“Ding!”
“Ah, the cookies are done.”
Chihiro Mizuhara said so, put on oven mitts, opened the oven, and took out the two trays of cookies giving off a sweet, rich smell.
Chihiro Mizuhara’s tray looked excellent. Makoto Miyago felt these cookies could be sold in a shop as they were. He could not pick out a single flaw.
Sakuraha Toyama’s cookies looked fine at a glance, but they did not hold up under a closer look. Some had deep cracks, some had lost their shape, and some were the wrong color.
They were clearly not a match for Chihiro Mizuhara’s.
Sakuraha Toyama let out a light breath, bit her lower lip, and stared at her cookies in silence.
The kind Chihiro Mizuhara comforted her at once.
“This is your first time making cookies, right, Toyama? Getting them to this point is already really good. The first time I made cookies, I couldn’t even get the dough to come together. I got it all over the kitchen, and my grandmother spent the whole afternoon cleaning up.”
As Chihiro Mizuhara spoke, he scratched his cheek and laughed an embarrassed “hehe.”
Sakuraha Toyama glanced at Chihiro Mizuhara and asked flatly,
“When did you make cookies for the first time, Mizuhara?”
Chihiro Mizuhara tilted his head and thought.
“Mm… it should have been when I was 6. Before I was 6, Grandmother wouldn’t let me into the kitchen.”
Hearing that answer, Sakuraha Toyama sighed deeply and murmured,
“6… I can’t compare at all…”
“All right, all right!” Chihiro Mizuhara clapped, linked an arm through Makoto Miyago’s, and pulled him in front of the two trays of cookies, smiling expectantly.
“Next, please start tasting, Senpai.”
“……Mm.”
Makoto Miyago carefully let his gaze pass over Sakuraha Toyama’s face, only to see her plant her hands on her hips and turn her head to hide her expression.
The tips of her ears were red. She said, not very nicely,
“What are you looking at? Eat. Dare to say they taste bad and I’ll kill you.”
Makoto Miyago smiled bitterly, and silently scored it a 6 in his heart.
He thought for a moment, and still picked up one of Chihiro Mizuhara’s good-looking cookies first.
The instant it entered his mouth, a sweet cream flavor filled it.
The bake was excellent. The cookie was incredibly crisp, and the moment he chewed, the aroma shot straight to the crown of his head.
So this is a cookie fresh from the oven?
Looks that good, and still this sweet.
Makoto Miyago nodded, very satisfied, and stuck up a thumb.
“As expected of Chihiro. Delicious!”
“Thank you for the praise, Senpai.”
Chihiro Mizuhara smiled as if he had eaten honey.
Right after that, Makoto Miyago did not dare hesitate.
He immediately picked up one of Sakuraha Toyama’s cookies and put it in his mouth.
Only because he felt the extremely present gaze behind him growing colder and colder.
He chewed the cookie twice, and Makoto Miyago froze outright.
“Uwah, what is this? So hard to— delicious! Delicious!”
“Hm? Really?”
Sakuraha Toyama was surprised and pleased in her heart.
She knew herself. Honestly, she had not expected anything of her cookies.
Or rather, so long as the taste was not very strange, she would thank heaven and earth.
Half believing, she picked up half a cracked cookie and put it in her mouth.
As expected, Sakuraha Toyama’s expression froze too.
The curious Chihiro Mizuhara also tasted half a piece, and so all three of them froze.
Makoto Miyago steeled himself, closed his eyes, and forced down the half-chewed cookie in his mouth.
At the same time, Sakuraha Toyama brought over the trash can from the side, spat into it without hesitation, and then handed the trash can to Chihiro Mizuhara.
Seeing this, Makoto Miyago was struck dumb.
Ah? So in this situation you can just spit the cookie out?
Sakuraha Toyama looked at Makoto Miyago as if she were looking at an idiot.
“Are you stupid? If it tastes bad, just spit it out. Who knows what kind of harm eating something like that will do to your body?”
Makoto Miyago was speechless.
“666. How about you just kill me after all. I suddenly realize I don’t actually want to live that much.”
“What nonsense are you saying now?” Sakuraha Toyama smiled, looked at her cookies, and let out a light sigh.
“Fine. Then we’ll stop here for today. It’s about time. We should go back to class.”
She turned to Chihiro Mizuhara and gave a light bow.
“Mizuhara, today’s instruction was a great help. Otherwise I’m afraid I couldn’t even have made the dough.”
Chihiro Mizuhara smiled and waved it off.
“Don’t mention it, Toyama. Thanks to your invitation, I had a lot of fun too.”
As Chihiro Mizuhara spoke, he stole a glance at Makoto Miyago.
Makoto Miyago, for his part, could not hold it in. He pointed at his poor stomach and said,
“What about me? What about me? I was working very hard as the poison tester, all right! Not going to thank me and my stomach?”
Hearing that, Sakuraha Toyama raised a brow and said, not nicely,
“Ah, yes. Sorry my cookies turned out so bad.”
Chihiro Mizuhara, though, gave Makoto Miyago a cute smile.
“Yeah. It was also thanks to Senpai being here.”
“Aiyah, I really didn’t do anything.”
Makoto Miyago laughed brightly.
Chihiro really is the best. Makes a guy feel comfortable.
“Hey, Miyago.”
A faint voice rose behind Makoto Miyago. He did not dare stop laughing, because he knew that if he stopped laughing, he would die.
Then Chihiro Mizuhara leaned in front of Makoto Miyago and said earnestly,
“Then these cookies I made, please eat them for me, Senpai.”
Makoto Miyago was just about to agree when Sakuraha Toyama stepped in between him and Chihiro Mizuhara, her expression a little flustered.
“Um… Mizuhara, can I take these cookies you made? I want to use them as a reference for my practice later.”
Sakuraha Toyama: Don’t eat! Don’t eat!
Hearing Sakuraha Toyama say that, Makoto Miyago’s eyes lit up.
Oho, nice momentum, Sakuraha Toyama. If you’d been like this earlier, why worry about not landing Chihiro Mizuhara?
Chihiro Mizuhara frowned, a little troubled.
“But…”
Makoto Miyago waved a hand.
Sakuraha Toyama, I’ll help you!!!
“Chihiro, just let Toyama take them. I feel she really does need these cookies as a reference for practice. Besides, I haven’t finished the cookies you gave me yesterday, and if you give me this many more, how am I supposed to finish them?”
Of course, with a cat at home, they could actually be finished.
Makoto Miyago said so secretly in his heart.
“All right, then.” Chihiro Mizuhara was still a little unwilling, but since Senpai had said so, he could only nod.
“Then, Senpai, you have to tell me once you finish them!”
“Mm! Of course!”
Makoto Miyago vowed it firmly.
“Then I’ll take my leave first, Senpai.”
Chihiro Mizuhara smiled, turned, and secretly pouted.
Honestly, Senpai really is too kind. He always thinks of helping others first.
But, well, a senpai like that is exactly what makes him charming…
I feel like I like Senpai a little more again.