A Man Who Cooks For Himself And A High School Girl (WN)

26th Meal

Onigiri-making and High School Girl Part 1

Tired: Back to Yuu’s POV

“—That’s it, just like that.
Then, when the onions and bean sprouts are soft, add the rest of the ingredients and water, and let it simmer for a while.”

“Y-Yes!”

Today’s holiday, Mahiru—no pun intended—came over in the middle of the day today, and as usual, I was giving her a recipe for a super easy vegetable soup that I often make.

(Tired: 真昼 (まひる) – ‘Mahiru’ – Midday.)

Simmer the onion, bean sprouts, carrots, and thinly sliced bacon for 5 minutes before adding the consommé stock, soy sauce, and salt and pepper.
In this dish, there is no concept of “adjusting the taste,” so all seasonings are in appropriate—or should I say, “sketchy amount.”

“But Mahiru, you're getting pretty good at using the utensils, aren't you?”

“Eh!? R-Really!!?”

“Yeah, you used to cut or burn your fingers every two days, but now it's every three.”

“…Can you even call that progress…?”

I smile at the high school girl in the apron, whose eyes have gone from happy to vacant.

But even so, this is a significant improvement from when I first began teaching her to cook about two months ago.
When I first taught her to cook curry and rice, she cut the skin off her fingers with a peeler, got burned by splashing oil, hit her hand on the corner of a cupboard, and a potato vanished somewhere in the process.

(Tired: Wait, 2 months already? That was fast.)

In contrast, today's soup contained all of the ingredients that we had previously prepared in the pot.
What else should I call it if not progress?

“….I mean, it's not usually easy to lose the ingredients you’re preparing…”

“…? Did you just say something, Onii-san?”

“I-It’s nothing.
If you've finished putting in the water, then…Well, I guess that's it for today's cooking lesso—”

“Eh? But we still haven’t made the thing I want the most…”

“…Right…”

I groaned inside as the high school girl tugged at the end of my sleeve.
She was so excited to get to the rice cooker and prepare freshly cooked rice because she insisted on making some “Onigiri.”

Someone might wonder what the issue is…But the answer is simple and obvious—I don't know how to make Onigiri.

Generally speaking, people who live alone and cook for themselves do not make Onigiri very often.
If someone’s making their own lunch, there’s no need to make onigiri if they could eat at home.

Of course, I can easily make Onigiri using an Onigiri molding machine sold at a 100 yen store, and in fact, I have such a tool that I bought on the spur of the moment…However, what Mahiru wanted to make this time was a regular Onigiri that she could make with her own hands…

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“…Hey, Mahiru? Like I said before, I've never made Onigiri before, so there's nothing I can teach you about it, right?”

“Yes, but it’s fine!”

“Even if you say that…”

I sigh with a sullen expression as the pretty high school girl nods her head while smiling brightly at me.

It's not that I haven't tried to make onigiri in the past.
It was not after I started living alone, but when I was in elementary or junior high school.

I decided one day that I wanted to learn how to make onigiri for myself, so I prepared rice, salt, and water and attempted to make onigiri for the first time.
The only thing that happened was that I got burns on both palms of my hands and a soggy lump of rice.

Of course, I couldn't have done as well as my mother did the first time, and I was probably unfamiliar with the process, but I've learned since then that Onigiri is not as simple to make as they appear.
(Tired: I had the same experience, lol.)

(I'm not that dexterous, but…this girl is even more clumsy than I am…)

I can clearly imagine her rolling on the floor with burnt hands, and this time I can't even teach her my own tips and tricks.
If there was such a thing, I would rather learn it from her.

“All right~! Watch me, Onii-san! I'll definitely make delicious onigiri!”

“Y-Yeah…Do your best…”

…However, I couldn't bring myself to stop Mahiru, who was strangely enthusiastic.

I had to watch her back as she began to make onigiri with great enthusiasm as if I was watching my own child run an errand for the first time.