The chatter of college students could be heard within the four walls of the café. The progress of their theses, how their professor is plausibly the devil’s incarnate, the color of their eyeshadows. Even that one character that died in their favorite show. Basically, anything under the sun.

Just for this day, Miguel wished the sun would hide its face.

Not long ago, after serving them tea, Miguel suggested that he should get started on making the samples so he wouldn’t keep Joseph and Celine for too long. Joseph told Miguel that more people would come to taste whatever morsel the large man would make. Not long after, a tall, scruffy looking man came in, and introduced himself as Reid, the student council president. A few moments later, a girl wearing glasses and a sweater opened the door with two other people tagging along. A few complaints about the chilly weather later, Miguel got to know them as the secretary and councilors.

‘Surely this is all of them right?’ Miguel thought.

Several minutes later, the entire student council (and Celine) packed the seats, with only three seats left empty.

“Okay everyone.” Miguel started his sentence strong, yelling the first syllable, until it trailed off into a tiny whisper. Letting his words swim out would only drown them in the sea of college student noise, so he held his piece, and instead, turned around and got to work. He tightened the blue apron around his waist, and pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket.

“So, 350 grams of beef, 150 of pork, onions, breadcrumbs, eggs…” Miguel mumbled. “I’m only making one patty for me, so I guess I have to half it? Quarter it?”

Miguel took out the ingredients from the plastic bags and eyed how much of each ingredient would be needed to make a sample. Once he made sure how much to take out of each bag, he brought out a bowl and plopped the ground meat into the container. He chopped the onions lengthwise, making sure not to cut all the way through the root.

“Crap,” Miguel shed tears. The onion was working its magic on the large man’s droopy eyes “I forgot to wash the damn thing!”

Powering through the blurriness and stinging of his eyes, Miguel brought out a strainer and dumped the small pieces of onion, and ran them under the cool, running water. After patting the pieces dry using several sheets of paper towel, Miguel took out a frying pan and lightly oiled its surface.

A few students stopped talking after being interrupted by the sizzle coming from the stove top. However, the force of the tantalizing sizzle was no match for the gossip about their professor’s previous relationships.

‘Alright, this should be enough’

Miguel dropped in a single piece of onion which bubbled up as soon as it touched the oil, and then proceeded to scoop out the strainer, causing a rogue drop of oil to jump out of the pan due to a missed, water droplet.

‘Ow!’ Miguel held in his scream as the hot oil touch his arms, careful not to cause a scene.

A few minutes later, the whiteness of the onion has mellowed out into a translucent yellow color, releasing the scent of well-cooked onion into the air, and alluring the noses of every person in the room.

Joseph stood up after being guided by the sweet, and savory smell of the onion and headed to the counter to check-up on Miguel.

“Man that smells so good.” Joseph’s mouth watered.

Miguel only chuckled in response, careful not to break his concentration.

“You sure are serious for someone who’s just stir-frying an onion.”

“I don’t want it to burn.” Miguel said.

Just on time as well! The onions were ready to be taken out of the stove top. He scooped out the cooked pieces into the bowl of ground meat, hitting the surface with a tiny bounce.

“Huh,” Joseph said, a bit bewildered, “Aren’t you supposed to add that to the burger itself after the whole thing is ready? Like the patty cooked and all.”

“Usually, yeah, but this is a Japanese-style burger.” Miguel said. “Atleast, that’s what I wrote down. For my lunch.”

“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just do an all-beef patty? Ya know, American style.”

“Yeah, I’ll make that after this one. I figured since I’m adding burgers to the menu eventually, why not something else that uses a patty?”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Hamburg steak or a loco moco. Just use these patties, add an egg, pour some gravy, and then serve with rice.”

Miguel shimmied out some breadcrumbs out of the plastic bag, careful not to dump out the entirety of the container and mixed the meat and onion until it turned into a gooey consistency. The wet noises coming from the motion made some college students whisper something juvenile, forcing out immature laughter.

“What’s up with them?” Miguel pointed at the college students giving each other friendly digs at the arm.

“Nothing.” Joseph said, suppressing his laughter. He overheard what his friends were saying, and they were right: it did sound like a specific video.

“…Right.” Miguel had no clue what they were talking about, so he shifted his attention on putting cling wrap over the meat mixture.

Joseph went back to their table and continued watching the large man from afar.

“What was he doing?” Celine wondered.

“Beating meat.” Joseph said.

“Don’t word it like that.”

“Why?”

“Look it up later. Actually, don’t.”

“I’m 22 I can probably handle it.”

Miguel pretended not to hear that and took a ball of ground beef from the plastic bag.

“Dammit I forgot to heat the skillet.”

Miguel plopped the meat back into the bag, and pulled out an iron skillet from one of the drawers, placing it on the stove top and turned it on. He was particularly proud of this slab of iron, oiling it thoroughly and blasting it using the oven with high heat, over and over again until it was seasoned. He went through half of his gas tank before it was non-stick, but it was an investment in his eyes.

“How did that go again?”

Miguel picked up the ball of meat, and as soon as the pan was smoking, he placed the meat on the hot skillet, and smashed it down flat, bringing out its juices along with a satisfying sizzle.

Miguel looked over the counter and began to count the heads he needed to feed. Most of them were staring at his direction, guided by the smell of the cooking meat. One of them looked like they wanted to slap him for taking so long with the food.

“It’ll be ready soon, don’t worry!” Miguel said to appease the discontented masses.

‘Maybe I should’ve made these regular burgers first.’ Miguel thought.

Miguel’s ears were filled by the screaming and laughter of college students once more. Although he was not averse to the noise, somehow, the college students are flicking a switch in his mind that makes him want to scream.

He flipped the patty over and let a sigh escape his mouth.

Miguel could see himself sitting beside them, all laid-back, without letting the impending doom of an exam bother his merry making. All his friends were there, intently listening to one of them tell a story where they almost died. Turns out, provoking the bouncers was a bad thing to do, especially when you are drunk. No one batted an eye, because everyone agreed that was a dumb thing to do.

Miguel got some burger buns and stuffed them into his toaster. He set the dial to the time it takes for bread to attain the delicious shade of brown called crispy.

‘I wonder if they still remember me?’ Miguel chuckled.

Has Miguel regretted dropping out of college? No, of course not! Screw college!

Or so he liked to think.

In truth, he actually missed waking up at seven in the morning, going to school fueled only by the bottle of instant coffee he bought at the convenience store. No substance, no depth, only the vague taste of coffee overpowered by the cream and sugar, but it works. He was not proud of the taste, but really, he was not proud of himself for having to pull an all-nighter, cramming as much economic models in his brain before it overflows. It was not his choice to drop out of college; rather, it was a necessity.

Miguel shook his head. This was no time to let wistfulness take over; he had fourteen hungry council members (and Celine) to feed for goodness’ sake! He took out the buns of the toaster and slid on the still-sizzling patty onto the bread, topping it off with fresh, crispy lettuce and slices of tomato.

“Anyone here who doesn’t like cheese?” Miguel asked.

“Me! I’m lactose intolerant.” A girl near the window raised.

Miguel put the assembled masterpiece, or so he would like to think, onto a tray, along with nicely-packed, color-coded bottles of ketchup, mayo, mustard, and relish. He took the tray to the lactose-intolerant girl. Miguel watched as she squirted a good amount of ketchup and small dots of mustard while ignoring the mayonnaise and relish. The girl took out her phone and took a few pictures of the treat before her and sent it to her family for bragging purposes. Finally, she held the burger and took a large bite, sending her into a blissful heaven, while the others were watching her from a starving hell.

Satisfied, Miguel went back to the kitchen to make the rest of the burgers, this time not forgetting to melt the cheese on the patty first. He was a bit relieved someone was actually lactose intolerant; he didn’t have to make a new patty just because he forgot to melt some cheese on that one.

Confident that the first burger went well, Miguel put several balls of meat at once, smashing them flat to get a patty with crisp edges. Surely, they must be getting impatient, he thought. After all, these are college students who probably just woke up and went straight to the café without eating anything.

***

He was right, as soon as everyone got their burger, the entire café went silent. The students shifted their attention on eating, only taking a break when they needed to have a face journey, or mumble ‘so good’ every so often with their friends nodding in agreement.

‘I think that’s a sign everyone likes it?’ Miguel hoped.

He was eager to ask everyone what they thought of the burger, but he felt like it would be rude and cruel to tear the hungry students apart from their meal. He rested his chin on the table, and waited for everyone to finish their meal.

***

“Crap! You forgot to turn the flash off.” A voice shouted.

“It’s ok, I can take another one.”

Miguel woke up to the sound of mumbling and camera snaps. He opened his eyes and saw blurry figures taking pictures with their phones. The large man stood up and yelled with force fuelled by embarrassment and slight annoyance, forcing them to scurry back to their seats, with several curse words flung around here and there.

Blushing, Miguel looked around to see which silhouette looked familiar enough so he can ask them to delete it. Unfortunately for him, no one really looked like a blob of static.

Miguel coughed to clear some of the dryness from his throat. “Anyway, should I do burgers for the fair? Were they good?”

The response was a resounding, unanimous yes, followed by a cacophony of praise reaching all four corners of the café, prompting a smile from Miguel’s face.

“Could use some fries.” A man near the corner raised.

“Chicken popcorn too maybe.” The tall scruffy man said.

“How about some non-milk drinks? You know, just in case?” The lactose intolerant girl added.

“I’ll give it some thought.” Miguel smiled.

A few more ramblings, and most of the college students left except for Joseph and Celine. Joseph walked over to Miguel and handed over an envelope with considerable thickness.

“As thanks. Well, we’ll be going now.” Joseph waved with his phone in hand and dashed out of the restaurant. Celine followed suit, looking back at Miguel with a sly smile. Faint laughter could be heard outside the doors.

‘Were we this strange when we were in college?’ Miguel raised an eyebrow out of confusion, but chose to chalk it up to their personality. He opened the flap of the envelope

Miguel grabbed the stack and counted about an eighth of what was needed to break even with the costs of the whole experiment. A thank you note signed by the student council was also attached. It paled in comparison to the greens of the money, but was well-appreciated by the large man nonetheless.

“Bless them.”

Miguel put away the plastic bags for future use. Amazing really, three plastic bags full of groceries were emptied in one morning. He patted himself on the back for guessing the right amount of ingredients needed, without even knowing he had to feed the entire student council (and Celine). He wore his raincoat and took the bowl of burger meat with him before closing up the café.

After an evaluation which the only criterion for success was the satisfaction of the customers, Miguel thought the taste-testing went pretty well. He was kind of sad that the taste-testing had ended. Even though he thought they were annoying at times, there was a sense of longing whenever he looked at them. Buried loneliness perhaps? A sense of wistfulness? An urge to go back to an academic environment? A combination of all three? Or maybe there was another reason he had not thought about yet.

Regardless, first thing he needed to do was get back to his house and cook lunch; his stomach has been bubbling, aching for release from the pain which can only be soothed by food.