely sold out in the next three hours, and he often had customers waiting for the next batch to be ready and able to be sold. During this time, Izuku would chat with whoever was there, drinking a cup of coffee with them or simply talking about life. It was because of this experience that his bakery was the most popular around, and people loved the bread as much as the owner, the way Izuku made it gave it an amazing taste. When he was asked about how he made the bread, how it turned out to be so good, he would simply reply:

"I do it just how my mom taught me to."

Most of the older customers had known Izuku's mother, most of them had thought that the bakery would close after what had happened to her, but her son, who was sixteen at the time, refused to let the place close, so he took it upon itself to continue its service. When Izuku had first taken over, it was a little bit shaky. The boy would stutter when talking to customers and would sometimes burn the bread because of his inexperience. He was forced to not apply for a high school, but he didn't care, he had to keep the place alive, no matter what it took. And now, three years later, he still had it going.