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Chapter 5 – To Move Forward\nVolume 2\n<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide">\nThe process went smoothly from there.\n
After laying out the oil, she put the vegetables in the pan and cooked them while poking them with the chopsticks. Sprinkling salt and pepper along the way, she placed them on a plate before they burned.\n
This may have been Enami-san’s first time cooking.\n
Since she cut all the pieces, they were unevenly shaped and not quite the right size. But for a first-timer, it was pretty good. I gave it a quick taste and found that the seasoning was not bad.\n\n
“I guess it’s at the level where you can make money out of.”\n\n
When I heard Enami-san’s incredibly high self-evaluation, I felt like I was going to collapse.\n\n
“No, it’s not that good…”\n
“Really? Look, I think it can be sold for about 200 yen.”\n
“Ah, but… if you push it in a different direction, you might be able to sell it for 1,000 yen or even 2,000 yen…”\n
“Don’t say gross things.” (TN: I don’t know what they meant here)\n\n
Joking aside, I thought that 200 yen was about half the cost of the ingredients. Vegetables are expensive these days.\n
To be honest, this is not enough for a side dish, so I decided to add one more dish.\n
An omelet.\n\n
“Ah, yes, yes. All you have to do is break the eggs and roll them up.”\n
“Well, yes… but can you do it?”\n
“Who do you think I am?”\n
“I think you’re Enami-san, who skipped home economics and doesn’t know how to peel a carrot.”\n
“I can make stir-fry vegetables, so I can do it.”\n\n
She seems to have gained a lot of confidence, but stir-frying vegetables is super easy. It’s not difficult to make an omelet, but beginners often lose its shape.\n\n
…can you crack an egg in the first place…?\n\n
The bowl is placed in front of Enami-san. Grabbing one of the eggs, Enami-san lightly tapped it on the cooking table.\n\n
“Don’t be nervous…”\n
“It’s fine.”\n\n
As soon as she tried to open the moderately cracked egg, one of the shells flew in the wrong direction, causing the contents to fall diagonally and off the bowl.\n\n
“…Tsk.”\n
“Even if you click your tongue, it’s clearly Enami-san who’s in the wrong!”\n
“I know. I’ll do better next time.”\n\n
I cleaned up the mess on the floor.\n
It’s not as if Enami-san is going to fail again and again. This time, she managed to crack it open. The yolk was still intact. The other one was also well cracked.\n
It was stirred with chopsticks and put in the pan after washing. Incidentally, there was no frying pan for frying eggs in this house.\n
While heating over low heat, the Pan was back and forth, left and right, and stretched the egg out thinly.\n\n
“….”\n\n
Enami-san was concentrating. Little by little, she began to roll it out. But…\n\n
“Ah!”\n\n
There was a crack in the middle. From there, it gradually lost its shape.\n
There was nothing I could do about it. The final result was an egg omelet that had a certain shape but was clearly misshapen.\n\n
“This is indeed unfit for sale…”\n
“Yeah, actually both of them.”\n\n
I think this could be sold in a lot of quantities if it were sold in a different way though.\n
And there was only one dish left to make.\n\n
“Phew…”\n\n
Unlike before, I could see a hint of nervousness on Enami-san’s face. That’s because this dish is not for herself, but for someone else to eat.\n
After bringing the water in the pot to a boil, the packaged rice was put in. Stir it to prevent the rice from hardening. A beaten egg and some green onions were also added.\n
While following my instructions, Enami-san was somewhat absent-minded.\n
As she sprinkled the seasoning salt while being out of it, I panicked and held her hand.\n\n
“Too much, too much.”\n
“Ah, yes.”\n\n
Enami-san must have had a lot of feelings about this dish.\n
Porridge is a standard dish served to the sick.\n
It was the first dish I made when I tried cooking for the first time.\n
It was also not difficult to make. If I’m around, I’m sure it won’t fail.\n
But that’s not the point.\n\n
“…”\n\n
Enami-san persistently moved her chopsticks in the pot. Her eyes kept looking at the grains of rice dancing in the water.\n
It was quiet. The sound of the gas fire burning, the sound of the water boiling, and Enami-san’s breathing.\n
Reaching a certain level of culinary skill is one thing, but being accepted by others is another.\n\n
Will she really eat it?\n\n
“Thank you, really.”\n\n
She said in an unusually calm voice.\n\n
“I think I would have been in trouble if I had been alone. In a lot of ways.”\n\n
I’m sure it wasn’t just about the food. It takes a lot of courage to face something like this alone. At the very least, it was an area that Enami-san had been running away from until now.\n\n
“After all, cooking is tiring. But today, I think it was the right thing to do. No matter how it turns out, I can say for sure that it was necessary. It’s better to face it head-on than to do nothing at all…”\n
“I’ll continue to be available for advice going forward also”\n
“…Cheeky.”\n\n
Gradually, Enami-san’s true expression was shown to me.\n
It was the face of a normal high school girl, completely different from the time when she had given off a frozen stare.\n
Whenever I am shown this kind of face, I start to feel the urge to see another expression. No matter how I try to cover it up, it’s an undeniable fact.\n
I think that’s why I’ve gone along with Enami-san’s unreasonableness until now.\n\n
While we were talking, the porridge in the pot seemed to have softened enough. I told Enami-san about it.\n
She gave a small nod. Almost an hour had already passed since we started cooking.\n
The chopsticks were placed on the cooking table. The bowls were taken out from the cupboard.\n
Then, Enami-san’s hand reached for the knob of the stove.\n
I took off my apron and curled it up in my arms.\n\n
The fire on the stove, which had been flickering feebly, had done its job and sluggishly retreated to the back of the burner.\n\n