-YUKIHIRA SŌMA-
November 2
Even though the days dragged on and the nights crawled at an agonizing pace, before Sōma knew it, what he feared the most had happened: their days apart had turned into weeks and threatened to become months. It had been an awkward few weeks, to say the least, in this stasis with Erina, and Sōma didn't like it. He missed looking into her doe jeweled eyes and forgetting to breathe. He missed how her eyes would roll to the back of her head whenever she ate one of his dishes she approved of or laughed at one of his many corny jokes. He missed the ease with which her petite hands would wrap around his neck and melt the stress he held in his shoulders while cooking. He longed for the supple, strawberry bubblegum taste of her lips between his and how their heartbeats would sync, causing time to mean nothing when they embraced while making out. He missed how the clean and calming scent of her hair filled his nose whenever he hugged her and how her fine hairs moved through his fingers like running water. He missed feeling sure of himself around her.
Sōma knew he had initiated the break but wasn't ready for how Erina had completely iced him out. He expected distance between them, but she moved around him like a ship avoiding an iceberg. She didn't speak or sit next to him anymore at Council meetings. Even when they worked together, she conveyed all her correspondence to him through Hisako and kept the few unavoidable answers she did give to curt, monosyllabic answers. Except for that one time two weeks ago…
-8-
His knuckles rapped on the office door three times, but he wasted no time waiting for permission to enter. Erina looked up from her desk, and daggers launched from her eyes.
"I'm not talking to you."
"Says the person who just spoke to me," he responded with a careful grin.
"To inform you that I am not talking to you. I'm not rude. So you are dismissed." He didn't move an inch. "NOW."
"Why are you giving me the silent treatment, anyway?"
"Probably for the same reason you barged into my office because you know I wouldn't invite you in, Yukihira. Do I need to spell it out for you?"
"Erina, I don't like this. Rumors are stirring up about us on campus."
"I don't care," she coldly replied.
"Well, do you care about how our tension in Council meetings has been affecting the other Council members? Our friends?" He carefully approached her colossal desk. His most persuasive gaze bored into her as he spoke. "As the First Seat, it's my duty to—" Erina spun her chair around and turned her back on him, facing the looming window behind her. That pissed him off. His slick mouth would have to clock in. He looked out the same window and could see nothing but the endless blue sky and the green expanse of the campus lawn. It looked serene out there, unlike the mood in the room. "Your grandfather never led the Ten like this."
Erina scoffed so hard Sōma was ready to dodge if a loogie of phlegm hurled his way. "Yukihira?" His name cut like ice against her tongue. "Do you really think I give a fuck what you think about my leadership right now?"
Sōma's tongue caught in his throat. "I don't…I mean, I-I'm just saying I'm sure this is not how he taught you to handle conflict."
"Yeah, well, he never had to work with an idiot of an ex."
He couldn't care less about the cheap insult. 'Idiot' might as well have been a pet name for him from Erina. But the sharpest blade slit his heart in two. "Ex?" The atmosphere between them thickened. He slowly walked around her desk and leaned on the window glass to face her, but he couldn't bring himself to ask her again.
"Ohmigah! Yukihira, what do you want from me?" Her nasal, pretentious voice whined. She tried to look annoyed but was avoiding eye contact.
"You just called me your ex. I want you to explain that."
She finally left her post and crossed the room toward the hot tea bar on the east wing of the office. Hisako laid an ornate spread of dried tea leaves and dehydrated citrus fruits in air-tight glass jars. Fresh honeycomb in a container and crushed mint leaves on a bed of ice stood beside a large steel hot water dispenser and tiny white teacups with pale pink saucers. She made a ceremony of preparing her tea. She grabbed a teacup and daintily added a clump of dry tea leaves into a handheld tea infuser. She placed a shriveled orange slice into the basin of the tiny cup, broke off a teeny bit of the honeycomb, and set it over the fruit slice. She put the infuser into the teacup and turned the hot water spout to steep the ingredients in a hot, steamy bath.
"Oh well. Ask the break you wanted to take so badly for the answer," she said as she delicately puckered her rosy lips to the brim of the teacup.
"Hey. Hey! Erina, would you look at me for a second?" She never did. "I want us to be good while working together. We owe it to the work we're doing for the academy."
Erina carefully placed her teacup on its saucer and turned toward him. "Oh, so now you care about work?"
"Well, no. But I care about your grandfather's legacy. He didn't run Tōtsuki like this. He didn't—" Her palm shot up to shut him up.
"What do you know, Yukihira?" She said, her voice sharp as broken glass. "You're such an egghead about what's happening around you. How would you know anything about how my grandfather ran this academy? How would you know better than me what the founder of this institution, whose director's office you waltz into unannounced and unrequested, trained me tirelessly to do better than he ever could? What do you know about preserving his legacy?" With every piercing question, her voice grew darker.
"You're right," Sōma resigned.
"I know I'm right. Now, see yourself out." There was no life in her tone or her eyes. Sōma stared at her, searching for some ember of love in them. When he found none, he walked out the door.
Well, that was a complete bust.
Later that night, when he called her to apologize, Erina sent him straight to voicemail. She blocked him on all her phones. And even though she knew he barely was on them, she blocked him on all her socials, too; he hated himself for even checking.
-8-
In the weeks following, not once did she grace his food truck with her holy and judgmental presence during the weeklong Lunar Festival, and she was the one who came up with the anime gourmet concept. Then, there was the incident at Alice's annual Halloween costume party. It had been a confusing mess for them both and left Sōma heartbroken. He didn't know how to melt that stone fortress hiding her heart. But it didn't matter. He had one thing on his mind: getting his girlfriend back.
He stepped out of the bath and looked at himself in the mirror. The bathroom steam had done nothing for the bags under his eyes. His eyeballs were veined red with fatigue, and the dark circles under them highlighted their weariness. His sopping wet hair looked as limp as his heart felt. He desperately needed a haircut, but he'd leave it to air dry into its usual chaotic mess. He could not care any less about it right now. If there were nothing more he could do to win her back, he would accept that only after he tried. Then he would get a haircut. His dad told him to fix it; even if he couldn't, it was the only thing Sōma wanted to do.
With his bath towel loosely wrapped around his waist, Sōma gathered his things and left the floor bathroom with his head in the clouds. I needed to find a way to break through to her. If it's too showy, she might react like she did at the Halloween party, and we don't want that. But if it's too simple, she might call it low effort. I've gotta strike the right balance this time.
A soft voice cleared its throat.
Sōma froze. His heart seized in his chest for a split second, thinking it was her.
"Hisako?" He tightened his grip on his towel.
-8-
Fifteen minutes later, Sōma sat silently across from Erina's best friend. They were in a quiet study room in Kyōkusei's basement, which, at the moment, felt more like an interrogation room.
"Arato, is Erina okay?" Sōma squirmed in his chair, his fingers drumming erratically on the wooden table. Hisako's face was etched in concern.
"Sōma, what exactly happened in Paris?"
He quickly averted his eyes. "So, is that a yes, or…"
"Yes, Yukihira! Well, no!"
"No?" Sōma's head snapped back. He panicked. "What's wrong?"
Hisako slid the latest edition of the school's gossip magazine over the table. On the front cover was a collage of Erina looking all kinds of mad. "She's been a wreck since you two got back. It's been weeks! Now this?! The paparazzi was buzzing all over the mansion all weekend! What happened?" Sōma stared at how many angry and tearful candid shots a slimy photojournalist took of the love of his life in the privacy of her office and around Tokyo. And the front-page headline? Well, it only made it worse.
"Tohtsuki's Hottest, Youngest, and First Female Director Looks A HOT MESS!
Could it be HEARTBREAK, or Is Her Head Under Water in Her NEPO-BABY Job?"
His eyes enlarged. "Do you think she's seen this yet?"
"Probably. I've been afraid to ask her about it, but it's been all over TohSpo's Instagram page, and some Tiktok stitches about it popped up on my For You Page."
"So, she's definitely seen it. That girl loves losing time on that clock app," Sōma said, looking at the amount of stress and sadness etched into Erina's flawless features on the cover. He caused this. Knowing the amount of damage control it would take to kill the story and punish all parties involved in tarnishing Erina's pristine public image, Sōma couldn't find the right words to explain how it got so bad to Hisako. Still, by the greasy bun and teary eyes on Erina's beautiful face, things had gotten ugly.
"I fucked up."
"You, what?"
"Wait—she hasn't told you?"
"She hasn't—wait, she hasn't told me what?" She eyed him suspiciously.
"We…"
"Spit it out already, Yukihira!"
"WE BROKE UP, OKAY?"
"You…" Hisako's head reeled back. "What?"
"Well, not officially. But we are on a break, and she called me her ex a few weeks back."
"A few weeks back?! Are you serious?! Since Paris?!"
"Yeah," Sōma said, staring at his hands in his lap. He refused to accept that Erina wasn't his girlfriend anymore; moreover, he refused to let his girlfriend's best friend see him cry. He needed to hold onto a little bit of pride, but damn, did he want to let it all out in his pillow.
"Sōma! Why?"
"Maybe you should be talking to her about this."
Hisako huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms over her chest. "I tried, but she's completely walled off. Even to me."
"Sorry about that."
"Eh, you know how Erina-sama can be."
"Yeah, tell me about it," he sighed.
"How about you tell me about it?"
Sōma eyed his girlfriend's most trusted friend and wondered why she hadn't told her about them. He groaned, dropping his face into his open palms.
"I don't know where to start."
"How many people know?"
"I think it's just you and my dad. Maybe Alice?" He rubbed his neck. "We've tried to keep it lowkey," Sōma lied.
"Not really. It's been obvious that something's been up between you two, especially at Council meetings. You and Erina's chemistry is palpable when you're good and suffocating when you're…well, this. Plus, I came to you, remember?"
"Heh. Right," he said, then sighed. "Things kind of blew up at the wedding reception."
She squinted at his phrasing. "Blew up, hooow?"
"She stormed out of the reception, and we started arguing in the parking lot."
"Hm. Must've been over something serious if it led to this."
"Megumi told me everything." Sōma noticed a knowing light up in her eyes but kept talking. "Why she lost the Sixth Seat, the intimidation tactic on Erina's private jet. It pissed me off that she would treat my best friend like trash and didn't even tell me about it. I would never treat you the way she treated Megumi!" Hisako nodded as Sōma recalled the argument in the Shinomiya Paris staff lounge. When he mentioned that he hadn't realized how long the tension between them had been brewing, she gave him a look that made him feel dumber than a goldfish. "What?"
"Sōma, how did you not know there was tension between the two most important girls in your life?"
"Neither of them ever told me there was!"
"Hm. You really are an egghead."
"Yeh. I've been told." He rolled his eyes.
"So, how are you and Tadokoro now?"
Soma's head dropped lower. "I don't even know. I haven't seen her since Paris. Haven't spoken to her since then, either. I overheard some first-years in the dorm say she left town last week, and she also won't return my phone calls or texts."
"Okay, so you asked Erina for a break in Paris, and you have not heard from Megumi since? Sounds like you lost your two favorite people in one fell swoop."
"More or less. But our fight was really about Tsukasa popping up at the reception out of nowhere, talking about his dinner with Erina in Seoul. The fact that I had to hear it from him when we had been together for hours by then…"
Hisako interrupted him, talking to herself. "See, I told her it was a bad idea!" Hisako hissed, and her face immediately turned beet red when she caught herself.
"Hol'up. You knew about the Tsukasa trip?" Sōma raised his voice, staring Hisako down. His chest burned with betrayal. It was her turn to avoid eye contact. He slowly exhaled. "Hey, look, Hisako." He reached out to touch her arm. "Of course you knew. We're friends, but I know she takes top billing. I get it. I understand girl code."
"I'm sorry, Sōma. We are friends, you and I. It wasn't for lack of valuing our friendship. It's just—it's just that when Erina's in work-mode, it can be terrifying to oppose her. Her final decisions are etched in stone."
"Trust me, I know."
"Do you…"
"Do I, what? Do I regret saying those words more than anything in the world? Miss her with every fiber of my being? Wish I could turn back the hands of time and never let those words come out of my mouth?"
"I was actually going to say, want to get back together?"
"Hell yeah! And you're going to help me win her back."
-ARATO HISAKO-
November 3
Arato Hisako could not believe she was about to help her best friend's boyfriend corner her best friend to win her back. She was sure this was breaking some ordinance of girl code, but truth be told—and she would never…ever tell either one of them this—she was surprised Sōma wanted to get back with Erina at all. She loved her boss-best friend beyond the moon, but from experience, sometimes it was best to squash any desire for a romantic relationship with Erina. It's not that Erina was unloveable; quite the contrary, everything about her was utterly irresistible, but Erina knew how to sabotage love better than anyone.
It wasn't Erina's fault; Hisako knew that better than anyone, having grown up to witness Erina's lonely childhood first-hand, but that didn't make the truth change its coat. Her summer fling with Erina had been the best two months of Hisako's life, but it was followed by the worst two semesters of heartbreak. It took a lot for Hisako to accept Sōma and Erina dating right after that, but even she had to admit they were perfect for each other. And if it weren't for how good of a person and how well Sōma complemented Erina, she would have resented him for it for the rest of her life. But now, all she wanted to do was warn him not to waste his time.
She babysat her cold hibiscus tea, paying more attention to the peaks and valleys the red tea stains made in the teacup than the boy sitting across from her. They were in a bustling pudding and tea shop at the city's center that a few Tōtsuki alums said the hipster university students frequented. Ironically, it was the perfect place to go if you wanted privacy from nosy middle school journalists because they were too young to snoop inconspicuously. A part of her was lost in her own relationship malaise, and another part was struggling with…other feelings. But under the ambient lighting, Hisako could tell just by how dispirited Sōma looked as he described to her how pitifully he was handling the break that the furthest belief from Sōma's mind was that winning Erina back was a waste of time.
"You really must regret it. I've never seen you so serious outside of the kitchen. And even there, you come alive from having so much fun."
"I hate living with regret, but I wish I could take it all back. I'd do almost anything never to say those words. I was so angry, so hurt, that my mind was racing, and then I just stopped thinking altogether. My mouth said it before I even knew what I was saying."
"Oof, yeah. That's a scary headspace to be. You feel like you're losing control. You're afraid of losing her, so you say anything to keep her, only to lose everything with her instantly."
"Exactly."
"I get that. I've been there."
"Really?" Sōma asked, mouth full of black mush. He'd been demolishing his cup of black bean pudding since their orders arrived.
"You know Erina and I had a little summer thing after she won the BLUE, right?" She refused to look up from her teacup when she asked the question. A bloom of embarrassment and shame filled her stomach. Hisako never imagined she'd tell Sōma something so personal. He carefully put his spoon and cup down and focused entirely on her. She wished he hadn't; she wasn't sure she could be vulnerable with his eyes boring into her soul like it was.
"Yeah. Erina mentioned it once."
Hisako looked up at him sincerely. "Well, that's a surprise."
"Why?"
"Because it's Erina, and Erina holds many secrets. Like, it was because of you that we ended."
"Oh. I…"
She flung her hand in his face to stop him. "Please, don't. I don't need your pity. Besides, to be realistic, it wouldn't've lasted. It couldn't last. She loves you too much, Sōma. You're all she sees, all her heart sees, even when you're not at Tōtsuki. It was too hard to compete with." Her phone lit up. She looked down and decisively dismissed the call. Sōma eyed it, then her.
"You don't want to get that?"
Hisako blushed. "Oh, no. It can wait."
"You sure?"
She didn't hesitate to reply. "Positive."
She watched him slowly nod and scrape the last mound of black bean pudding onto his spoon. "So, are you and Hayama good? Or…"
Hisako let out a heavy sigh. Never did she imagine she would be talking about relationships with Yukihira. "He's trying to make us good, but I don't know. I just don't feel like dealing with the drama."
Sōma raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? So it wasn't a good idea to enlist your help, huh?"
Hisako blushed harder. "No, I didn't mean this! I want to help you with this plan."
"Good. Because you kinda owe me." He winked.
"I mean…Erina is my best friend first…"
"And I'm your Stagiaire bestie second. Never forget it." They shared a laugh, reminiscing about their time at Mitamura. "So, what did Akira do to get on your bad side?"
"You really wanna know?"
Sōma eyed her thoughtfully, the scar on his left eyebrow wrinkled. Then he burst out laughing, "Oh c'mon! It can't be that bad. It's Akira! He's more straightlaced than Takumi, and he's such a munch about you—"
"He slept with Alice."
Sōma's jaw dropped. "OH. FUCK."
"Yeah."
"Like, slept with, slept with?"
"He says they didn't have sex, but he admitted they slept in the same bed, in his bed, and that's just as bad to me. Y'know?"
"Yeah…no. I hear ya. Wow. Damn, Akira. I'm sorry to hear that, Hisako."
"I mean, that bitch Alice is partially to blame, too. She's such a maneater." Hisako's chest broiled at the mention of Alice.
"So you think they…fooled around?"
"You know, I didn't ask, and I don't want to think about it, but it is Alice, so…" her voice trailed off, and she shrugged so forlornly. Sōma cupped her hand and squeezed it real tight.
"It's going to be okay. You gotta do what's best for you. What's best for your heart."
"Ha," she smugly chuckled. "Easier said than done." A tear rolled down her cheek, and she rushed to flick it away.
"You know what hurt the most about Erina hiding her trip from me? It was the thought of her and Tsukasa getting back together. Like, maybe that's why she didn't want to tell me. I had to hound her to get even the little information she gave me. It almost sent me over the edge. It scared me, like, what if she wanted to get back with him? How would I be able to handle that?"
"She would never, Sōma. Erina's always kept work close to her chest, but you're the best thing that's happened to her. You should know that."
"I didn't in that moment because Tsukasa isn't just work for her. I didn't know what happened in Seoul between them and still don't know everything." He swiftly raised his hand. "Don't risk your friendship with her to tell me anything. I'm past caring about the details. The fear was worse than the truth ever could be."
"Again, I'm really sorry I didn't tell you. I figured you didn't know, but…"
"It's alright. Loyalty and allegiance. I get it, I get it. Besides, the bond in your friendship is why Erina trusts you."
"She trusts you, too, Sōma."All he could do was shrug, but Hisako understood every word he didn't say. "But, you should know, Sōma, it's not all your fault. You reacted to her actions against you. She's my best friend, so I'm not talking shit, but…" Hisako took a deep breath and looked him dead in the eye. At that moment, Hisako realized Yukihira Sōma had grown from the goofy, foot-in-mouth teen she had met two years ago. His face held a maturity she didn't remember ever being there.
"Just because you're the one who asked for space does not mean you're the only one in the wrong. I know that crippling fear of losing the one you love, you trusted, just because you chose yourself. When Akira told me, he was so scared to tell me that I could literally hear my heart cracking in my chest. Then he said it, and I nearly collapsed from heartache, but I couldn't allow myself to forgive him before feeling my feelings."
"Love is so hard," Sōma groaned.
"Tell me about it," she replied, this time letting the tears roll down both cheeks. "Anyway, I think we've settled on the perfect plan."
Sōma handed her a napkin. "You think so?" He picked up the teapot and refilled her teacup. He reviewed the notes they took on the iPad sitting on the table and smirked. "Yeah, I agree."
-NAKIRI ERINA-
November 6
Nakiri Erina was no longer angry.
She was no longer irritated or even confused.
She was heartbroken in the numbest way.
She lay in bed, catatonic, except for her thumb swiping up her phone screen. It had been difficult for Erina to figure out this new life, not being in a relationship with Sōma. At first, it was physically painful to be in his presence, like her heart was being pounded by a hammer and ground into her chest with each breath she took.
She was more irritable and impatient than usual because the school gossip pages started picking up on how little she and Soma were seen together. She'd seen fifty too many opinions on social media about the rumors spreading about why that was, each one more ridiculous than the last, more sensational, more scandalous, more criticizing of their dynamic ("It's any wonder how they lasted as long as they did!"; "They're like oil and water. Opposites like that can't attract that much."), more exacting blame on her ("If they did break up, I know it was because of her snotty attitude"; "He could do better anyway. Pick me, Soma! Choose me, Yukihira!"). The tamest comments were scathing critiques of their different backgrounds, but she didn't like those either ("See what happens when a girl boss gets with a loser? He ruins her image every time.")
But there was one thread of comments that really made her want to be out for blood. She read it over and over again for reasons she could not explain.
("I heard she was getting back with that fine chef, Tsukasa Eishi."
"Makes sense. They're a better pair. Two hot chefs with cold personalities.")
She scoffed, reading that each time. She would never go back to Eishi. Still, she read on.
("No, I heard she was mad that Yukihira wouldn't choose her over Tadokoro."
"I can believe that. You know those two have been attached at the hip since they were first-years."
"Nah, not since Erina won the BLUE and stole Sōma's heart from Megumi.")
Now, that was the one that really ticked her off. She had done absolutely nothing of the sort! She quickly scrolled down the comments and saw a new thread.
("Where's Tadokoro-senpai? She's been MIA on campus for a while. Maybe she couldn't take the humiliation of not being the new Sixth Seat."
"She was robbed! I'd leave too!"
"I think she was scared of the responsibility. It's a lot of work moving from the Tenth to the Sixth. But do you think she can't handle it?"
"Nah, she cud—I've seen her in a Shokugeki. She's mean with it."
"Yah but I still don't think she's recovered since her battle against the director."
"Talk about ah epic but stupid battle! Dammit, I wish I was still a student when it went down! Why'd I have to get kicked out the week before ;( ")
Partially annoyed by it, Erina clicked on the commenter's profile, but it was a BTS fan page, and she could do nothing with that.
"Not that I can blame her, but it sounds more like Megumi was jealous of Erina and couldn't take the heat.")
"Exactly!" Erina whispered to herself, rolling onto her stomach.
("Shit, I'd be too! But not if you really think about it. If you deep it, Erina was jealous of Megumi all along. She was plotting on her!"
"It's the jealousy for me!"
"Yeah, it's giving femme fatale"
"And Director Femme Fatale looks a hot mess in those pictures…"
"I didn't wanna say it, but those bags under her eyes?! GIRL, STAND UP!")
Erina threw her phone to the side. Social media was not a safe space. She had already burned the school newspaper's latest edition in her trashcan, which had become more of a gossip tabloid than she liked. Cease and desist letters were already well underway.
She looked in the mirror and hated agreeing with the comment section, but she was struggling with her work-life balance, and her skincare routine suffered the price. Unfortunately, their coworking relationship could not halt for heartbreak. At first, she did well to hide her pain behind her seventeen-step skincare and makeup routine, but nowadays, she can barely drag herself out of bed each morning in time for her first meeting. She'd don shades to conceal her sadness, but that didn't mean she wasn't drowning in her tears behind them.
Erina dreaded seeing Sōma around campus and tried desperately to avoid him because she knew she couldn't kiss his cheek or hold his hand when she did. Tried as she might, she couldn't tell him how sorry she was that it had come to this because it always felt like swallowing a golf ball to speak to him. Now and then, in their one-on-one meetings as director and the First Seat, she'd allow her eyes to sneak glimpses of Sōma through her designer sunglasses, but it wasn't the same optimism she fell in love with in those golden eyes. Sometimes, he would catch her staring at him; sometimes, she would catch him sneaking a peek first, but after what felt like multiple lifetimes in just one look, she was always first to break away. She'd put her walls up again and try to focus on work, even though her heart would be screaming his name in her mind.
She missed him. Erina missed Sōma so much that it was too painful to think about. She missed wrapping her arm into the crook of his elbow and how it was always the perfect fit. She missed his excitement for life...for her. She missed her cheerleader and closest confidant. Things had become awkward at Council meetings, and she didn't know what could repair the fractured governing body. So many meetings ended early simply because Erina needed to come up for air from the roiling tension between them all. Even the new Sixth Seat was caught in the crossfire more than Erina ever intended. Usually, she'd have sought Sōma's help to bridge the tensions, or he'd take the lead to solve the problems within the group's friendship. But he wasn't himself at those meetings anymore, either. She missed those playfully trusting eyes boring straight into her soul with no desire to hurt her...until they did.
However, with Dr. Yamamoto's guidance, she accepted her role in causing the break. Was that growth? Erina couldn't say but knew she did what her absentee parents taught her—she intentionally kept him in the dark. Her side of the Nakiri family held onto secrets like family jewels. But she now admitted that she betrayed his trust and sabotaged her relationship. She was used to wielding her power to do whatever she wanted without consequence, without thinking how her actions would affect the love of her life. Paris just blew everything up. But the pressure cooker was set to high weeks before they got to the city of love. She'd had a heavy hand in the breakdown of their relationship. She should've communicated more. Honestly, openly. She didn't think it would cause her to fall into this mess with Sōma. He's the one person who dug her out of messes, but she dragged him in by not being truthful.
"Sometimes our growth regresses, Erina..." Her therapist's voice chimed in her mind. "And sometimes a rose grows from concrete."
And that's what made her take her medication, got her out of bed, into the shower, over to the resident salon, and now here— sitting in a frilly white cocktail dress at the family dinner table with her grandfather, Aunt Leonora, Uncle Soe, Alice, Ryo, Hisako, and Saiba Joichiro. They all looked pensive and uncomfortable in their seats.
And Sōma, peering into her eyes, heart, and soul on the other side of the table.
Mana couldn't be persuaded to attend because she chose no sides, much to Erina's dismay, though it was not much of a surprise; Sōma could win over the heart of a goldfish or the Grinch. Leonora rolled her eyes over her sister-in-law's selfish disregard for her daughter's life.
The kitchen staff brought out an extensive array of expertly crafted food. Sesame-crusted tofu, beef curry, aromatic fried rice, steaming white rice, Transforming Furikake Gohan, char okakiage, herb-roasted cornish hens, braised rack of lamb, Chicken Egg Tempura Don, seared venison back strap in a red wine demi-glace, quail-stuffed with risotto and eggs, Team Saiba's Hachis Parmentier, and a wide array of roasted seasonal vegetables. Each dish looked and smelled positively delicious, but Erina had no appetite.
Then, she smelled it before she saw it. She could never forget that smell. It instantly transported her to a different time—the most special place and time that she'd come to cherish more than life in retrospect.
Eggs Benedict Don Fit For a Queen.
Then, the plate was placed right in front of her, knocking down all her defenses. One plate, one dish, for only her.
Senzaemon cleared his throat as if to begin a speech. Erina turned to her beloved grandfather on her left; he looked solemn yet nervous like none of this was his idea, but he loved her too much not to be present. She touched his balled-up fist to stop him; a flash of confusion and relief washed over his ancient features. Then she looked at the boy sitting across from her. His perfectly smooth face, crooked scar, and signature messy hair, shorter and groomed, called out to her, though his lips pressed tightly as he stared back. He looked tired from the fight. The wet glow coating his molten irises told her he was struggling not to crumble on the spot at the very sight of her. It was his birthday, and he'd made it all about her. Erina reached her arms out in front of her and laid them across the vast, marbled table. She surrendered.
"Sōma, I'm sorry..." her voice hitched, but she swallowed her last kernel of fear; she didn't need it anyway. "For everything." Gobsmacked but without hesitation, Sōma took her hands into his. She could feel his life force surging into his grip, its fire consuming and melting all doubt in her mind like now that he had her, he was never letting her go. Erina's heart began to ache in her chest. It thumped harder and louder against her ribcage as if all the ripped tendons and torn blood vessels were repairing themselves one by one, sewing up all loose ends, pumping life back into her half-dead ticker. With tears streaming down her face and a smile cracking through the stone façade, Erina said, choked up, "Happy birthday, Sōma-kun. I love you."
a/n: sorry to keep you waiting for so long, so i had to make this chapter long as consolation. i hope you enjoy this chapter the most. and hello, new readers and story followers! i'm happy you found your way here and am excited that you've made it this far. please do me a solid: drop a review and share it with someone in the fandom you think would enjoy reading this novel, too!
-My pleasure! Hope you enjoyed!-
8.20withlove