?Rin?

  It still feels weird to say this coming from me, but it really has been a while since I saw Gin's house quite empty.

  Nine whole months, this house never had a day where there was literally no one here. In weekdays, Exiles tirelessly built their new family house from start to finish. At midday, the masks gain the freedom to remove them at the comfort and privacy of this very home at lunch.

  On the other hand, the days have gotten a bit lonely for me.

  Nine whole months, I was together with a lady that I now consider my sister, as if I don't have one already. In that period, I've pretty much bonded with Yuki, learned about each other, and came to a point where we would be almost inseparable when we are together.

  I've come to like her own adorable naivety, yet she is more mature than most. It was the first time I was exposed to an Exile apart from Gin for a long while, and I learned a lot about them from her perspective and heard interesting stories of the underground.

  But now, those things have come to pass as she had packed up her belongings from our place to come home to where she truly belongs. Even so, I do keep finding traces of her in our home that allow me to remember her fondly.

  Well, it's not like I can't meet her again at any time I want.

  At the same time, Gin's family had also moved out of his house to occupy their newly minted home. It's always a running joke that Gin's place is too big for a single person to live on, and while their new family home is just somewhat bigger in terms of floor area, the few times I've been there has led me to think that it is too big for three people to live in.

  Of four rooms, only two are being actively used, while Kei and his wife Shiina had decided to stay with them from time to time while keeping their main place still at Yuuga's apartments.

  As for the last room… Gin had left it on "We'll just see in the future," and just shrugged at the thought. I for one don't have any plans of leaving Gin's place when I start living there, and I frankly don't see the point of occupying it when we have this for ourselves. So whatever Gin is thinking, I'll just have to discuss it with him whether I've put myself on a misunderstanding corner or not.

  But for now… "We'll just see in the future."

  Oh, for crying out loud…

  ? ? ?

  It's that time of the year where I wish I could live for a few months in Japan with the weather being pleasant there and all before it gets warm. In reality, it's already the usual battle against summer in Orio with the coming of April.

  With duffle bags in our shoulders and just ourselves on flip flops that have definitely given me tan marks already, Gin and I set out to our nearest train station to get our bullet train and booked our tickets to the northernmost point of Orio—Hitoretsu.

  The last time we came there was for work at Giotto's where we had a popup stall serving the seafood of the province fresh out of the sea. Needless to say, the sales and promotion was well within the restaurant's expectation, take away the appearance of a shark that got a tad too close to the shore.

  Years after, Gin suddenly had to host guests from Hitoretsu being Eito Uchizawa and Sora Aobana for a bit, and touring them around Cotona. I don't remember if we made any promises, but here we are visiting their home court for a few days.

  "Oh…? Looks like we're cancelling the hotel we booked," in front of his phone, Gin mumbled as we sat after putting our bags in the luggage compartment.

  "What happened?"

  "Eito just sent me an address and told us to go to Room 405 and said 'I got you.'"

  Looking at the map, it looks to be around a kilometer or two away from the beach.

  "Well, that was very last minute…"

  One thing that's great about the company that manages the bullet trains in the country is that it follows the Japanese structure of things as quite a lot of the shares are owned in the North. Well, they were the one that came to Orio proposing a more advanced transportation solutions, so it's nice that operations are on schedule unlike the normal rail lines. Still, it would be nice if this country ever achieves the experience that we got when we visit further north of Hitoretsu.

  And in just moments, the train set off and reached top speed, prompting Gin to look on the window while I take a guess on what he's thinking. Sometimes, he can be a simple man.

  "I know I've rarely used Potato Express since you don't go all out with your speed when I do, but would you say you've gotten faster when you're on your own?"

  "It's clever and all, but I'm Potato Express now?"

  "It sounds like an oxymoron when you think of it as a couch potato, but isn't it cute?"

  "I take it that you just want me to carry you while I run around?"

  "I won't deny the wind feels great when you zoom around."

  "Potato Express will humor you from time to time, I guess.

  But I really don't want to think about how much I can outrun this train."

  "So you're still confident that you can."

  "That, at least I still am."

  Seeing at it is still a train and not a domestic flight, stops needed to be done in key points of the northern half of the country. Unavoidably, the train had to take a stop in the station we got off to when we went to Presto for our school trip years ago, and as expected, Gin was not amused and fell silent.

  All it takes is one bad memory to sour a place, and if not for that, we could have considered coming back there, but at least there is still Payns close by which is colder than ever since winter came to Orio.

  But after another hour and some, we reached the main station of Hitoretsu and was immediately reminded of the smell of the ocean upon getting off the train. From there, we've just relied on the navigation with umbrellas and cold water on our hands as we walked what seemed like around fifteen minutes from the station until we reached quite a large six story apartment complex.

  It's not something you see everyday, but the apartment building has an elevator that we graciously used to save us from wasting our energy in the heat, thus the climb to the fourth floor was effortless. Seeing the 405 plaque beside the door, I rang the doorbell and we got welcomed by a man with a natural brown hair… and we forgot that Eito has lime eyes.

  "Welcome! Do come in, it's really hot out there."

  "Thanks for having us."

  "You can just leave your bags by the door for now. Please have a seat."

  While the foyer might have been a bit long and narrow, we were greeted with quite a spacious apartment room further in with what looks like an open plan LDK with a space dedicated for quite a lot of shelves. Or perhaps it's better to say that the wall was more of a shelf than a wall per se.

  With an apartment this big, I could just try to estimate how much an interior designer makes.

  "We do appreciate it, but are you sure you can have us here?" asked Gin awkwardly.

  "Of course, of course. It's the least I can do for letting us stay in your place. Although… are you fine with sharing a room? We only have two rooms here and I'm using the one right now as my room and office."

  "Don't sweat it."

  "I see… then you can look around the house if there's anything that catches your eye. I'll be here in the kitchen making lunch."

  "Should we help? I'd feel bad just sitting around."

  "No, no, you and Gin are guests here, Ms. Ringo. I might not be making restaurant-level food but I've made this for many years now so I hope you will enjoy it."

  A bit reluctant, the two of us then briefly sat to take a breather after the traveling, but we could not take our eyes off from the shelves that has a designated space in the room. While not all of them are filled, some shelves have trophies in it to which we took notice as well as pictures of who seems to be Eito when he was quite young.

  "What competition did you get these from?"

  "I used to go go-kart racing when I was a kid. Nowadays… well, I do admit it's far from a cheap hobby but I go for track days."

  "Track day?" curious, I asked.

  "It's something like how you can freely drive on a race track. If you could consider it one, I did it with Akira but it was a bootcamp about slippery and mountain roads.

  I don't believe there are a lot of professional tracks in this country, though."

  "Yeah… but actually, I also sometimes join night drives in the mountain roads like in Payns."

  "Do you also do drifting there?" gleamy-eyed Gin pressed on the topic.

  "Okay, hold on. We don't do inertia drifting or that sort, but it's really good practice driving the complex roads."

  "I'm taking it that you really liked driving," as if it's not obvious enough from the shelf, Gin nodded.

  Away from that part of house, on the other hand, I found a small table that is not necessarily a vanity table, but it contained a lot of jewelries mainly being earrings.

  And now that I look at it, Eito has been wearing one on his left ear, being similar to the low profile and the monochrome and mostly black theme of the rest of them.

  "Do you guys also wear accessories?" being the observant one that he is despite minding the kitchen, Eito asked.

  "I only use bracelets at most… but this one's different."

  Gin then raised his left hand and pointed at the ring on it.

  "What he said."

  "Oh, congratulations."

  "Congratulations!"

  Somehow, I heard two voices instead of just one, and just as much as I flinched, the pan on Eito's hands clattered loudly on the stove.

  I didn't take him to be a very jumpy one.

  Turning back to the door, I saw Sora entering the apartment with bags of groceries on her hand.

  "Long time, Gin, Ringo.

  Eitooo, I got marble potatoes instead of the normal ones. Oh, are you guys fine with it with the skin on?"

  "Yep, it adds a nice texture to it."

  "I can't imagine you peeled, Potato…"

  "Cease with the gruesome imagination, Rin."

  Anyway, I yanked Gin's arm until he's low enough for me to whisper.

  "I didn't even notice her coming in…!"

  "Trust me, he got me good with a jumpscare once when they were visiting."

  "You of all people? That's like a YUNO reverse card."

  "Well, I noticed her this time."

  "Looks like Eito also didn't…"

  After dropping off the groceries, Sora walked onto us as she noticed what are eyes were aiming at.

  "I've got a good collection, haven't I?"

  "Uh, this is yours, Sora?"

  "Yeah? Ah! Before you ask, I don't live here. My apartment was very vulnerable with burglars at one point so I asked if I can put some of my stuff here because of better security."

  "She got too lazy to bring those home and I just thought it's a good display piece," Eito added.

  "Not that they're very expensive, but it'll still make me sad if they all get stolen.

  You know what? Do you two have piercings?"

  "Not Gin, but mine doesn't really close even if I rarely wear them."

  "Oh, same as mine. Why don't you pick a pair that you like as a present?"

  "Are you sure? Thank you, then."

  That being said, it didn't really register in me back when they visited, but Sora seems to like a lot of dark and muted colors. Proof of it is that despite being in the scorching summer, she is still wearing all black, but most likely light clothes.

  Now knowing that the earring collection was hers, it made a lot more sense why they only range from silver to black.

  "I also have magnetic ones here. Why don't you try one out, Gin?"

  "Huh… I don't know about that. I didn't even bother to dress up when I was your host so you should know that my fashion is anything-goes-from-my-closet."

  "Wouldn't hurt to try?"

  "Sorry, but try to imagine this: How would you think Eijiro would look like with them from low profile ones to stuff dangling from his ears, then look at me back?"

  And so she did, and it did not take long for her face to make an obvious frown, or maybe even discomfort.

  "I don't know why I see an image of him in you… but you do have a point. Glasses would work on you, though."

  "Funny you say that."

  All these years, Gin has definitely taken care of the glasses that Ane Shiina gifted her. It's the kind of lens that darkens when exposed to the sun, but it seems Gin remains to be not as bright as that.

  "You only bring that out now that we're not outdoors?"

  Needless to say, the immediate realization was funny.

  But while Gin was agonizing and Sora was laughing about it, I finally took the fancy of one of the accessories.

  It was a very small dome-shaped pair of, well, black earrings that did not really stand out around the others, but it was perhaps the simplest one I could wear without it looking strange on me. After all, I'm not one to wear jewelries that are too contrasting to the skin.

  "Oh, nice choice. You're going with this one?

  Give me a minute so I can get it deep cleaned. I'll throw in a case with it too. You know what, think of it as an early wedding gift!"

  "I-I appreciate it, haha…"

  "You know that you still have to help me out with the cooking, right?"

  "This won't take a while~"

  Gin stepped out to the foyer briefly to then grab our bags while our hosts are doing their own things, "Do you mind if we get a look at our room for a bit?"

  "Go ahead."

  And so we opened the door to a bedroom that would be comparable to a small hotel room—that is, it was just enough for the two of us.

  With a chuckle leaving me, Gin turned at me with narrow eyes and it made sense why as I saw a dumb grin on my mug in front of the mirror.

  "Those two are cute."

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "I think you just find everything cute. That in itself is a skill."

  Upon going back into the living room, Eito and Sora had already been together in the kitchen while I found a small box placed on the coffee table. Opening it revealed the earrings that was gifted to me, somehow looking a lot shinier than it already was earlier.

  Afterwards, the two of them finished up for an early dinner serving up a riceless table of food that was replaced with a platter of eggplant gratin and two strip steaks with reduction in one cut and some kind of white sauce on the other.

  Regardless of whether I should or should not believe Eito's claim that the food was not restaurant level, I was stuffed in the end.

  Our initial plan was to take a walk and see the beach with the dusk swiftly transitioning to the night, but we quickly realized that it was not something we will be able to do when we can barely budge after the feast we were served with and decided that it was better to remain in an air conditioned room and leave our itinerary to the next day as we have two more nights in our stay.

  ? ? ?

  But well, I'm pretty sure I didn't drink a drop of alcohol last night but I couldn't remember passing out.

  I was woken up by the groaning beside me while Gin aimlessly flailed his hand around lazily searching for his phone. And when I came to, all I could see was the bird's nest mess of a hair on Gin's head while his face looked like that meme of a picture of a man who just woke up on a blinding light looking at his phone.

  "Damn… we slept 11 hours…" in an incomplete morning voice, he declared and yawned an audible one. "And damn… your hair looks like it got hit by a storm surge…"

  "…And here I was about to make fun of yours…"

  Apparently, both of us passed out at around ten last night and it is now around nine in the next day.

  With a failed effort of trying to fully fix each other's hair, we left the room in a hurry only to find a turntable playing music across the apartment and Eito sitting in the living room.

  Not idly, should I say, as while he is comfortably sat on a legless chair, his hands are glued on a mouse and keyboard. Inevitably, our eyes were directed to the attention-grabbing size of the television, not playing news or any shows, but a large display of a 3D software where a digital representation of a room is being made.

  "Good morning."

  "Sorry we're up late…"

  "Ahaha, I can tell from your hair. I'll bring your breakfast in one sec."

  "We appreciate it… but were you doing work?"

  "I do remote work a lot so I have a gauge of my time. I only report in my office not more than twice a week, see. You can go take a look at it, though."

  Eyes that were still trying to keep shut not a few moments ago suddenly sparkled with Gin standing behind the couch looking at the screen while Eito stood up.

  "Oh, this is the paid CAD that I kept seeing. I only really touched on a few free stuff when I was trying to visualize how our new house would look like."

  "Now I'd like to see what you did with it."

  "It's nothing really advanced. I just grabbed the free packs and use whatever I can and then slapped them around. I tried to be particular with the scales, though."

  "I'd say it's a good starting point when you're thinking it through realistically before trying to design complex things."

  "Problem is, every time I try making them, they always end up utilitarian."

  "I guess you're the minimalist type."

  "I never really thought about an interior designer's job so this is kind of a surprise. I thought architects were the ones that do some of this stuff."

  "We share common interests bit we still differ with our job. In my case, I'm much more in tune with work after the blueprint has been made.

  But it's also surprising that you know about CAD. I've had people tell me they can get overwhelming."

  "I've always had the tendency to pick things up and learn them. Motivation and mindset still factor in it, though otherwise I wouldn't be interested in it.

  I say that but the most I'll probably do with it is check when I'm going to move something in my house. I still don't really trust AR so that's as much as I'm willing to do."

  "The tech is getting there, but it's more that Orio recently had a focus on med tech so demand for virtual and mixed reality is not that high.

  That aside, do you have any particular plans in your stay here?"

  "We really just want to look around since we didn't get to do it much when we were last here. Our main goal is taking pictures of the stars, though."

  "Do you want to head out after breakfast, then?"

  "Uhh, don't you literally have work projected in your TV right now?" Gin pointed at the large screen in front of him.

  "I said I work remotely, didn't I? I can show you two around, I'll have to leave you at the beach midway if you're taking pictures there tonight, though. This apartment is just a straight road to the shore."

  "I guess that works. Thanks for the breakfast, and I appreciate you showing us around."

  "Does that include me?"

  "It does, Sora."

  For two consecutive days, Eito has jumped at Sora's sudden presence with a casualty of the food on his hand. O-Of course, this time I definitely did not flinch! Absolutely not!

  But at this rate, I feel like she even has less presence than Gin, considering that he has not been involuntarily popping in or out of places a lot these days.

  "The door beeped and all, you know," said Gin. "Come to think of it, you have a key of this place?"

  "I used to live here for a bit back when we just graduated from university. My shabby apartment was being torn down because it wasn't up to building standards for typhoons and all, so I got kicked out."

  "I am more surprised of your old apartment being built poorly near the sea than you living here.

  But be honest with me, has Eito pulled anything?"

  "I'm not sure how to feel about my impression worsening, Ringo… but I won't do something dumb."

  "Take his word, haha. Eito is an honest to goodness good guy. Although maybe he tends to be excessively gentlemanly."

  "I've known you for a while but why is that the first time I'm hearing of that?"

  "Why would I complain when I know that you mean well? I know your dad would tell you to step on the brakes anyway."

  "Now what has he told you…"

  Something that I did not really notice when they were visiting—but they really do have good chemistry.

  ~ ~ ~

  At Eito's suggestion, we decided to go by car as he wouldn't want us to go to the city walking around under the summer heat. And for someone who has mentioned driving on tracks, his car was surprisingly normal, until he said:

  "Oh, I have a faster car I have stored somewhere. I say faster, but it's just the same car with an added R in the emblem. I can't afford the expensive ones and I don't want to, anyway."

  He also talked about how he would like to replace his gas-powered cars with fully electric ones, but the charging network of Orio remains lackluster despite having sights on car manufacturers he trusts would not explode on him.

  Until then, the gas engine started while Sora opened his laptop in the passenger seat.

  "You're going to work in the car?"

  "Well, being a developer also allows me to work remotely, so I always code on the go. I hope this debug doesn't turn into a hot mess, though."

  "I can't imagine myself doing that…" involuntarily, Gin retched, after always having trouble of being carsick.

  No rainbows are spilled in this chapter.

  Nonetheless, Eito asked us about the places we wanted to go so that he could queue them into his navigator. But as we did not really think about a lot of places to go to aside from some, we let him and Sora take us around.

  Perhaps knowing that Gin and I make art, he brought us to a museum where the local painters' works are displayed. And to our surprise, an area was being rented by an illustrator doing an exhibit… and it just goes to show that Hitoretsu lives up to its reputation of being the closest to feeling like Japan in the country. After all, you can take a ferry from here to Hateruma, or even Taiwan.

  It may be a local illustrator, but something you never see in Capital are exhibits of Orion artists that are in the style of Japanese illustrations. For the lack of apparent classification, it can simply be called anime style alternatively.

  Seeing that, we decided to visit it firstly as Gin's eyes started glimmering. Even I do know who the artist was, but he seemed so hyped that he rushed to take a look and prematurely filled his camera's memory card with photos that was intended for later tonight.

  "Ente-sensei, nice to meet you! I'm actually Capy_nina."

  And before I knew it, he already revealed himself. Certainly, it was really, really strange for him to take the initiative to talk with someone, and to even do networking and handing out a business card, to boot. This just shows that outside of him drawing, I don't really know much about his work as an illustrator, or it may just be that an in-person opportunity like this is hard to come by.

  Thus, I just left him alone as he conversed with the illustrator and see the entirety of the exhibit.

  "…"

  Looking at all the artworks somehow turned bittersweet. Half of my high school life, I was drawing almost everyday may it be for studying or for the club. After I started college, it was a given that I couldn't draw as much as I could after choosing to pursue culinary. And now that I am part of the workforce, the chances only just became smaller, take away the time I painted for Anna.

  At the end of it all, I am now facing the reality that my skill as an artist had worsened.

  Taking a drink from the vending machine, I sat on bench inside the exhibit to take a break. Our social media page crossed my mind, and so I opened Instanyan on my phone only to see the sparse activity of our page.

  At most, it was Nacchi and Shiro that post their works.

  I thought to look back—Jean and I chose cooking as our profession, Akira took on an administrative role in Blue Ink, meanwhile Gin and the other two have their creative occupations. I wish we could go back to the old times, but alas.

  I realized that I don't want to diverge any further from the single point that all of us used to be attracted to.

  It took me a few steps back only to realize that I am still smitten with art and creating.

  …

  After a few minutes, Gin finished talking to the host of the exhibit and we moved on to the museum proper after he ogled the artworks one last time. Compared to what we just saw, everything now felt so traditional, because they are.

  All of the paintings and sculptures were made by artists born and developed in this very place where their everyday scene is the sight of the sand, the sea, and the sun rising east of their shore.

  "Sora?"

  At the wave of his hand, Gin called out to her as we brought our eyes to one of the paintings.

  "What's up?"

  "Do you remember the painting I have hanging on my living room?"

  "…? I don't think so."

  "I never really told you this, but Eijiro actually used to paint."

  "Oh, wow… he did?"

  "I also didn't know about it until a few years ago, but he had some paintings he had stashed in secret. As for the one in my house…"

  From his phone, he showed a picture of a baby's hand holding onto a hand of an adult painted with oil.

  "That's so cute… I kinda know why you mentioned that," Sora said as she pointed at the painting in front of us, portraying a similar scenario.

  To which I added, "I wish there's anything like a background for this one but it seems like it's just about the process.

  I would say that the story behind it just makes a piece so much more special."

  "Ahaha… Now that reminds me, I have the pedal of my first car framed and displayed in my room. It was falling apart but I earned for it, so I had the pedal polished when it got totaled."

  "I'm still salty you can't recover the gear stick. Hear this, Gin, it was the old school metal ball. I loved the clunky sound it made whenever Eito changed gears."

  "What… How old was your first car? I'd like to see pictures of it later."

  "Not until you tell me the story of his painting," Sora answered on Eito's behalf.

  "I figured you're still interested with it," and I responded in Gin's behalf. What is even going on?

  "It was apparently his final work when he was battling cancer and he did it when he was in hospital. It just so happened that… Aunt Senna delivered Gin in the same place. Eijiro was able to see him, but moments after, he passed away.

  Later, we found out it was a present for him."

  "That was… poetic… or touching? It's amazing how he could think of something like that… but with the limited time I met him when I was young, it seems like he really valued meaning with the way he acts in hindsight."

  "Well, he's one cool uncle despite not being able to meet him."

  "Um, sorry to break the nice atmosphere… but I think we should go to the restaurant you two wanted to go to for lunch before it gets crowded," Eito suggested.

  "Oh, right. I think we've seen everything anyway."

  On our walk back to the parking lot, I was reminded of a habit that Gin has developed. He always had a naturally fast walking pace, and in the past, it was taking everything in him not to launch himself and go ahead from the slower walking pace of whoever is his company, but when he's in a good mood, his stride simply becomes gentler.

  So, as I found ourselves on equal pace, I randomly nudged him with my elbow.

  "Hm?"

  "I still reeeaaally love art after all. Do you?"

  "What's this all of a sudden? But to answer you—more than ever."

  "Mhm, that's enough reason for me."

  "Reason?"

  "It's nothing."

  ~ ~ ~

  After lunch, we drove farther south from the beach to go the quite a large plot of land covered with arrays of trees spanning… you know what, I actually don't know what the scale of acres or hectares are, so let's just go back to "large plot of land."

  Coming out of the vehicle and getting to take a stroll in the middle of the trees growing long leaves, it was noticeable that they are grown in a controlled manner and they do not exceed a certain height. But on the end of the array where things are seemingly in "disorder" or better described as organic, some trees that we could see tower up to ten meters or maybe even more.

  And seeing that the fruits on them are still green, Gin started rubbing his palms.

  Oh, right, we're in a mango farm.

  While mangoes are still very much common across the country despite the recent changes in the climate, on rare occasions do we only get to eat mangoes that are grown from here in Hitoretsu. The main reason why is because they're quite expensive compared to the others, but I would say that the higher price is justified so much so that my workplace supplies mangoes from this very farm for our desserts

  The mangoes grown here have a distinct flavor and the differentiating factor of the produce is the texture which is immaculately smooth.

  But for this tour, what we are looking for is not the ripe ones, but the green unripe mangoes that is getting Gin quite excited to the point that he is starting to look like a fruit fly.

  I do tend to gravitate towards the ripe ones because I just like the sweet taste of it, but that is not to say I don't like them when they are unripe. In Gin's case, despite having minor stomach and gastrointestinal issues, he seems to tank the unripe ones which is why he likes them a lot more than when they are sweet. So no, spare me with the upset stomach.

  One thing though is that Gin's family, apart from being maniacs about peppercorns, make some absolutely good pickled mangoes courtesy of his late grandfather, that goes perfectly with salty shrimp paste. Who am I kidding, pickled or not, it goes well with it.

  But the reason why we are here is for one purpose, and it is to buy them for cheap.

  As some kind of tourist activity, the farm lets visitors pick their own mangoes especially from the taller trees, essentially making you do their work. But it comes with quite a discount per kilogram than when you buy it from a supermarket where it goes out fast.

  We were then given hard hats before picking, which might be confusing but when I still lived in Sector 392, there was a mango tree nearby our house that is the same height and the fruits tend to fall down on their own. And when they do, they make a really loud thud. Still, I was not exactly new from picking mangoes from tall trees and I have never had one fall on my head, but this time it's a safety measure.

  The farm staff then brought out nets with quite a tall body made from bamboo to reach the high parts of the trees, and from a similar experience, they can get quite heavy.

  Nevertheless, I'm not going to bore you with how we picked our mangoes, but we pretty much took two large boxes of unripe fruit that will be shipped back home as it would be much cheaper, and some were those we will get to enjoy them in our stay here. But what is great about them is that they can still ripen overtime despite being out of the tree so I know what I will be eating for a while.

  After a break, we went back to the car and drove to a factory where it is really, really making Gin more like a fly from the excitement as it is a place where cast iron kitchenware is made, being one of the few in the country manufacturing locally.

  What I thought what it's going to feel like for Gin is that it will be like a treasure trove of Yololive merch in Akiba for him… but the reality was that I was on the same boat as him as I didn't think I would be as hyped as him seeing so many cast iron stuff in front of us.

  Then suddenly, Eito made a surprising suggestion, "How about this? Pick anything you like and I'll get it for you two."

  "I think that's too much…?"

  "Sora kinda gave me the idea, so why don't I make this a very early wedding gift too? Please don't hold back."

  With the sound of recycled metal getting processed and the residual heat of furnaces on our back, the two of us silently looked at each other, maybe even dumbfounded.

  "You've done so much in such a short time… but we'll take you up on that. Really, thank you so much for this."

  I was about to think that it was atypical in this country, but we quickly remembered that we are in Hitoretsu, so bowing as an expression was something apparently done here commonly. Thus, we lowered our heads for a moment in front of Eito as a sign of gratitude.

  ~ ~ ~

  After getting our haul, we went back home for a while, unfortunately missing the sunset and so we had to wait further in the night to take pictures of the stars.

  With a bit of free time, Sora and Eito went back to their flexible work hours while Gin borrowed the kitchen after a stint from a nearby market to buy ingredients for the pickled mangoes and shrimp paste.

  "Um, do you mind if I turn up your exhaust fan and hood at max, Eito?"

  "For what?"

  In no time, the entire apartment unit was filled with the strong smell of fermented shrimp paste that lingered for a while even after cooking to the point that we could still faintly smell it in dinner.

  In spite of that, Gin opened one of the jars of the pickled mangoes that was brined for only more than an hour, but the sourness and the hint of raw garlic flavor already packed a punch but was offset by the saltiness of the paste.

  "Now that I think about it, isn't this basically drinking food?"

  As if a light bulb lit up after feeling like something is missing, Eito asked in one breath. I swear, these two Hitoretsu locals may look gentle but they turn into slightly different people when alcohol is in the table, being seemingly heavy drinkers after all.

  Eito brought out cans of ciders from the fridge anyway, and well, it felt like they were on to something. Meanwhile, Gin and I only opted for Nons and it was still good.

  "It's probably a good time to head out now, Gin, Ringo."

  Shy of an hour later, Sora stood up and did a big stretch, prompting us to do the same.

  "Sorry, I can't come with you guys after all," in front of the large screen despite the alcohol in his system, Eito declared that he could not come with us with work literally right on his face.

  With a camera with us, we once again left the comfort of an air-conditioned room to be met with the brutal humidity of the night.

  Or so I thought, until we felt the breeze that we could never get further at the center of our island. It doesn't kill the summer heat and it's still humid, but this is better than anything that a fan can do in Cotona.

  And regardless of that, we have a good view of the stars in the northernmost point of the country.

  "Hold my camera for me, Ringo?" while Gin was setting up a tripod on the volatile sand, Sora handed me her own camera while her slippers kicked back off and she ran to the water.

  "Ahaha, cold…!"

  Without her prompting anything, I nonetheless lifted the camera to my eyes to get a shot of her with the shower of light in her background.

  "This is good composition practice and all…"

  But with her constantly moving, I wouldn't be able to get a brighter shot of her, and even then, I am taking pictures of her handheld. And sometimes, it feels as if Sora just blends in to the image while playing in the water because of her choice of wearing dark clothes, and other times I could only capture her silhouette.

  Still, I question how does one stay stunning even in these conditions?

  Meanwhile, I could hear the shutters at every several seconds of interval on Gin's side, but I feel a little bad that he has to be laser focused on keeping watch of the camera because we could not find a flat surface nearby the perfect frame.

  "You guys are not going to take a dip?" from a bit of a distance, Sora could still be heard perfectly without her raising her voice much.

  "I know it's weird to go all the way to the beach from Cotona and not swim, but we didn't even bring anything for that and I only force myself around the water without any technique," Gin reasoned.

  "But well… it wouldn't hurt to get in the water for a while since there's an image I'll try recreating later."

  Yes, the only way to get Gin into the water is for him to commit to a bit.

  In an hour after taking a few shots of the stars as is, he then proceeded to take only four photos in that duration, as he was finally able to try long exposure shots. For every 15 minutes, the images captured have made short streaks, but nothing impressive in such a short time as we didn't want to stay long in the shore.

  With Sora suddenly disappearing for a brief moment, I thought I was going to get jumpscared again- ahem, I mean that never happened earlier in the day, but instead she returned with a pail of water and a pack of sparklers with her.

  It's only been a few months we last lit some kind of fireworks, but I guess the anime and manga I've watched were on to something when they light them at seaside.

  Pictures of us came out really well with the added light in the fairly dark beach, and I even got candid shots of Gin that is hard to come by.

  To say that this stint under the stars was successful is an understatement.

  ? ? ?

  It would seem that our busiest day was yesterday as the day after was pretty light in our itinerary. As usual, Eito presented himself to drive us wherever we want to, but the only thing that we really wanted to do for the day is buy a bunch of souvenirs back to home. Then, we left it to him to where he wanted to take us, which ended up just bringing us to his recommended food places.

  And today I learned about the term "cars and coffee". It is apparently an event where car owners meet up over, well, coffee in the morning and it just so happened that there was one on the day where Eito usually frequents. With the sight of cars spanning a large area, we had breakfast outside at which Gin was more hyped as the carhead in him has begun showing up.

  After geeking out to four wheels, we managed to complete our souvenir haul before noon, and had our lunch at, again, Eito's recommendation which reminded me of how Giotto's used to get seafood fresh out of the sea when they had a stall here. Needless to say, it was one of my best lunches less the fact that I forgot that Gin has a hard time eating seafood unless they were already out of their shells.

  And to end things, Eito and Sora treated us to a fancy izakaya where we felt we earned it to let ourselves a bit loose before our travel back home the next day and had some helping of booze to end our fruitful trip, in more ways than one, including the mangoes.

  Because after this, it is back to reality for us.

  …And it looked like it was especially the case for Gin.

  …

  Giotto's closed an hour earlier than their usual closing time, and with the blinds of the windows down, all of the staff were called to the center of the restaurant for a meeting.

  And it meant that the executive chef is sitting beside his co-owner.

  "Aaaaaalright, time to discuss about the future of our Giotto's, I guess."

  It would have been something that Hiroomi used to the start meetings with, but it was rather different as for a few moments, his eyes locked into Gin, the sous chef, as he said those words.

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