Eda swirled the mixture in the metal bowl, his thoughts muddled.

So why don't you cook blind, Shinomiya said.

He was being sarcastic, he didn't mean it-- there's no sense in holding it against him when there was no way he could've known how hard it hit him.

He sighed.

(She cries into the table, her hands shaking. She should know this, she should know this-- she should know how to do this, it's muscle memory-- so why? Why is everything not turning out well?)

He piped the buttercream, delicately, gently-- and each petal of the pink cream formed a rose. Humming lightly, he set the cupcake on the counter, and moved on to the next one.

(She burns her hand on the oven door, because she'd misplaced her mittens. She ruins the chocolate she's tempering, because she can't see, can't see, can't see.)

He poured the chocolate glaze generously over the cake, arranging a row of cranberries along the rim, sprinkling nuts over the top. He let the icing dance across its corners, and masterfully, topped it off with a chocolate flower.

(She swipes her hand across the counter, and delights in the way everything just shatters to pieces, falling into indescribable pieces on the floor.)

He took out the tray of cookies from the oven, sliding in the next batch of batter before adjusting the heat, and then he let the machine start.

Taking off his mittens, he set them on the counter. He moved to the fridge, and prepared another round of icing.

(She tears herself apart, laughs into madness, because she's lost everything.)

And he continued baking into the sunlight, because his sight was all he had left.

-

"What is all this?!?"

Fumio-san woke up to a whole bakery happening in the kitchen. Batches of cupcakes and cookies went in and out of the oven, and the boy in charge was still making more, as if hypnotized by a dead baker's soul.

Eda froze shock still, hands still half in the air.

He dropped the tray he was holding.

Then he panicked.

"I'm sorry!"

Fumio marveled at the sheer amount of pastries. There hadn't been such an avid patissier in the dorms since before the Golden Age, so it was a bright change.

"I'll replace all the ingredients, I promise!" he was still so flustered, near tears, but his hands are moving like an expert across that cupcake, setting the icing in a little bouquet of white and pink flowers.

"It's fine, did you even get any sleep?" Fumio asked him, reaching for one of them and looking over the icing flower with interest.

"Huh? It's already morning??"

"Yikes, you're that bad, eh?"

Eda didn't waste a single movement. As if he'd done it thousands of times, he turned the cupcake in his hand, and piped the cream in a perfect, practiced motion. It's a perfect flower every single attempt.

His eyes were sharpened, focused.

His hands were tender on them, detailing every inch of it with fingers so careful, aspiring only for the best, without a single misstep in his motions.

He was a nervous, anxious child, but he certainly cared for his creations as if they were the world's most precious gems.

Fumio really couldn't hate it at all.

-

-

In the Polar Star Dormitory, there was only one High-School Third Year, Shiomi Jun. Then there are three Second Years, and five First-years, including Sekimori.

There are nine residents in the Junior High section. Other than Shinomiya and Eda, there are seven, and they're all in their third year.

This added up the total residency in the dorm to nineteen.

-

"Oh lord almighty King of Sweets, please bestow upon us your delightful creations!" the senior got on his knees, screaming into the kitchen.

Eda himself was curled up under the desk (again,) shivering in some sort of fear.

There was a whole army's worth of sweets on the kitchen island, and it's evident that the whole crowd was raving for it.

"I woke up to the smell of heaven," Shiomi emerged from nowhere, "I have the sharpest nose in the dorm so I can't be wrong. This is the smell of freshly baked goods! And they're really well made!"

Fumio stood at the doorway, inspecting each hungry ghost, subtly muttering something about how these kids never wake up as early as this voluntarily.

"If you want any, you're going to have to help Eda-kun here clean up, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"With great pleasure!"

"I call dibs on the one with the big rose!"

"I want the chocolate one with the flower! That's mine, okay?!"

"Cookies! All the cookies are mine!"

"My sweet tooth is cryingg!"

Oh god, Eda shivered under the table, fearing for his life and recounting his life's choices-- the seniors have all gone rabid.

-

After that, everyone dragged him out of there to shower him with praises.

He whined through all of it, because compliments or not, the embarrassment of the attention made him want to curl up with the horses and disappear.

"I want to keep this rose as an heirloom."

"Stoooooop iiiit already, pleaseeeee."

A while later, Shinomiya managed to form a barricade around them so the seniors wouldn't smother him to madness.

Eda was the kind that just continued baking when he was lost in his thoughts, and Shinomiya chewed him out on using so much of the storage at once.

Eda whimpered under the table the whole time, but after that, Shinomiya started barking orders at the seniors to clean up, and Eda laughed.

Seemed like Shinomiya was the kind to get crankier the more pressured he is, and really, he seemed the type. Waking up early to chaos could really set him off.

"Eda! Don't think you're off the hook! You're going to help, too!"

"Ahhhh!! No, Sekimori-senpai, save me!"

"There's flour everywhere! God I thought it was just your hair but half your head is flour! Go take a goddamn shower!"

"But I'm going to be late for class!!"

"Fuck if I care!"

-

-

"Training Camp?" Eda asked the senior, lugging a bag of sugar at his front, "you, Sekimori-senpai?"

"All of us High-School first years, actually," Sekimori answered him, hefting up a bag of flour and making his way over, "it's this weekend, and we'll be gone for five days. Not all of us might make it back."

"You sound like you're going to war."

"We are. If we fail even one thing over the course of those days, we're immediately expelled."

"What?!"

Another senior laughed at his surprise, walking past them with two bags of flour. The rest of the crowd patted the boy's head in assurance, holding their share of the huge load into the building.

"Don't worry, Sekimori will probably survive."

"I'm worried about the others, actually."

"Sekimori's a monster, after all."

"This is the life of Tootsuki high, you know? One mistake and you're busted for life."

"You'll see it one day. It's not as bad as it sounds."

"Yeah, it's worse."

Maybe the seniors were just teasing him, but Eda just felt his self-esteem shrink further into his chest and for a moment, he just felt smaller than Shiomi. Can he curl up, cry, and go home now?

He's not used to all this competitive business. Can't cooking be educational and fun? Oh wait, the bakery she interned under last life was something like this, too...

Ahhhhh, stress and pressures, why do you exist? Let me live peacefully!

"Oh, you guys, stop teasing him."

"Woah, he really curls up into a ball."

"He's like an armadillo."

"Isn't it a pangolin?"

"Let's just call him a turtle. Turtleda!"

"Edangolin!"

"Dango?"

Eda looked up from where he was crouched, wondering why the seniors seemed so excited making up weird puns for his name.

Meanwhile, Shinomiya was just name-calling... what's with people here and calling him weird things?

(Before this, he never quite had an identity beyond being the endearing little 'Fumi-pon'-- and that was a name Tamako gave him. Before Granny Kiyo gave him his name, Eda Kiyofumi, he was truly nothing.)

(He's got a lot of names now, eh?)

"Hey, Dunceda!" Shinomiya yelled in the distance, "hurry up! The storage isn't going to fill itself!"

"Oh shut it, Shittymiya! This is heavier than it looks!"

The seniors laughed at them, someone whispering the name 'Bipolarda' in the background. They chased each other up the mountain, before racing down to get another sack, lugging the hellish climb up over and over.

Watching them, Sekimori smiled.

They sure had a delightful set of juniors this year.