"Shuichirou!" Takumi waved at him with a smile. He was with Haruka in front of Hattori Nutrition College. It was 6 p.m and they had scheduled to meet for Eiji's festival. It would go until 9 p.m so they decided to have dinner there.

"Hi, guys." He smiled back at him. "Were you waiting for long?"

"Not at all." Haruka said gently. She came close and fixed Oishi's dark grey scarf around his neck.

"I'm starving! Being here is torture, the smell is great!" Takumi said.

"Let's go then, I'm hungry as well."

They entered the building and the floor was full of people. There were different kinds of menu on the entrance of each classroom at the ground floor.

They finally found Eiji after walking down the hallway. He was moving quickly and was busy but there was a smile on his face while preparing the meals on the kitchen with another cook. All of them were wearing pure white clothes. He didn't see them entering. There were other 5 students at the room, Mika included. Another male student was also helping with the costumers. She showed Shuichirou a small smile when he entered the room.

"Oishi-san, you came." She made a reverence. "Welcome to our shop."

"Thank you for the invitation, Yagami-san." He said kindly. "These are my friends, Haruka and Takumi."

"Nice to meet you too, thank you for coming as well. I'm Yagami Mika, Eiji-san's classmate. We also live together. He told me a lot about you two."

"Is that so?" Haruka smiled at her. "Are you enjoying living with Eiji-kun?"

"Yes, it's fun."

"What do you suggest for us, Yagami-san? I'm starving!" Takumi said.

"We have candied sweet potatoes or grilled matsutake mushrooms with teriyaki sauce for entries, beef nabe for main dish and for dessert you can choose chestnut-flavored mont blanc cakes or rosette tarts of persimmon and almonds."

"Everything sounds delicious." Oishi smiled.

"Can we order one of each?" Takumi said and Haruka giggled.

"Yes, it will really help us out." She said, gently. She picked up a small notebook from her pocket and started to write their orders.

"I would like the grilled mushrooms, nabe and the rosette tarts." Shuichirou said.

"Could you bring the same for me?" Takumi asked gently.
"I want to try the sweet potatoes, beef nabe and the cake, please." Haruka said.

"Thank you so much. I will bring your orders shortly."

"Eiji-kun looks like a professional chef already." Takumi noticed.

"He's very serious towards his food." Shuichirou smiled, watching him.

"Everything must be delicious." Haruka said.

Mika got close to Eiji and whispered at him.

"Eiji-san, Oishi-san and your friends are here."

"Eh?!" he turned around and finally looked at them. His face blushed entirely when seeing Shuichirou. He really came! "Thank… thank you for telling me." He tried to hide it looking at the food on the pan.

Mika chuckled at his nervousness.

"Don't burn the food." She said, before leaving.

Even though his heart was beating fast, Eiji had a wide happy grin while cooking with all his might.

##################

"This is the best food I ever ate in a festival!" Takumi said, satisfied. They had finished their meal and just ended the desserts. "Haru, you definitely should talk to your parents about hiring Eiji-kun!"

"Our chef already invited him to spend some time there." She smiled. "Do you think he would go, Shuichirou?"

"He really liked it in there. Maybe on his next vacations?"

"Excuse me." Mika came close again. "Did you enjoy yourselves?"

"Absolutely!" Takumi said. "You guys are really good!"

"Yagami-san, is it possible to take some of the dessert home?" Haruka asked.

"Yes, I will prepare a take out for you." She answered gently.

"All the food was incredible, Yagami-san. How did your class organized it?"

"We had a lot of meetings on the last two months. Each one of us gave some ideas. Since Eiji-san is the best student in our class, he was chosen to be the main cook and he wanted to offer the nabe. We had trials as well to taste the food before setting on the complete course."

"Eiji-kun is the best student? Really?!" Takumi asked

"Yes, watching him cook is something really beautiful." She was very proud of her friend.

"Did you prepare anything, Yagami-san?" Haruka asked.

"The rosette tarts. Even though I'm not in the kitchen today, it's my recipe."

"Do you want to especialize in desserts?" Oishi asked.

"Yes." She showed a small smile. "Would you like to talk to Eiji-san? He's having a small break soon. I can ask him to come here."

##############

Eiji came nervously to their table. He had removed his short white hat and his hair was even fluffier.

"Thank you all for coming!"

"Eiji-kun!" Takumi smiled. "What wonderful food you made! Thank you so much!"

"Did you really like it?" he smiled shyly.

"It was splendid, Eiji-kun." Haruka said kindly. "We really enjoyed ourselves."

"Such a good work, Eiji-kun." Oishi smiled at him. "You're just improving more and more. Congratulations on being the main cook with the main dish. Yagami-san told us about it."

"Thank… thank you!" he made a quick reverence. "But, you should go to the other classes as well. Everyone made delicious things."

"Are you free soon, Eiji-kun? Maybe we can leave together." Haruka asked. "It's been a while since we all hang out."

"I'm sorry, I'm taking my last break now, because I'm going to stay until the end to organize things."

"Is that so?" Shuichiro asked and Kikumaru could notice a little disappointment on his voice. "I was hoping we could talk."

"Haru, why don't we go to take a look on the other food?" Takumi said, looking at Oishi with a small smile. The young doctor understood he was trying to help out and smiled at him. "Eiji-kun, would you keep Shuichirou company on your break? Otherwise he will be lonely."

"O…Okay."

#############

"Were you able to eat something tonight?" Shuichirou asked. Eiji and him were walking side by side on the college's desert inside garden. The night was chilly and Eiji's hands were inside his pockets.

"Not really. I was so busy and excited about everything, I just don't get hungry."

"You should eat later. Don't go to bed without dinner."

"Yes." It made him happy Oishi was still worrying about him.

They sat down on a bench and he put his scarf around his neck.

"You're cold now, right?"

" A little." Eiji averted his eyes, shyly. "I stood by the stove the whole day, the heat is wearing off."

"I see."

"Did you… really enjoy the food?"

"Yes, everything was incredible. I would never say it was made by students. You can be a professional already, Eiji-kun. I'm very proud of you."" The green eyes were glistering under the moonlight and Kikumaru's heart skipped a beat. He lowered his head and touched the soft scarf.

"Oishi-san…"

"Yes?"

"Why don't you want to date me?"

"It's not about you, Eiji-kun." He looked at him worried.

"Are you afraid?" he raised his face and the dark blue eyes were serious. "About what happened between you and Tezuka-san?"

The question made Shuichirou's chest tight. Was he worrying about such a thing?

"I would never cheat on you." he held his hands tightly. "I would never hurt you, Oishi-san. I promise."

"I know you wouldn't." he showed him a small smile. "But…"

"You said you knew Tezuka-san would never love you. I'm here, right in front of you, telling you again that I'm in love with you. Why isn't it enough? Why…" Shuichirou noticed his hands started to tremble. "Why I'm not enough for you?"

"Eiji-kun…" he took a deep breath, like begging for courage for his next words.

"You can use me to forget about him. I don't mind. I just… want to be with you."

Oishi removed his hands from his and Eiji looked at him worried. Was he mad? But, when he looked at him, there was nothing but gentleness on the green eyes and hit of sadness as well.

"You should not say such a thing, Eiji-kun. It's true that I'm still a little hurt for what happened, but..."

"So, let me heal you, then! Why can't you give me a chance?!"

"Why do you like me so much? Did you ever think about it?"

"Because Oishi-san is Oishi-san! I know you think it's about you taking me in and taking care of me, but it's nothing like that! Otherwise these feelings would have ended when I moved out and these two months we didn't have any contact! But… even now, day after day, my heart jumps when I'm near you or when I just think about you." He lowered his head again. "It hurts… knowing you don't trust my feelings for you. It really hurts."

Shuichirou looked at him and felt so guilty and lost. How could someone so young talk about love so easily? He wondered if Eiji really understood the weight of such words. Even if Eiji's feelings were nothing but puppy love, he right there, chest wide open and vulnerable, offering him everything he ever wanted.

Shuichirou was sure he had a great idealized imagine of him on his mind. Eiji's feelings would definitely wither and fade in face of the reality of having a relationship with someone as old and boring as him, but he wanted to give his little heart a break. He didn't want to see him suffer so much. Shuichirou knew how painful it was to fall in love like that and he hated the idea of inflict such thing on someone else.

One of his hand gently touched Kikumaru's red hair and Eiji wondered if he was comforting him only to be rejected again.

"Okay, then." His voice was extremely kind.

"Eh?" he raised his head and looked at him with the blue eyes wide in surprise.

"If you want to date me, let's do it, Eiji-kun."