Sweets Garden (5)

Chapter 67: Episode 31 - Sweets Garden (5)

I pondered at this a bit but he shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, can't keep you kids hanging here too long. You guys came to check out other shops, right? Since you're done with eating, I can hook you up with some cool things in the back if you'd like. We have some wagashi dishes, a variety of tea and coffee drinks, and some high-quality chocolate."

At the mention of wagashi and caffeine drinks, Hanabusa's and Andou's eyes lit up in anticipation.

"Really? Can we have some?!" Andou and Hanabusa said excitedly, gazing up at Mr. Hisashi.

"I don't see why not, after all, you guys are friends with Keiko," Mr. Hisashi offered and they all stood up.

"We'll be right back after we check this out," Andou explained, waving at me and Kashino as they made their way towards the back of the shop.

Once they left, Kashino and I decided to go outside the shop and wait right by the large water fountain for Andou and Hanabusa to come back. I carried my bag of cream puffs with me so I could eat them later.

It was hot outside and we sat down next to each other in front of the fountain.

"You're not going to check out the stuff Mr. Hisashi has, Kashino? He said there's chocolate," I pointed out but Kashino gave me an indifferent look.

"Who'd buy chocolate in this hot water. It'll melt anyways," Kashino responded frankly.

"You're right…" I said hesitantly at his blunt response.

'Geez, it's hard to have small talk with this guy when all he responds with are blunt answers… But, I'm surprised he didn't go with Hanabusa and Andou to check out the things Mr. Hisashi had to offer. Maybe he didn't want me to be alone…? No, that can't be it. Kashino's cold and straightforward. He could never care about others…'

As we sat by the fountain together, girls kept giving Kashino interesting looks.

"Hey, isn't he cool? Should we call out to him?" One girl suggested to her friend as they walked.

"No, he's with a pretty girl. We can't match up to her in looks," the other one said.

As they continued looking at him, he gave them an annoyed glare and they finally turned away, continuing to walk.

"Kashino, don't you think you should be a bit more sociable?" I asked him coldly.

"I don't want to hear the word "sociable" coming from your mouth, idiot," Kashino glared at me but I shrugged it off and turned away.

In front of us, we could see a little girl running with ice cream in her hands as her mother scolded her to not go so fast. Not looking where she was going, she bumped into a teenage girl with short black hair.

SPLAT!

Half of the ice cream fell to the ground and the girl quickly began crying.

"WAHAA!" The girl cried, staring at the half of the ice cream that fell on the ground.

The girl with short black hair quickly tried to comfort the girl as panic rose on her face.

"Sorry, little girl, you okay?" The girl with black hair asked worriedly.

The mom of the little girl tried her best to calm her daughter down.

"It's alright, she's the one who crashed into you," the mother smiled nervously.

"My vanilla ice cream!!!" The little girl screamed, looking at her ice cream cone.

"I'll buy you another one," the teenage girl offered but the mom shook her head to reject the offer.

"You still have half left, don't you? I won't line up again," the mother told her daughter strictly.

'I feel a bit bad when I look at the situation from here… I don't like watching people cry…'

I quickly rose up and made my way towards the little girl, approaching the small child.

"Do you like vanilla?" I asked the little girl, holding my bag of cream puffs in my hand that was vanilla flavor.

"Yeah, I like vanilla," the little girl admitted as her crying slowed down when she looked at me.

"Onee-san is here to make something great for you." I pointed to myself with a warm smile.

I opened my bag of cream puffs and grabbed onto her ice cream cone with some of the vanilla ice cream left in it.

"Roll around these mini cream puffs in the ice cream and stick them together with the remaining ice cream," I did as I explained. I stacked the cream puffs together so they could stick and built it up like an ice cream cone to give off the image of ice cream.

"And now, you have yourself an ice cream-choux puff-profiterole!" I showed the little girl the stacked cream puffs with vanilla ice cream on it and handed her back the creation as she gazed at it in awe.

"Wow!" The little girl's eyes brightened in happiness.

"Oh my, sorry for the trouble, and thank you," the little girl's mother said to me gratefully as they stood up to leave.

"No problem. Have a nice day," I waved to them with a small smile.

"Thanks, sis!" The little girl waved back to me with a cheerful smile on her face.

'At least she stopped crying and now she's happy…'

Kashino observed everything that happened with a straight look on his face.

"I guess putting smiles on the faces of crying kids is one of your merits," Kashino said as I tried to comprehend his words.

'Is he complimenting me?'

"Ah, here they come." Kashino looked back at Andou and Hanabusa who exited the shop, waving at us as we stood by the fountain. They looked pleased to see us again as they held a bag of goods.

"Excuse me, Miss. Thanks for helping me out back there," the teenage girl with black hair said to me.

"May I ask for your name?" She asked interestedly.

"My name is Keiko," I introduced myself nervously.

"Hello, Keiko! I'm Natsuki and I work at the cafe over there. I'll thank you, so come with me and bring your friends, too."

The girl named Natsuki gave us a welcoming smile, pointing over to a cafe that read: Fruits Paradise.

We agreed and followed her to the place she worked at. She sat us down in the cafe and made her way towards the back of the kitchen.

"Here's your pineapple boat!" Natsuki delivered a pineapple bowl of fruit to the customers.

"Here's your Special Fruits!" Two twin girls said with a smile as they served the order to a different table.

"Here's your mango parfait with a serving of fruits," a girl with plump lips said with a charming gaze.

We could see that lots of people were enjoying their time at this cafe as they were served their fruitful orders.

"Wow, I feel like I've come to the tropics," I claimed as we all looked at them in awe. I made eye contact with Natsuki and she shot me a bright smile.

"Welcome, Keiko! Just wait a second, okay?" Natsuki waved over at me and I waved back as I sat by the Sweets Princes, waiting for our order to be taken.

"Mika, Emi, Rina," Natsuki told the three other server girls, throwing fruits at them to catch. They made their way over to our table with cheerful smiles on their faces.

"What's going to happen?" I questioned out loud.

"It's showtime!!!" The girls said in unison, holding out their fruits in front of them.