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"Oh, Erina-chan, what brings you here?" Joichirou asked, smiling warmly at the blond, who's face reddened from the greeting. She bowed a little as a proper sign of respect and smiled at the older man as well. Erina was glad. She was glad that she was allowed to see Joichirou whenever she wanted now. She had missed him greatly in her years at Tootsuki and now after so many years of separation she was able to meet with her idol who she admired, since she was a naïve child.
"Nakiri! Long time no see!"
Erina's face immediately flushed when she heard Souma's voice and she couldn't help but flinch a little. She had seen Joichirou every now and then, but it was a different story with Souma. Sure, they would bump into each other on the street, but it wasn't like they chatted when meeting. They both minded their own business and just continued with their task at hand. Truth to be said, Erina was more or less quite confused about the relationship she shared with Souma. There was tension between them from the very beginning when he first served her the egg dish at the entrance exams. They had been through a lot at Tootsuki and perhaps you could say they were even friends, but did it really end just there? As a friendship?
"Certainly it has been awhile," She said nonchalantly as if she wouldn't care in the slightest, though she did catch herself glancing at the redhead.
"So you came here to admit my food's delicious?"
"N-N-NO! H-How did y-y-you come up with that i-idea?!" Erina said, her facial expression totally flustered. She began to glare at Souma and found her inner peace being disrupted by Souma's bluntness once again.
"Come on, what other reason could you be here for?" Souma asked, still not understanding, how the bearer of the God's Tongue could admire his own father. Of course, Souma knew the best that his father must have been one among the best in the culinary world, but there were still better ones. He knew and his father knew it as well. Why was she so hung up on Joichirou again?
"Well, as unbelievably as it might seem, my dear grandfather has requested you to be one of the alumni for the first year training camp this year. He prefers more experienced and mature chefs, but he went quite crazy this time with his selection," Erina said, handing Souma a brown envelope, probably containing important information about the camp.
"As I have come to deliver the envelope, I'll take my leave," Erina said, bowing to Joichirou once more and making her way out of the family diner. However, as she opened the door she noticed the exit blocked by a tall figure.
"Oh, the God's Tongue, what a pleasurable surprise," A hoarse voice said, echoing from the door. Erina slowly looked up to be met with pink locks and a pair of eyes behind glasses staring down on her. Her eyes widened. She hadn't seen him since the training camp in her first year.
Shinomiya Koujiro.
"Yukihira!" Another familiar voice called, a flash of blond flickered in front of Erina's eyes and before she knew it, Aldini Takumi was already inside almost strangling down the redhead. One by one of the people outside the diner entered the building. There all of Souma's friends and senpais.
"Guys, what are you all doing all of the sudden?" Souma asked happy yet surprised to see everyone gathered in the little dinner.
"Like you we were all invited as alumni to the training camp. The headmaster insisted on the 92th generation to attend as the judges, since we definitely could use some new potential staff right now," Hayama Akira answered with his arms crossed over his chest. His hair had grown out even more in the last years, but he still kept it reasonably short, so he wouldn't have longer hair than Jun.
The room was so packed with people, Souma barely noticed a small petite figure standing at the door. Dark blue locks tied up in a high ponytail and poisonously amber eyes observed the redhead carefully. However, soon he did catch up and stared confused at the person, who he didn't quite recognize for a few seconds.
Then in hit him like an enormous truck.
"Tadokoro!" Souma cried out, pushing everyone to the side to make his way to his old classmate. But as he was approaching her, he felt a strange tickling in his gut. Something wasn't right here. Tadokoro didn't even smile when he called out to her. Her expression just stayed cold and emotionless.
"Hello, Yukihira-kun," Megumi replied, a bored expression on her face. Now that Souma was closer he did notice that Megumi was indeed quite different from what he remembered. It wasn't her looks that were different, she still was exactly the same like at Tootsuki, but the aura she had floating around her wasn't warm and welcoming, but cold and actually quite distant. She reminded him on Nakiri with this attitude.
"Huh? Why so formal, Tadokoro? Haven't you always called me Souma-kun?" The redhead joked, a little hurt that she wasn't calling him by his first name anymore. At first it was just on a whim, when he suggested that she called him by his first time, but after three years it gave him a feeling of reassurance and maybe even confidence, that Tadokoro would always be there and always be close to him as a friend.
"Go get a bottle of that fine wine we had earlier. We don't have any left and we can't have a nice meal with a good bottle of wine. It'd be rude to let our guests starve when they already went through the trouble to come to Yukihira diner," The older Yukihira interrupted, sending Souma out to buy in at the nearby wine shop.
"Wait up, Yukihira, I'll go with you," Shinomiya suddenly said, taking his coat and walking out with Souma into the pitch dark night. The two chefs walked in silence for a while, but Souma then decided to break the ice, since it was getting quite awkward.
"What do you need to talk about? You wouldn't have gone with me, if it hadn't involved something important."
"It's about Megumi."
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A/N Short, I know, but school is busting my apples right now, so I don't really have time for creative writing. But holiday are approaching, so I'll try my best to continue. (I'll do the grammar and spelling check later... :D)
