This is Art

Melanie got out of her luxury queen-size bed wearing a white shirt and dark purple dolphin shorts, of course her attire were made out of the finest fabric that money could buy.

She glances around her bedroom which were filled....with paintings and pictures hung on the walls of herself. Most of them featured model-like poses, but none of them were lewd while the rest of her art collection were simple memoirs of her childhood featuring her family.

All of the art pieces featured only her or her family members as she removed the ones with her friends and her ex-fiancé. Though isolating herself with pictures and artworks of oneself inexplicably fueled her ego until recently...

'I should replace some of these pieces with something else.' 

Melanie's mindset started to slowly change recently in the past year, but more prevalent in the recent months since she heard of the marriage proposals between her former friends and ex-fiancé. It went from extreme anger to slowly withering after seeing Dean's sad expression and now...

'Maybe pieces of the oceans from various planets with added sunsets or nighttime too. Yeah let's commission some pieces from the Artists' Society of Culture and Love.'

....her planned revenge prank against her former close ones were snuffed out just like that.

[Oooo...whacha planning on making Mel?], Jen immediately became excited by the prospect of free food even though Paxians don't need nourishment. But given that Melanie's cooking skill can rival that of Michelin Star chefs, Jen's virtual taste buds were ecstatic.

She was floating in her full 5'4" (162.56 cm) size making eye contact with Melanie giving her the full wide sparkling black eyes.

Her demeanor very much resembles a 'close' pink friend and co-graduate unlike Jen's usual nonchalant uncaring attitude. 

"sigh....I'll decide when I reach the kitchen but can you move? It's weird to walk through you Jen", Melanie rolled her eyes as she walked out of her bedroom and into her living room.

Her living room was as luxurious as her bedroom but the paintings and other artworks in the living room highlighted one of her favorite hobbies...collecting historical art pieces from the 21st century even if they were just copies. She had the real pieces back at her family's mansion where the pieces are properly maintained and preserved.

Though Melanie flinched for a moment as she saw the various statues and busts of herself in the living room. Her newfound clarity made her feel slightly embarrassed by the art pieces of herself in various non-lewd but dramatic poses.

Only slightly embarrassed.

Nevertheless, her cheeks had a light shade of pink as Melanie decided to place all of the statues and busts of herself in a corner planning on getting rid of them tomorrow.

'What was I thinking having those made and shown all around my apartment'

Past Melanie would have argued that they helped fuel her ego after feeling betrayed by her former friends and ex-fiancé, but deep inside current Melanie knew why she had these art pieces made in her image.

After she finished 'refurnishing' her living room, Melanie felt that her stats improved a little so...

"Status"

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Name: Melanie Asato-Romanoff

Age: 20

Year: 4th year (Graduating this year)

Ranking: 11/8000 of 4th year students

Esper Power: Pyrokinesis 

[Stats]

Esper Power Level: A-

Strength: D+ -> C-

Agility: D+

Endurance: C

Stamina: B

__________________________________

"Huh when did I have a break through with my strength?", Melanie was confused so she asked Jen since she was the only person who would keep track of her stats.

[You really don't remember breaking those training bots with your bare hands after the engagement announcement a month ago?]

"Oh"

Melanie thought about it remembering how the anger and frustration fueled her to overexert herself, but she quickly disregarded the thought as a month ago was a long time ago and her new self was ready to move on. 

Heading over to the kitchen, which was spotless as she personally cleaned it everyday after every meals, Melanie figured out what food to make.

[So?]

Melanie replied with a subtle smile, "Pasta Aglio e Olio but with linguini instead of spaghetti."

[The dish from that old movie from the early 21st century?], Jen excitedly inquired as she remembered watching that movie with Melanie on their flight back. It was a slice of life movie about a former chef going on a road trip with his son and former co-worker in a food truck.

Anyway the first quarter of the movie had the chef serving a simple pasta dish to his girlfriend and Jen was extremely curious on the taste because of the way the movie presented it. 

"Mmmhmmm", Melanie hummed a yes as she took enough fresh linguini for herself from a mini fridge near the main fridge then she gathered the rest of the ingredients. 

She finely chopped the garlic cloves then the parsley leaves were finely chopped.

Melanie boiled a pot of water with her powers as it was faster and added the linguini along with rock salt.

Then she added high quality olive oil into the pan and set the heat to medium, using the stove this time, until it was shimmering.

The sliced garlics were added to the pan creating an aroma in the kitchen to which Jen activated her nasal sense feature and smelled the rich toasty garlic scent.

Moments later, Melanie added red pepper flakes into the mix and removed the pan from the heat. 

Back to the boiling pot, she drained it mostly and added the pasta into the pan along with leftover pasta water. Then the chopped parsleys were added along with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Some additional salt and pepper were added to taste completing the dish.

Melanie walked over to the small dining table with her plate while Jen scanned the food and generated a similar plate walking along with Melanie. 

They both sat down and tasted the food, [Mmmm....the garlic, parsley, and lemon juice enhances the flavor of the pasta along with the extra spice from the chili flakes. Cooking really is an art form.], Jen's face looked like it was melting from food pleasure then...

.

.

.

Moments later.

[Ahem, I trust you wouldn't tell Kat about this side of me?], Jen's clarity became clearer after finishing her dish. 

"Fufufu, of course, as long as you keep her out of my apartment while I 'refurnish' the place"

[Uh princess, I've been doing that since you started obsessively hanging pictures and art pieces of yourself after the 'breakup']

"Oh....I guess that's another thing to thank you for, so to return that gesture, you shall get a pay raise along with a bonus"

[I didn't do it for the pay Mel, I did it as a friend since it was the only thing I could've done at the time.]

Melanie looked down at her empty plate wearing a bright smile feeling her heart strings tugging because Jen was the only person at the time who was there for her when she fell into the pit of despair...well aside from a certain young man who always wear thick glasses.

"Thank you for being my friend, Jen", Melanie weakly said barely holding her emotions together despite years of noble training as she started recalling all the times Jen was there for her. 

[Oh pixels, don't get all emotional princess, but I guess it took you long enough to thank me for my efforts], Jen proudly said as her skull hairpins started to glow in response to Melanie acknowledging her as a friend for the first time verbally. 

[Anyway back to sleep? Or late night binge?]

"I think I'll go visit that 'place' again, it has been a week since I've seen them", Melanie pondered for a moment but quickly remember her favorite spot in the academy as barely anyone visits the place. 

[Uhhh....did you forget about the pre-graduation party that's going on right now? You'd have to walk through a large crowd to get to that place]

.

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"Kuso"

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A/N: Huh a slice of life cooking chapter? Well I wanted to show off our female lead's cooking skill 

Oh Kuso is a swear word in Japanese and the closest translation is fuck.