During the Moon Banquet Festival, Haru and his group played around together and ate various food at this festival, including the popup restaurant that was opened by Erina in the Uptown Area. Still, as he had promised, he would help Erina in her restaurant after he had played around, and this was what he was doing right now, which somehow made him a bit helpless since this girl was quite a slave driver.
Erina was happy with Haru's help since it was so rare to be able to find a powerful sous chef like Haru.
If Erina was asked what was most troublesome in the restaurant business, then without a doubt, it was the people. She wasn't worried about something like an ingredient or food, but the employees, such as the service and the sous chef, were different since they were all people, and it was something that she couldn't control.
Erina knew that her family might give her a name and also respect from people in the culinary industry, but it didn't mean that they liked her.
There were a lot of people that hated her, too, considering her words were often quite rude. However, she had always told the truth about the food. No matter how hard someone or how many times they struggled, as long as it didn't taste good, then she would say it.
Haru's skill was, without a doubt, which was why Erina was grateful that she could get his help. Still, sometimes, she felt that it was quite luxurious to ask the richest man on earth to become her assistant. Also, she also realized that she might work with him too much.
Haru looked at Erina, who was staring at him, and his lips twitched. "You know, if you don't pay me, then I might walk away directly."
Erina smiled and kissed Haru's cheek. "Well, this is the down payment."
Haru rubbed his cheek and decided to forgive this girl who had worked with him so much. However...
"The downpayment isn't enough."
"I'll kiss you one more time." Erina kissed Haru's cheek again, but then...
"Cough! Cough! Erina-sama, Haru-sama, please refrain from flirting with each other. This is our last day. There's a lot of guests who are waiting." Hisako said with a strict expression. She was glad that Erina always showed a beautiful smile when she was with Haru, but it was quite painful to see them flirting when she was without a partner. Also, she had a bit of a grudge toward Haru, who often teased her, but had never done anything.
"Oh! Oh!" Erina blushed and quickly pretended nothing had happened. She nodded and said, "I know." She then looked at Haru and said, "I'll go out first."
"Okay." Haru nodded, but then he asked, "Erina, you should prepare later."
"Prepare?" Erina tilted her head and felt a bit confused. "Are you going to give me a surprise?"
"Well, yeah."
"Then I can't wait." Erina nodded with a smile, wondering what kind of surprise Haru was going to give her.
Haru looked at Erina and wondered whether she was going to have a heart attack when she saw his surprise. Still, it took him a while to take care of the matter of her family. He wasn't sure about Erina's mother since that woman was quite sick, but for her father, there he could do something. He knew that this might be something that Erina wanted, but a family was a family after all, and even though her father might have done a cruel education, the reason why her father had done all of that was because of her mother.
However, Haru also knew that it wasn't the reason that Erina's father could do something like that to Erina. After all, Erina was only a child at the time and what he was doing at that time was simply child abuse.
Luckily, Erina had a great grandfather otherwise...
Still, that nightmare had ended, and Haru hoped that even if Erina could solve her nightmare so she could move on.
Haru then continued with his job, but then...
"HARU!!!"
Hearing this voice, Haru knew that this was the time for the showdown.
---
After Erina kissed Haru, she walked outside to talk with her customers. After all, as a chef and also as a businessman, she also knew how important it was to maintain a good relationship with customers and clients. Morever, she was confident with her food, so there was no need to worry about that matter.
Still, as Erina said, she was dumbfounded when she saw someone familiar had entered her restaurant. Her body was shaking, and the nightmare that was buried inside her memory suddenly returned.
Hisako was also startled when she saw this person, and she knew that it was too late to stop the meeting between this person and Erina.
"Erina." The man looked at Erina with an awkward expression and said, "It has been a while."
"HARU!!!"
Erina shouted without hesitation, which caused everyone to be startled.
Still, as Haru came, everyone shut their mouth since they were dumbfounded to see the richest man who suddenly came out of the kitchen. Everyone who could eat at Erina's restaurant was, after all, someone from the upper class, and they were all rich, which was why they were dumbfounded to see Haru suddenly appear. But then, they became even more dumbfounded and looked at the food that was eaten by them.
'Is this food cooked by him?'
Everyone was dumbfounded, and at the same time, they were amazed since they didn't expect that they had eaten the food that was cooked by Haru.
Still, Haru ignored everyone's reaction, and when he appeared, Erina directly hugged him with a trembling body. "It's alright. I'm here." He caressed her back gently, telling her that everyone was alright. He sighed, then looked at Erina's father, who could only look at them with an awkward expression. "Should we talk later?"
"Okay." Erina's father, Azami, nodded, but then again, as a father, he felt uncomfortable that his daughter was taken by Haru. He knew that he had caused a lot of trouble and also made Erina be in pain, even causing trauma, which was why he knew that he wasn't worthy to meet her, and the reason why he came was because of Haru since he knew that he needed to apologize.
There was no drama or whatever, and Azami walked out and was taken directly by Senzaemon, who was notified by his people that Azami had come.
Senzaemon told Haru to take care of Erina before he took Azami away.
In Haru's arms, Erina felt better, and she knew that she would be alright, but at the same time, she was curious about why her father suddenly came. "Haru, do you know something?"
"Yes." Haru nodded.
"Wha--?!" Erina was dumbfounded.
"He comes to apologize to you." Haru looked at Erina and asked, "Do you want to meet him?"
Erina understood everything, looked at Haru for a moment, then asked, "Are you going to be by my side?"
"I'll be by your side forever, Erina," Haru said as he kissed Erina's forehead.
Erina closed her eyes and rested her head on Haru's chest, and after a moment, she nodded. "Let's meet him together."
Hisako, who looked at Erina and Haru, felt quite jealous at that moment, but she didn't say anything since she also understood Erina's state. Still, she hoped that they didn't do this kind of thing in public since the people who saw their intimate behavior couldn't help but feel jealous and wanted to say, "Go explode!"
Still, as Haru hugged Erina, he realized his phone vibrated, and at the same time, he had a feeling that the quest was about to start again.