Cake Addiction [Vice]

[Nanasawa Minako]

Her mother had the world's most terrible idea. She wanted Minako to pick her up things from the store since her father's birthday was this weekend. Mother knew better than to ask Mina to help make the food since she was a disaster in the kitchen. It seemed mother didn't realize it was just as disastrous to send her to the store. She had given Minako a list with items to pick up, but that didn't necessarily help her. Her mother wrote things like flour, sugar, and beef. How was she supposed to know what to get with a list like that?

She had been staring at the rows upon rows of flour for the last fifteen minutes. Her eyes kept going from the list back to the wall of different brands of flour and back again. There was a red box, blue box, black box, a few bags, and there even were a few with cute characters. Which one did her mother want? What was the differences between all these boxes? Minako let out a frustrated low groan.

"Which one...?"

She looked down at the list for the umpteenth time. It really wasn't helpful at all. Why was this so hard? Minako groaned again as she continued walking. Not much further down as sugar, and there was the same type of problem. There were just too many types! She was definitely getting a headache from all of this. Was shopping supposed to be this complicated? Just like the flour, sugar came in different boxes and sacks. There were all these names and colors and types! Her head was spinning. She wasn't sure she wanted to look at the beef section because it was bound to be boxes of that too at this rate. Her eyes scanned down the list. There were only ten things on her shopping list, but it seemed impossible. So impossible...

Minako stood there with her head hung low as she sighed. She supposed this was only happening because she was so far removed from her element. To succeed in a place like this, she needed time to research and study or she needed help from a professional? Her mother would have been the professional in this situation but she didn't come along. Someone who was already shopping, perhaps?

Minako looked around the aisle. There actually was someone here! There was a boy with dark hair up ahead grabbing a box. He could be of some assistance... Maybe? Possibility?

"Uh, excuse me," she said assertively as she tapped the taller male on the shoulder. "Can you help me find flour?"

[Vice Ysal]

Living alone was an experience in and of itself. Most people, teenagers in particular who had overly protective parents that kept them in an irritatingly short leash especially, really only saw the perks of living alone. There were no parents to tell you to do chores, no one to bother you whenever it is you're busy with the things you have to do, and you can pretty much do anything you want since you're the only one who lived in the place. What most people forgot to take into account was that in extension of having an unlimited amount of freedom, one also had an unlimited amount of responsibility. No longer was there going to be a person to wake you up to make sure you weren't late, nor more pre-prepared breakfast or lunch or dinner for that matter. Everything that had to be done was going to be done by you and those were the base comforts that would certainly throw in anyone who couldn't take care of themselves in for a loop. Thankfully for the black haired graduate, living on his own wasn't a snap decision and he had the time to help prepare himself for whatever obstacles would appear along the road. On that note, Vice was currently facing one of those obstacles right now: grocery shopping. One had to know just what it was that went inside them whenever they ate which meant that you had to know what to get from the stores whenever you went out for the groceries. For a normal teenager, it was normal for them to know just what things were made of. For people who lived in their own, it was down right a necessity.

So here he was, in his grey pants, sneakers, black long sleeved top and his hair done in that raised pony tail style that his mom loved a lot. He had more or less just finished the list he had made for himself, with the last one being the beef he'll need to prepare curry for tonight and he was done. The carton of sugar he was getting had been a bundle too, which meant it was going to be cheaper than buying those individual sachets and whatnot. He was about to place the carton down unto his shopping cart when someone politely tapped him on the shoulder. Placing the ingredient into the cart first, Vice then turned around to find a girl who was roughly six inches shorter than him. She looked to be a teenager, their ages probably didn't vary all that much just from that. It wasn't like he was 20 just yet anyway. Turning around properly to face the girl with the amount of cordial respect she deserves, the young man gave her a small inquisitive glance first before nodding his head.

"Flour huh? Sure."

Placing his hands on the handles of the cart, Vice pulled back a bit and turned the cart around so that he would be facing towards where the flours bags would be. It'd be easier to just go along with the girl to where she had to be to make sure that in the case she didn't find whatever it is that was required of her, she wouldn't be coming back to him in an effort to gain more assistance. Leading the way to the flours, Vice then initiated conversation.

"They're over there. What kind do you need?"

[Nanasawa Minako]

He turned towards her and looked at her, probably digesting her question. She looked at him with a hopeful expression until he agreed. Immediately she smiled and nodded. "Thank you," she said immediately, bowing her head a bit. She was grateful he could help. With his help, she could be done with this accursed grocery shopping ordeal and go back home and do something way more enjoyable like homework since it seemed less torturous than shopping.

She followed the male a few steps until once again she was facing that same multiple colored wall of flour boxes and bags. Her head already felt dizzy looking at them! There was all purpose flour, rice flour, cake flour, wheat flour, buckwheat flour, and the list went on. Why was there two different types of wheat type flours?! Shouldn't one have been enough?! There was too much variety for her at this place and she didn't know what exactly she was supposed to be doing in type of situation! The girl felt dizzy from all the different types, brands, and colors of boxes. Variety was not the spice of life. It was the evil upon this world!

"I don't know," she explained quickly to the male. "My mother sent me shopping and she wrote me a list so I wouldn't forget anything. It's just not helping me understand anything here!"

She almost sounded panicked as she explained her situation to the complete and total stranger. She would have been flailing about if Yuki were around but panicking too much never solved anything. If she wanted to resolve the situation, she had to stay calm and cool with a positive outlook. There was a chance the shopping list was coded for those who understood the kitchen and this boy would understand that secret language that left her clueless.

She showed the unknown stranger the list of items her mother requested she picked up. "It just says flour," Minako said as she tried to contain some of her panic. "I don't see a box that just says flour. They all say other things on them as well. If she had something in mind, then I fail to see what!" She was talking louder than normal which was bad. She was clearly panicking. Panicking in an emergency situation didn't solve anything but created more problems. Besides, this wasn't an emergency. She still had eight hours before the store closed to figure out which items to buy. If seven hours passed before she understood which flour to get, then she needed to panic.

[Vice Ysal]

It didn't take long for the unlikely duo to find themselves by the space allotted for the selling of flour. Dredging up recipes in his head that required the ingredient, Vice unfortunately came up a bit short of 3 at the moment seeing as he wasn't really a pastry kind of guy. Rice was where it's at forever and ever. His red eyes scanned along the lines, reading off the different labels provided by the differing bags of the same ingredient. The variety was startling that there were a few overly specialised types that Vice had yet to see from the market area until today. New merchandise most likely, and judging by the dates plastered across their packing the things just came out recently. Deciding to avoid those until a later date, the young man then turned around to face the girl again before receiving a face full of paper. Raising his eyebrow at the increasing panic, or what seemed to be panic, of the girl's voice, Vice then plucked off the short shopping list from her hands and began to scan the items presented. A few of them were familiar to him, though the bottom part was a bit scrambled and the handwriting was terrible in his opinion but, in the end, the only answer that came to him that would need all of these materials was cake.

"Are you guys celebrating a birthday or something?"

Vice asked, the small amicable smile he usually wore once more back on his face given that he was talking to a female. God knew that he'd get socked if he used the same expression on some of the more aggressive males. Turning to face the line of flours and though he wasn't a master cake guy or anything near that, the 'all purpose' flour did sound pretty useful right about now. Going on ahead and picking it up, the young man then placed it on the lower side of his shopping cart as to help out in carrying the luggage. He couldn't really ask the girl to carry all of that after all.

"I'm not so much of an expert on making cake, but it does seem to be what's on the menu. I can't guarantee that product's taste but the all purpose flour should suit your needs as of the moment."

Vice continued as he double checked the list to make sure he understood it properly. There were some meatstuffs there too but that was probably reserved for the other meals that would accompany the main attraction. Can't have a birthday party with just cake after all. People with their diets and all.

"Well, c'mon. Let's get all of these things for you and cash out. Not to be rude, but I can probably guess that you'll take forever to get this list done and I'd rather your mother not worry about you."

And with that tidbit said and done, Vice then began heading back to where they had been not too long ago.

[Nanasawa Minako]

She nodded sadly as her head hung lowly when he asked if they were celebrating a birthday. It was going to be her father's birthday, and she was going to ruin it by failing to pick up the things her mother wished for. It was going to make her mother feel rather sad about it all Minako returning empty handed and it was going to make her father sad that she failed and he couldn't have cake or a nice meal for his birthday. The girl sighed sadly. She didn't want to disappoint her parents. They were the two people that loved her in the world so she needed to make them happy and proud at all times!

He gave her a small smile though she didn't understand why. This wasn't a happy situation. She tried to force herself to smile back at him and pretend that she didn't feel all the dread within her heart. What if he wasn't that experienced either? She might have asked the wrong person for help and they were both going to be clueless for hours! She was going to go back into panic mode when he moved away and grabbed some flour then told her why he picked it up. She blinked a few times trying to analyze it in her head. All-purpose flour seemed very logical because it could help with cakes and whatever else flour was used for. What was flour used for? Breads, right? The girl groaned again lowly as she nodded, trusting his decision. He was a stranger but he didn't look like the type to lead her astray.

"Thank you," she said with another bow. "I am deeply indebted to you."

Without him and his knowledge on flour and which one was best, she surely would have failed today. Now it was time for her to attempt to do that with the other nine items on the list. Minako stood up and sighed as her shoulders rolled back. Today would be a challenging day. He placed the flour in his basket, so she assume he needed one too. She went to grab the same exact one when he urged her to come along since he wanted to help her with the whole list. "What?" she exclaimed confused. She stared at him a with her hand on the flour box for a few moments. He didn't look like he was joking or teasing her. He was actually going to help?! Her eyes widened as stared at him.

He was the kindest random stranger at the supermarket ever!
...unless they were all like that?

"Thank you so very much," she said again as she bowed lowly. She stood up and followed him back to the sugars. This time might be more challenging since there was nothing called all-purpose sugar. "Uh, this one?" she asked as she pointed at the brown colored one. There was also white colored one, powdery ones, blue ones, red ones, pink ones, and all different colored ones. There was even something called raw sugar, but that seemed like that sugar needed to be cooked if it was raw. All these other ones came pre-cooked so it would be much easier on her mother. "This one looks like chocolate a little."

[Vice Ysal]

Vice was pretty used to having to help people for various things. Be it studies or some other more physical chores like fights, he was alright with following through if only to get the point that because of such a favour, then they were going to owe him one. Subtle of course but the whole guilt tripping and psychological stuff that went along with it were free to use so why not? It was, however, pretty rare for the young man to see someone literally bow down to him for something so simple. Picking up some flour from the shelves was as simple as putting your shoes on and suddenly this chick was going all overly thankful girl mode. A part of him said that it was probably some kind of trap to lull him into a false sense of security or some such while another part of him said to take the whole exchange with face value. It wasn't exactly flattering nor was it really all that welcome if Vice was to be honest with himself. Deciding to just let it be for the time being and focus back on the list of things to do, the charcoal haired male looked at the offered suggestion for sugar. Leaving the load for a bit and walking up behind the girl to reach for the one that she was currently pointing at, the young man then turned it around to check if there were any available tips on the back or something.

Who knew, maybe the guys who made these things decided to add instructions for those without a sense for household goods.

"Don't worry about it so much. It's nothing big."

Vice sounded out as his eyes began to read through the available information at the back. His eyebrow raising at a slightly amused fashion, the 19 year old then grabbed another different bag of sugar this time and turned it around to do the same. A small smile began to twitch into place as he suppressed a chuckle. Getting both bags of sugar and carrying each of them on his available hands, Vice then turned to face the girl in order to explain a couple of things to her.

"Alright. Brown sugar, the one you pointed out earlier, is best used when making chocolate flavoured cakes. The white sugar over here is best used when making those sponge cake things."

Turning the bags around and using his index finger to point at the small portion of instructions available at the back of the packaging, Vice nonverbally asked the girl to lean forward in order to get a clearer view of said information.

"Or so says the notes on the back. Next time you go grocery shopping, you can check the things at the back to see if they'll have what you want."

A small smile on his face once more, the male civilian then offered the choice for his companion to choose which one she'd like to use for the supposed cake before placing the aforementioned choice next to the bag of flour in his shopping cart. Fishing the shopping list from the top of the stuff he's bought, Vice then offered it back to the girl for a different reason this time.

"I'll come with you for the next one but this time, how about you try picking up the ingredient? Check if the instructions are shown at the back and see if you can use them. That sound good to you?"

[Nanasawa Minako]

He grabbed the brown looking one and white one then pointed out which he grabbed them both. The girl nodded as she looked down at the two items worried. It was best to go for them both since she had no idea what her mother was looking to make. There was less of a chance of error if she brought both types of cakes. "I see," she said just so he knew she was paying attention before she placed both bags into the cart. "I don't know what kind of cake she wants to make. I don't want to mess up and disappoint her with the wrong type of sugar." Her mother would have to go to the store herself if Mina messed up so much and the woman was busy herself.

She sighed feeling a bit better. There were eight more items to go. Her blue eyes shifted back towards the list. The next time on it was shortening. Minako frowned. "They sell things to make people shorter?" she questioned aloud. That seemed so terrible! Her mother was placing ingredients in this cake to make her father and herself shorter! This was discouraging. Her mother wasn't a cruel person so Minako didn't understand why there would be such a horrible ingredient within this list.

"I don't think I should get something like that," she told the stranger. "Let's see what else..."

She looked down at the list again and moaned. Flour, check. Sugar, check. Shortening, questionable. Eggs. "Oh, that seems simple." She was sure eggs wouldn't be a complicated taste like all these other ingredients. She could even buy eggs at the vending machines near school, so it should be just as simple! Minako felt her spirits slightly uplifted just hear him suggest she pick out the next ingredient by herself. He was putting a lot of faith in her but this was a matter of getting eggs. The most complicated matter would be to make sure they didn't have little chicks inside and they weren't cracked. There was no need to lose face.

"Right," she agreed as she took the list and placed it back in her pocket. The girl attempted to lead the way but ended up going down three wrong aisles before she finally found the section with eggs and milk. Surprisingly, the eggs looked different than the eggs in vending machines. They were packaged in small containers rather than next looking things. She supposed that wasn't really important. There were different brands again and most of them said eggs with sizes.

She remembered what the boy had taught her and picked up the carton to look on the back. It had things like nutritional information but not the usage of eggs. She supposed they were used for far too many things to have something like that. The ones in clear packaging seemed the smart option since it would be easy to tell if they were going to crack. Eggs came in two different colors. One was white and the others were brown. There were a few speckled looking ones, but she assumed that was a brown egg turning white or a white egg turning brown. Either way, it was a cross.

"I think I'll get the brown ones? They probably smart to get if they're chocolate flavored like the sugar, right?"

[Vice Ysal]

He had to resist. He couldn't afford to do it. It was such a herculean task that Vice had to visibly grip the handles of the shopping cart and exert pressure into it to make sure that his body stayed in control. No person was meant to be like this. It was just irresponsible of whoever created this universe to put so much of that into a single being. The young man mentally ground his teeth, doing his best to hide the expression on his face while pretending that he was looking over at a couple of other things. His toes were curling up inside his shoes, and his throat was hurting from suppressing the words that wanted to come out by sheer force of will alone. It lasted like that for a few moments but eventually the feeling had subsided and he could once again face the girl without feeling as if he was going to go into some sort of metaphysical suicide the longer he stayed with her. It was just so cruel to be placed into such a situation after being the one who tried helping her out. Breathing in and out to calm himself down, Vice simply watched the girl look over the list again and at least seemed to be oblivious to the reaction that she had just caused.

Seriously.

No one was supposed to be that cute.

It was so bad that Vice couldn't even properly chastise her for saying something as ridiculous as that while they kept on going past a couple of aisles that didn't have the eggs. It took a lot longer than when Vice had taken the lead but he mused that it was mostly for the girl's benefit to finally learn something about grocery shopping. Finally arriving at where the eggs and milk were placed, the girl bounded up towards the casing with what looked to be a face full of confidence. Vice had to admit that this was more simple than simple, and that it should be impossible for her to screw even this up. The young man decided to check out a couple of the available produce as well while waiting for the girl to make a choice. He had just picked one of the dozen eggs up and inspected the insides when he heard the most incredible thing ever.

It was so incredible that his jaw and the eggs he was holding almost dropped to the floor. Thankfully nothing of the sort happened but it still ended up with Vice just staring at the girl with a pair of slightly judgmental eyes. He was too busy marvelling the possibility of meeting an actual air headed person.

"Miss? There's no such thing as a chocolate flavoured egg…well a natural one at least."

Vice couldn't help it. The words just came out of his mouth and he couldn't even stop it from there.

"The brown eggs are usually gathered from chickens of a different breed and a different process of raising hence the higher price. The white eggs are usually used for everyday purposes and are more generic in nature."

Walking up to the girl and grabbing the dozen pack of white eggs for her instead and placing it along with the other ingredients.

"What's next on the list?"

[Nanasawa Minako]

"There is chocolate eggs. I have them during Easter," she replied. She was well aware of chocolate eggs and how delicious they were. Her mother would want chocolate eggs if she was making a chocolate cake since they were already chocolate flavored. She could use the shell if she wanted since that delicious chocolate shell was probably the best part of the egg.

The disbeliever pointed out how these eggs were just brown, not chocolate. On top of that, they were just different rather than the eggs she was used to. Inside, they were the same yellow and white eggs as the white shelled eggs. They just cost more probably because they came in a different color than the rest. There were no chocolate chickens running around laying chocolate eggs no matter how much she wanted to believe it.

"Oh... I guess that makes sense?"

The more she thought about it, more his explanation made sense. If there were chocolate chickens, there would have been vendors selling chocolate favored chickens to her rather than just their eggs for Easter. Obviously, those eggs were simply some type of creation just like a cake was. It was a little disappointing that he cute chocolate chicken with their chocolate chicks didn't existence, but how could they? The sun would have melted them during the summer anyways. "Yes, that definitely makes sense," she said in a disappointed tone.

Minako sighed a little disappointed as she grabbed the list out of her pocket again. This whole experience was making her look like an idiot. All her confidence had instantly been lost during their exchange as she stood there frowning. At least he wasn't someone rude to call her an idiot, but she completely idiotic to think such things so hopefully.

"Buttermilk," she said loud enough for him to hear her. The milk was right next to the eggs. There weren't so many different brands of buttermilk. There were different types of milks, but there were just a handful of them. She grabbed the smaller carton of buttermilk since she knew it wasn't something kept in her house in high volumes. She hadn't looked at the back to see if it was the best type for cakes or anything like that. If she picked the wrong answer again, she was sure the nice stranger would have pointed it out again. There were just six more things left though one she had decided against.

"The next one says cocoa? They sell hot chocolate in stores year round?" she asked carefully. She didn't realize cocoa was something that went in cake. It did mean her mother was planning on making a chocolate cake, so it was good she grabbed the brown sugar.

[Vice Ysal]

This didn't happen often either but hearing the girl suddenly lose all her confidence made him feel a bit more guilty than it should have. Sure he was the type to not really care about what others said about him or how they felt about things but…as cliche as it was this girl was pretty much different from most of the women he's met over the course of his life. Then again, a legitimate air head was pretty rare to find nowadays so it didn't surprise him the least that there'd be an exception to the rule of thumb that everyone at least had a bit more common sense that grounded them to reality. So it was him awkwardly scratching his head as she brought the buttermilk from the shelf and into the cart that he decided to at least try and make it up to her after. Wondering just what it was he could do to make it up to the lady, his ears perked up at the mentioning of cocoa…and just had to ruefully smile when he heard the sentence that came after it. Her mom probably meant cocoa powder rather than the actual drink after all.

Then again, it wasn't like there wasn't a shop willing to sell some hot chocolate.

"Actually, yeah. Your mom probably wants the powdered cocoa but how about we go get ourselves some hot chocolate when we're done shopping? It's the least I can do for you miss…"

So lost in the moment that he was, Vice had honestly forgotten to ask the girl what her name was exactly. Realizing this, he finally found out just what seemed so off during all their past conversations. He kept calling her girl or miss or lady in his head that those descriptions probably didn't fit her exactly. She was a teenager, that much he was certain off and the connotation of the past adjectives didn't really sit with that kind of description.

"You know, I don't think I've actually introduced myself to you."

Offering his hand for a light handshake, his 'cheer up' smile now on his face to try and help her get up from her funk, Vice waited for her to accept his hand as he introduced himself.

"I'm Ysal. Lazarus Ysal but my friends just call me Vice. Long story."

After the hand shake, his cheery smile still in place, the young man then turned around to grab unto the cart and began pushing and leading the way towards the next item on the list.

"C'mon then, let's get that powder."

[Nanasawa Minako]

"Powdered cocoa?" she repeated. Minako didn't even know what that was or what it could be used for. She just shrugged since it was yet another thing she might have failed to do correctly if it wasn't for this boy. She was rather lucky he was here. Her mother would be happy thanks to him since otherwise Minako would have came back with weird items because they looked like they might have been what her mother meant. Clearly, Mina wasn't the type of person to be trusted in the kitchen or anything domestic.

"Oh wait, no! You don't need to! You're being really nice and helpful. If anything, I should be treating you to something since you're doing me a favor," she explained frantically as she waved her hands at him. It seemed like he was shopping so she was going to pay for his groceries. She could pay for his groceries and some cocoa for him as well if he wanted it. Did boys like hot cocoa? She didn't exactly know many boys and there weren't really several boys standing in line to get hot cocoa during the winter when vendors sold it. It was always girls that wanted sweet drinks.

He said he hadn't introduced himself and she realized she hadn't either. Her eyes widened as panic mode set in again. She quickly bowed at him repeatedly. "I'm so sorry! I'm Nanasawa Minako. Please forgive my rudeness, Ysal." He had said friends called him Vice but she wasn't his friend. She was a strange girl at a store that was really stupid because she thought brown eggs were chocolate flavored and not egg flavored.

She stood up and sighed as she looked away. It was really bad she did so many things wrong and stupid in front of a nice person like him. She took his hand and shook it even though it felt weird to shake hands. Most people didn't want to touch her. He seemed to be smiling a lot though so maybe he was just really weird? People didn't smile that much at her. She forced herself to smile back at him and nodded. "Right." She let him led the way this time so they didn't go traveling though so many aisles. The place that had cocoa powder also had chocolates and other things. She moaned as she looked at the different boxes and cartons. Her hand reached out and grabbed one with a little character that looked like it was in a tennis outfit. She turned it around and read the information on the back. It had instructions for making a chocolate cake and listened a few other things similar to the list. She pulled out the paper from her pocket then looked at the box again. She walked over and picked up something called baking powder made by the same company and placed both items in the basket.

"Vinegar. Red food coloring. Beef."

It was a weird last three items but her mother made the food in their house. It had to be okay if she was requesting them, otherwise her father was going to have a terrible red vinegary, beef and chocolate cake? That didn't sound good at all.

[Vice Ysal]

"No no, it's fine trust me."

Vice assured as he waved his free hand at her as if to emphasise the fact that it was okay, that she didn't really have to do anything.

"It's just that you looked upset about this grocery thing your mom made you go on that I thought I'd add in a little extra to make you feel better."

Vice explained, and the lie rolled off of is tongue like he actually meant those words. The girl looked acted too innocent and it was rather difficult to believe that she was any bit more devilish than how she was selling herself to the public. Vice wasn't a master when it came to recognising lies and whatnot but he wanted to believe that this girl wasn't really hiding anything mysterious or 'bad' or anything like that. Which made it a lot easier, in theory at least, to feed her believable half truths ala lies in order to garner her favour. Sure she didn't seem all that useful at first glance but the young man didn't just go around trying to be a good samaritan. The girl was athletic, that much he could garner from how she brought herself. What actual sport she played he didn't know though so that was something he could probably dig into in a bit.

He had to keep on making good impressions after all, even if the girl didn't quite understand them just yet with how lost she always seemed to look whenever he gave her one of those smiles of his. When the girl had actually smiled, Vice decided to at least throw in a shot there to see what her reaction would be. Depending on her answer, well, Vice would be pretty amused if he could properly label Nanasawa over here as a legitimate air head.

"Ah, you should smile more often. It suits you way more than the panicky one."

Vice wasn't even going to ask if Nanasawa even knew what kind of slices to get. He was pretty sure that she didn't know what her mom was going to make with it either so he was going to refrain from asking her to tell him anything about it either.

"Red Food colouring, vinegar, and some beef? Ah, I already have the first two, actually got a bit of extra so we won't need to look for them anymore. Let's just head onto the meat area so we can pick up the beef."

Leading the way towards the aforementioned destination, the last destination in order to finish this little grocery tutorial thing they had going on, the red eyed male decided that maybe making some small talk now to try and dig some information would work. Then again, you gotta do something if you wanna know what'll happen and whatnot. A small intake of breath to steady the stream of thoughts he had with him, Vice began:

"So Nanasawa, or do you prefer Minako? Anyway, I've been wondering but do you perchance play any kind of sport?"

[Nanasawa Minako]

"It's okay. I'll be fine," she assured him. "Thank you, however."

She appreciated his kindness but it was unnecessary. She was sensitive and easily hurt, but this wasn't his fault. The reason she was failing at shopping was because she didn't understand it. If she wanted to be proficient in something like this, she needed to go sit down and learn more about cakes and what it took to make them. There were things like shortening used in cake but that just sounded like something that shouldn't have been used in cakes or sold in stores. Then the whole cocoa thing was rather confusing too. One day, knowing things like this might be important? She would have to practice more.

He was really nice and stranger, however. Ysal suggested she smile more often since it suited her. She stared at him confused. "I'm only panicked when I feel like I'll mess up. Somewhere like here is very out of my element," she explained. It wasn't like she was smiling all day every day, but she knew how to smile and did it often enough. Talking to Yuki made her smile. Playing tennis made her smile a lot when she pulled off the right move. She even smiled when she lost against a better opponent. "I don't usually do anything related to cooking or shopping or anything like this. I feel really under prepared," she finished as her shoulders rolled forward and her head sank down.

For the rest of the shopping list, he seemed to have the items needed. It meant there was just beef left to get. She followed him as he started to make casual conversation. Her thumbs twiddled a little as she felt rather awkward. Most people weren't trying to talk longer than they had to with her either. This boy definitely fell under the weird category. "Minako is fine if you don't feel like being formal. Everyone always calls me Nanasawa though," she explained. Even Yuki called her by her family name rather than her first name. She just never made people comfortable enough to want to call her Mina.

"And yes! I actually play tennis," she started. A smile appeared on her face as she happily thought of her favorite thing. "I play for school, and last year during competition I came in third ranked in the nation for girls under eighteen. I really wanted to come in first this year since it would be the last year I'm in this league but..."

It wasn't going to be possible. With the whole quarantine for the city, she couldn't go to competition this year unless it was lifted or she got some exception. It was really sad when she thought about it. Her smile slowly faded before she shook her head. "Why do you ask? Do you play something?"

[Vice Ysal]

Okay. So maybe Minako did have a brain inside that cute head of hers. That was good. What wasn't good was that how said brain lacked a bit too much common sense for anyone to really be comfortable around her, for Vice anyway, but he'd already thrown himself in this little situation so there was no other choice but to keep bulldozing forward. As Vice made his way towards the aisle where they kept the beef, he made sure to pay equal amounts of attention for both whatever it was that his companion had been prattling on about and the road in front of him. He'd honestly prefer not to have to pick up some of the more fragile ingredients that he currently had in the cart because of a stupid accident. Finally arriving within viewing distance of the last item on the list, Vice decided that he might as well respond now since the girl seemed to have gotten herself into another slump. Again.

"Third place in the Nationals? That's one heck of an achievement you got there. I agree with the quarantine thing though. It doesn't mean you can stop practicing however! When things finally settle over and you can compete again, make sure to reserve a seat for the guy who helped you out with grocery shopping, ayt?"

Brevity was good. Brevity was always good whenever it came to these kind of things. Making it towards the fresh meat that was on display, Vice hailed out one of the workers and asked for a couple of tips on what kind of slices would be good for curry. The employee quickly prattled on about their best sellers and with a nod of his head, Vice decided to take two people's worth for the ingredient.

"I wouldn't really call it 'playing' but I suppose I had a sport back then too."

Vice informed as he leaned against the hard plastic counter while waiting for the guy to finish preparing the meat.

"I spend a lot of my time with Arnis. It's a style of fighting that originated from the Philippines and it was a fun way to do things. Competed in the Nationals but I never really got the chance to bring home the trophy. I also just turned 19 a few months ago so I'm no longer eligible for the 18 and under tournaments too."

While Vice began sharing a bit of his past to the girl, the employee had finally returned with two sealed plastic bags which Vice had thankfully taken from him. Placing them on the his cart, the young man then began to lead the way towards the cashiers to finally bring to a close this Tutorial of theirs on the do's and don't's of grocery shopping.

"This should be the last of them. Is there anything else you wanna get before we line up for payment?"

[Nanasawa Minako]

He complimented her on her ability to claim such a high ranking. It was one of the things she felt very prideful over, and she worked rather hard at in attempts of doing better next time. Minako wasn't exactly sure there would be a next time. The quarantine seemed rather weird since there wasn't constant updates on its status. It made her think it would never be lifted at this rate. The city had gotten stranger since the quarantine too. She really wished it would hurry up and resolve itself.

"I have until August to hope the quarantine is removed. Otherwise, I'll just prep for the over eighteen competitions."

There was a good chance she wouldn't score very high once she moved up to the next class but if that's what happen then she would have to accept it. Challenges were things that you were supposed to overcome. Minako knew she might not reach a high ranking next competition in the eighteen plus league, but she would do her best to get better. The girl sighed as her thoughts felt a bit heavy for a second.

He explained how he was in a sport that was more a fighting style practice, like how karate and kendo were clubs. He didn't get a very high ranking, but he was older now so he couldn't compete in the under eighteen level. She nodded. He understood her a little in this aspect and that was rather nice. Most people she talked to never seemed to understand. "There's always competing at the higher level?" she said as he got the last item and started walking with her to the front of the store. "I can go cheer for you if you think you want to do the same." She gave him a happy smile. It was good to encourage people to do their best, so she had no qualms with being in the crowd clapping for him in hopes the encouragement might lift his spirits. Then again, it all depended on the quarantine being lifted.

He asked if there was anything else she wanted and Minako shook her head. There wasn't anything she needed. She solely came to help her mother, so there wasn't anything for her to want. The cashier started to ring up both of their items and Minako was quick to pay for it. She helped organize the two different pages then happily handed the other boy his bag with his groceries. "Do you want cocoa since I still owe you for all your help, or would you rather not? I don't want to intrude upon your schedule."