Chapter 73: Episode 33 - Thinking of a Theme (3)
"That… was easy because I was making it in the image for someone else's sake…" I said gloomily.
"Then this time, you should make it for yourself," Kashino said.
"What?" I furrowed my eyes at this idea since his words caught me off guard.
"Keiko! Kashino! Come over here!" Fraise called out to us as she flew further down the orchard, interrupting our conversation.
Kashino and I followed her who directed us to an enormous vinyl greenhouse.
When we walked inside, we could see a lot of strawberry bushes neatly aligning the greenhouse.
"This is the 'Fraise' greenhouse!" Fraise said out loud and I could see a smile form on her lips.
I was shocked to see how ripe and healthy the strawberries were since the climate had changed.
"There are fruits even though it's autumn," I noticed in amazement, gazing at the ripe red strawberries.
"That's because we use them the whole year for sweets," Kashino explained, also looking around.
I grabbed onto one strawberry to take a closer look at its fascinating red color that sparkled in the light provided by the greenhouse.
"I think strawberries look cute. Don't you think they look like hearts?" I asked him, mesmerized by the various strawberries.
"Huh, I guess…" Kashino responded unsurely.
'In the past, my mom told me some weird things about the color of strawberries that made me laugh. It was—"
"The red ones are girls in love, the light pink ones are girls who fell in love at first sight, and the green ones are shocked with unrequited love." I smiled at this thought, remembering how silly my mother's explanation was.
"Pft—hehe, I never thought I'd hear those words coming from you, Michiko," Kashino said, chuckling to himself.
I turned to look at him confusedly but what caught me even more off guard was the expression Kashino had.
'Kashino… Did he just smile now?'
His emotionless face he usually wore lightened up a bit as he covered his bright wide grin with his hand.
'Kashino actually looks handsome when he smiles…'
I continued to stare at him, trying to take in the unfamiliar sight of an attractive, straight-faced boy actually smiling for once. But, I hadn't realized that I was staring too long.
"What?" Kashino said bluntly with the intense, cold look he always had on that could scare away even bugs.
"O-oh, nothing," I stuttered, looking away in panic.
As if pretending nothing happened, Kashino shrugged it off and knelt towards a bush of strawberries.
"Sweets that suit you, Michiko, are just fine. Rather than using something rare and doing the impossible, it's better to do something you like and know more about, that way, you can make something good for sure," Kashino lectured nonchalantly.
'Sweets that suit me? But, I don't really have anything in particular that suits me…'
"Keiko, look!" Fraise called and both me and Kashino directed our attention to our sweets spirits.
Surrounding Fraise and Chocolat were white-colored strawberries.
"These are the selectively bred "white strawberries". Aren't they cute?" Fraise said cutely with a happy look on her face. Her pink-white hair gradient mixed in well with the white strawberries and it felt nice to see that she was enjoying herself, even if we were just looking at fruits.
A smile formed on my face when she looked at me excitedly.
'Even Fraise is excited to see white strawberries. I guess those suit her since her name is derived from the word "strawberry" in French.'
"I saw these on the news. They remain like this… ripening in complete white. They say it's sweet," Kashino said, plucking a white strawberry off a bush.
Seeing how affectionately Fraise was staring at the strawberries, it almost looked as if it reminded her of something. Her eyebrows furrowed and I could tell she was troubled by something.
"Fraise, what's wrong?" I asked worriedly but she quickly snapped out of her thoughts.
"It's nothing… These just remind me of a sweet spirit I knew before I came to the human world…" Fraise whispered sadly.
"Is it Sucre?" I questioned but she shook her head.
"No… they were a male sweets spirit. They gifted me a white strawberry one time and it was rare to get in the Sweets Kingdom," Fraise explained, continuing to look at the strawberries with a soft smile. Looking at her face made me recall something.
'Fraise… Her facial expressions remind me of how my mother acted when she couldn't see dad due to work because they were busy... Is this the look of… longing? Love?'
I smacked my head at this thought because I don't know a thing about love besides watching corny romance movies. But, I couldn't help but be reminded of how my mother and father used to look at each other with affection in their eyes.
"Fraise… could you be… in love?" I asked boldly, clocking my head to the side.
Just by hearing the word "love," Fraise's face flushed to a deep red and she chuckled to herself.
"Hahaha, love? I could never!" Fraise laughed alone to herself but I could tell that these were signs of denial.
"You're lying through your teeth."
"You're right," she admitted but faced the other direction to calm herself down.
I gave a small smile to this confession but I wanted to hear more.
"Who are they?" I teased.
"Well, it doesn't really matter who they are… I haven't seen him for 6 years so he's probably forgotten me by now…" Fraise said sadly, covering her face with her light pink hair.
"How would you know? If he gave you white strawberries that were hard to get in the Sweets Kingdom, you must've meant something to him," I said, trying to ease her emotions.
At the mention of this, Fraise's expression lit up again.
"Really? Do you think so?" Fraise asked excitedly but I put on a fake smile because even I was unsure.
'I'm the wrong person to ask for this kind of information.'
"Umm… of course! Memories can still last for a long time, so even 6 years isn't that much. When you go back to the Sweets Kingdom, I hope you can meet him again," I encouraged.
"Well… he's most likely paired up with a human by now. I don't know where he is or who he's with." Fraise's expression turned gloomy again.
"Don't lose faith now. We know he's in the human world and he's most likely in this academy, considering that you all studied to enter the Japan Branch."
Hearing this, Fraise's bright blue eyes lit up again and she nodded her head along.
"Y-you're right! He's probably here at this academy and paired up with one of the high school students!" Fraise began to get back her energy. "When I see him again, I want to make him a dessert!"
I lightly chuckled at her words, examining how fast she could change her emotions like a roller coaster ride. But during this whole conversation, I recalled the word "love."