Ayanokouji What If: Popularity Time

V8 Chapter 4: A Special Competition🍋

                           Kiyotaka Pov

The special facility was quiet at this time because it was around thirty minutes before the morning alarms were set to go off.

My group, apart from Koenji, were out in the kitchens. Koenji outright refused to work alongside the rest of the group, much to the ire of Ishizaki and Yahiko, who chewed him out in the dorm room.

His response to this verbal assault was:

"The master does not cook the meal, so I am naturally exempt."

I was leading the group in preparing the breakfast due to the cooking experience that I gained through as series of experimentations in the kitchen.

Cooking was an art, and baking was a science, I had learned.

"Ayanokouji, can you pass that spoon?" whispered Sumida behind me.

I nodded, handing it to him.

We were making sure not to be loud so we wouldn't disturb any of the sleeping students in the building only a few feet away from us.

Yahiko sighed loudly, to which I walked over to look at the porridge in his bowl.

"Burnt," I narrated, "You should throw that out and start again."

"Yeah, sorry how about that. This was the second one I burnt..."

"Third time is the charm, right?"

"Hopefully that's the case," murmured Yahiko as he dumped the burnt food into the bucket.

"Make sure not to keep it over the flame for too long," I advised, moving the pot's handle out of his way so he wouldn't knock it over, "It would be easier to have it undercooked and then put it back than having it burnt and have to start over again."

"I'll try that out this time!" he whisper-yelled. Yahiko was the type of person who only needed a strong shove in the right direction to make him understand a lesson.

Many people would have already given up on him because of how brash and arrogant he acts, and I don't blame them. Approaching him is extremely difficult, and the only reason Yahiko and I have reached a middle ground is because of his situation.

Without falling from Class A, he would have never approached me other than to mock me publically as he did with Ken and some other students.

Keisei suddenly said, "Kiyotaka-Kun, is this correct?"

The nerdy boy was referring to his porridge, which was cooked well.

"Yeah, but there really isn't a correct way to cook," I replied.

"There is a correct way. Every meal has a recipe, like a scientific formula. Following this recipe to the last letter would produce the correct answer," responded Keisei.

I'm not surprised by his answer, Keisei is an analytical person who would rather view the world as a test rather than an experience.

"Whatever makes you a good cook," I responded as I moved to check on my own food.

Mine was fine as I had made this exact meal multiple times before.

The rest of the morning I spent making sure the rest of the group was performing their duties.

The time was now 3:00 pm, and my group was on its way to the Morals classroom for our next lesson. We had just done a round of Zazen which made everybody else in the group tired apart from Koenji and I.

Suddenly, a pair of hands covered my eyes, and a voice whispered sweetly, "Guess who?"

The hands were smooth and soft over my face, and they emitted a pleasant warmth onto my face.