"O-Of course!"
You're stuttering, Sakurai-san.
"Yeah, you're not fooling anyone."
I said, standing up and heading to the kitchen. After seeing me walk towards her, Sakurai-san was finally unfrozen and asked me to stop.
"Didn't I tell you to stay on the couch?"
"I'd rather die from a cold than eat terrible food."
"...That's not very nice, I can cook omurice you know?"
"And? How did it taste?"
She didn't want to answer my question... but in the end she confessed.
"They were flavorless." She muttered in a low voice.
"*sigh* See? Now, how about you go sit on the couch while I cook my own food instead."
She hesitated for a bit and finally agreed. She said that she'll just "supervise" me in case I do something that can worsen my health.
'I'm not a kid, you know?' I wanted to respond back, but decided to not do so, as I thought I shouldn't get too comfortable with her.
But anyways, I got the ingredients for the dish prepared. I'm planning to cook traditional carbonara. And to cook carbonara I'll be needing, guanciale, 4 eggs, cheese and pasta.
Sakurai, seeing the ingredients looked confused. After all, how can I make something good from such few ingredients. And so, to prove her wrong, I started cooking.
I cut up the guanciale into tiny cubes and cracked open 4 eggs, put 3 eggs and one egg yolk in a bowl. Then, I grated the cheese. I used Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano Reggiano. How did I get my hands in these cheeses you ask? Well, after my parents found out about my hobby in cooking, they would always give me ingredients for making food. Apparently, they wanted me to learn how to cook good food as they couldn't cook at all, so they allowed me to get ingredients for cooking.
After that, I mixed the eggs and cheese together with the sauce and seasoned it with freshly ground pepper. I then put water inside a big pot, salted it and waited for it to boil. After that, I put the guanciale in a cold pan and opened the stove to medium. With this, more fat from the pancetta will be rendered out for flavor. After enough fat has been rendered out and the meat has been fully cooked. I closed the stove and let it cool down. I then put the pasta inside the boiling water.
After the pasta finished cooking, I dumped the pasta directly from the pot to the pan where I cooked the guanciale. After tossing the pasta around the pan so that it can be covered by the fat from the guanciale. I dumped in my egg and cheese mixture on it and mixed it around. The only thing that is going to cook the mixture is the heat left from the pasta. So I made sure to mix it around perfectly.
Finally, I tasted for seasoning, added a little more salt and it's done! Traditional carbonara made by me!
As I celebrated my useless accomplishment, I noticed Sakurai-san staring at the dish.
"So you really can cook huh, Inoue-san?" She asked, with a surprised expression.
"See, I told you I can cook. You want to eat some too?" After I said this, I saw blinding lights coming from her eyes.
"May I?!"
I was surprised by the sudden burst of emotion she showed. I mean, she's known in school for being cold and emotionless, so to see her suddenly showing emotions for food was quite surprising.
"Yeah sure."
After that, we ate together at the big table. This table can fit 6 people, unlike the small one in the living room, which can fit 3 people.
But before we ate, I asked Sakurai a question.
"So, why did you follow me back home." I asked as we sat on the chairs.
"I didn't follow you. I live near here you know?"
"Eh? Really?"
"Yes, actually, I live in the apartment block across the street."
"No way... How come I never saw you then?"
"Probably because we leave our house at different times."
"I see..."
I guess that makes sense...
Afterwards, we ate the dinner I made. Sakurai suppressed her excitement while eating and ate the food like any young lady would. Slowly and elegantly. Though I could still feel some kind of aura from her... Is she perhaps... A glutton? Nah, there's no way, right?
Anyways, back to Sakurai. While I do think that she's beautiful. I never really felt anything about her at school. But seeing her eat the food I cooked made me think she's pretty cute.
Rather, she reminds me of my little sister when she was young... Oh how I miss those days. Now she acts like a normal teenager in their rebellious phase.
As I kept staring at Sakurai while eating, I thought of the pet hamster we had back then. Me and my little sister would watch it eat because it was cute. And for some reason, Now I'm thinking that Sakurai and the hamster are very similar... weird...
But as I was thinking about this, Sakurai finished eating and finally noticed me staring at her.
"Why are you staring at me?"
"Oh nothing, I just thought that you can be cute sometimes huh." I said.
Hearing this, she made a disgusted face.
Ahh I messed up...
"it's not like that. I just thought that you looked like a pet being fed by its owner. You know how you can just watch a hamster eat as it nibbles its food for hours?" I said calmly.
"That's not really any better you know?" She said in a cold and emotionless voice.
"Just forget about what I said... So? How was it? Carbonara"
"Well... it was delicious. Thank you very much, Inoue-san"
"No problem."
After this, she made me drink my medicine and left. She kept a calm expression throughout her visit... well, unless food is involved...
After she left, a thought was left in my mind.
Tonight's dinner was quite fun... I might invite her again sometime...