White Bread Loaf

I headed to the spot behind the school building where I always ate lunch, and Caro and I sat down on the bench.

Today, the bread we’d been given at the bakery was our lunch. But this time, I’d brought cold tea in a stainless-steel thermos.

“Here you go, Caro-san.”

I poured the tea from the thermos into a cup and handed it to Caro.

“This is really cold. How does that work?”

She’d tried it expecting it to be room temperature, and the cold surprised her.

“If you keep it in this container, it holds the temperature for a while.”

“Ohhh, that’s amazing.”

While sipping tea, the two of us ate our lunch bread.

“I heard these breads were your ideas, Kent-san. You’re really knowledgeable about all kinds of things.”

Caro said that while munching on a custard cream bun.

“I just put different fillings into a basic bread, so it’s not like I’m doing anything that hard.”

“Is that so?”

“But if I’m being honest, I do want to try making something that takes a bit more effort… It’s just that even making prototypes costs money.”

“We have to earn a lot, then.”

Saying that, Caro took both my hands. We stared into each other’s eyes.

“Hey, you two—why are you getting such a nice atmosphere going?”

““Eek!””

We both jumped at the sudden voice. It was Josette. And as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she sat right beside me.

“Oh my, there’s only one left.”

She said that and ate the last tuna bun all by herself.

“Ah— I was saving that for last…”

She’d eaten the tuna bun I’d kept as my final treat.

“I’m a bit thirsty.”

Josette stole the cup I’d been drinking from and sipped the tea.

“Oh? This is cold. I never thought I’d be able to drink something cold in a place like this.”

And then she drank it all.

“Josette-san, do you want a refill?”

“Yes, please.”

When I poured her more, Josette drank it with a satisfied look.

“Alright then, this is my thanks.”

Right there with Caro watching, Josette stole my lips.

“Ah—”

Caro made a strange little sound. She clearly hadn’t expected that at all.

“Pwah…”

“Josette-san, what are you doing all of a sudden?”

I didn’t exactly hate it, but I still demanded an explanation.

“My thanks… of course? Did you dislike it?”

Josette looked up at me from under her lashes. My heart skipped.

“My heart is pounding so much.”

She took my hand and pressed it to her chest. Even through her clothes, I could tell how full it was—so much so that I could feel it clearly through the fabric.

“So soft…”

The thought slipped out of my mouth.

“Then, Kent-san, my thanks too.”

This time, Caro stole my lips.

“Now it’s a draw.”

I caught myself thinking, strangely calmly, that it was rare for Caro—who was supposed to be one of Josette’s attendants—to assert herself like this.

“Okay, okay, you two—please get along.”

I told them.

“Get along… yes.”

“Get along, then.”

They stared at each other, and then pressed their lips together.

They’d clearly interpreted “get along” in different ways.

“Oh my. This isn’t bad either.”

Josette looked rather pleased, while Caro’s face turned red and she looked away—an amusing contrast.

And just like that, lunch break ended and afternoon classes began.

Classes after lunch made me sleepy. When I looked around, a few students were nodding off, and a lot of them had fully fallen asleep. But one student alone was taking the lesson seriously.

Josette.

She used a pen and ink to copy everything written on the board onto rough paper, like she didn’t want to miss a single thing. Her hand movements were practiced, but from my perspective it looked inconvenient. For the record, the class was basically elementary-school level for me, so I wasn’t taking notes at all. Josette noticed me watching and waved at an angle the teacher couldn’t see. I waved back. It felt a little like青春 (youthful) school life, and that pleasant feeling lingered.

After afternoon classes ended, Caro came to my classroom.

“Kent-san, let’s go home together.”

Since we were headed the same way, I had no reason to refuse.

“Yeah. Let’s go. Josette-san, see you tomorrow.”

“Josette-sama, excuse us.”

“Yes. See you tomorrow.”

Naturally, Caro took my hand, and the two of us walked home side by side.

When we got home, we put down our bags and went to the bakery across the street.

“Welcome back, you two. Then I’m counting on you for the second half as well.”

““Yes.””

From this time of day, people finishing work and stopping to buy dinner supplies increased, and the bakery was no exception—customers flooded in. But just like in the morning, Caro guided customers smoothly, the line didn’t get long, and even though it was still busy, it didn’t feel burdensome at all.

“Sales went up, but it didn’t feel that hectic.”

Marie said that after she finished calculating today’s sales.

“I guess that’s thanks to Caro-san. At this rate, sales could still climb a lot.”

Marie said cheerfully.

“I’ve only just started working here, but… I have a suggestion.”

Caro spoke to Marie hesitantly.

“I’ve heard that when Kent-san develops a new bread, he pays out of his own pocket. Couldn’t we treat that as shop work and cover it as an expense?”

“Huh?”

Caro’s proposal startled me.

“Now that you mention it, that might be true. The breads Kent-san comes up with are only sold here, and if we’re not selling them to other shops, then it does make sense to cover them as expenses. But we can’t do it with no limit. We’re not a shop with endless money.”

“Thanks, Marie-san. Then right away— well, I’d like to say that, but I guess it’ll be when we bake tomorrow.”

Marie gave conditional approval. For now, I gave her a rough estimate of the research cost for the bread I wanted to make next, and I got the green light.

“Then here’s today’s pay and bread. And the research budget.”

Caro and I received today’s pay.

“Good work. You two, I’m counting on you again tomorrow.”

“Big brother, Caro-oneechan, see you tomorrow!”

“Then, see you tomorrow.”

“Excuse us.”

Caro and I left the shop and went home.

We changed into our tracksuits and had dinner.

“Then I’ll go get the bath ready.”

Caro proactively went to prepare the bath.

While she did that, I cleaned up the dishes we’d used for dinner… though really, I just shoved them into the automatic dishwasher.

“I set up the bath.”

Caro came back drenched.

“You got pretty wet.”

“Yes. I think I pulled the lever the wrong way, and a ton of water came out of the shower and soaked me.”

“You should change quickly, but… you don’t have a spare, do you?”

“Then I’ll just take it off.”

Caro said that and undressed right there.

“Um… Caro-san, what exactly are you doing?”

“The bath should fill soon, so I thought I’d wash this. Kent-san, you should undress too.”

Saying that, Caro started taking off my clothes.

“W-wait—what—?!”

In the end, she stripped me completely. The clothes I’d been wearing were already tossed into the washing machine and were in the middle of a wash.

“Even though we’re inside, it’s still a little embarrassing when we’re both naked.”

Caro said, cheeks red.

I tried not to look at Caro, but she kept slipping into my field of view no matter what.

“Ah… Kent-san…”

Caro turned toward me, but her gaze dropped lower… right to—

“Don’t look too much. It’s embarrassing.”

I got flustered and covered myself.

“So you do react to me… Yesterday, nothing like that happened, so I honestly started losing confidence.”

Yesterday, I’d been too nervous for any of that. That was the truth. Maybe today I had a bit more mental room.

“The bath is ready.”

The automated voice announced that preparation was complete.

“Then, Kent-san. Let’s get in together again today.”

In the end, just like yesterday, the two of us took a bath together.

By the time we got out, the laundry and drying were finished, so we changed and went to sleep in our own rooms.

The next day, after getting ready, the two of us went to the bakery across the street. Before leaving home, I’d prepared ingredients for the new bread I wanted to make.

““Good morning.””

“Mornin’! Big brother, Caro-oneechan—what kind of bread are we making today?”

Catherine asked when she saw what I was carrying.

“You came prepared right away, didn’t you? I’m excited to see what we’ll make.”

“Today, I want to try a classic—the white bread loaf everyone thinks of when you say ‘bread.’”

I went to the back of the shop and asked Marie to share some of the dough she’d already prepared.

“I’ll put the dough into this box… and if we bake it, it should be done.”

In front of the three of them watching with interest, I placed the dough into a rectangular loaf pan.

Then I put it into the oven just like the other breads.

After a while, it finished baking. When I removed it from the pan, a square loaf of bread appeared.

“This is huge. It looks hard to eat.”

Catherine stared at it, intrigued.

“You don’t eat this bread like that.”

“Huh? You don’t?”

Catherine blinked blankly at my answer.

“Then how do you eat this bread?”

Marie asked me.

“Like this—you slice it…”

I took out a bread knife and cut it at regular intervals.

“You eat it in pieces about this size.”

The three of them each took a slice and tried it.

“Big brother… this is just normal bread, right?”

“The taste is normal bread.”

“Bread.”

All three looked a little disappointed. It looked different, but it tasted like ordinary bread.

“You can eat it as-is, but it’s very versatile. For example—”

I put ham on one slice, added mashed boiled egg and mayonnaise on top, placed another slice over it, set a board on top, and pressed lightly. Then I cut off the crusts. After that, I cut it into four triangles and made sandwiches.

“Like this—you can enjoy lots of flavors by choosing what you want to sandwich in, or spread on.”

I had the three of them taste the sandwiches I’d just cut.

“It got so much tastier. Egg and mayonnaise go really well together.”

“It’s nice that you can eat it easily.”

“Delicious.”

Each of them gave their impressions.

“For now, we sell just the loaf bread, and later we add things like sandwiches and other variations. Marie-san, what do you think?”

“Mm… sandwiches sound good, but it might also settle in as a standard staple. Then let’s put it out on the shelves starting today.”

With Marie’s approval, we decided to sell the white bread loaves.