"So, what are you planning to make?" Jonah asked as he turned off the tap and dried his hands. Currently, he and Senior Rosehearts were at the Heartslabyul Dorm's kitchen. Rosehearts was wearing a pink frilly apron, which he said he was borrowed from Senior Clover. And honestly, Jonah didn't know which one was funnier: the fact that Senior Clover had a frilly pink apron, or the fact Senior Rosehearts, the former Crimson Tyrant, was wearing that said apron and still had that poker face.

Rosehearts looked up. "Um..." He looked down at the cookbook he was holding, flipping the pages before stopping. "Strawberry tart? There's a recipe here." He walked up to Jonah and showed the recipe to Jonah.

Jonah skimmed through the recipe before nodded. "Yeah. We can make those," he said as he tied his white apron behind his back (because Senior Rosehearts said so). "Alright, let's look for the ingredients."

It turned into a fetch quest, looking for the ingredients around the kitchen: flour, butter, lemon, strawberries, and various other stuff. Jonah finally found the granulated sugar on the cupboard, but when he turned around he saw that Rosehearts was holding a small glass bottle in his hand. When he walked up to him, he saw that it was a bottle of Walrus-Brand Young Oyster Sauce. "Senior Rosehearts," Jonah said, raising an eyebrow. "We don't need oyster sauce."

"We don't?" Rosehearts turned his head toward him with a confused look. "But Trey said that a delicious tart always has oyster sauce as a secret ingredient…"

…

Oh.

OH…

Jonah quickly covered his mouth to cover his giggle. "Sweet Nebula, you nearly fell for that."

Rosehearts blinked nervously. "Eh? But it helped with you soup …?"

"It does, but it won't work with dessert as well," Jonah said between his laugh. "Sure, we use salt to bring out the flavor, but the oyster sauce will be too strong for it."

"Oh." Rosehearts looked down to the oyster sauce. "Yeah…" He was smiling, followed by a laugh. "I'm so stupid."

Jonah stopped laughing, but his smile never left his face. "Okay, let's start." Rosehearts nodded and Jonah took the oyster sauce from his hand as he continued, "You can make the crust while I make the cream."

"Alright."

The two boys went to their stations. Jonah prepared a bowl to mix the custard. "How many tarts do you want to make?"

"Maybe, three," Rosehearts answered as he poured flour into the food processor. "It's only fair since we also have three tarts at the last party."

Jonah nodded. "That's understandable."

They did their job. Senior Rosehearts finished earlier and put the dough into the fridge. Jonah was whisking the cream as he poured the milk, while Riddle was cutting the strawberries.

"Here." Jonah walked up to Rosehearts with a spoon of the cream mixture. "Taste it."

Rosehearts took the spoon and put the tip into his mouth. The cream was sweet, a bit lemony, but it had a perfect consistency. "Hmm..." He licked his lips. "Taste great."

"Is it?" There was still a bit of cream on the spoon. Jonah then just put the whole spoon into his mouth.

Rosehearts' face immediately went red. "Wh-What are you doing?"

Jonah pulled the spoon out from his mouth. He started his senior confusedly. "Huh?"

"I just licked that!" he yelled, gesturing to the boy and spoon. "You can't just put that in your mouth! That's unsanitary!"

"It's just a spoon..." Jonah said as he tossed the spoon to the sink. "It's fine."

It's not fine! Rosehearts wanted to scream, but Jonah already went back to his job, putting the cream into a plastic bag. Rosehearts just ran his hand down his face. Trying to stop blushing, he took out the dough from the fridge after thirty minutes. Jonah, in turn, put his creams into the fridge for quick chilling. Rosehearts floured his workspace and started to roll. It was quite heavy actually.

"Need any help?" Rosehearts heard Jonah said from behind. "Here."

"Eh-" All of a sudden, he felt Jonah was pressing his body against his back, his hand reached out to hold on the rolling pin and Rosehearts' hand.

"You need to press and roll." Jonah helped him pressed the dough and rolled it until Rosehearts, whose face was as red as the strawberries, could get the hang of it. "See? Don't make it too thin."

Rosehearts gulped. "R-Right."

Jonah smiled and let go of his hand. Rosehearts let out a quiet sigh, unheard by the other boy. After preheating the oven, Jonah walked back to Rosehearts' counter to prepare the pan, letting the prefect form the crusts by himself.

"Hmm…" Jonah hummed as he stared at the strawberries that Rosehearts had cut.

The prefect looked up from the oven after finished putting the dough in. "What's wrong?"

"I think we don't have enough strawberries," Jonah said.

Rosehearts frowned. "What should we do?"

"No need to worry."

Both boys turned to the kitchen door. The green-haired vice prefect was standing there with a basket filled with ripened strawberries. Rosehearts blinked. "Trey?"

Jonah waved at his senior. "Hello, Senior Clover."

Senior Clover smiled at him as he walked in, putting the basket on Rosehearts' counter. "I just picked some fresh strawberry from the botanical garden."

Rosehearts stared at the strawberries. This was more than enough, maybe even spare some. Rosehearts smiled at Clover. "Thank you." He then picked up the basket and walked to the sink, about to wash the fruit.

Jonah looked at Clover who was in distress, hands clenching-and-unclenching into fists. Jonah sighed. He turned his head to the prefect. "Senior Rosehearts? Where's the bathroom?"

"It's just around the corner," Rosehearts said without looking up.

"'Kay~" Jonah glanced at Clover. He gave him a small smile. "Don't worry," he whispered. "Just talk to him."

Clover looked at him gratefully. "Thanks."

Jonah nodded as he walked out of the kitchen. He didn't leave immediately after he closed the door, instead, he pressed his back to the door, listening to the conversation between the two childhood friends.

Riddle looked so serious while he was washing the strawberries. There was silence between them. He didn't know how Riddle felt about this, but Trey just couldn't stand it. Not when he needed to get something off his chest.

He cleared his throat, more likely to calm himself down. "So, how are the tarts?" he asked, walking toward the oven and looked in it.

"We're doing pretty great actually," Riddle answered, as he turned off the tap.

"You made the crust?" Trey asked again.

Riddle brought the bowl of strawberries to the counter again. "How do you know?"

"I've seen Jonah's handiworks. These shapes look a little bit out of sorts." Trey smiled, and quickly added, "It looks pretty good considering it's your first time."

Riddle chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. "I guess so."

There was another silence between them. Trey watched Riddle cuts the strawberries, keeping his hand in his pocket to stop himself from helping him. It was some sloppy cuts, but again, it was the prefect's first time. He didn't look stressed at all. He looked so relaxed, enjoying himself.

Trey took a deep breath and let it out from his mouth. "Riddle?"

"Yes?"

"I want to say... I'm sorry."

Riddle stopped. Slowly he looked up at Trey. "What for?"

Trey sighed and walked closer to him, with only the counter being the one thing that separated them. "For everything. I always knew you were suffering but I kept quiet..."

Riddle shook his head. "No. I'm the one at fault here. What I've done was wrong."

"But I knew you were wrong, and I didn't do anything to stop you or to correct you."

Riddle paused for a moment before sighing. "To be honest, I don't know if I would listen to you or not back then." He walked around the counter so he could stand face-to-face with Trey. "Again, it wasn't your fault." He sighed again. "I guess... I should say thank you."

This time, it was Trey's turn to blinks in confusion. "For what?"

There was a small smile on Riddle's face. "For staying with me. For not turning you back on me." He stretched out his hand. "Can we still be friends after this? Just like old times?"

Trey stared at Riddle. Slowly, his lips pulled out a soft, gratitude-filled, smile. And, without wasting any second on this wonderful opportunity, he took it. "Of course. And you're welcome."

None of them realized that Jonah was still behind the door, sighing in relief and smiling with joy, happy for the two of them. It looks like things are going to be better from now on.

"And... There!" Jonah clapped his hand as he put the final strawberry on top of the last tart. "We did it!"

On the counter, there were three whole tarts with golden crust and strawberries on top of them. They looked so delicious. Rosehearts sighed in relief. "Thank you so much for helping."

"No problem, Senior Rosehearts." Jonah smiled at him. "That's what friends for, right?"

Friends… That word still brought warmth to Rosehearts' heart. "You..." he cleared his throat. "You don't have to call me 'Senior Rosehearts' all the time."

"Then what should I call you then?" Jonah asked. He then snapped his fingers. "How about 'Riro'?"

Rosehearts stared at him with confusion. "Riro?"

Jonah held up his right index finger. "Take the 'Ri' from 'Riddle'…" He also held up his left index finger. "And 'Ro' from 'Rosehearts'…" He then brought the two together with a giant grin on his face. "Riro!"

"That sounds weird!" Rosehearts screamed, cheeks blushing. "Just 'Riddle' is fine."

Jonah laughed. "Okay then, Senior Riddle." Jonah nodded back, holding out his hand. "Glad we have an agreement, Mister Riddle."

Senior Rosehearts – Senior Riddle took the hand, giving it a firm shake. "The pleasure is mine, Mister Jonah."