"The cake is amazing Ichigo-senpai!" exclaimed Lemon, skipping towards the older patissiere making her light-blue dress flow with her movements. It was kind of shocking the big change of character that Lemon-chan went through in only a few hours, from envy towards Ichigo to idolize her "The way you managed to the lemon cake with the strawberry cream in the middle is delicious, not to add what a great idea was to instead of using a sugar coverture as it is common, you used a white chocolate one. That was brilliant! And it looks so good!".
"Lemon, amour*, stop scaring poor Ichigo away. Why don't you better come and dance with me?" Nicolas said, dragging his girlfriend towards the dance floor.
"Nicolas never change" his sweet spirit Bell said, before flying in front of Vanilla and bowing "Can you give me this dance my lady?" he asked politely to his girlfriend, which when Ichigo found out about was very surprised.
"Of course!" Vanilla accepted happily, and both flew/danced away.
"That girl should have said it with more poise but she was right, your cake is very good" a female voice said behind Ichigo, who turned around quickly in surprise, only to find a married couple in their mid-forties that reminded her a lot of Makoto and his sister... but that could only be a coincidence, or not? "It is nice to know that young people like you work very hard and are so good at something, I was the same when I was studying to be a doctor".
"Me too... and my brother as well. He is a chocolatier, and I am sure that he would have praised the coverture and decorations you made with white chocolate" the man said.
"If you talk about chocolate I am really not that good" Ichigo protested with an embarrassed blush "You must taste Kashino's chocolate, he is the best when you are dealing with chocolate!".
"Kashino?" the woman asked, almost breathlessly.
"Yes, Makoto Kashino. He works very hard every day, more than I do. He is kind of my inspiration for never giving up. Even when having his family against him and his decision of being a patisserie, he never gave up his dream and works so hard to be on the top, day and night. And if we talk about chocolate, I believe that there is no one as good as him in the whole St. Marie's Japanese branch" Ichigo said, not knowing why she had this necessity of talk about Makoto to these two strangers.
"He works that hard for it? It isn't only a whim?" the man asked almost in desperation, as if he needed the reassurance and felt very guilty about something.
"Of course he does! I've never seen anyone take something so seriously or work so hard for something before in my entire life! Also, even if he is a short tempered sadist sometimes, whenever he works with chocolate I've never seen him so happy or so in peace" replied Ichigo, jumping at the defence of Makoto as soon as he was insulted... as she always does "I believe that he doesn't need the help of anyone, that he will make his own dream come true with his determination, persistence and hard work... he is kind of like a genius too, so that helps as well".
"You seem to be very good friends" the woman commented with a kind and soft smile, something that Ichigo didn't expect. Because even when they were complementing her, their words seem void and false. However, she must have said something that stuck a cord because they looked so pained and... guilty? "What is your name?".
"Ichigo Amano" the brown haired patisserie answered with a big smile "And Kashino and I are friends! We worked together all the way through the Cake Grand Prix, only to end up second against a high-school team".
"Even if you didn't win, going against student that are older and have more experience than you and end up second is a very good result, and it shows how good you are as a team" the man praised her, eyes twinkling with... pride?
I must be seeing things, thought Ichigo, I better say goodbye and take a stroll through the outside garden. All the hard work for hours without a break must have tired me.
She did just that, but what she didn't expect from her little walk was to hear Julie say something that broke her trust in him.
"Prince Julian it is time to tell Ichigo the truth" Shanti said "She had passed the final test and we are running out of time".
"I know Shanti, I didn't work so hard on her for nothing" Julie... no, Julian replied "I will convince Ichigo, Nicolas and Lemon to help us. Ichigo will be easy she already trusts me and owns me her help".
Own him something? Aren't we friends who can ask the other anything?! Has he have been using me all this time for his own gain and not because he trusted my patisserie abilities? Was all our friendship a whole sweet lie?! Ichigo screamed in her head in anguish, her heat broke into two and it was so painful that she didn't notice a sob slipping out of her lips.
"Who is there?!" demanded to know Julian, and gasped when the one hearing their conversation stepped into the light "Ichigo... let me explain!".
"Go on then" countered the brown haired girl "Explain to me why our whole friendship is based on a lie?!"
A/N:
This is the link to my Tumblr page, for the cake Ichigo and the team made for the wedding on this chapter: http://kurenohikari.tumblr.com/post/152182775253/the-wedding-cake-of-charlotte-francoise-in-the
*Amour (French) = Love (English).
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Sweet Practice {Yumeiro Patissiere}
Fiksi Penggemar{Sweet Tears and Sweet Love, Book 1} After loosing against Tennouji's team and having her ex-team saying that they wanted to part ways to practice on their own, Ichigo is left alone and helpless. Especially once she discovers that they had skipped a...
