Arthur flinched at the hand on his shoulder and looked up. The face staring back at him was one he knew, yet not quite as he remembered it.
The memories came flooding back. Phainon. His college roommate. A kid from the countryside who had fought his way into a top university on nothing but grit and raw ability, then pushed straight through to graduate school.
The kind of guy who actually did everything he set out to do. Warm, loud in the best way, the kind of energy that lit up a whole dorm floor.
Word after graduation was that some big multinational had picked him up, good salary, serious career track. And yet here he was.
"Phainon?" Arthur stared. "What are you... what are you doing here? And why are you in a chef's uniform?"
He was pretty sure Phainon's degree had nothing to do with cooking.
Phainon flashed that same easy grin Arthur remembered and pulled up a chair.
"Surprised? Yeah, I had a couple offers lined up after graduation, but then things just kind of happened, and I crossed paths with Aglaea. She needed someone here, it sounded interesting, so I came. Started at the bottom, obviously. These days the kitchen apparently can't live without me. I'm running a few of the signature dishes."
He said it without any ego, just plain satisfaction. "Beats sitting in some office staring at a screen all day. I like it here. It's real. Something's always happening."
His eyes were clear and easy as he talked, and the whole of him gave off a warmth that felt solid, unforced, and genuinely alive.
That energy hit Kiana like a bucket of ice water.
The glass of lemonade she'd just picked up nearly slipped out of her hand. Her blue eyes went wide. She sat there staring at Phainon's face, mouth barely closed, like she'd just seen something that couldn't exist.
That face.
Never mind that ridiculous cheerful grin. Never mind those eyes, completely unclouded, nothing hiding behind them. Never mind that he looked only a few years older than she'd have expected. Those brows, those features, that build, that posture...
Why did he look so much like her cousin? The one with the permanent scowl, the one whose presence could drop a room's temperature ten degrees, the one who could make grown adults nervous just by walking in, who was almost certainly sitting at the head of a conference table at some Kaslan branch office right now: Kevin Kaslan.
No. Not just similar. If Kevin's perpetually frozen expression could somehow thaw. If it could actually carry a smile like this, one this open and completely unguarded. If everything cold and closed-off in his eyes could be replaced by this, by the look of a guy who genuinely just loved being alive and didn't feel the need to make it complicated...
Kiana gave her head a hard shake, trying to knock the comparison loose.
Ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.
Kevin, working as a line cook somewhere. Kevin, smiling like he didn't have a care in the world. It was absurd on its face.
Mei and Bronya had already picked up that something was wrong with Kiana. They tracked her gaze over to Phainon.
A flicker of surprise crossed Mei's violet eyes. Bronya's lake-blue ones narrowed slightly. Both of them glanced back and forth between Phainon's face and Kiana's expression a few times.
They'd both met Kevin Kaslan before, not often, but the kind of person you don't forget after one encounter. This cook named Phainon, whatever you thought about his personality and manner, looked enough like Kevin to stop you in your tracks.
But how was that possible?
The three of them, Kiana, Mei, and Bronya, had grown up together. It was only after college that their lives had started pulling in different directions. So how could someone Arthur had met in university have any connection to the Kaslan family, let alone in a way this strange?
Dan Heng had caught the shift in the room too. His eyes, steady behind his glasses, passed over Phainon, then settled briefly on Kiana's reaction, and he went quiet.
Stelle and March 7th had missed all of it entirely. Stelle was still in the middle of enthusiastic introductions: "Phainon, this is everyone from our studio! That's our captain Arthur, and over here is Kiana, Mei, Bronya, Dan Heng, and March 7th! You better bring your A-game tonight!"
Phainon greeted each of them with that same wide, unself-conscious smile. "Hey, everyone! Any friend of Arthur's is a friend of mine. Don't worry, you're all going home happy. And Arthur, seriously, eat tonight. You look like you've been running on three hours of sleep. Again."
He looked at Arthur like he genuinely meant it.
Kiana had managed to pull herself most of the way back by then. She looked at Phainon's smile, goofy and completely unguarded, and then pictured Kevin's face the way it always looked.
She pressed her nails hard into her own thigh.
It hurt.
Okay. Not a dream.
She lifted her glass and took a long slow drink of lemonade. The cold helped. It just barely kept whatever was building in her chest from showing on her face.
But her eyes kept drifting back to Phainon on their own, and the longer she looked, the more unsettled she felt.
Mei reached over and rested her hand lightly on top of Kiana's, a small touch that said both it's okay and what's going on? at the same time.
Bronya had already gotten herself together, though her gaze wandered now and then, with something thoughtful in it, toward Phainon's back as he stood to head back to the kitchen and figure out the menu.
Arthur had caught all of it: Kiana's moment of shock, the quiet shifts in Mei and Bronya. He smiled at Phainon and said, "We're counting on you. Can't wait to see what you've got."
"Say no more!" Phainon pressed a hand to his chest, traded a few more words with Stelle, and headed back toward the kitchen at a pace that had no hesitation in it, shoulders back, steps light.
Fenrir came by with the menus, her smile warm and easy. "Take your time and see what looks good! I'd especially recommend anything Phainon makes."
Ordering turned into a fairly scattered process. Kiana was clearly still not all the way back, and she handed the whole thing off to Mei without much comment.
Mei kept her expression even, though her attention slipped more than once. Bronya was quiet, turning through the menu with her usual unreadable calm. Dan Heng picked a few things without much fuss.
Stelle and March 7th went at it like it was a competition, debating options with real enthusiasm.
Arthur looked out at the city through the window, lights blurring softly in the dark.
In his head, he kept turning it over: Phainon's bright, easy face, and then the look on Kiana's when she'd first seen him. Pure shock. The kind that comes from seeing something that shouldn't be possible.
The Golden Grand. An old friend from college. Boss Aglaea. Phainon.