Dish.19 – Reunion [part.02]
"Sugoooi!"
All the residents of Polar Star Dorm chorused once they arrived at the place called Kimura Residence. The giant wooden gate stood proudly in front of them. It was after Isshiki pushed on the bell that the double gate doors opened.
"Welcome back, Isshiki-sama."
An old man dressed in dark wood colored kimono greeted the sophomore boy with a respectful bow.
"It's been a while, Yanagida Jii-san." Isshiki greeted back as well as gave his bow.
"Haruki-sama has informed us about your stay together with your friends. Minna-san, this way please."
The old man whom Isshiki addressed as Yanagida Jii-san ushered all the residents of Polar Star Dorm into the residence. Then, he led the way to the house where they will stayed for the night.
Behind the giant gate doors, it was like another world. Kimura Residence was designed with traditional theme. Be it the buildings also the other instruments which decorated it. The simple example of it was the beautiful Zen garden which greeted them once they entered the residence.
Not only beautiful, the residence itself was big. The freshmen kids already calculated in their own head that Kimura Residence was two times bigger than Isshiki House, or maybe more. It was like being in a tour, as in each turn they will found a guide board.
"Isshiki-senpai, does each Kimura family member have their own pavilion?" Yuuki asked curiously as they made a left turn. Not long before she asked, there was a name plate with 'Kimura Haruki Pavilion' on a small gate.
"Kind of. But, it will be theirs once they got married. Since Ki-kun and his siblings are still single, they lived in the main house together with their parents."
The freshmen got awed by that unexpected info. Not long after Isshiki finished his short explanation, they got greeted by the youngest child of Kimura siblings.
"You've come, Satoshi."
"As you can see, Ki-kun." Isshiki replied with his signature smile.
"What?" Haruki asked as he saw the weird look given by the freshmen behind Isshiki.
"Yah... it's the first time I hear Kimura-senpai called Isshiki-senpai by his given name." Souma reasoned, which got agreed by his fellow freshmen whom nodded their head in unison.
"What a weird reason." Haruki mumbled, then he continued. "Follow me."
The entourage followed Haruki obediently like chicks followed its mother hen. The pavilion where they will stayed in was simple, got decorated by several bonsai trees, several toro along the hallway, and shishiodoshi which snapped down once it got full by the water, broke the silence of that place.
"The boys will stay in this room and the room next door. While the girls will stay at the west wing buildings, the same place where Ren stayed in. A maid will-"
"Aaaaah!"
Before Haruki could finish the arrangement for Polar Star Dorm's resident, a sudden loud scream got heard by them. It came from the west wing building which got mentioned by Haruki just now.
"What is that?" Marui asked as he put up his glasses.
"Let's go and help them." The usually silent Ibusaki proposed, then the boys immediately dashed out of that place, run to the source of that scream. Got followed by the girls.
"Ma-tte..." Haruki was about to call the freshmen back, but didn't do it. "Huh, they shouldn't be panic like that. Since it wasn't a big matter after all." Haruki talked to himself as the freshmen already out of his sight, and he got left with Isshiki there.
"Nah, whoever heard that scream must got startled and... wait, it seems that you've gotten used by it, Ki-kun."
Haruki didn't reply to that statement as he walked toward the place where the freshmen aimed to. Isshiki behind him didn't utter another word.
= At the crime scene =
All the freshmen almost had their jaw dropped once they saw the scene in front of them. Many maid servants lied on the floor, their face was showing different mimic. Several of them looked like got blessed by something, but the others looked grim like they got poisoned. Abandoned plates with dish stain on it was lied carelessly on the floor. Each workstation got loaded by different things, be it pans, bowls, knives, several pairs of mortar and pestle, and various ingredients as well as spices. Not to forget about the colorful sticky notes got attached in random places there.
"Please, forgive me for my tardiness, Karen-sama. I still haven't finished crushed all of the cardamom pods that I-"
"No, no, it's not your fault, Miwa-chan. I'm too focused on my note that I forgot about the combine mixture on the stove."
Those conversation which made the freshmen of Polar Star Dorm shifted their attention from the chaos in that place to the two girls whom still remained 'conscious' in that training kitchen.
"Ren-san...?"
The one who got called by Megumi turned her head, and she saw them.
"Oh, minna..."
Karen greeted them with her innocent smile as if nothing have happened in that place, which made her fellow freshmen had their blank face.
"Just... what have happened?"
"Recipe experiment, huh?"
Isshiki became the first one whom responded to Haruki's short explanation about the thing which had happened in the training kitchen – several minutes ago.
"She used all of those maids just to test one kind of recipe?" Yuuki asked right at the next second.
Haruki nodded as his reply. "Her brain is too much loaded with various kind of weird ideas about cooking, so that kind of thing often happened. Be it here, or in her private kitchen in Toutsuki." Haruki added calmly as if it wasn't a big thing to be revealed to his guest.
"But, what kind of recipe that used so many person to test it, Kimura-senpai?" Souma asked after he took a full gulp of the iced tea in front of him. "Also, how many hours she has spent to cook there?"
"Come to think of it. Ren-san didn't wear her chef uniform, but all the maids there." Ryouko added.
The freshmen's attention immediately focused on the one whom they believed will gave them the answer. Haruki, whom being the sole limelight still didn't utter a single word out of his mouth.
While Isshiki, he didn't hide his smile as he remembered the scene in that training kitchen. He has heard about 'recipe experiment' of Nakiri Karen, but it was the first time for him to see it directly. He looked at the silent Kimura Haruki. As that thing already got revealed in front of them, be liked it or not, Haruki should explain it to them.
It was after Haruki let out a deep sigh, that he started.
"Earlier, I said it as recipe experiment, right?" The freshmen kids nodded their head. "It was... just an experiment to make a recipe. Like what you did when you tried one thing after another to make your recipe, nothing special."
"Then, it didn't answer the reason why Ren-kun needed all of those maids, Ki-kun."
Haruki sent his death glare to Isshiki once the latter spoken out his curiosity. Making Haruki got annoyed, digging one or two secrets out of him, it was the things Isshiki loved to do about Haruki. Even they are childhood friend, but Haruki never told him a single thing which related to the girl named Nakiri Karen. Haruki kept so much secrets related to that girl from him.
Another deep sigh came from Haruki, this time with his annoyed look added. "She has so many ideas, but her body can't keep it up. So, those maids became the ones who will execute her recipe design." He paused as he took the empty small bowls and put it in a line. "Most of you must... tried one recipe design in whole, then taste it." He spoke as he put the snack he served for his guest into one bowl. "When it didn't come to your expectation, you remodeled that recipe and cooked the dish." He filled another bowl with another kind of combined snack. "You repeat those things again and again till it satisfied you, right?"
Haruki put back the combined snack into its previous bowl, then filled the empty bowls with the same kind of snack with different amount.
"As for Ren, she experiment on one element of her designed dish with different set up at the same time. Then she collected all of the result. She repeated it for another element of the dish. From all the results she got, she will made at least three designed recipes of the same dish in the end. Then, after made all of the designed recipes, the best one will be the final recipe of that dish."
Haruki finished his long explanation, and he got another weird look from the freshmen kids. Just like earlier when he called Isshiki by his given name.
"But, isn't it will be different if someone else cooked your recipe than yourself?" Souma gave his opinion.
"Nah... the ones who helped her must be not ordinary chef, Souma-kun." Isshiki replied. "They must have used to Ren-kun's work and chef whom living up to Ren-kun's standard."
"I hope that all of you... keep this as secret."
Right after Haruki said those words, Karen appeared with a tray on her hands. A bowl filled with ice cream got served in front of each of the Polar Star Dorm's resident.
"Thanks for the wait, guys. This is my treat for the day." Karen talked cheerfully as she served the ice cream. "If you wanted to taste a different taste, you can add the cake to the ice cream. Please, enjoy!"
The next day, in front of Ryuuseigun's gate
Kyusei High School – Kyoto.
"Sugoooi!"
Isshiki can't helped himself for not chuckled as he heard the same chorus got sung again, but at different place. Right now, all the Polar Star Dorm's residents added by Kimura Haruki and Nakiri Karen already stood in front of the giant entrance gate to Ryuuseigun, the Tanabata Fest event to be precise.
After each of them showed their ticket to the event organizer, they got into the venue which had crowded by people with various age and gender, even they found foreigner too. Countless bamboo trees with colorful paper hung on its branches lined on the right and left side, decorated the main entrance. As they got further into the venue, they saw countless food and drink stalls, game and entertainment stands, offered their service to the fest's visitors.
It was surely a merry summer festival, too much than any summer festival Souma had ever attended to. He also still remembered about the cooking match he had seen about two weeks before. Not to forget about his friends' stories about the other two events. To think that that kind of big scaled event got organized by a high school, it still amazed Souma. No wonder, people often said that Kyusei High School is Toutsuki in the west.
"It's nice to meet you again, beautiful."
All the freshmen of Polar Star Dorm as well as both Haruki and Isshiki immediately looked at the one who said those sentence just now. A boy, handsome – in the girls' eyes, dressed in his dark red colored yukata, walked toward their place, precisely toward Karen.
"For you."
They – except for Haruki and Karen – almost had their jaws dropped when they saw that boy offered a single red rose flower to Karen.
"Thanks, but... you know that I like something else than this flower, Hokuto-san."
The boy whom got called as Hokuto by Karen smiled till it made his dark red colored eyes turned into crescent moon. "Of course. I have prepared it in my stand." He leaned closer to Karen as he whispered his next sentence to her. "I'm waiting for your visit then."
That boy left the group as he already finished his business with Karen. Being the most curious one among the group, Yuuki came closer to Karen. "Who is he, Ren-chi?"
"Kyusei's student, Kikuchi Hokuto. We became acquaintance at one of open class in the Summer Exhibition one week ago."
At the mention of that family name, Isshiki sent a questioned look toward Haruki whom walked side by side with him. Haruki mouthed 'what' to Isshiki as to ask Isshiki's true question rather than his gaze.
"You know what I mean, Ki-kun." Isshiki spoke at the end.
"Not really." Haruki talked back. Actually, he didn't have any intention of having a talk with Isshiki as he really wanted to enjoy the fest. He has predicted that replying to Isshiki's question just now will led to another long talk.
It was when Isshiki was about to speak, Karen's sudden question stopped him.
"Do you have something to ask, Sou-kun?"
Speaking of sharp intuition, Karen is the best one. She often caught red-handedly the ones who kept their eyes on her, moreover the ones who did it so openly like Yukihira Souma several seconds ago. Haruki also noted that the red haired boy kept staring Karen from behind, looked like he had something to tell to the girl.
"Ehm, nothing."
"Is that so?"
Yuuki who walked near Karen took two steps faster, then walked backward as she held her teasing look over her face. "Maybe he got jealous because of that Hokuto boy?"
"Wha-"
Yuuki was about to tease Souma further about his unusual curiosity related to the jet-black haired Nakiri girl when someone greeted another member of their group.
"Finally we meet here, Kimura Haruki."
The group of Toutsuki kids stopped as they heard it. Another handsome boy appeared in front of them, that made the girls of Polar Star Dorm had their dreamy eyes. That handsome boy looked like an ancient prince with his glossy black kimono with white hemp leaf pattern on it. His long platinum blonde hair laid on his back.
"Kikuchi Yuu." Haruki greeted back the one whom greeted him just now.
As hearing that name got spoken out by Haruki, Isshiki had his shocked face. While the one whom got his full name got spilled out smiled warmly.
"It's unusual of you to be wander alone." Haruki spoke up leisurely, noting that the one who always stick at Yuu's side was nowhere to be found.
"Ah, Chiaki? He has business right now that he can't leave it. Also..." Yuu shifted his attention from Haruki to the one he always wished to meet since the Ryuuseigun started. He walked toward her. "It's nice to meet you directly, Nakiri Karen-san."
Yuuki had her eyes as big as saucers, while both Ryouko and Megumi covered their mouth when the three saw the most unexpected thing in front of them.
Nakiri Erina saw it too. The sweet, prince-alike gesture did by Kyusei's number one student – Kikuchi Yuu – to her sister. The kiss he put on Karen's right hand was succeed on making all the Toutsuki students there surprised. Her too.
"Ara, so Prince Kikuchi is really has fallen for Ren-chan?"
Erina didn't need to look back just to confirm that her cousin – Alice – has stood there, behind her. She even heard Alice's chuckled after saying that words.
"I wonder, when and where the two of them has met, right, Erina?"
Alice's red cherry eyes hovered over Erina's amethyst ones which showed unfriendly look towards the white haired Nakiri girl. As she didn't get any reply from Erina, Alice chose to leave her cousin. For certain reason, she felt happy.
"Ojou, you're surely looked so happy." Kurokiba Ryo spoke for the first time since the two entered the fest's venue.
"Huhuhu... didn't you know, Ryo-kun? Seeing Erina got annoyed like that is one of my happiness drugs."
Kurokiba didn't respond to that statement as he didn't find any difference about the reason of Alice's happiness just now with other times. However, Alice always made Erina got annoyed whenever the two met.
While Alice, she didn't really mind with her aide's silence. She was surely in her happiest mood. Erina's annoyance earlier was different than her annoyance in most times Alice annoyed her. And Alice knew better than anyone else who was the one behind it.
Kikuchi Yuu.
The one who got titled as Kyusei's crown prince. His name wasn't a secret in culinary business world. Excelled not only in cooking Japanese sweets, his business skill was unparalleled than other heirs in the same age as him. Last night, both Alice and Erina attended the party hosted by Kyusei Group as to celebrate this year's Ryuuseigun. And in that event, both Alice and Erina met that crown prince for the first time.
"Congratulation on the big success of this year's Ryuuseigun, Kikuchi Shinji-dono."
Nakiri Soue greeted the current Director of Kyusei Group – Kikuchi Shinji – once he met the latter. The two had a handshake as they begun conversing.
"Thank you, Nakiri Soue-san. Actually, it's all thank to the people who had worked so hard behind the scene to make this big event to be carried out."
Just as Kikuchi Shinji finished his words, the people around both Kikuchi Shinji and Nakiri Soue begun bustling over something. Even that group of people started walking to the opposite direction, seemed to greet someone with an important position. Nakiri Soue thought that it maybe Kikuchi Hideyoshi – the chairman of Kyusei Group as well as the head family of Kikuchi.
"Oh, I think that I should introduce you to the one who had the biggest role in Ryuuseigun's planning, Soue-san."
Nakiri Soue together with both his daughter – Alice - and Erina whom followed behind him, got led by Kikuchi Shinji walked toward the crowd. Upon seeing Kikuchi Shinji walked toward them, the crowd immediately made a way for Kikuchi Shinji and the guests he brought with.
"Son, may I take your time for a while?"
By son, the three Nakiris already predicted that the young man whom had his back against them was Kikuchi Naoya, Kikuchi Shinji's son.
"Let me introduce him, Soue-san. He is Kikuchi Yuu, the president of Kyusei's student council, my youngest son."
The three Nakiris had their surprised look after hearing Kikuchi Shinji's introduction just now. While the young man – Kikuchi Yuu – smiled politely to them.
"It's an honor to meet you, Nakiri Soue-san. As my 'step father' has introduced me to you, I'm Kikuchi Yuu. Nice to meet you." He bowed, then added. "Also, both Miss Nakiri Alice and Miss Nakiri Erina too."
Unlike Kikuchi Shinji who looked so dear with the way he called Yuu earlier, it was so clear that Yuu was the opposite of him. As Yuu has made it so open by his calling about Kikuchi Shinji, his step father. It was even before Soue and both Nakiri girls got over the sudden surprise by meeting Kikuchi Yuu, that young man spilled another words which given them another surprise.
"But, when I hear about Nakiri family, I wished to meet her. The unbeatable negotiator of Toutsuki Resorts, Nakiri Karen."
"You know her, Kikuchi Yuu-kun?" Soue asked back.
With the same polite smile Yuu showed before, he answered. "Of course. Not only one of Kyusei's business partners that had talked about her high caliber in dealing joint business." He paused as he played with the line of his ash grey colored kimono. "Also, I have heard about her unique approach in her cooking style too. So, maybe... she is the one who will satisfied my desire in making sweets."
"It seems that... you're really interested in her, Kikuchi-san." Alice butted into the conversation as she found that the boy named Kikuchi Yuu was quite interesting.
"More than interested. Maybe... I have fallen for her?"
For the rest of their conversation last night, never for once that Kikuchi Yuu showed his attention toward Erina. That boy was like not considering Erina's presence there, together with them. As he kept discussing one thing after another ones related to business with Alice's father. Once in a while, he also asked Alice several things about molecular gastronomy which became Alice's expertise.
It was when Yuu excused himself as he still had long list of guest to be accompanied, Alice chose that chance to ask the boy.
"Do you need something, Miss Alice?"
"Nope. Just... curious that you didn't lay a single look over my dear cousin Erina." Alice said it smoothly, yet so directly to the point.
Yuu stopped his step which made Alice whom followed him stopped too.
"She has already gotten so much attentions, hasn't she? So, I didn't find any necessity for me to give my attention towards her. Moreover, I never got interested with her."
Such a bold statement he gave, yet caught Alice out of guard.
It was Yuu's smile that brought her back to the ground.
"Then, excuse me."
For the first time that Alice met someone whom didn't have any interest in her cousin – Erina. Back then, Alice thought... that kind of person must be not exist in the first place. As Nakiri Erina has all of the things. Appearance, wealthy, talent, and fame. Even came from the same family, Alice felt like they lived in the two different worlds. Even both of them shared the same family name, it was always Erina who got asked for.
And now, she met that unordinary person. Got interested in the other unordinary person.
"I'm glad that I met you, Kikuchi Yuu."
