Shaping Dango
Valentine entered Dan’s shop, a small bell ringing as the door closed behind him. “Hello, anyone here?” He called out, he’d been told to arrive at a specified time but he didn’t see anyone in the shop as he looked around. He began browsing the store, looking at the rows of decorated mochi as he did.
“You must be Valentine.” He heard a voice say as another person emerged from, what he assumed to be, the back of the shop. “You’re right on time. I’m Dan, follow me.” The blue haired man said as he once again disappeared into the back. Valentine hurried to follow the offer, ducking under a small flap of fabric that hung in the doorway. “The work here is fast paced, I don’t have time to wait around all day so make sure you keep up.” Valentine nodded, glancing at a large pile of pillows as they walked past it. He was curious but kept his questions to himself.
“I’ll do my best not to slow you down then.” He said with a confident tone. He wasn’t the fastest, rather he’d prefer to just laze around all day, but he did give it his all when presented with a new task. Dan stopped suddenly causing Valentine to run into the back of the larger bun. “Everything okay?” He asked as he rubbed his nose, being sore from the sudden collision. He peered around the other to see a bowl seemingly made of rock on a wooden table.
“Making dango is a delicate art form, you’ll just be helping me by shaping the dough when needed, I’ll work placing them on dango sticks. All you need to do is shape the dough into round balls before setting them down in the container, got it?” Dan said as he turned to face Valentine once again. Valentine looked nervously between Dan and the counter holding the different bowls and dough before nodding. Surely it couldn’t be that hard, could it?
Valentine washed his hands as instructed before taking up his position near Dan. The bowls were filled with what looked like soft white dough, he watched carefully as Dan added some colors into different bowls. When mixed the doughs turned all sorts of colors, some light and pastel to several shades darker than their original color. It truly was fascinating how baking could create such delicacies.
His first dango came out more oval than circular, Dan made him start over again, a quiet sigh was the only response he gave. It took a few tries, but after a while, Valentine was able to shape almost perfect round balls even if he was a bit slow for the mochi maker’s pace. The repetitive motion made his hands ache after a while but he was determined not to fall behind since he was here to do a job, after all. Valentine left with the agreed amount of pay after his trial, he wasn’t the help Dan was looking for but it was still a fun experience for him.
