Crumbled Clay (Epilogue)

“I’m baaack~!” Celicia’s mom shouted out, her back slouched and face exhausted.

“Welcome back.” I replied whilst frying some Karaage.

“Ohh? Something smells really good…” Celicia’s mom sniffs the air.

“I’m making some karaage right now… We only had boar meat in the fridge, so might as well make the most of it.” I redirect my focus towards the saucepan.

“You can cook?” Celicia’s mom set aside her bag on the kitchen table.

“I’m not the best at it, but I know the basics…” I turn off the gas and put all of the meat on four plates. There’s a fifth plate on the side, but I stopped midway. I look at Celicia’s mom and ask, “Hey, ms…”

“Clairene”

“…Ms Clairene, is it okay to serve grandpa fried food?” I ask, my arms getting tired from holding the saucepan.

“Hmm…” Ms. Clairene crosses her arms and closes her eyes, her body leaning to the right, “Eh, once in a while should be fine.” Ms. Clairene stuck her tongue out and shrugs.

“Hey—hey…”

“It’s not like his teeth is broken or anything. He just can’t chew fast and doesn’t have a big appetite, so you don’t need to give him a lot.” Ms. Clairene comes towards me and grab the saucepan from my hand.

“W-Wai—”

Ms. Clairene pours out multiple different pieces of karaage on the plate. A single karaage is around the size of half my fist, so I gave out four pieces for each plate. For the fifth plate, she puts two pieces on it.

“Is this going to be okay…?” I gaze at the two pieces of meat lying on that plate.

“It’s okay…” Ms. Clairene looks at the fifth plate, her eyes quivering slightly, “Let’s just let him enjoy it…” Ms. Clairene clenches her fist.

“…”

"...Hellooo~~" Celica's languid voice fills the dining room as she enters, accompanied by her grandpa in the wheelchair. Her eyes appear heavy-lidded, her posture slouched, and her once-tidy hair now a charming disarray. "Ahhh—haaa… something smells nice…" Celicia remarks with a scratch to her unruly hair.

“Ohhh? How’s your sleep, my daughter? Were you tired from that quick expedition?” Ms. Clairene bends down to meet Celicia’s eyes.

“What? Are you jealous that I got an early break?” Celicia asks with a smirk.

“Of course nooot~~” Ms. Clairene shrugs, her face pouting.

“Anyways, what are you making Yuuma?” Celicia looks at me with a relaxed smile.

“Ignored…” Ms. Clairene mutters.

Celicia pushed grandpa’s wheelchair towards the table, took her hands off, and approached me.

“I made some karaage. I basically deep fried it after I coated it with potato starch—”

“…” Celicia’s mouth is drooling, her ears wiggling up and down.

“At least listen to me…”

“I’m back…” A rough voice came from beyond the hallway. He then walks into the kitchen room and says, “Sorry for being late… I didn’t expect it’ll take that lo—”

“Cruuuutz!” Ms. Clairene suddenly jumps towards the old man.

“W-What?! Did something happen?!” The old man replied.

“It’s them dear!” Ms. Clairene points towards us, “They were having such a good time together that my daughter ignored me!” Ms. Clairene dug deeper into the old man’s chest.

“Wha?! What did you do to our daughter, kid!” The old man suddenly points towards me.

“I did nothing! Ms. Clairene, stop confusing your old man!” I yelled out.

“Waaaaah! Shizue yelled at me!” Ms. Clairene pretended to weep.

“Okaaayyy!” Celicia made a loud clap, redirecting our gaze towards her, “Can you guys stop this nonsense so we can eat already? I’m starving...” Celicia’s ears wag up and down.

---

After that entire ordeal, the old man and Ms. Clairene went to change out of their clothes, whilst I made the sauce and Celicia cleaned and prepared the plates on the table.

Once the old man and Ms. Clairene seated themselves, all of us said our prayers and started dining on our meal.

“…! This is amazing Shizue! You should teach me how to make it!” Ms. Clairene leans towards me, her eyes sparkling.

“Y-Yeah… I can do that…” I awkwardly respond.

“Not bad kid! You may suck at shaping clays, but you’re cooking skills is on par with Honeypaw’s food quality!” The old man grins and then continues to ravish their food.

“I highly doubt it’s that good…” I let out a laugh, slowly getting embarrassed.

“You really underestimate yourself Yuuma!” Celicia interjects. She then took a big bite with her ears flopping in excitement, “So good!”

“…”

Seeing everyone enjoy my food this much brings a sense of warmth to my chest. A feeling that I’ve long forgotten…

…

…..

……

“This is so good brother!” A little girl looks at me with a cheerful smile.

“Really?”

“Yeah! All of the other ones you made were terrible, so this is a masterpiece in comparison!” The little girl scoops up another mouthful of the food.

“I’m surprised you can make food like this son… Why do you want to work in marketing instead of being a professional chef? It’s such a waste…”

“Our Yuuma did say that he wants to keep it strictly as a hobby, so we should let him do what he wants dear. Hehehe….”

…

…..

……

That’s right… The reason why I strictly want to keep cooking as a hobby is because of this sight… Something about bringing smiles to the people closest to me are the ones where I feel the most satisfied. I don’t care about making customers happy. I barely know who they are, so I don’t have a reason to give my food to some stranger who doesn’t even know the name of the chef…

“But…”

If the people that I can reach at arm’s length are the ones I can make happy, I will do everything I can to provide those smiles, no matter how ugly my insides are.