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(╥﹏╥)っ🥃🍾⊂(・﹏・)
IT WAS A NORMAL DAY in the Sumire Street Shopping District, although no one could deny that it had become quieter around the area ever since the crowd's most favorite restaurant - Yukihira Diner - closed up because the owner, Joichiro, had to travel overseas, while his son, Soma, attended school at Totsuki Academy.
Their regular customers were, of course, saddened by the news, but they couldn't do anything about it. They could only stare at the closed diner; missing the aroma it emits, the delicious food - hoping that one of these days, it'll open again.
A familiar group of friends were about to walk past the said restaurant as they took their usual route on their way home.
Part of that group was Kurase Mayumi, who made it a habit to stop by the empty restaurant, and Koganei Aki, who made it a habit to chide Mayumi for not confessing her feelings for a certain boy before he left for school.
However, just as they were exactly in front of the supposedly empty restaurant, the shutters suddenly burst open ─ revealing Soma, who smiled widely upon seeing his former classmates.
"Oh, hey! It's been a while."
"YUKIHIRA?!"
"Long time no see," Soma says, waving at them as he exited the restaurant to greet them.
"You should've told us you were coming back!"
"Are you going to reopen the place?"
"Nah, I just came back to air the place out." Soma replied, waving his hand dismissively as Aki kept looking behind him, like she was waiting for another person to come out of the restaurant.
"Ahm, Yukihira-kun. Where's Hirabayashi-kun?" Mayumi asked, not used to seeing Soma without Ikki since the two boys were basically joined at the hip.
Soma scratched the nape of his neck. "Ah, he's..."
Concurrently, the aforementioned boy stood before a large, centuries-old gray stone that had a bouquet of yellow chrysanthemum in front of it as well as lit up incense sticks that filled the air with a thick, lingering scent.
He had his hands stuffed in his pockets, his golden orbs never leaving the name carved into it. He stayed like that for a while, just silently staring at the gravestone, until he took a deep breath, and said;
