Hidden Beauty [Shokugeki no Soma]

~one~

A/N: All the recipes I use are partly real and partly made-up.

"Ah, it's that girl."

"You mean the youngest child of Tachibana house?"

"The youngest child is a girl? I thought that's a boy."

"That's the second child, the youngest child is rarely mentioned so you probably don't know her."

.

.

.

"She's not as good as her older siblings."

Mikoto opened her eyes as she sat up rapidly on her bed. Her breath was quick like she had run for miles, and sweat covered her forehead. She looked around in fear of the strange room, just to realized that this was her dorm room.

'That's right, I move into the dorm of Totsuki.'

Heaving out a sigh, she slowly laid down and used her arm to cover her eyes. It had been a while since she last had that dream. And together with the dream was the uncomfortable memories. And then she recalled her mother's face, who had been so supported. She trusted that her daughter could do anything she wanted. But the truth was Mikoto was only good at cooking, compared to the rest of the family.

Her arm, which had been on top of her face, was wet from the moisture from Mikoto's eyes.

She didn't know what to think of her family anymore. It wasn't that she was tortured (physical nor mentally), it was just the pressure she was put into after mother had gone. And it was hard to see others while her family had lost an important part of it, like a puzzle without the largest piece which connected the rest.

Mikoto had agreed to get into Totsuki, because she thought that her mother would want to see her here. Despite saying that she didn't like this school, Mikoto truly wanted to be here. But not like this, not when mother wasn't there before she left the house to say: "Do your best, Mikoto."

Mikoto could feel the tears struggling from falling, and she stopped. With her eyes closed tightly and biting her own lips, she breathed in deeply.

She would not waste another day crying. She had cried enough.

Even if she had to face the world alone now, she would not allow herself to cry anymore.

After a long silence, Mikoto got up from the bed and went to the bathroom. She cleaned herself, had a shower and changed out of her sleeping dress. It was still early in the morning, and none of her dormmates had been up yet.

Mikoto checked her schedule and found out that she didn't have any class for that day. It was a blessing, considering she didn't want to talk to anyone right now.

She went to the kitchen and ate the left-over she had made the night before for the dorm's test (in case she would be hungry at night, but she was too tired to eat anything). After cleaning the dishes, it was then she saw a few eggs and milk that she had also bought but didn't use.

'I can make pudding...' Mikoto mused. She was hesitant for a few seconds, but she still went with it.

She prepared a saucepan, then combined sugar and water on low heat. Then, she watched as the sugar caramelized until it had become medium dark amber color. She carefully tilted the saucepan, distributing an even color to the whole caramel. Afterward, she removed the saucepan from heat and added in more water, thinning out the mixture. Then, she poured the mixture into some metal cups she had prepared. While the caramel was done, she cracked the eggs and separated the yolks into a bowl with sugar. She quickly beat them together, her quick and skillful mixing soon turned the egg yolks and sugar into a cream and golden mixture which shone beautifully.

Mikoto took some milk in a small saucepan to slowly add in the egg mixture. She poured everything through a sieve into a bowl. Adding in more milk, whipping cream and vanilla, she gave it a good whisk before distributing the mixture evenly between the metal cups with the caramel. Then, she prepared a large pot with steaming water inside, then placed a smaller steamer with all the metal cups on a steaming ring keeping the steamer above the boiling water. After roughly 30 minutes, she took the steamer out, cooled the metals cups by dipping them in iced water and placed them in the fridge.

She also prepared some onigiris for lunch, since Mikoto felt like going outside to lighten her mood.

When it was almost noon, Mikoto had wandered around the academy, and she had to admit this school was too large for her to explore. It was lucky that it was April, so the weather had been rather nice in the morning. She would surely stay indoors if it was too hot outside.

Mikoto began to doubt her choice of having lunch outside. She found nowhere to be a good place to have lunch.

When she nearly gave up and returned to the dorm, she found a grassy area. It was almost like a park, with tall trees covering the area with gentle shade, a small pond and some picnic tables. The place was perfect for lunch, yet it was completely deserted. Mikoto wondered if it was because the rich kids didn't want to eat somewhere too 'low-class' for them.

She took a table near the pond and settled down. Munching on an onigiri, Mikoto looked the light reflected on the water surface of the pond. It was so calm and peaceful here, letting her finally sink in her thoughts. Thoughts about her family, and her mother. She had made pudding, which was actually the first thing her mother had taught her to cook.

Ever since she passed away a year ago, Mikoto cooked less and less for herself. It was only when she got to Totsuki that she had started again. She had cooked because she liked to share her dishes with her mother (and maybe her siblings), but she lost someone to share her work after her mother had gone.

"I wish you are here to share the meal with me now." Mikoto spoke out loud, eyes closed.

"I can share the meal with ya!"

Mikoto yelled out in shock of the sudden voice. She jumped up from her seat and turned to look at the source.

It was a girl with wine-red hair. One of her yellow eyes was hidden by the long bag. She had taken the seat opposite of Mikoto and currently eyeing the basket of food, which was opened to reveal the onigiri and pudding inside.

"Wait! What?! Since when were you here- No, who are you?!" Mikoto asked, but the girl didn't really care as she still watched the basket.

"Hey, can I have some?" The redhead pleaded, her face seemed to have turned into that of a cat. And Mikoto had to admit the girl really resembled a feline with her fang-like teeth.

"O-okay, I guess..." Mikoto said hesitantly. She had made a lot and didn't mind to share. It couldn't hurt to give some food away, right? Maybe after the girl had some then she would leave.

Yet, if Mikoto knew that this was the beginning of the troublesome friendship that lasted for a lifetime, she might be rethinking her action.