Aina Cafeteria
"How can you ruin a salad?" Mallow berated her classmate as she threw away the black gunk concoction that were once ingredients for a bowl of raw vegetables and dressings. Seriously, how can someone ruin a salad when they were following verbal instructions from someone who made plenty bowls of salads before.
"Sorry." Ash said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Well I can't trust you to make a salad," She points out before gathering more ingredients. "How about you make something more simple while I prepare the salad? You can make some sandwiches, right?"
Ash blush from embarrassment. Sure he did not inherit his mother's culinary skills and never had much interest in cooking, but making something so simple like a sandwich is much to learning how to read by reading a kid's picture book when you are at the age way above for a children's book.
Mallow noticed this, she smirked. She picked up one of the ingredients. "Now, this is lettuce." She mocked him.
The raven haired teen glared at her, "Yeah, yeah I know." Despite what he said, he picked up something else from the cooking table.
"That's a cabbage, Ash."
He dropped it and picked up the same thing.
"That is still a cabbage." Mallow laughed out. She is finding this to be actually pretty fun, making fun of a novice that is. "I'm starting to think I should really make all the food. For Lillie's safety, of course. Face it Ash, you know I'm right."
He grumbled in exasperation, "Does an ingredient out of place really make a difference?" Ash asked irritably. "Besides, they look the same to me."
"Yes, it will make a difference, especially with you." She answered bluntly to his question as she took the vegetable from him before he started cutting. "They may look the same, but they taste different. Also, you're suppose to wash them first before using them."
Ash sighed as his respect for Brock's cooking increased. He and Mallow really make cooking look so easy. Mallow then placed the washed lettuce and tomatoes in front of him on a cutting board. She then proceeded to give him a loaf of bread and some condiments.
"Here, cut them like this." She demonstrated how the cut vegetables should look like and how to cut them with a knife. Mallow handed him the knife before going to prepare a bowl of salad by herself. She quickly looks back at Ash when a thought flashed into her head, "Make sure not to put too much mayonnaise for Lillie's share, she does not like too much of it on hers."
"Okay, sure."
This went on, with the two of them making two different kinds of grub, for a really long, silent, and somewhat awkward moment. What made it awkward is that the trainer from Pallet Town was being quiet while doing what she told him to do, which sort of made the young chef feel a little uneased. This is not the Ash Ketchum she is used to since she first met him.
When she first met him, he made the impression of a very adventurous and enthusiastic Pokémon trainer. In a way, she can understand why one of the guardians of Alola, Tapu Koko, takes an interest in him; she may not have seen much trainers in any of the islands that makes up Alola, but Ash is definitely not like the mundane Pokémon trainer.
As she gets to know him, she noticed a couple of things, that the rest of her friends do not know of, about their friend from a faraway region. Despite having great culinary skills for someone who is still young, she mostly serves the customers their food because her parents still do not trust her that much. As she moves around her parents' restaurant to give out the ordered food and bringing back dirty dishes to the kitchen, she can tell when a male customer is eyeing at her when she is not looking. She has been doing that for a couple of years now, so it is understandable that she grew a sense to this.
When she feels her sixth sense, she knows when a boy is staring at from a distance, which is how she found out Ash has a hidden perverted mind. She is not the only one she caught Ash staring at; during around the time she and Ash brought Pikachu to a Pokémon Center after a battle with a wild Grubin, she caught Ash eyeing at rather attractive girls around the Pokémon center, even Nurse Joy. After each time he found himself staring at the opposite sex, she sees Ash clench his fist very tightly, so tight she could have sworn that his knuckles might bleed. Even though she was there with him and saw the whole thing, he did not tell her why. From what she gathered, Ash is keeping something about himself a secret.
"Hey, Ash?" She started another conversation while multitasking with making the salad.
