[Apologies for not uploading any chapters in the past few days. I was occupied with work, but now I'm completely free. As a result, I will resume regular chapter uploads, and today, I'll be posting three chapters.]
Emily continued this negative talk about her. As she was doing this, talking and looking at the ceiling, suddenly she saw a beautiful face framed by green hair in her view.
"Eve!" Emily got up, but she hit her head on Evelyn's.
"Ouch!!!"
"Ahh!!!"
Both of them let out a small cry of pain; Emily sat on the ground and pressed her forehead as she saw Evelyn squatting there, also grabbing her forehead.
"What are you doing? And this?" Evelyn slowly got up and pointed at the kitchen while massaging her forehead.
"Uhmm? That... i was making pancakes for Devin and his friend... but..." Emily lowered her head.
"You weren't able to cook right? Did you forget a time where you tried to make food for us?" Evelyn said and shook her head.
"Did... did i?" Emily was surprised. She doesn't remember when did she made food for Evelyn.
"Really, you forget?" Evelyn turned to surprise, and looked at her friend.
She couldn't believe Emily forgot that day. Evelyn still remembered that day, and it's one of her worst days in life.
At that time, Evelyn, Emily, Lisa, and Luna gathered for something, and four of them got hungry. Luna and she were about to make food, but then Emily said she wanted to make dinner for all of them.
Evelyn and Luna let her cook, which was the biggest mistake of her life. Emily made spicy noodles, and when Lisa ate them, she fell unconscious by the amount of spice Emily put in the noodles.
Emily tried to cook noddles again, but the next time, she put a lot of salt. The third time, she forgot to soak the noodles. The fourth time, she burned it. The fifth time, it was raw. The sixth time, she put too little salt and spice, which made the noodles plain, then she soaked the noodles too much, and then again she burned it, then too spicy.
Even if Evelyn says just put one spoon of spice, Emily puts three to five spoons of spice. When Evelyn tells her to turn off the stove, Emily just increases the fire. It was as if she was cursed by the God of Cooking. Not that such a god exists, but, Evelyn felt like that at that time.
Then she did some research and understood that if members of Shadowblek don't accept their hair, they can't do anything.
Emily didn't accept her hair or any power she could get from hair. Because she didn't accept it, She couldn't do anything and make mistake after mistake even if the God of Cooking came down to teach her she would make mistakes.
Also, because she didn't accept her hair, she had to practice a hundred times more than the average person to gain strength. Not to mention that now she is stuck in a High-Grade D Rank. No matter what she does, she can't advance into C Rank, or she could learn any other techniques or element spells.
Evelyn never said to Emily, and Emily also ran away from her family at a young age, so she didn't know this. Evelyn also tried her best never to let Emily know about this.
"What... I remember... but..." Emily muttered, remembering the day when she tried to cook noodles but made one mistake after another, just like today.
Evelyn looked at and felt sad, and she didn't want to tell her why she couldn't cook anything. Emily hates her hair more than anything in the world, and telling her to accept this hair is the only way for her to grow strong and do things like cooking would be too depressing for her, Cooking isn't only thing she couldn't do, there were many things she couldn't do, swimming, sports game, singing, dancing and many things. She was also weaker than average High Grade D Rank.
Evelyn saw Emily taking off the apron and leaving the kitchen.
Behind, Evelyn sighed. She didn't want Emily to be depressed. Emily was depressed at her house, so Evelyn took Emily to her house, but if even here she got depressed, then...
"I have to do something," Evelyn sighed, then looked around the kitchen. It was a mess, but one snap of a finger was enough to clean all of that.
After cleaning, she thought that Devin and his friend might not have eaten anything. It was already evening, and they came in the afternoon. She put on an apron and decided to make something for Devin and the friend he had brought.
"I have to check what kind of friend this is, this friend might be bullying him."
Evelyn finished making pasta. At first, she thought of making pancakes, but Emily used all flour.
She set up two plates of pasta and headed upstairs, outside of his room; with two hands full, she called out to him.
"Dev, will you open the door?"
After a short while, Devin opened the door, and his face immediately showed a smile seeing her; she also smiled when she saw him happy. Her gaze falls behind him, and she saw a girl.
"Well, i bring you something to eat," Evelyn said.
"Thank you very much," Devin took plates from Evelyn and said, "Come inside. I want you to meet my friend."
Evelyn nodded and walked into the room; now, she looked at the girl very closely. She saw her black hair, creating contrast with her fair skin and orange eyes of her. The orange eyes were unique. Evelyn compares this girl to her daughter. She thought in appearance her daughter win.
"Aunt, this girl is Yumi. She is sitting next to me in class," Devin says, and then he introduces her to Yumi.
"Good Evening, Ms. Evelyn," Yumi bowed her head with the soft voice she greeted.
"Call me aunt, like Dev," Evelyn smiled and said. 'Well, there is no reason to compare her to my daughter. There is no possibility of Ava and Dev being together." Evelyn sighed.
She felt it was her fault things came this way. If she had heard her daughter and what her daughter wanted, then her daughter and Dev might not be lovers, but at least they would be good friends. It's her mistake to force marriage on Ava. She needed to find a time to properly apologize to her and then do something to repair the relationship.
"Hm, why are these plates here? Empty?" Evelyn noticed the empty plate and asked.
"Aunt Emily made us pancake, so we eat it, she was making another one for us but didn't came back, do you know why?" Devin ask.
"Oh, i call her for some work in afternoon, i think after giving you pancake i might have call her, but did you two eat it... she said that it's was bad."
"We eat it, It was first time Aunt Emily was making pancake and I think she did her best to make it, that's why i eat it to show her that I appreciate her efforts, and it's was just bit salty, nothing to bad," Devin smile, "Well, tell her that I'm waiting for her to make pancake for me again."
"Yes, but she will be happy to hear that from you,"
"Oh, well at dinner I will tell her."
"Be sure to tell her, okay now I'm going, be good to each other, and if you need anything, then call me," Evelyn smiled and said, then she picked up the empty plate and left them.
Evelyn left them, and from her observation, she could confirm that Yumi was a good girl and Dev and she could become good friends.
Still, it's surprising to see a girl become a friend of Devin. She remembers that before the academy started, Devin never talked to any girl other than Ava, and even if any girl tried to talk to him, he reacted coldly.
It seems he also moved on from Ava; well, it's good. As long as he gets happy, she is happy.
Then she knocked at Emily's door.
"Emily." She called her out, and it took time for Emily to open the door.
When Evelyn came inside, she saw Emily under the blanket, completely covering herself. Only the head was visible.
'She might be wearing sleeveless or something like that,' Evelyn thought. She shows two empty plates to Emily.
"Devin and Yumi eat them, Devin said that he appreciated the efforts you put in, so he eat it," Evelyn saw Emily's face, still depressed.
"It's just lie, i took bite of it and I know how much salty i made it."
"Really? Did you sense a lie in my voice," Evelyn asked her, and Emily stayed silent, "You didn't, right? Well, Devin also said that he is looking forward to a day when you make pancakes for him again."
Evelyn said and left her alone. Emily needed some time, and it was not because she failed to cook pancakes for Devin that made her that depressed. It's just a lot of things happened, which accumulated, and not being able to make pancakes for Devin was kind of a breaking point.
Evelyn has to think of a way to lift up her mood.
"Should I make her favourite steak or buy that series she wanted to watch... okay, let make steak for dinner and then at night watch the series together," Evelyn clasps her hand and then humming the tone, she goes to the kitchen.
---
"How about having dinner with us?" I stretched my hand up and asked Yumi.
"No, I already trouble you a lot," Yumi shook her head.
"Don't worry, cooking one portion extra for you is just a minor thing for Aunt," I say, and she still refused, but I insisted to have dinner with me, and she agrees.
When I came down to ask my aunt to make dinner for Yumi as well, she said that it was dinner time, and she also made it for Yumi as well.
Then, calling Yumi and Aunt Emily for dinner, we four eat together. Yumi didn't speak much but ate the food, and she ate it like there was no tomorrow. Aunt Emily and Evelyn were surprised by that.
Well, Yumi, just like me, grew up without a name or any relatives on the street.