Osaka

Chapter Four

Looking at the upper stack of a half-dozen takoyaki in the plastic and foil container suddenly brought Sana back to memories when she was younger and playfully sneaking out of the tea house with her grandfather; she would stay under the shade of an old takoyaki store three stores down while waiting. Her grandfather would then come out of the takoyaki store holding two small saucers with different sauces on each takoyaki. That continued on until a few years before her grandfather died and Sana started to go through her teen years. She may have visited Osaka until before her grandfather died but she became somewhat distant to him. Greeting each other in the mornings and the evenings, eating meals together... There was one thing missing, her daily takoyaki snack time with her grandpa.

Going back to their usual spot, she noticed that a new dainty café has taken its place. Sana slowly went inside and went to the counter to order two fruit juices to go with her takoyaki. As the lady was preparing the drinks, she asked her what happened to the old takoyaki store.

"Oh? You haven't heard? Mr. Nakamoto moved his store nearer to the main streets," the lady said with a somehow skeptical look. "I remember that when Mr. Mitsuya passed away, they slowly started getting fewer customers in their spot here..." Upon hearing her grandfather's name, Sana felt a bit of a hollow feeling in her chest.

"Are you related to Mr. Nakamoto?" the lady asked which made Sana look back to the lady and concentrate on her. Sana shook her head and answered the lady.

"No," she said. "I'm Mr. Mitsuya's granddaughter, Minatozaki Sana" she tried to smile widely.

"Oh! You're the one Mrs. Amane has been talking about," the lady said as she brought over Sana's drinks and packed them up. "She already told most of the people along this block that her niece will be running their tea house business for the summer," the lady gleefully added.

"Yes, I w-will," Sana said while laughing a bit awkwardly. "Thank you," she said again and bowed as she took the drinks.

"If ever you want drinks here, it's always on the house. Your aunt gives us their tea bases for our drinks at a low price but with excellent quality and the tea drinks are always so fragrant," the lady told her while smiling and bowed at Sana as she went out.

As she stepped out of the café, Sana felt lighter because it's like she felt herself rewriting the history his grandfather she shared with at the takoyaki store that once stood lively there. Walking back to their tea house, she walked through the back door and looked for her aunt. When she saw her aunt near the tall shelves of the tea bases at the store front, her aunt looked at her and grinned.

"I see you've been walking down your memory lane. I smell takoyaki," she teased Sana while walking towards her and taking the box of tissue paper with her.

Sana nodded and answered while smiling, "The café there was where Grandpa and I used to go to."

"I know~ Whenever I used to pass by that store, you always gobbled up all the takoyaki you have on your plate and dad would quickly give one of his takoyakis to me," her aunt told her as she laid out the tissue paper on the small dining table in the back. "And you're cheeks are proof to that."

Sana just chuckled at her aunt's remark. "The lady at the café told me that I can get free drinks there," she told her aunt and took the box of tissue paper from her to set on the table for the containers and drinks.

"Whenever Mrs. Kazama comes over to buy stocks for her tea, she always tells me how her customers get happy with how the café smells nice when there's an order of a tea drink," her aunt told her as she open one of the containers. As soon as her aunt took a bite, "This is Mr. Nakamoto's takoyaki, right?"

Sana quickly looked at her aunt while sipping some of her strawberry juice and furrowed her brows, "I'm not sure, I just got curious as I went to the bookstore because the takoyaki store where I bought these has a lot of customers lined up outside."

Her aunt nodded and smiled at her, "Take a bite and you'll know."

As soon as Sana took a bite of one of the takoyaki in her container, memories with her grandpa suddenly came rushing towards her giving her a giddy and tingly feeling. Watching her reaction, her aunt chuckled and told her with a knowing smile, "Just don't spend your whole afternoon eating takoyaki when I go on vacation next week." Sana felt lighter within her and continued happily eating.