Sweets Blossoms
About: Love stories blossoming from the popular sweets shop, Le Ciel Bleu.
Triva: There is an After stories released for all three characters, but this summary will only cover the first season.
Kurasaki Keita (CV: Asagi Yuu)
Keita is one of the first patisserie working for Le Ciel Bleu since its grand opening, and he was very cold to MC who was working as one of the staff. Initially he expected her to share the same aim of all the girls working there; to get closer with the owner. But after he interrogated MC of to why she wanted to work in the cafe, he was surprised to hear it's because her admiration of the cafe's signature sweets, since well before the cafe gotten an increase in popularity after featured in a tv show. Keita then asked MC to spend some time of her free time to help him taste his cakes. He mentioned he was only told to make simple items like jellies etc. by the owner who also acts as head chef. Keita wanted to proof that he could do more thus he started to practice making his own cakes. After a while acting as his taste-tester, the cold and rude Keita began to warm up to MC. He told her his background story was that he came from a poor family of just his mother and himself. Growing up, he only had to have cakes on birthdays, whereas any other day, he could only make do with simple snacks since ingredients to making sweets and cakes can be very expensive. One night, while MC was in his place to taste-test his cakes, Keita confessed saying he had feelings for her for all the time they spent together. Despite being told beforehand that he will be on his way to France to enroll in a special patisserie course in half a year's time, MC accepted anyway and admitted feeling the same for him. However Keita began to grow cold and distant again when every single time he failed to recreate Le Ciel Bleu's signature cake, saying he's just a man without talents, and that he wanted to give everything up and quit. MC never stopped giving her support, though it's obvious she's also at her breaking point. She handed to him a bento one day she made and left without a word. That night, Keita called her to his place and he then apologized for putting her into a stressful situation. He realized while eating her bento that she loved him and would always be there. With her in mind, he managed to bake the signature cake exactly as it supposed to be. With that, they made up, and Keita said he will be going to France and will come back as a better person for her.
Hikami Kyouichi (CV: Wasshoi Tarou)
The owner and head chef for Le Ciel Bleu, he studied in France for 6 years before coming back to open his very own cafe. Kyouichi appeared gentle and kind on the surface, but he is actually can be quite bossy and a tough. MC is a customer who came back to find her hair tie behind the couch she was sitting earlier that day. For his fun, he asked her if she could tell the difference in the ingredients for two madeleines - he'd let her have any sweets from his shop for free is she could. Surprisingly, MC can easily tell they used different types of honey just from her sense of smell. Kyouichi offered her a job at his cafe which she happily accepted since it was her favorite shop. One day though, Kyouichi suddenly ordered her to follow him to his home and told her to stay with him to help him while he had his sense of smell mysteriously dulled (he explained it was due to the flue he had days before). MC refused, saying there's no reason for her to stay at his home - she could easily come after work - but that was not good enough for Kyouichi. Just to give her a reason, he raped her before tying her hands and feet with a bathrobe's string. And for more reasons I just cannot fathom not even for a drop, MC just calmly accepted her being confined to his home and even took up the duty to clean his place, the very next day. Like nothing bad ever happened to her at all and the dude was entirely a nice guy or whatever. At this point, it's just too stupid of a porn-logic for me to follow through the story. I did not manage to listen to this volume to the end, sorry.
Takasaka Jun'ya (CV: Aojima Yaiba)
MC met Jun'ya as he stopped her on her way to work, saying he was having trouble with his bike and his cellphone without batteries. She lent her phone to him and to thank her for helping, he invited her to Le Ciel Bleu to eat some cakes. She revealed that that's where she is working. Jun'ya explained that he is a free-writer that writes anything at all, so long it pays him money. One day, while they were supposed to meet for some coffee together, Jun'ya collapsed. She took him to his home, and there he told her that for his work, he would stoop so low as to purposely looking for something disrespectful and shaming to write about. He said those kinds of stories are what pays the most. He would get beaten up regularly by angry readers and affected personnel. MC also founds out that Jun'ya purposely targeting her to get inside scoop to write about Le Ciel Bleu and the owner, Hikami. Because such desecrating article would bring down her favorite cafe, she asked him not to publish it. Jun'ya agrees only if she sleeps with him, to which she complied. She met him again later to make sure he stick to his words, and also to talk him out of such dangerous job. She also showed him an old magazine that featured a story about two promising patisseries fresh out of a certain famous school in France. It was Hikami and Jun'ya. He told his story that although the both of them had the same start, only Hikami gotten lucky to successfully build his dream to open up a shop, whereas Jun'ya had to abandon the passion and became a free-writer instead. He kept a bitter anguish against Hikami ever since and wished to sabotage Le Ciel Bleu, somehow. MC told him to stop and got angry when he was incapable of understanding why she bothered with him and left. After a few weeks of silence, Jun'ya contacted her again to tell her he had completely cut ties with his publishing firm. He would bury his jealousy with Hikami and willing to return to his passion as a patisserie, also wished MC would support him. She agreed and they made up.
Final say: For something titled as 'Sweets Blossom', I really thought this is just a series of fluff. I first listened to this starting with Keita volume, thought it was quite a sweet story, but then I lowered my guard for the next volume with Kyouichi and got really REALLY upset with the stupid 'love-at-first-rape' trope. Sigh. I haven't found the R18 wiki then, if not I'd be more mentally prepared. That volume gave me bad impression of Wasshoi Tarou although he didn't deserve it. Only Keita's volume is recommendable for me, though the story in Jun'ya's is pretty interesting.
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