1st Tray: Orange Madeira Ring

A chime from the door indicating a customer, a certain brown-haired female promptly puts on her best smile and attend to the newcomer.

"How may I help you?"

"I would like to get this, please," the customer says as they point at a slide of cake on display.

After packing the order and waving goodbye to the satisfied customer, the worker puffs her cheeks.

"Did something happen with Davis-san, Mai?" the other employee with blonde hair asks.

Mai glaring at the kitchen, whines about their boss – Oliver Davis, more known as Naru (Short form for Narcissist) – making them work just a few days after his return without any prior notice.

Just as Mai was about to continue ranting, the devil exits his lair with a slice of orange madeira ring neatly decorated. Naru quietly places the plate on the counter while Mai flinches at his sudden appearance.

Naru promptly says, "Brown-san, you shouldn't entertain this idiot."

John Brown – Naru's assistant – gave a light laugh and retreats to the kitchen to continue his own work, leaving Mai with the boss.

Naru pushes the plate closer to Mai, indicating that he wants her to eat it but Mai refuses.

Hmph. Does he think he can easily tame me with a slice of desert? It does look tasty though.

Not wanting to wait any longer, Naru picks up the fork and swiftly began to eat the orange madeira without batting an eyelid at Mai gawking at him for eating it despite offering her it.

"I'll eat it!" Mai gives in and Naru gladly pass over the fork to her.

Before she could even take a bite however, Houshou – the owner of a traditional sweets store across – appears.

"Naru! Mai! Glad to see both of you," Houshou greets them.

Naru did not say anything as usual while Mai beams back with a smile although they met just a few days ago.

Houshou pulls a chair to the counter and takes a seat before asking, "Naru, sorry about the bonbons again."

Bonbons..? wait. Those bonbons were from Houshou? Why does his store even have bonbons!

"Who were the bonbons for anyways? I hope he didn't give it to you, Mai. Knowing you, it would be a bad idea," Houshou continues, causing Naru to retreat to his lair and leaving Mai to answer.

"What! So, you were the culprit too!" Mai exclaims.

With a puzzled look, Houshou asks what Mai meant.

"I told you last year about some guy giving me alcohol filled bonbons. That was Naru. A few days ago, when Naru returned, he gave me bonbons too. I am sure he knew I am not to take alcohol filled bonbons, so he said he asked for normal bonbons… So, the culprit of giving him those alcohol bonbons is you!"

Putting his hands in front of him as a cover, Houshou says, "I didn't think he would be giving them to you again. Sorry about that. Hahaha, at least this time you didn't make a scene!"

I technically did! In front of Naru! And we…we…

Feeling embarrassed at remembering what happened on the day she met Naru a few days ago, Mai blushes profusely and forgot all about Houshou's existence which allowed the latter to escape back to his own store.

Though… I wonder why Naru gave me bonbons the first time.

Once the store was closed for the day, Naru naturally walks Mai home. This time however, he casually enters her apartment. Taking off his shoes, he heads to the couch and looks at Mai who stood dumbly at the entrance as she wonders what Naru was up to.

"Are you going to stand there forever or get inside?"

"Why… You didn't tell me you'd come in, so I was wondering," Mai replies as she proceeds to take off her shoes and placed her bag on the dining table before sitting beside Naru on the couch.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Mai asks Naru, "The first time we met, why did you give me those bonbons?"

Another set of silence ensues and Mai wondered if Naru was ignoring her question – deeming it a dumb one.

"I saw you a few times at Takigawa's store before that. You seemed to always be really hyped about everything. So, when I saw you pretty much in the dumps that day, I gave those bonbons to you."

While Mai was marveling at how sweet Naru was…

I can't tell her I gave it to her because she looked too pitiful and gave it to her like how I'd give my leftovers to a stray animal.

+++End of 1st Tray+++

….ha ha ha

I am back and I have decided to dive back into this because I have recently bought the DVD collection and finished the series in 1 shot XD I have been reading the novel again as well.

This is actually the 2nd season of Uwagusuri but you can still enjoy this story as a stand-alone.

Hope everyone has been well!

Thank you for reading.