April's POV:
My dad came back and gave a lame excuse to leave.
"Dear, I have a meeting in 20 minutes. I need to leave, sorry," he said.
I was about to say, 'but why?' like a kid when Yuri interrupted.
He nodded, "No worries,"
Excuse me?
My dad just smiled politely and waved at me. "Bye, how many days will you stay here?"
Until mid-summer.
"Until summe-"
"Almost half of summer break, po." Yuri said.
Why does he keep interrupting me?
"Ah, alright. We'll meet someday."
Finally, he gave me some attention, "April, next time we meet in Japan, bring Keifer too, okay?"
Wait, what?
WHY?
"Why Keifer?" I asked.
"Hm, I just feel like meeting him, too."
Alright, just feel like meeting him. Totally believable.
"Okay, then," I assured.
"Bye, Yuri! Bye, April. See you soon," he said, and left the cafe. He went to his car and drove away.
We both left the cafe, too.
We started walking towards his house, and Yuri stopped suddenly.
I stumbled into his shoulder. "Hey!"
He did not give me any answer at all.
My gaze followed his, and he walked towards a bakery.
I just waited at the entrance as he bought too many snacks for two people. Was it for the whole Section?
Hell no, just this little wouldn't be enough for the whole section.
We reached home, and the whole Section E sat at the dining table.
Yuri's parents were sitting in the corner of the table, waiting for us.
The animals were eating. Fighting over chicken.
When we entered, Ci-N looked like he was waiting for tea.
Nope.
SUFFER.
"Sorry, we're late." I apologised to Yuri's parents.
Yuri's mom smiled immediately when we walked in.
"There they are," she said, like we were children who wandered off into the forest for three business days.
Ci-N leaned forward so fast I thought he was about to fall onto the table.
"Well?" he asked dramatically. "How was the father-in-law meeting?"
I grabbed the nearest bread roll and threw it directly at his face.
"OW- VIOLENCE?" he gasped.
Yuri quietly placed the bakery bags on the table.
And immediately, the vultures noticed.
Ci-N's eyes widened. "OH? Bakery?"
Felix leaned forward. "Wait, that smells expensive."
Jayjay already had her hand halfway inside the bag before Yuri took the bag away without even looking.
"Don't touch."
The entire table froze.
Edrix blinked. "Damn."
Keifer looked at the bags, then at Yuri. "…Those aren't for us, are they?"
"No."
I frowned slightly.
Then Yuri pushed the bags toward me.
Oh.
"…Why is there so much?" I asked, staring at the amount of snacks he bought, like we were preparing for winter.
"You didn't eat properly at the café."
Excuse me.
Why did he say that in front of everyone?
Immediately, all eyes turned toward me.
Traitor.
Ci-N looked devastated. "So this is lover-exclusive food?"
"Yes," Yuri replied calmly.
"THAT'S discrimination."
"You'll survive."
"I actually might not."
I opened one of the bags carefully, and the smell alone almost healed my emotional damage.
Almost.
Warm bread.
Sweet rolls.
Tiny cakes.
Chocolate pastries.
This man bought enough snacks to emotionally recover from three divorces.
Felix stared longingly. "April…"
"No."
"I didn't even ask yet."
"You were going to."
"That's true."
I grabbed a cream bun first, finally realising how hungry I actually was.
The second I took a bite, Ci-N lunged.
"GIVE ME A PIECE-"
"ABSOLUTELY NOT."
I twisted away so fast he almost fell onto the table.
Jayjay started laughing immediately.
"Oh my god, she's protecting the snacks with her life."
"Because these are MY trauma recovery snacks."
"That's a crazy sentence," Keifer muttered.
The vultures continued circling.
Felix managed to grab one pastry from the edge of the table before I slapped his hand away.
"OW?"
"THIEF."
"I got ONE."
"One becomes two. Two becomes suffering."
Yuri sat beside me the whole time, watching the disaster quietly, as if this was completely normal behaviour.
Actually… for us, it was.
At one point, he reached over, opened another small box, and placed it closer to me.
I blinked.
"…You bought cheesecake too?"
"You stared at it for five seconds at the bakery."
The table immediately exploded.
"FIVE SECONDS?" Jayjay yelled.
"BRO IS OBSERVANT OBSERVANT," Ci-N shouted.
Keifer looked disturbed. "That's actually insane."
"You should be taking notes, Romeo," Jayjay said. OH, NOW SHE'S TALKING.
Meanwhile, I just stared at Yuri.
Because… I didn't even realise I looked at it that long.
"You're creepy," I informed him.
"You're welcome," he replied calmly.
Ci-N suddenly pointed dramatically at Yuri.
"THIS is why she likes you more than us."
"Obviously," Yuri said.
No hesitation.
No shame.
The confidence???
I nearly choked on my drink.
Jayjay started judging us (in a good way, no hate to our mutya of Section Eeee) while Felix looked personally betrayed.
"Bro didn't even PRETEND to deny it," he cried.
And somehow,
Somewhere between fighting over pastries and protecting my cheesecake like a national treasure.
The heaviness in my chest eased a little.
Not completely.
It was still there.
The café.My dad leaving again.The weird ache sitting under my ribs.
But Yuri buying too many snacks because he noticed I barely ate…
The others trying to steal them like wild animals…
The loudness of this table…
It grounded me.
Kept me here.
Present.
Yuri nudged another pastry toward me lightly.
"Eat slowly," he muttered.
"You bought half the bakery."
"You looked sad."
I had successfully defended the snacks for approximately four minutes.
A new personal record.
Ci-N was still mourning the cheesecake he failed to steal, Felix kept trying to emotionally manipulate me into sharing, and Jayjay was fully supporting the robbery attempts like a criminal mastermind.
Meanwhile, I was protecting the pastry boxes with both hands like they contained classified government files.
"These are mine," I warned.
"Our," Ci-N corrected.
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"You contribute nothing except stress."
"That is false. I contribute personality."
Before I could continue bullying him verbally, a hand suddenly appeared beside me and lifted the pastry box straight out of my arms.
I gasped dramatically.
Betrayal.
I looked up.
Yuri's mom.
Oh no.
She stared at the table for exactly three seconds.
That was enough.
One look at the opened boxes, the untouched actual breakfast, and the group of starving hyenas surrounding me told her everything she needed to know.
"Yuri."
Her voice wasn't loud.
Which somehow made it scarier.
Yuri looked up calmly from beside me. "Hm?"
"Why did you buy pastries before breakfast?"
Silence.
The whole table instantly became peaceful citizens.
"She looked sad," Yuri answered simply.
EXCUSE ME.
WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT SO CASUALLY?
His mom sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose like she'd raised this man for years and still didn't understand him completely.
"Sad means you comfort her properly," she scolded. "Not feed her cake at breakfast time."
Ci-N whispered dramatically, "He failed husband training."
Yuri kicked his chair under the table immediately.
"And you," his mom turned toward me, immediately softer, "eat proper breakfast first."
I looked at the pastry box still in her hands like a soldier watching a fallen comrade being carried away.
"…But the cheesecake-"
"Later."
Her tone left no room for negotiation.
Heartbreaking.
Then she turned toward one of the house helpers nearby.
"Please keep these in their room for now," she said, handing over the pastry bags before the vultures at the table could attack again.
The entire Section E looked devastated.
"ROOM?" Ci-N repeated instantly, eyes widening.
"Interesting," Jayjay muttered.
Felix looked like he had just discovered new gossip fuel.
I nearly choked.
"It's temporary," I said immediately.
"No one asked," Keifer replied.
Traitor.
The tita carried the pastries away while I watched with emotional pain.
"There goes my happiness," I whispered.
Yuri glanced sideways at me. "You'll survive thirty minutes."
"You don't know that."
"I literally bought them."
"Exactly. You understand the emotional attachment."
His mom placed an actual breakfast in front of me with the authority of someone who would physically fight malnutrition if necessary.
"Eat."
I looked down.
Rice.
Eggs (she kept 3 for protein support)
Chicken.
Real food.
The second I started eating, the entire table slowly returned to chaos mode.
Ci-N stole chicken from Felix.Felix screamed like he'd been attacked personally.Jayjay laughed so hard she nearly dropped her spoon.Edrix kept adding commentary nobody asked for.
And through all of it, Yuri stayed beside me quietly.
Every now and then, he would slide something toward my plate when he noticed I had stopped eating for too long.
Like it was automatic for him.
Like taking care of me wasn't even something he thought about anymore.
At one point, I leaned slightly toward him and muttered under my breath,
"You got scolded because of me."
He shrugged lightly. "Worth."
I stared at him for a second.
"…That was smooth."
"I know."
The confidence in this man needed to be studied scientifically.
Across the table, Ci-N gagged dramatically.
"Can you both stop acting like a married couple for FIVE MINUTES?"
"No," Yuri replied immediately.
Breakfast somehow became louder after that.
Not a normal loud.
Section E is loud.
Which basically meant:
Ci-N stealing food like a raccoon, Calix defending his plate with his life, Jayjay encouraging violence, Keifer questioning every life decision that led him here.
I sent the video to Mica.
Meanwhile, Yuri's parents sat at the end of the table with the patience of saints.
Actual saints.
Ci-N had somehow managed to steal a chicken piece from Eman and was celebrating like he won a national competition.
"Skill issue," he declared proudly.
"You literally grabbed it off my spoon," Eman complained.
"And yet… I succeeded."
Yuri's dad finally laughed under his breath, setting down his cup of tea.
"You're always this noisy?" he asked Ci-N.
Ci-N immediately sat straighter.
Like a student trying to impress the principal.
"Yes, Tito. It's my natural talent."
"Unfortunately," Keifer muttered.
Yuri's mom smiled faintly. "You remind me of Yuri when he was younger."
The ENTIRE table went silent.
I slowly turned toward Yuri.
Oh?
Oh this was dangerous information.
Ci-N gasped dramatically. "HE was like ME?"
"No," Yuri said immediately.
"Yes," both his parents answered at the same time. Keifer nodded. I joined him.
The betrayal on Yuri's face was beautiful.
Jayjay smacked the table. "NO WONDER THEY GET ALONG."
Ci-N looked emotional. "I knew we were spiritually connected."
"You are not," Yuri replied flatly.
His dad leaned back slightly, clearly enjoying Yuri's suffering now.
"When he was younger, he once climbed onto the restaurant freezer because someone told him he couldn't."
I froze.
Ci-N froze.
Then both of us looked at Yuri at the same time.
THIS WAS NEW NEWS. YURI IS MEME MATERIAL NOW ON. WOHO.
"No way."
Yuri looked genuinely exhausted already. "Why are we talking about this?"
"YOU CLIMBED A FREEZER?" Ci-N yelled.
"It was one time."
"WHY?"
"Because someone said I couldn't."
Ci-N slammed the table dramatically. "THAT'S MY SOUL CONNECTED BROTHER."
I was crying laughing at this point.
Actual tears.
Even Keifer looked like he was trying not to laugh.
Yuri's mom sighed fondly. "And after climbing it, he got stuck because he was too scared to jump down."
The room exploded.
"YOU were scared?" I laughed, leaning onto the table.
Yuri pointed at his parents accusingly. "I trusted both of you."
"You shouldn't have," his dad replied calmly.
Cold.
Absolutely cold.
Ci-N wiped fake tears dramatically. "Tito… Tita… thank you for this information. This changes my life."
"You're welcome," Yuri's mom said kindly.
"Please stop encouraging him," Yuri deadpanned.
His dad looked toward Ci-N again, amusement still lingering in his expression.
"You really stay this energetic all day?"
"Yes."
"He does," everyone answered immediately.
Ci-N pointed proudly at himself. "I'm the emotional support chaos."
"You're just chaos," Jayjay corrected.
"Wrong. I support emotions TOO."
Then Yuri's mom glanced toward him thoughtfully.
"You and Yuri really do act similarly sometimes."
"NO WONER YURI TOLERATES HIM," Felix shouted.
"Wait," Edrix added slowly, "that actually explains EVERYTHING."
Yuri rubbed his forehead. "I regret bringing all of you here."
"No you don't," I replied automatically.
He glanced at me briefly.
Then the smallest smile appeared on his face.
Tiny.
Barely there.
But soft.
And somehow, after everything earlier today,
That tiny smile grounded me more than anything else.
"Okay, y'all. We're going to Mount Fuji at 3 PM, be ready, okay?" Yuri's dad announced.
Everyone cheered. Yuri looked at me like: This is going to be perfect.
I wonder what.
JAYFER CHAOS INCOMING, FOR SURE.