-NAKIRI ALICE-

AUGUST 25

Alice didn't know why she was suddenly willing to abandon the rest of her afternoon plans with her mother to spend time with Akira, but their running into each other felt too advantageous to ignore. She'd been on her way to her molecular gastronomy lab to play around exploring new culinary inventions; it was her happy place, and the only time she wasn't carefree-Alice. The last thing she said to Ryō had been on repeat in her mind since the morning after his birthday, and she needed to distract herself from how miserable she felt— which was difficult because Ryō had always been her biggest.

But then Akira called her name as she was on her way and, well…

Her gum bubble popped.

"Hey," they whispered through awkward smiles.

It had been a while since she saw him outside her phone screen. She slipped her phone into her designer puff quilted clutch and pulled back to sink in the sight of him. It had been a long summer away from Tōtsuki, but she needed the time away from it all. His facial hair was finally filling in, she noticed. She was sure he was pleased by that. A thick and full mustache canopied his top lip as his sideburns patchworked their way to connect his goatee. She liked it; the sparse beard made him look like Dev Patel's younger brother.

"What's up with you?" Alice popped her hip skeptically and then surveyed the rest of him as Akira slipped his phone into a pocket of his uniform slacks— mainly, the new toned physique Akira had developed over the summer. His white hair had grown at least an inch and swept past his shoulder. She liked how the length added a body wave to his silken tresses.

"I'm annoyed with Ryō."

"Yeah, well, you and I both," Alice said, rolling her eyes.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"With whom?" Alice asked slyly.

"Well, who else but your former best friend?"

"I don't know which lie to address first: your sincere tone or that we were ever best friends," she said with a flirtatious wink. She blew another giant bubble with her gum and popped it into his face. A faint puff of cinnamon sprinkled between them. Akira stumbled back dramatically, gently grabbing her right hand to break his fall.

"Oof! You wound me, Nakiri!" He chuckled and threw his right arm over her shoulder. They took a few steps away from the intersecting cobbled walkway, away from the different destinations of the paths they were once heading.

"I'm sure you're used to it by now," she said, wrapping both arms around his long torso and nestling into his ribcage. "Besides, we both know you like it here." Alice giggled at how his muscles immediately tensed under her hold. Akira maintained his legendary poker face, but she could spot his telltale plain as sodium carbonate. She looked from his stubbly chin up his sharp jawline, careful not to be too obvious. The last thing she needed was for Akira to catch her lusting after him.

Again.

Alice failed. Akira met her upturned gaze and smiled. Her legs liquified under her. Girl, stand up! She tried to listen to sense but lost it to her alluring reflection in his emerald green gaze staring down at her. She had always been a sucker for his eyes. Alice slowly traced the bone structure running along Akira's jawline with her index finger as he struggled not to flex them under her caress. Then, her stomach rumbled. She was regretting canceling lunch with her mama.

"Hungry?"

"Maybe. Are you going to feed me?" She asked in that innocent yet sensual tone she liked to use only for him.

Akira took the bait. "I thought you hated spoilers," he grinned the way he did whenever she got the reaction she wanted from him. She placed her hand on his chest. His heart quickened on cue under her cupped palm.

Checkmate.

Alice bounced and clapped. A wicked glint flashed in her eyes. "Well, isn't art meant to be experienced and food meant to be eaten?" She asked and began skipping, but not before she grabbed Akira's hands.

Alice pulled the boy who, once upon a time, showed her another side of herself— one that she quickly came to enjoy through his eyes—away from the campus square.

AUGUST 26

Alice didn't know why she chose to abandon the rest of her afternoon plans to spend time with Akira again, but there they were, eating lunch together two days in a row. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't missed this. It was comfortable, the quality time they spent together the previous summer. She'd grown to enjoy their petty power struggles and screaming matches over nonsense culinary factoids for hours, only to giggle, cook, and cuddle for the rest of the day.

And sometimes into the next. But that was all a distant memory now, and summer flings shouldn't happen more than once.

Still, they were lounging in the Nakiri Manor's library, researching a rare spice Akira desperately needed to identify. Alice lazily thumbed through a stack of worn textbooks, unsure of what she was searching for. "Nothing in here," she feigned a disappointed sigh and slapped a dusty book shut. Fanning the particles away, she gagged, "Ick, I don't know why my grandfather doesn't allow the maids to dust this place. It's filthy!"

"I don't know. An old, dark, dusty library is romantic, don't you agree?" Akira calmly probed. He was sitting in a leather armchair, eyebrows furrowed, his focus buried into the two books in his lap. Alice assumed he hadn't been paying attention to her. But, then again, when wasn't he?

"Why do you do that?"

Akira looked up curiously, "Do what?"

"Flirt so matter-of-factly."

"Do I?"

"Hayama!"

Akira groaned. "Oh no, did I cut the wrong wire?"

"You tease, but I'm serious. I thought we agreed to be real friends."

"I didn't know I was flirting, honestly."

"So…" Alice ran her fingers across the back of his chair. "How are things between you and Miss Secretary?" Akira smirked to himself, knowing what she was fishing for.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Never mind, I'll simply ask her myself."

"That's fine. Then, would you care to share why you kicked Kurokiba out, and he's now crashing on my seminar's couch?"

"Well, if you know all that, I'm sure you already know why."

"What is wrong with you?"

"Hey! Don't you raise your voice at me! I don't have to tell you my business!"

"I'm not? But, I should go then."

"Fine! Just leave!"

"Nakiri Alice, you are utterly impossible!"

"You're one to talk!"

"Me?" Akira scoffed, offended. "I cannot believe I was fool enough to think you've changed! No wonder-"

"Finish that sentence, Hayama Akira, and kiss everything you know and love at Totsuki goodbye." She saw his Adam's apple bulging, his brain counting to calm down, and folded her arms as he stopped to speak, but nothing came out.

"Now, you can either talk shit about my business, keep looking for your precious spice, or leave my grandfather's library."

AUGUST 27

When she woke to the full moon fully exposing her, Nakiri Alice knew she'd fucked up. The bedsheets rustled between her legs; the smell of warm spices and fresh mountain dryer sheets did if the cheap fabric didn't remind her where she was.

Well, this was certainly unplanned. She was afraid to open her eyes and confirm what she already knew, but she seriously needed to pee. Alice took a deep breath and rolled over, half-expecting to press into Akira's bare chest or back. Still wearing her little black dress from the night before, she hit the cool sheets on his side of the bed, relieved to be alone. Alice didn't feel like having another intense conversation before the walk of shame. There were no awkward goodbyes, just the steady pounding of an emotional and champagne-drunken hangover developing. She groaned as she got out of bed and grabbed her bag and heels, and a memory from the previous night flashed in her mind.

The firm but tender way Akira held her as they shared a cheap bottle of champagne and talked about everything and nothing all night long was a nostalgic reminder of what could have been. Akira was a nuisance as a chef with his rigorous yet mystifying cooking process, but spending time with him cooking made her a more critical thinker in the lab. It got on her nerves that he could change her mind and influence her cooking style; not even her parents could do that. But Alice knew it made her better. She rather enjoyed how quick and sharp she had to be around him. He challenged her chaos, and she rattled his cool. But the calmness in his touch made her feel safe enough to mumble words she couldn't remember before falling fast asleep in his arms.

So, it was a good thing Akira was nowhere to be found. She stood up, let her nosiness explore his bedroom, and went down memory lane. The well-kept and sparsely decorated bedroom was a bittersweet trip back in time. They had so much fun together, enjoying each other's company with no one around, tossing teases and kisses back and forth, and all the belly laughing… Alice hiccuped a giggle, remembering how surprised she was to learn she loved the sound of Akira's laugh last summer; she'd never heard it before because the stoic guy rarely let loose — but that was then. Spending all that time in this room made such a mess of things, but it also taught her a few things about herself. She regretted nothing about last summer. Now, she just wished she'd made better choices about the things she talked herself out of wanting.

Nothing in the room had changed; Akira had a specific place for everything in his room, and everything was perfectly in place. His orderliness used to give her the ick, but she grew fond of how responsible he was. The perfectly aligned books on the wall-lined bookshelf, spice, chemistry charts, research posters pinned exactly ninety degrees apart, and the freshly vacuumed area rug under the organized study desk. Everything in the room was exactly where it belonged except Alice. She needed to leave.

But why did Akira leave, and where did he go? Alice grabbed her phone and wobbled to the door, questioning whether it was too late or too early in the morning to try to sneak out of a boy's dorm room, albeit it was empty. She had no clue, but her bladder screamed to get out of there until she noticed a text flash on her screen. It was from Akira. She swiped up and nearly peed herself reading the message. But she couldn't just stay there, nor could she leave shamelessly. Even Nakiri Alice had her limits.

But the agony in her abdomen forced her to quietly crack the bedroom door open, swallowing her heart in her throat, and creep down the hallway. A creaky floorboard almost made her draw blood from biting her cheek. It took her ages to choose between the bathroom door on her left and the hallway leading to the common areas.

Ten minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom, ready to face her fate on an empty bladder. The walk down the hallway made her remember the last time she walked around the shabby apartment. Back then, she walked down the same hallway, determined to repair her relationship with Ryō. But as she slowly approached the living area and saw Ryō snoring on the couch, she wasn't sure how to feel.

All she wanted was to know how to heal a broken heart. She knew it was selfish to seek that from the person whose heart she'd broken, but Akira was the only person she thought to text because she knew he wouldn't take sides; he hated and loved them both equally. When she arrived at his investors' dinner party, she only needed to talk about her and Ryō for a few hours, tops. But as Alice stared at a cluelessly peaceful Ryō sleeping on his best friend's couch (a warning that Akira had just informed her of, which, now that she thought about it, made total sense that he was squatting there since she kicked him out of the Nakiri mansion), she realized never should've stayed the night. Ryō looked like her Ryō— strong, vulnerable, and scowling even in his sleep. She hated being mad at him. She hated knowing it was Tadokoro, but honestly, she would've felt like shit if it were any girl.

This was all becoming too much to handle.

Alice slipped back into Akira's room, more confused than ever. Now, when she finally got home, she'd have to find a way out of the Shiomi Seminar building undetected and ignore Erina's in-a-perfect-relationship judgmental, upturned nose. But she needed a sealed-tight alibi if Ryō woke up as she slipped out, but without Akira around, that would prove not easy.

"Alice, it's four in the morning. Why are you calling my phone from down the hall?" Erina groaned through the phone.

-ARATO HISAKO-

AUGUST 27

Even with the weekend workday ending, Erina's schedule was packed to the very last minute. But Hisako was determined to finish all her administrative tasks before her date. She needed to make up for missing Akira's important investors' dinner. He'd been planning the menu all summer; she was supposed to be his plus-one for moral support. But as usual, her duties for her mistress and her beloved institution called, and by the time she was finished, she had to face her responsibilities as a good daughter.

Hisako had to admit she was being stretched incredibly thin, making her feel like a terrible girlfriend. She would do anything for the Shiomi Seminar. Professor Shiomi had become a surrogate mother figure since she started dating Akira, and Hisako loved that feeling. Home at the Arato residence had been difficult since her grandmother entered in-home hospice last winter, and her parents, ironically, were no help at all. Their absence left Hisako conflicted and resentful that her parents, two of Japan's most influential pharmaceutical and wellness moguls, could not care for their family's dying matriarch. Grandmother's caretaking had fallen solely on her as both her parents grew distant and buried themselves in their work from grief even when home. Being in the shanty building with her boyfriend and his guardian felt like being in a loving, happy family again. A chosen family was always comforting to her. It brought her into Erina's life and kept Erina alive. A chosen family was the perfect salve for a biological one falling apart.

So, to miss such an important night for them, well, sucked.

Even though Akira came over and sat with her during her night shift watching her grandmother, Hisako made a mental note to ask Erina for a few days off…in a few weeks. They badly needed to get away from Tōtsuki to reconnect. She didn't know why, but a sliver of anxiety that they'd been growing apart was swirling in her belly, and she hoped a couple's work trip to the herbal chef's retreat she was attending for her final Stagiaire placement would do the trick.

Whether or not she would tell her best friend-slash-boss exactly why was still to be decided; she didn't want Erina to think she was distracted by being boy-crazy and couldn't fulfill her role as her right-hand woman., mainly since Erina never chose Yukihira over her work, even now, as she was in a full-on vengeance spiral. Besides, there was no way Hisako could talk her off the criminal ledge if she weren't around. She had to persuade her not to cut off a French caviar producer's entire supply chain for lying about being wild-caught roe just that morning. Not to mention how much she's been on edge about Tadokoro-san all week. This morning's agenda review had been brutal to get through because of it. Erina wasn't ready to discuss what was happening with Tadokoro, but she could tell it had to do with Yukihira.

Then, there was that irritating interaction with Alice in the Nakiri courtyard.

Ugh, Alice. Her biggest pain in the neck and an absolute wrecking ball to Erina's schedule. She would (if allowed) use her gold belt in judo on her best friend's cousin whenever she forced Hisako's hand to shift Erina's schedule to accommodate her. Hisako preferred to keep Erina's day as streamlined and punctual as possible. While she typically didn't mind giving the two cousins their private time (any time she could be far away from Alice was cherished), Alice tended to relish throwing off the rest of Erina's day. So when Hisako heard her mistress scream bloody murder from the mansion's Southend kitchen, she couldn't just not come running to her aid. And had Alice not rudely shoved her out, she knew Erina would've told her what was wrong.

Ugh, Alice. She was always in the way.

Hisako's phone vibrated in one of her skirt pockets, informing her that she had thirty minutes before she'd need to dispatch the limo to pick Erina up from the Autumn Selection meeting. That meant she only had thirty minutes to finish reviewing Tadokoro Megumi's Shokugeki files.

-NAKIRI ERINA-

AUGUST 28

Erina never cared for girls' spa days. She spent every day talking to people and suppressing stress, so she preferred to be pampered in silence. The best part of her weekly schedule was her two-hour HydraFacial and Shiatsu massage every Sunday morning. She'd rise before dawn, enjoy an early breakfast in bed of a frisée and egg white salad, then head to the spa on the opposite end of the family mansion. She loved it when her therapist focused on the knots in her shoulders and the soles of her feet because, as the knots melted away, so did her cares.

But so much had happened over a week that she needed relaxation and to catch up on girl time at the same time. So when she told Hisako to clear her Sunday schedule for the second week in a row, Hisako took it one step further and requested the best masseuses in the Nakiri medispa to prepare for them immediately. Erina could not imagine her life without her best friend. Then she saw Alice and instantly knew her cousin needed an excellent rubdown, too.

As Erina sat between them in the bathhouse sauna, she wondered if she'd miscalculated bringing the three together.

"So, apparently," Alice continued as she chewed on crushed ice, "she walked in his room while he was in the shower, decorated his dressing room, and had a whole birthday lunch spread waiting for him."

"Wow," Hisako shook her head.

"What the hell," Erina scoffed. "Did he tell her to leave?"

"Did he tell her—do boys ever do the smart thing? No! Remember how he froze like a statue when we caught him staring at us in two pieces on Nakiri Island? That buffoon Ryō stuttered out that Tadokoro greeted him and then —" Alice stopped to swallow her ice slowly.

"Alice-sama!" The two girls screamed.

"She kissed him," Alice said so casually, like she was telling them the date, that Erina wasn't sure she heard her correctly. Suddenly, the sauna was hotter than a volcano to Erina.

"She did what?!" Erina yelled, jumping to her feet. "What's this girl's problem?!" She tightened her hold on her towel and stared in a mixture of disgust and shock at her cousin.

Alice shrugged, picking at the ice chunks in her cup, and dramatically repeated, "Hell, if I know. But he said she kissed him first and—"

"HE KISSED HER BACK?" The two girls shouted, bewildered but knowing how dumb teenage boys could be around cute girls.

"Ladies, I think I want boba after this. What do you say? Boba and a boutique crawl downtown Tokyo?" Erina hated when Alice milked attention for all it was worth. It was the brattiest thing her cousin did, and that was being gracious. As Erina prepared to chastise her cousin's melodrama, Hisako first lost her patience.

"Oh, would you just come on with it already!"

"That's what he said," Alice giggled and clucked her tongue. "Don't scowl, Hishoko! It makes you look so unseemly. Oh, alright." She sighed, and Erina realized the excessive suspense was all a façade. Alice was hurting but wouldn't let the extent be shown. "He kissed her back."

After Alice shooed Hisako out of the courtyard, Erina fully expected to be told about their conversation. Still, Alice's parents crashed the scene to dote on their one and only. Erina left soon after greeting them because, well, why torture herself?

But now she was glad her aunt and uncle's intrusion was perfectly timed. It was like they had a sixth sense that their daughter needed her parents, and they came without being asked. Uncle Soe and Auntie Lenora smothered Alice with so much devotion and affirmations it was rare for her cousin to be seen in her feelings— unlike her. She was happy Alice had that comforting familial experience to run to when being a teen became too overwhelming. She wished she had that.

Now Alice seemed a bit less torn up about her conversation with Ryō. But her phone call yesterday morning did give Erina cause for concern.

"Anyway, Ryō told me that, at first, it felt right, but then he pulled away and—get this—left her in his dressing room because it felt wrong to him." She chuckled derisively. "It couldn't have felt wrong when she was leaning in?"

"Do you even believe him?" Erina asked, massaging her temples. It was getting suffocating in the room. She never had a real problem with Kurokiba, having lived with him all their adolescence, but she wasn't cool with him like that. Alice was where her loyalty lay.

Erina was too focused on calming her mounting irritation down that she nearly missed what Alice said. But when it clicked, she felt time freeze.

-NAKIRI ALICE-

AUGUST 28

The sauna was sweltering, and the melting ice chips weren't cutting it.

That was the only thing that could explain why she was relaxed and delirious enough to speak before she could think. She lazily bobbed her head up and down. "Mmhm. Akira confirmed it last night— oops." She instantly regretted it. One eye peeled open to see a snarling Hisako from the other end of the bench.

"Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean?" Hisako growled through her teeth. Her arms crossed as she faced Alice, looking angrier than either Nakiri girl had ever seen.

Well, Alice was never one to lie or deny anything. She had no reason to start now.

a/n: today, jupiter re-entered aries and it's the four-monthaversary since i posted chapter 1! with all that creative, fiery energy (during sagittarius season, at that) i'm in the giving mood. so a new chapter and a focus on the other main girl group were in order! figuring out who to focus on felt like a no-brainer, but fleshing it out to include all three girls just...happened. i hope it reads true to their interpersonal and group dynamics! so let me know: please review, like, and share with someone you think would enjoy reading!

-My pleasure! Hope you enjoyed!-

8.20withlove