CH 5

「CHAPTER 5」

“…I'm hungry…”

He opened his eyes as his stomach made a miserable grumbling noise. As he

stared up at the ceiling, eyes half open, he noticed that something smelled good. The

aroma of grilled fish and miso soup increased his appetite. No wonder he felt hungry.

Still half-asleep, Yoshino slowly got up and left the dimly lit bedroom. Then he went

towards the coffee table, which was set up with breakfast, plopped down on the floor, and

grabbed chopsticks. But the most important thing was not in front of him.

“Rice…”

As his gaze wandered around searching for his favorite food, Hatori appeared

from the kitchen along with a bowl of rice.

“Got up by yourself, huh. I was just about to wake you. Here's the rice.”

“Mm…”

He took the bowl of rice as if it were a matter of course and began to eat.

“You forgot to say it.”

“Itadakimasu…”

As he moved his chopsticks back and forth, his head began to clear up. After

swallowing the food in his mouth, he noticed Hatori who was making green tea.

“Oh, Tori. Morning.”

“Morning. So you finally woke up, huh. Oh, careful not to spill anything,” Hatori

referred to the shaky way Yoshino used his chopsticks, since he was still a little halfasleep.

Yoshino obediently nodded and searched for the soy sauce to cover his omelet

with. It was Yoshino's routine to put soy sauce on the sweet omelet.

“Kay. …Oh, Tori, pass me that.”

“Mhm,” Hatori silently handed over the soy sauce bottle, which stood in front of

him.

“Thank you.”

“Chew your food.”

“'Kay.”

They continued eating in silence for sometime, but then Hatori suddenly

muttered, “…Let's do it better this time.”

“Eh? Do what?”

It was clear in Hatori's head, but Yoshino couldn't understand what he was talking

about from such limited context.

“Your birthday. Let's go somewhere to eat.”

“You already congratulated me. You even gave me a present and everything, so

don't worry about it.”

“It's not good enough. Yanase surprised you with cake and wine, right?”

“How do you know that!?”

It wasn't wine, but champagne, even so, Yoshino was surprised that he knew how

the situation had played out. A deep furrow on Hatori's forehead appeared, perhaps he

realized that the answer to his question was correct.

“……….”

“But it wasn't a big deal or anything. He just got me a small cake, and the people

at the hotel brought champagne as part of their service.”

“I want to celebrate properly anyway. If you don't want to eat out, then we can eat

at my place. I'll make your favorite food.”

“Why can't we at my place?”

Having Hatori cook in Yoshino's own home was most comfortable for him. Hatori

had all the necessary kitchen utensils here, so there wasn't a problem.

“We can't.”

“Why?”

“We absolutely can't.”

For some reason Hatori was very uncompromising. Yoshino was flexible because

it didn't really matter to him all that much.

“A- alright then. Let's go out to eat somewhere. Last time I went out to eat was

that time we had our meeting in that café,” he said looking at the calendar, which lay on

top of the table. He flipped the page to check the next month's schedule.

“Umm…I'm busy with work for a while so…how about April 17th?”

“Is that okay? That's the day of the deadline.”

Hearing Yoshino's suggestion, Hatori gave him a puzzled look. It looked like he

wanted to say “Are you serious?”

“It's fine. The deadline is the 16th, isn't it? Even if worst comes to worst, I'll

definitely be free the night of the 17th.”

“Is it really okay?”

Obviously, Hatori was suspecting that Yoshino was going to miss the deadline,

but it was more like he lacked faith in him than be angry with him. Yoshino somewhat

didn't trust himself also, but having Hatori lack faith in him was really annoying.

“You're so untrusting. Seriously, I said it's okay!”

“Alright, I'll take your word for it. I'll make a restaurant reservation. What do you

want to eat?”

He looked dissatisfied, but it seemed that he had accepted that for now.

“Let's see…Every once in a while I'll eat a French full course meal!”

He wanted to go to a place where you couldn't go in alone. He had a hunch that he

might be able to get some ideas for his next story by going to a high-class restaurant.

“Alright. I'll make a reservation for the 17th at 7 o'clock, so make sure you keep

to the deadline.”

“You're so pushy! You can't trust me that much?”

He raised his voice at Hatori, angry at being reminded over and over again, but

Hatori cooly answered, “Ask yourself.”

“…Well, that's what I think! Now then, I have to do work once I get home. There

aren't any problems with the storyboard, right?”

He purposefully changed the subject since he knew that he couldn't win this

argument. Hatori's expression still looked somehow uneasy, but Yoshino pretended not to

notice and continued talking about work.