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49th Meal
JK’s and Hamburger Part 1
“All right…Let’s get started.”
I muttered to myself and rolled up the sleeves of my T-shirt as I stood in the kitchen.
The ingredients laid out in front of me were ground beef and pork, onions, eggs, milk, and breadcrumbs. And various spices for seasoning and sauce.
That’s right, what I am going to make is a hamburger steak, one of the top-ranked favorite foods of children and everyone's favorite…! Which is the first time for me to make it by myself.
My mother used to make hamburgers, and as a child, I used to jump up and down when I knew we were having hamburgers for dinner. I remember vividly how she would get angry when I greedily tried to eat two or three of them and told me she would make more…I think it may be because of this memory that even now when I know so many delicious foods in the world, I still think that an ordinary meat dish belongs to the “Delicacy” category in my mind.
I suddenly had free time because of some idiot, and I decided to make hamburgers like this because my memory of those days suddenly came back to me…Needless to say, I was hungry because that class earlier was before noon.
I was actually planning to cook with Mahiru, but it seems that she’s unusually playing with her friends today, so it's been a while since I've cooked by myself. Well, I'll be working from a cookbook, too, and I'll be able to teach Mahiru how to make the dish after I've learned how to make it myself, but—
“O~nii~san~! Let’s play~”
“!?”
—At that moment, I suddenly heard a pounding on my front door, along with a rather retro invitation.
(I-Is it Mahiru…?)
I unlocked the door thinking that it was the usual high school girl when she said “Onii-san.” At this time, I should have looked through the door scope without bothering to do so….Because—
“Oh~! It opened~! Well then, excuse me~!”
“Wha—!?”
—The door was pulled open by itself almost as soon as it was unlocked, and the next moment a high school girl in plain clothes, and not Mahiru, jumped in with great force.
“Oh~ it's just like Mahiru's room~ but unlike hers, it has a microwave~!”
“Wait…! W-What are you doing here, Akabane-san…!?”
“Ah, Onii~san~ Sorry for the bother~”
“Don’t ‘Sorry for the bother,’ me!?”
The high school girl was actually Akabane-san, Mahiru's friend whom I met just a few minutes ago in front of the bicycle parking lot. She has changed from her Utagata High School uniform to a rougher outfit, characterized by her easygoing atmosphere.
I was puzzled when she came up to my room without permission. Then I heard the sound of someone running from the hallway outside with great speed.
“Aki-chan!!! Don't go into Onii-san’s room without permission!!!”
“M-Mahiru!”
“Ah, Onii-san, Hello…not! S-Sorry! She didn’t tell you anything right!? Aki, you can't go into someone's room without their permission!”
“Eh~ Isn’t it fine~?” Akabane-san says so and looked back at me, and then points to the ingredients prepared on the cutting board.
“Onii-san~ you're going to make hamburgers now, right~?”
“Eh…? Yeah, well…”
“So we thought we'd help you out too~”
When Akabane-san said so with a smile on her face, Mahiru shouted, saying “I-It’s not like that!”
“We agreed to eat dinner outside because it would bother Onii-san, didn't we!?”
“It wasn't decided yet~ The majority vote was one for the family restaurant group, one for the Onii-san group, and two for the anything goes as long as it's tasty group~ Oh, by the way, I'm the one who voted for the ‘Onii-san’ group, you know~?”
“D-Do you really have to say that!?”
“Mahiru says she prefers family restaurants. I wonder if she would rather eat a hamburger steak from a family restaurant than one from Onii-san~?”
“You didn’t have to word it that way! T-That’s not true, Onii-san! I just said that it would be a nuisance for the four of us to barge in on your room, believe me!”
“N-No, I didn’t even say anything yet about that, but…”
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Mahiru’s desperately pleading to me with teary eyes, and I look at her with a puzzled expression on my face. And then there's Akahane-san, who wickedly smiled at Mahiru. Ahh, I think I'm getting a grasp of her personality somehow. Because that face is the same as Aoba sometimes makes.
“Well,” While I made a mental note to be careful with Akabane-san, I discreetly said something to the high school girls who were slowly closing the distance between us.
“Shall I cook dinner for you guys?”
“Ehh…”
“Are you sure~? Onii-san~?”
“Yeah, I don't mind. I have enough ingredients and since I've never made it before, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to make it well if that's okay with you…?”
“B-But…”
Mahiru fidgeted and intertwined the fingers of her hands, probably thinking that they might be a nuisance after all…Come to think of it, I remember she was reserved like this at first when we first met. And that time, I think, at just the right time, Mahiru’s stomach rumbled…
I nodded and picked up the recipe book that was spread out on the top board of the microwave oven and held it out in front of Mahiru.
“Today I'm going to make this ‘Beginner's dish, easy for everyone!’ It's a Demi-Glace Hamburger.”
“Demi Guraisu Hanbagu…!”
“Uwah~ It looks delicious~!”
I smiled inwardly at the food-crazed high school girl who was easily caught by Akahane-san but kept a poker face as I continued.
“Right? But the procedure is quite complicated, even though it says ‘easy.’ Ah~ I wonder if there is a girl somewhere who’s ‘dexterous’ and a ‘good cook?’ It would be so great if there was one, you know~?”
It was my own terrible barbed speech…The moment she heard that both of Mahiru’s eyes seemed to light up. Immediately after that, she showed none of her previous reserved attitude, raising her right hand high to the sky as if announcing her presence.
“Here! Here! If you’re looking for someone who’s dexterous…A-And loves to cook, it’s me!”
“Uwah ~ Mahiru’s so easy~”
“At least it’s good to know she didn’t call herself a ‘Good cook’”
Akabane-san looks at the chattering girl with a hint of pity, and I smiled at the girl who seems to be able to make an objective self-evaluation.
So today's hamburger cooks were joined by two new members, one a high school girl with an easy-going personality and the other a high school girl, who’s a pushover.
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