Endless Love (and Food Battles)

Comeback

Five years went by swiftly. The Nakiri and Yukihira happenstance is almost forgotten though some still bring it out from time to time. The only knowledge they had was that the redheaded chef was in Amsterdam and nothing more. As for Erina, they have no traces. One thing the people believe in is that they're still alive and just residing somewhere around the planet, together or not.

Same goes with the people at the Nakiri household. Alice have been waiting for a text, call, or letter from her blonde cousin but she received none. She hasn't acquired any reports about Yukihira either. Despite her busy schedule of temporarily taking over the Dean position at Totsuki, she finds time to investigate about her so-called counterpart chefs. Alice groaned in annoyance.

"Those two will be getting a smack on their faces once I see them." She grumpily said as she plopped herself on one of the chairs.

"Hurry up with the paperworks, Ryo-kun! I'm tired and I want to eat dinner already." She demanded, looking at the aforementioned guy who's busy doing the things she's supposed to do.

"Why don't you come and help me so that we can finish this fast? This is your job anyway." Ryo snapped back with, as usual, a bored expression.

"Mouuu! You are my aide, so that becomes your job as well!" And the signature pout of the Alice Nakiri appeared.

~~

Hisako Arato- nope, scratch that, Hisako Hayama is busy making medicinal tea for her sick 4-year-old son. It's just actually a common cold, but as for a child as young as that, his body reacted resulting to fever.

Her husband won't be home for the next 30 minutes or so and with that, she decided to go on with making dinner.

For the last five years, Hisako has been assisting with running Totsuki alongside her husband who is a professor there as well. With her Ojou-sama gone and nowhere to be found, she surprisingly got used to the other Nakiri as Headmistress. She had to admit that regardless of the half-Danish's carefree and childish personality, she has matured throughout the years after taking over Erina's job.

Totsuki Academy progressed notably too. Erina's advocacies remained with little changes here and there, even her picture still hangs on the Dean's office wall.

Weirdly enough, Hisako felt that her dearest friend Erina- in spite of not having to communicate her, is somewhere safe probably living her life to the fullest without a care about a school to take care of, paperworks and meetings to oversee, food tastings and banquets to attend, and a Soma Yukihira to handle.

Wait... speaking of that guy, haven't heard of him as well. Hisako thought. Maybe Akira knows, I'll ask him later.

"Honey, I'm home." Called the said husband as he went directly to where he think his wife is.

"What are you cooking this time?" Hayama asked, hugging his wife from behind.

"You guess. This would be done soon so take a quick shower first." Hisako spoke, kissing her husband on the cheek.

~~

Back at the Nakiri mansion...

"Still not done? You're so slow, Ryo-kun!" Alice complained, playing what seemed like a war type mobile game.

"Ojou, it's almost finished. But you can go and have dinner first if you're that hungry and impatient already." Ryo Nakiri responded.

Oh, I almost forgot. Those two are actually a married couple of 3 years. Alice forced Ryo to take on the Nakiri family name saying that the one Ryo have doesn't suit her first name. They have a black-haired one year old boy who is taken care of mostly by Leonora and Sue. Perks of having one (and a half) incredibly busy parents managing an academy.

"Yes, I'm hungry but I want to eat dinner with you. So hurry up! That's an order!"

"Right, sorry." Ryo just surrendered.

*Ringgggggg*

An unknown number is shown on the screen of Alice's phone much to her wonder.

"Hello. Who is this?" She immediately interrogated.

"Alice, it's me." A female voice responded that made Alice's red eyes widen in shock.

"Erina?!" She asked, not really sure of what she is hearing. She can't be hallucinating though.

"Yes, it's me, Erina." Came a firm reply.

Upon hearing her long gone cousin's response, she lost it. She wanted to curse and call her names.

"Where the hell have you been, you bitch?!?!" There, she really cursed and called her a name.

"Geeez, calm down. What's with all the harsh words?" Erina giggled on the other line.

"And you have the audacity to laugh at me now? After all the work you left me for leaving without saying goodbye?!" Alice almost shouted which made her husband stop whatever he is doing.

"Alright, I'm sorry. But I'm afraid we'll talk about that next time. I just called to say that I'll be coming home 2 days from now, tell Grandpa." The blonde spoke with a happy tone unlike her old self when speaking to her unbearable cousin.

"Waittttttt!" This time, it's a shout.

"What, Alice?"

"Make sure to bring home something really nice for me and the rest of the guys, that'll make less of the beating." Alice huffed.

"Can't promise. And oh, don't tell anyone else. Bye!" And she hang up.

Alice can't believe what just happened, her hunger has long forgotten. She has plenty of questions to ask her cousin and she's going to put all of it on her notes. Questions like, "Were you able to learn how to wear clothes other than Totsuki's school uniform, chef's outfit, and office clothes?" and "Have you mastered operating a washing machine?" Those were the most important things for her to inquire.

"Ojou... are you still hungry?" Ryo who has been silent since the phone call started finally spoke.

"Ryo-kun, let's go out for dinner. I need some fresh air." She stood and quickly grabbed her purse. "I'll wait for you in the car."

"Okay." Ryo responded while getting up from his seat.

Meanwhile, a certain event on social media particularly on Twitter, stirred Japan's supposedly peaceful night.

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Hiii. Thank you for bearing with me. I wanna hear your thoughts about this story though. So comment anything you want, I'll be happy to read one. :)