March for a Bento
The moment I decided on what to make for the bentos, I knew what I had to do. I’d make some karaage to serve as their centerpiece. Seeing a pile of crispy karaage the moment you open a bento box is sure to whet your appetite.
Nobody else was in the kitchen at that hour of the night. I was alone, enjoying my time cooking everyone’s lunch for the next day.
To make the karaage, I first needed some chicken thighs. I took out a little over three kilograms of meat. Some may view that as too much, but I felt I needed even more for the hungry mouths I had to feed.
I cut the meat into large pieces and threw them into translucent plastic bags.
It was time to apply my patented Yukikaze Karaage Seasoning.
A splash of soy sauce and sake. A small amount of sesame oil, along with some ginger paste and garlic, with a little extra on the garlic this time. I sprinkled black pepper into one of the bags for those who wanted their karaage with a bit more spice.
And finally, my secret ingredient: agodashi.
I carefully poured it in and started to massage the meat.
Massage it.
Massage it more!
Massage it more!!
Massage it with all of your strength until it absorbs all the soy sauce and sake!!!
The fully seasoned chicken glistened with a slight brown tint. Perfect. I moved it to sit in the fridge for about ten minutes, deciding to prepare the side dishes in the meantime.
I laid my pans on the stove to make some simple tamagoyaki, using two frying pans to make two flavor variations—sweet and salty. As I waited for the freshly-made tamagoyaki to cool down, my timer went off, signaling me to pour a generous amount of oil into a large tempura pot.
Now I was in a race against time.
I took the chicken out of the fridge and covered it with a layer of flour followed by a layer of potato starch. The alarm on the stove then alerted me that the oil had reached 170 degrees. I started to lay the meat into the pot—carefully, one by one, slowly.
The pieces of chicken let out bright bubbling noises, enjoying their dip in the pool of golden oil. I let them fry for four minutes before taking them out to cool for another five, further heating the oil up to 180 degrees in the process. I then put them back in the pot to fry them for another minute or two. Double-fried karaage always retains its flavor, even if it’s cold.
After I finished frying all of the meat, a delicious smell was left lingering in the air.
“Phew… They look good. Now I just need to put the cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and edamame on some toothpicks.”
But before that, I filled the rice cooker. I planned to leave the rice in there overnight, so it would be freshly-cooked in the morning for me to pack it into the bentos and lay seaweed on top.
Just as I was basking in the happiness of my karaage, someone came by to make my night even better.
“Yuki-nii, are you here? Woah, that’s a lotta karaage.” My beloved cousin popped his head into the kitchen.
“Welcome home,
“Hey. I thought I smelled something good coming from here.”
“Would you like a taste? They’re freshly-made.” I picked up a piece of karaage with my chopsticks and blew on it to cool it down before holding it out for him.
“Oh, you’re gonna feed it to me?” he said bashfully. He used to pay it no mind, but I assume he was a bit embarrassed to be hand-fed in a dormitory setting.
“No need to be shy. Here, say ‘ahh.’”
He checked his surroundings to make sure nobody was around before opening his mouth. After tasting the karaage, his eyes widened, sparkling with excitement.
“Th-thish is sho good!” The piece he ate was quite large, so he gave his compliments with his cheeks full like a squirrel.
I felt a gentle warmth fill my chest.
“I shouldn’t be eating fried food this late at night, but your karaage is just insanely good. It’s perfectly crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and super flavorful. It really makes me want some rice and beer to go with it.”
“Thank you. I’ll make you karaage for the rest of my life as long as I keep getting to hear how much you like it.”
“Haha. Did you make these for lunch tomorrow? Since you have a bunch of bento boxes out.” He looked at the boxes lined up on the table and asked me who they were for as he put down his bag.
“They’re for my little brothers in the Noon Team. They all needed lunches to bring to their extracurriculars tomorrow, so I offered to cook for them, since I’ll be traveling out to head to a rink anyway.”
“You’re always such a nice guy, Yuki-nii.”
“I’m more than happy to do it. The Noon Team have healthy appetites, and they always wash their bento boxes before returning them. They’re good kids.”
“Yeah, I agree! But wait, what about these two then?” he asked, looking at the remaining boxes as he washed his hands.
“Oh, I promised Ten and Raito I’d make lunch for them too. I wanted to make sure Ten had something to eat after his job interview.”
“And Ten-kun agreed to that?”
“Hm, well, he usually refuses, but he agreed this time. He told me ‘alriiight’ when I asked.”
“Ooh, okay. But you mentioned Raito-san too, right? I didn’t expect that one.”
“He was passing by when I was telling the Noon Team I’d make their lunches. He said he wanted to try my cooking too, so I included him. He even told me he was so excited to try it tomorrow that he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.”
I was also happy to be able to make a bento for one of my old classmates. We made plans to eat lunch together some day too, since we wouldn’t be able to the next day. Neither of us knew what it was like to have lunch with someone while we were in school, so we wanted to try it as adults by chatting over our bentos together on a rooftop or at a park. It was one more missed school experience we wanted to make up for.
“Haha, you look really happy, Yuki-nii. That’s great to hear. I’m sure everyone’s gonna love the food you made. Well, now that I’m here, lemme give you a hand!” he kindly offered, rolling up his sleeves.
“Aren’t you tired? You just came back from work.”
“Nope, I’m full of energy now thanks to the karaage!” His smile was almost blinding in its radiance. He was so adorable, so dear to me.
“In that case, could you help me put these toothpicks into the edamame?” I asked him, filled with joy. Time spent working side-by-side with him was always like a personal reward.
We finished the bentos in what felt like seconds. All that was left was to fill them with rice in the morning.
“Even the arrangement in your bentos always looks good. I’m sure the kids will be super happy to get something like this.” He continued after complimenting me, “But next time, I’ll make you a bento.”
His offer filled me with happiness.
“You always cook for everyone else, right? So I want someone to cook for you every once in a while. Since you told me the recipe, I’ll try making the karaage you made today!”
His kindness struck me in my chest. Just being around him made me inexplicably happy.
“…You made me a bento when I had that important competition. I think it was the first one you ever made…”
“Oh, that weird-looking gold medal bento? Yeah, that one was, uh…” His face soured as he winced. “Just forget about that one! It wasn’t good! So I’m gonna give it another go!” He became flustered, waving his arms around. A wave of affection came over me at the sight as I laughed.
“Alright. I’ll wait. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Hearing that, the smile returned to his face, and he nodded firmly.
“Mhm! I’ll make sure it’s good!”
I waved him goodbye as he left to take a bath and cleaned up the kitchen before returning to my room.
Liguang was already back from work, tending to his rabbits. He was a very intelligent little brother and often busy as a result, so I was relieved to see that he had come home early.
“Welcome home, Liguang. Did you have dinner yet?”
“Oh, Kamina. You don’t have to worry, I already ate.”
Haku was perched on his lap, melting into his hand as he petted him. Liguang’s usually sharp expression softened up at the sight.
I reached towards the shelf that was filled with both of our belongings and picked up a small safe. Liguang’s gaze flickered towards me as I opened its door.
“…I’ve never seen you open that before.”
“Oh, I just wanted to look at the things in it again. I keep my most prized possessions in here… Like this.”
The first item I took out was a graded MotG card. Its name, “Dragon Slumbering in Ice.” It was a card that was released early into the game’s creation. While it was plenty strong on its own, when combined with Icicle Palace, the dragon would awaken, unleashing an incredible power.
And above all else, the dragon on it looked cool.
“The case it’s in looks thick. Is it a rare card?”
“Yeah, it is. I believe the market price is around…” After I told Liguang the price, his eyes grew wide and he was left speechless, something quite rare to see from him.
“Is that so… There’s a lot of depth to that game. If it’s that valuable, I’ll let Sojun know to keep watch over it.”
“No, that’s fine. This card isn’t important to me because of the monetary value. I need it to complete my dream deck, so I’m keeping it safe for the time being.”
“This ‘dream deck’ of yours must be something important to you. I’ll keep an eye out for anything that can help.”
Liguang was always very kind. I nodded and thanked him before reaching back into the safe to show him something even more important to me than the card.
“This one’s my real treasure.”
It was a piece of yellow felt cut into a circle and stitched around the edges—a handmade omamori. In clumsy embroidery were the words “GOLD” and “To Yuki-nii.”
“…I feel there’s no need to ask, but is that…?”
“Yeah. It’s an omamori the chief gave me for the JPN Championships a long time ago.”
Since it was so dear to me, I always kept it in my safe when I didn’t need it for important competitions. I thought back to it when I was cooking with
“…So it is. You seem to treasure it even more than the card you showed me.”
I nodded at Liguang’s words as I ran my fingers over the embroidery, a single thought quietly surfacing from within me as I did.
I still hadn’t won this medal at the JPN Championship.