Chapter 126: S2 Episode 25 - I Just Wanted to Hear Your Voice
The next day, Team Michiko met up once again in the cooking lab at around 1 in the afternoon. As the team viewed Michiko Keiko who stood in later than they did, she appeared very normal as before.
Her beautiful features heavily outweighed her sickly boney body and sunken face. They wouldn't even have guessed what transpired just yesterday when she remained all by herself. And the reason why they could never assume what happened earlier in the morning that day was that she was inherently good at pretending nothing was wrong because she believed in it.
She appeared the same as always which caused the sweets princes and their sweet spirits to believe nothing was wrong because she masked it well. But really, they didn't know just how much she was suffering through because they believed in their teammate.
She wouldn't lie to them, would she?
The air between Fraise and Keiko was tense but even Fraise did a good job at pretending nothing was wrong because her human partner did so as well. But, she still couldn't help but take glances at Keiko to observe her condition. And, as usual, Keiko's health was only deteriorating as she kept pushing herself.
There truly was nothing Fraise could do anymore. If she told the others, Keiko would only grow mad at her and her team, but Fraise didn't want that. They needed the team to work well and cooperate to give it their all, despite her worries for Keiko. Regardless, it's not like the sweets princes or their spirits could force her to take care of her health.
They would get nowhere with the stubborn girl, just like what Fraise experienced.
"Earlier this morning, I wrote down what we needed to work on to polish our cake," Keiko announced to the team. She took out her notepad and showed them her extremely intricate and well-detailed notes that were easy for others to comprehend.
"All right, shall we start practicing again?" Hanabusa asked them and they all nodded their heads. Their ingredients were already prepared at their stations and they wore their chef's jackets that had been cleaned earlier that day by the school's staff.
"We have to time ourselves again," Kashino said, getting his stopwatch ready.
"Hopefully our cake will turn out even better!" Andou energetically pumped his team up.
"Okay then, let's get ready," Keiko said, pulling up her sleeves to prepare herself. But as she did this, there was an obvious stain on her right-hand sleeve.
"What's up with your sleeve? That wasn't there yesterday," Kashino pointed out first, which made Keiko look down at her right arm.
The stain was a light pink which was still obvious on the white jacket, but as if forgetting everything that had happened earlier that morning, she brushed it off and kept her words short.
"I had hibiscus tea and accidentally spilled it all over my arm. I tried to wash most of it out, but I guess it wasn't fully removed," Keiko briefly explained to the team who believed her words.
It didn't seem out of the ordinary since hibiscus tea had a sort of red or dark pink color to it. They didn't question it any further and just let it go.
"Okay, let's start!" Kashino announced, starting the stopwatch, which made each member and their sweets spirit get straight to work.
Each of them focused on their designated course—Kashino focusing solely on the chocolate sculpted Angel; Hanabusa working on the candied staircase, supporting candy pillars, and candy butterflies; and Andou and Keiko working on the gateau, cotton candy clouds, and entremets.
They cooperated greatly as a team which only boosted their morale to keep going. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary as they all focused on creating a better cake than yesterday.
* * *
And like before, Team Michiko created another beautiful cake, even better than their previous work yesterday. Since they knew what they were doing and received some practice from their first, their time improved.
"Okay, that's it. We got 9:57:48!" Kashino announced to his tired teammates.
"Well, we improved by a little more than a minute. I'd say that's a big win!" Andou declared as they all high-fived each other.
"Also, it looks more polished than yesterday. Some of the decorations are not as sloppy," Hanabusa pointed out.
"I guess we have Michiko to thank for that," Cafe said, glancing over at Keiko who analyzed each aspect of the cake studiously.
Instead of joining their accomplishments, Keiko got her phone out again and took pictures of their cake from several different angles. She quietly took note of the cake to herself, leaving the others to bathe in joy from improving by barely a minute.
"I'm pooped, let's go to bed already," Chocolat gave in, her posture appearing slumberous.
It was already 11 at night, almost close to midnight. They gave it their all and they were tired but Keiko seemed relentless.
"You can all go to bed, I'll stay up for a bit more," Keiko told them, sitting down at her station and taking her notepad out.
Seeing how they didn't want to bother her, they took off their chefs' jackets and bade her farewell. Glancing back to the girl who sat alone in the cooking lab, they closed the kitchen door. But to their surprise, they noticed that someone else was joining them back to the dorms.
It was Fraise.
"You're not going to stay with Michiko, Fraise?" Hanabusa asked the tiny sweets spirit, yet all she could do was shake her head.
"It's best to just leave her alone since that's what she wants," Fraise said, turning her body around to leave. She quickly flew away and back to the girls' dorms until they could no longer see her.
"Why's Miss Fraise acting like that?" Caramel asked them.
"I know... Usually, she'd be following Keiko around," Chocolat spoke up.
"Didn't it seem tense between them earlier today though?" Cafe questioned as they all thought back to the working pair.
Earlier in the day when they were making the cake, there had been a slight hint of tension in the air. Keiko and Fraise didn't speak to each other as usual, instead, it was unusually quiet at their station. They really weren't the ones to talk much when they worked but they'd usually say a few words here and there.
This time, they were more quiet than usual to the point where the two of them didn't even talk to the rest of their team.
"Do you think something happened yesterday?" Andou inquired, thinking back to what happened.
"Not that I know of. I didn't see anything strange yesterday," Hanabusa responded.
"Me neither," Kashino added.
As hard as they tried to think back to yesterday's events, there was nothing that came up. Since none of them could think about it, they decided to let it go and retire to their dorms.
~
Michiko Keiko sat at her station and continued nit-picking sloppy things to her eyes to perfect their Angel's Dream Cake. She wrote down notes as to how to improve it, but overall, she just worked in dreary, lifeless silence.
She did the same thing as before and wrote down notes to show to her team.
As she wrote in her notepad, a thought appeared in her mind.
'Wasn't it only a couple of days ago that news had gotten out? I haven't called my family yet to ask them…' Keiko thought to herself and picked up her smartphone.
It had actually been a while since she talked to her father and the others, mainly because she was preoccupied with a lot of things going on in her life. She'd promised them before she transferred that she would often call and text them, but in actuality, she never did.
The only recent phone call she made was right after she received a letter from Andou's little brother, Ichita, asking her to play with him when they came over again. That was the day before she and her team traveled to Sweets Garden.
She called her father and Kaori at that time but she never actually talked to her stepbrothers since her first day of school.
'I wonder how they're doing... They're probably asleep now, right?'
When she looked out the large window of the cooking lab, darkness filled the sky and only a few bright stars could be seen. She checked the time on her phone and it was already 11:30 PM. She looked through her phone contacts and scrolled down to the contact name: Dad.
As she brought it up, she hesitated to click the call button, almost pressing it but bringing her hand back as a reflex.
Finally, after gathering the courage to press the button, she brought the phone to her ears to hear the cell line.
*Beep… Beep… Beep…*
After about 15 seconds, someone had picked up.
"Keiko? What's up?" The voice said and she could automatically recognize her father's calm voice that soothed her worries.
She didn't respond, making the other line worry.
"Hello? Are you there?" Her father asked, which put a slight smile on her face.
"Yeah, I'm here," she responded briefly.
"Why are you calling so late at night? Shouldn't you be asleep right now?" Her father inquired.
"No reason… I just wanted to hear your voice."
Although she always put on a tough and determined face every day, this didn't mean that she too, didn't also feel homesick. It had been a while since she heard her father's voice which helped ease her aching head.
She couldn't relate to her other teammates who had their families near them.
Andou's family lived local to the school so he could go and visit them often, Hanabusa's mother worked in the flower arrangement department and she also lived close to the school, and Kashino's family lived in a famous local hospital so he could visit them whenever he wanted.
They could all visit their families at their leisure, but what about her? Her family lived far away and she could never really see them even when she wanted to. She also wanted to see her family…