Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.
Chapter 5 – To Move Forward\nVolume 2\n<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide">\n“I’m sorry. I think she’s embarrassed. She’s not a very straightforward girl, but please get along with her.”\n
“Yes. Well, I don’t think she’s embarrassed…”\n
“Really?　Well, okay.”\n\n
If I don’t follow up on anything here, I don’t know what she’ll say later.\n
Mother Enami withdrew to the back of the room, keeping her calm expression on her face. The strength drained from my body.\n
The human mind is not that easy to understand. I felt that way once again.\n\n
“…what do we do?”\n\n
I asked, but I knew that there was no escape.\n
I had already told her that I would cook for her. It would be unnatural to leave without doing anything.\n\n
“…Are you fine with this?”\n
“It doesn’t matter if it’s fine or not. It is what I’m here for anyway. I don’t really care that much about it.”\n
“You’re surprisingly bold.”\n\n
Enami-san walked quickly towards the kitchen. It was already past five o’clock in the afternoon. The winter solstice was approaching and it was already dark outside the window. In the dimly lit living room, the light in the kitchen looked faint.\n
I followed Enami-san’s lead.\n
In the kitchen, I found all the cooking utensils that Enami-san had told me about. Frying pans, pots, knives, cutting boards, seasonings, and so on. As far as I could see, there was nothing that was missing. With this, I could start cooking right away.\n
Enami-san wrapped a plain, mess-free apron around her body. She offered one to me without saying a word, so I put it on too. I wondered if she had bought two aprons because she knew I was coming.\n\n
“I know the basic dish. But is there anything else you want to make?”\n
“…To be honest, I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’ve prepared a variety of things we can use, but I don’t know if it’s enough…”\n\n
She showed me the contents of her refrigerator.\n
The refrigerator did not look new, but it was clean and polished. There weren’t too many things in it, since she had probably just started using it. Still, there were a few vegetables of various kinds in the vegetable compartment.\n\n
“You’re also going to eat the food we make, right, Enami-san?”\n
“That’s the plan.”\n
“I see.”\n\n
Of course, the main dish was for Mother Enami. However, if I am going to cook at this time, it would be a shame to cook for just one person. The food I’m going to make is not the kind of food that Enami-san usually eats. So, I need to prepare a regular dish as well.\n\n
“I understand now. Since I’ve got it all figured out, let’s make some basic dishes that might be useful in the future. I think it will be better that way for Enami-san.”\n
“Anything is fine.”\n\n
I don’t know Enami-san’s skill. It’s probably safer to make it as simple as possible.\n
I quickly washed my hands. As expected, Enam-san seems to have some common sense in this area. She washed the cutting board, pots, and knives without me telling her to do so.\n
Let’s start with the first thing we decided to do.\n\n
“Do you have any rice?”\n
“Here.”\n\n
She handed me a pack of rice. The kind that can be eaten by using the cooker.\n
I put about two portions of it in the cooker first. It was a little too much for her mother to eat, but even if there was any leftover, it would not be much.\n
I took out some green onions from the vegetable room.\n
After washing them well, I put them on the cutting board.\n\n
“Now, let’s cut them.”\n\n
I let Enami-san take the lead.\n
It’s not that difficult to cut green onions. As long as you cut them into rounds, they will take shape.\n\n
“…”\n\n
After taking a deep breath, Enami-san grabbed the knife. She seemed to be unaccustomed to it and stared at the flat of the knife and the tip of the blade. A few moments later, she grabbed the green onion with her left hand and slowly lowered the knife with her right hand.\n\n
Tang.\n\n
She cut off the roots. As expected, she knew that she couldn’t eat it, so she pulled the root over to the edge of the cutting board.\n\n
Tang, Tang, Tang.\n\n
Carefully, one at a time. But surely the green onions were being cut at just the right size. She was following the “left hand is the cat’s paw” rule that we are taught in elementary school, and her knife was moving back and forth.\n
It’s a big difference from my family.\n
By the way, my father is deadly bad at using a kitchen knife, he can’t cut vegetables at all even though he moves them up and down a lot. Sayaka is better than my father, but she doesn’t watch her hand very closely, so she often gets dangerous.\n
Compared to that, I can say she is doing well enough.\n
After setting the knife down a few times, Enami-san turned around.\n\n
“How much do you need?”\n\n
I peeked out from behind Enami-san.\n\n
“About double this amount.”\n
“Okay.”\n\n
The sound was regular and steady. I could feel her seriousness.\n\n
“How about this much?”\n
“It’s okay for now.”\n\n
I gathered up the sliced green onions and put them in the bowl. I washed the cutting board again and placed it on the cooking table.\n
Just as the cooker rang, I took the rice out of it and carried it to the edge of the kitchen.\n\n
“Phew, I’m tired.”\n
“No, that was too fast!?”\n
“I don’t use knives. I used up my spirit just by holding these knives.”\n
“Hmm. Well, that’s how it is at first.”\n\n
I didn’t want to get too elaborate, so I decided that this would be enough preparation for the first dish.\n
Next, I took out the other vegetables.\n
Cabbage, carrots, onions… these are the standard vegetables that you would always use if you were cooking normally. While I’m here, I wanted to teach her how to cut these vegetables.\n\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide">\nTN: Well, it continues…\n\n