A Sweet Operation
The cafeteria we arrived at—Rain, Shine, and I—was relatively quiet. It was well past lunchtime and far too early for dinner, so the lack of a crowd was only natural. Watching the few stragglers eating a late lunch, I murmured softly to Rain, who was standing right beside me.
"Rain... where do you think the sugar is?"
"Jeff. Where is the food pickup counter?"
"Over there..."
I pointed a finger toward the counter where our trays always came out.
"Then that means they must be cooking the food inside there, right?"
"Yeah."
"The sugar they need for cooking must be in there too."
"Whoa..."
I stared in awe at Rain's logical deduction. Clearly, the role of team leader wasn't just for show. It seemed like our plan would go off without a single hitch.
Rain marched forward with a confident, swaggering stride. Shine and I exchanged a quick look before falling in line behind her.
We followed Rain for a bit, but I was suddenly forced to a halt by a mouthwatering aroma that tickled my nose.
Tonkatsu. It was the unmistakable smell of fried pork cutlet.
"Jeff...?"
Because I had stopped so abruptly, Shine—who was currently holding onto my dinosaur tail—was forced to halt as well.
I gripped the dinosaur tail in my hand a little tighter, my eyes locked onto the source of the scent.
A listless-looking man sat at a table, staring blankly at his phone. In front of him, a freshly fried, piping-hot tonkatsu was slowly growing cold. He tapped away at his screen, chuckling occasionally, completely ignoring his meal. It was an absolute insult to the pork cutlet.
"Wait... Jeff!"
I marched purposefully toward the table. Getting there was the easy part, but once I arrived, the man's sheer size—even while sitting—completely intimidated me. As I stood hovering awkwardly by the edge of the table, Shine tugged on my arm.
"Jeff. Rain is getting too far ahead."
I turned around at her warning. Sure enough, we had fallen quite far behind. Rain was currently peeking around the frame of a large kitchen door. Her lips were moving in a tiny whisper, suggesting she was still explaining her grand master plan to the air. Did she seriously not realize that Shine and I weren't behind her? Panicking, I raised my hand to call out to her, but Rain squeezed her eyes shut and dashed straight into the kitchen.
"Jeff. Do you want some of that tonkatsu?"
"Mmh..." I mumbled, hanging my head. I felt a sudden wave of embarrassment. It wasn't even mealtime, yet here I was, greedily eyeing some stranger's food like a stray puppy.
"You should've just said so."
Shine let out a soft chuckle. Without a moment's hesitation, she walked right up to the man's table and tapped him on the leg. *Tap, tap.*
"Huh?"
The man, whose eyes had been glued to his phone screen, blinked and looked down at Shine and me. A mixture of mild surprise and utter bewilderment washed over his face.
Shine stared up at him and spoke with absolute gravity.
"Jeff wants to eat that."
Shine pointed directly at the plate of tonkatsu. The man's eyes darted back and forth between me, Shine, and the pork cutlet in front of him.
"This...?"
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry, but this is my—"
"I said, Jeff wants to eat it."
Shine cut him off instantly. The man's face twitched slightly at her bluntness.
"Shi... Shine..."
I quickly shuffled behind Shine and grabbed her hand. Sure, I wanted to eat it, but I wasn't about to steal a stranger's food. Besides, we could just order our own. This wasn't the kind of place where we had to fight others for survival.
"Here."
But instead of getting angry like I expected, the man quietly pushed the plate toward us. I gaped at him in sheer disbelief.
"Sit here, Jeff."
Shine pulled out a chair and patted the seat. I climbed up and sat down, still utterly bewildered. I sneaked a glance at the man's face. He was staring blankly into space, no longer smiling at his phone. Why on earth had he just handed over his food so easily?
I began to pick up the slightly cooled pieces of tonkatsu and eat them one by one. The crispy breadcrumbs flaked off, scattering over my dinosaur pajamas.
"Do you want some too, Shine?"
I held a piece of tonkatsu out to Shine. She hesitated for a fraction of a second before opening her mouth wide and taking it from my fingers. Watching her cheeks puff out as she chewed was incredibly cute.
Once Shine and I had polished off every last piece of the cutlet, I slid the plate—now containing only rice and salad—back to the man.
"Thank you for the food!"
I made sure to thank him politely. However, the man didn't react at all. Was he meditating before finishing his rice? I hopped down from the chair and patted my stomach. It had been a highly satisfying snack.
As I stood there with a content smile, Shine pulled a tissue from the dispenser on the table and gently wiped my mouth.
"Mmh..."
"Don't walk around with food on your face."
Her actions were so natural that I couldn't even find the words to protest. Had she always been like this?
"Let's go find Rain now."
Shine and I made our way toward the kitchen door. We could hear faint noises and the presence of people inside. I cautiously pushed the door open. The kitchen was absolutely massive. It didn't take long to spot Rain, though. She was hiding in a corner, wearing a tall white chef's hat. The moment Shine and I approached, Rain clung to me with a tearful, pathetic expression.
"Wh-where did you guys go?!"
Startled by her dramatic reaction, I reached out and gave her a tight hug.
"We just went to eat some tonkatsu."
"Tonkatsu...?"
"Yeah."
"P-please don't leave me alone while the mission is underway..."
"Mission...?"
Rain was spouting nonsense again. I let out an awkward chuckle and patted her head reassuringly.
"What's with the hat?"
I asked, tapping the tall white hat perched on her head. She instantly perked up and began to explain her headwear with great enthusiasm.
"It's the hat the chefs wear here! If we wear these, we'll look just like them. That way, no one will suspect a thing when we take the ingredients to make our candy!"
Honestly, she actually had a point. Rain had apparently prepared hats for Shine and me too, pulling two more out of her pockets and handing them over. Shine and I pulled back our dinosaur hoods and slipped the chef's hats onto our heads.
"So, where's the sugar?"
"Over there."
Rain spoke with absolute confidence as she stepped out of her corner. Shine and I followed close behind. Just as she had predicted, we were able to roam the kitchen completely unhindered. The chefs we occasionally ran into merely glanced at us, let out soft chuckles, and went on their way.
"Rain... that was a brilliant idea."
I showered her with praise for her absolute genius.
"Ahem..."
Rain cleared her throat and nodded proudly, though the tips of her ears had turned quite red.
Rain led us to a small shelf. Sitting right on top was a massive, pure white sack of sugar.
"Doesn't that look way too heavy?"
Everyone nodded in agreement at my question. Finding our most crucial ingredient was great, but hauling that entire sack away was going to be impossible.
"Do you kids need some sugar?"
A sudden voice startled us. I gasped, instinctively ducking behind Shine's back. Standing there was a chef with a warm, kindly face. His portly frame and gentle smile immediately put us at ease.
"Yes. We need sugar."
The chef nodded warmly at Shine's response, grabbing a reasonably sized glass jar and filling it to the brim with sugar.
"If you grab the top here and twist, it'll open right up."
The friendly chef even took the time to show us how to open the lid. I carefully tucked the sugar jar into the oversized front pocket of my dinosaur pajamas. After warning us to be careful around the stoves, the kind chef went back to his work.
That was the sugar sorted. Next on the list was starch syrup, lemon juice, and food coloring. The three of us scurried around the kitchen like little mice. We couldn't find any pre-packaged lemon juice, so I snuck a couple of fresh lemons out of a walk-in fridge and stuffed them into my pocket. While I was at it, I grabbed a few strawberries and apples too. The starch syrup bottle was light enough to carry, so Rain took charge of that.
"We got everything!"
Just as Rain had promised, we had gathered all our ingredients without a single issue. I showered her with praise once more.
"You did so well, Rain!"
Before slipping out of the cafeteria, we took off our chef's hats and hung them neatly on the hooks by the door. With that, our preparations were complete. All that was left was to head back to our room and start candy-making. The three of us dashed down the hallway.
Back in our room, we emptied our pockets and piled all the ingredients onto the center table. Sugar, starch syrup, lemons, fresh fruit, and several tiny vials of food coloring. With all this, we were bound to make some incredibly pretty candies. I immediately booted up the computer and searched for a tutorial video on handmade candy.
"It says we have to boil the sugar and water together."
Rain, who was peering over my shoulder, pointed at the screen. We had hit a major roadblock right at step one. There was nothing in this room we could use to light a fire.
"But... we aren't allowed to use fire in here..."
"Can't we just use the electric kettle?"
"*Gasp...*"
Rain's brilliant mind never ceased to amaze me. I showered her with another round of enthusiastic praise, pulling her into a tight hug as we continued watching the video.
"Once it starts boiling, add the lemon juice..."
"And then the starch syrup..."
Having committed the recipe to memory, I grabbed the electric kettle and sat cross-legged on the floor. Shine and Rain quickly huddled around me.
"Shine, sugar."
"Got it."
"Rain, water."
"Okay."
The video mentioned using measuring cups, but we didn't have anything like that. We would have to eyeball everything. Fortunately, I had absolute faith in my instincts. I filled the kettle with water and sugar. Once it started boiling, we would add the lemon juice. After flipping the kettle's switch, I fetched a large bowl and Lucy's magic wand. The wand had a blunt, rounded end, making it the perfect makeshift pestle for juicing lemons.
"Hold this for me, Shine."
I asked Shine to hold the bowl steady, peeled the lemons, and tossed them inside. Then, I took Lucy's magic wand and began to vigorously mash them. *Thump, thump, thump.*