The next morning.
As usual, Ichin was the first one up, waking early to prepare breakfast.
Considering how much Haruno had drunk last night, and the fact that she still had to go to work today, Ichin figured he'd better make her a bento as well.
After a night of drinking, the following day's meals had to be carefully prepared, otherwise it wouldn't be good for the body.
Celery and white radish were both excellent for relieving hangover discomfort, so Ichin had bought them. He planned to cook stir-fried shredded pork with celery, along with a pork rib and radish soup.
At half past eight, Ichin pressed the doorbell at Haruno's place next door.
"I'm coming!"
Almost thirty seconds passed, and it wasn't until Ichin followed up with a phone call that Haruno finally appeared, wearing pajamas, yawning as she opened the door.
Seeing her still half-asleep, Ichin said, "Haruno, wash up and come have breakfast. It's already eight-thirty. You drank quite a lot last night, so you should eat something this morning."
Haruno nodded and turned back inside to change and wash up.
Ten minutes later, she came over to Ichin's place and sat at the dining table.
Today's breakfast was simple—plain porridge and steamed buns. Since Haruno didn't need to be exactly on time at the office, it was perfect for her.
"Let's eat!"
Taking a sip of porridge with pickled vegetables, Haruno let out a contented sigh.
"Having millet porridge in the morning… this is the best!"
After that, she picked up a bun and bit into it.
Ichin had made both meat and vegetarian buns; the one in Haruno's hand was vegetarian.
"Mmm, even the veggie ones are good."
Before long, half a bowl of millet porridge and a bun were gone, and Haruno leaned back, satisfied.
"If I keep coming over like this, I'm really going to get fat."
"That's not going to happen."
Utaha smiled from across the table. "Look at me—after being with Ichin for so long, I haven't gained any weight. As long as you get proper exercise, you'll be fine."
Haruno shook her head, unconvinced. "You can manage proper exercise, Utaha, but I can't. After all, I've always been single."
"..."
Seriously? How did she manage to twist it that way?
Ichin rolled his eyes at her. "Come on, can't your thoughts be a little purer? Or is it really just that you've been single too long? Looks like Auntie and my mom will still have to keep arranging blind dates for you."
"No, no, no! I'll stop talking!"
At the mention of blind dates, even Haruno immediately surrendered and obediently focused on eating.
As for Utaha, Haruno's risqué joke only caught her a little off guard. After all, Haruno only ever joked about these things, while she herself had already been on the road for quite some time in reality.
By the time breakfast was finished, the soup on the stove was nearly ready as well.
Ichin ladled the freshly simmered pork rib and radish soup into two thermos flasks, handing one of them, along with a bento box, over to Haruno.
"Here, your lunch and soup. It's pretty light today."
"Light is good. If it's from little Ichin, I can always trust it." Haruno accepted the food happily, smiling as she headed back to get ready for work.
After feeding the cats, cleaning the litter box, and taking out the trash, Ichin and Utaha also finished getting ready to head to the company.
Yukino, however, wasn't coming today. She planned to stay home with the cats and finish the books she had borrowed from the library yesterday.
Ichin changed into the dress shirt his mom had bought for him back in Shanghai—when she had gone shopping with Utaha and the others—and then turned to Utaha.
"Let's go. Time for work."
That morning, instead of focusing on the Tales of Berseria project plan, Ichin joined the Dark Souls programming team to research AI behavior for several bosses and discuss some visual effect optimizations.
Before long, noon arrived.
Meanwhile, over at Haruno's company, after hosting a meeting and then two online conferences with business partners, she was finally able to take a break and eat lunch.
Since graduating from university, she had recruited a few outstanding classmates and even some older peers into her company, making them the core of her team. Together, they'd been achieving solid results lately.
Calling everyone together, she led them to the company cafeteria.
Seeing that Haruno had once again brought her own lunch, a girl with glasses and a side ponytail asked curiously, "Haruno, are you sure you haven't gotten yourself a boyfriend?"
"I told you already, I haven't."
Rolling her eyes, Haruno opened her bento box as she explained, "It's my godmother's son. I recognize him as my younger brother!"
As she opened the neatly packed bento and then the thermos, the rich aroma spread through the air, making all the girls gulp involuntarily.
"Are all Chinese guys this good at cooking?"
"Hearing this makes me want to find a boyfriend who can cook too. The cafeteria food is fine, but after a while it gets tiring."
"Why don't you cook for yourself then?"
"No talent for it. I just can't learn."
Haruno chuckled at their complaints, ladled some rib soup into her bowl, then glanced at how much was left. "Help yourselves if you want—there's plenty of soup."
"Yay!!!" ×5
Drinking soup and eating the bento, Haruno quickly felt her spirits lift after a tiring morning.
She might not have found a boyfriend yet, but Ichin was a pretty great little brother. No messy boyfriend problems, and she still got delicious meals.
Perfect. Tonight, she'd go freeload dinner again. She would stick with freeloading meals until the end!
Hmm… but to avoid little Ichin getting annoyed with her, she'd better have someone buy some good beef this afternoon. That way, he couldn't accuse her of just mooching.
Haruno grinned as she picked up some stir-fried celery and pork with her chopsticks, her little abacus clicking away in her head.
At that same moment, over at Ichin's company cafeteria, he suddenly shivered for no reason, goosebumps running up his arm.
Seeing him, Rin asked, "What's wrong? Did they set the air conditioning too low?"
Ichin shook his head. "No… just suddenly felt a strange wave of malice. Feels like someone's plotting against me."
"For real?"
Yagami Kou gave him a doubtful look. "Did you offend someone? Hmm… oh wait, you did. You trolled Aoba and Eriri in games so many times they were cursing at you."
"That doesn't count." Ichin frowned, thinking it over, then shook his head. "Messing with each other is just part of Fall Guys. If you don't like it, don't play. And I even warned them beforehand—it's their fault for not being prepared. But who could be plotting against me? Akane? …No, that doesn't fit either."
Kou tilted her head, puzzled, then turned to Utaha.
"Don't look at me, I don't know either." Utaha swallowed her food before adding, "But I think it's probably not work-related. More likely it's just Eriri and the others. Or… maybe Haruno-nee?"
And truth be told, women's intuition was often spot on.
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