The Guy Who Messed Up Is Gradually Doing His Best - Chapter 21

I finished shopping and now I’m at Makino-san’s house, also known as Sachi Maki.

“Excuse me for intruding.”

“Yeah. Everyone came up too.”

It seems her mother isn’t home because of work. Ah, so that’s why they called Kirishima-san and the others. It’s dangerous to be alone with just one guy, right?

I enter the house with shopping bags hanging from both my hands, while everyone else has them hanging from just one.

“Please leave your luggage here. Gouda-kun’s is over there, in the kitchen.”

“Understood.”

The bags everyone is carrying are filled with snacks, desserts, and juice, right? I follow Makino-san into the kitchen.

“Wow.”

This is what they call an island kitchen, huh? It looks like it would be easy to film here. I’ll put the things I bought in the place Makino-san specified.

“Gouda-kun, what should we do? Should we film the video first?”

Does that mean she’s trying to decide whether to eat the sweets first or take pictures?

“Shall we film the video first?”

That’s why I’m here.

“Yeah, got it. Let’s finish the shoot and then we can relax later.”

I didn’t mean it that way, but whatever. Makino-san started rummaging through the drawers in the kitchen while humming a tune.

——Hmm?

As I was wondering what she was looking for, Makino-san took an apron out from the back of the drawer.

“Gouda-kun, use this apron. It’s my favorite.”

It’s a cute apron featuring Snoopy, the dog character very popular among women. Snoopy’s relaxed face is so soothing.

But you see, on the Sachi Maki Channel, Makino-san usually doesn’t show her face, only her hands in the videos. However, today, it seems she wants to include a shot of me wearing an apron (cooking).

If my appearance is going to be in it, I think it’s better to avoid character-themed aprons. While I was thinking about that,

“I’m sorry, but could you use this one instead?”

Makino-san handed me a different apron while noticing that. This time, it was a plain apron.

“Understood.”

It seems that Makino-san, who doesn’t appear in the photos, uses the Snoopy apron.

——Ah…

“Satsu-chan, I’ll put it out here.”

While I was doing that, Kirishima-san was taking the ingredients out of the shopping bag for me. She’s so considerate. Kirishima-san is small and has a baby face. I always felt like she resembled someone, but I finally realized who it was. My younger sister. She looks a bit like my sister. I wonder if it’s okay to pat her head…

“Thank you, Tsukune. Oh, is it okay if I leave the camera to the vice-chairperson?”

Fukata-san received the camera for shooting from Makino-san and started asking how to use it. She nodded repeatedly and gave a thumbs up. Is she saying to leave it to her?

“Um.”

Kimishima-san was also looking around as if trying to do something but suddenly headed towards the living room. Then, with a big smile, she returned holding five plastic bottles of juice in both hands. Oh, she dropped one.

“Gouda-kun has hardly ever cooked, right?”

“I’m sorry, I haven’t really done much. I feel like I would just be a hindrance.”

Recently, I’ve been really busy, so I’ve started ordering delivered bento boxes. I get balanced bento boxes considering my health. So, even more so.

“Mm~ I’m thinking it through properly, so it’s fine.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Like a video focused on how to use a knife. You know, there are women who aren’t good at cooking either, so I thought it might be good to make a video for people like that. So… yeah. Can you do it like this?”

Quickly and efficiently, Makino-san took out the cutting board and knife from the storage drawer and placed them on the worktop. It seemed like she wanted to see how well I could do, but first, Makino-san showed me how to cut the vegetables.

Those hands are indeed skilled at using a knife, just as expected from someone who cooks.

“Gouda-kun, use this.”

Next, as if it were my turn, Kirishima-san placed carrots, radishes, potatoes, and cabbage near me, so I first put the carrots on the cutting board.

After thanking Kirishima-san for peeling the skin with a peeler and preparing the ingredients for cutting, I tried various cutting methods I remembered, in addition to the ones Makino-san had shown me, such as round slices, half-moon slices, ginkgo leaf slices, diagonal thin slices, matchstick slices, short strips, shredded, and fine cuts.

At first, my fingers felt clumsy, but as I kept cutting carrots, radishes, potatoes, and cabbage, I felt like I was regaining my touch and it became smoother.

This is probably because I was into cooking for a while, even though there was no one to feed.

When I remembered such things, it became enjoyable to cut the ingredients into the shapes I had in mind, and by the time I realized it, I had finished cutting them neatly.

——Ah…

I didn’t notice it while I was absorbed, but everyone was staring in amazement at the vegetables in my hands.

“Gouda-kun, you can use a knife.”

In the end, the video will be about making a bento that anyone can easily create, with Makino-san making the bento and me making a copy of Makino-san’s bento right next to her.

I was so focused on making the bento that I only said things like “Oh” and “Oh no.”

Makino-san is probably being considerate towards me. She said she was happy with the good shots, but…

——Isn’t this too ordinary for the view count to go up…?

I’m really worried. Even if I edit and make various changes, there’s a limit to what I can do.

If I come up with a more impactful and better plan, I would want to shoot it again.

After that, we all prioritized eating fresh sweets, and while talking about school matters, we decided to exchange contact information with MAIN. Since I only go to school once a week, they said they would let me know right away if there were any important announcements. This is really helpful.

But, there were quite a few sweets we couldn’t finish… Shall we eat them all together again? Yeah, that might be a good idea.

Fukata-san gave a small thumbs-up to Kimishima-san, and Kimishima-san returned the gesture, but the moment our eyes met, her face turned bright red out of embarrassment. I understand that feeling.