Invitation

Finally the day for her dreaded test had arrived, but as Kosaki worked along the requirements of baking a cake using a certain mix of ingredients. She felt herself moving along automatically with no concerns at all. It was a wonderful feeling, one she rarely had at all in her life as she normally live with doubts clouding her judgment.

Once it had finished cooking in the oven, she did what she was always most confident in as the girl decorated the cake well beyond what would be expected from the testers. After all, they were only grading based on taste, not appearances this time around.

"Looks like all that time spent training paid off." Anadama commented once she had completed. He grabbed a knife and fork to take a clean slice for himself. The man took one careful bite, scrutinizing every little detail with his capable taste buds. Without saying a word, he used his pen to make a mark on the paper on his clipboard. "Congratulations, you pass."

"Thank you." She bowed her head to him, quietly taking a massively deep sigh of relief as she could stick around for just a while longer. Today was easily one of Kosaki's best days ever as not only had she succeeded, but had finally managed to get a grasp of her baking talents. The only time she could think of when she pulled out something tasty was the one time she made Raku Valentine's day chocolates…

The memory came back to her in a wave of bitter sweetness. That day she was glad she had managed to overcome the challenge and give him something for the holiday. It was also the day she had promised Chitoge about helping each other with the boy they liked, not realizing they were talking about the same one.

"Is everything all right?" Asked Anadama, wondering why she had been bowing for as long as she had.

"Of course." She straightened up and waved him off. "I'm really happy to have passed. It means a lot to me." Kosaki could now put this behind her and be prepared for the future for her time in the academy. This was just the basics and she knew the challenges ahead would only get tougher as she progressed.

"Oh by the way." He said, tucking the clipboard under his arm. "There's someone who wants to meet you. I'm not interesting in seeing him though, so I'll be going now." Anadama didn't go into further detail for her on who exactly it was who was going to see her. Only that she needed to just wait right where she already was as he walked out of the kitchen.

"Someone wants to see me?" She said to herself, pondering on the possibilities.

"Congratulations!" She thought she had already gotten her answer when Chiffon leaped from behind her and gave the girl a hug. "I heard you passed, nice job!" It was good to have recognition for her accomplishments, but her reserved nature still gave her that usual awkwardness in response.

"Yeah, it's nice to pass." She replied, sounding enthused about passing in one of the most toughest schools in the world. "But I couldn't have done it without Anadama's help."

"Oh yeah, somehow you two really spent a lot of time in the kitchen yesterday." She responded, crossing her arms. Since she also lived in the mansion, it was obvious to her what was going on. "Kind of weird that you got that guy of all people to help."

"Maybe he's nicer than you give him credit for?" Kosaki tried to stick with her original beliefs that he was not a bad guy like everyone else had said he was.

"I don't know what's going on in that guy's head." Chiffon was unconvinced as she tried to come up with some other ideas. "He still doesn't seem that kind to you, and we shouldn't be giving him credit for just doing his job."

"He did tell me you were coming."

"Really? That's weird since I didn't know he knew I was here." As it turned out, Chiffon wasn't the one he had warned her about. Which was odd seeing as she definitely fit the bill as someone he didn't want to see.

"That's probably because I'm the one who's here to see you." A man voice spoke up, which prompted the pair to turn their heads to see who it was. Before them was an older man who looked like he was the same age as their own parents. "It's nice to see you, Kosaki." He walked up and gave her a nice handshake, which she only responded with automatically as the girl stared at him.

"It's nice to meet you too." She replied as if on autopilot. Compared to Anadama, his dad seemed to be a much more approachable person. It seemed a bit odd that his own son would appear to have issues with a man like this.

"It's wonderful to see you again." Chiffon bowed her head in respect. Her demeanor towards the man was one of respectability Kosaki had yet to see until now. "What brings you back here again? Are you just here to see the new student?"

"I was able to manage to get away from some of my duties." He answered. Mr. Miyanagi. "Though that unfortunately won't last for long as this weekend I'll have to attend a party with some big shots." The man sighed, disappointed about something invisible to the girls. "I see my son's not around, didn't he grade your exam?"

"He did." Kosaki answered. "You just missed him."

"I'm sure that's no accident." Chiffon muttered under her breath.

"That's a shame, but I'll fill him in on this later." He responded. "Actually, I'm glad to see the two of you now because I did want to share some good news. You're invited to that party I was talking about."

"We are?" Kosaki's jaw dropped over the news. This would far away from the only major party she had ever been to in her life, but she never would've expected being invited to one in the US.

"All my students are invited, so don't take it the wrong way." He explained. "But everyone in the academy should work on their networking skills. So I figured it'd be a good idea to allow you all to join me and my son."

"Oh great, he's going to be there." Chiffon could've lived without that news as the high of being invited wore off. "But I'm not going to let him ruin the night for me." It seemed a bit odd how brash the girl was to Kosaki. She was talking rather poorly about Anadama right in front of his father and the man didn't seem to react to it at all. He either didn't care about the trash talk, or as was more concerning to Kosaki, might've agreed.

"Well, I'll let you two ladies go for now." Said Mr. Miyanagi. His tone made it clear he was in a hurry as he rushed them through the farewell process and basically kicked the pair out of the kitchen. "Sorry, I'll need to borrow our state-of-the-art kitchen to handle some preparations." He told them and closed the door behind them.

"He must be one really busy man." Kosaki commented as they exited the building and entered the cityscape. Somehow despite being surrounded by all the traffic, talking, and street performers, the school itself managed to isolate the sounds for a rather silent experience.

"He really is. That guy's always out taking care of business." Chiffon explained. "I don't really know what he's doing, but I assume it has to do with handling all the bakeries the family owns. So pretty much Anadama's the only one who's taking care of the school, sadly." She held disdain in her voice about the situation. "He's a nice guy though, don't know why his kid's not the same."

"I don't think Anadama's that mean." While she couldn't deny he had some rough edges, Kosaki also knew that a mean person wouldn't have helped her in the way he did. She remembered her tears coming out from her memories. He genuinely cared then, even though he had no clue what she had went through.

"Bah, how about we not spend all day talking about him." Chiffon would've preferred any other topic. So instead she took Kosaki's hand and led her down the road. The girl had thought they'd be going home after her exam, but it seemed that her friend had other plans after they were given the news. "Bet you don't have anything to wear at the party." She said, stopping them right in front of a designer store.

"I don't, but…" Kosaki couldn't help but be a bit overwhelmed by the store's fancy aura. "I think this might be a little out of my league."

"Nonsense, you're a pretty girl who deserves a pretty dress." Chiffon insisted as she pushed the girl inside. "Besides, I'm sure there's plenty of good deals that'll work out fine. I've shopped here before and they aren't that expensive." While most of the price tags would disagree with her, Kosaki was thankful there was a line of more affordable options for someone like her.

"Is this all right?" She asked, placing one of the dresses she found over her to see how it might look before trying it on. "I've been to formal events in Japan, but maybe it's different in the States." Though Chitoge was American, so maybe her birthday party was proof they weren't so different after all.

"Not like I know either." Since she was from France, Chiffon was just as out of the loop. However she had a bit more of an adventurous spirit compared to her classmate and didn't care about appearances as much. "I won't be a student here forever, so I'll just enjoy it and so should you."

"I guess you're right." She meekly agreed as she took the dress to the fitting room. While it would be fun to attend a formal event, as she had already done so in the past. Kosaki did have her concerns about being in one where she practically didn't know anyone. Chiffon was nice, but they only just met and she didn't know anyone else otherwise.

She put on the dress picked out and smiled. It was white, with pink accents scattered about in all the right places. When Kosaki looked at herself, it was as if the dress had been made specifically just for her. "I hope they like it." She said to herself, wondering just who it was she wanted to look good for.