"Old flame? You mean like they dated?" Taneshima asked.
"This little love story might take a while," Soma said as he grabbed himself a chair to sit down on.
Kyoko decided to close the restaurant for the day since there was no business, though apathetic, she cares deploy for her co-workers.
"No one's going to interrupt us now," Kyoko announced.
"Like I said earlier, Sato might take a while to recover from the shock he had after encountering Ayama again," Soma reminded.
"Why? What is their special relationship?" Todoroki asked. She felt oddly uneasy after hearing about Sato.
"Not now. I'll touch on that after explaining a little bit on Sato-kun's past," Soma started.
The very words sparked incredible interest from the crew.
"What is it? Yamada wants to know!" Yamada cut in.
Soma smiled. "I'll explain everything, but, please Yamada, Todoroki-san, stop interrupting."
His request sparked total silence.
"Anyways, Sato-kun grew up in Southern Japan, farther than we imagine from this family restaurant in Northern Japan," Soma continued.
"As a kid, he was lanky and hung out with the wrong people and joined a gang.
"Sato lived in a bad neighborhood and there were constant gang wars that would occur. Because of this, Sato lost many friends and this melded him to become the quiet and secretly caring person he is today."
"Get to the part where that lady comes in," Kyoko interrupted. The touchy backstory was boring to her.
Soma sighed. He had to give in. "That incident occurred."
Soma stopped. He liked to build tension in these situations.
"Sato and his fellow crew were engaging their usual patrols of their turf. That's when Sato met Ayama, five years ago.
"Ayama Orino at that time, daughter of business tycoon Ayama Tohiro, was searching beat down towns for good places to open up foreign establishments.
"But an 18 year old woman walking around alone in a business dress in a bad neighborhood is bound to garner a lot of attention from the wrong type of people."
"What do you mean wrong type of people? Yamada wants to know!" Yamada asked.
"People that would do nasty things to her," Soma answered with a sadistic smile.
"Continuing on. Ayama Orino was just doing her usual scoping when she got cornered by a group of thugs.
"Sato's group happened to pass by when they saw those thugs corner in an alleyway. Sato's companions didn't want to intervene because, frankly, they didn't want to get into a worthless fight. But Sato played a knight in shining armor; he stormed in and took on nearly twenty guys. The high school punk managed to ward them off while sustaining serious injuries while miraculously protecting Ayama from any injuries!
"He lived, obviously and was taken to the hospital and was taken to the hospital where he was treated and subsequently released a few days later…"
"How does this make her Sato's ex?" Todoroki interrupted. She still remained uneasy about the situation.
Soma grinned. It's getting more and more interesting, he thought.
"When Sato got released from the hospital, his story got quite the headlines. Sato, however, ignored the paparazzi and didn't succumb to pressure from the news media.
"It would've died out quickly because of Sato's reserved nature but it never works that way.
"And it all has to do with Ayama Orino!" Soma stopped again to build tension.
Everyone in the room had their gaze fixed on Soma.
Soma cleared his throat. He intended to drag this story out.
"It would've died out…had Ayama Orino not fallen for Sato!"