Arthur looked at the dinner table before him. Kiana was trying to steal food from Mei's bowl, while Mei fended her off with a helpless yet affectionate smile.
Bronya sat quietly sipping her soup.
Stelle and March 7th were arguing over which dish tasted best. Dan Heng had already finished eating and was gazing out the window, lost in thought.
Phainon walked over carrying a freshly made dessert, his face wearing that warm, sunny smile so utterly unlike Kevin's.
"Try this! It's a new dessert I made. It tastes best while it's hot!"
The sweet aroma drifted through the air, dissolving the last trace of awkwardness left behind by the whole look-alike incident.
Arthur set aside his thoughts, picked up a small spoon, and took a bite.
Sweet, soft, melting on the tongue, with just the right amount of warmth.
Just then, Kiana seemed to remember something and sat bolt upright.
She turned toward Arthur and Stelle, eyes gleaming with a mix of curiosity and mischief.
"Oh, right! Captain! Stelle!"
She lowered her voice, though it was still perfectly audible to everyone at the table.
"Don't you think that chef Phainon... looks exactly like my Kevin? Except their personalities are complete opposites?"
Arthur's hand paused slightly as he lifted his teacup.
Stelle blinked, looking genuinely blank. "Kevin? Who's that? Phainon looks like who?"
Kiana slapped the table.
"Come on! The guy I mentioned that one time, my stone-faced cousin! One of the people actually running the Kaslana family right now. Kevin Kaslana! You forgot?"
Arthur and Stelle exchanged a glance, and each saw genuine confusion in the other's eyes.
Arthur's memories did contain the name Kevin Kaslana, but only as a highly influential, mysterious figure within Kiana's family, and, according to Kiana's complaints, a young senior who was utterly cold and unapproachable. No clear image of his face existed in those memories. Stelle knew even less.
"Seriously?" Stelle's interest was piqued. "Phainon, Mr. Sunshine himself, looks like that cousin of yours who sounds permanently subzero? Kiana, did you eat too much barbecue and start hallucinating?"
"I did not!" Kiana crossed her arms.
"Sure, Kevin acts like he's carved keep away into his face and walks around with a Siberian permafrost stare. But this girl still remembers what he looks like!
They really do look alike! Give me a couple of days and I'll find a chance to sneak a photo... I mean, track down an official photo of him for you to compare. You'll be shocked, I guarantee it!"
She was absolutely convinced, clearly unable to let go of the resemblance between Phainon and Kevin.
Mei set her teacup down gently, a touch of contemplation in her violet eyes. "There is... something similar in the bone structure. But the temperament is completely different."
She glanced toward the kitchen, her voice unhurried. "Phainon gives off a very warm feeling."
Bronya said nothing, listening quietly.
At that moment, Phainon came back out carrying a freshly brewed pot of fruit tea, catching the tail end of Kiana's last sentence.
"Hm? Someone looks like me?" He poured tea for everyone with his usual radiant smile. "Really? I always figured this face of mine was too ordinary to stand out."
Kiana hadn't expected the subject himself to appear so suddenly, and cleared her throat with a hint of embarrassment.
"Uh... it's just a distant relative of mine... only a tiny bit similar!" She tried to brush it off vaguely.
Phainon didn't seem bothered at all, laughing cheerfully. "Ha, the world's a big place, there's bound to be people who look alike! Maybe we're from the same family a few hundred years back!"
While pouring tea for Arthur, he settled into a nearby empty seat, clearly with some free time on his hands.
"Perfect timing. Mydei's holding things down in the kitchen, so I can sneak a break and come chat... well, bond with everyone."
Phainon said with a grin.
"Mydei is here too?" Arthur was genuinely a little surprised this time.
Mydei. Also someone he'd met through a university club, the group's star chef and dedicated workhorse. He had the impression that after graduating, Mydei was supposed to go back to take over the family business.
"Yep!"
Phainon nodded.
"And it's not just Mydei. A lot of the old crew from university are in this city, and we still get together pretty often. You know Professor Anaxa, right? That super strict male professor? He's got a post here now and comes in to eat with us every now and then, holding court like he owns the place."
Professor Anaxa... Arthur's memory surfaced an image of a demanding but genuinely capable professor. He hadn't expected him to be in the same city.
Phainon kept counting on his fingers. "Castorice is here too, one of our other head chefs. Her cooking is incredible, especially her creative dishes. A lot of customers come specifically for her!"
"Castorice is here too?" The words slipped out of Arthur before he could stop them, carrying a subtle complexity he himself hadn't noticed.
"Yeah, she..." Phainon glanced at Arthur, a teasing edge slipping into his smile. "She's great in every way, except she can be a bit... well, shy. Especially when it comes to... you know."
He trailed off deliberately, but the implication was clear: Castorice's shyness had something to do with Arthur.
Kiana, Mei, and Bronya all looked up at nearly the same moment.
Castorice?
Another name they'd never heard before, and a woman at that. Judging by Phainon's tone and the way Arthur's expression shifted ever so slightly, the relationship seemed to be... something more than ordinary.
A silent alarm quietly rang to level one in all three girls' minds.
Although Phainon described Castorice as shy and too nervous to even see Arthur, which made her sound like less of an immediate concern... who could really say?
The bond forged between childhood friends was deep, of course. But a past acquaintance from university days, especially one who seemed to carry this kind of history, was often far less predictable.
Bronya's fingers drifted unconsciously along the rim of her teacup.
Kiana's blue eyes narrowed slightly.
The smile on Mei's face faded a shade, her violet gaze resting quietly on Arthur, waiting for his reaction.
Arthur seemed unaware of the subtly charged atmosphere from the three childhood friends beside him. He appeared to have drifted into a memory, and after a pause, asked, "What about Cyrene? How is she doing now?"
Cyrene!
The moment that name left his lips, the alert level in Kiana, Mei, and Bronya's minds shot from level one straight to red.
Cyrene!
This was unquestionably the first time any of them had heard this name from Arthur's mouth.
And the tone in his voice as he asked after her, something instinctive and unable to hold itself back, carried a quality that was plainly different from the warmth he'd shown when asking about Phainon or Mydei.
A kind of difficult-to-name attentiveness.
Phainon's eyes lit up.
"Cyrene! She's in this city too! And she's done really well for herself. She's a published author now, writing under the pen name Song of Demiurges!
Song of Demiurges, right. She writes in some kind of... epic fantasy genre? Anyway, she's quite well known. I've read two of her books myself. Really well written, though the endings are a bit... well, a little bleak."
An author. Song of Demiurges.
Kiana and Mei exchanged a look, both reading the same message in each other's eyes: noted, looking it up later.
Bronya had already slipped out her phone, fingers hovering above the screen.
Phainon made an enthusiastic suggestion.
"Arthur, you should go catch up with Cyrene! It's been forever since we've all gotten together. Castorice, Mydei, Cyrene, you and me, and if everyone here could come along too, it'd be so lively! I'm sure everyone's been missing you!"
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