So, here's the next chapter.

Ikumi POV

"Yo, Nikumi!"

I turned around, from teaching the freshman, and faced… him.

I heard many rumors about Yukihira that day. Of him yelling at Erina, him being slapped by Hisako, him confessing his love for her.

Those rumors almost made me self aware of how I looked.

'Am I dressed good enough?! Or maybe too formally?!'

I was in the same clothes I was in when he first defeated me all those years ago.

I tried not to show it, but I was also still the same girl that I was when he first defeated me, and called me that nickname.

Sure, I might have learned a little humility about the people around me, but I still felt the same insecurities about myself every time he talked to me.

"H.. hey."

"So, how's the freshmen going? Are they doing well, making the don?"

I nodded, not trusting what I would say.

"Didn't he confess his love to some other girl?"

I didn't know whether to deny the rumors in front of the students… or Yukihira.

"Yeah. She had a crush on him, always blushing-"

"Oi."

Yukihira suddenly looked… different. Angry, almost. I stepped back from the redhead, afraid of what would happen when he blew up. Many of my other club members did the same, excluding those who were in the conversation. They were stuck with fear.

I didn't think he was capable of anger, or even that he had an angry bone in his body, but here he was, staring down the freshmen who were gossiping, and looked like he'd murder them if they spoke another word.

"You shouldn't be talking bad behind her back. She has been helping you all, hasn't she?"

Even if they had not known him before, they knew what it was like to see anger towards them. They quickly nodded in fear, and then the atmosphere thinned, as everyone simultaneously took a deep breath in.

He lost the anger in his eyes, and just said,

"It's not nice of you to make fun of your elders, isn't it?"

He laughed it off, but… it still wasn't genuine. The other students noticed it too, but they didn't mention it, quickly getting back to work, not wanting to anger Yukihira.

"Anyways, Nikumi."

Soma looked me in the eyes, warmly. His voice was calm, and his aura made him look like a poor pauper, with a heart of gold.

'Wait. He sounds really calm. Like, too calm. Like… he's going to confess to-'

I tried shoving the thought out of my head, but it didn't go away, as he looked down at me. I couldn't meet his gaze, and I felt my heart beating in my chest, thumping as I waited for him to say something

"Uh, Yukihira?"

He was quiet for a few seconds, and then, that aura around him vanished.

"Oh. I forgot what I was going to say. Sorry..."

He rubbed the back of his head, and I just looked at him, confused. Then, slowly, I chuckled. Ever so quietly, in my head, I lightly chuckled, and then I started chuckling in real life, till I burst out laughing.

"Oh my god, Yukihira. You really haven't changed!"

I put my hand on his shoulder, as I continued to laugh out loud.

"You've caused such a mess for all of us…"

I said that, almost instinctively, after I quieted down my laughter. To my surprise, he got on his knee, and gripped my right shoulder, moving my arm off of his. Then, he looked away from me… distraught, for some reason.

"Sorry. I was planning on returning when I told you guys I was returning, but…"

I saw him visibly swallow, as he returned to looking… in front of me. Or, beyond me. He looked outside, through the windows.

"Something came up."

His smile came back, but it was softer than I remember.

'He's… not faking that, is he?'

"O… oh. That's alright."

He returned to standing up once again, and held that… smile. The one where I could see his crazy planning.

"Anyways, do you guys want to make your dons? You guys have 10 minutes to make a don!"

"Eh?!"

"What?! How?"

He smiled evilly, towards me. Eyeing me, specifically.

'He's not doing this for me, is he?'

I saw mischief in his eyes, like he wanted to torture them. It was the same expression he had when he made that disgusting looking Squid Tentacles with peanut butter, and tried to feed it to people.

'No. No he is not.'

The entire atmosphere became stressful and angry in the span of a few seconds. The atmosphere became thick with fear and regret, but they were too late to apologize to Yukihira.

'Looks like he'll be able to simultaneously piss off his juniors and his seniors at the same time.' I sweat dropped.

"But, wait, you aren't the leader of this club!"

"Shh. That's the same guy who beat the principal! The god tongue!"

"Oh? Yeah, I guess I did." He quietly muttered.

'Would… he rather forget that? You'd think he'd be gloating about it, since it's the reason he left for over a year.

They looked at him with shock, as they should have.

"What are you waiting for? Time is moving!"

He barked out that, so much so, everyone just immediately went to work. I backed up from him, with his voice raising.

Everyone just went to work like crazy, trying to get everything ready.

'Well… he's the reason I'm in charge of this club. He has a say over what happens in it.'

In a matter of 10 minutes, he had several dishes in front of him.

'They don't look bad… but they weren't prepared as well as they should have been.'

Surprisingly, he ate down every one of them, labeled from a to z. Presumably so he could give them a grade of sorts.

But… he wolfed down every meal, like he hadn't eaten anything in days.

'Did he also gain an appetite for food all of a sudden? I don't remember him being such a foodie.'

"So…"

He smiled.

"She taught you well."

They all looked at him, confused.

"This is supposed to be an all in one kind of meal. You guys have done well. But this is the worst you will do this year."

He gained a new expression on those gold eyes of his.

"I know many of you have come from less than wealthy backgrounds. I know that many of you have known what it's like to learn to cook, not just for a passion… but for survival. Maybe to keep your family's business afloat, or to feed your sickly parents, or maybe to prove that you matter to someone. It could be all of the above."

Surprisingly, many of the people in the room nodded.

"But, regardless of your reasons to enter into this school, you all need to hold onto that reason. Dedicate your life to that reason. That's the only way you will survive in this school. Raw talent, intuition, fast learning, all of that means nothing in this school. Whatever life you have had outside here, you will have the same fate if you fail graduation."

They looked at him incredulously. They were only just getting into school, and just got out of the autumn festival.

"Never lose that sight of yours. Focus on what you want to do… and never lose sight of your goal."

Everyone had their fists tightened. But not in anger. They knew he was right.

"Now, you'll get better at cooking if you practice it enough here. But, when you are struggling… or you can't find a way to actually cook anymore… never forget the reason you wanted to pick that knife up, turn the heat on, and become a chef."

'Never forget.'

It felt like that was directed to more than just the students. He looked lost while speaking… before saying never to forget, where a new light appeared.

'Yukihira… you've been lost, haven't you? That's why you left, wasn't it?'

I thought Yukihira was an open book. Like there was nothing I couldn't notice about him. But… I wasn't really ever looking at him, actually. I could tell, from the dark circles under his eyes, that he had cried, going to sleep. He had become more skinny, and almost seemed like he was underweight, with even the muscle around his arms fading away.

I… felt a new level of concern wash over me. It was unfamiliar for me to feel that way.

"Anyways, you're all dismissed!" Yukihira spoke out, finally breaking the silence from his speech.

They all dispersed, working on whatever they needed to do.

But my focus was on Yukihira, for once.

"Hey, Yukihira?"

"Hmm? What?"

He tried to have that ignorant look on his face.

I would have usually choked up, and stopped myself from asking this.

But… this time, I felt like I couldn't let my personal feelings cloud my judgement. Damn what people said. I didn't care.

Soma Yukihira mattered to me more than the noise that everyone made about my life. He mattered more than my father's opinion on who I should be as a person, who I should be for him.

"Yukihira, want to get lunch? I want to talk to you about what happened in the past 6 months."

I could hear the gossip behind me. But I didn't listen to them.

'I didn't listen to the right people all my life. Let me do this at least, and listen to him.'

"Okay. Sure. Where?"

"Outside the school. Probably someplace a little more…"

I looked around the leering eyes, trying to extract information and gossip out of me.

"Private."

I sneered at my clubmates, just trying to get a good laugh out of my life.

"Okay!" He just went out with a smile, waving.

But, as he turned around, I swore I could see a smirk, a genuine one, on his face.

"Alright everyone! Enough fooling around! You heard him! Go on, and push yourselves! Keep moving forward!"

Anyways, that's the chapter. Sorry I'm slow at publishing, but I want to make it good.