Chapter 14 – Caterers and Takeshita Dori
In the past month, Chiyo had created a list of 10 caterers with different styles of food all over Japan and has made appointments with two chocolatiers in Japan, who has made the list of top ten chocolatiers in the world, and the world's top dessert chef, also in Japan. Kyoya and Chiyo decided to go by themselves without their friends to the caterers but will meet up with them with the chocolatiers and dessert chef, much to Honey's delight.
They met up with French, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, American gourmet chefs who went to Japan to expand their horizons. There were fusions, specific cuisines, adding to their recipes with a little Japanese twist.
"Mouthwatering." Chiyo commented as she tasted the food.
"Exquisite." Kyoya complimented. All caterers had hit their expectations.
When they met up with the host club and the girls, Honey could barely contain himself. Before they entered the building, they sat Honey and Chiyo down on an outside and all of them crowded around them and crossed their arms.
"You will not touch any food in there unless one of us gives it to you." Kyoya ordered them.
"I will not touch any food in there unless one of you gives it to me." They chanted back.
"When we say stop, you stop."
"When you say stop, I stop."
"No running, screaming, jumping, or squealing."
"No running, screaming, jumping, or squealing."
"You will control yourself at all times and not bother the chefs, unless the questions are essential to our decisions."
"I will control myself at all times and not bother the chefs, unless the questions are essential to our decisions."
"If any of the previously stated rules are broken, neither of you can have any sweets, for two months." Honey and Chiyo looked at each other in fear and hesitance. Chiyo sucked in a breath and looked at Kyoya in the eye.
"If any of the previously stated rules are broken, I cannot have any sweets for two months." Honey watched in awe of how brave and strong Chiyo could be. He puffed out his chest in confidence and looked at Mori.
"If any of the previously stated rules are broken, I cannot have any sweets for two months." With that, the vows were said and they were allowed to go in. Honey and Chiyo held hands for support as they were surrounded by their friends when entering the building. The moment they went in, scents of chocolate, fruits, and all delectable sweets rushed into their noses by the air conditioned blast.
Honey made a contained noise as he gripped both Chiyo and Mori's hands hard. Chiyo felt like her hand was going to break so she had to let go. Instead, Kyoya came to her side and held her hand. She smiled at him. Katelyn came to the other side of Chiyo and hooked arms with her. Chiyo felt like a lucky girl.
"Welcome! Who is the lucky couple?" The host of the tour clapped his hands and greeted the group. The group moved out of the way to introduce Kyoya and Chiyo.
"We are getting married somewhere between end of March and early April."
"What a fine time to get married!" The host smiled, "Now come with me, we'll introduce you to the chocolatiers who teamed up to make your wedding cake." They went into the biggest kitchen to see two cakes and two sets of a dozen mini cakes.
"Hello, I'm Justin Thompson." One of the chefs came to shake the couple's hand. The other chef came up right after, "I'm Franklin Castello."
"We have teamed up together to come up with your desired wedding cake set by your parameters you've previously informed us. You wanted a chocolate flavored wedding cake with matcha as the secondary flavor. Wedding colors are deep purple, lavender, and white. For your guests, you want to give them mini cakes but for your entourage, you have your own wedding cake to share. Please come this way as we introduce to you our two choices." The group followed the two chefs.
"Let me introduce to you, A Perfect Dream," Justin introduced the first cake as their helpers handed them mini cakes but Kyoya asked to cut one in half for Chiyo and Honey to share. The mini cake was a tiny, two-tiered, squared cake with soft edges. The outside was lavender colored layer of frosting. The sides had dark purple swirls and a thin white chocolate flower sitting on the top. The inside was chocolate tiramisu with a thin layer of matcha mousse in between the layers. The mousse softly broke apart the two tiramisu layers in their mouths. The big cake had a similar design.
"This is so good!" Honey smiled his childish grin. Chiyo nodded. The helpers gave each of them small glass of water to cleanse the palate
"This cake is called An Everlasting Knot." It was a one tiered circular cake, also with soft edges. The outside was dark purple frosting with a lavender-colored, chocolate bow and sugared pearls spaced out all over the cake. Inside was chocolate cheesecake with a soft and chewy fudge torte with matcha.
"I think I like An Everlasting Knot better" Chiyo said, "but I like the design on A Perfect Dream."
"I agree that An Everlasting Knot tastes better." Kyoya nodded as he took another bite.
"We can arrange to combine them together." The chefs nodded.
"Thank you, we'll be back next month to see the final product." Chiyo set down her plate and the rest did the same. They went to see the dessert chef and he demonstrated some of his dessert making; the guests clapped after he set his presentation in front of them. The chef has created over a dozen desserts for his guests. There were coffee, cinnamon, and honey crème brûlée, soufflés, sorbets, tarts, custards, crepes, and chocolates. Honey and Chiyo were only allowed one bite for each dessert.
"I love it all!" Chiyo grinned. All the caterers she and Kyoya visited today did not let them down. The caterers were signed on to cook for the big day.
"Oh! I'm stuffed!" Chiyo collapsed on the couch.
"I've got some work to do." Kyoya started to head upstairs.
"Okay." She waved him off and went off to play with the puzzle. After two hours, she leaned back to take a rest. It seems like Kyoya hadn't had a lot of time to work on the puzzle. She was nearly halfway done now while he was still about ¼ done. She went upstairs to check up on the guy.
He had just finished a milestone of his work. Now, he was taking a break, sitting back to move around his neck and stretch.
"How're you doing?" she asked and sat down to his side.
"I could be better." He admitted. She moved behind him and started to massage his neck. He closed his eyes and sighed. She worked on his shoulders as he decided to continue working. When she was done, she kissed his neck and hugged him from behind really quickly before getting up to leave but Kyoya grabbed her hand.
"Thank you." He smiled and stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. She smiled and then looked at the clock.
"Do you still have a lot to do?"
"Why? What do you have in mind?"
"I want to take you out somewhere." She smiled.
"Give me maybe another hour?" Kyoya looked at the clock. She nodded, "Casual night out." She left him to his work.
"So where are we going?" She opted them to walk to their destination.
"Takeshita Dori."
"I've heard of that place. It's a commoner's street."
"That's right," she laughed, "I figured you've never been there and I think you could use some time to relax."
"What's there?" She took his hand as they continued to walk.
"Shops for fashion, souvenir shopping, resturats. Maybe we can have some sushi tonight."
"As if we didn't have enough from this morning with the caterer."
"Well there's more than what we've tried. We've only had samplers. This is the full meal here. I know it's not as high quality as you normally have it but my mixed aristocracy/commoner's palate says that it's fine." She reassured him. He smirked, "I guess I'll have to take your word for it."
"It's not that bad." Kyoya said in between bites. Chiyo laughed, "What did I tell you?" They paid and walked out of the sushi restaurant. The street was packed with young people and a lot of cosplay and gothic costumes walking around.
"This street is strange."
"You act like you've never seen cosplay before, despite your host club." She said as they paused in front of a cosplay store with dozens of teens were checking out clothes.
"Not on the street."
"You need to get out more."
"I get out." He defended.
"Yes, yes. With the host club, you have a life." She jabbed.
"Well that's not fair."
"You should know life's not fair." She curled her arm around his.
"Chiyo!" a voice called from behind. Chiyo turned around and was in shock, "Kenji!" Kyoya turned around to see a guy around their age walk up to them.
"What are you doing here in Japan?"
"I've moved back to Japan for a year now, after we, broke up." He eyed Kyoya.
"Oh, I'm so rude. This is Kyoya-" Chiyo introduced.
"-Her fiancé." Kyoya shook Kenji's hand firmly.
"Yes, I've seen you on the news…" Kenji kept staring at Kyoya. He shook as firmly as Kyoya did.
Well this is awkward. Chiyo thought.
"Well," the guys moved away their hands, "it was nice to see you, we must be going now." Chiyo slightly but subtly turned Kyoya away. Kyoya put his arm on her waist as they left Kenji standing there.
"Who was that, boss?" someone came up to Kenji, watching them leave.
"An ex."
"Wow, you have good taste." The guy said, watching Chiyo. She disappeared in the crowd but Kyoya's head was still slightly visible.
"Yeah. Let's go." They turned around and left.
"What was that?" Chiyo looked up to Kyoya after they left earshot distance from Kenji.
"What was what?"
"You acted…I don't know, jealous? It was like you were sizing him up or something."
"He did the same."
"Never mind that. What was going on with you?" She turned back to the original topic.
"I figured it was obvious."He shrugged.
"Seriously."
"How about I ask you, what's the story between you two?"
"You sound as if you're interrogating me." Chiyo stopped and put her hands on her hips.
"I merely want to know what my fiancée's dating history is."
"You have to answer my question first."
"I was not jealous, just curious." She didn't believe that but he looked like he wasn't giving anything else.
"We dated two years ago. I broke up with him because I caught him cheating. I haven't talked to him since then until now." Chiyo walked away quickly from Kyoya. As far as she think she got, Kyoya just had to walk a couple steps to catch up to her.
"Why are you angry?" He asked.
"I don't know. I've never seen that attitude. I don't believe that you're not jealous but I don't know what it is. It bothers me to think that you need to be jealous. It's like you don't trust me to even make contact with an ex. Despite not being in contact with him, I'm at no odds with any of my exes. I've let it all go." So there's more.
"How far have you gone with him?"
"I dated him for almost half a year."
"No, I mean, how far sexually?" She stopped and gave him a pointed look, "I told you before, being with you is the most…physically affectionate that I've been with a guy. That's also the reason why he cheated." She walked away. Kyoya caught up to her again and this time held her hand, "I'm sorry."
"You should be." She puffed.
"I won't ask again." He said. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to check up on this Kenji fellow. He doesn't know if Chiyo noticed, but he noticed that behind Kenji, there were a couple of guys nearby who looked questionable, observing the whole thing. And by Kenji's matching attire, he would bet that they were together. He didn't want to imagine the worst, but they look more like gangsters if anything. He would need to keep a close eye on them and Chiyo.
A/N: Okay, not much, but it's plot pushing.