Volume 7 - CH 9

New Year’s Day, early morning.

“Wow…. these mochi are so good!”

Arisa brought the isobeyaki mochi to her mouth and said so as she widened her eyes.

Yuzuru baked the mochi… but of course, it was left to the oven and not Yuzuru’s prodigious culinary talent.

It was just the quality of the mochi.

“Mochi is as good as the shops that made them…I guess?”

Yuzuru nodded at Arisa’s words and bit into a baked mochi.

It tasted just like the mochi that he always ate at his parents’ house at New Year’s. 

Yuzuru’s family purchased mochi from a specialty store every year.

This year, they had them mailed to his apartment.

“I’m more impressed with the ozoni you made for me.” (TN: Ozoni: New Year mochi soup)

Yuzuru said as he tucked into the ozoni’s clear soup.

The soy-sauce-flavored Kanto-style broth was infused with the flavor and aroma of dried bonito and kelp.

Baked mochi was no different than usual, but the mochi in the ozoni was something else entirely.

It absorbed the broth and became many times tastier.

“I am glad to hear you say so… I’ll make it again next year if I have the chance.”

“I hope you will make it every day if you can, not just next year.”

When Yuzuru said that, Arisa laughed.

“There you go again… You would get tired of it, you know.”

“I’ll never get tired of your cooking… but I might not like it if I can’t drink your miso soup.”

Arisa’s words made Yuzuru reconsider.

Although Ozoni would be hard to throw away, however, it would be a great pity that all of Arisa’s miso soup was replaced by Ozoni.

“Speaking of miso soup… the Kansai style is made with white miso and is delicious. It’s a little different from our miso soup…”

“…Kansai-style?　Eh, you can make it?”

“I don’t know if it tastes the same as the real thing, but if you ask me if I could make it or not, I could… In my house, we change it daily so we don’t get tired of it.”

“Heh~…”

Yuzuru was born in Kanto, so he had never had Kansai-style soup.

That is why he was very curious about it.

“…Do you want to try it?”

“I want to.”

“Then, let’s do so tomorrow.”

There was no round mochi, so it won’t be truly Kansai-style, though.

Arisa smiled bitterly.

But perhaps this was a point of concern for Arisa, but what Yuzuru was concerned about was whether it tasted good or not.

It didn’t matter to Yuzuru because he didn’t think a handful of mochi corners could have a significant impact on the taste.

“By the way, Arisa. How many variations are there in the way you eat mochi?”

“…variations?”

“…I can only think of isobeyaki, soy sauce with sugar, or soybean powder.”

No matter how delicious it might be if eaten every day, one would get tired of it.

And the amount of mochi was too much to eat only at New Year’s every year.

Maybe it was because his parents couldn’t even have any more at home…

The amount sent to Yuzuru’s house was too much for Yuzuru to eat by himself on New Year’s Day.

Although his mother had told him that if he froze them, they would last longer, it was not like Yuzuru hated it, but he didn’t love it either.

It was obvious that he would get tired of them at some point.

“Yeah, that’s right. The ways of eating that Yuzuru-san mentioned are certainly delicious… but there are others, if I may say so.”

“…for example?”

“Well, one of the major ones is to cook cheese and mochi with bacon, for example.”

“Ah…”

Indeed it sounded delicious.

How could it be bad, since it was delicious with just bacon and cheese to begin with?

“Is there anything else?”

“What else?　How about raw eggs?”

“Raw eggs!?　No, but, I see. It’s not a bad match huh…?”

There exists a food called tamago kakegohan (rice topped with an egg).

It represented an easy and tasty dish that Yuzuru also resorted to when he was in trouble over food.

Eggs and white rice go very well together.

Then there was no reason why eggs and mochi should not go well together.

“The combination of butter and natto (fermented soybeans) is also delicious.”

“I see… Almost anything that goes well with white rice also goes well with it, huh.”

If raw eggs were good, then natto would be good too.

“It takes a lot of time and effort to cook, but you can also pan fry it so that it becomes crispy and looks like a pizza.”

“Oh, that sounds good!”

It would lose some of the mochi flavor, but it seemed like a good idea just when getting tired of the texture, not to mention the taste.

Yuzuru decided to ask for the recipe later.

They finished eating the ozoni and mochi while having a lively conversation about how to eat rice cakes.

“Well then… I have some preparations to do. I’ll go ahead of you.”

Arisa said as she finished cleaning up.

Yuzuru was not particularly surprised since he had been told beforehand that he would meet up with her instead of going with her because of the preparations.

“Preparations, huh?”

Yuzuru chuckled.

He had a rough idea of what Arisa’s preparations were.

It wasn’t hard to tell, but…

Yuzuru was not tactless enough to do such a thing.

“Well, I’ll let myself go leisurely later.”

“Yes… Please look forward to it.”

Thus, Yuzuru parted with Arisa once more.

After some time passed, Yuzuru went to the station nearest to the shrine.

Soichiro was already there.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“You really did, geez”

“…shouldn’t you say you’ve just arrived then?”

Yuzuru said with a wry smile to his friend who had a grim expression on his face that said ‘You’re late!‘.

“I’m not your boyfriend. Naturally, I’m not your fiancée either.”

“Well, that’s true, too.”

Yuzuru chuckled at Soichiro’s words, and the two of them laughed as well.

His grumpy attitude was a joke in his own way.

There was still plenty of time to meet, and there were two people who hadn’t arrived yet in the first place.

“Speaking of which, you didn’t come with Arisa-san, did you?”

“I was told she’d go ahead because she had some preparations to do. From the looks of it, it seems to be taking a little time to get ready.”

“I see… Well, my case is similar to yours.”

Soichiro looked convinced by Yuzuru’s words.

A while passed since Yuzuru and Soichiro first started chatting.

A cheerful voice could be heard from behind them.

“Soichiro-kun, Yuzurun. Sorry, did I make you guys wait?”

The one who appeared while saying that was Yuzuru’s childhood friend, Tachibana Ayaka, wearing a bright red kimono.

This time, she was wearing a light amount of makeup.

She always had a mature face, but today it was even more polished.

“Sorry to keep you waiting… It took a bit of time.”

Then, from the shadow of Ayaka, a flaxen-haired girl appeared with a subdued voice and a smile on her face.

It was Yuzuru’s fiancée, Yukishiro Arisa.

She wore a kimono made of green fabric with red flowers painted on it.

Arisa had her hair tied up and was wearing light makeup…

It went without saying that she was beautiful in everyday life, but there was a different kind of beauty about her today. 

‘Sorry, we made you wait.’

The two guys shook their heads together when the two girls said to them.

“”No, we just got here.””

Then Yuzuru took Arisa’s hand and Soichiro took Ayaka’s.

“Then, shall we go?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

The four of them began to walk slowly – matching the speed of the two girls wearing geta.