"Yo! Kick the ball over! ”

Whew—

Hearing this, Narumi finds the position of Muraichi Konda and accurately passes the soccer ball off the field to his feet.

Murakazu Konda dropped his hand that was waving high above his head, gave him a thumbs up gesture, and turned to take the boundary.

It's the weekend of the third week of school.

Imadegawa Chisaka did not break his promise, and did come to school once last week, but only once.

Instead of going to the student union to kill time, he had nothing to do, so he went to find a part-time job as a dessert maker, in a shopping street diagonally across from Kumakoya Bakery.

It's a job that can be done entirely depending on the mood of the person - what desserts to make, how much to make, and when to go to work are all up to him.

The quid pro quo is to try to explain the recipe to another pastry chef when making desserts.

Although it took two hours to bake the Napoleon pastry during the interview, it was oily and crispy enough to make the puff pastry the best it could be. But he is only a high school student in the final analysis, and he can't get a pastry chef certificate, so he can only take a step back.

His original expectation was not to teach his apprentices how to make desserts.

As soon as you take the train from Mikagehama High School to the café, you can hear an energetic female voice coming from inside the door, greeting him with great enthusiasm.

"Master Narumi! You're here! ”

Before the customer looked back at the door, he bypassed the main entrance and walked into the locker room through the side door of the staff to change into his work clothes.

Before he could tie his apron, the owner of the female voice couldn't wait to get in, ran behind him, and snatched the apron tie in his hand, "Master, Master, what are we going to do today?" ”

"Puffs."

"Huh? Is it a long lightning puff, or a nun puff stacked on top of each other, or a ......"

"Ordinary cream puffs." He'd seen the quality of the puffs that the dessert shop baked before he came.

The skin is soft, the icing is uneven, and some even have cream leaking out of the infusion opening......

"Ah......" How excited he was just now, how lost the pastry chef's tone was at this time.

"The puffs that Arimura-san made before have a maximum score of 2.7 points. If you want to make the dessert shop business boom and let more people come back to buy, ensuring the level of desserts is the foundation, and then you can pursue the variety of tricks. ”

"So, what is a passing grade?"

"3.5 points," Narumi Yu waited for the other party to tie the tie, turned around and said, "Arimura-san's apple tart yesterday had a score of 3.6, barely passing." ”

Akino Arimura, the pastry chef before he came, just turned 20 last month, according to the boss.

He is about 155 tall, has a barely B on his bust, and wears a low double ponytail, and it is very smooth to shout at him about Master.

No matter how you look at it, it looks like a junior high school student.

"That's already my best dessert......" Akino Arimura, a junior high school student, pouted dissatisfied, bowed his head and muttered quietly.

"So the desserts are often unsalable, far less popular than coffee."

"Isn't that because it's a café and not a dessert shop? The customers who come here must be here for coffee......"

"Are the desserts I made unsalable?"

"Hmm......"

"As long as your desserts are delicious enough to make a customer feel impressed, this can be the 'dessert shop' in his heart."

"Oh......"

The barista at the café is Akino Arimura's mother, plus a pastry chef, a long-time waiter, and a part-time waiter, a total of four people.

The reason why he had to recruit a new pastry chef because of the unsalable desserts was not because of Akino Arimura's lack of ability.

In any case, it is no problem for a pastry chef who has passed the qualification exam and obtained the certificate by himself, and is qualified for the position of dessert chef in a general dessert shop café.

But the café is too close to Kumakoya Bakery, and people who want to eat sweets have a better option when passing through this shopping street.

Kumakoya's three most popular breads have a score of 4, while other desserts, such as cookies, cookies, and croissants, also have at least 3.5 points.

Therefore, if the desserts here are to be sold, they must at least be on par with Kumakoya.

There is no obvious difference in taste quality to make customers consider this option with different types of desserts.

"Custard-chan, did you make it yourself?"

"Eh...... Do you want to redo it?! Akino Arimura's first reaction was the fear of not wanting to face reality when a catastrophe was imminent.

"The quality is qualified, why redo it?" Narumi took Custard-chan out of the freezer and calmed the frightened apprentice.

"Whew...... That's good. ”

Narumi Yu matched the proportions of all the materials and gave Arimura Akino time to record the proportions.

For the puff pastry topped, soften the butter first, then with caster sugar, and finally with the sifted flour to form a batter.

Wet and sticky hands, wrap in plastic wrap and roll into a cylinder, and put in the refrigerator.

"Refrigerate for a few minutes?"

"It depends on your mood."

"Master!"

"Then you start the timer now......" He glanced at Akino Arimura, who was angry next to him, poured butter and milk into the pot, added a small amount of salt and sugar at 1:2, and boiled.

Pour in the sifted gluten flour and quickly stir until the dough is smooth and sticky.

The basic production steps are known to Akino Arimura, and the gap is only in the grasp of time and the state of the material.

The dough should not stick to the pan and spatula, turn off the heat at the right time to cool down.

"Wait!" Narumi Yu had already picked up the egg and was about to beat it into the pot, but Akino Arimura suddenly made a sound and inserted a thermometer into the pot to write down the temperature of the dough at this time.

"You use a thermometer when you make it yourself?"

"Master, you don't know what state is the best, so you can only measure the temperature yourself."

“……”

Add the egg mixture batter in batches, so that it flows slowly from the spatula and drips, and finally hangs on the triangle state.

Finally, put it in a piping bag.

"The timer can be stopped."

"Wow......"

"......" Narumi wanted to tell her that the refrigeration time was enough, and the specific length was not important, but she didn't speak.

Akino Arimura, like most people who study their craft seriously, always has to record all the details, whether important or not.

He does not approve of this habit, but maintains admiration for this attitude.

Maybe whenever he opens his mouth to remind him, it will dampen Arimura Akino's enthusiasm for learning.

What's more, now he is only spending the skills he has mastered, living in a muddy way, and has no position to blame others.

Narumi cuts the refrigerated puff pastry dough, squeezes the batter evenly onto a baking tray and tops it with the same size.

At a glance, each of them is almost the same.

"It's so pretty......"

"Here comes the second set."

"Huh!"

Once all the ingredients have been used, place the puffs in the preheated oven.

Akino Arimura was lying in front of the oven and staring at the puffs inside.

Narumi Yu thought about it, took a pen, and wrote a few custard-chan material ratios in Arimura Akino's colorful notebook with emojis.

Step out of the roasting room and pull a stool behind the coffee table and sit down.

"Ready for today's dessert?" A village mother carried a flower pot, poured the frothy milk into the coffee cup steadily, and asked him distractedly.

"Just sent to the oven."

"Several customers have already asked, and there are fans of Narumi Sang coming from 3 o'clock in the afternoon." A village mother put the latte in her hand on the plate and said with a smile, "They wanted to eat the dessert you made, but they all came up empty, and a few people were embarrassed to leave directly, so they ordered a cup of coffee and sat down in the store." ”

The décor of the café is more like a well-decorated home.

Coffee-colored walls with warm-toned lights; On the walls are framed travel photos that have nothing to do with coffee; On the guardrail and ceiling on the second floor, handmade crafts made of cardboard and wire are hung......

All kinds of small objects fill the storefront, which seems to be complicated, but it only makes people feel warm.

Narumi had nothing to do, so he stared at the pictures on the wall in a daze.

Horseback riding, archery, red maple ...... all over the mountains The people who appeared on the camera were all girls, and I couldn't tell which one of the mothers and daughters was.

"Huh! Narumi-san came out of the baking room. A customer who saw Narumi couldn't wait to run over and ask, his tone was very cheerful, "What's today's dessert?" ”

The woman with a good face has taken off her coat and is wearing only a white shirt in a formal uniform, her hair is tied up with a light blue leather band, and her ponytail is tilted to the left.

He looks like he's around twenty-five years old, the age when he first started working, and he still has the energy to sneak away to the café to rest after work.

"Puffs."

"Wow...... There is a village-san! Have a Brayvey. ”

"Didn't Suzuki-san already order a macchiato?"

"It's already cold...... Narumi-san's dessert is served with freshly brewed coffee. ”

"Hi, hey."

Narumi sat at the front desk for five minutes, and three people came to talk to him, so he had to go back to the baking room.

It's only been more than ten days since I got to work, and there is already a group of "fans......

Narumi Yu only felt that he was messing around, and the dessert he made was at most 4.5 points. You can also buy sweets of this quality at famous confectionery shops in Tokyo.

Incomprehensible.

"Turn it 160 degrees."

"Hey! …… Huh? Master, you obviously aren't looking at the time, how do you know that it's time to adjust the temperature? ”

"Look at the state of the puffs."

"Oh......"

"Do you need me to teach you how to squeeze cream?" Narumi Yu looked at Akino Arimura, who was still staring at the oven, thinking about getting off work.

"Huh?" Arimura Qiuno suddenly raised his head and said, "Isn't it needed?" Expression.

“……”

The two looked at each other for a few seconds, and Narumi Yu admitted defeat and sighed.

By the time he finished his final job, despite Akino Arimura's pull and retained, he changed back into his school uniform and slipped out of the back door of the café, it was already dark.

You can still see the last rays of the sunset on the horizon.

At the end of the moon, the shape of the clouds could no longer be seen.

He got on the tram, stared out the window in a daze, and when he got tired of watching, he opened his mobile phone memo and wrote a few plots.

Going to school, making desserts, writing...... It's as if it's stuck in the daily routine day after day.

I don't learn dubbing, I don't join clubs, and I don't even read books anymore.

Busy all day, but blank and empty.

Shiina's message pops up suddenly, and he opens Line and sees many unread messages.

Then there was the group chat message, and Woo Fumimura showed off the light third printing in the group.

Finally, there is Shinichi Kamigawa's private chat.

It's the news when Mikagehama High School just came to the end of school.

He typed in a reply, and soon received a response from Shinichi Kamigawa.

There must be someone better than me for the main character. ’

“……”

Narumi finished typing and pressed the delete button to clear it.