Chapter 60: Episode 29 - Tensions On The Rise (2)
We all gathered in the family's personal dining room and everyone sat around the table. The Sweets Princes and I made cakes right after service was over so we could give them to Andou's family.
The younger kids seemed to be in awe at our cakes as they stared at them shimmering beautifully on the table, as well as the adults.
"Oh my, this looks delicious!" Andou's parents stared at the desserts in surprise.
"Chiyo wants cake!" Chiyo said with her mouth wide open.
"These are cake gifts for everyone," I presented our assortment of cakes that we personally made.
"All of them look delicious!" Andou's mother complimented the cakes.
"Amazing, you kids made these? As expected of a cake school," Andou's father highly appraised.
"I'll eat the chocolate cake," Chiyo claimed cheerfully.
With his body turned away, Ichita sat on the floor playing on a smartphone.
"Ichita, look here! There's a roll cake. You like them, right?" Andou offered it to his brother but he ignored it.
"Don't want it," he said bluntly, continuing to play on the phone.
I grabbed a fruit tart that I'd made and walked toward Ichita who sat far away.
"How about this fruit tart?" I offered him who looked at the tart bitterly.
SLAP!
The fruit tart I held was slapped out of my hands and splattered to the floor.
At his sudden rejection, I was shocked to see that the tart I'd made was ruined. Everyone looked at the situation in surprise as well.
'What the hell…?'
"I said I didn't want any!" Ichita raised his voice angrily at me as I took a step back.
"I'm sorry—" I began but Andou stepped towards us and looked angrily at Ichita.
SLAP!
Andou slapped Ichita's face and Ichita looked at him in surprise.
"Ichita, what do you think you're doing?! Can you still call yourself the son of a confection shop!?" Andou raised his voice at Ichita who stared blankly at the ground.
"Wait, Andou—" I began but saw tears welled up in Ichita's eyes and he dashed out of the room.
Andou gritted his teeth angrily and turned away.
"We're so sorry about that Keiko. We didn't think Ichita would do such a thing," Andou's mother apologized to me but I shook my head.
"There's no need to worry about that," I reassured her but even Andou's father looked at me in concern.
"I hope you won't hate him for doing that… We'll need to discipline him correctly," Andou's father brought up.
"No, it's fine. I won't hate him for that, after all, he's just a kid. I'll go follow after him—" I began but Andou interjected.
"Leave him be, Michiko. He's been spoiled too much," Andou said bitterly, turning his head away in disappointment.
I ignored his request and followed after Ichita. I made my way to Ichita's room and slid open the door. Behind a dresser cabinet, I could see Ichita curled up in a ball, tears sliding down his cheeks.
I walked in and sat right in front of him, trying to make eye contact with him.
"I'm sorry for forcing it on you, Ichita…" I apologized to him who looked up at me with sad eyes. "Do you hate cakes that much?"
"...B-Brother's a son of a wagashi shop, too…" Ichita's voice cracked and trembled. "Doing something like entering a cake school… he wants to throw u-us away and go to a cake shop!"
I could see tears start to well up in his eyes again as he explained.
"HE LIKES CAKES MORE THAN ME!!! WUAHUAHUAHUA!!!" Ichita bawled out crying, tears quickly falling down his face.
'Oh no, he's crying again…' I felt bad for seeing him cry because I didn't know that he felt that way about Andou. 'Ichita… doesn't know about Andou's dream…'
I moved in closer to Ichita and wrapped my arms around him, comforting him like I would if Eiji ever cried in front of me.
Ichita seemed surprised by my embrace but he didn't push me away, instead, he leaned onto me and started crying on my shoulders, hugging me back.
"Don't cry, Ichita," I tried to calm him down but he continued to cry. "Leave it to me. I'll show you your brother's true feelings and then you'll understand why he's doing this."
When I'd said this, he calmed down a little bit and I patted his head.
"But how?" Ichita asked questionably.
"You'll have to find out later," I said, giving him a warm smile in return. "This older sister doesn't like when people cry so please stop crying…"
I took a look at his face and saw that his eyes were red and puffy. I wiped his tears off with my hands and he gave me a hesitant smile.
When Ichita had stopped crying, I let him be so he could think to himself. Right after that, I changed into more casual clothes and met up with Andou, Hanabusa, and Kashino. They noticed that I went after Ichita, so I explained to Andou how his little brother felt as they listened.
"I see… Ichita thought that way about me. My parents' hands are full with the shop and the little kids, after all. I must have made him feel lonely the whole time…" Andou said with a distant look on his face.
'I told Ichita that I'd show him his brother's true feelings, but I also need to show him why his brother is so passionate about becoming a patissier…'
"I think… we should make a cake for Ichita," I suggested but the Sweets Princes looked at me confusedly with a look that said: "Come again?"
"Why? Ichita is just going to hate it more," Kashino furrowed his eyebrows.
"I don't think it's because Ichita hates cakes… he just says he hates them because he thought they were taking Andou away from him. It's fine to just clear the misunderstanding. We'll have Ichita eat the cake Andou really wants to make," I explained and they opened their eyes from this idea.
"I think we should do it! I have an idea of what I want to make for him… Will you guys help me?" Andou asked us and we looked at how willing he was to impress his brother.
"Of course," I agreed as well as the two other sweets princes and our sweets spirits.
And so, we worked on the cake Andou wanted to make until night.