Yumeiro Patissiere

Chapter 15 Rosewater of memories

Next day Ichigo, Makato and Sennosuke started to practice on their pound cakes. The strawberry, chocolate and chestnut and the green tea bean cake were soon finished and they were delicious. Vanilla, Chocolat and Caramel sent the recipe cards of the pound cakes to the queen. Satsuki was working on a rose pound cake, but he wasn't satisfied with it. He asked the others to try it. They pointed out that the cake didn't smell like a rose because the heat of the oven evaporated the natural rose water that Satsuki used. "Maybe you should use rose jam and rose syrup," said Ichigo "they have a lovely smell of rose". "Yeah maybe" Satsuki sighed. Ichigo noticed that something was wrong with Satsuki and she became worried about him. She had a sniff of the rose water and thought it had a really nice rose scent.

At that moment Team Ichimatsu turned up. "Eww what's that smell?" said Takeshi, rudely. "Smells like perfume" said Reimage. "Yeah well it stinks" said Takeshi. They saw the rose pound cake and Takeshi spoke rudely about it. "As your senior, I'll give you some advice," he said, "this is not a perfume contest and you will never win with cheap scents like this".

Ichigo was furious with Takeshi's rudeness and she wanted to hit him badly with a frying pan. But the sweets princes pulled her to outside. "You mustn't do that!" said Makato "not only would you be disqualified from the cake grand Prix, but you would also be expelled". "But we can't let Team Ichimatsu get away with their rudeness" said Ichigo. "And that's why we need to defeat them," said Makato "we can get even with them by defeating them". The others agreed, except Satsuki; he was thinking about something. "Excuse me all of you, I need to cool my head" he said and he left. Café followed him. Now Ichigo was starting to worry about Satsuki.

Ichigo couldn't concentrate on her strawberry pound cake. "Please excuse me guys, but I'm too worried about Hanabusa-Kun to concentrate," she said "I'm going to talk to him". "Amano" said Makato. "He is our friend and teammate, and true friends help each other out" said Ichigo. Just then Café turned up. "Satsuki told me to leave him alone" he said, tearfully. "Come with me Café," said Ichigo "you, Vanilla and I are both going to talk to him". The three left the room at once to see Satsuki. "What are you thinking Ichigo?" asked Vanilla. "Well to tell you the truth, I think Hanabusa-kun has been thinking about his dead father all this time," said Ichigo "since the theme for our pound cakes is family, I reckon that Hanabusa-kun wants to make a rose pound cake because of that". "That does make sense," said Vanilla "especially since he told you about his dad, being a rose grower, sometime after you attended here". "He told me about that too," said Café "and last night he was staring at the rose water bottle for ages". "Then my guess is that rose water is a memento of his dad" said Ichigo.

They found Satsuki sitting by the rose bushes; as it was still winter there were no roses on the bushes. "Hanabusa-kun," said Ichigo "the reason you want to make a rose pound cake is because of your dad right?" You can't fool me because since the theme for our cakes is family, I can tell that you have been thinking about your dad. Remember I think about my grandma all the time too". Satsuki stared at Ichigo. "You are right Ichigo-chan," he said "it is because of my dad that I wanted to make a rose cake. The truth is when my dad was alive we used to have tea in our rose garden all the time. Both my parents loved sweets and my mum baked cakes for us all the time and I ended up growing being surrounded by roses and cakes". "I remember you telling me about being surrounded by roses all your life" said Ichigo. "Yes and it was because of that, that I decided to be a patissier and make rose sweets in my own shop," said Satsuki "but I doubt I can make that dream come true". "Why though?" asked Ichigo "I mean you make excellent sweets and you are an expert on roses". "It's because of my father's death a few years ago," said Satsuki "he was in Paris at that time for work. He bought me my bottle of rosewater because he remembered my dream of making a rose cake. He was heading for the airport to come back home, but it was raining hard and my dad ended up sliding into some lamp posts, while trying to avoid hitting a child that ran into the road. Then he died from car injuries. This rose water was the last thing he bought for me so I've kept it ever since". Ichigo, Vanilla and Café felt sorry for Satsuki. "It was also that time that I decided to be nicer to my mother and all other girls". "Oh I see," said Ichigo "so that's why you act narcissistic all the time then".

Some chuckling was heard from behind a bush; it was Makato and Sennosuke. They had been worried about Satsuki too, and they intended to find out about Satsuki's problem because he was their friend. "We didn't know the story about your dad" said Sennosuke. "Well it's my fault for not telling you earlier" said Satsuki. Satsuki placed a drop of the rose water into some tea and asked Ichigo to try it. 'This tea is delicious,' she thought 'this rose scent makes me understand why Hanabusa-Kun's dad wanted to bring the rose water to him at once". "The reason I want to make a rose pound cake is that I would like to base it on a family having a fun time in a rose garden" said Satsuki. "Then we shall make it" said Ichigo. "I agree," said Sennosuke "it is a wonderful idea". The spirits liked the idea too. "We shall help you," said Makato "because we are your friends". Satsuki felt at ease with good friends beside him.

The next day Team Ichigo was working on their pound cakes again. Unfortunately Satsuki still couldn't get his rose pound cake right; the scent still kept on evaporating from the cake after it was baked. That evening Satsuki was by the school's lake and he felt like giving up on the rose pound cake. "My father left the rose water to me, but I can't make any use with it," he said "this water brings nothing but unpleasant memories of my dad's funeral. I wish that I didn't wish to make rose cakes. It's this rose water's fault that my dad died".

Satsuki was about to throw the rose water into the lake, but Ichigo shouted at him to stop. Ichigo, Makato and Sennosuke had been worried about Satsuki and they followed him to the lake to check on him. The rose water bottle felt out of Satsuki's hand and ended up falling towards the lake. Ichigo bravely grabbed onto it to save it, but she ended up falling into the lake.

The end
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