Serenedipity

Chapter - 20

After Soma and Megumi ran off to get fish cause Hana knew that red-haired male enough to know that he would go for a fish but knowing him he'll unquestionably add a twist in the end, that boy has a thing for adding twists. Hana walked towards the areas with more vegetation surveying the area, there was surprisingly a wide variety of products around. She could see vegetables, fruits, there were all kinds of mushroom but Hana knew better than to mess with those especially when she had no experience in that area. She didn't wanna poison the very first examiner of the day, to be honest, because it won't be a surprise if she did. Hana checked for her knife if it was still attached to its hoister which was fixed to the curve of her back safely.

Hana turned around looking up at the trees walking backwards, she yelped as she stumbled over a loose rock she tried to gain her balance but walking backwards in a wood-like area was a bad decision on her part. She fell on her bottom hissing at the burn on her palms, she managed to hurt them trying to stop her fall. She flicks her wrists as if trying to brush off the pain but was not successful with it. A bush rustled from beside her as something jumped from it, she curled up making herself smaller to avoid getting more hurt from whatever was going to come out. She shrieked as she saw a hen attacking her as she tried to save her face, more importantly, her eyes Hana had no intentions of losing an eye for this test. Trying to avoid the continuously incoming attacks she tried to move away but the hen seems to be stubborn but Hana shot up as the idea hit her, she looked at the incoming attack from the hen and giving the bird an apologetic look.

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Hana entered the cooking area again but everyone was too occupied with their work to notice, she walked towards her cooking station noting that the red-haired male was yet to come back which was surprising since she thought she took a lot of time, those chickens were not easy to deal with she huffed as she could still feel the stinging from all those scratches on her. She had made sure to fix her appearance before entering, not wanting people to get scared but she washed her hands again before starting with her preparations.

She went towards the storage area to collect the remaining ingredients, soy sauce, light soy sauce, sake, corn starch, mirin, oil, sugar and making sure to pick up utensils needed to make this. Walking back to her station she couldn't help but let her mind wander a bit before she managed to centre herself again taking a deep breath, she took this chance herself and she'll be damned if she didn't pass this with flying colours cause she was sure her red-haired male would ace this test without a doubt. Hana wanted to prove herself being capable, she always has had someone around her to help her out but this new feeling was exciting, knowing if she messes it up only she is to blame and also partially cause at least she knew she wouldn't be bringing Soma down with her if she failed.

She noted her wondering mind, racing heartbeat and heavy breathing, she set all the items down as she decided to give her face two high-fives from both sides. Instantly she felt more focused, she took out the ribbon from her neck tying up her hair away from her neck as she continued to take out the rest of her ingredients like chicken, eggs, spring onions out of the bucket she had used to collect them, choosing the deal with the chicken first so she could let it rest for longer period of time. Hana cut it up with precision and control mentally thanking Yuki-chan for teaching her the proper methods and techniques behind it. She separated the chicken fat, thighs and breast from the rest and kept it on the board while keeping the rest back into the bucket. She began mincing the meat using her knife, she was immersed into the task at hand cause without Soma and Megumi-chan, Hana doesn't have much of choice but to be very cautious of the time because she'll be working alone on this, it's been a while since she did everything by herself, last time she had done it was a couple of years back when there was a rift between the red-haired male and her. She never found out the reason behind it, whenever she mentions it he laughs it off and apologizes for it. That year was something she rather not think of.