October 16 (Wednesday)
I decided to go ahead and do some baking today. My favorite restaurant’s signature chocolate cake is something I’ve always wanted to re-create on my own. Today was the day I gave it a try! Of course, I didn’t know the recipe the restaurant uses, so I just had to wing it.
When the cake was finally done, and I got to have a taste… It was pretty good, if I do say so myself! I can’t use fancy ingredients like the restaurant does, so it wasn’t as delicious as the real thing. But it was still pretty tasty. I bet you could sell it in stores, and no one would complain!
✦ ✦ ✦
Once it was actually October 16, Asumi hopped on a train and made her way to a large confectionery supply store near another station. She’d never been there before. In fact, she had no idea there was a store like that there. Her body seemed to move on its own, taking her to the station, buying a ticket, and walking directly to her destination.
It was the same inside the store—her hands moved of their own accord, picking up chocolate, gelatin, jam, and other ingredients, some of which she didn’t even know how to use in a recipe.
Back at home, she got to work making the cake.
Wow, this is amazing! I know nothing about baking, but I’m really doing it! My hands are moving like I’ve been doing this for years!
Before she knew it—and with no real idea of what exactly she’d been doing—the cake came out of the oven. She let the light, buttery chocolate sponge cake cool, then slid a knife in the middle and cut it in half. She put apricot jam between the two halves and sandwiched them back together.
Then she sliced up some chocolate and melted it, mixed in some gelatin and cocoa powder to give it a gloopy, gooey texture, and spread it all over the cake. When that coating had smoothed out, it was so shiny that Asumi could see her face reflected in it. Finally, once the glaze had dried, she decorated it with cream and pieces of fruit.
“Wow, it looks lovely! I can’t wait to see how it tastes…”
Heart thumping, she cut a slice of the cake and gingerly took a bite.
It was delicious!
It tasted just as good as the real thing. In truth, she’d walked past that restaurant a dozen times but had never actually gone in or tried their cake. But she was convinced this was how their signature chocolate cake must have tasted.
“I can’t believe I never tried baking before… I always thought I wouldn’t be any good at it.”
With the help of the Truthful Diary, Asumi was already cooking like a pro. If she kept at it like this, her dream of becoming a top-class pastry chef someday wouldn’t be so impossible after all.
No… With this diary, that dream was guaranteed to come true!
“This is all just way…too…amazing!”
Everything she’d wished was true could become true. The thrill she was getting out of this Truthful Diary didn’t even compare to her old Liar’s Diary!
✦ ✦ ✦
October 17 (Thursday)
I went to that same confectionery supply store from yesterday and ran into Kino, that boy from my class. We both sort of went, “What a coincidence!” and laughed. And then…
✦ ✦ ✦
Asumi wrote that entry on October 16. And when October 17 came…
Sure enough, she went to that store and ran into Kino there. When he noticed her, they greeted one another and said, “What a coincidence!” and laughed. And then…
“Kino, are you buying…cookie ingredients?” Asumi asked him.
“Yeah. Out of all the sweet things in the world, I like cookies the best. What kind of ingredients did you come here to buy?”
“Oh, me? I just thought I’d whip up a little Black Forest cake…”
“Wow, that’s awesome! You’re practically a professional if you can make something like that on your own. Must be nice!”
Asumi smiled awkwardly at Kino’s heartfelt admiration.
The truth was, she didn’t even know what a Black Forest cake was. She’d just vaguely remembered that there was something by that name and blurted it out.
Kino really does know a lot about sweets…
Talking to him face-to-face like this was making her equal parts nervous and excited. But this was a feeling a thousand times sweeter than the cake she’d baked yesterday. She’d liked Kino, this sensitive boy from her class who knew so much about baking, for a while now.
It probably began that day when he brought in a huge batch of homemade cookies to share with the class.
All their classmates had oohed and aahed at the mountain of sweet treats before helping themselves when Kino urged them to. It would have been easy enough for Asumi to reach out and take one, too. But she hadn’t had the courage back then, so she never did find out how his cookies tasted. They sure had looked delicious, though. And everybody who did try one seemed so happy.
Ever since then, Asumi had really wanted to get closer to Kino. She loved the idea of becoming a pastry chef, but she’d never actually tried baking before. That was all the more reason she felt fascinated by Kino—he could do what she had always wanted to.
And now here she was, talking to him like they were friends! She had to try desperately to stop herself from grinning like an idiot.
Okay, now I just have to let this thing play out like I wrote it.
Kino took his basket of cookie ingredients over to the counter.
Then there was some kind of holdup. It turned out he was just ¥100 short of the amount he needed. He checked his wallet but still came up short and started to get a little flustered. That was when Asumi stepped in, offering him a ¥100 coin.
“Here, Kino. Use this.”
“Huh? A-are you sure…? Thanks, Asumi!”
He gratefully accepted the coin and paid for his ingredients.
✦ ✦ ✦
The two of them left the store together, and Kino heaved a sigh of relief.
“Phew, you really helped me out. I’ll be sure to pay you back at school tomorrow.”
“Oh, it was nothing, really…,” Asumi murmured, squirming and looking down at her shoes.
Thank goodness. It had played out just like she’d written. Her dream of talking to Kino had come true. She’d have no trouble writing tomorrow’s entry.
Hee-hee… I’m really looking forward to tomorrow now!
Asumi would be crafting that day well in advance, of course. She already had so many ideas for what she wanted to happen!