Clink, clink.
Yuto poured tea for the four girls at the counter.
As the hot water met the walls of the cups, it rang softly, like someone tapping the porcelain with a fingertip.
"Thank you, Boss."
"Thank you, Kamisaka."
The four voices came one after another, each different, and all of them easy on the ear.
Yuto smiled at them.
On stage, Hatsune and the others were dazzling — idols who shone so brightly they felt a little out of reach.
They were like the moon: lovely enough to make you long for them, yet somehow unreal.
Here in private, that instant stage brilliance had faded, and something softer had taken its place, the warmth of a fire burning quietly in a home.
It made you want to sit down beside them and talk.
A small hearth couldn't match the beauty of the moon, but its warmth was real in a way the moon never could be.
Tianyi took a small sip, set her cup down, and looked at Yuto with a flicker of curiosity and surprise.
"I kept wondering about it all day. Hatsune's far busier than the rest of us, and there are always people watching her every move. When would she ever get the chance to make friends outside the industry? Now I understand." A smile spread across her face. "So Boss comes from another world."
Against her frost-silver hair, the smile looked like a flower opening in moonlight.
That afternoon she'd still been calling him "Kamisaka."
Somewhere between then and the restaurant, she'd switched to "Boss."
"It's hard to believe," Yanhe murmured from the side.
Having said her piece, the quiet girl went back to holding her cup in silence.
Hatsune let out a playful little laugh.
"I'm glad I got to meet Hatsune too. Maybe this is... fate." Yuto put on a thoughtful face, paused for effect, then smiled.
Hatsune's cheeks colored for half a second before the flush vanished, and no one could have said what had crossed her mind in that instant.
"When you put it like that..." Tianyi considered, then nodded. "It does make sense."
"Speaking of which — I didn't expect only the four of you come."
That gave them pause.
"Were you hoping more of us would come, Boss?" Hatsune asked.
"Yeah. I thought there'd be a crowd, so I'd already worked out what kind of feast I'd put on for everyone. With just the four of you here, it feels like I wound up for a big swing and hit nothing but air." He gave a slightly rueful smile.
When he'd seen Hatsune off that afternoon, he'd told her to bring as many people as she liked.
He'd assumed she would turn up with half of them in tow, and after getting back he'd spent a good while planning dishes to welcome the lot.
Four guests left him oddly off-balance, like a plan that had quietly missed its mark.
"I didn't think you'd gone to all that trouble, Boss. I'm sorry." Luka's voice held both gratitude and apology, and even her usually cool expression carried a trace of embarrassment.
"There's nothing to apologize for. It was only something I turned over in my head — I never actually did anything. So it's fine." Yuto waved it off.
He'd thought about it, nothing more; there was no reason for Luka to feel bad.
"I did want to bring everyone at first, but they were all tied up. MEIKO and KAITO went shopping for clothes, and the Kagamine twins are still little — after that long concert this afternoon they were so worn out they went straight to bed." Hatsune and Tianyi traded off, filling in the picture.
"Ling had instrument recycling to deal with, so she couldn't make it. And the others..."
In the end Hatsune spread her hands. "So it came down to Tianyi and Yanhe. The second Tianyi heard we were going out to eat, she was in. Yanhe happened to be free."
"Don't make it sound like all I do is eat!" Tianyi smacked the table, thoroughly put out.
"Isn't it true, though? You eat more than any of us. That's just a fact."
"Eh?! I— I'm still growing! Isn't it normal to eat a bit more?"
"I don't think eighteen meat buns in one sitting counts as a bit more."
Tianyi puffed out her cheeks.
She was angry now. Very angry!
And so what if she'd put away eighteen meat buns in one meal — was a girl not allowed to eat her fill?
She huffed, turned her head away, and made a show of ignoring Hatsune entirely, the very picture of someone waiting to be coaxed out of a sulk.
Yuto watched the two of them squabble and couldn't help smiling.
He had to admit it: Hatsune and Tianyi were both impossibly cute.
"Tianyi does eat a lot," Yanhe added, evenly.
That only stoked the fire.
"Agh! Yanhe, not you too!" Tianyi latched onto her, wailing like she'd been betrayed, but Yanhe didn't so much as glance up, which made the puffed cheeks puff further still.
"It's fine. Eat as much as you want — a good appetite is a blessing. Go on, tell me what you'd like. If I know how to make it, it's yours." Yuto stepped in to soothe the sulking idol, and just like that Tianyi lit up.
"Boss gets it! Boss is the best!" Then she fixed him with a serious look.
"Boss, can you really make anything?" Her bright eyes blinked twice, and for a moment she looked like a small, hopeful child.
"So long as I know how." Yuto smiled.
"Then I want... xiaolongbao, char siu buns, red bean buns, big meat buns, vegetable buns, and soup dumplings. And mapo tofu, sliced pork with garlic sauce, braised eggplant, Dongpo pork, sweet and sour pork tenderloin, tomato and eggs, fish-fragrant shredded pork... dandan noodles, hot and sour noodles, Four Joy Meatballs... and last of all, pork stew with glass noodles!"
The whole string of names came rattling out of her like a rapid-fire comedy routine, and Yuto listened with a strained smile.
He was starting to wonder whether she was pulling his leg on purpose.
"Tianyi! Ordering all that will drain the Boss!" Hatsune slapped the table and rounded on her.
Something in the wording caught Yuto's ear.
Hatsune's first worry wasn't whether Tianyi could actually finish the food.
It was whether he'd be worn out making it!
Which might mean—
He caught himself before the thought could run away with him, then glanced at Tianyi, his eyes full of open disbelief.
"Uu... if it'll wear Boss out, then never mind." Scolded, Tianyi drooped onto the table like a puppy that had done something wrong.
Yuto swallowed. "Tianyi, you ordered a lot. Can you... actually finish it all?"
"Mm-hm! I can!" She nodded with a little flash of pride.
Yuto was momentarily lost for words.
The unlikely thought he'd had a moment ago turned out to be true. He finally grasped the size of the girl's appetite, and it really wasn't normal.
Back when Son Goku ate like that, it hadn't struck him as strange — Goku was hardly an ordinary man.
But the girl in front of him was a genuine, ordinary human being.
And she could still eat this much!
"I'm sorry, Boss. Tianyi's always putting people on the spot. Please don't hold it against her." Hatsune looked at him apologetically.
Yuto shook his head, and she paused. "Making sure a customer leaves full is a chef's whole job. Leave everything Tianyi listed to me. It won't wear me out."
In his old life, working as head cook in a busy kitchen, he'd turned out hundreds of dishes a day.
His condition now was far better than it had been then; if he really let loose, he could cook straight through thousands of dishes without stopping.
Tianyi's order sounded like a mountain, but not one of the dishes was especially hard.
He could manage.
"Waah! Long live the Boss!" Tianyi cheered on the spot.
The other three looked at him in surprise.
"Boss, if it's too much trouble, it's honestly fine to say no." Luka spoke with a note of apology; as the older-sister figure, it fell to her to answer for her little sister.
"Right, you really don't have to!" Hatsune sounded anxious. "Tianyi, hurry up and tell Boss to forget half of that."
Even Yanhe joined in, trying to talk her down.
But Yuto smiled and turned aside their concern.
"I've got help, too. Don't worry so much." He nodded toward Erina and Hisako, and the two of them dipped their heads to Hatsune and the others.
"All right — now let's hear what the rest of you want."
"Ah, I won't order anything tonight. I'll just steal a bit of Tianyi's later. She got plenty." Hatsune hesitated, then chose to hold back — she was sure he'd be exhausted after cooking so much at once, and wanted to spare him where she could.
"Same for me." "And me." Luka and Yanhe said it together.
"You're sure?" Yuto asked again.
All three nodded.
"All right then. I'll get started on Tianyi's order — give me a little while. Nakiri, Arato, with me." He felt a bit helpless.
He'd guessed exactly what the three of them were thinking, but he let it go.
No amount of explaining would settle the matter as well as simply proving it.
He called Erina and Hisako into the kitchen, and the three of them worked out how to split the labor.
Tianyi had ordered a great many dishes, but none of them were difficult.
Still, to move fast, they needed to divide the work cleanly.
However capable Yuto was, he could only cook one dish at a time, with three of them going at once, it would simply go quicker.
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