Chinatown - Chapter 5

[bakemonoremy]

Location: Garden Terrace Kitchen

Keito: Alright, I’ve weighed out all the ingredients for the dough.

Mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together… So even just something as simple as dough already requires this many ingredients, huh.

And here I thought wheat flour by itself would suffice.

Okay, next up… Pour all the mixed ingredients into a bowl, and slowly add lukewarm water…

How many degrees is “lukewarm water”?

It’s not written anywhere in the recipe, so I don’t know what exact temperature it should be… But well, “lukewarm” probably means it shouldn’t be too hot to touch.

Which means, it should more or less be the temperature of the human body… Hrrm, I guess this will do?

And then knead the dough until it has the density of an earlobe…

An earlobe? Now hold on just a second, don’t those vary between people? Is it okay to just base it on my own earlobe…?

The recipe… of course, it doesn’t specify this. I never thought just making the dough for Chinese steamed buns would already take this much time and labour.

Just like Aoba said, searching for recipes on the phone will bring up numerous results, but the information in every single one of these is just way too ambiguous.

I’d be able to compensate for that if I had enough experience in cooking… This might turn out to be more difficult than I expected.

I get the feeling that it would’ve been faster to go and buy some after all… But now that I’ve decided to make them myself, I’d better finish the job I started.

Also, the whole time I’m doing this, Harukawa is still upset because of me. Aoba said he’d keep him here at school, but there’s a limit to how long he can stall him.

Whatever, time’s too precious to waste it thinking back and forth like this. I’ll just carry on while keeping an eye on the recipe.

Location: Game Research Club Room

Tsumugi: ...And that’s the story.

Lately, whenever I see Keito-kun, his eyebrows are deeply furrowed, and apparently he couldn’t give it his all with student council work today because the thing with Sora-kun was weighing on him so much.

When he headed to the kitchen, he was walking at a brisk pace that just barely still qualified as “not running in the hallways”.

Makoto: I see, so that’s what happened.

...Er, does that mean that this whole time we’re talking, the vice-president is still in the kitchen making steamed buns?

Tsumugi: Yeah, he’s probably having a one-man staring contest with the recipe as we speak.

Makoto: But even if he has a recipe, are Chinese steamed buns really something you can make so easily when you’ve never done it before? I’m kind of worried…

Tsumugi: Me and Anzu-chan, who happened to be there too, both offered our help, though…

But Keito-kun turned us down in the end, saying that he couldn’t accept such a big favour from us and that he’ll be fine as long as he has a recipe.

It seemed like he wanted to do something about this by himself. I’m sure he feels deeply obligated towards Sora-kun.

Sora: ………..

Makoto: I see~, somehow, that’s really typical of the vice-president.

...I just said that to lighten the mood, but shouldn’t we hurry and tell him what was really going on with Harukawa-kun, instead of letting him keep making meat buns?

Tsumugi: Aah, you’re right. This really won’t do, I got all caught up in our conversation…

Sora: ………..

Tsumugi: What’s the matter, Sora-kun? You’ve been so quiet for a while now.

Sora: Senpai! Yuuki-sensei~! Sora is gonna go see Kei-chan-senpai!

It looks like Sora caused Kei-chan-senpai to misunderstand, so Sora will go and clear up the misunderstanding!

Tsumugi: You’re right, we should go and let him know as soon as possible. Do you want me to come with you?

Sora: Mm-mh, Sora can go by himself~! See you!

Makoto: Ah, Harukawa-kun… Aw man, he practically leaped out the door.

Tsumugi: He’s so lively~. Well, I guess we can leave this to Sora-kun for the time being.

If he takes a while to come back, I’ll go and check up on them.

Makoto: Ah, then please take me with you if it comes down to that.

I’m sure Tenkousei-chan also wants to know how this turns out, so I wanna give her a report about it later.

Tsumugi: That’s true. Then I guess the two of us will wait here until we feel like the time is right, and then head to the kitchen together ♪