Sincerely, Me [Kindaichi Yuutarou] | ✔

Stuck

"Listen," Kindaichi said as he whisked some egg in the bowl he was holding, a bead of sweat dripping down his temple. "I know I said before that omurice only takes three serves of eggs to make, so I was skeptical..." He glanced over at a large container which was labelled 'scrambled eggs' and filled with the stuff to boot. "But we've already gone through more than three dozen eggs trying to get it right."

"Eh?" Shino hadn't heard a word he said, blinking down at her egg which was in a heated pan over the stove. "It ripped again..."

A vein popped on Kindaichi's cheek. "Hey, are you listening?"

"No."

"Oh, but you heard that?"

"I just happened to be paying attention in that moment," Shino explained as she dumped her ruined egg into another box labelled 'scrambled eggs'. This box wasn't as full as the other three.

"Why don't I give it a shot?" Kindaichi asked when they messed up their fourth carton and were moving onto the fifth. "I've made omelets before."

"Maybe we should just eat fried rice with a side of eggs instead," Shino muttered before looking over to Kindaichi. "Be my guest. Obviously, I'm not going to get it right before the day ends." Perhaps I should have asked kaa-chan for cooking lessons before I attempted to do this... The most cooking she'd done in her life was boiling instant noodles, and even then she tended to overcook the damn things.

As Kindaichi took control, Shino stepped back, watching him intently as he fried the omelet, the pan sizzling nicely. Most of the egg smell had been sucked up by the exhaust hood over the stove, but some of the smell still managed to reach Shino's nose.

On another part of the kitchen counter sat a plate of fried rice that Kindaichi had made while Shino attempted to get a single omelet right. It had a lovely combination of shrimp, mushrooms, and other delicious things.

As Kindaichi finished up, flopping the yellow omelet over a clean plate, Shino glanced upward, knowing that the kitchen was directly below her father's bedroom. He still had not awoken yet, and she noted that Kindaichi was unaware of his presence in the house.

"There," Kindaichi was murmuring as he used the spatula to place the egg over the fried rice, Shino leaning over his shoulder as he hunched over the plate of rice, his tongue stuck out in concentration. Then it tore. "Fuck!"

"That's fine," Shino said when she realized that Kindaichi was going to throw his omelet away if she didn't interfere. That would be a shame, for the omelet really did look quite nice.

"Are you sure?"

"It didn't tear that much," Shino reassured him, carrying the plate of rice over to the dining table. She pulled out a chair and sat down, Kindaichi sitting beside her. "Wait—could you get some tomato sauce? Otherwise it won't look like the picture in the book."

"It already doesn't," Kindaichi said when he returned with the sauce, pointing grimly at the hole in the yellow blanket of egg.

But Shino ignored him, squeezing the tomato sauce in a zigzag pattern across the egg. "Hmm..." Once she was finished, she pushed the plate away from her, admiring it at a distance.

"So... what now?" Kindaichi asked. Are we going to eat it? Are we waiting until her cousin comes? But if it were the latter, when would that be?

"I don't know. We've successfully wasted some eggs, so I guess you're free to go."

"We're not going to eat it?" His stomach grumbled and he flushed. He hadn't had time to eat breakfast—Yuuki was supposed to have treated him to that at J-Mall.