"Please wait a moment. I'll be right out."
Yuto called out to the Miyazono family the moment he saw them from the kitchen, but he didn't come straight over.
He still had to stir the glass noodles in the pot.
They had only just gone in, so they were still stiff and wouldn't loosen on their own. They had to be stirred by hand, or the uneven heat would spoil the taste.
Out in the front hall, the family had already sat down at the counter after hearing his voice.
Kaori's father cleared his throat a couple of times, as if to cover some awkwardness.
Her mother looked a little restless too.
And the blond girl, usually so full of energy, was strangely quiet.
Her face was still flushed, and she kept her head down, as if she didn't dare to look at anyone.
Everyone in the restaurant had noticed the three new customers.
While they were still wondering who the family was, Tohru spoke up.
"They're friends of Boss. This morning he even took me to visit their dessert shop!" Tohru gave a short account of how the Miyazono family knew Yuto, and everyone nodded.
Just as she finished, Yuto came out of the kitchen. He wiped his hands and smiled at the family.
"Hey. Didn't we agree you'd call before coming? I didn't get a single message from you."
His joking tone helped ease the awkward mood around them.
Kaori's father laughed. "Because Kaori wanted to surprise you—"
"Ugh! Dad!" His rough voice was cut off by his daughter's complaint.
Kaori looked at him with open displeasure, her eyes full of blame.
"Ah... ahaha..." Under that stare, her father could only scratch his head. His embarrassed laugh was loud and easygoing, exactly like one of those careless fathers from a TV drama!
Beside them, Kaori's mother covered her mouth and smiled.
Her eyes were warm and gentle as she watched her husband and daughter, and even to an outsider, that warmth was enough to touch the heart.
Yuto pressed his lips together and looked at Kaori.
The girl seemed to feel his gaze.
She stopped glaring at her father and turned to Yuto instead, puffing out her cheeks, clearly a little annoyed.
That left him confused.
He didn't remember doing anything to upset her.
"Hey, Kamisaka-kun! Why didn't you tell me your restaurant was in... in... in a place like this?! Honestly!" The girl leaned toward him and waved one finger, her eyes full of confusion and embarrassment.
As she spoke, her complaint slipped into flustered stammering.
Yuto smiled.
He thought he understood now why she'd looked the way she did when she walked in. The red-light district must have given her quite a shock.
After talking with her for a bit, Kaori slowly calmed down, and the bright, lively girl came back again.
"Why don't we talk about what you'd like to eat?" Yuto said with a smile.
Her nose twitched, and a sly little light came into her eyes. "Hmph! Of course I have to taste your cooking, Kamisaka-kun. Otherwise coming all this way would be a waste."
Her parents smiled as they watched her.
The family each ordered a dish.
Her father wanted pan-fried eel with beer, her mother ordered tempura, and Kaori asked for potato salad.
They were all ordinary home-style dishes, simple for Yuto to make.
Back in the kitchen, he first checked the pork stew with glass noodles. The time he'd spent talking with the family had been just enough for the noodles to cook through.
When he lifted the lid, the stew sat there bubbling, exactly right.
The pork was soft and tender, the glass noodles smooth and slippery.
The meat and the noodles seemed to belong together, the pork resting against the noodles and the noodles wrapped around the pork.
The smell that rose from the pot was warm and somehow familiar.
This dish came from the northeast and it carried the openness and generosity of the people there.
For someone far from home, a single bite of that soft, stewed pork belly might be enough to bring tears to their eyes.
When Tohru carried the stew over to Tianyi, not only Tianyi's group but everyone else in the restaurant was drawn in by the smell.
"I didn't expect you to know Chinese cooking too, Kamisaka-kun. That really is impressive." Kaori's father couldn't help saying it.
He was a pastry chef, but he'd learned a little about Chinese cuisine back when he studied desserts.
He knew only a bit more than the average person, but it was enough to recognize a few classic dishes—and Tohru had announced the name of the stew when she brought it out.
"Is knowing Chinese food really that impressive?" the blond girl asked, puzzled.
Her father laughed and shook his head. "It's not Chinese food on its own. What's impressive is that someone as young as Kamisaka-kun has already learned both Japanese and Chinese cooking.
That isn't easy!
Most chefs pick one kind, because even one takes a huge amount of work. Two is much harder. And from what I can tell, his Chinese food isn't some rough, simplified version either. It's delicious and carefully made. That means he's put in a lot of practice." He let out a small sigh.
"What an amazing young man. When I was his age, all I thought about was playing games."
If Yuto had heard him just then, he would have laughed.
He hadn't learned Chinese cooking while mastering Japanese cooking.
It had actually been the other way around.
As Kaori listened to her father, her eyes grew brighter, and she looked toward the kitchen with a little more interest.
By the time Yuto brought out the family's food, the pork stew was almost gone.
The sight impressed him with Tianyi's appetite all over again. He'd made that pot for six people, and it was the kind of filling main dish that could easily satisfy anyone.
But from the look of things, it hadn't even been enough for Tianyi alone.
He set the family's dishes down, exchanged a few words with them, then turned to Tianyi's group.
Tianyi, happily focused on eating, didn't notice him at all.
Hatsune, Luka, and Yanhe gave him helpless smiles. They knew Tianyi had made a bit of a spectacle of herself tonight, and it was the kind no one could stop.
"Tianyi, is it good?" Yuto smiled and broke into her happy meal.
Tianyi looked up with a bright grin.
From all the eating, a few tiny spots of oil had gathered near her lips, and they shone under the light.
Rude as she was being, she still managed to look cute!
"It's delicious!" she said, her voice almost bubbling.
For her, this was actually pretty normal.
As an idol, she usually had to mind her manners at all times. A chance to eat freely and enjoy herself like this was rare.
Looking at her smile, Yuto couldn't help curving his lips.
"Are you full, then?" His eyes drifted over the plates in front of her.
Tohru had cleared some away, but plenty were still there, most with leftovers on them, a few with only sauce.
By now, Tianyi had eaten more than every other customer put together. The thought impressed him again.
'So this was what an idol was like.'
He liked it!
"Mm—about eighty percent. One more bowl of rice and I'd be just right." Tianyi thought about it seriously.
She wasn't joking. She really could still eat another bowl!
Hatsune had already given up trying to stop her outright. "Tianyi, it's not good to eat this much at night..."
But even the roundabout approach didn't help.
Tianyi nodded along—and then said something that left Hatsune tilting her head.
"Tonight's a special exception. I'll definitely stop next time!"
Hatsune had no answer to that.
Next time, sure.
She was fairly certain there wouldn't be one.
Luka let out a long sigh. She'd already decided how she was going to have a proper talk with Tianyi once they got home.
For now, she let it go.
Yanhe quietly ate a bite of food and said nothing.
There was no need to.
After a silent laugh, Yuto still had Tohru bring Tianyi another bowl of rice.
Tianyi beamed and started eating it along with the dishes that were left.
"Delicious! Your cooking really caught me off guard, Kamisaka-kun. The heat on this pan-fried eel is better than what some old seafood cooks manage." Kaori's father had taken a bite and couldn't hold back the praise.
He'd already seen Yuto's Chinese cooking, and now he'd tasted his Japanese cooking too.
It was just as good, and it left him more impressed than ever.
"Mm! It really is! This salad tastes way better than Mom's!" the girl said, excited.
That earned her a mild look from her mother.
"Kaori, how can you say that?"
"Hehehe, sorry, Mom." The girl's face was pure please-forgive-me. Her mother could only shake her head and let it go.
The ordinary family scene made Yuto sigh quietly to himself.
No matter the time, no matter which world he found himself in, there was always a moment that made a person remember the past.